| A | B |
|---|
| Plate Tectonics | The theory that the lithosphere is made of plates that move and interact with each other at their boundaries |
| Continental Drift | A hypothesis that Earth's continents move on Earth's surface |
| Mid-Ocean Range | A long chain of mountains with a central rift valley that is located along a divergent boundary on the ocean floor |
| Divergent Boundary | A boundary between two lithospheric plates that are moving apart |
| Rift Valley | A deep valley at a point where lithospheric plates are moving apart, such as at a mid-ocean ridge |
| Rift | A crack or opening in Earth's crust |
| Convergent Boundary | A boundary between to plates that are moving toward each other, or converging |
| Subduction Boundary | A convergent boundary where an oceanic plate is plunging beneath another, overriding plate |
| Deep-ocean-trench | A long, narrow, steep sided trough that runs parallel to continental margins or to volcanic island chains |
| Collision Boundary | A convergent boundary where two continents have come together and are welded together into a one bigger continent |
| Transform Boundary | A boundary between two plates that are sliding past each other |
| Mantle Convection | A process by which heat form the Earth's inner and outer cores is transferred through the mantle |
| Ridge Push | A force that is exerted by cooling, subsiding rock on the spreading litohospheric plates at a mid-ocean ridge |
| Slab Pull | A force at a subduction boundary that the sinking edge of the subducting plate exerts on the rest of the plate |
| Pangaea | The name of a hypothetical landmass consisting of all the continents welded together |
| Craton | The ancient core of a continent, which is tectonically stable |
| Terrane | A large block of lithospeheric plate that has been moved, often over a distance of thousands of kilometers, and attached to the edge of a continent. |
