A | B |
fossil | preserved remains or evidence of a living thing |
Pangaea | Name of the single continent, or giant landmass that existed 200 million years ago |
theory of continental drift | theory proposed by Alfred Wegener that the continents used to be one large continent and have drifted apart |
midocean ridge | undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced |
ocean-floor spreading | when the ocean floor is pushed away from a midocean ridge by the making of new ocean floor |
transform fault | fault that runs across a midocean ridge |
trench | V-shaped valley on the ocean floor where old ocean floor is subducted (pulled under and destroyed) |
subduction | process in which crust falls into the interior of the Earth |
theory of plate tectonics | theory that connects the ideas of continental dirft and ocean floor spreading |
plate | one of the moving slabs that make up the Earth's lithosphere |
tectonics | branch of geology about the movements that shape the Earth's crust |
lithosphere | top solid part of the Earth, crust and part of the mantle |
divergent boundaries | plate boundary where plates move apart |
convergent boundaries | plate boundary where plates move together |
strike-slip boundary | plate boundary where two plates move past each other horizontally |
convection current | movement of air or water when cool heavier air sinks and warm lighter air rises movement of material caused by temperature |