Drifting Continents
Sea-Floor Spreading
Plate Tectonics
Tectonic Plates
Earth's History
100

The hypothesis that the continents slowly move across Earth's surface.

continental drift

100

Long chains of mountains that rise up from the ocean floor.

mid-ocean ridge

100

A section of the lithosphere that slowly moves over the asthenosphere, carrying pieces of continental and oceanic crust.

plate

100

A break in Earth's crust along which rocks move.

fault

100
List the 5 primary units of time on the Geologic Time Scale.

PreCambrian, Eon, Era, Period, Epoch

200

Continents were joined together in a supercontinent, or single landmass.

Pangaea

200

The process by which molten material adds new oceanic crust to the ocean floor.

Sea-floor spreading

200

The theory that pieces of Earth's lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle.

plate tectonics

200

A deep valley that forms where two plates move apart.

rift valley

200

How old is Earth?

4.6 billion years old

300

Any trace of an ancient organism that has been preserved in rock.

fossil

300

A deep valley along the ocean floor beneath which oceanic crust slowly sinks toward the mantle.

deep-ocean trench

300

A plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite directions.

transform boundary

300

Causes plates to move.

convection currents

300

List the 3 Era?

Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic

400

Developed the hypothesis that all the continents were once joined together in a single landmass.

Afred Wegener

400

The process by which oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary.

subduction

400

A plate boundary where two plates move away from each other.

divergent boundary

400

The edges of Earth's plates meet at _______ ______.

plate boundaries

400

What is our current period?

Quanternary

500

Land features, fossils, and climate are ________________ of the Continental Drift Theory.


evidence

500

Layer of Earth between the crust and the core.

mantle

 

500

A plate boundary where two plates move toward each other.

convergent boundary

500

Outermost layer of the Earth.

crust

500

What period was there a mass extinction, in which the dinosaur became extinct?

Cretaceous Period