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chapter 3 vocbulary
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| continental drift | the hypothesis that the continents slowly move across the Earth's surface. |
| pangaea | the name of the singe landmass that began to break apart 200 million years ago and gave rise to today's continents |
| fossil | the preserved remains or traces of an organism that lived in the past |
| mid-ocean ridge | an undersea mountain chain where a new ocean floor in produced; a divergent plate boundary |
| sea-floor spreading | the process by which molten materials adds new oceanic crust to the ocean floor. |
| deep-sea trench | a deep valley along the ocean floor beneath which oceanic crust slowly sinks toward the mantle |
| subduction | the process by which oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary. |
| plate | a section of the lithosphere that slowly moves over the asthenosphere, carrying pieces of continental and oceanic crust. |
| divergent boundary | a plate boundary where two plates move away from each other. |
| convergent boundary | a plate boundary where two plates move toward each other. |
| transform boundary | a plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite direction. |
| plate tectonics | the theory that pieces of Earth's lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by connection currents in the mantle |
| fault | a break in earths crust along which rocks move. |
| rift valley | a deep valley that forms where two plates move apart. |