Chapter 6 Science Vocab

Question 1

Part of the upper mantle below the lithosphere that can flow and bend.

Answer 1

Asthenosphere

Question 2

Circular current of warm material rising an cooling materials sinking that transfers heat.

Answer 2

Convection cell

Question 3

Thicker, denser part of earths crust that makes up the continents.

Answer 3

Continental crust

Question 4

Dense, metallic center of earth, consisting of the inner and outer core.

Answer 4

Core

Question 5

Think, brittle part of earth that consists of continental and oceanic crust.

Answer 5

Crust

Question 6

Rigid part of earth that consists of the crust and upper mantle, lying above the asthenosphere.

Answer 6

Lithosphere

Question 7

Middle layer of earth, consisting of hot, solid rock.

Answer 7

Mantle

Question 8

Metallic object from the early solar system that strikes earths surface from space.

Answer 8

Meteorite

Question 9

Thinner, less dense part of earths crust that makes up the ocean basins.

Answer 9

Oceanic crust

Question 10

Theory that earths lithosphere is divided into plates that move over the asthenosphere.

Answer 10

Plate tectonics

Question 11

Earthquake wave that transports energy from an earthquake through the ground in all directions.

Answer 11

Seismic wave

Question 12

Early 20th century hypothesis that the continents move over earths surface.

Answer 12

Continental drift

Question 13

Area surrounding a magnet over which it exerts magnetic force.

Answer 13

Magnetic field

Question 14

Device that uses sound waves to calculate distances to underwater objects and the sea floor.

Answer 14

Echo sounder

Question 15

Hypothesis explaining how the ocean floor forms and how continents can drift.

Answer 15

Sea floor spreading

Question 16

Deep crack in the ocean floor.

Answer 16

Trench

Question 17

Splitting of a continent at a divergent plate boundary.

Answer 17

Continental rifting

Question 18

Splitting of a continent at a divergent plate boundary.

Answer 18

Continental rifting

Question 19

Location where two lithospheric plates come together.

Answer 19

Convergent plate boundary

Question 20

Location where two lithospheric plates move apart.

Answer 20

Divergent plate boundary

Question 21

Geologic activity that takes plates within a plate away from plate boundaries.

Answer 21

Intraplate activity

Question 22

Line of island volcanoes resulting from of one oceanic plate beneath another oceanic plate.

Answer 22

Island arc

Question 23

Slab of lithosphere that can move over earths surface.

Answer 23

Plate

Question 24

Location where two lithospheric plates meet.

Answer 24

Plate boundary

Question 25

Theory that earths surface is divided into lithospheric plates that move over the planets surface.

Answer 25

Plate tectonics

Question 26

Sinking of one lithospheric plate beneath another.

Answer 26

Subduction

Question 27

Area where two lithospheric plates come together and one sinks beneath the other.

Answer 27

Subduction zone

Question 28

Fracture in rock where one plate slides last another.

Answer 28

Transform fault

Question 29

Location where two lithospheric plates slide past one another in opposite directions.

Answer 29

Transform plate boundary