Chapter 9 Plate Tectonics

What is the lowest natural point on Earth's land surface?

________ found in Antarctica suggest that this continent once had a warm climate.

What is the largest, currently active volcano on Earth today?

What is the area of the ocean floor called where thick layers of sediment can be found?

Which of these situations does NOT occur along a convergent plate boundary?

Where & when was the world's strongest recorded earthquake?

What did Wegener's hypothesis of continental drift suggest?

_______ provides evidence that a giant landmass existed near the equator about 250 million years ago.

Many of California's earthquakes are caused by __________.

This plate motion is caused by currents in the asthenosphere that circulate & drag the lithosphere.

Scientists now understand that continents move because the ______ moves beneath the _______.

New crust forms at _____ plate boundaries.

________ in South America, Africa, & Australia suggest that these continenets were once located in a much colder place.

What mechanism to support Wegener's continental drift hypothesis was found in the 1960s?

A(n) _________ occurs when stress builds at a plate boundary & then releases rapidly.

________ is a force that drags a plate into a subduction zone.

How does seafloor spreading support continental drift?

Sediment closest to the mid-ocean ridge is ______ than sediment farther away from the ridge.

Wegener's proposal of a supercontinent was supported by _________.

A(n) ________ occurs when the magnetic field reverses direction.

Magnetic stripes in the ocean crust support seafloor spreading because the stripes _______.

What happens at a transform plate boundary?

Wegener found that mountain ranges on what 2 continents lined up to form a long, continuous mountain belt?

Crust is not created or destroyed along a(n) _____ plate boundary.

________ is a force that occurs at a convergent plate boundary.

What is the biggest body of freshwater on Earth's surface?

Tectonic plates move over the plastic-like _______.

_________ is a state in which magnetized objects would orient themselves to point south.

The Theory of Plate Tectonics states that Earth's surface is made of _____, that moves with respect to each other.

Why was Wegener's continental drift hypothesis rejected when it was proposed?

Plate tectonic activity is related to ________ in the mantle.

Mountain ranges in the middle of the oceans are called _______.

The _______ amount of thermal energy leaves the Earth far from mid-ocean ridges.

Basalt on the seafloor contains _________ which are magnetic.

A subduction zone is located at a(n) ________ plate boundary.