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Chapter 17
Vocabulary
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Continental drift | Wegener's hypothesis that Earth's continents were joined as a single land mass, called Pangaea, that broke apart about 200 mya and slowly moved to their present positions. |
Pangaea | ancient landmass made up of all the continents that began to break apart about 200 mya. |
isochron | imaginary line on a areas of equal pressure. |
magnetic reversal | when Earth's magnetic field changes polarity between normal and reversed. |
magnetometer | device used to map the ocean floor that detects small changes in magnetic fields. |
paleomagnetism | study of Earth's magnetic record using data gathered from iron-bearing minerals in rocks that have recorded the orientation of Earth's magnetic field at the time of their formation. |
seafloor spreading | the hypothesis that new ocean crust is formed at mid-ocean ridges and destroyed at deep-sea trenches; occurs in a continuous cycle of magma intrusion and spreading. |
convergent boundary | a place where two tectonic plates are moving toward each other; is associated with trenches, islands, arcs, and folded mountains. |
divergent boundary | place where two of Earth's tectonic plates are moving apart; is associated with volcanism, earthquakes, and high heat flow, and is found primarily on the seafloor. |
rift valley | long narrow depression that forms when continental crust begins to separate at a divergent boundary. |
subduction | process by which one tectonic plate slides beneath another tectonic plate. |
tectonic plate | huge pieces of Earth's crust that covers its surface and fit together at their edges. |
transform boundary | place where two tectonic plates slide horizontally past each other; is characterized by long faults and shallow earthquakes. |
ridge push | tectonic process associated with convection currents in Earth's mantle that occurs when the weight of an elevated ridge pushes an oceanic plate toward a subduction zone. |
slab pull | tectonic process associated with convection currents in Earth's mantle that occurs as the weight of the subducting plate pulls the trailing lithosphere into a subduction zone. |