Name: __________________________________________ Period: __________ Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics Crossword Puzzle (answers found in the plate tectonics reading packet or in your notes)

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Across
  1. 1. This chain of volcanoes is a common result when two oceanic plates collide together at a convergent boundary.
  2. 4. This very familiar structure forms when magma pushes its way up from the mantle, occasionally erupting and causing lava to spill out onto the land.
  3. 7. The deepest parts of the ocean floor, these occur in the subduction zone when an oceanic plate collides with a continental plate or when two oceanic plates collide.
  4. 8. This is heat moving through a fluid, also driven by density.
  5. 9. The name of the supercontinent that existed millions of years ago when all of the Earth’s landmasses were one.
  6. 11. The Navy Officer who discovered Seafloor Spreading.
  7. 12. The lithosphere is broke into chunks called _____________ that slowly move around on top of the asthenosphere.
  8. 14. The type of plate boundary that involves two tectonic plates grinding past each other, not hitting head on or moving apart.
  9. 17. This landform is a common result of two continental plates colliding together at a convergent boundary.
  10. 18. Alfred Wegener had a _______________ of how continents moved. The reason that it was not a theory is because he could not provide a mechanism.
  11. 20. ___________________ is the process of the ocean getting wider at the mid-ocean ridges as magma rises up and cools to form new crust, pushing the older crust further away.
  12. 22. This meteorologist and arctic explorer developed the hypothesis of continental drift and spent his life looking for the mechanisms that drove it.
  13. 23. The name of the theory that describes the movements and collisions of the lithosphere’s plates as they float around.
  14. 24. The name of the layer of the mantle that is fluid enough for the solid lithosphere (the layer just above it) to float around on it.
Down
  1. 2. The type of plate boundary that involves two tectonic plates moving apart from each other.
  2. 3. The type of plate boundary that involves two tectonic plates colliding together.
  3. 5. Alfred Wegener’s hypothesis which states that the continents used to all be joined together but that they have drifted apart over time to where they are today.
  4. 6. An underwater mountain range commonly found at divergent plate boundaries. These are the locations where seafloor spreading takes place.
  5. 10. The name of the area where one tectonic plate gets pulled down underneath another in convergent plate boundaries.
  6. 13. The type of crust that is lighter and less dense when compared to its oceanic counterpart
  7. 15. The layer of Earth that the “plates” are made of. It includes the crust and the solid top portion of the mantle.
  8. 16. This technology uses sound waves to map out an underwater surface or to detect underwater objects and was very important in the discovery of mid-ocean ridges.
  9. 19. A force that holds objects together and keeps us from floating away. One of the driving forces of plate tectonics.
  10. 21. This event is a common occurrence at all types of plate boundaries, caused by the sudden release of a buildup of energy in the rocks at plate boundaries.