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8.9AB
Plate Tectonic Theory
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Alfred Wegener | A German scientist who proposed the theory of continental drift |
| continental crust | The portion of the earth's crust that primarily contains granite, is less dense than oceanic crust, and is 20-50 km thick |
| Continental Drift Theory | Alfred Wegener believed landmasses of Earth once fit together to form single landmass called "Pangaea"; landmasses "drifted" to where they are today |
| convergent boundary | A plate boundary where two plates move toward each other. |
| Deep Sea Trench | A long, narrow deep depression in the ocean floor which typically runs parallel to a plate boundary and makes a subduction zone. 6. divergent boundary |
| Divergent Boundary | A plate boundary where two plates move away from each other. |
| Evidence Supporting Continental Drift | 1. Continents fit together like a "puzzle" 2. Geographic landforms like rivers and mountains matched at the continents 3. Fossil matches across continents 4. Paleoclimatic evidence of glaciers where ice shouldn't be found |
| folded mountains | Form at Continental-Continental Convergent Plate Boundaries when rock layers are squeezed together and pushed upward ex. Alps in central Europe, Ural Mountains in Russia, and the Himalayas in Asia |
| Fossils | The preserved remains or traces of organisms that once lived on Earth. |
| Harry Hess | Proposed the theory of sea-floor spreading |
| Magnetic Polarity | Direction of the Earth's magnetic field |
| mid-ocean ridge | An underwater mountain chain where new ocean floor is formed |
| oceanic crust | thinner, more dense, younger crust making ocean floor made of basalt |
| Pangea | A supercontinent containing all of Earth's land that existed about 225 million years ago. |
| Plate Tectonic Theory | Theory that the lithosphere is divided into tectonic plates that slowly move on top of the asthenosphere due to convection in the mantle. |
| rift valley | A deep valley that forms where two plates move apart |
| Sea Floor Spreading Evidence | 1) A parallel pattern of rock material found at identical locations on each side of the Mid-Atlantic 2) Ridge reveals rocks of the same geologic age 3) Ridge reveals bands of rocks with similar magnetic polarity. |
| subduction zone | in tectonic plates, the site at which an oceanic plate is sliding under a continental plate. |
| transform boundary | A plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite directions |
Created by:
Mrs_Bullock
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