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Plate Tectonics
Plate Tectonics Vocabulary
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Theory of the continental drift | The theory of the continents being one super-continent slowly drifting away to their spots today |
Pangaea | A super-continent which means all land |
Inner Core | Solid core made mostly of iron and nickel |
Outer Core | Liquid core made mostly of iron and nickel |
Mantle | The upper layer of the earth's mantle, below the lithosphere |
Crust | The outermost solid shell of the earth which is about 5 to 40 miles thick |
Lithosphere | The rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle |
Aesthenosphere | A zone of the earth's mantle that lies beneath the lithosphere and consists of several hundred kilometers of deformable rock |
Continental Crust | Crust that forms under land or continents |
Oceanic Crust | Crust that forms under oceans |
Divergent Boundary | Boundary that splits land |
Convergent Boundary | Boundary that collides with one another forming mountains and volcanoes |
Transform Boundary | Boundary that slides past each other |