Inside the Earth
This layer makes up less than 1% of Earth's volume and is the layer we live on.
What is the crust?
This is the name for a boundary where two tectonic plates move towards each other and collide.
What is a convergent boundary?
At this type of boundary, two plates move apart from each other.
What is a divergent boundary?
At this type of boundary, plates slide past each other without creating or destroying crust.
What is a transform (conservative) boundary?
This molten rock beneath Earth's surface pushes up through weaknesses in the crust to form volcanoes.
What is magma?
Making up about 84% of Earth's total volume, this is the largest of all the layers.
Mantle
Divergent boundaries are sometimes called this, because new crust is constantly being formed rather than destroyed.
What is a constructive boundary?
This South American mountain range formed where an oceanic plate subducted beneath a continental plate.
What are the Andes?
This is the name for a crack in the Earth's crust where movement occurs, often causing earthquakes.
What is a fault?
This nickname is given to the belt around the Pacific Ocean known for its many volcanoes and frequent earthquakes.
What is the Ring of Fire?
This layer is described as “semi-liquid” or “plastic” — a thick consistency somewhere between solid and liquid.
What is the mantle?
In this type of convergent collision, neither plate subducts — both push upward to form ranges like the Himalayas.
What is continent–continent collision?
This is the name for magma rising through gaps in the ocean floor and cooling to form new oceanic crust.
What is seafloor spreading?
This famous fault runs through California and is a well-known example of a transform boundary.
What is the San Andreas Fault?
In 1980, this Washington State volcano erupted violently after a magnitude 5.1 earthquake triggered a massive landslide.
What is Mount St Helens?
Made mostly of iron and nickel, this layer is so hot that these metals exist in a liquid state.
What is the outer core?
On continents, divergent movement stretches and cracks the land to create this kind of long, deep landform.
What is a rift valley?
This is the term for a denser plate sinking beneath a less dense plate at a convergent boundary.
What is subduction?
This is the point deep underground where an earthquake actually begins.
What is the focus?
What is the thin runny material that erupts from the volcano called?
Lava
Even hotter than the layer above it, this innermost layer stays solid because of the intense pressure surrounding it.
What is the inner core?
Formed by an ocean–ocean collision in the Pacific, this is the deepest point on Earth's surface.
What is the Mariana Trench?
The African and Arabian Plates slowly moving apart are forming this body of water.
What is the Red Sea?
Located on Earth's surface directly above the focus, this point usually experiences the most earthquake damage.
What is the epicentre?
Formed above a subduction zone, this is the name for a curved chain of volcanic islands.
What is a volcanic island arc?