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Earth Structure
Science earth test
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Alfred Wegner | He theorized that continental drift was caused by movement of tectonic plates. |
Compression stress | a set of stresses directed toward the center of a rock mass. |
continental drift | the gradual movement of the continents across the earth's surface through geological time. |
convergent boundaries | plate boundaries that move toward each other. |
divergent boundaries | plate boundaries that move away from each other. |
earthquakes | a sudden and violent shaking of the ground, sometimes causing great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth's crust or volcanic action. |
fault | a break in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement as a result of earth movement. |
hot spot | a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active volcanism for a long period of time. |
island arc | a curved chain of volcanic islands located at a tectonic plate margin. |
normal faulting | where two blocks of rock are pulled apart, caused by tension. Resulting in the hanging wall moving downward relative to the footwall. |
pangaea | a supercontinent believed to have existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. |
ring of fire | where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. |
shearing stress | when the stress component on a rock is parallel to a given surface, such as a fault plane. |
stress | force place on a rock to change its shape or volume. |
tension stress | the stress that tends to pull something apart, such as a fault plane in rock. |
transform boundaries | also known as conservative plate boundary since these faults neither create nor destroy lithosphere, a type of fault whose relative motion is predominately horizontal. |
volcanoes | a mountain or hill, typically conical, having a crater or vent through which lava, rock fragments, hot vapor, and gas are being or have been erupted from the earth's crust. |