University:
University of Scranton
Course:
PHYS 102 | Earth Science
Academic year:

2022
Views:

204

Pages:

3
Author:

kundgetanufv

Plate Tectonics Vocabulary 1. Accretionary Prism: a mass of sedimentary material scraped off a region of oceanic crust during subduction and piled up at the edge of the overriding plate. 2. Active Margin: commonly the sites of tectonic activity: earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain building, and the formation of new igneous rock 3. Asthenosphere: the upper layer of the earth's mantle, below the lithosphere, in which there is relatively low resistance to plastic flow and convection is thought to occur. 4. Continental Rift: A continental rift is conventionally described as a thinning process of the lithosphere ultimately leading to the rupture of the continent and the formation of a mid-oceanic ridge and sea-floor spreading. 5. Convergent Boundary: an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide 6. Fracture Zone: the cracking or breaking of a hard object or materia 7. Hot Spot: a small area or region with a relatively hot temperature in comparison to its surroundings 8. Lithosphere: the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle 9. Lithospheric Plates: The lithosphere is the solid, outer part of the Earth. The lithosphere includes the brittle upper portion of the mantle and the crust, the outermost layers of Earths structure 10. Mantle Plume: A mantle plume is posited to exist where super-heated material forms (nucleates) at the core-mantle boundary and rises through the Earth's mantle 11. Passive Margin: mark the sites where continents have rifted apart to become separated by an ocean 12. Plate Boundary: The location where two plates meet is called a plate boundary. 13. Plate Tectonics: a theory explaining the structure of the earth's crust and many associated phenomena as resulting from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates which move slowly over the underlying mantle. 14. Rifting: break apart or become separated through faulting caused by plate tectonics 15. Subduction: the sideways and downward movement of the edge of a plate of the earth's crust into the mantle beneath another plate 16. Suture: a suture is a joining together along a major fault zone, of separate terranes, tectonic units that have different plate tectonic, metamorphic and paleogeographic histories. 17. Transform bound: occur where the Earth’s tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally along transform or strike-slip faults 18. Trench: a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit). 19. Triple Junction: A triple junction is a place where three lithospheric plates meet. Lithospheric plates are typically considered to be rigid except along narrow, discrete boundary zones with adjacent plates. 20. Volcanic Arc: A volcanic arc (also known as a magmatic arc ) is a belt of volcanoes formed above a subducting oceanic tectonic plate, with the belt arranged in an arc shape as seen from above.

Plate Tectonics Vocabulary

Related Documents

Recommended Documents

Description

Related Documents

Almost There!

Free up your schedule!

Take 5 seconds to unlock