Discovering Plate Tectonics
Environmental Science
Name: ____________________________________________________ Period: ____ Date: ___________
Essential Question: How do the movement of plates impact the lithosphere ( rust and upper mantle)?
1. Who proposed the theory of continental drift?
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2. Why did Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift?
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3. What evidences did he find to support his theory on continental drift?
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4. What question stopped Wegener from proving his theory on continental drift?
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5. Why was his, Wegener, theory forgotten?
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6. Who found the answer to Wegener’s question on how continents move?
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7. What did geologist Harry Hess found about how continents move?
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8. What is the mid-ocean ridge?
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9. What is a rift valley?
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10. Where does sea floor spreading happen?
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11. How does sea floor spreading happen?
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12. What fills the gap in the ridge?
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13. In the fourth paragraph, what does the word “giant conveyor belt” refer to? Think!
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14. What is created in the mid-ocean ridge?
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15. Where does the old crust go? This is the reason why the earth is not getting larger though the
Atlantic ocean is widening. ________________________________________________________
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16. What evidence were used by scientists to prove that new ocean crust is produced in the midocean ridge at the Atlantic ocean and old crust sinks in the trenches in the Pacific ocean?
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What proved that rock closest or nearest to the mid-ocean ridge are younger than rocks
farther away? __________________________________________________________________
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What lead to the theory of plate tectonics?
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What is the theory of plate tectonics?
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Where do the tectonic plates float? _________________________________________________
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What happens when one plate moves?
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Why is North America moving away from Europe? Think!
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What are the different types of plate boundaries?
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Why are divergent boundaries called constructive boundaries? Think!
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Define the following vocabulary words.
a. Divergent boundary- _________________________________________________________
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b. Mid-Atlantic ridge - __________________________________________________________
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c. Convergent boundaries- ______________________________________________________
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d. Deep-sea trench - ____________________________________________________________
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e. Ring of Fire - ________________________________________________________________
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f.
Fault - _____________________________________________________________________
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g. San Andreas fault - ___________________________________________________________
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