plate tectonice Flashcards
(20 cards)
Lithosphere
the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.
Asthenosphere
the upper layer of the earth’s mantle, below the lithosphere, in which there is relatively low resistance to plastic flow and convection is thought to occur.
Mesosphere
the region of the earth’s atmosphere above the stratosphere and below the troposphere
Inner Core
the fourth layer inside the Earth
Outer Core
Earth’s outer core is a fluid layer about 2,400 km thick and composed of mostly iron and nickel that lies above Earth’s solid inner core and below its mantle. Its outer boundary lies 2,890 km beneath Earth’s surface.
Seismic Waves
waves that travel through or over Earth
Oceanic Crust
the outermost layer of Earth’s lithosphere that is found under the oceans
Continental Crust
is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks that forms the geological continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to
Density
of a substance is its mass per unit volume.
Alfred Wegener
was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher
Continental Drift
revolutionary theory explaining that continents shift position on Earth’s surface
Convergent Boundary
When two plates come together
Divergent Boundary
when two tectonic plates move away from each other
Transform Boundary
places where plates slide sideways past each other.
Sea-floor Spreading
eologic process in which tectonic plates—large slabs of Earth’s lithosphere—split apart from each other.
Pangaea
a supercontinent that incorporated almost all the landmasses on Earth.
Laurasia
the more northern of two large landmasses that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent from around 335 to 175 million years ago
Gondwana
an ancient supercontinent that broke up about 180 million years ago.
Mesosaurus
is an extinct genus of reptile from the Early Permian of southern Africa and South America. Along with it, the genera Brazilosaurus and Stereosternum, it is a member of the family Mesosauridae and the order Mesosauria.
Glossopteris
is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct Permian order of seed ferns known as Glossopteridales. The genus Glossopteris refers only to leaves, within a framework of form genera used in paleobotany.
