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science2
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| continental drift | the hypothesis that the continents slowly move across earths surface |
| pangaea | the name of the single land mass 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 under sea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced a divergent plate boundary |
| sea floor spreading | the process where molten material adds new oceanic crust to the ocean floor |
| deep ocean 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 directions |
| plate tectonics | the theory that prices of earths lithosphere are in constant motion driven by convection currents in the mantle |
| fault | a brake in earths crust in which rocks move |
| rift valley | a deep valley where two rocks move apart |