6Th Grade Plate Tectonics Test

Front 1

What are the three seismic waves. Describe them.

Back 1

The three types of waves are primary waves, surface waves, and secondary waves. A primary wave is the fastest type of wave, a secondary wave is another type, and the surface wave is the most destructive because it is a combination of the two waves.

Front 2

What are the three main layers of the earth?

Back 2

The crust, the core, and the mantle are.

Front 3

Describe the crust.

Back 3

The crust is the dry land and ocean floor. It is about 20,000 meters thick. It's rocks are basalt and granite. Granite is light colored and coarse, and basalt is dark and smooth.

Front 4

Describe the mantle.

Back 4

The mantle is from the crust to 40 kilometers beneath that. The upper mantle is also known as the lithosphere and is rigid hot rock. The lower mantle is also known as the asthenosphere is soft, hot rock.

Front 5

Describe the core.

Back 5

The core contains nickle and iron. The outer core is molten metal, and the inner core is solid metal.

Front 6

Describe direct and indirect evidence about the earth's interior.

Back 6

Direct evidence is rock sample from the ground which has made it's way up to the surface from the mantle, crust, or core. Indirect evidence is seismic waves, which we can measure and detect what kind of rock it went through by how fast it was at different times.

Front 7

What does heat transfer mean?

Back 7

It means energy goes from a warmer object to a colder object.

Front 8

What are the tree types of heat transfer, and give some examples of each.

Back 8

Radiation, conduction, and convection, are the three types of heat transfer. Some examples of radiation are: a fireplace, a heater, the heat off used appliances such as a dryer or an oven, the sun, and body heat. Some examples of conduction are: hands in armpits, a pot on a stove, a metals spoon in a hot liquid, holding an ice cube, and a used chair. Some examples of a convection currents are in a pot, and in the earth.

Front 9

Define each of the types of currents.

Back 9

A convection current is the transfer of heat through currents due to density and temperature. Conduction is the heat transfer over two or more touching objects. Radiation is heat transfer over open space.

Front 10

Where can convection currents in the earth form, and how are they formed?

Back 10

They form in the mantle, core, and sometimes the crust. They are formed by the heat from the mantle and the core causing convection currents in the molten rock.

Front 11

Who was Alfred Wegener, and what was his theory?

Back 11

Alfred Wegener was a German scientist. He became curious about the relationships of the continents. His theory was that the continents had moved, and they were once a single land mass called Pangaea that had drifted apart. This separation was later named the continental drift.

Front 12

What was Wegener's evidence that Pangaea had existed?

Back 12

First, there are identical mountain ranges along the coast of Africa and South America. Second, there are several coal mines along the coast of Europe and North America. Third, There are coal deposits in Spitsbergen, Iceland, and Antarctica, where they can not be formed. This is evidence of climate changes. Lastly, there are the same fossils of reptiles and plants in various continents, when they can not swim that war in salt water.

Front 13

Why did scientists reject Wegener's theory, and what did he do despite this?

Back 13

Scientists rejected hes theory, because back then (early 1900's), they didn't know the force that caused the continents to separate. He continued to research his theory and update his book,"The Origin of Continents and Oceans" , despite this rejection.

Front 14

How did the scientists map the mid-ocean ridges?

Back 14

They used Sonar in the mid-1900s to view the mid-ocean ridges.

Front 15

Who was Harry Hess?

Back 15

He was and American geologist who studied mid-ocean ridges. He made the realization, that maybe the ridges caused the continents to move!

Front 16

What is the sea floor spreading?

Back 16

The sea floor spreading is when the sea floor moves apart, away from a mid ocean ridge. This is how it happens. Where there is a mid ocean ridge, molten rock from the mantle pushes up and forms a mini mountain when the lava dries. When more lava pushes up, it breaks apart the dried lava, pushing it to the side. Then it dries and more lava pushes out, and so on.

Front 17

What are three pieces of evidence of the sea floor spreading?

Back 17

The first piece of evidence is molten material. In the 1960's, the submarine Alvin went down four kilometers in the ocean and studied an ocean ridge's valley. It saw rocks which can only be formed by lava drying. The second piece of evidence, is that there is magnetic stripes of rock around the mid ocean ridge, from when the poles flip. The third piece of evidence is from drilling samples of The Glomar Challenger, which drilled for rock samples 6 kilometers deep with tubes. They found that the further away they went from the mid ocean ridge, the older the rocks got.

Front 18

What are deep ocean trenches, and subduction.

Back 18

Deep ocean trenches are when the ocean floor sinks back into the mantle. Subduction is when crust near a mid-ocean trench starts moving towards a mid-ocean trench and that crust is destroyed.

Front 19

What are three types of plate boundaries .

Back 19

The tree types of plate boundaries are diversion, conversion, and transform.

Front 20

Describe a transform boundary.

Back 20

A transform boundary are when two plates slide past each other without destroying any crust.

Front 21

Describe a convergent boundary, and name and describe the three types.

Back 21

A convergent boundary is when two parts of the crust collide. When two pieces of continental crust collides, they press together, and push up, forming a mountain range. When two pieces of oceanic crust collides, one slips under the other, and it sinks into the lithosphere, forming a Trench. When one piece of oceanic crust collides with a piece of continental crust, the more dense oceanic crust sinks under the less dense continental crust, once more sinking into the lithosphere, and forming a trench.

Front 22

Describe a divergent boundary, and name and describe the two types.

Back 22

A divergent boundary is when the crust separates. One type of divergent boundary is the mid-ocean ridge, or the sea floor spreading. The other type, on land, is a rift valley. An example is the Great Rift Valley in East Africa.