Plate Tectonics Vocab

The soft layer of the mantle on which the lithosphere floats

• Crust

• Mantle

• Mesosphere

• Asthenosphere

The rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle

• lithosphere

• asthenosphere

• mesosphere

• round sphere

The theory that the crust is divided into large pieces called tectonic plates that slowly move on top of the mantle

• seafloor spreading

• continental drift

• tectonic plate

• plate tectonics

Huge piece of crust that slowly moves on the upper, ductile (able to be molded, like plastic) part of the mantle

• pangea

• continental drift

• tectonic plate

• plate tectonics

This image shows the formation of a mountain range at this ​ (a)   plate boundary.

• convergent

• destructive force

• force field

• divergent

• transform

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-2

​ (a)   the process by which rock material moves under Earth’s outer layer and into the mantle due to plate motion

• subduction

• uplift

• weathering

• sediment

Tags

ESS2.A

ESS2.C

ESS3.A

ESS3.C

Match the following

• Plate boundary

• thinner, more dense, located under oceans and seas, composed mostly of basalt, generally younger than continental crust

• Oceanic crust

• Boundary where two tectonic plates meet

• Continental crust

• • thicker, less dense, forms landmasses, composed mostly of granite, generally older than oceanic crust

Drag the labels to the correct the locations on the diagram.

a

b

c

d

e

new crust created

Mid-ocean Ridge

old crust destroyed

trench

convergent boundary

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-1

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

Match the following

• Divergent boundary

• A plate boundary where two tectonic plates slide horizontally past one another

• Convergent boundary

• A plate boundary where two tectonic plates move toward each other and collide

• Subduction

• A plate boundary where two tectonic plates move apart from each other

• Transform boundary

• The process by which a continent is pulled apart at a divergent plate boundary

• Continental rifting

• process in which two lithospheric plates of different densities converge and the denser one sinks into the mantle beneath the other

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

This image shows the formation of a mountain range. At this ​ (a)   plate boundary, colliding plates are a ​ (b)   .

• convergent

• constructive force

• destructive force

• force field

• divergent

• transform

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-2