Plate Tectonics Flashcards
Who was the German scientist who proposed a hypothesis of continental drift in 1912?
Alfred Wegener
What are Wegener’s evidences of continental drift?
He proved by having fossil evidence, evidence from rock formations, climatic evidence, etc..
What was Wegener’s missing puzzle piece of his hypothesis?
He couldn’t figure out the mechanisms (or how the plates move).
What are long, undersea mountain chains that has a steep, narrow valley at its center, that forms as magma rises from the asthenosphere and that creates new oceanic lithosphere as tectonic plates move apart?
Mid-ocean Ridges
What is the process when the new ocean lithosphere forms as magma rises to Earth’s surface and solidifies at a mid-ocean ridge?
Sea-floor Spreading
What type of plate boundary occurs when two plates move away from each other, forming mid-ocean ridges?
ex. North American and Eurasian plates at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Divergent Boundary
What type of plate boundary occurs when plates move towards each other and colliding, forming ocean trenches, mountains, volcanoes, and island arcs?
ex. South American and Nazca plates at the Chilean Trench
Convergent Boundary
What type of plate boundary occurs when plates slide past each other and move in opposite directions?
ex. North American and Pacific plates at the San Andreas Fault
Transform Boundary
What is the movement of heated materials due to differences in density that are caused by differences in temperature?
Convection
What do you call it when the denser rock slopes down the slope between the lithosphere and asthenosphere, forcing the ridge of one plate to another to move away from the mid-ocean ridge?
Ridge Push
What do you call it when a denser plate sinks under a less denser plate, resulting plate motion?
Slap Pull
