Tectonic Plate Vocab Quiz

1. When magnetized objects, such as compass needles, orient themselves to point north.
4. When magnetized objects reverse direction and orient themselves to point south.
7. The rigid outermost layer of the Earth that includes the uppermost mantle and crust.
10. The boundary between two plates that slide past each other.
13. The circulation of particles within a material caused by differences in thermal energy and density.
14. The process that occurs when one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate.
15. The process by which new oceanic crust forms along a mid-ocean ridge and older oceanic crust moves away from the ridge.
16. The boundary between two plates that move toward each other.

2. The process that results when magma rises at a mid-ocean ridge and pushes oceanic plates in two different directions.
3. Theory that Earth's surface is broken into large, rigid pieces that move with respect to each other.
5. An event that causes a magnetic field to reverse direction.
6. The boundary between two plates that move away from each other.
8. The process that results when a dense oceanic plate sinks beneath a more buoyant plate along a subduction zone, pulling the rest of the plate that trails behind it.
9. The movement of Earth's continents over time.
11. Name given to a supercontinent that began to break apart approximately 168 million years ago.
12. Long, narrow mountain range on the ocean floor; formed by magma at divergent plate boundaries.