Glossary

Question 0

Define: plates

Answer 0

The pieces of the earths crust and upper mantle containing land and/or oceans.

Question 1

Define: seismic waves

Answer 1

Waves in the earth produced by an earthquake or other means.

Question 2

Define: Pangaea

Answer 2

The supercontinent that existed about 300 million years ago

Question 3

Define: magnetic stripes

Answer 3

Stripes of reversed polarities frozen into oceanic crust, caused by earth’s changing magnetic poles.

Question 4

Define: hot spots

Answer 4

Regions of the earths crust where the mantle below is very hot.

Question 5

Define: plastic

Answer 5

A solid that is able to be deformed

Question 6

Define: P wave

Answer 6

A longitudinal wave that travels through the earth and is first to reach the seismograph

Question 7

Define: S wave

Answer 7

A transversal wave that can’t travel through the core and is second to reach the seismograph

Question 8

Define: lithosphere

Answer 8

The earths outer shell consisting of tectonic plates

Question 9

Define: magma

Answer 9

Molten rock found beneath the earths surface

Question 10

Define: lava

Answer 10

Magma that reaches the earths surface

Question 11

Define: fault

Answer 11

A crack in the earths crust

Question 12

Define: plate tectonics

Answer 12

The theory that explains plate movement

Question 13

Define: subduction

Answer 13

A plate diving underneath another and melting

Question 14

Define: hydrosphere

Answer 14

All water on the earths surface

Question 15

Define: atmosphere

Answer 15

The gases, mainly nitrogen and oxygen, found within 145km of the earth

Question 16

Define: folding

Answer 16

When plates push into each other and force each other upwards or downwards

Question 17

Define: subduction

Answer 17

When the oceanic crust is pushed under the the continental crust and melts

Question 18

Define: active volcano

Answer 18

A volcano that is erupting or has recently erupted

Question 19

Define: dormant volcano

Answer 19

A volcano that has not erupted in 20 years but may erupt at any time

Question 20

Define: extinct volcano

Answer 20

A volcano that has not erupted in thousands of years

Question 21

Define: Panthalassa

Answer 21

The sea that once surrounded Pangaea.

Question 22

Define: Gondwanaland

Answer 22

The Southern Hemisphere of when Pangaea was spilt up into two continents

Question 23

Define: slip fault

Answer 23

Sideways movement of a fault

Question 24

Define: seismograph

Answer 24

An instrument which records movement in the Earth.

Question 25

Define: epicentre

Answer 25

The point directly above the point below the surface where movement in the crust begun.

Question 26

Define: focus

Answer 26

The point at which the earthquake begins

Question 27

Define: volcanic/lava bomb

Answer 27

Large fragments of rocks thrown out of a volcanic crater

Question 28

Define: vulcanologist

Answer 28

A scientist who studies volcanoes

Question 29

Define: seismologist

Answer 29

A scientist who studies earthquakes