Mod 2 Glossary

Question 1

The earth is composed of three major layers, what are those layers?

Answer 1

Crust, Mantle and Core

Question 2

Is the outermost and thinnest layer of the Earth?

Answer 2

Crust

Question 3

What makes most of the Earth’s volume and mass and is the middle layer of the crust?

Answer 3

Mantle

Question 4

The upper lithosphere is made up of what? (two)

Answer 4

Crust and upper Mantle

Question 5

The lithosphere is subdivided into portions called what?

Answer 5

Lithospheric plates

Question 6

The soft weak layer of the upper mantle on which the lithospheric plate floats.

Answer 6

Asthenosphere

Question 7

Is made up of molten material that accounts for the Earth’s magnetic field?

Answer 7

Outer Core

Question 8

The deepest layer of the Earth?

Answer 8

Inner core

Question 9

The temperature of the inner core reach as high as?

Answer 9

5,000°C

Question 10

What states that the continents were once part of a large landmass called Pangaea which drifted away from each other?

Answer 10

Continental Drift Theory

Question 11

Who made the Continental Drift Theory?

Answer 11

Alfred Wagner

Question 12

Where did Alfred Wagener base his theory on?

Answer 12

Fossils

Question 13

Is believed to occur as hot magma rises at the rift in the mid-ocean ridge?

Answer 13

Seafloor Spreading

Question 14

The old seafloor is destroyed at the? and it melt inside what?

Answer 14

Subduction zone, mantle

Question 15

What supports the Seafloor Spreading Theory?

Answer 15

The age of rocks and magnetic stripes in the ocean

Question 15

What helps explain the formation and destruction of the Earth’s crust and its movement over time?

Answer 15

Plate Tectonic Theory

Question 16

What comes from the heat in the inner layers of the earth and causes movement in the mantle?

Answer 16

Convection currents

Question 17

What is the topmost, solid part of the Earth that is composed of several plates called?

Answer 17

Lithosphere

Question 18

What are he moving, irregularly-shaped slabs that fit together to form the surface of the Earth?

Answer 18

Lithospheric plates

Question 19

What is the area in the middle of the ocean where a new ocean floor is formed when lava erupts through the cracks in the Earth’s crust?

Answer 19

Mid-ocean ridge

Question 20

What is the boundary that separates the crust and the mantle?

Answer 20

Moho

Question 21

What is the ability of solid to flow?

Answer 21

Plasticity

Question 22

What is the process by which new ocean floor is formed, near the mid ocean ridge and moves outward?

Answer 22

Seafloor spreading

Question 23

What is the process in which the crust plunges back into the Earth?

Answer 23

Subduction

Question 24

What is the Branch of geology that deals with the movements that shape the Earth's crust?

Answer 24

Tectonics