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