Earth Science Vocab

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Across
  1. 3. the gradual movement of the continents across the earth's surface through geological time.
  2. 6. the action or process of changing in shape or distorting, especially through the application of pressure.
  3. 8. a mountain or hill, typically conical, having a crater or vent through which lava, rock fragments, hot vapor, and gas are being or have been erupted from the earth's crust.
  4. 9. the equilibrium that exists between parts of the earth's crust, which behaves as if it consists of blocks floating on the underlying mantle, rising if material (such as an ice cap) is removed and sinking if material is deposited.
  5. 13. a bend or curvature of strata.
  6. 14. a network of interconnected fractures representing the surficial expression of a fault.
  7. 16. This is a type of rock that is formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles to settle in place.
  8. 18. a long, seismically active submarine ridge system situated in the middle of an ocean basin and marking the site of the upwelling of magma associated with seafloor spreading.
  9. 19. This cycle is a basic concept in geology that describes transitions through geologic time among the three main rock types. Each rock type is altered when it is forced out of its equilibrium conditions.
  10. 20. In plate tectonics, this is a linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other. Divergent boundaries within continents initially produce rifts, which eventually become rift valleys.
  11. 22. the formation of new areas of oceanic crust, which occurs through the upwelling of magma at midocean ridges and its subsequent outward movement on either side.
  12. 23. These types of rock rise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock is subjected to temperatures greater than 150 to 200 °C and, often, elevated pressure of 100 megapascals or more, causing profound physical or chemical changes.
  13. 24. This rock is one of the three main rock types. These rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial melts of existing rocks in either a planet's mantle or crust.
Down
  1. 1. the upper layer of the earth's mantle, below the lithosphere, in which there is relatively low resistance to plastic flow and convection is thought to occur.
  2. 2. a theory explaining the structure of the earth's crust and many associated phenomena as resulting from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates which move slowly over the underlying mantle.
  3. 4. the branch of geophysics concerned with the magnetism in rocks that was induced by the earth's magnetic field at the time of their formation.
  4. 5. an extended break in a body of rock, marked by the relative displacement and discontinuity of strata on either side of a particular surface.
  5. 7. this is an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can be defined by a plane where many earthquakes occur, called the Wadati–Benioff zone.
  6. 9. a curved chain of volcanic islands located at a tectonic plate margin, typically with a deep ocean trench on the convex side.
  7. 10. pressure or tension exerted on a material object.
  8. 11. This is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subduction zone.
  9. 12. a solid inorganic substance of natural occurrence.
  10. 15. In physics and continuum mechanics, deformation is the change in the shape or size of an object. It has dimension of length with SI unit of metre.
  11. 17. This scale of mineral hardness is a qualitative ordinal scale, from 1 to 10, characterizing scratch resistance of minerals through the ability of harder material to scratch softer material.
  12. 21. the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.