Question | Answer |
composition | the chemical makeup of a rock; describes either the minerals or other materials in the rock |
continental crust | is the land that is underwater or above land; the land we walk on |
continental drift | the hypothesis that states that the continents once formed a single landmass, broke up and drifted to their present locations |
convection currents | the cycle of warm air rising and cool air sinking |
convergent boundary | the boundary formed by the collision of two lithospheric plates |
core | the central part of the earth below the mantle |
crust | the tin and solid outermost layer of the earth above the mantle |
density | the ratio of a mass of the substance to the volume of the substance |
divergent | the boundary between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other |
earthquakes | Quakes on Earth; when the tectonic plates deform creating a fault |
asthenosphere | the soft layer of the mantle on which the tectonic plates move |
fault | a break in a body of rock along which one block sides relative to another |
fold | the bending to rock layers due to stress in the earth's crust |
geothermal energy | the energy produced by heat within the Earth |
Hot Spots | a volcanically active area of earth's surface far from a tectonic plate |
lithosphere | the solid, outer layer of earth the consists of the mantle |
lithosphere plates | another name for tectonic plates |
magma | molten/melted rock |
mantle | the layer of rock between the Earth's crust and core |
Mid ocean ridge | a long, undersea mountain chain that forms along the floor of the major oceans |
oceanic crust | a crust that is thinner and denser than the continental crust |
Pangea | the continent we used to live on 245 million years ago |
plate boundaries | the boundary between 2 plates |
plate tectonics | the theory that explains how large pieces of the Earth's outermost layer, called tectonic plates, move and change shape |
radioactive decay | the process in which a radioactive isotope tends to break down into a stable isotope of the same element or another element |
reverse boundary | when rocks are pushed together by compression, reverse faults often form |
sea floor spreading | the process by which new oceanic lithosphere forms as magma rises toward the surface and solidifies |
subduction | the sideways and downward movement of the edge of a plate of the earth's crust into the mantle beneath another plate |
temperate | the measure of how hot or cold something is; specifically, a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in an object |
transform boundary | the boundary between tectonic plates that are sliding past each other horizontally |
volcanoes | a vent or fissure in the Earth's surface through which magma and gases are expelled |