Plate Tectonics and Earth's Interior
The thin layer that covers Earth's surface
What is the crust?
A mixture of unconsolidated weathered earth materials and humus
What is soil?
A naturally occurring inorganic solid element or compound with a crystalline structure
What is a mineral?
Evidence of former life
What is a fossil?
Most of the great deserts of the world are located here
Where are the subtropics?
The name of the single large continent suggested by Wegener
What is Pangea
Ferromagnesian minerals will react with oxygen to produce deeply colored iron oxides
What is oxidation?
Heat and pressure change rocks into
What are metamorphic rocks?
Distinctive fossils of plants or animals that were distributed widely but lived only a short time with a common extinction time
What is an index fossil?
Muddy water rushing downstream after a heavy rainfall is an example of
What is erosion or transportation?
The plate boundary associated with the formation of new crust
What is a divergent boundary?
The landscape in a dry climate tends to be more angular because dry climate
What is too dry or lacks water?
Fossils are most often found in this type of rock
What are sedimentary rocks?
The oxygen in our atmosphere is the result of
What is photosynthesis?
Rock fragments frozen in moving glacier ice polish and scratch rocks at the base and on the walls of the glacier
What is abrasion?
The point on Earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake
What is the epicenter?
A force that compresses, pulls apart, or deforms a rock is called
What is stress?
Rocks that are formed from molten minerals (magma and lava)
What are igneous rocks?
The science of discovering fossils and their history
What is paleontology
The deposit at the mouth of a river where sediments are dropped
What is a delta?
The "Ring or Rim of Fire" surrounds this
What is the pacific ocean?
Rock stress caused by two plates moving together
What is compressional stress?
The hardness of a mineral is rated
What is Mohs Hardness?
The time before the time of "visible" life is called
What is the Precambrian?
The wide level floor of a valley built by a stream
What is a floodplain?