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Earth Science
Plate Tectonic Vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| earthquake | shaking of the Earth's surface |
| energy | the ability to cause change |
| fault | a break in rock along which rock slabs moved |
| tectonic plate | a slab of rock that makes up the Earth's crust |
| plate boundary | the border of a plate |
| theoryeir | an idea based on a large body of evidence that explains how something happens |
| theory of continental drift | a theory that states that the continents were once joined in a single landmass but drifted to their present locations |
| theory of plate tectonics | a theory that Earth's lithosphere is broken into very large pieces of rock called plates that are in constant motion |
| lithosphere | the crust plus the upper mantle |
| crust | the thin, rocky outer layer of Earth |
| asthenosphere | just below the lithoesphere; soft and flowing |
| mantle | the layer of Earth beneath the crust |
| core | the innermost, densest layer of Earth |
| density | how much mass is in a given volume of matter |
| matter | anything that has mass and takes up space |
| convection | the transfer of energy through liquids and gases ; occurs in asthenosphere |