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Plate Tectonics
Unit Vocabulary
23
Science
11th Grade
10/20/2008

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Term
core
Definition
Innermost part of the Earth.
Term
Subduction Zone
Definition
Occurs at a convergent boundary. One plate moves below or descend the other. A continental plate and an oceanic plate coming together.
Term
Pangaea
Definition
Name Wegener gave the single land mass that existed millions of years ago.
The supercontinent which contained all the continents in onelandmass
Term
Transform Boundary
Definition
Boundary where two plates move past each other (slide past horrizontally, earthquakes occur here. San Andreas Fault in California is a great example of this type of boundary
Term
Theory of Plate Tectonics
Definition
Theory that states that Earth's lithosphere(crust and upper mantle) move on top of the asthenosphere.
Term
Divergent Boundary
Definition
Boundary where two plates move away from each other, sea-floor spreading occurs and new ocean crust is formed.
Term
Anticline
Definition
Deformation of rocks caused by compression, upward arching fold in the rock
Term
Mantle
Definition
Layer of the Earth that contains most of Earth's mass.
Term
Theory of Continental Drift
Definition
Alfred Wegener's theory that states that all of the continents were one large land mass and over millions of years, moved to their present locaation. Also explains why fossils of the same plants and animals are found on different continents
Term
Convergent Boundary
Definition
Boundary where two tectonic plates move toward each other, mountain building and volcanoes occur here.
Term
Sea-floor Spreading
Definition
Hess’s theory that new ocean crust is formed at mid-oceanridges and destroyed at deep-sea trenches or
Two plates move away from each other, magma rises in between, hardens and new ocean floor is created
Term
Syncline
Definition
Folds in rock caused by compression, downward, troughlike folds. Looks like a sink
Term
Lithosphere
Definition
Made of crust and upper mantle, makes up tectonic plates.
Term
Asthenosphere
Definition
Made of upper mantle, tectonic plates move on top of this.
Term
magnetometer
Definition
device, used to map the ocean floor, that detects small changes in magnetic fields
Term
basalt
Definition
a dark-gray to black fine-grained igneous rock
Term
magnetic reversal
Definition
changes in Earth’s magnetic field over geologic time, recorded in ocean-floor rocks and continental basalt flows
Term
paleomagnetism
Definition
study of Earth’s magnetic record using data gathered from iron-bearing minerals in rocks
Term
isochron
Definition
line on a map that connects points of the same age
Term
hypothesis
Definition
testable explanation of a situation
Term
tectonic plate
Definition
huge slab of continental or oceanic crust and rigid upper mantle
Term
rift valley
Definition
long, narrow depression caused by divergent boundary
Term
parallel
Definition
extending in the same direction, everywhere equidistant, and
not meeting
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