36 Questions
What is the theory that combines continental drift and seafloor spreading?
Theory of Plate Tectonics
What makes up the 'plates' in plate tectonics?
The Earth's lithosphere
What was the original purpose of setting up seismograph networks in the 1950s and early 1960s?
To monitor atomic bomb tests
What do the earthquakes and mid-ocean ridges mark on the Earth's surface?
The edges of the plates
What is the point on the Earth's surface directly above where an earthquake occurs?
Epicenter
What was the result of plotting all earthquakes from 1963 to 1998 on a map?
The earthquakes outlined the plates
What is the lithosphere divided into?
A dozen major and several minor plates
What is the rate at which plates move over the Earth's surface?
A few centimeters a year
What drives plate tectonics?
Mantle convection
What is the term for the movement of the plates over the Earth's surface?
Plate tectonics
What occurs at divergent plate boundaries?
Plates move apart
What is formed at mid-ocean ridges?
New ocean crust
What is the result of convergent plate boundaries?
Magma generation and earthquakes
What is the process of a continent breaking apart and forming an ocean?
Continental rifting
What is the type of rock formed at mid-ocean ridges?
Igneous rock
Where do most geologic activities, including volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountain building, take place?
At plate boundaries
What is the result of the Indian Plate colliding with the Eurasian Plate?
The formation of the Himalayas
What is the geologic origin of the Appalachian Mountains?
A convergent plate boundary
What is the name of the plate boundary that creates the Cascades volcanoes?
A convergent plate boundary
What is the name of the famous fault in California that is a transform plate boundary?
The San Andreas Fault
What is the geologic origin of the Sierra Nevada?
Granitic intrusions
What is the current state of the Pacific Ocean?
It is shrinking
What is the supercontinent cycle responsible for?
Many of the geologic features that we see
What is the geologic origin of the Cascades Range?
A convergent plate boundary
What is the result of the movement of the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate?
The creation of the San Andreas Fault
What is the Appalachian Mountains’ current state?
They have been weathered and eroded significantly
What phenomenon causes the formation of a line of volcanoes known as a continental arc?
Subduction of an oceanic plate beneath a continental plate
In which type of plate boundary do oceanic plates subduct into the mantle?
Ocean-Ocean plate boundary
What type of boundary leads to the creation of an island arc?
Ocean-Ocean boundary
What type of plate boundary results in some of the world's largest mountain ranges?
Continent-Continent boundary
What geological feature is formed when the denser oceanic plate plunges beneath the continental plate?
Subduction zone
What is responsible for causing melting in the mantle in the context of plate tectonics?
Subducting plate
What is the result of magma being too viscous (thick) to rise through the crust in a continental arc?
Granite or granodiorite formation
What type of rock is likely forming beneath the Andes and Cascades today?
Igneous rock
What happens to continental material when two continental plates collide?
Mountain range formation
What is the significant feature of the Himalayan mountains regarding volcanic activity?
No volcanoes due to thick crust preventing magma rise
Explore the theory of plate tectonics by learning about continental drift, seafloor spreading, and how they merge to explain the movement of Earth's tectonic plates. Understand how seafloor and continents move around on Earth's surface.
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