Earth and Moon Vocab

3. Orbital phenomenon keeping the same side of the Moon facing Earth.
5. Solar-powered process by which plants generate oxygen and glucose.
6. Bright, radial streaks of ejecta blasting outward from young impact craters.
10. Spontaneous breakdown of atomic nuclei, heating Earth's interior.
11. Vibrations traveling through Earth, often triggered by earthquakes.
14. Primary seismic waves that compress and dilate rock; the fastest waves.
17. Secondary seismic waves that move rock side-to-side and cannot travel through liquids.
20. Heat transfer method driving the movement of Earth's mantle.
22. Dark, flat basaltic plains on the Moon once mistaken for seas.
23. Geologic splitting process that tears a tectonic plate apart.
24. Mass per unit volume, which dictates if an object sinks or floats.

1. True shape of the Earth; a sphere squashed at the poles and bulging at the equator.
2. Geological theory explaining the movement of Earth's lithospheric crust.
4. The protective envelope of gases surrounding a planet.
7. Celestial alignment where the Moon temporarily blocks out the Sun.
8. Atmospheric trapping of solar radiation that warms a planet's surface.
9. Event where the Moon passes directly into the Earth's shadow.
12. Light-colored, heavily cratered, ancient mountainous regions of the Moon.
13. Long, narrow channels or trenches on the Moon's surface resembling dried riverbeds.
15. Process where one tectonic plate forced beneath another sinks into the mantle.
16. Effect Deflection of winds and currents caused by a planet's rotation.
18. Shimmering atmospheric light display, like the Northern Lights.
19. Ancient supercontinent that broke apart about 200 million years ago.
20. Bowl-shaped depressions formed by meteorite impacts.
21. Thick planetary layer locked between the crust and the core.