Plate Tectonics Flashcards

Flashcards reviewing key vocabulary and concepts from the Plate Tectonics lecture.

Plate Tectonics

The theory explaining the structure of the Earth's crust and its movement.

Core

Dense mass of solid nickel, iron, and radioactive elements that release massive amount of heat.

Mantle

Soft solid of magma surrounding core, kept liquified by intense heat from core.

Asthenosphere

Solid, flexible outer layer of mantle, beneath the lithosphere.

Lithosphere

Thin, brittle layer of rock floating on top of mantle, broken up into tectonic plates.

Crust

Very outer layer of the lithosphere, Earth’s surface.

Divergent Plate Boundary

Plates move away from each other, forming mid-oceanic ridges, volcanoes, seafloor spreading, and rift valleys.

Convergent Plate Boundary

Plates move towards each other, leading to subduction and forming mountains, island arcs, earthquakes, and volcanoes.

Transform Fault Plate Boundary

Plates slide past each other in opposite directions, forming earthquakes.

Subduction

One plate being forced beneath another at a convergent plate boundary.

Continental Crust

Mostly Granite rock.

Oceanic Crust

Mostly Basalt.

Convection Cycles

Magma heated by Earth's core rises towards lithosphere, cools & expands, forcing oceanic plates apart creating mid ocean ridges, volcanoes, spreading zones or seafloor spreading.

Transform Fault

Fracture in rock surface created by plates sliding past each other.

Ring of Fire

Pattern of volcanoes all around the pacific plate.

Hotspots

Areas of especially hot magma rising up to the lithosphere.