Plate Tectonics Test

What is the theory that the outer layer of Earth is divided and moves across Earth's surface?

• convection current
• plate tectonics
• lithosphere
• contiental drift
• fossils

What occurs at a divergent boundary between two tectonic plates?

• Two plates move towards each other, forming mountains.
• Two plates slide past each other, causing earthquakes.
• Two plates move away from each other, creating new crust.
• Two plates remain stationary, causing no geological activity.

What is the layer of the Earth where tectonic plates are located?

• Lithosphere
• Outer core
• Mantle
• Inner core

What happens when an oceanic plate meets a continental plate at a plate boundary?

• The oceanic plate slides past the continental plate, forming a fault line.
• The oceanic plate sinks beneath the continental plate, forming a trench & volcanoes.
• The oceanic plate and the continental plate move apart, creating new seafloor.
• Both plates remain stationary, forming no significant geological features.

Which of the following provides evidence for past plate motions?

• Matching rock type & rock formations can show the way the continents were once attached.
• Glaciers were found where they couldn't exist if continents were in their current locations.
• Matching fossils can show that landmasses were once connected.
• All of the above.

True or False: There is an idea or theory that the large masses of land all over Earth were at one time all connected as the Pangaea, or supercontinent.

• True
• False

Before there was evidence from rocks and fossils, many scientists theorized that the continents were once joined together. Using only maps, these scientists observed that -

• the shapes of the continents allowed them to fit together.
• weathering and erosion have reshaped the surface of the Earth.
• the continents were bordered by mountain ranges.
• the oceans have become smaller throughout Earth's history.

What is subduction?

• The process of plates moving apart.
• The sliding of two plates past each other.
• The creation of a mountain range.
• The sinking of an oceanic plate beneath a continental plate.

Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift suggests that -

• The continents had once been connected in one massive supercontinent.
• The continents never fit together.
• The continents were smaller than they are now.
• The continetns were farther apart than they are now.

How are scientists able to determine changes in positions of Earth's landmasses over geologic time?

• Educated guesses
• Evidence from rocks, glaciers and fossils
• Watching movement of landmasses
• Evidence from our ancestors