Download Study questions for Quiz 8 Plate Tectonics – more questions on

Study questions for Quiz 8
Plate Tectonics – more questions on Monday
What were the major breakthroughs I the 1960s that helped to support the theory of Plate Tectonics?
Where does most tectonic activity occur?
What features on the Earth’s surface indicate the direction of relative motion of the crustal plates?
What is the probable cause of the Earth’s internal convection?
What is the source of the Earth’s internal heat generation?
What name did Wegner give to the ‘original’ large land mass?
What was the paleontological evidence for continental drift?
What is the evidence from structure and rock type for continental drift?
What is the evidence from glaciation for continental drift?
What is paleomagnetism?
What two lines of paleomagnetic data support the idea of seafloor spreading?
What does it mean that there have been magnetic reversals in the Earth’s past?
What pattern do we see in the age of rocks and sediments moving away from the central rift valleys of
the ocean ridges?
Approximately how old is the oldest sediment found on the ocean floor?
What are the three types of plate boundaries?
What occurs at a divergent plate boundary?
What occurs at a convergent plate boundary?
What is a subduction zone?
What is a transform fault boundary?
What is the name of the transform fault at the western edge of the North American plate?
Of what are the fold belts of the Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America a surface expression?
What is the range of velocities measured for crustal plates?
What is the difference between the relative and absolute velocities of crustal plates?
Bonus question: On what major island does the Mid-Atlantic Ridge appear above the surface of the
ocean? Hint: It can be seen in the picture at the bottom of p. 504 and the map on p. 539.
Divergent Plate Boundaries
What is happening to lithospheric plates at Divergent plate boundaries?
What determines the characteristics of a spreading ridge?
What are the four major layers at a Divergent plate boundary?
What happens to seawater at a Divergent plate boundary and what does it produce?
Most Divergent plate boundaries are in the ocean. What is an example of a Divergent plate boundary
on the continent?
Where do we find the ‘rift valley’?
What are transform faults and fracture zones?
What causes subsidence of oceanic crust?
What is a ‘black smoker’?
What type of earthquakes do we find along the crest of a oceanic ridge?
What do we call the pattern of magnet stripes on either side of an oceanic ridge?
What are the four major layers seen in oceanic lithosphere?
What are ophiolites?
How do ophiolites end up on a continent?
What is the island of Iceland ‘the best example of’?
What is meant by ‘hydrothermal alteration’?
What has happened to the crust in the Basin and Range province?