Section 2: Forces of Change Flashcards
Mantle
A thick layer of hot dense rock.
Continental Drift
The theory that the continents were once joined and then slowly drifted apart.
Magma
Molten Rock
Plate Tectonics
Is the theory that plate tectonics have been shaping Earth’s major landforms.
Subduction
When a sea plate collides with a continental plate creating mountains.
Accretion
Pieces of the Earth’s crust come together slowly as the sea plate slides under the continental plate.
spreading
Sea plates pull apart.
Fold
Moving plates squeeze the Earth’s surface until it bends.
Fault
Plates grind or slide past each other, creating cracks in the Earth’s crust.
Weathering
The process that breaks down rocks on the Earth’s surface into smaller pieces.
Erosion
Is the wearing away of the Earth’s surface by wind, glaciers, and moving water.
Loess
A fertile, yellow-gray soil deposited by wind.
Glacier
Large bodies of ice that slowly move across the Earth’s surface.
Moraine
When glaciers melt and recede, in some places they leave behind large piles of rocks and debris.