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56 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Basalt
Heavy, dark minerals composed of oxygen, silicon, magnesium, and iron. Make up the oceanic crust
Granite
Continental Crust. oxygen, silicon, and
aluminum.
Lithosphere
Cool, rigid outer layer
Asthenosphere
Hot, partially melted. Upper mantle below the lithosphere
Lower Mantle
Extends to the core.
Radioactive Decay
Process which generates heat when unstable forms of elements are transformed into new elements
Conduction
Migration of heat
Convection
Fluid is heated, expends and becomes less dense
Buoyancy
Ability of an object to float in a fluid by displacing a volume of that fluid equal in weight to the floating object’s own weight
Isostatic Equilibrium
Balance between the Earth's crust and the mantle
Fault
Plane of Weakness
Pacific Ring of Fire
Circle of violent geological activity surrounding much of the Pacific Ocean
Radiometric Dating
Unstable, naturally radioactive elements lose particle from their nuclei and ultimately change into new stable elements
Echo Sounders
Devices that measure depth by bouncing high-frequency sound waves off the bottom
Convection Currents
Slow-flowing circuits of material within the mantle
Seafloor Spreading
A process that occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge
Subduction
The crust plunges down into the mantle along the periphery of the Pacific
Divergent Plate Boundary
A line along which two plates are moving apart and at which oceanic crust forms
Convergent Plate Boundaries
Regions of violent geological activity where plates of pushing together
Transform Faults
Relative plate motion is changed, or transformed, along them
Paleomagnetism
Fossil, or remnant, magnetic field of a rock
Magnetometer
Measures the amount of direction of residual magnetism in a rock sample
Mantle Plums
Continent-sized columns of superheated mantle originating at the core-mantle boundary
Superplume
Lifting Africa
Hot Spots
One of the surface expressions of plumes of magma rising from relatively stationary sources of heat in the mantle
Terranes
Plateaus, isolated segments of seafloor, ocean ridges, ancient island arcs, and parts of continental crust that are squeezed and sheared on its surface
Bathymetry
Discovery and study of ocean floor contours
Continental Margin
Submerged outer edge of the continent
Passive Margins
Continental margins facing the edges of divergin plates. Little activity
Active Margins
Continental margins near the edges of converging plates
Continental Shelf
Shallow submerged extension of a continent
Continental Slope
Transition between the gently descending continental shelf and the deep-ocean floor
Shelf Break
Marks the abrupt transition from continental shelf to slope
Submarine Canyons
Cut into the continental shelf and slope, often terminating on the deep sea floor in a fan shaped wedge of sediment
Turbidity Currents
Local landslide or sediment liquefaction triggered by earthquakes sometimes causes an abrasive underwater avalanche
Oceanic Ridge
Mountainous chain of young basaltic rock at the active spreading center of an ocean
Transform Faults
Fractures along which lithosphereic plates slide horizontally. Active
Hydrothermal Vents
Hot springs in oceanic ridges
Abyssal Hills
Small, sediment covered, extinct volanoes or intrusions of once- molten rock
Seamounts
Volcanic projections that do not rise above the surface of the sea
Guyots
Flat-topped seamounts that once were tall enough to approach or penetrate the sea surface
Trench
Arc-shaped depression in the deep ocean floor
Island arcs
Curving chains of volcanic islands and seamounts, almost always found parallel the concave edges of trenches
Sediment
Particles of organic or inorganic matter that accumulate in a loose, unconsolidated form
Terrigenous Sediments
Originate on the continents or islands from erosion, volcanic eruptions, and blown dust
Biogenous Sediments
Siliceous (Si containing) and calcareous (CaCO3) compounds that make up these sediments of biological origin were originally brought to the ocean in solution by rivers or dissolved in the ocean at oceanic ridges
Hydrogenous Sediments
Mineral that have precipitated directly from seawater
Microtektites
Translucent oblong of glass
Cosmogenous Sediments
FROM SPACE!!
Neritic Sediments
"Of the coast" terrigenous material
Pelagic Sediments
Sediments of slope rise and deep ocean floor that originate in the ocean
Lithification
Conversion into sedimentary rock by pressure induced compaction of by cementation
Clamshell Sampler
Takes shallow samples
Piston Corer
Deep Samples
Paleoceanography
Study of the ocean's past
Stratigraphy
Analysis of layered sedimentary deposit