Terms | Definitions |
Crust | The layer of rock that forms the earth surface |
Mantle | The layer of hot, solid material between Earth's crust and core |
Core | the center of the earth that is made of two parts the inner core and the outer core both are made of iron and nickel. |
Constructive force | A force that builds up mountains and landmasses on Earth's surface |
Destructive focre | A force that slowly wears away mountains and other features on the surface of the Earth |
Lithosphere | A ridged layer made up of the uppermost part of the mantle and the crust |
Asthenosphere | The soft layer of the mantle on which the lithosphere floats |
What rock makes up oceanic crust | Balsalt |
What rock makes up continental crust | Granite |
Radiation | The transfer of energy througth an empty space |
Convection | The transfer of heat by movement of aheated fluid |
Conduction | The transfer of heat by direct contact of particals of matter |
Theory of continetal drift | The hypotheis that the continets slowly move across Earth's surface |
Alfred Wegener | A young German scientest who became curious about the relationship of the continets: came up withTheory of continetal drift |
Pangea | The name of the single landmass that broke apart 200 million years ago and gave rise to today's continents |
Mid Ocean Ridge | The undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced; a divergent plate boundary |
Subduction | The process by which oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep ocean trench and back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary |
Theory of plate tectonics | The theory that pieces of Earth's lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle |
Convergent boundary | A plate boundary where two plates move toward each other |
Divergent boundary | A plate boundary where two plates move away from each other |
Transform boundary | A plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite directions |
Faults | break in Earth's crust where slabs of rock slip past each other |
Shearing | Stress that pushes a mass of rock in opposite directions |
Tension | Stress that stretches rock so that it becomes thinner in the middle |
Compression | Stress that squeezes rock until it folds or breaks |
Strike Slip faults | faults are caused by shearing where the rock on each side of the fault moves sideways past each other |
Normal Fault | Caused by tension forces which causes the hanging wall to slip downward from the footwall |
Reverse Faults | caused by compression forces which causes the hanging wall to push back into the footwall |
Seismic waves | Vibrations that travel through the Earth carrying the energy released during a earthquake |
3 type of sesmic waves | P waves, S wave, Surface waves |
P waves | 1st waves to arive to surface compresses and expand like and accordion: travel through solids like and liquids |
S waves | Come after the p waves shake ground back and fourth shake structures vionlently: cannot move through liquids |
Surface waves | when some P and S waves reach surface some might become surface waves, move slower then P and S waves, produce the most severe grounnd movements |
The Mercalli Scale | A scale that rates earthquakes accodring to thier intensity and how much damage they cause |
The Richter Scale | A scale that rates seismic waves as measured by a particcular type of mechanical |
Moment Magnitude Scale | A scale that rates earthquakes buestimateing the total energy released by an earthquakes |