Continental Drift
The name of the supercontinent where all land was once connected.
What is Pangaea?
These fossil remains found on multiple continents proved they were once connected.
What is Glossopteris?
This technology sends sound waves to map the ocean floor.
What is an echo sounder?
New oceanic crust forms here.
What are mid-ocean ridges?
Earth’s rigid outer layer made of the crust and upper mantle.
What is the lithosphere?
The scientist who proposed the hypothesis of continental drift in 1915.
Who is Alfred Wegener?
These features found in Antarctica show it was once warm and closer to the equator.
What are coal deposits?
Long underwater mountain chains discovered in the middle of oceans.
What are mid-ocean ridges?
This theory explains the formation and destruction of oceanic crust.
What is seafloor spreading?
The lithosphere is broken into these large pieces.
What are tectonic plates?
One piece of evidence Wegener used showing that different continents once fit together.
What are matching coastlines like Africa and South America?
Mountains in North America and Europe that are the same age and type.
What are the Appalachian and Caledonian Mountains?
These deep underwater troughs mark locations where crust is destroyed.
What are ocean trenches?
Magma rising and pushing old crust aside acts like this machine.
What is a conveyor belt?
The layer below the lithosphere that behaves like plastic and allows plate movement.
What is the asthenosphere?
These scratches and marks carved into rocks showed some continents were once near the South Pole.
What are glacial grooves?
Matching _________ in Australia, South America, Africa, India, and Antarctica helped support the theory.
What are rock formations?
Maps showing stripes of different rock ages on the ocean floor are called ________
What are isochron maps?
Seafloor spreading helped prove this earlier hypothesis correct.
What is continental drift?
The largest tectonic plate.
What is the Pacific Plate?
Scientists doubted Wegener because he could not explain this part of his hypothesis.
What is the force that caused the continents to move?
Fossil distribution, glacial evidence, rock formations, and coal all support this theory.
What is Continental Drift?
The deepest trench on Earth.
What is the Mariana Trench?
Younger crust is found here in relation to the ridge.
What is closer to the mid-ocean ridge?
The theory combining continental drift and seafloor spreading.
What is the Theory of Plate Tectonics?