Plate Tectonics

The process that continually adds new material to the ocean floor.

• Theory of Continental Drift

• mid-ocean ridge

• Sea floor spreading

• subduction

The continents were joined together into one large land mass called Pangaea. This big continent split apart over tens of millions of years and slowly moved over Earth’s surface. This theory is called

• subduction

• Theory of Continental Drift

• Theory of Plate Tectonics

• Sea floor spreading

The process by which the ocean floor sinks beneath a deep ocean trench and back into the mantle.

• Sea floor spreading

• Theory of Plate Tectonics

• mid ocean ridge

• subduction

The longest chain of mountains in the world that curve like a seam along the seafloor and extend into all of the Earth’s oceans.

• Mid Ocean Ridge

• Theory of Plate Tectonics

• Subduction

• Sea Floor Spreading

This process is the circulation of heated molten material through the asthenosphere. It is the underlying force that causes plate movement.

• subduction

• Sea floor Spreading

• Convection Currents

• mid ocean ridge

This theory explains the formation, movement and subduction of Earth’s plates.

• Theory of Continental Drift

• subduction

• Sea floor spreading

• Theory of Plate Tectonics

Name pieces of evidence to support Wegener’s Theory of Continental Drift.

• Continental Fit together like Puzzle Pieces

• Mountain Ranges lined up

• Plant and animal fossils found on multiple continents

• Glacier scratches lined up on different continents

Two plates slip past each other moving in opposite directions.

• Convergent Boundary

• Divergent Boundary

• Transform Boundary

Two plates come together and collide.

• Convergent Boundary

• Divergent Boundary

• Transform Boundary

Two plates move apart-most occur at the Mid-ocean ridge.

• Convergent Boundary

• Divergent Boundary

• Transform Boundary