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15 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Pangea |
The single, giant landmass that existed more than 200 million years ago |
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Continental Drift |
The theory that all continents are fragments of Pangea, that have been and continue to be drifting apart |
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Fossil |
The preserved remains or traces of an ancient organism |
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Alfred Wegener |
A German scientist who theorized that Earth's continents had once fit together like pieces of a puzzle and then drifted apart |
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Mid-Ocean Ridge |
An undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced |
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Sea-Floor Spreading |
The formation of new ocean floor rock as lava erupts from the rift valley created as two plates diverge or spread apart |
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Lithospheric Plates |
A number of rigid, but moving, pieces of the Earth's surface |
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Rift Valley |
An opening that is formed when two plates diverge (spread apart) |
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Trench |
A V–shaped valley on the ocean floor where old ocean floor is subducted |
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Subduction |
The process in which crust plunges back into the interior of the earth and is melted back into magma |
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Plate Tectonics |
Theory of the formation and movement of the plates that cover Earth's surface (it links continental drift and sea-floor spreading) |
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Transform Boundary |
A plate boundary at which two lithospheric plates slide past each other |
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Divergent Boundary |
A plate boundary at which two lithospheric plates move apart |
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Convergent Boundary |
A plate boundary at which two lithospheric plates come together |
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Fault |
A break or crack in Earth's surface, along which rocks move. |
