VOCAB #10: Plate Tectonics

The sinking of a denser plate below a more buoyant plate at a convergent plate boundary

• divergent plate bounary

• seafloor spreading

• subduction

• plate tectonics

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-5

Earth’s interior below the crust and above the core, in which most rock is hot enough to flow in convection currents; Earth’s thickest layer.

• inner core

• mantle

• asthenosphere

• lithosphere

The rigid outermost layer of Earth that includes the uppermost mantle and crust; averaging about 40 kilometers thick and broken into tectonic plates.

• mesosphere

• lithosphere

• asthenospere

• convection currents

A thin outer layer of rock above Earth’s mantle, including all dry land and ocean basins made of silicates.

• crust

• mantle

• outer core

• asthenosphere

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

A solid sphere of metal at Earth’s center, made mainly of iron and nickel.

• crust

• outer core

• inner core

• mesosphere

The circulation of material caused by differences in temperature and density

• tectonic plates

• lithosphere

• asthenosphere

• convection currents

The liquid metal layer that surrounds Earth’s inner core

• mantle

• crust

• outer core

• lithosphere

The layer in Earth’s upper mantle and directly under the lithosphere in which rock is soft and weak because it is close to melting.

• lithosphere

• lower mantle

• core

• asthenosphere

The theory that Earth’s surface is made of rock plates that move with respect to each other

• continental drift

• plate tectonics

• seafloor spreading

• subduction

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

The hypothesis that continents are in constant motion

• continental drift

• plate tectonics

• convergent plate boundary

• seafloor spreading

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3