Plate tectonics Flashcards
Earth’s lithosphere is composed of fragments or plates that move around and interact with one another.
Plate tectonics theory
Supercontinent
Pangaea
Father of the plate tectonics theory
Alfred Wegener
- Outermost layer of the earth
- Composed of upper mantle and crust
Lithosphere
Continental crust
thicker and less dense
Thinner and more dense
Oceanic crust
Made of various types of rocks and sediments floating on top of the malleable upper mantle
crust
Two types of Earth’s crust
Continental crust and Oceanic crust
Lithosphere is divided into fragments known as
Plates
Surface waves
long surface waves and Rayleigh waves
Method used to find an Earthquake’s epicenter
triangulation method
Earthquake centers and volcano locations are distributed along the
plate margins
Most volcano arcs found in the
Pacific ring of fire
Year Plate tectonic theory was made
1915
- Under the lithosphere
- A ductile layer
- Composed of partly molten rocks due to high temperature
asthenosphere
Movement of Plates
Slow and constant motion
Plate margins known as
Plate boundaries
Three types of Plate boundaries
- Convergent
- Divergent
- Transform
A deep, narrow depression on the ocean seafloor caused by the collision and/or subduction of plates.
Trench
Tectonic plate forces (2)
- Resisting force
- Driving forces
- Plates move toward each other
- Collision of two plates
Convergent plate boundaries
Plates move apart from each other
Divergent plate boundaries
Process of oceanic crust sinks down the continental crust and goes back to the mantle
Subduction
Types of convergent boundaries:
- Oceanic continental crust
- Oceanic oceanic crust
- Continental continental crust
Forms Islands
Oceanic- oceanic crust
Forms mountains
Continental- continental crust
Forms Volcanoes
Oceanic- continental crust
Two plates slide past horizontally to each other without destroying the lithospheric plate
Transform plate boundary
