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Study Guide | Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics
Label the diagram below with the following terms:
convergent boundary, subduction zone and divergent boundary.
1. What is the Theory of Plate Tectonics?
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2. What do scientists think is the main cause for plate movement?
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3. When continental crust collides with ocean crust, what feature will form?
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4. Explain the process of subduction.
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5. What type of plate boundary will be present at a subduction zone? ______________________
6. What will form when continental crust meets oceanic crust? ___________________________
7. What will form when continental crust collides with continental crust? ___________________
8. What is the Ring of Fire? ____________________________________________________
9. Describe a hot spot. ________________________________________________________
10. Where in the US would you find a hot spot? _______________________________________
11. Do hot spots form at plate boundaries? Y / N
12. Label the 3 different types of boundaries and describe how the plates move.
13. What type of plate boundary will be present at a mid-ocean ridge? ______________________
14. What is formed at a mid-ocean ridge? ___________________________________________
15. The diagram below shows the sea-floor below Iceland.
a. At which location is the sea-floor the newest? ______
b. At which location is the sea-floor the oldest? ______
c. What are 3 types of evidence that support Sea-Floor
Spreading?
1. _______________________________________
2. _______________________________________
3. _______________________________________
The statements about the sea-floor in questions 16-19 contain mistakes. Cross off the incorrect word(s)
and fix the statement to be true.
16. The youngest rocks are found far from the mid-ocean ridges.
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17. As the seafloor spreads apart, hot saltwater moves upward and flows from the cracks.
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18. As the new seafloor moves away from the ridge and becomes hotter, it moves upward and forms
still higher ridges.
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19. When plates collide, the denser plate will ride over the less-dense plate.
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20. What was Wegener’s hypothesis about continental drift?
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21. List and describe the 3 types of evidence that supported Wegener’s hypothesis?
1. ______________________________________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________________________________
3. ______________________________________________________________________
22. Why was Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift not widely accepted at the time it was
proposed? What do scientists now think might be a possible cause of continental drift?
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Below is a diagram demonstrating the law of superposition.
23. What layer is the youngest? ______________ Oldest? ________________
24. What type of plate boundary is being shown? ____________________________________