The hypothesis that the continents slowly move across Earth's surface.
continental drift
Long chains of mountains that rise up from the ocean floor.
mid-ocean ridge
A section of the lithosphere that slowly moves over the asthenosphere, carrying pieces of continental and oceanic crust.
plate
A break in Earth's crust along which rocks move.
fault
PreCambrian, Eon, Era, Period, Epoch
Continents were joined together in a supercontinent, or single landmass.
Pangaea
The process by which molten material adds new oceanic crust to the ocean floor.
Sea-floor spreading
The theory that pieces of Earth's lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle.
plate tectonics
A deep valley that forms where two plates move apart.
rift valley
How old is Earth?
4.6 billion years old
Any trace of an ancient organism that has been preserved in rock.
fossil
A deep valley along the ocean floor beneath which oceanic crust slowly sinks toward the mantle.
deep-ocean trench
A plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite directions.
transform boundary
Causes plates to move.
convection currents
List the 3 Era?
Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic
Developed the hypothesis that all the continents were once joined together in a single landmass.
Afred Wegener
The process by which oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary.
subduction
A plate boundary where two plates move away from each other.
divergent boundary
The edges of Earth's plates meet at _______ ______.
plate boundaries
What is our current period?
Quanternary
Land features, fossils, and climate are ________________ of the Continental Drift Theory.
evidence
Layer of Earth between the crust and the core.
mantle
A plate boundary where two plates move toward each other.
convergent boundary
Outermost layer of the Earth.
crust
What period was there a mass extinction, in which the dinosaur became extinct?
Cretaceous Period