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Earth's Structure
Science Vocab
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Alfred Wegner | theorized that continental drift was caused by movement of tectonic plates |
| Compression Stress | a set of stresses directed toward the center of a rock mass |
| Continental Drift | the gradual movement of the continents across earth's surface through geological time |
| Convergent Boundaries | plate boundaries that move toward each other |
| Divergent Boundaries | plate boundaries that move away from each other |
| Earthquakes | a sudden and violent shaking of the ground, sometimes causing great destruction, as a result of movements within the Earth's crust or volcanic action |
| Fault | a break in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement as a result of Earth's movement |
| Hot Spot | a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active volcanism for a long period of time |
| Island Arc | a curved chain of volcanic islands located at a tectonic plate margin |
| Normal Faulting | where two blocks of rock are pulled apart, caused by tension resulting in the hanging wall moving downward relative to the footwall |
| Pangea | a supercontinent believed to have existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras |
| Ring of Fire | where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean |
| Shearing Stress | when the stress component on a rock is parallel to a given surface, such as a fault plane |
| Stress | force placed on a rock to change its shape or volume |
| Tension Stress | the stress that tends to pull something apart, such as a fault in rock |
| Transform Boundaries | also known as conservative plate boundary since these faults neither create nor destroy lithosphere, a type of fault whose relative motion is predominantly horizontal |
| Volcanoes | a mountain or hill, typically conical, having a crater or vent through which lava, rock fragments, hot vapor, and gas are being or have been erupted from the Earth's crust |
Created by:
joshhutchrocks