Plate Tectonics and the Earth's Interior

How did fossils show that the continents were once joined together?

• Animal fossils such as the mesosaurus were found on one continent.

• Freshwater animal fossils were found in the nearby oceans.

• Scientists found examples of different kinds of fossils on some continents.

• Plant fossils of the same kind of fernlike plants were found on five continents.

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Evidence that supported the hypothesis of CONTINENTAL DRIFT included fossils, "jigsaw" land features, and

• ocean currents

• ancient climate data

• presence of bacteria

• solar activity

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What is Pangaea?

• The name for an extinct organism

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

• another name for continental drift

• the name of a tectonic plate boundary

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You watched a pot of water boil. The boiling water reminded you of the convection currents you had learned about while you studied plate tectonics. How do these currents drive the motion of Earth’s plates?

• Hot melted rock rises and cooler rock sinks in the mantle, forming currents that move the plates.

• Melted rock rises and falls, and the currents move the mantle while the crust remains in place.

• Ocean water rises as it warms and falls as it cools to move the plates.

• The crust moves in a current to drive the motion of the water in the oceans.

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What determines how plates interact with each other?

• the kind of plate that they are

• the kind of boundary between plates

• the plate thickness

• the plate age

Volcanoes that form at random locations away from plate boundaries are called...

• convergence zones

• convection currents

• hotspots

• subduction zones

Where does subduction occur?

• between two diverging ocean plates

• between a converging ocean and continental plate

• between two diverging continental plates

• between two tranform boundaries

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What does subduction produce?

• a hotspot

• a mid ocean ridge

• a trench

• pangea

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The continents move over time, and were once, one large supercontinent. What is the name of this theory?

• plate tectonics

• continental drift

• Alfred Wegener

• Pangea

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When Plates move apart from each other, that is called a...

• convergent plate boundary

• divergent plate boundary

• transform plate boundary

• hotspot boundary