plate tectonics flashcards

Question 1

the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.

Answer 1

Lithosphere

Question 2

a plastic layer of the mantle on which pieces of the Lithosphere move

Answer 2

Asthenosphere

Question 3

the region of the earth’s atmosphere above the stratosphere and below the thermosphere, between about 30 and 50 miles (50 and 80 km) in altitude.

Answer 3

Mesosphere

Question 4

the fourth layer inside the Earth. It is a solid metallic ball made mainly of iron. … The inner core is solid due to the pressure caused by the weight put on it by the Earth’s other three layers, the crust, the mantle, and the outer core.

Answer 4

Inner Core

Question 5

Earth’s outer core is a fluid layer about 2,400 km thick and composed of mostly iron and nickel that lies above Earth’s solid inner core and below its mantle. Its outer boundary lies 2,890 km beneath Earth’s surface.

Answer 5

Outer Core

Question 6

waves that travel through or over Earth. They are usually generated by movements of the Earth’s tectonic plates (earthquakes) but may also be caused by explosions, volcanoes and landslides

Answer 6

Seismic Waves

Question 7

the outermost layer of Earth’s lithosphere that is found under the oceans and formed at spreading centres on oceanic ridges, which occur at divergent plate boundaries

Answer 7

Oceanic Crust

Question 8

is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks that forms the geological continents

Answer 8

Continental Crust

Question 9

of a substance is its mass per unit volume.

Answer 9

Density

Question 10

Alfred Lothar Wegener was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher

Answer 10

Alfred Wegener

Question 11

was a revolutionary theory explaining that continents shift position on Earth’s surface. … He proposed that Earth must have once been a single supercontinent before breaking up to form several different continents.

Answer 11

Continental Drift

Question 12

When two plates come together

Answer 12

Convergent Boundary

Question 13

occurs when two tectonic plates move away from each other.

Answer 13

Divergent Boundary

Question 14

are places where plates slide sideways past each other. At transform boundaries lithosphere is neither created nor destroyed. Many transform boundaries are found on the seafloor, where they connect segments of diverging mid-ocean ridges.

Answer 14

Transform Boundary

Question 15

geologic process in which tectonic plates—large slabs of Earth’s lithosphere—split apart from each other.

Answer 15

Sea-floor Spreading

Question 16

a supercontinent that incorporated almost all the landmasses on Earth.

Answer 16

Pangaea

Question 17

he more northern of two large landmasses that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent from around 335 to 175 million years ago

Answer 17

Laurasia

Question 18

an ancient supercontinent that broke up about 180 million years ago.

Answer 18

Gondwana

Question 19

extinct genus of reptile from the Early Permian of southern Africa and South America.

Answer 19

Mesosaurus

Question 20

is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct Permian order of seed ferns known as Glossopteridales. The genus Glossopteris refers only to leaves, within a framework of form genera used in paleobotany.

Answer 20

Glossopteris