Science Vocab #2

2. plate boundary, A boundary between two or more plates.
5. The place inside Earth's crust where an earthquake originates.
8. drift, The movement of continents resulting from the motion of tectonic plates. Plate Tectonics, A scientific theory that explains how major landforms are created.
9. boundary, Where the new crust is generated as the plates pull away from each other. Convergent boundary, This occurs when plates move towards each other and collide.
11. boundary, Causes a fault between two plates of the lithosphere, which will slide past one another. Tectonic plate is, Massive slab of solid rock made up of Earth's lithosphere (crust and upper mantle)
12. is the layer of the earth that lies below the lithosphere. Mesosphere, The highest layer of the atmosphere.
13. A fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks of rock. Elastic rebound, What happens to the crustal material on either side of a fault during an earthquake.

1. A carefully thought out explanation for observations using the scientific method. Sea-floor spreading, A geologic process in which tectonic plates—large slabs of Earth's lithosphere—split apart from each other.
3. current, The result of differential heating. Deformation, Modifications of the shape or size of an object due to applied forces or a change in temperature.
4. What happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another. Epicenter, The point on the earth's surface vertically above the hypocenter (or focus), the point in the crust where a seismic rupture begins.
6. the outermost shell of the earth. Mantle, the mostly-solid bulk of Earth's interior.
7. The sideways and downward movement of the edge of a plate of the earth's crust into the mantle beneath another plate. Magnetic reversal, A change of the earth's magnetic field to the opposite polarity.
10. is the extremely hot center of the earth. Lithosphere is the rigid outer part of the earth.