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25 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Continental drift
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1912-- Alfred Wegener-- hypothesis that stated that the continents had moved.
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Pangaea
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single landmass thought to have been the origin of all continents.
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Panthalassa
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giant ocean surrounding Pangaea.
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Mesosaurus
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a small extinct land reptile that lived 270 million years ago.
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Mid-Atlantic Ridge
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undersea mountain range with a steep, narrow valley along its center.
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mid-ocean ridges
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system of undersea mountain ranges that wind around the earth.
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seafloor spreading
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movement of the ocean floor away from either side of a mid-ocean ridge.
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plate tectonics
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theory that the lithosphere is made up of plates that float on the asthenosphere and that the plates possibly are moved by convection currents.
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tectonics
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comes from the Greek word tektonikos , meaning "construction". Tectonics is the study of the formation of features in the earth's crust.
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oceanic crust
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material that makes up the ocean floor.
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continental crust
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material that makes up landmasses
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lithosphere
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thin outer shell of the earth consisting of the crust and the rigid upper mantle.
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asthenosphere
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zone of mantle beneath the lithosphere that consists of slowly flowing solid rock.
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divergent boundary
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boundary formed by two lithospheric plates that are moving apart.
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rift valley
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steep, narrow valley formed as lithospheric plates separate.
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convergent boundary
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border formed by the direct collision of two lithospheric plates.
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subducted
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forced.
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subduction zone
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region where one lithospheric plate moves under another.
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ocean trench
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deep valley in the ocean floor that forms along a subduction zone.
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island arc
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chain of volcanic islands formed along an ocean trench.
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transform fault boundary
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boundary formed where two lithospheric plates slide past each other.
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convection
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transfer of heat through the movement of a fluid material.
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convection current
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movement in a fluid caused by uneven heating.
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theory of suspect terranes
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theory that continents are a patchwork of pieces of land that have individual geologic histories.
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terranes
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piece of land with a geologic history distinct from that of the surrounding land.
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