Download Name: Date: Period: ______ Plate Tectonics Unit Review Test

Name: __________________________________________________________ Date: __________________________ Period: _________
Plate Tectonics Unit Review
Test Details
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50 multiple choice questions (2 pts each)
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37 point group test (lots of critical thinking questions)
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Test worth 137 points
10.1 Continental Drift
1. What 4 pieces of evidence did Wegener use to support his hypothesis?
2. Why was his hypothesis rejected?
3. You find the same type of fossil on two landmasses that are separated by water. What explanation
can you give for the presence of the fossil in both locations?
4. What is paleomagnetism?
5. Why was the discovery of sea-floor spreading important?
6. What was Alfred Wegener’s hypothesis called?
7. Paleomagnetism provided evidence for ________-________________ _____________________________.
8. What is the geomagnetic reversal time scale?
9. What is at the center of a mid-ocean ridge?
10. What is a mid-ocean ridge?
10.2 The Theory of Plate Tectonics
11. Draw an oceanic-continental convergent boundary. Write a description about what happens and
provide several examples.
12. True or False: Plate boundaries are almost always clearly identifiable. Explain.
13. True or False: North America has a location that makes it free for the most part free from
earthquakes and volcanoes.
14. What is a subduction zone?
15. What is a convection cell?
16. Tectonic plates ride on the layer of Earth’s mantle called the ________________________________.
17. What often forms when large terranes and continents collide?
18. What is the theory of plate tectonics?
19. What are the three causes of constant plate motion?
20. Tectonic plates are blocks of (lithosphere or asthenosphere).
21. Where do deep-ocean trenches form?
22. Earth’s surface consists of a number of rigid, but moving pieces called _____________________.
10.3 The Changing Continents
23. What is Pangaea? When did it form?
24. Define terrane.
25. How do smaller continents form from larger ones?
26. What was Panthalassa?
27. What causes a supercontinent to break apart?
28. What is a super continent?
29. When Pangaea broke apart 250 million years ago, what 2 continents were formed?
30. Modern climates are the result of past movements of ___________________ _________________.
11.1 How Rocks Deform
31. Where are the oldest and youngest rocks found in a syncline fold?
32. True or False: Stress and strain are essentially the same in rock deformation. Explain.
33. True or False: Once a state of isostasy is reached between the asthenosphere and the lithosphere,
the equilibrium is permanent.
34. Define fault.
35. Define fold.
36. What is deformation?
37. What is strain?
38. Define stress.
39. What force acts on the lithosphere in an isostatic adjustment?
40. What force acts on the asthenosphere in an isostatic adjustment?
41. What is isostasy?
42. What is a fracture?
43. What is a fault?
44. What are the two types of permanent strain? Which one causes materials to break?
45. Define compression.
46. Define tension.
47. Define shear stress.
11.2 How Mountains Form
48. True or False: Most mountains form as a result of collision between tectonic plates.
49. Define folded mountain.
50. Define fault-block mountain.
51. Define dome mountain.
52. What are the 4 types of mountains?
53. What happens when two oceanic plates collide?
54. What happens when two continents collide?
55. Where do volcanic mountains commonly form?
56. What is subduction?
57. How do scientists classify mountains?