Stress that occurs when forces act to squeeze an object.
What is compression?
100
The solid, outer layer of the Earth that consists of the crust and the rigid upper part of the mantle.
What is lithosphere?
100
The bending of rock layers due to stress.
What is folding?
100
The theory that explains how large pieces of the Earth's outermost layer, called tectonic plates, move and change shape.
What is plate tectonics?
100
A vent or fissure in the Earth's surface through which magma and gases are expelled.
What is volcano?
200
The boundary formed by the collision of two lithospheric plates.
What is convergent boundary?
200
A layer of rock between the Earth's crust and core.
What is mantle?
200
An area of deep cracks that forms between two tectonic plates that are pulling away from each other.
What is rift zone?
200
A wide, flat landform that results from repeated nonexplosive eruptions of lava that spread over a large area.
What is lava plateau?
200
A break in a body of rock along the one block slides relative to another.
What is fault?
300
A large, semicircular depression that forms when the magma chamber below a volcano partially empties and causes the ground above to sink.
What is caldera?
300
The central part of the Earth below the mantle.
What is core?
300
The strong, lower part of the mantle between the asthenosphere and the outer core; also the layer of the atmosphere between the stratosphere and the thermosphere and in which temperature decreases as altitude increases.
What is mesosphere?
300
A block of lithosphere that consists of the crust and the rigid, outermost part of the mantle.
What is tectonic plate?
300
Stress that occurs when forces act to stretch an object.
What is tension?
400
The boundary between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other.
What is divergent boundary?
400
The thin and solid outermost layer of the Earth above the mantle.
What is crust?
400
The body of molten rock that fees a volcano.
What is magma chamber?
400
A wave of energy that travels through the Earth and away from an earthquake in all directions.
What is seismic wave?
400
The point on Earth's surface directly above an earthquakes storing point, or focus.
What is epicenter?
500
The boundary between tectonic plates that are sliding past each other horizontally.
What is transform boundary?
500
The soft layer of the mantle on which the tectonic plates move.
What is asthenosphere?
500
The process by which new oceanic lithosphere forms as magma rises toward the surface and solidifies.
What is sea-floor spreading?
500
The hypothesis that states that the continents once formed a single land mass, broke up, and drifted to their present location.