PLATE TECTONICS

1. Thick, less-dense lithospheric plates that are made of granite and form the continents.
4. Larger pieces of Earth's lithosphere that move over the asthenosphere.
6. The mostly solid bulk of Earth's interior that lays between Earth's crust and core.
9. Earth's lightest, most buoyant layer, which is made of oceanic and continental ____.
10. Thin, dense lithospheric plates that are made of basalt and form the ocean floor.
12. ____ in the rocks on either side of the mid-ocean ridge.
13. ____ was a German climatologist and arctic explorer who suggested the concept of continental drift.
14. A lithospheric plate boundary where two plates come together.
15. A lithospheric plate boundary where two plates move apart.
16. A hypothesis that new seafloor is created at mid-ocean ridges and that in the process the continents are pushed apart from each other.
18. ____ is the theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into several plates that glide over Earth's mantle.

2. boundary A lithospheric plate boundary where two plates slide by each other.
3. Huge mountain ranges that form a continuous chain down the centers of the ocean floors.
5. Divergent, convergent, and transform fault boundaries are all types of ____.
7. The rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.
8. American geophysicist and Naval officer ____ did some of the mapping of the ocean floor during WWII. His work helped develop the theory of plate tectonics.
11. The idea that the continents move around on Earth's surface.
17. A process that involves a lithospheric plate sinking into the mantle.