Plate Tectonics, Rocks, and Contours Review Flashcards
What is a convergent boundary?
Two plates move together destroying crust.
What is a divergent boundary?
Two plates move apart creating crust.
What is a transform fault?
Cracks along an ocean ridge that allow the crust to slide.
What is a transform boundary?
Rocks slide past each other. No rock is destroyed nor created. A.K.A: Strike-slip boundary.
What are the geological events that occur at a divergent boundary?
Earthquakes
Volcanoes
New ocean floor
Mid-ocean ridge
What are the geological events that occur at a convergent boundary between ocean and continental crust?
Earthquakes Deep earthquakes Volcanoes Mountains Trenches Subduction
What are the geological events that occur at a convergent boundary between ocean and ocean crust?
Earthquakes Deep earthquakes Volcanoes Trenches Subduction
What are the geological events that occur at a convergent boundary between continental and continental crust?
Earthquakes
Mountains
What are the geological events that occur at a transform boundary?
Earthquakes
Define “tectonic plates”
Large chunks of rock that float on the mantle.
What is continental drift?
A theory proposed by Alfred Wegener, stating that the continents are moving.
What evidence did Wegener use to support his theory of continental drift?
Glossopteris fossils
Coal deposits
Glaciers
Rocks and mountain chains
What is glossopteris?
A fossil of a plant that had seeds to heavy to be carried by the wind and too fragile to float across the ocean. This was part of Wegener’s proof for continental drift.
What is a mid-ocean ridge?
An undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced; a divergent plate boundary.
What is continental crust?
The fluffy, thick crust which is less dense than the ocean crust. Continental crust can be compared to a birthday cake.
What is ocean crust?
The dense, thin crust which is more dense than the continental crust. Oceanic crust can be compared to a brownie.
What is a deep-ocean trench?
A deep valley along the ocean floor beneath which oceanic crust slowly sinks toward the mantle.
What is an earthquake?
The shaking that results from the movement of rock beneath Earth’s surface.
What is a volcano?
A weak spot in the crust where magma has come to the surface.
What is a mountain?
Mountains are formed by the folding, faulting, or upwarping of the Earth’s surface due to the movement of plates or by the emplacement of volcanic rock onto the surface.
What is subduction?
The process by which oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary.
Igneous rock
A type of rock that forms from the cooling of molten rock at or below the surface.
What are the 2 types of igneous rocks and how are they formed?
Extrusive-formed from lava
Intrusive-formed from magma that cools within the Earth.
Give some examples of igneous rocks.
Basalt
Granite
Obsidian
Sedimentary rock
A type of rock that forms when particles from other rocks or the remains of plants and animals are pressed and cemented together.
What is a sediment?
A particle of a rock created by weathering: wing, moving water, ice
What are the 3 types of sedimentary rocks and how are they formed?
Organic-from the remains of once living things
Clastic-made from fragments of other rocks
Chemical-left behind with evaporation
What are examples of organic sedimentary rock?
Limestone
Coal
What are examples of clastic sedimentary rock?
Sandstone
Shale
What are examples of chemical sedimentary rocks?
Rock salt
Metamorphic rock
A rock that forms from an existing rock that is changed by heat, pressure, or chemical reactions.
Give examples of metamorphic rock.
Marble
Slate
Gneiss
Schist
What are the 4 properties of a mineral?
Naturally occurring
Inorganic
Definite chemical composition
Crystal structure
Define weathering
The breaking down of rocks cause by water, acids, plants, heating and cooling.
Define erosion
The removal of weathered rock. Caused by ice, water, gravity, and wind.
How do minerals form?
From cooling magma.
Slow cooling=large crystals
Fast cooling=small crystals
What is a rock?
A solid substance composed of more than 1 type of mineral.
How do you determine a rock’s type?
A rock’s type is determined by the process that created it.
