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Definitions
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| lithosphere | the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle. |
| asthenosphere | the upper layer of the earth's mantle, below the lithosphere, in which there is relatively low resistance to plastic flow and convection is thought to occur. |
| magnetic field | a region around a magnetic material or a moving electric charge within which the force of magnetism acts. |
| hydrosphere | all the waters on the earth's surface, such as lakes and seas, and sometimes including water over the earth's surface, such as clouds. |
| magnetosphere | the region surrounding the earth or another astronomical body in which its magnetic field is the predominant effective magnetic field. |
| atmosphere | An atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding a planet or other material body, that is held in place by the gravity of that body. |
| dynamo effect | The dynamo effect is a geophysical theory that explains the origin of the Earth's main magnetic field in terms of a self-exciting (or self-sustaining) dynamo. |
| Continental drift hypothesis | Alfred Wegener was the scientist who proposed the Continental Drift Theory in the early twentieth century. Simply put, his hypothesis proposed that the continents had once been joined, and over time had drifted apart. |
| subduction zone | A subduction zone is a region of the Earth's crust where tectonic plates meet. Tectonic plates are massive pieces of the Earth's crust that interact with each other. The places where these plates meet are called plate boundaries. |
| lamporites | Lamproites are ultrapotassic mantle-derived volcanic and subvolcanic rocks. |
| transform plate boundaries | Transform boundaries are places where plates slide sideways past each other. |
| divergent plate boundaries | Most active divergent plate boundaries occur between oceanic plates and exist as mid-oceanic ridges. Divergent boundaries also form volcanic islands which occur when the plates move apart to produce gaps which molten lava rises to fill. |
| convergent plate boundaries | In plate tectonics, a convergent boundary, also known as a destructive plate boundary (because of subduction), is an actively deforming region where two (or more) tectonic plates or fragments of the lithosphere move toward one another and collide. |
| conduction | the process by which heat or electricity is directly transmitted through a substance when there is a difference of temperature or of electrical potential between adjoining regions, without movement of the material. |
| convection | the movement caused within a fluid by the tendency of hotter and therefore less dense material to rise, and colder, denser material to sink under the influence of gravity, which consequently results in transfer of heat. |
| radiation | the emission of energy as electromagnetic waves or as moving subatomic particles, especially high-energy particles that cause ionization. |
| plasma | the colorless fluid part of blood, lymph, or milk, in which corpuscles or fat globules are suspended. |
| geomagnetic reversals | A geomagnetic reversal is a change in a planet's magnetic field such that the positions of magnetic north and magnetic south are interchanged, while geographic north and geographic south remain the same. |
| corollas effect | an effect whereby a mass moving in a rotating system experiences a force (the Coriolis force ) acting perpendicular to the direction of motion and to the axis of rotation. |
| ophiolite | an igneous rock consisting largely of serpentine, believed to have been formed from the submarine eruption of oceanic crustal and upper mantle material. |
| global warming | a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants. |
| plate tectonics | a theory explaining the structure of the earth's crust and many associated phenomena as resulting from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates that move slowly over the underlying mantle. |
| doppler effect | an increase (or decrease) in the frequency of sound, light, or other waves as the source and observer move toward (or away from) each other. |
| greenhouse effect | the trapping of the sun's warmth in a planet's lower atmosphere due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface. |
| mantle | The mantle is a layer between the crust and the outer core. Earth's mantle is a silicate rocky shell with an average thickness of 2,886 kilometres |
| seismograph | A seismograph, or seismometer, is an instrument used to detect and record earthquakes. Generally, it consists of a mass attached to a fixed base. During an earthquake, the base moves and the mass does not. |
| seismic waves | an elastic wave in the earth produced by an earthquake or other means. |
| sea-floor spreading | Seafloor spreading is a process that occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. |
| xenolith | a piece of rock within an igneous rock that is not derived from the original magma but has been introduced from elsewhere, especially the surrounding country rock. |
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sethhopper1
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