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Plate Tectonics
FOSS Inv. 6 Earth History
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Theory of Continental Drift | Wegner's theory that continents were once connected as one super continent called Pangea. |
| Lithospheric plates | large chunks that afloat on the asthenosphere |
| Theory of Plate Tectonics | The lithosphere is broken into plates that slowly move. |
| Ring of Fire | circle of volcanoes along the Pacific coastlines |
| oceanic plate | thinner, but heavier chunks of lithosphere under the ocean. |
| continental plate | thicker, but lighter chunks of lithosphere under the continents |
| Alfred Wegener | Known for his work with Pangaea and continental drift |
| magma | molten rock beneath the Earth's surface. The mantle is mostly this. |
| subduction | oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep ocean trench and back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary. |
| convergent boundary | the boundary between tectonic plates that are colliding |
| divergent boundary | A plate boundary where two plates move away from each other. |
| sea-floor spreading | The process by which molten material adds new oceanic crust to the ocean floor |
| transform boundary | plates slide past each other |