Plate Tectonics : The theory that explains how large pieces of the lithosphere called plates move and change shape.
Continental Drift : The hypothesis that states that the conents once formed a single landmass broke up and rifted to their present locations.
Pangaea : The super continent that formed 300 million years ago and that began to break up 250 million years ago.
Asthenosphere : Te solid plastic layer of the mantle beneath then lithosphere made of mantle rock that flows very slowly which allows tectonic plates to move on top of it.
Lithosphere : The solid outer layer of earth that consists of the crust and the rigid upper part of the mantle.
Mid-Oceanic ridge : A long undersea mountain chain that has a steep narrow valley at its center that forms as magma risea from the asthenosphere and that creates new oceanic lithosphere (sea floor) as tectonic plates move apart.
Rift valleys : The process by which earth's crust breaks apart can occur within continental crust or oceanic crust.
Subduction : The process in which a solid changes directly into a gas ( the term is sometimes also used for the reverse process.
Continental Drift : The hypothesis that states that the conents once formed a single landmass broke up and rifted to their present locations.
Pangaea : The super continent that formed 300 million years ago and that began to break up 250 million years ago.
Asthenosphere : Te solid plastic layer of the mantle beneath then lithosphere made of mantle rock that flows very slowly which allows tectonic plates to move on top of it.
Lithosphere : The solid outer layer of earth that consists of the crust and the rigid upper part of the mantle.
Mid-Oceanic ridge : A long undersea mountain chain that has a steep narrow valley at its center that forms as magma risea from the asthenosphere and that creates new oceanic lithosphere (sea floor) as tectonic plates move apart.
Rift valleys : The process by which earth's crust breaks apart can occur within continental crust or oceanic crust.
Subduction : The process in which a solid changes directly into a gas ( the term is sometimes also used for the reverse process.
Continental Drift : The hypothesis that states that the conents once formed a single landmass broke up and rifted to their present locations.
Pangaea : The super continent that formed 300 million years ago and that began to break up 250 million years ago.
Asthenosphere : Te solid plastic layer of the mantle beneath then lithosphere made of mantle rock that flows very slowly which allows tectonic plates to move on top of it.
Lithosphere : The solid outer layer of earth that consists of the crust and the rigid upper part of the mantle.
Mid-Oceanic ridge : A long undersea mountain chain that has a steep narrow valley at its center that forms as magma risea from the asthenosphere and that creates new oceanic lithosphere (sea floor) as tectonic plates move apart.
Rift valleys : The process by which earth's crust breaks apart can occur within continental crust or oceanic crust.
Subduction : The process in which a solid changes directly into a gas ( the term is sometimes also used for the reverse process.