20 terms

Terms	Definitions
Geologist	A scientist who studies the Earth.
Crust	Earth's outermost layer.
Continent	Large land masses.
Mantle	Earth's thickest layer, between the crust and the core.
Core	Earth's center, made mostly of metals, iron, and nickel.
Outer Core	A layer of liquid, molten iron and nickel that surrounds the inner core of Earth. It flows slowly.
Inner Core	A dense sphere of solid iron and nickel at the center of Earth.
Conduction	The transfer of heat energy through solid matter as one particle strikes another.
Convection	The transfer of heat energy by flowing material such as liquid or gas.
Subduction	One plate sliding under another plate.
Continental Drift	Idea that continents move apart from one part of the Earth to another.
Plate Tectonics	The theory of how and why the Earth's plates move.
Pangaea	One large super continent named by Alfred Wegener.
Divergent Boundary	A place where two Lithospheric Plates are moving apart. (Oceans form this way).
Convergent Boundary	A place where two Lithospheric Plates collide or come together. (Mountains form this way).
Transform Boundary	Lithospheric Plates slide past each other. When this happens, plates are not created or destroyed.
Sea Floor Spreading	Oceanic crust being created at the Mid Ocean Ridge. States that youngest rocks of ocean floor are at diverging boundaries, moving outward.
Lithosphere	The outer shell of the Earth, made of the crust and the very top of the mantle, which extends to a depth of 100 kilometers.
Asthenosphere	The partially melted layer of the mantle which feels like putty, and underlies the lithosphere.
Lithospheric Plates	A number of rigid, but moving pieces of the Earth's surface.

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