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tectonic
plates
Pieces of outermost, rigid layer of
the Earth (lithosphere) that move
around on the softer layer of the
mantle below (asthenosphere)
continental
drift
The theory that continents can
drift apart from one another
and have done so in the past
sea-floor
spreading
Magma pushes through the midocean ridge, causing the tectonic
plates to move farther away from
each other; this forms new
ocean floor
plate tectonics
Theory that the lithosphere is
divided into tectonic plates
That move around on top
of the asthenosphere
convergent
boundary
Two tectonic plates
pushing into one another
divergent
boundary
Pacific plate,
North American plate
Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Theory that supports the
existence of Pangaea
Two tectonic plates moving
away from each other
Transform
boundary
Two tectonic plates slide
past each other
fault
Breaking and sliding
of rock layers past
each other
normal,
reverse,
strike-slip
compression
Type of stress that occurs
when two tectonic
plates collide
Rocky Mountains,
Cascade Mountains,
Himalayas
subduction
zone
Where oceanic plates
sink down into
the asthenosphere
Middle American trench,
Tonga trench,
Aleutian trench
when two tectonic plates with continental
mountain ranges
continental/
continental collisions
crust collide, buckle, pushing crust upward
lithosphere
The outermost rigid
layer of the earth
asthenosphere
A soft layer of the mantle
on which pieces of the
lithosphere move
continental/
oceanic collisions
When a tectonic plate with
continental crust crashes into a
tectonic plate with oceanic crust
oceanic/
oceanic collisions
When two oceanic plates collide
and one oceanic plate
slides under the other
mesosphere
This layer of the earth extends
from the bottom of the
asthenospere down to
the Earth’s core
the tectonic plates
the weak sphere
Oceanic Crust dives under
Continental crust to form a
trench