Plate Tectonics Overview

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to Plate Tectonics, detailing theories, processes, and terminology crucial for understanding Earth's lithospheric dynamics.

Plate Tectonics

The theory that explains the structure and movement of the Earth's lithosphere, which is divided into tectonic plates.

Alfred Wegener

A scientist known for proposing the theory of continental drift in the early 1900s.

Continental Drift

The hypothesis that continents are not fixed but move over geological time, originally proposed by Alfred Wegener.

Pangaea

A supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, formed by the joining of all Earth's continents.

SONAR

A technology used for mapping the ocean floor, which showed that continents fit together like puzzle pieces.

Lithosphere

The rigid outer layer of the Earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle; broken into tectonic plates.

Asthenosphere

A ductile layer of the upper mantle beneath the lithosphere, allowing for the movement of tectonic plates.

Divergent Boundary

A type of plate boundary where two plates move away from each other, leading to the formation of new crust.

Convergent Boundary

A plate boundary where two plates move toward one another, often resulting in subduction and mountain building.

Transform Boundary

A plate boundary where two plates slide past one another, commonly associated with earthquakes.

Subduction Zone

An area where one tectonic plate moves under another, often leading to the formation of deep ocean trenches.

Hot Spot

An area in the mantle from which heat rises as a thermal plume, creating volcanic activity, such as the Hawaiian Islands.

Ridge

An underwater mountain range formed by tectonic plates moving apart, typically at divergent boundaries.

Trench

A deep, narrow depression in the ocean floor formed at convergent boundaries, often associated with subduction.

Seafloor Spreading

The process by which new oceanic crust is created at mid-ocean ridges as tectonic plates pull apart.

Earthquake

A sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves, often occurring at plate boundaries.