Earth Science 8 Midterm Review

According to Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift,

• Earth’s surface is made up of seven major landmasses.

• the continents do not move.

• Earth is slowly cooling and shrinking.

• the continents were once joined together in a single landmass.

Any trace of an ancient organism that has been preserved in rock is called a

• landform

• fossil

• continent

• landmass

In sea-floor spreading, molten material rises from the mantle and erupts

• along the edges of all the continents.

• along mid-ocean ridges.

• in deep-ocean trenches.

• at the north and south poles.

 The geological theory that states that pieces of Earth’s lithosphere are in constant, slow motion is the theory of 

• subduction

• plate tectonics

• deep-ocean trenches

• sea-floor spreading

A place where two plates slip past each other, moving in opposite directions, is known as a

• transform boundary

• divergent boundary

• convergent boundary

• rift valley

Subduction occurs where the oceanic crust bends down toward the mantle at a(n) _______________.

• transform boundary

• divergent boundary

• convergent boundary

• rift valley

Most geologists think that the movement of Earth’s plates is caused by

• conduction

• earthquakes

• convection current in the mantle

• Earth's magnetic field

What is Pangaea?

• the name of a German scientist 

• the name of the supercontinent that existed millions of years ago

• another name for continental drift 

• the name of an ancient fossil

Stress that pushes a mass of rock in two opposite directions is called 

• shearing

• tension

• compression

• deformation

Which of the following can cause damage days or months after a large earthquake?

• the arrival of surface waves

• convection

• a tsunami 

• an aftershock