Plate Tectonics Vocabulary

lithospheric plate made mainly of continental crust

• Alfred Wegener

• continental drift

• continental plate

• convection current

German meteorologist and geophysicist who used scientific evidence to develop his theory of continental drift in the 1900s

• Alfred Wegener

• continental drift

• continental plate

• convection current

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

Circulation of material in the mantle caused by differences in temperature and density

• Alfred Wegener

• continental drift

• continental plate

• convection current

Hypothesis that continents are in constant motion

• Alfred Wegener

• continental drift

• continental plate

• convection current

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

A crack in a body of rock that the rock can move along

• convergent boundary

• divergent boundary

• fault

• transform boundary

where two plates come together or collide

• convergent boundary

• divergent boundary

• fault

• transform boundary

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

where two plates slide past each other in opposite directions

• convergent boundary

• divergent boundary

• fault

• transform boundary

where two plates separate or divide

• convergent boundary

• divergent boundary

• fault

• transform boundary

lithospheric plate made mainly of oceanic crust

• mantle

• mid-ocean ridge

• oceanic plate

• Pangaea

the layer of solid rock between Earth’s crust and core

• mantle

• mid-ocean ridge

• oceanic plate

• Pangaea