Final - Tectonic plates and geo process

Question 1

What is the Theory of Plate Tectonics?

Answer 1

Pieces of Earth’s lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle.

Plates move slowly in different directions

Cause different geologic events (like earthquake, volcano, etc.)

Question 2

What are Plates?

Answer 2

The Earth’s crust and upper mantle (Lithosphere) are broken into sections called plates

Plates move around on top of the mantle like rafts

Question 3

What are the three types of boundaries?

Answer 3

Divergent Boundaries
Convergent Boundaries
Transform Boundaries

Question 4

Divergent Boundaries

Answer 4

A plate boundary where two plates move away from each other.

RIFTING causes SEAFLOOR SPREADING

“dissecting” or “dividing”

If you pull warm bubble gum or silly putty, it will thin in the middle until it is stressed so much that it breaks.

Happens on land or in water

Mid-ocean ridges
rift valleys
fissure volcanoes

Question 5

What are the 3 types of Convergent Boundaries?

Answer 5

1. Ocean plate colliding with a less dense continental plate (ocean to continental)
   Andes Mountains, South America
2. Ocean plate colliding with another ocean plate (Ocean to Ocean)
   Aleutian Islands, Alaska
3. A continental plate colliding with another continental plate (Continent to continent)
   Mountain Ridges

Question 6

Convergent Boundaries

Answer 6

Places where plates crash (or crunch) together or subduct (one sinks under)

Compression

Question 7

How is the rock broken at Transform Boundaries?

Answer 7

Rock is pushed in two opposite directions (or sideways, but no rock is lost)

Sheering

Question 8

Transform Boundaries

Answer 8

A plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite direction. (side by side)

Question 9

What happens at Transform Boundaries?

Answer 9

Earthquakes

San Andreas Fault in California

Transform boundaries run like trains going past each other in different directions & they shake the ground!

Question 10

Subduction Zone

Answer 10

Convergent Boundary

Where oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary.

Question 11

Seafloor Spreading

Answer 11

The process where new oceanic crust is formed at mid-ocean ridges and spreads outward, pushing older crust away from the ridge

In Mindcraft, Lava + water = Obsidian

Question 12

What causes plates to move

Answer 12

Convection from the Earth’s center

Question 13

Erosion

Answer 13

Rocks break down to smaller pieces, the pieces get moved

Question 14

Theory of Continental Drift

Answer 14

Continental landmasses were “drifting” across the Earth, sometimes plowing through oceans and into each other

Earth’s continents were once part of an enormous, single landmass called Pangea.
240 million years ago