Plate Tectonics

6. An underwater mountain range formed by divergent tectonic plates.
9. The process by which new oceanic crust is formed at mid-ocean ridges and slowly moves away.
12. A large, rigid piece of the Earth's lithosphere that moves over the asthenosphere.
13. Earth's outermost solid layer; includes both continental and oceanic crust.
14. A region where one tectonic plate sinks beneath another into the mantle.
16. Circular currents in the mantle caused by the heating and cooling of material, driving plate movement.
17. A deep depression in the ocean floor caused by subduction.
18. A break or crack in Earth's crust where movement has occurred.

1. A plate boundary where two plates move toward each other, often resulting in mountain formation or subduction.
2. The hypothesis that continents move slowly across Earth’s surface, originally proposed by Alfred Wegener.
3. A plate boundary where two plates slide past each other horizontally, often causing earthquakes.
4. The semi-fluid layer beneath the lithosphere on which tectonic plates move.
5. A deep valley formed where two plates move apart on continental crust.
7. A plate boundary where two plates move away from each other, often creating mid-ocean ridges.
8. The rigid outer layer of Earth, composed of the crust and uppermost mantle; divided into tectonic plates.
10. A location where magma rises through the mantle in the middle of a tectonic plate, creating volcanic activity.
11. A mountain formed from the eruption of magma from the mantle to the surface, often found at convergent or divergent boundaries.
15. A supercontinent that existed about 300 million years ago and began breaking apart about 200 million years ago.