STUDY GUIDE FOR TEST ON CONTINENTAL DRIFT, PLATE TECTONICS, EARTHQUAKES, & VOLCANOES
James Hutton
° Uniformitarianism
Alfred Wegener
° Continental Drift- Pangaea (200 mybp)
° Similar fossils- "lystrosaurus"
° Rock structures- Appalachians
° Fit of continents- South America and Africa
° Climates- glacial deposits
° salt and coal beds
Glomar Challenger
° the Atlantic Ocean floor
Plate Tectonics
° Plates
lithosphere, asthenosphere
ocean vs continental plates
* Sea-Floor Spreading
° Convergent Boundaries- earthquakes
ocean vs. ocean- island arc- Japan subduction zone, trench, volcanoes
continent vs. ocean- volcanic mountain chain- Andes subduction zone, trench, volcanoes
continent vs. continent- folded mountains- Himalaya Mountains
° Divergent Boundaries- earthquakes
rift- Mid-Ocean Ridge and Rift Valley in Eastern Africa
° Transform Faults- earthquakes
San Andreas Fault
where quakes occur
what causes quakes
fracture vs fault
intensity vs magnitude focus vs epicenter
P- wave vs S- wave
aftershocks
firestorms
tsunami
predicting quakes
preparing for earthquakes
east coast vs west coast
locating the focus using triangulation
volcanoeseruption typespyroclastic
lava flow
mountain typesshield
cinder cone
strato/composite
Wegener cited 4 pieces of evidence in his theory of continental drift, name the four and describe how his theory explains
their occurrence.
What is Pangaea?
What are the ages of the oldest known rocks on the Atlantic Ocean floor? How does this support the theory of sea-floor
spreading ?
What is sea-floor spreading ?
How does the data from the Glomar Challenger explain the missing process of the Continental Drift Theory?
What happens when a rock passes its elastic limit?
Distinguish between focus and epicenter.
Does a high intensity earthquake always have to be a high magnitude earthquake ? Explain.
Does a high magnitude earthquake always have to be a high intensity earthquake ? Explain.
A richter scale measures what about an earthquake ?
If an earthquake of a sizable nature occurred right now what would be the safest thing for us to do? Explain why.
The answer should include an explanation of how most people are injured during an earthquake.
Besides the initial earthquake one must be fearful of three other things associated with earthquakes: tsunamis, after shocks,
and fire storm. Explain each of them in terms of what they are, what causes them, and why they are so dangerous.
Even though the eastern USA has relatively few earthquakes, why should people on the east coast be more fearful of a big
earthquake than people in California ?