Plate Tectonics Vocabulary

Flashcards reviewing the vocabulary and concepts from the 4.1 plate tectonics lecture

Lithosphere

The thin rock layer that we live on, broken up into chunks called tectonic plates.

Convergent Plate Boundaries

Plate boundaries that are converging or colliding/moving towards one another, causing subduction.

Earthquake

Occurs when the stress overcomes a locked, stuck fault, releasing tons of energy.

Core

Dense mass of solid nickel and iron at the very center of Earth that releases massive amounts of heat because it has radioactive elements.

Mantle Layer of Earth

Sea of magma surrounding the core; its super hot magma drives the movement of the lithosphere plates above it.

Lithosphere

The very thin, brittle rock layer that's Earth's outermost layer. This layer is broken into the tectonic plates.

Crust

Top of the lithosphere; this is where soil, plants, organisms live. This is where all of life on earth exists.

Divergent Plate Boundary

Plate boundaries where plates are moving away from each other due to heated magma from the mantle rising.

Mid oceanic ridges

Underground mountain ranges formed at divergent plate boundaries.

Transform Fault Boundary

Plate boundaries where two plates are moving alongside each other in opposite directions.

Convection Cycles

Cycles of heating and cooling magma that rises up to the surface of the lithosphere, cools and expands, spreads out along the surface of the lithosphere, and then sinks back down in the mantle to repeat the process again.

Oceanic Plate Collision

When two oceanic plates collide, one will subduct beneath the other, which forces magma up to the lithosphere to form volcanoes.

Ring of Fire

Pattern of volcanoes around the Pacific plate due to convergent zones.