7th Grade Science: Unit 07 Vocabulary

Fill in the blank: ________ is the theory that earth’s continents were once one large supercontinent that broke and moved apart over geologic time to form today’s continents.

• continental drift theory

• plate tectonics theory

• evolution theory

• big bang theory

Fill in the blank: ________ are plate boundaries where plates are colliding.

• convergent boundaries

• divergent boundaries

• transform boundaries

• passive margins

Fill in the blank: ________ are plate boundaries where the plates are moving apart.

• divergent boundaries

• convergent boundaries

• transform boundaries

• subduction zones

Fill in the blank: ________ are widely distributed organisms that lived during only one short period of time.

• index fossils

• trace fossils

• living fossils

• body fossils

Fill in the blank: ________ is the theory that earth's surface is broken into large pieces called plates that are constantly moving and changing at a very slow rate.

• plate tectonics

• continental drift

• seafloor spreading

• uniformitarianism

Fill in the blank: The law of ________ states that each rock layer is older than the one above it.

• superposition

• uniformitarianism

• cross-cutting relationships

• original horizontality

Fill in the blank: ________ are plate boundaries where the plates are moving past each other in different directions.

• transform boundaries

• convergent boundaries

• divergent boundaries

• subduction zones

Fill in the blank: A ________ is a large, rigid section of earth’s lithosphere that primarily consists of continental crust and moves slowly over the asthenosphere.

• continental plate

• oceanic ridge

• mantle plume

• subduction zone

Fill in the blank: ________ is the transfer of thermal energy through currents in liquids and gases.

• convection

• conduction

• radiation

• insulation

Fill in the blank: ________ means having a high mass per unit volume; in geology, denser materials sink below less dense materials in earth’s layers or during plate interactions.

• dense

• porous

• fragile

• elastic