Across
- 3. Narrow, elongated cracks or valleys where tectonic plates are diverging.
- 6. anomalies: Variations in Earth's magnetic field caused by differences in the magnetization of rocks on the ocean floor.
- 9. Deep, elongated depressions in the ocean floor, usually associated with subduction zones.
- 11. sediment: Sediment derived from the breakdown of continental rocks, transported to the ocean.
- 12. spreading: The process where new oceanic crust forms at mid-ocean ridges and moves outward.
- 14. drift: The gradual movement of continents across the Earth's surface over geological time.
- 15. plates: Large, rigid pieces of Earth's lithosphere that move and interact at their boundaries.
- 16. dating: A method of determining the age of ancient organic materials based on their carbon isotope content.
Down
- 1. tectonics: The theory explaining the movement of Earth's lithospheric plates.
- 2. sediment: Sediment composed mainly of biological remains of marine organisms.
- 4. Fractures in Earth's crust where blocks of land have moved past each other.
- 5. ridge: An underwater mountain range formed at divergent tectonic plate boundaries.
- 6. Tiny fossils of microorganisms such as foraminifera or diatoms.
- 7. The breakdown of rocks at Earth's surface through physical, chemical, or biological processes.
- 8. ooze: A biogenous sediment rich in silica from the shells of microscopic marine organisms.
- 10. The process of one tectonic plate sliding beneath another into the mantle.
- 13. ooze: A type of biogenous sediment composed mainly of calcium carbonate from the shells of marine organisms.