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Vocabulary Chapter 3
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1. seismic waves- Vibrations that travel through Earth carrying the energy released during an earthquake.
2. basalt- a dark, dense, igneous rock with a fine texture, found in oceanic crust.
3. granite- a usually light colored igneous rock, found in continental crust that has a coarse texture.
4. lithosphere- a rigid layer, made up of the uppermost part of the mantle and the continental crust
5. asthenosphere- the soft layer of the mantle on which the lithosphere rests.
6. mantle- a layer of very hot, but solid rock.
7. outer core- a layer of molten(liquid) iron and nickel that surrounds the inner core of Earth.
8. inner core- a dense ball of solid metal, at the innermost part of Earth.
9. crust-layer of rock that forms earth’s outer surface.
10. convergent boundary- the place where two plates come together.
11. transform boundary- a place where two plates slip past each other, moving in opposite directions.
12. divergent boundary- the place where two plates move apart
13. rift valley- a deep valley that forms along the divergent boundary.
14. density- is a measure of how much mass there is in a volume of a substance.
15. continental drift- Wegener’s idea that the continents slowly moved over Earth’s surface
16. Pangaea- the name of the single landmass that broke apart 200 million years ago and gave rise to today’s
continents.
17. fossil- any trace of an ancient organism that has been preserved in rock.
18. mid-ocean ridge- an undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced.
19. sea-floor spreading- the sea floor spreads apart along both sides of a mid-ocean ridge, which forms along
a crack in the oceanic crust.
20. deep-ocean trenches- A deep valley along the ocean floor beneath which oceanic crust slowly sinks
toward the mantle.
21. subduction- the process by which ocean floor sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the
mantle.
22. plates- sections of the lithosphere that slowly move over the asthenosphere
23. scientific theory- a well-tested concept that explains a wide range of observations.
24. plate tectonics- states that pieces of Earth’s lithosphere are in slow, constant motion, driven by
convention currents in the mantle.
25. faults- breaks in Earth’s crust where rocks have slipped past each other.