Tectonic Faults and Stress
Earthquakes
Volcanoes
Tsunamis
Tectonic Plates
100

What is the term for a crack or fracture in Earth's crust along which movement occurs?

What is a Fault?

100

What instrument do scientists use to detect and record the vibrations produced by an earthquake?

What is a seismograph?

100

What is molten rock called when it is located beneath Earth's surface versus when it erupts onto the surface?

What is Magma beneath the surface; lava on the surface?

100

What geologic event underwater causes the majority of destructive tsunami waves?

What are Underwater earthquakes? (or uplifts)

100

What type of plate boundary is formed when two tectonic plates move or pull away from each other?

What is a Divergent Boundary

200

What type of stress squeezes or pushes rocks together, causing them to fold or break at convergent plate boundaries?

What is Compression?

200

What is the term for the point on Earth's surface located directly above where an earthquake originates underground?

What is an Epicenter?

200

What horseshoe-shaped belt around the Pacific Ocean contains approximately 75% of the world's active land volcanoes?

What is the Ring of Fire?

200

What noticeable warning sign often occurs along the shoreline right before a tsunami wave strikes, exposing the ocean floor?

What is Drawback? (will accept anything related to water receding.)

200

What type of plate boundary is formed when two tectonic plates slide horizontally past one another?

What is a Transform Boundary?

300

What type of fault forms when tension pulls rocks apart, causing the hanging wall to slide downward relative to the footwall?

What is a Normal Fault?

300

What is the exact point underground along a fault line where an earthquake's energy is first released?

What is the Focus? (or Hypocenter)
300

What type of volcano, like Hawaii's Mauna Loa, features broad, gently sloping sides formed by quiet eruptions of runny lava?

What is a Shield Volcano?

300

As a tsunami travels from deep ocean water into shallow coastal waters, what happens to its speed and height?

What is a its speed decreasing and height increasing?

300

What major landform is created when two continental plates crash into each other head-on at a convergent boundary, like the Himalayas?

What are Mountain Ranges?

400

What type of stress pushes blocks of rock past each other horizontally in opposite directions, creating strike-slip faults?

What is Shear stress?


400

Which fast-moving seismic body waves compress and expand the ground in a push-pull motion and arrive first at a recording station?

What are Primary waves? (P-Waves)

400

What fast-moving avalanche of superheated gas, ash, and rock fragments rushes down a volcano during an explosive eruption?

What is Pyroclastic Flow?

400

What type of tectonic plate boundary generates most major tsunamis due to vertical displacement of the seafloor?

What is a Convergent Boundary


400

What low-lying valley forms on a continent where the crust is being pulled apart at a divergent boundary, such as in East Africa?

What is a Rift Valley?

500

What scientific theory explains how rocks deform and store energy under stress until they break and snap back to their original shape, releasing earthquake energy?

What is Elastic-rebound theory? (I'll accept anything regarding the property of elasticity)

500

What logarithmic scale measures the total energy released by an earthquake, replacing the older Richter Scale for major seismic events?

What is the Moment Magnitude Scale?

500

What unusually hot area deep within Earth's mantle forms volcanic island chains like Hawaii far away from plate boundaries?

What is a Mantle Plume? (or Hotspot)

500

What specialized system of deep-ocean bottom pressure sensors and buoys detects tsunamis in open ocean water to send early warnings to coasts?

What is the D.A.R.T. System (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis)

500

What long, narrow, extremely deep depression forms on the ocean floor where an oceanic plate sinks beneath another plate at a subduction zone?

What is a Deep-Ocean Trench?