P
A rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth.
Volcano
an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide
Convergent boundary
The third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life.
Earth
a layer inside a planetary body bounded below by a core and above by a crust.
Mantle
the solid, outer part of Earth
lithosphere
a linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other.
Divergent boundary
an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America.
Nazca Plate
a rigid layer of the Earth's crust that is believed to drift slowly
crustal plate
the center of an object.
core
the sideways and downward movement of the edge of a plate of the earth's crust into the mantle beneath another plate.
subduction
A planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements.
fault
The maximum height of a wave crest or depth of a trough.
Amplitude
the very slow creeping motion of Earth's solid silicate mantle as convection currents carry heat from the interior to the planet's surface
Mantle convection
A single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity
Convection
tectonics
a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of about 2,600 meters and rises about 2,000 meters above the deepest portion of an ocean basin
mid-ocean ridge
a type of fold that is an arch-like shape and has its oldest beds at its core
anticline
a large plume of hot mantle material rising from deep within the Earth
hotspot
compression is the application of balanced inward forces to different points on a material or structure.
Compression
scientific theory that explains how major landforms are created as a result of Earth's subterranean movements
tectonic plates
A tectonic belt, about 40,000 km long and up to about 500 km wide, which circumscribes the Pacific Ocean. It contains between 750 and 915 volcanoes, around two-thirds of the world total, and 90% of the world's earthquakes, including 81% of its largest, take place within the belt.
Pacific Ring of Fire
Japan has bad ___________
earthquakes
prominent, long, narrow topographic depressions of the ocean floor.
Oceanic trench
the study of magnetic fields recorded in rocks, sediment, or archeological materials
Paleomagnetism
the stable interior portion of a continent characteristically composed of ancient crystalline basement rock
craton