Continental Drift, SFS, Plate Tectonics and Hot Spots

What role does convection play in the theory of plate tectonics

Convection makes the plates move

Who developed the continental drift hypothesis?

Alfred Wegener

Name the 3 lines of evidence for the continental drift hypothesis.

1. Fossils of the same organisms on different continents.

2. Rocks are made of the same material found on different continents.

3. All of the continents fit together like a jigsaw.

What type of fossil was Glossopteris?

Fern

Name the 2 lines of evidence for sea-floor spreading.

1. Magnetic reversals

2. Ocean rocks are youngest at the spreading ridge and oldest near the continents.

Who developed sea-floor spreading?

Harry Hess

Which layer of the Earth makes up the tectonic plates?

Lithosphere

Which layer of the Earth do the tectonic plates "float" upon?

asthenosphere

What type of plate boundary is found on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?

Divergent

What is subduction?

When one plate goes underneath another plate.

What forms most volcanoes on Earth?

Subduction

What type of plate boundary is the San Andreas Fault?

Transform

How are mountains created?

two continental plates collide

What two factors determine how explosive a volcano will be?

gas content and silica content

The big island of Hawaii is currently at an active hot spot. As you move away away from that hot spot, what will happen to the age of the islands?

They will get older

What is Pangaea?

The last supercontinent

What type of organism was Mesosaurus?

A freshwater reptile