Physical Geography 1.5

The surface of the earth is a thin crust of rock...

• over a gigantic hollow sphere

• over a boiling pool of molten lava

• filled with helium gas, which is why it floats in space

• over a mantle of hot flowing rock and a radioactive core

The earth's crust is broken onto several plates, which...

• cant move, but vent steam into the air at the edges

• stack neatly one on the next in the kitchen cabinet

• move over the the mantle rock, changing the shapes of the continents over millions of years

• will keep breaking until they are in a million pieces

The plates that make up the earth's crust are called

• chippendale plates

• trigonometric plates

• tectonic plates

• photographic plates

The fact that the continents have moved is obvious when you look at the globe: ________________ fits like a puzzle piece into Africa

• China

• Latvia

• South America

• the British Isles

The fact that South America and Africa fit together like a puzzle shows that _____________________ has been spreading for millions of years.

• The Pacific Ocean

• The Indian Ocean

• The Atlantic Ocean

• The Mediterranean Sea

When two tectonic plates run into each other, they cause...

• Severe traffic disruption

• very little damage or other effects

• a serious political crisis in both plates

• earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges, and deep ocean trenches

A chain of islands like Indonesia or the Philippines is called...

• an archipelago

• the Thousand Islands

• a peninsula

• prime real estate

The Marianas Trench, the deepest point in the earth's oceans, is in ________________ 1500 miles east of the Philippines.

• The Mediterranean Sea

• The Atlantic Ocean

• The Philippine Sea

• The Indian Ocean

How many oceans are there on Earth?

• 3

• 4

• 5

• 6

When the Indian tectonic plate slammed into the bottom of Asia 50 million years ago, the collision created...

• The Indian Ocean

• The Rocky Mountains

• The Sahara Desert

• The Himalaya Mountains