| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Continental Drift | hypothesis that the continents are slowly drifting parallel to the Earth's surface |
| Convection Current | The circular motion in a fluid that results when the fluid is heated from below |
| Lithospheric Plate | large, brittle pieces of Earth's outer shell composed of crust and uppermost mantle. |
| Mid-ocean Ridge | an underwater mountain chain in the middle of the seafloor where new oceanic crust is formed |
| Pangea | ancient supercontinent where all the continents were once joined, it began breaking up about 200 million years ago |
| Plate Tectonics | The theory that explains how large pieces of the lithosphere, called plates, move and change shape. |
| Seafloor Spreading | The process that creates new sea floor as plates move away from each other at the mid-ocean ridges |
| Ocean Trenches | long, narrow, deep parts of the seafloor formed where a subducting slab bend down into Earth |
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