Vocabulary
The thinnest layer of the Earth
the crust
There are ______________ main layers of the Earth.
four
Earthquakes and Volcanoes are usually located in relation to these
plate boundary
The Himalayan mountains are the result of a ___________________________ boundary.
convergent boundary
A number of rigid, but moving, pieces of Earth's surface
tectonic plates.
The thickest layer of the Earth
the mantle.
The mid-ocean ridge is an example of a ____________________ boundary and ___________________ occurs here where new ocean floor is formed.
divergent boundary; sea-floor spreading
Hot air or liquid is less ________________ than cool air or liquid
dense
The theory that states that the earth is made of several broken pieces called plates
Plate Tectonics
Plates float on top of the _______________________.
the asthenosphere
Name four of the major plates
North American plate, South American plate, Eurasian Plate, Indo-Australian plate, African plate, Antarctic plate
_________________ are a result from the build up of stress at a plate boundary.
earthquakes
What do we call the process where a less dense plate sinks into the mantle underneath the other plate?
Subduction
The rigid part of the Earth including the crust and the upper mantle (makes up the plates of the Earth)
the lithosphere
This is the mechanism (what causes) the plates to move
convection cycles/current in the mantle
The San Andreas Fault in California is an example of a ____________________ boundary.
What is a transform boundary
Although the hottest layer of the Earth, this layer has solid metal
inner core
The Earth's crust is thinnest under the _____________________ and thickest under the _____________________.
thinnest under the ocean and thickest under the continents.
The two types of convergent boundaries
subduction (where volcanoes often occur) and collision (where mountains are usually formed)
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge formed from what kind of plate boundary?
Divergent!