Earth Science: Plate Tectonics, Pangea, and Mountain Building

Vocabulary flashcards covering plate tectonics, internal Earth structure, the breakup of Pangea, and the formation of fold mountains such as the Alps.

Pangea

The single massive supercontinent formed by all landmasses $270\text{ million years ago}$, which began swelling, cracking, and breaking apart over $200\text{ million years ago}$ due to rising hot rock beneath it.

Aardkorst (Earth's Crust)

The outermost layer of the Earth, measuring $7\text{ to }40\,\text{km}$ thick, composed of pieces of ocean floor and continental landmasses resting directly on the mantle.

Aardmantel (Earth's Mantle)

The layer of the Earth situated directly under the crust where extreme heat from the core melts rock, causing part of it to exist as viscous, very slowly flowing material.

Aardkern (Earth's Core)

The extremely hot center of the Earth that acts like a heater, warming adjacent mantle material and causing it to become lighter and ascend.

Convectiestromen (Convection Currents)

Slow circulations of viscous liquid rock within the mantle caused by temperature differences, in which hot rock rises near the core and cooler, thickened material sinks near the crust.

Platen (Tectonic Plates)

Rigid segments of the Earth's crust made of oceanic and continental crust that float like ice floes atop mantle convection currents and move roughly at the growth rate of a big toenail.

Platentektoniek (Plate Tectonics)

The movement and interactions of Earth's crustal plates as they pull apart, collide into each other, or slide past one another.

Kreukelzone (Crumple Zone)

A zone of structural deformation that occurs where tectonic plates collide into each other, pinching trapped rock layers into folds.

Plooiingsgebergten (Fold Mountains)

Mountain ranges that develop along collision zones when converging plates compress, buckle, and push rock layers kilometers above sea level.

De Alpen (The Alps)

A fold mountain range formed after Italy—attached to Africa $50\text{ million years ago}$—drifted northward toward Europe, compressing and uplifting marine sand and clay layers from the sea trapped between them.

Middellandse Zee (Mediterranean Sea)

The sea currently closing as the African crust pushes northward into Europe, which over time will be pushed together to form a mountain system similar to a new Himalaya.