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Geography A2* > Plate Tectonics And Associated Hazards- Key terms > Flashcards

Plate Tectonics And Associated Hazards- Key terms Flashcards

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1
Q

What was the ‘Big Bang’?

A

The rapid expansion of matter from a state of high density and temperature which people believe created the world

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2
Q

What is a continental shelf?

A

The area of seabed around a large land mass where the sea is shallow compared to the open ocean, it is part of the continental crust

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3
Q

Define tectonics

A

Large scale processes affecting the structure of the earths crust

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4
Q

What is the ‘crust’ of the earth?

A

The outermost layer of the earths physical structure

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5
Q

What is the earth’s mantle?

A

The layer between the outer core and crust. It is a semi molten layer with a thickness of over 2000 miles

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6
Q

What is the outer core of the Earth?

A

A layer of molten liquid around the inner core

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7
Q

What is the inner core of the earth?

A

A solid mass of radioactive material which exudes a great amount of heat, its temperature is estimated to be between 5000 and 7000 degrees centigrade

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8
Q

What is the lithosphere?

A

The Crust and upper mantle. It is approximately 80-90km thick and is divided into 7 large plates and a number of smaller ones

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9
Q

What is the Asthenosphere?

A

A semi molten section of the mantle on which tectonic plates move and float due to convection currents. This layer is around 350km from the earths surface.

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10
Q

What is the Mohorovic discontinuity?

A

The boundary between the earth’s crust and mantle. It is about 10km under the ocean floor and 40 km underneath the continents

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11
Q

What are primary waves?

A

Compressional and extensional waves which cause the rocks they pass through to shake. They’re the fastest moving seismic waves and can travel through both solids and liquids

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12
Q

What are secondary waves?

A

Waves that come after primary waves, they can cause more damage but can only move through solid mediums

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13
Q

What are surface waves?

A

Waves which move through the earth’s crust

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14
Q

What is a love wave?

A

Its motion is essentially that of S waves that have no vertical displacement; it moves the ground from side to side in a horizontal plane but at right angles to the direction of propagation. The horizontal shaking of Love waves is particuly damaging to the foundations of structures.

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15
Q

What are Raleigh waves?

A

Raleigh waves take a more heaving, rolling motion like a conventional ocean wave, they move both vertically and horizontally.

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16
Q

What are tectonic plates?

A

The layers of the earth’s crust that move and fracture, those interactions cause earthquakes, volcanoes fold mountains and finally ocean trenches

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17
Q

What is oceanic crust?

A

A section of the earth’s crust that is beneath the oceans:

  • around 6-10km thick
  • it is younger than continental crust
  • it is denser than continental crust and can be sub-ducted
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18
Q

What is continental crust?

A

It is the areas of tectonic plates which are beneath land masses it is:

  • 30-70km thick
  • Lighter than oceanic crust
  • older than oceanic crust
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19
Q

What are plate margins?

A

The boundary between tectonic plates

20
Q

What are convection currents?

A

Currents in the mantle that are caused by material being heated and cooled. They cause the movement of the tectonic plates

21
Q

What is the theory of continental drift and who coined it?

A

Continental drift is the movement of continents across the earth’s surface over geological time. It was coined by Alfred Wegener in 1912

22
Q

What is jigsaw fit?

A

A model where all of the continents fit together

23
Q

What was Pangea?

A

Pangea was the original supercontinent of which all of the current continents were a part of

24
Q

What was sea floor spreading and who coined it?

A

Sea floor spreading occurs at mid ocean ridges and new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. It was coined by Harry Hess in 1962

25
Q

What is the mid Atlantic ridge?

A

A mid ocean ridge found on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. It is an undersea mountain chain.

26
Q

What is Paleomagnetism?

A

The study of the record of the earths magnetic field in rocks

27
Q

Who was Harry Hess?

A

The man who coined the term seafloor spreading

28
Q

Constructive plate margin

A

Where two plates move apart, creating a volcano due to magma rising up the crack left by the gap between the plates

29
Q

What’re submarine volcanoes?

A

Underwater volcanoes

30
Q

What’re transform faults?

A

When 2 plates slide past each other ocean ridges, they can be moved causing there to be a straight ocean ridge

31
Q

What is The Great African Rift Valley?

A

A Rift Valley which was created by the splitting of the African plate

32
Q

What’re destructive plate margins?

A

An oceanic plate and a continental plate collide. The oceanic plate is submerged by the continental plate as the oceanic plate is more dense

33
Q

What is subduction?

A

Where one plate (oceanic plate) submerges beneath another (continental plate) due to the oceanic plate being denser

34
Q

What is the Benioff zone?

A

A zone in which many deep earthquakes occur, situated beneath a destructive plate boundary where subduction occurs. Where melted crust moves back up

35
Q

What is an ocean trench?

A

A deep trench in the ocean created by subduction at destructive plate boundaries

36
Q

What are fold mountains?

A

Mountains formed by layers of sediment being condensed and the buckling upwards, this occurs at collision plate boundaries.

37
Q

What is a collision plate boundary?

A

When two continental plates collide

38
Q

What are island arcs?

A

A curved chain of volcanic islands located at a tectonic plate boundary, typically with a deep ocean trench on the convex side.

39
Q

What is a conservative plate margin?

A

Two plates move in opposite directions which can cause earthquakes as tension occurs between them

40
Q

What’re hotspots?

A

An area where a plume of magma rises up the mantle creating volcanic activity above it

41
Q

What is a mantle plume?

A

A plume of hot rock from the earths mantle

42
Q

What’s an island chain?

A

A cluster of islands created by a hotspot

43
Q

What is a sea mount?

A

A submarine mountain

44
Q

What is a supervolcano?

A

An unusually large volcano having the potential to produce an eruption with major effects on the global climate and ecosystem.

45
Q

What is a caldera?

A

The crater left by a supervolcano

46
Q

What is a fault line?

A

A line on a rock surface or the ground that traces a geological fault

Geography A2* (38 decks)

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