plate tectonics Flashcards
Lithosphere
the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.
Asthenosphere
the upper layer of the earth’s mantle, below the lithosphere, in which there is relatively low resistance to plastic flow and convection is thought to occur.
Mesosphere
The mesosphere is a layer of Earth’s atmosphere.
Inner Core
Inner Core The inner core is a hot, dense ball of (mostly) iron.
Outer Core
Outer Core The outer core, about 2,200 kilometers (1,367 miles) thick, is mostly composed of liquid iron and nickel.
Seismic Waves
an elastic wave in the earth produced by an earthquake or other means.
Oceanic Crust
oceanic crust, the outermost layer of Earth’s lithosphere that is found under the oceans and formed at spreading centres on oceanic ridges
Continental Crust
Image result for Continental Crust
continental crust, the outermost layer of Earth’s lithosphere that makes up the planet’s continents and continental shelves
Density
the quantity of something per unit volume, unit area, or unit length
Alfred Wegener
Alfred Lothar Wegener was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.
Continental Drift
Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth’s continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have “drifted” across the ocean bed
Convergent Boundary
A convergent boundary is an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction
Divergent Boundary
In plate tectonics, a divergent boundary or divergent plate boundary is a linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other.
Transform Boundary
Transform boundaries are places where plates slide sideways past each other.
Sea-floor Spreading
Seafloor spreading is a geologic process in which tectonic plates—large slabs of Earth’s lithosphere—split apart from each other
Pangaea
the continent we now know as North America was contiguous with Africa, South America, and Europe.
Laurasia
one of the two ancient supercontinents produced by the first split of the even larger supercontinent Pangaea about 200 million years ago,
Gondwana
Gondwana then collided with North America, Europe, and Siberia to form the supercontinent of Pangea
Mesosaurus
Mesosaurus is an extinct genus of reptile from the Early Permian of southern Africa and South America.
Glossopteris
The genus Glossopteris refers only to leaves, within a framework of form genera used in paleobotany.
