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AMS Plate Tectonics Vocabulary

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HOT SPOT   area of volcanic activity that develops above rising plumes of magma  
SUBDUCTION   one plate sinking beneath another  
OCEANIC-CONTINENTAL SUBDUCTION   a plate with oceanic crust sinking under a plate with continental crust  
OUTER CORE   layer of liquid metals that surrounds the inner core  
CONVECTION   the motion created when heated material continually rises, cools and sinks  
CRUST   thin layer of rock that surrounds Earth  
CONTINENTAL-CONTINENTAL COLLISION   occurs where plates with continental crust push together  
INNER CORE   a ball of hot, solid, metals at Earth’s center  
CONVECTION CURRENT   the transfer of heat within a material  
OCEANIC-OCEANIC SUBDUCTION   a plate with oceanic crust sinking under another plate with oceanic crust  
PANGEA   the name that Alfred Wegener gave to the huge supercontinent that he proposed had once existed  
THEORY OF PLATE TECTONICS   theory states that Earth's lithosphere is broken into huge, moving slabs of rock driven by motions in the mantle.  
CONTINENTAL DRIFT   hypothesis formed by Wegener that said Earth’s continents were once joined in a single landmass and gradually moved or drifted apart.  
MANTLE   the earth's thickest layer,2900 km (1700mi), layer of rock between Earth's outer core and crust  
LITHOSPHERE   layer make up of the crust and the top part of the mantle about 40 km thick and broken into tectonic plates  
TECTONIC PLATE   lithosphere broken into many large and small slabs of rock  
ASTHENOSPHERE   layer of hotter, softer rock in the upper mantle and directly under the lithosphere  
MID-OCEAN RIDGE   huge underwater mountain ranges, appear in every ocean, circling Earth.  
DIVERGENT BOUNDARY   boundary along which two tectonic plates move apart, found in the ocean.  
RIFT VALLEY   a deep valley formed as tectonic plates move apart  
MAGNETIC REVERSAL   switch in the direction of earth's magnetic field so that the magnetic north pole becomes the magnetic south pole and the magnetic south pole becomes the magnetic north pole  
CONVERGENT BOUNDARY   a boundary along which two tectonic plates push together, characterized either by subduction or a continental collision  
TRANSFORM BOUNDARY   boundary along which two tectonic plates scrape past each other and crust is neither formed nor destroyed  


   


 

 

 

 

 

 
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