Continental Drift Flashcards
What was the original SUPERCONTINENT called?
pangea
What does the THEORY OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT say?
land masses and continents drifted
Who proposed the theory of continental drift?
Alfred Wegener
What were the two parts of Pangea?
- laurasia
- gondwanaland
What are the evidences for the continental drift?
- paleomagnetism
- separated continents with similar fossils
- ancient glaciation
- tropical forest climates on separated continents
What are PLATE TECTONICS?
modern theory to explain movement of continents
What is ANCIENT GLACIATION?
use of the true continental edges for reconstruction
What does plate tectonics explain?
- sea floor spreading
- subsections
- movement of the lithosphere
What causes plate tectonics?
thermal convection
What is THERMAL CONVECTION?
rotation of liquid mantle in the asthenosphere
What are the different plate tectonics?
- plate divergence
- plate convergence
- transform
What is PLATE DIVERGENCE?
- pulling apart
- creates rift valleys
What is an example of a RIFT VALLEY?
Sinai Peninsula
What is PLATE CONVERGENCE?
- moving towards each other
What happens in OCEANIC and CONTINENTAL CRUST convergence?
- denser plate is subducted under lighter plate and melts
- creates volcanoes
