Plate Tectonics

9. The solid, outer layer of the earth that consists of the crust and the rigid upper part of the mantle.
10. The relatively thick part of the earth's crust that forms the large landmasses. It is made of granite, older and more complex than the oceanic crust.
12. An undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced at a divergent plate boundary.
13. A tectonic plate boundary where two plates collide, come together, or crash into each other.
14. A theory stating that the earth's surface is broken into plates that move.
15. The upper layer of the earth's mantle, below the lithosphere, in which there is relatively low resistance to plastic flow and convection is thought to occur.

1. The region where an oceanic plate sinks down into the asthenosphere at a convergent boundary, usually between continental and oceanic plates.
2. The thin and solid outermost layer of the Earth above the mantle
3. A tectonic plate boundary along which plates slide horizontally past one another in opposite directions.
4. The hypothesis that states that the continents once formed a single landmass, broke up, and drifted to their present locations.
5. The layer of the earth between the crust and the core
6. The portion of Earth's crust that is usually below the oceans and not associated with continental areas, thinner and higher in density than continental crust.
7. The central part of the earth below the mantle.
8. Process by which, a fluid or a gas is being heated, the warmer part (becomes less dense) of the mass will rise and the cooler portion (becomes more dense) will sink.
11. A tectonic boundary where two plates are moving away from each other.