Chapter 8

Question 1

It’s the name for the supercontinent proposed by Alfred Wegener

Answer 1

Pangaea

Question 2

This piece of evidence for continental drift emanates from the coastlines of continents

Answer 2

Jigsaw-puzzle fit

Question 3

This piece of evidence for continental drift involves dead things with hard parts in sedimentary rock layers

Answer 3

The correlation of similar fossils in rock layers across the continents

Question 4

The name of the organism whose fossilized remains have been found in rock layers across the Atlantic Ocean coastlines

Answer 4

The Mesosaurus

Question 5

These have been found to be similar in age and type across the “puzzle pieces”

Answer 5

rock layers

Question 6

The remnants of these led scientists to believe that the continents were once joined along the Atlantic coastlines during times of similar climates

Answer 6

glaciers

Question 7

The belief that ancient igneous rocks containing iron cooled in such a way that the iron-containing minerals lined up pointing like a compass needle toward the Earth’s magnetic poles.

Answer 7

Paleomagnetism

Question 8

Once magnetite cools below this point (about 585°C), crystals form and become magnetic again in the direction of the magnetic field lines that exist at the time of the cooling.

Answer 8

Curie point

Question 9

The alignment of the magnetite in some rock layers appears to be exactly opposite of what it is today; this change in polarity is called a __________.

Answer 9

Magnetic Reversal

Question 10

The alternative view of Plate Tectonics proposed that this caused runaway subduction

Answer 10

A crack in the ocean floor caused by a sudden trigger

Question 11

The magma that wells up into the divergent boundaries/rift zones does so for this reason

Answer 11

Hotter fluids like magma are less dense than colder, solid ocean rocks

Question 12

Once the magma reached the ocean water (in the alternative view), it’s what happened

Answer 12

The massive amount of magma vaporized water, producing supersonic jets of water

Question 13

It’s the Scripture that is consistent with #3

Answer 13

Genesis 7:11-12, because it “rained for 40 days and 40 nights”

Question 14

A map of the seafloor of the world’s oceans produced evidence of this Atlantic undersea landform, which is the longest on Earth

Answer 14

What is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?

Question 15

These landforms were discovered in the Pacific Ocean during the seafloor mapping project; areas of subduction result in the formation of these

Answer 15

What are deep-ocean trenches?

Question 16

The lithosphere is broken into seven of these

Answer 16

Plates

Question 17

The names of these seven lithospheric divisions

Answer 17

African Plate
Antarctic Plate
Australian-Indian Plate
Eurasian Plate
North American Plate
Pacific Plate
South American Plate?

Question 18

The lithosphere is thickest here and thinnest there

Answer 18

the lithosphere is thickest at the mountains (continental crust) and thinnest in the oceans (oceanic crust)?

Question 19

The area just below the lithosphere that exhibits “plastic” behavior, allowing the plates to move above it

Answer 19

the asthenosphere

Question 20

The concept that the processes that have shaped Earth in the geologic past are essentially the same as those operating today

Answer 20

Uniformitarianism

Question 21

The concept that Earth was shaped by catastrophic events of a short-term nature

Answer 21

Catastrophism

Question 22

List the major factors given as evidence for paleomagnetism

Answer 22

Polar wandering
Alignment of magnetic minerals in igneous rock layers
Magnetic reversals

Question 23

________ occurs at convergent plate boundaries;

________ occurs at divergent plate boundaries

Answer 23

subduction and seafloor spreading, respectively

Question 24

According to the theory of plate tectonics, these two factors must have been present for the Hawaiian-Island Chain to form

Answer 24

continental drift and a stationary hot spot within the mantle

Question 25

The driving forces of plate motion

Answer 25

Convection within the mantle
Subduction of crust material and upwelling at oceanic ridges
Unequal heat distribution within the mantle

Question 26

This type of plate boundary involves plates moving away from each other; this is where they are generally found

Answer 26

divergent boundaries; the Atlantic Ocean

Question 27

This type of plate boundary involves plates moving toward each other; this is where they are generally found

Answer 27

convergent boundaries; the Pacific and Indian Oceans

Question 28

Plate boundaries where two plates grind past each other without the production or destruction of lithospheric material; these boundaries are sometimes called conservative margins

Answer 28

transform fault boundaries

Question 29

It was the goal of the Deep Sea Drilling project in the Atlantic Ocean

Answer 29

To show that the youngest part of the seafloor is along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (the age of the rocks increased with increasing distance from the ridge, supporting the seafloor spreading hypothesis)

Question 30

The diverging of plate boundaries results in the upward movement of mantle material, forming __________.

Answer 30

New crust (lithospheric material)

Question 31

Along divergent plate boundaries, the sea floor is elevated, forming an oceanic ridge. The oceanic ridge system is the longest _____________.

Answer 31

longest topographic feature on Earth, at 43,000 miles (70,000 km) in length

Question 32

The process of crust divergence within a continent

Answer 32

Continental rifting

Question 33

The process of crust divergence on the ocean floor

Answer 33

Seafloor spreading

Question 34

The reason new crust material is created along divergent boundaries

Answer 34

The main reason for the upwelling found along the ridges is the relatively warm temperature of the new crust material. Hotter materials occupy more volume and are less dense than cooler materials, so they rise to the top. As they cool, they sink and are eventually displaced with more crust material

Question 35

Areas of convergence where oceans meet continents and produce mountain ranges through volcanic activity; Mountains formed in this way are called _______________.

Answer 35

Oceanic-Continental convergence; continental volcanic arcs

Question 36

Areas of convergence within oceans that also produces volcanic activity leading to the formation of mountains that eventually emerge above the surface of the oceans. Mountains formed in this way are called ________________.

Answer 36

Oceanic-Oceanic convergence; volcanic island arcs

Question 37

Areas of convergence between two continental plates that produces uplift of one plate and subduction of the other.

Answer 37

Continental-Continental convergence?

Question 38

The process that occurs at convergent boundaries that makes them prone to earthquake and tsunami production

Answer 38

subduction

Question 39

It’s how each of the following mountain structures were formed:
Himalayas
Andes
Aleutian, Mariana, Tonga Islands

Answer 39

The structures were formed by:
continental-continental convergence
oceanic-continental convergence
oceanic-oceanic convergence?

Question 40

The Answers in Genesis article put forward two pieces of evidence that dispute the evidence put forward in the textbook’s perspective of plate tectonics (listed below). It’s the differences in the perspectives:
magnetometer readings that were used to support the ages of the rocks in the seafloor

Answer 40

The values of magnetism in the actual rocks are very erratic and not like the smooth zebra-like pattern (in the textbook’s version) moving evenly away from the mid-ocean ridges that was obtained from averaged magnetometer readings above the rocks

Question 41

The Answers in Genesis article put forward two pieces of evidence that dispute the evidence put forward in the textbook’s perspective of plate tectonics (listed below). It’s the differences in the perspectives: sediments in deep-ocean trenches

Answer 41

Slow-and-gradual subduction would produce sediments that are compressed and deformed, but soft, flat-lying sediments devoid of compressional structures are what is actually found in the Peru-Chile and East Aleutian Trenches?

Question 42

The catastrophic plate tectonics model requires a trigger to cause a crack in the ocean floor around the supercontinent. Once the crack is formed, it’s what happens next

Answer 42

The floor adjacent to the cracks starts penetrating vertically into the upper mantle, followed by a series of increasing deformations in the mantle that eventually led to the catastrophic runaway of the oceanic slabs

Question 43

It’s where the energy for the answer to #1 comes from

Answer 43

The gravitational potential energy of the cold, dense rock

Question 44

what causes the large-scale convection within the mantle that follows #1 and #2

Answer 44

Once the crust is subducted rapidly, the hot mantle rock upwells to complete the flow cycle, causing large-scale convection

Question 45

’s whether the laws of physics support these assertions

Answer 45

Yes; mantle rocks weaken under stress by factors of a billion or more, providing the necessary energy

Question 46

It’s what happens once the runaway subduction of oceanic crust begins

Answer 46

The hot mantle rock wells up to the seafloor rift zones across the globe. The cooling process vaporizes huge volumes of ocean water

Question 47

It’s what happens to the ocean water when the hot mantle rock reaches it

Answer 47

It produces a linear curtain of supersonic steam jets along the 43,500 mile seafloor rift zones stretching around the globe

Question 48

It’s what happens to all this water after

Answer 48

This water is catapulted high above the earth and then falls back to the surface as intense global rain

Question 49

It’s what could have caused this higher sea level

Answer 49

A newly-formed lower-density (hot) ocean floor

Question 50

It’s the result of such a rise in sea level

Answer 50

The ocean waters would thus have swept up onto and over the continental land surfaces, carrying vast quantities of sediments and marine organisms with them to form the thick, fossiliferous sedimentary rock layers we now find blanketing large portions of today’s continents. This laterally extensive layer-cake sequence of sedimentary rocks is magnificently exposed, for example, in the Grand Canyon region of the southwestern U.S.?

Question 51

The runaway subduction proposed in the catastrophic model of plate tectonics would have cooled the mantle temperature (due to cooler materials being forced into the mantle), resulting in convection and heat loss from the outer core. It’s what could have resulted from this process

Answer 51

rapid reversals in the Earth’s magnetic field