| A | B |
|---|
| The Earth is broken into large pieces of earth | plates |
| The size and position of these plates change over time | Pangaea |
| A super continent | Pangaea again |
| Sites of intense geologic activity | edge of the plates |
| Plate tectonics are a combination of two earlier ideas | continental drift and sea-floor spreading |
| The movement of continents over the Earth's surface and their change in position relative to each other | Continental drift |
| The creation of new oceanic crust at mid-ocean ridges and movement of the crust away from the mid-ocean ridges | Sea-floor spreading |
| Where changes and movements in the earth’s crust originate | Lithospheric plate boundaries |
| Two plates moving apart from each other. Also known as spreading boundary | Divergent boundaries |
| process by which the plates move apart | sea floor spreading |
| New oceanic crust is formed in the gap between two diverging plates | sea floor spreading again |
| Increased as the plates move apart | Plate area |
| Takes place laterally away from the plate boundary, which is normally marked by a rise or a ridge | Plate movement |
| May be offset by a transform fault | The ridge or rise |
| Most divergent margins occur along the central zone of the world’s major ocean basins | The Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise |
| The direct collision of one plate with another | Convergent boundaries |
| The direct collision of one plate with another type of plate | Convergent boundary |
| Occurs when a plate with oceanic crust at its leading edge collides with a plate with continental crust at its edge | Oceanic-continental convergence |
| Scientist refer to the region along a plate boundary where one plate moves under another plate | Zubduction zone |
| Generally forms along a subduction zone | A deep oceanic trench |
