Unit 2 Flashcards
What is the crust?
solid, outer layer of the earth
What is a topographical map?
a map of surface feature, natural and human, drawn to scale
What is the core?
the central interior of the earth
What is the mantle?
the layer of the earth between the crust and the core
What is the asthenosphere?
the outer layer composed of slow moving molten rock
What is the mesosphere?
the inner layer of the mantle
What is the lithosphere?
a rigid player made up of mantle and crust that sits on the asthenosphere
What is an oceanic plate?
a segment of the earth crust beneath sea level
What is a continental plate?
a segment of the earth crust above sea level
What is the order of the eras?
Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic
What happened during the Precambrian era?
Precambrian Shields are formed
What happened during the Paleozoic era?
large parts of North American are covered by shallow seas, Appalachians formed
What happened during the Mesozoic era?
formation of Rocky Mountains begins, Innuitian Mountains formed, shallow seas in the interior of North America at various times
What was Pangaea?
a supercontinent that existed over 300 million years ago
What did the continents start to drift apart?
200 million years ago
Who proposed the theory of continental drift?
Alfred Wegener
What is a convection current?
the circular movement of a liquid or gas undergoing convection in a limited space
What is convergent?
when two plates move toward each other and collide
What is divergent?
when two plates move away from each other forcing magma to rise and cool along the plate boundary
What is transform?
when two plates slide past each other creating friction
What can happen as a result of convergent?
Mountain formation
Earthquakes
Volcanoes
Oceanic trenches
What can happen as a result of divergent?
Rifts (which become rift valleys) and ridges
Underwater volcanoes
Earthquakes
What can happen as a result of transform?
Strike-slip-faults
Earthquakes
What is a subduction zone?
area where one plate slides below another