| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Continental Drift | Hypothesis proposed by Alfred Wegener that states that continents have moved slowly to their current locations on Earth. |
| Pangaea | Single large landmass made up of all the continents connected together that broke apart about 200 million years ago. |
| Seafloor Spreading | Theory that magma from below Earth's crust is forced upward toward the surface at the mid-ocean ridge, flows from the cracks as the seafloor spreads apart & becomes solid as it cools, forming new seafloor. |
| Plate Tectonics | Theory that Earth's crust & upper mantle are broken into sections that move around on a plastic-like layer of the |
| Plate | Section of Earth's lithosphere that are composed of oceanic crust, continental crust, and rigid upper mantle that move around on the plasticlike layer of the mantle. |
| Lithosphere | rigid, outer-most layer of Earth that is about 100 km thick, and is composed of the crust and part of the upper mantle. |
| Asthenosphere | Plastic-like layer below the lithosphere. |
| Convection Current | Cycle of heating, rising, cooling & sinking that is thought to be the force behind plate tectonics. |
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