Chap 10 earth science

Tethys Sea

A body of water called the ______________ _____________ cut into the eastern edge of Pangaea.

mantle, overlying

As the __________________ material moves, the ________________ tectonic plates move along with it.

evidence, opposed

Despite the __________________ that supported his hypothesis, Wegener's ideas were strongly ______________________.

away

Divergent boundary the boundary between tectonic plates that are moving ... from each other

Plants, animals, connected

Fossils of the same ______________ and _________________ could be found in areas of continents that had once been __________________.

rejected, moved

Other scientists of the time _____________ the mechanism proposed by Wegener to explain how continents _______________.

size, shape, millions

Slow movements of tectonic plates change the ______________ and __________ of the continents over _______________ of years.

core

The central part of the earth below the mantle

Crust

The thin and solid outermost layer of the Earth above the mantle

crumple, thicken, mountain

When two plates that are made of continental lithosphere collide, the colliding edges ____________ and _______________, which cause uplift that forms large ________________ ranges.

Ages, types

____________ and ______________ of rocks in the coastal regions of widely separated areas matched closely.

short, fracture zones

_______________ segments of a mid-ocean ridge are connected by transform boundaries called _________________ ______________.

heated, density

*Convection* is the movement of ______________ material due to differences in ______________ that are caused by differences in temperatures.

plastic, slowly, move

*asthenosphere* - the solid, _________________ layer of the mantle beneath the lithosphere; made of mantle rock that flows very _______________, which allows tectonic plates to _______________ on top of it.

colliding

*convergent boundary* - the boundary between tectonic plates that are _____________________.

Solid, crust

*lithosphere* - the _____________, outer layer of Earth that consists of the ______________ and the rigid upper part of the mantle.

Mountain, valley, apart

*mid-ocean ridge* - a long, undersea ________________ chain that has a steep, narrow _____________ at its center, that forms as magma rises from the asthenosphere, and that creates new oceanic lithosphere (sea floor) as tectonic plates move ______________

Lithosphere, plates

*plate tectonics* - the theory that explains how large pieces of the ____________________, called ____________________, move and change shape.

Form, break

*supercontinent cycle* - the process by which supercontinents ______________ and _____________ apart over millions of years.

sliding, horizontally

*transform boundary* - the boundary between tectonic plates that are __________ past each other ___________________.

Terrance, geologic, continent

... a piece of lithosphere that has a unique .... history and that may be part of a larger piece of lithosphere, such as a continent

Pangea, 300, 200

... the supercontinent that formed .... million years ago and that began to break up ... million years ago.

Mesozoic, Laurasia, Gondwanaland

About 200 million years ago (during the ______________ Era), the Pangaea began to break into two continents - ___________________ and __________________.

coastlines, fit, jigsaw

As people studied continental _________________ on maps, they noticed that the continents looked as though they would ___________ together like parts of a giant ________________ puzzle.

geography, dramatically

As tectonic plates continue to move, Earth's _______________ will change __________________.

terranes, rocky, Andes, alps

As the continents drifted, they collided with _______________ and other continents. Mountain ranges, such as the _____________ Mountains, the _____________, and the ___________, formed.

rises, away, sinks

As the hot material _______________, the cooler, denser material flows ______________ from the hot material and ___________________ into the mantle to replace the rising material.

Molten, magma

As the ocean floor moves away from the ridge, _____________ rock, or ___________, rises to fill the crack.

liquid outer

Below the mesosphere is the ______________ ______________ core.

Climactic, not

Changes in .... patterns suggested the continents had ... always been located where they are now.

Africa, Australia, Antarctica

Gondwanaland also broke into two continents. One broke apart to become _______________ and South America. The other separated to form India, ___________________, and _________________________.

Mid-Atlantic

In 1947, a group of scientists set out to map the ... ridge.

Mantle

In earth science, the layer of rock between earths crust and core

Crack,rift

In the late 1950s, geologist Harry Hess proposed that the valley at the center of a mid-ocean ridge was a ________________, or ______________, in Earth's crust.

North America, Eurasia

Laurasia drifted northward, rotated, and broke up to form ____________________ and ___________________.

Mesosphere

Literally, the "middle sphere"; the strong lower part of the mantle between the asthenosphere and the outer core

surface, less

Magma rises to the ______________ and cools to form the warm, light rock that sits higher than the surrounding sea floor because it is ___________ dense.

scrape, earthquakes

Plate edges at a transform boundary ________________ against each other in a series of sudden spurts of motions that are felt as ____________________________.

Mountain, trenches

Plates are often bordered by major surface features, such as ______________ ranges or deep ________________ in the oceans.

250, new supercontinent

Scientists predict that in _______ million years, the continents will come together again to form a _____________________

Supercontinents

Scientists think that, at several times in the past, the continents were arranged into large landmasses called ______________________.

present

Slowly, the continents moved to their ... positions.

middle, edges, within

Tectonic plate boundaries may be in the _______________ of the ocean floor, around the ______________ of continents, or even ________________ continents.

Oceans

Tectonic plate motion also caused new ... to open up and caused others to close

Nickel, iron

The center of Earth is a sphere composed mainly of ________________ and _____________________.

Death

The evidence that Wegener needed to support his hypothesis was discovered nearly two decades after his ...

continental, 1912

The hypothesis of ____________________ drift was first proposed by German scientist *Alfred Wegener* in ______________.

continental drift

The hypothesis that states that the continents once formed a single landmass, broke up, and drifted to their present locations

Blocks

The lithosphere forms the thin outer shell of Earth and is broken into several ________________, or tectonic plates.

Volcanoes

The locations of ... can also help identify the locations of plate boundaries.

Convection

The movement of tectonic plates is part of the mantle .... system

rift valey

The narrow valley that forms where the plates separate is a .. ...

young, 4 billion, 200

The ocean floor is very ________________. While rocks on land are as much as _______________ years old, none of the oceanic rocks are more than ________ million years old.

Solid inner

The outer core surrounds the _____________ ______________ core.

subduction zone

The region along a convergent plate boundary is called a .... ....

thinner, farther

The sediment that covers the sea floor is ___________ closer to a ridge than it is _________________ from the ridge

Asthenosphere

The solid, plastic layer of the mantle beneath the lithosphere; made of mantle rock that flows very slowly, which allows tectonic plates to move on top of it

Water

The tectonic plates ride on the asthenosphere in much the same way that blocks of wood float in ...

divergent, convergent, transform

The three types of plate boundaries are ______________ boundaries, ___________________ boundaries, and _____________________ boundaries.

subducts, scraped, accretion

When a tectonic plate carrying a terrane __________ under a place made of continental crust, the terrane is ___________________ off of the subducting plate and becomes part of the continent. The process in which a terrane becomes part of a continent is called _________________.

Collides, subducts, less

When oceanic lithosphere ________________ with continental lithosphere, the denser oceanic lithosphere _________________, or sinks under the ________________ dense continental lithosphere.

Rifting, Continental, oceanic

____________________ - the process by which Earth's crust breaks apart; can occur within _________________ crust or ______________ crust.

sea-floor spreading

the process by which new oceanic lithosphere (sea floor) forms when magma rises to Earth's surface at mid-ocean ridges and solidifies, as older, existing sea floor moves away from the ridge

Panthalassa

the single, large ocean that covered Earth's surface during the time the supercontinent Pangaea existed

Lithosphere

the solid, outer layer of the earth that consists of the crust and the rigid upper part of the mantle