Science plate tectonics flashcard.

Question 1

Lithosphere

Answer 1

The solid outer section of Earth.

Question 2

Asthenosphere

Answer 2

lies beneath the lithosphere

Question 3

Mesosphere

Answer 3

part of the earth’s atmosphere between the stratosphere and the thermosphere in which temperature decreases with altitude to the atmosphere’s absolute minimum.

Question 4

Inner Core

Answer 4

a solid sphere in the middle of the earth

Question 5

Outer Core

Answer 5

liquid layer about 1,400 miles thick .

Question 6

Seismic Waves

Answer 6

The earth vibration generated by an earthquake or explosion.

Question 7

Oceanic Crust

Answer 7

The oceanic rocks which form 65% of the Earth’s surface, and are the upper part of the oceanic lithosphere

Question 8

Continental Crust

Answer 8

the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks that forms the continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores

Question 9

Density

Answer 9

A measure of the quantity of some physical property per unit length, area, or volume.

Question 10

Wegener

Answer 10

1880–1930, German meteorologist and geophysicist

Question 11

Continental Drift

Answer 11

the lateral movement of continents resulting from the motion of crustal plates.

Question 12

Convergent Boundary

Answer 12

is an actively deforming region where two (or more) tectonic plates or fragments of the lithosphere move toward one another and collide.

Question 13

Divergent Boundary

Answer 13

a linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other.

Question 14

Transform Boundary

Answer 14

a type of fault whose relative motion is predominantly horizontal in either sinistral or dextral direction.

Question 15

Sea-floor Spreading

Answer 15

the divergence at mid-ocean ridges of the tectonic plates underlying the oceans that is due to upwelling from the earth’s interior of magma which solidifies and adds to the spreading plates.

Question 16

Pangaea

Answer 16

: A vast continental area or supercontinent comprising all the continental crust of the earth

Question 17

Laurasia

Answer 17

The supercontinent of the Northern Hemisphere that, according to the theory of plate tectonics, broke up into North America, Greenland, Europe, and Asia except for the Indian subcontinent.

Question 18

Gondwana

Answer 18

A vast continental area believed to have existed in the southern hemisphere and to have resulted from the break-up of Pangaea in Mesozoic times

Question 19

Mesosaurus

Answer 19

is an extinct genus of reptile from the Early Permian of southern Africa and South America.

Question 20

Glossopteris

Answer 20

a genus of chiefly Permian and Triassic fossil ferns or fernlike plants characterized by thick entire fronds with anastomosing veins