click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
lessons 1-3
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| continental drift | the hypothesis that the continents slowly move across earths surface |
| pangaea | the name of the single landmass that began to break apart 200 million years ago and rise to todays continents |
| fossil | the preserved remains of traces of an organism that lived in the past |
| mid-ocean ridge | an undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced; a divergent plate boundary |
| sea-floor spreading | the process by which molten material adds new oceanic crust to the ocean floor |
| deep-ocean trench | a deep valley along beneath the ocean floor 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 towards each other |
| transform boundary | a plate boundary where two plates move past each other |
| plate tectonics | the theory that pieces of the earths lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle |
| fault | a break in earths crust along with rocks move |
| rift valley | a deep valley where two plates move apart |