Theory Of Plate Tectonics

Science

Continental Drift

The hypothesis that today’s continents were once part of a single landmass

Plate Tectonics

States that earth’s surface is made up of giant, moving slabs called tectonic plates

Theory

A system of ideas that explain many related observations about the natural world

Sea-Floor spreading 

The process by which new sea floor forms

Subduction

Edges are pushed into deep ocean trenches of the process by one tectonic plate is pulled beneath another plate

Convection Currents

any movement of matter that results from differences in density

Magnetic Reversal 

the change of the magnetic poles

Ridge Push

When new seafloor rocks from and pushes the older, existing rock in opposite directions away from the ridge

Slab Pull

After the slab subducts, the cooler, denser, oceanic lithosphere sinks into the hotter less-dense mantle and pulls the rest of the slabs downward