Name: _________________________________________________________________________ Date: ________ Hour: ______
Plate Tectonics Study Guide
Directions: Answer the questions below. You do not need to write in complete sentences. If you cannot fit the answers on this sheet,
you may write your answers on a separate lined paper and staple it to this paper when you hand it in.
VOCABULARY SECTION
1. Define the following terms on a separate paper:
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plate tectonics
tectonic plate
volcanic eruption
mountain building
earthquake
continental drift
Pangaea
seafloor spreading
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convergent
boundary
divergent
boundary
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transform
boundary
subduction zone
convection
CAUSES OF PLATE MOVEMENT (Notes Part 1) SECTION
2. How are tectonic and lithospheric plates different?
3. What are the three driving forces of tectonic plate movement?
4. In what layer of Earth does convection take place
to move tectonic plates?
5. What happens during convection in the mantle?
6. Which type of lithosphere is more dense:
oceanic or continental?
7. What happens during the process of slab pull?
8. How does the density of the lithosphere impact slab pull?
9. Where does the subducting tectonic plate go during slab pull?
10. At what type of boundary does ridge push occur?
11. What happens during the process of ridge push?
B
12. Look at the diagram to the right. Label each letter as
representing slab pull, ridge push, or convection below:
A: _______________________
B: _______________________
C: _______________________
A
C
TECTONIC PLATE BOUNDARIES (Notes Part 2) SECTION
13. What are the three types of tectonic plate boundaries?
14. How do plates move at a convergent boundary?
15. What happens at an oceanic-oceanic convergent boundary?
16. What happens at an oceanic-continental convergent
boundary?
17. What happens at a continental-continental convergent
boundary?
18. What role does the density of lithosphere play in what occurs
at convergent boundaries?
19. How do plates move at a divergent boundary?
20. Describe, in detail, the process of seafloor spreading.
21. How do plates move at a transform boundary?
22. What natural disaster occurs frequently at transform
boundaries?
23. Complete the chart below:
24. Where can volcanoes occur that is not a plate boundary?
Major
Geological
Event
Volcanoes
Boundary Where This Occurs
(there may be more than one)
25. What is a hot spot?
Earthquakes
26. What set of islands was formed over a hot spot?
Mountain
Building
Seafloor
Spreading
27. Look at the plate boundaries below. Label each diagram as
representing a convergent, divergent, or transform plate
boundary.
CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE SECTION
Prompt: Describe three different ways that tectonic plates may continue to change the earth.
 You should reference your understanding of how tectonic plates have already changed the earth to answer this question.
 Each way tectonic plates may change Earth that you discuss is worth one point (up to 3) on the test