Vocabulary Flashcards
Middle, fluid-like layer of Earth, 3000 km thick
Mantle
Extensive elongated depression of the sea floor at a subduction zone
Trench
Seismic wave that can travel through all the Earth’s layers
P - waves (Primary waves)
Action that results when the oceanic portion of a plate descends into the mantle
Subduction
Chain of volcanic islands that form on the oceanic portion of an overriding plate
Volcanic island arc
Region where tectonic plates are moving together
Subduction zone
Fluid like layer of mantle over which the lithosphere drifts
Asthenosphere
Boundary at which two tectonic plates are moving together
Convergent Boundary
Theory that explains the movement of continents over Earth since it formed
Continental Drift Theory
Small region of very hot mantle
Hot Spot/ Mantle Plume
The solid centre of the Earth
Inner Core
Rigid outer layer of Earth’s internal structure
Crust
Convection currents that occur in the mantle
Mantle Convection (I don’t think we learnt this)
An undersea mountain range that occurs at a divergent plate boundary
Ridge
Process by which new sea floor is created at a divergent plate boundary
Sea floor spreading
One of 12 large and 20 smaller sections of Earth’s lithosphere
Tectonic Plates
String of volcano created on an overriding continental plate parallel to boundary
Volcanic Arc
Theory that Earth is divided into large plates that move over the asthenosphere
Plate Tectonic Theory
Region of Earth’s internal structure formed by crust and upper layer of mantle
Lithosphere
Plate boundary where plates move past each other in opposite directions
Transform Boundary
Waves produced by earthquakes
L - waves (Surface waves)
Name of the single land mass that existed 270 million years ago
Pangaea
Push originating from production of a mid-ocean ridge
Ridge push
Crack in the lithosphere where magma reaches Earth’s surface
Volcano
Seismic waves that only pass through solid rock
Secondary Waves / Shear waves/ S-waves
