Layers of the Earth 1.1 Flashcards
The Earth is made of three parts. Name them…
Earth’s crust, Earth’s mantle, and Earth’s core (Inner & Outer).
How thin is the Earth’s crust?
between 7 to 40 kilometers
The movement of the Earth’s crust plates is called
Plate tectonics
Which two types of Earth’s crust are there?
Pieces of ocean floor & pieces of continent
Why does the rock in the mantle melt?
Because of high temperatures in the core.
Volcanism & earthquakes are a result of what?
When plates collide and diverge.
Pieces of crust are called what?
Plates
270 million years ago all continents were part of a one big continent called?
Pangaea
Pangaea is considered a what?
A supercontinent.
What was the rest of the earth covered in outside of Pangaea?
Ocean
Why was there so much desert climate on Pangaea?
Because it was so big and much wind was able to blow drying everything out.
Pangaea was located in what part of the world?
What is now called Africa
What made the supercontinent break apart?
A hot rock flow that came up from the bottom of the Earth’s crust side-ways. The pressure made the supercontinent swell up, tear and fall apart into smaller continents.
With the breaking apart of Pangaea, the number of plants and animals increased or decreased.
The influence of the sea increased and resulted so did the variety of plants and animals.
Plate tectonics broke up Pangaea but what else did they create?
Mountain ranges, like the Alps.
What two continents are responsible for folding the Alps?
Africa & Europe
50 million years ago Italy wasn’t attached to Europe but what continent?
Africa.
What separated the then Italy (50 million years ago) and the rest of Europe?
Ocean.
What was the result of Africa’s crust moving North?
Italy was pushed towards Europe.
Explain what happened when Africa’s crust moved North that helped for the Alps?
The sea between Africa & Europe became narrower and narrower The bottom of the sea got stuck and layers of rock on the bottom of the sea got compressed, bent and pushed up for several kilometers.
Why can you still see the old layers of the ocean floor in the Alps but no ocean?
Because the ocean floor got pushed up high out of the ocean. The water drained away but the floor remained.
