Plate Tectonics

Front 1

conduction

Back 1

the process by which heat or electricity is directly transmitted through a substance when there is a difference of temperature or of electrical potential between adjoining regions, without movement of the material.

Front 2

contiental crust

Back 2

the relatively thick part of the earth's crust that forms the large landmasses. It is generally older and more complex than the oceanic crust.

Front 3

core

Back 3

the central or most important part of something.

Front 4

crust

Back 4

the tough outer part of a loaf of bread.

Front 5

lithosphere

Back 5

the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.

Front 6

mantle

Back 6

a loose sleeveless cloak or shawl, worn especially by women.

Front 7

Meteorite

Back 7

a meteor that survives its passage through the earth's atmosphere such that part of it strikes the ground. More than 90 percent of meteorites are of rock, while the remainder consist wholly or partly of iron and nickel.

Front 8

p waves

Back 8

P-waves are a type of elastic wave, and are one of the two main types of elastic bodywaves, called seismic waves in seismology, that travel through a continuum and are the first waves from an earthquake to arrive at a seismograph. ... P-waves can be produced by earthquakes and recorded by seismographs.

Front 9

s waves

Back 9

In seismology, S-waves, secondary waves, or shear waves (sometimes called an elastic S-wave) are a type of elastic wave, and are one of the two main types of elastic body waves, so named because they move through the body of an object, unlike surface waves.

Front 10

seismic waves

Back 10

an elastic wave in the earth produced by an earthquake or other means.

Front 11

trench

Back 11

a long, narrow ditch.

Front 12

echo sounder

Back 12

a device for determining the depth of the seabed or detecting objects in water by measuring the time taken for sound echoes to return to the listener.

Front 13

batholith

Back 13

a very large igneous intrusion extending deep in the earth's crust.

Front 14

epicenter

Back 14

the point on the earth's surface vertically above the focus of an earthquake.

Front 15

hotspot

Back 15

a small area or region with a relatively hot temperature in comparison to its surroundings.

Front 16

island arc

Back 16

a curved chain of volcanic islands located at a tectonic plate margin, typically with a deep ocean trench on the convex side.

Front 17

plate

Back 17

a flat dish, typically circular and made of china, from which food is eaten or served.

Front 18

plate boundary

Back 18

A tectonic boundary where two plates are moving away from each other and new crust is forming from magma that rises to the Earth's surface between the two plates.

Front 19

subduction

Back 19

the sideways and downward movement of the edge of a plate of the earth's crust into the mantle beneath another plate.

Front 20

subduction zone

Back 20

A subduction zone is the biggest crash scene on Earth. These boundaries mark the collision between two of the planet's tectonic plates.

Front 21

terrane

Back 21

a fault-bounded area or region with a distinctive stratigraphy, structure, and geological history.

Front 22

transform fault

Back 22

a strike-slip fault occurring at the boundary between two plates of the earth's crust.

Front 23

transform plate boundary

Back 23

a type of fault whose relative motion is predominantly horizontal, in either a sinistral (left lateral) or dextral (right lateral) direction.

Front 24

rifting

Back 24

form fissures, cracks, or breaks, especially through large-scale faulting; move apart.

Front 25

seafloor spreading

Back 25

Seafloor spreading is 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. Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics.