| Term | Definition |
|---|
| glossopteris | one organism whose fossils provide evidence for continental drift |
| continental drift | single landmass that broke up into large peices, which have drifted apart |
| transform faults | a fault that runs across a mid-ocean ridge |
| plate tectonics | theory that links together the ideas of continental drift and ocaean-floor spreading |
| strike-slip boundaries | a plate boundary at which two plates slip past one another horizontally |
| subduction | the process which crust plunges back into the earth |
| rift valley | a valley formed when the block of land between two normal faults slides downward |
| pangaea | the single giant landmass that existed more than 200 years ago and that gave rise to the present-day continents |
| ocean-floor spreading | the process in which the old ocean floor is pushed away from the midocean ridge by the formation of new ocean floor |
| magnetic stips | in molten rock hardens, a permanent record of the earths magnetism is recorded in magnetic stripes in the rocks |
| divergent boundaries | a plate boundary at which plates move apart |
| plate motion | the motion of the magnetic plates |
| oceanic plates | when two oceanic plates collide the older one is subducted under the younger |
| mid-ocean ridge | an undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced |
| alfred wegner | the scientist who thought of the theory of continental drift |
| convergent boundaries | a plate boundary at which plates come together |
| convection currents | a movement of matieral cause by differences in temperature |
| trenches | a v-shaped valley on the ocean floor where old ocean floor is subducted |
| glossopteris | an extinct or no longer living plant |
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