Plate Tectonics Study Guide – Flashcards
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What is a fault?
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The surface along which rocks break and slide past each other.
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What is a subduction zone?
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The region where oceanic plates sink down into the asthenosphere.
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What is the Theory of Plate Tectonics?
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The Earth's lithosphere is divided into tectonics plates that move around on top of the mantle.
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Since new ocean floor is constantly being made at a Divergent Plate Boundary, what happens to the old ocean floor so that the Earth doesn't grow in size?
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It gets subducted and recycled
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List 3 pieces of evidence that support the Theory of Continental Drift
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1. Similarity of fossils found on continental coasts. 2. The close fit of the continental coastlines. 3. The matching of glacial grooves on different continents.
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What forms when an oceanic plate is subducted under a continental plate as in a Convergent Plate Boundary?
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An ocean trench and volcanic mountains.
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What causes the movents of tectonic plates?
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Convection currents
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What happens to the tectonic plates at a divergent plate boundary?
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It's when 2 tectonic plates move away from one another
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What part of the Earth is a liquid?
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The outer core
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What layers of the earth is the lithosphere made of?
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The crust and rigid upper part of the mantle.
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What happens to tectonic plates at a lateral slipping plate boundary?
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Two tectonic plates slide past each other
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What is the name that Wedener gave the acident continent that contained all the landmasses?
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Pangaea
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What is the one item that the core is mostly made of?
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Iron
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What happens to tectonic plates at a convergent boundary?
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There is a collision between 2 plates
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Earth's lightest materials make up what layers of the Earth?
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The crust
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What layer of the Earth makes up most of its mass?
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The mantle
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Scientists have found Glossopteris fossils in Antarctica, India, South America and Africa. What explains this strange distribution of fossils?
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Those areas were once connected to each other
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Which layer of the Earth is made up of tectonic plates?
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The Lithosphere
