Plate Tectonics Lecture Review

Practice flashcards covering the history of continental drift, mid-20th-century geological advances, and the mechanisms and processes of plate tectonics based on Chapter 10 notes.

Alfred Wegener coined the term __________ for the supercontinent he believed included all present-day continents.

Pangea

Fossil remains of the freshwater reptile __________, found in both South America and Africa, provided early evidence for continental drift.

Mesosaurus

Remnant magnetism is recorded by the mineral __________ ($Fe_3O_4$) as it crystallizes from magma.

magnetite

Wegener cited evidence for the Carboniferous and Permian ($~300\,Ma$) __________ Glaciation to support the idea that continents were once connected.

Karoo

The force of __________, or the effect of Earth’s rotation pushing objects toward the equator, was a mechanism Wegener invoked to explain continental movement.

poleflucht

The theory of __________ suggested that mountains formed like wrinkles on a dried-up apple because Earth was slowly cooling and shrinking.

contractionism

The view of __________ held that the continents and oceans have always been generally in the same positions they are today.

permanentism

The path defined by paleomagnetic data that represents the apparent movement of magnetic poles due to continental drift is known as an __________.

apparent polar wandering path

In $1960$, Harold Hess advanced a theory with many elements of plate tectonics, which he deflecting criticism by labeling __________.

geopoetry

The __________ hypothesis, also known as VMM, proposed that sea-floor magnetic stripes were related to reversals in Earth's magnetic field.

Vine-Matthews-Morley

J. Tuzo Wilson suggested that the source of Hawaiian volcanism is a stationary __________ of hot upwelling mantle material.

mantle plume

In $1965$, J. Tuzo Wilson introduced the term __________ and described the nature of motion along transform faults.

plate tectonics

Plates are thought to move along the boundary of the lithosphere and __________, where partial melting facilitates sliding.

asthenosphere

Spreading rates vary significantly between oceans, reaching between $12\,cm/y$ and $20\,cm/y$ in the __________.

Pacific

Magma at divergent boundaries is created from the mantle through __________ caused by decompression as hot rock moves toward the surface.

partial melting

Addition of water to the hot mantle at subduction zones lowers the rock's melting point, leading to the formation of magma via __________.

flux melting

A mature __________ arc develops into a chain of relatively large islands, such as Japan or Indonesia.

island

The collision of the India Plate with the Eurasian Plate resulted in the creation of the __________ Mountains.

Himalaya

The supercontinent __________, which preceded Pangea, existed from approximately $1,100$ to $750\,Ma$.

Rodinia

Arguments in favor of the __________ model include the fact that plates attached to subducting slabs move the fastest.

ridge-push/slab-pull