Study Guide Questions:
Earth Layers, Continental Drift, Plate Tectonics
Recommended Suggestion: Make flash cards for each question
(all parts), with answers on the back.
1. How is the inner and outer core similar? How is the inner core
and outer core different?
2. Why is the outer core important to life on Earth? What would
happen if Earth did not have this layer?
3. How did oobleck behave under high pressure compared to low
pressure? How did oobleck behave under conditions of high
temperature compared to low temperature? What is the name of
the property of oobleck that is like the property of magma in the
mantle?
4. What happens, on average, every 250,000 years, to Earth’s
magnetic field?
5. Define convection as a way that heat can be transferred?
6. A) What causes convection currents in the mantle? B) Which
“groovy” product was demonstrated in class to show convection
currents in action?
7. Explain four (4) things that Alfred Wegener noticed to back up his
theory of Continental Drift.
8. List four (4) things you know about the life of Alfred Wegener.
9. What are the names of the three (3) reptiles and one plant that
Alfred Wegener mapped on distant continents? (matching habitat
zones)
10.
What are the names of the three Supercontinents we
learned about in class? (two from the past, and one in the future)
11.
Why is it strange to find COAL deposits in Pennsylvania?
12.
List the SEVEN (7) major and minor plates below. (Be able
to identify them on a blank map of the Earth’s plates)
13.
What are the three (3) ways that tectonic plates can be in
contact with one another? (three plate boundary types) Draw
arrows to show the direction of plate motion for each of the three
types of boundaries.
14.
What idea did Harry Hess contribute to the theory of Plate
Tectonics?
15.
What are the two (2) main causes of crustal plate
movement?
16.
What is the average rate of plate movement? (Compare to
fingernail growth)
17.
What is the difference between continental plates and
oceanic plates? What rock type is typical of each.
18.
Earth’s magnetism experiences “reversals” periodically.
How does Sea Floor Spreading indicate that reversals have
occurred?
19.
What two (2) features are associated with subduction
zones?
20.
What is a Hot Spot? (Note: Yellowstone, and Hawaii…and
future Loihi)
21.
Explain what happened to form the Himalayan Mountain
Range.
22.
Where would you expect to find the oldest rocks on the sea
floor?
23.
A) How long ago did Pangaea begin separating? B) What is
the name of the Pangaean Superocean (and its minor sea)?
24.
What two (2) features are associated with subduction
zones?
25.
Pangaea first separated about 200 million years ago into a
northern and southern region. What were the names of these two
(2) regions?
26.
Which two (2) inventions used in the 1960s helped to prove
why the continents drift, by providing a map of the ocean floor?
27.
Which country in the Northern Atlantic Ocean has the MidOceanic Ridge running through it?
28.
The red needle on a compass always points to what?
29.
Which type of pole, geographic or magnetic, wanders in
response to action in the outer core of our planet?
30.
Which strange disease is a result of iron deficiency in the
body, and causes the patient to eat things that are not food, like
dirt, and nails, and metal?
Study Guide Answers:
Earth Layers, Continental Drift, Plate Tectonics
1. Inner Core/Outer Core = both made of metallic, magnetic Iron and
Nickel
Inner Core = SOLID, Outer Core = LIQUID
2. Outer core generates Earth’s protective Magnetic Field, which
blocks harmful radiation. Without it, too much UV would reach
the surface…we would die.
3. Oobleck under high pressure = solid, under low pressure = liquid
Oobleck under high temp = liquid, under low temp = solid
(Plasticity)
4. Earth’s magnetic field experiences a reversal every 250,000 years
or so.
5. Convection = circulation of hot matter rising above a heat source,
then cool matter becoming more dense and sinking (happens in
the mantle)
6. A) Convection: caused by heat transfer from the core. B) Lava
Lamp
7. Alfred Wegener noticed the A) puzzle fit of continents B)
matching fossils on distant coastlines C) matching rock types on
distant coastlines D) matching glacial deposits on distant
coastlines
8. Alfred Lothar Wegener was born in Germany in 1880, died in
1930 in Greenland, was first to develop idea of drifting continents,
wrote a book about it in 1910, died not knowing the world would
believe his theory.
9. Lystrosaurus (shovel mouth reptile) Cynognathus (dog jaw
reptile) and Mesosaurus (middle reptile) and Glossopteris (plant:
tree)
10.
Rodinia (past), Pangaea (past), and Pangaea Ultima (future)
11.
Coal is formed in TROPICAL regions (from decayed tropical
vegetation)
12.
MAJOR: North American, South American, African, Eurasian,
Antarctic, Indo-Australian, Pacific
MINOR: Juan De Fuca, Nazca, Cocos, Caribbean, Arabian, Scotia,
Philippine
13.
Convergent: (plate collision)  * 
Divergent: (plate separation)  * 
Transform: (plates sliding past each other in opposite
directions) --------
-------14.
Harry Hess surveyed the ocean floor using Sonar and
discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Sea Floor Spreading
(noticed age of ocean crust varied)
15.
Crustal Plates move due to convection currents in the
mantle which drive the process of Sea Floor Spreading, which in
turn cause continents to move.
16.
Plates move 2.5 cm per year on average (same rate as
fingernail growth)
17.
Continental plates are thicker and less dense than oceanic
plates. Continental rock = granite, Oceanic rock = Basalt
18.
Identical magnetic pole reversal stripes develop on each
side of the Mid Oceanic Ridges as the sea floor spreads apart.
19.
Deep Sea Trenches and Volcanoes are associated with
subduction zones.
20.
Hot Spot = stationary break in center of a plate (magma
rises through it)
21.
India collided with Asia 20 million years ago, forming the
Himalayas
22.
The oldest rocks are those farthest away from the MidOcean Ridge
(The youngest rocks are closest to the Mid-Ocean Ridge)
23.
A) Pangaea started separating about 225 million years ago.
B) Pangaean Superocean = Panthallassic Ocean (and Tethys Sea).
24.
Volcanoes and deep trenches are associated with
subduction zones
25.
Pangaea first separated into northern Laurasia and
southern Gondwanaland
26.
Sonar and Deep Sea Submarines
27.
Iceland
28.
Red needle points to the dominant magnetic pole, which is
currently NORTH.
29.
The magnetic poles wander over time, as the core changes
30.
Pica