Plate Tectonics
Across
- 4. A powerful and often dramatic force of nature that changes the earth’s surface and atmosphere; includes earthquakes, volcanoes, and intense storms such as hurricanes and Volcano A landform, usually cone-shaped, produced by a collection of erupted material around a vent, or opening, on the surface of the earth and through which gas and erupted material pass.
- 7. A wave generated by earthquake vibrations.
- 9. The tendency to resist flowing; a property of liquids.
- 13. A small (less than 400 meters high), cone-shaped volcano made of broken rocks or blobs of hardened lava, called “cinders,” that accumulate around the volcanic vent.
- 18. Magma that has reached the surface of the earth.
- 19. A solid earth material that forms when magma or lava cools and crystallizes on or below the earth’s surface.
- 21. A theory that the lithosphere is broken into segments, or
- 22. The cool, solid outer shell of the earth. It consists of the crust and the rigid uppermost part of the mantle and isbroken up into segments, or plates.
- 23. A primary (compressional) earthquake wave that travels through the body of the earth; so named because it is the first wave to reach a seismograph station during an earthquake.
- 25. A series of sea waves caused by underwater earthquakes or, more rarely, by volcanoes.
- 26. The earth’s outer layer; the coolest and least dense layer of the earth.
- 31. A mountain-like landform that develops when plates separate and new ocean lithosphere forms.
- 32. The process by which earth materials transform from one rock type into another.
- 33. that “float” on the asthenosphere, and that interactions among these plates are associated with earthquakes and volcanic activity and form mid-ocean ridges, trenches, mountains, and chains of volcanic
- 34. An earthquake wave that travels on or near the surface of the earth
- 35. A wide, broadly sloping volcano that forms from runny lava. It is the largest of volcanoes.
- 36. Describes objects that bend, stretch, or flow when a force is applied to them.
- 37. A zone of intense earthquake and volcanic activity that encircles the Pacific Ocean basin; also called the Circum-PacificBelt.
- 41. A zone of intense earthquake and volcanic activity that runsdown the middle of the Atlantic Ocean floor.
- 43. A deep, narrow depression in the seafloor.
- 44. A place where pieces of the broken lithosphere meet. Boundary types include convergent, divergent, and
Down
- 1. A circulating flow of air or water resulting from temperature differences; also called a convection current.
- 2. A solid earth material that forms when any rock type is changed by the earth’s high temperature and pressure.
- 3. A scientist who studies volcanoes and volcanic phenomena.
- 5. The layer of the mantle that lies directly below the lithosphere and flows, like taffy.
- 6. An instrument that detects, records, and measures the vibrations produced by an earthquake.
- 8. The movement of a tectonic plate beneath another plate.
- 10. Igneous rock that forms from magma cooling inside the earth.
- 11. Vibrations in the earth caused by the sudden release of energy, usually as a result of the movement of rocks along a
- 12. A physical feature of the earth’s surface, such as a mid-ocean ridge, a trench, or a mountain.
- 14. An earthquake wave that travels on or near the surface of the earth.
- 15. A volcano that forms from alternating eruptions of viscous lava and broken rock. It is steep near the summit and flat toward the base.
- 16. The layer of the earth beneath the crust. It is about 2900 km thick, and it makes up about 83 percent of the earth’s
- 17. A scientist who studies earthquakes.
- 20. The time between the arrival of P-waves and S-waves at a location where an earthquake occurs.
- 24. An earthquake wave that follows the main shock of an earthquake.
- 26. The earth’s innermost layers, consisting of a liquid iron outer core and a solid iron-nickel inner core.
- 27. A large, mobile segment of the earth’s lithosphere.
- 28. The process by which heat moves efficiently through air or water.
- 29. A localized zone of melting in the mantle that is fixed under a plate.
- 30. A solid earth material composed of compacted and cemented sediments or of particles of various sizes.
- 38. A fracture in bedrock, along which blocks of rock on opposite sides of the fracture move.
- 39. A secondary earthquake wave; so named because it travels slower than a primary wave and is the second wave to reach the seismograph station after an earthquake. It travels through the body of the earth as a series of crests and troughs.
- 40. A deep gorge formed on the ocean floor when an oceanic plate moves beneath a continental plate.
- 42. Hot, molten rock inside the earth.