Chapter 1 Flashcards
Geology & Plate Tectonics
What is the order of the chemical layers of the earth?
Inner core, outer core, mantle, crust
Who is Alfred Wegener?
Scientist that conceived Pangea.
What is the lithosphere?
Rigid outer layer of the earth 150-200 km thick that contains the tectonic plates.
How many major tectonic plates are there?
16
How fast do tectonic plates move?
20cm/year
What is the asthenosphere?
The weaker inner layer of the earth that behaves as a liquid.
What are divergent boundaries?
Plates that move apart.
What are convergent boundaries?
Plates that move together.
What is created at divergent plate boundaries?
Rift valleys and mid-ocean ridges
What is created at a convergent plate boundary with oceanic and continental plates?
Volcanic arc
What is created at a convergent plate boundary with 2 continental plates?
Mountains and large plateaus
What is a continent-continent collision?
Two convergent continental plates that are too buoyant to subduct.
What is a subduction zone?
A thinner, less-buoyant oceanic plate subducts under a thicker, more-buoyant continental plate.
What are transform boundaries?
Plates moving past each other, either vertically or horizontally.
What is created at a transform plate boundary?
Earthquakes
What evidence is there to support plate tectonics?
Fit of coastlines, distribution of fossils and mountain belts, past glaciations,
What is relative dating?
Inaccurate way of sequencing the ages of rocks.
What is absolute dating?
Determining the ages of rocks/fossils by using radioactivity to separate them into eons/eras/periods.
What kinds of energy drive the Earth system?
Geothermal and solar
What are the 3 types of rock?
Igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic.
