Plate Tectonics - Introductory

If you're confused about plate tectonics, don't stress — just review this core vocabulary. Learn about continental drift, the geological structure of the Earth, faults, earthquakes, and more.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. compression
    an increase in the density of something
  2. continent
    one of the large landmasses of the earth
  3. continental drift
    the gradual movement of very large land masses
  4. continental shelf
    the relatively shallow seabed surrounding a continent
  5. core
    the central part of the Earth
  6. crust
    the outer layer of the Earth
  7. earthquake
    vibration from underground movement along a fault plane
  8. fault
    a crack in the earth's crust resulting from displacement
  9. fracture
    a crack in the earth's crust
  10. magma
    molten rock in the earth's crust
  11. mantle
    the layer of the earth between the crust and the core
  12. mountain
    a land mass that projects well above its surroundings
  13. mountain range
    a series of hills or mountains
  14. ocean floor
    the bottom of a sea or ocean
  15. Pangaea
    (plate tectonics) a hypothetical continent including all the landmass of the earth prior to the Triassic period when it split into Laurasia and Gondwanaland
  16. plate
    a rigid layer of the Earth's crust
  17. plate tectonics
    the movement or study of the movement of Earth's crust
  18. pressure
    the act of putting pressure on something
  19. Richter scale
    a system once used to measure the strength of an earthquake
  20. rift valley
    a valley with steep sides
  21. sedimentation
    the accumulation of matter deposited by some natural process
  22. seismograph
    an instrument for measuring movements of the ground
  23. stress
    (physics) force that produces strain on a physical body
  24. subduction
    movement of the edge of one tectonic plate under another
  25. tension
    a stress that produces an elongation of a physical body
  26. thermal
    relating to or associated with heat
  27. trench
    a long steep-sided depression in the ocean floor
Created on Fri Feb 17 15:42:34 EST 2017 (updated Mon Apr 03 16:30:43 EDT 2017)

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