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Ch.17
Vocab
| 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. |
| magnetometer | device used to map the ocean floor that detects small changes in magnetic fields. |
| magnetic reversal | when Earth's magnetic field changes polarity between normal and reversed. |
| paleomagnetism | study of Earth's magnetic record using data gathered from iron-bearing minerals in rocks tha have recorede the orientation of Earth's magnetic field at the time of their formation. |
| isochron | imaginary line on a map that shows points of the same age; formed at the same time. |
| 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. |
| tectonic plate | huge pieces of Earth's crust that cover its surface and fit together at their edges. |
| 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. |
| convergent boundary | place where two of Earth's tectonic plates are moving apart. |
| subduction | process by which one tectonic plate slips beneath another tectonic plate. |
| transform boundary | place where two tectonic plates slide tectonic plates slide horizontally past each other. |
| 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. |
| slap pull | tectonic process associated with convection currents in earth's mantle that occurs as the weight of the subducting plate pulls the trialing lithosphere into a subduction zone. |