Plate Tectonics

Question 1

What are plate tectonics?

Answer 1

Plates are pieces of the lithosphere that move around

Question 2

What are Hot spots?

Answer 2

A hot spot is an intensely hot area in the mantle below Earth’s crust; a volcanically active area of Earth’s surface far from tectonic plate boundaries

Question 3

What is a earthquake?

Answer 3

movements or trembling of the ground that is caused by a sudden release of energy when rocks along a fault move

Question 4

What is a fault?

Answer 4

a break in a body of rock along which one block slides relative to another

Question 5

What is a fault zone?

Answer 5

a region of numerous, closely spaced faults

Question 6

What is seismology?

Answer 6

the study of earthquakes and seismic waves

Question 7

What is a seismograph?

Answer 7

an instrument that records vibrations in the ground

Question 8

What is a seismogram?

Answer 8

a tracing of earthquake motion that is recorded by a seismograph

Question 9

What are seismic waves?

Answer 9

vibrations caused by the release of energy along a fault

Question 10

What are P waves?

Answer 10

primary waves/compression waves; Fastest, first to be detected; Can move through solids, liquids, and gases; Causes particles of rock to move in a back-and-forth in direction that is parallel; Travel in the direction that the waves are traveling; The more rigid the material, the faster the waves move

Question 11

What are S waves?

Answer 11

secondary waves/shear waves; move up and down; can only move through liquids; slower then primary waves

Question 12

What is deformation?

Answer 12

the bending, tilting, and breaking of Earth’s crust in response to stress

Question 13

What is a fold?

Answer 13

A bend in rock layers from stress

Question 14

What is an epicenter?

Answer 14

the point on the Earth’s surface directly above an earthquake’s starting point (focus)

Question 15

What is intensity?

Answer 15

The amount of damage caused by an earthquake

Question 16

What is the continental crust?

Answer 16

Located beneath land masses and under shallow seas close to continents; very thick and lighter rock

Question 17

What is the oceanic crust?

Answer 17

Located beneath deep ocean; very thin; dense heavy rock

Question 18

What are divergent plate boundaries?

Answer 18

When two plates move away from each other

Question 19

What are convergent plate boundaries?

Answer 19

When two plates collide

Question 20

What are transform plate boundaries?

Answer 20

When two plates move past each other horizontally

Question 21

What kind of crust does a divergent plate boundary occur in?

Answer 21

They can occur in continental or oceanic crust

Question 22

What are the different types of convergent plate boundaries?

Answer 22

Continental-Continental; OCEANIC-OCEANIC; Continental-Oceanic

Question 23

What is intensity?

Answer 23

The amount of damage an earthquake causes

Question 24

What is pyrolastic material?

Answer 24

Fragments of rock that form during a volcanic eruption

Question 25

What gases are released in a volcano?

Answer 25

Sulfur dioxide, Carbon dioxide, and water vapor.

Question 26

What is a crater?

Answer 26

A funnel shaped pit at the top of a volcano

Question 27

What plate boundary causes volcanoes?

Answer 27

Convergent plate boundaries

Question 28

What plate boundary causes earthquakes?

Answer 28

Convergent plate boundaries

Question 29

What are oceanic to continental plates?

Answer 29

The denser plate moves beneath the less dense plate. Oceanic plates are denser than continental plates.

Question 30

What are oceanic to oceanic plates?

Answer 30

The densest plate will subduct and a deep ocean trench forms.

Question 31

What are continental to continental plates?

Answer 31

when two continental plates collide, they just smash together; rift valley forms

Question 32

Are hot spots on plate boundaries?

Answer 32

No

Question 33

What are mantle plumes?

Answer 33

A stationary area of high heat flow in the mantle

Question 34

What is a thrust fault?

Answer 34

the upper block, above the fault plane, moves up and over the lower block

Question 35

What is a reverse fault?

Answer 35

the block above the fault moves up relative to the block below the fault.

Question 36

What is a strike slip fault?

Answer 36

occur along the boundaries of plates that are sliding past each other; rock slides horizontally in response to shear stress

Question 37

What kind of plate boundaries are normal and strike slip faults?

Answer 37

Divergent boundaries

Question 38

What kind of plate boundaries are reverse and thrust faults?

Answer 38

Convergent boundaries

Question 39

What is a normal fault?

Answer 39

the hanging wall moves downward relative to footwall