| Term | Definition |
|---|
| strike slip | a plate boundary at which two plates slip past one another horizontally |
| divergent | a plate boundary at which plates move apart |
| convergent | a plate boundary at which plates come together |
| continental drift | Wegner's theory that the continents where once a single landmass and broke into large pieces, which drifted apart |
| rift valley | a valley formed when a block of land between two normal faults slides downward |
| mid-cean ridge | an undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced, a constructive (divergent) plate boundary |
| trenches | a V-shaped valley on the ocean floor where old ocean floor is subducted; a destructive (convergent) plate boundary |
| convection currents | a movement of material caused by differences in temperatures |
| Pangea | the single giant landmass that existed more than 200 million years ago that gave rise to the present-day continents |
| lithosphere | the topmost solid part of the earth, which is composed of the crust and some of the mantle |
| subduction | the process in which the lithosphere plunges back into the interior of the Earth |
| fossil | the preserved remains or traces of an ancient organism |
| Theory of continental drift | proposed by Alfred Wegner, that the continents were once joined together and have since drifted apart |
| ocean floor spreading | the process in which old ocean floor is pushed away from a mid-ocean ridge by the formation of new ocean floor |
| transform fault | runs across a mid-ocean ridge |
| theory of plate tectonics | theory that links togther the ideas of continental drift anfd ocean floor spreading and explains how the Earth has changed over time |
| plate | one of the moving, irregularly shaped slabs that make up the Earth's lithosphere |
| tectonics | branch of science that deals with the movements that shape the Earth's crust |
| Glossopteris | organism whose fossil provided evidence for continental drift, fossilized leaves of an extinct plant found in South Africa, Australia, India and Antarctica |
| dome | a raised area shaped roughly like the top half of a sphere, often formed by magam pushing upward on the rock layers above it |
| mantle | the layer of the Earth that extends from the bottom of the crust to the core |
| isostasy | the balancing of the downward force of the crust and the upward force of the mantle |
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