Understanding the pieces Flashcards
A theory that explains the different processes that cause the formation of different geologic features and phenomena.
Plate tectonics theory
A German meteorologist and geophysicist who hypothesized and suggested that the landmasses of Earth were once merged into a supercontinent.
Alfred Wegener
Merged landmasses that was once a supercontinent.
Pangaea
The term tectonic came from the __________ word _________ or the _________ word ____________, which means “___________.”
Latin, tectonicus, Greek, tektonikos, to build
It has been coined to give rise to the idea of the formation or sculpting of Earth’s lithosphere.
Tectonic
The outermost layer of the Earth.
Lithosphere
The crust is about ____ km deep.
50
The lithosphere extends to about ____ km deep.
80
It is made of various types of rocks and sediments floating on top of the malleable upper mantle .
Crust
The crust has a density of around __________.
2.6 g/cm^3
2 types of earth’s crust
- Continental
- Oceanic
A thicker and less dense crust of earth which makes it “float.”
Continental crust
A denser and relatively thinner crust of the Earth.
Oceanic crust
7 major plates
- North American
- South American
- Eurasian
- Pacific
- Indo-Australian
- African
- Antarctic
7 intermediate plates
- Philippine
- Caribbean
- Cocos
- Nazca
- Scotia
- Juan de Fuca
- Arabian
The strengths of earthquakes can range from __________ to ____________.
shallow, destructive
Around _____ of earthquakes are felt along the plate margins.
90%
The magma builds a series of volcanoes known as a?
volcano arc
With the aid of an ______________, it will tell us the distance of the earthquake’s focus to the station.
S-P graph
Waves that travel within the interior of Earth.
Primary and secondary waves (Body waves)
These are responsible for the detection on the epicenter of an earthquake.
Body waves
He led the challenger expedition in 1872.
Charles Wyville Thomson
