Term | Definition |
seismic waves | indirect evidence to study Earth's inside, caused by earthquakes |
pressure | result from a force pressing on an area |
crust | the layer of rock that forms Earth's outer skin |
granite | a rock that usually is a light color and has a coarse texture; forms the continental crust |
basalt | dark rock with fine texture; forms the oceanic |
mantle | a layer of hot rock |
lithosphere | the uppermost part of the mantle and the crust together |
asthenosphere | a soft, solid layer |
outer core | a layer of molten metal that surrounds the inner core |
inner core | a dense ball of solid metal |
radiation | the transfer of energy through space |
conduction | heat transfer within a material or between material that are touching |
convection | heat transfer by the movement of currents within a fluid |
density | a measure of how much mass there is in a volume of a substance |
convection currents | the flow that transfers heat within a fluid |
Earths magnetic felid | the liquid outer core causes the solid inner core to spin faster than Earth's rotation |
continental drift | Wegener's idea that the continents slowly moved over Earth's surface |
Pangaea | when the continents came together and created an supercontinent |
fossil | any trace of an ancient organism that has been preserved in rock |
mid-ocean ridge | a long line of big mountias |
sonar | a device that bounces sound waves off underwater objects and then records the echoes of these sound waves |
sea-floor spreading | continually adds new material to the ocean floor |
deep-ocean trenches | deep underwater canyons |
subduction | the process in which ocean floor sinks beneath a deep ocean trench and back into the mantle |
plates | cracks in the continents which separates the lithosphere into different sections |
scientific theory | a well tested concept that explains a wide range of observations |
plate tectonics | states that pieces of earths lithosphere are in slow constant motion created by convection currents in the mantle |
faults | breaks in earths crust where rocks have slipped past each other form along these boundaries |
diversion boundary | the place where two plates move apart or diverge |
rift valley | a deep valley |
convergent boundary | the place where two plates come together or converge |
transform boundary | a place where two plates slip past each other moving in opposite directions |