Plate Tectonics Test Study Guide: Name:_____________________________Period:________ Date:_________________
QUESTION
1.
What are 3 pieces of evidence that continental drift occurred?
2.
What happens to the temperature of rocks as you go deeper in the Earth?
3.
How were the Hawaiian Islands formed?
ANSWER
4.
Where do earthquakes & volcanoes most often occur in relationship to plate boundaries?
5.
A feature on the ocean floor where two oceanic plates converge and subduct is called a _________.
6.
How does a convection current move plates?
7.
What is the name of the deepest place on Earth?
8.
What are the names AND symbols of the elements that make up Earth’s core?
9.
What are the two types of crust? Underline the one that is thicker and less dense.
10.
Label the focus and the epicenter in the diagram.
11.
What does magnitude mean?
12.
The focus is (on, below) the Earth’s surface and
the epicenter is (on, below) the Earth’s surface.
13.
14.
What instrument would a seismologist use to measure the strength of an earthquake?
What is the Richter Scale?
15.
What are 3 things formed at a divergent boundary?
16.
If an oceanic plate converges with a continental plate, which will subduct and why?

QUESTION
17. At a divergent boundary, where are rocks the
youngest? The oldest?
18. Two continental plates collide. What type of
mountain will form?
19. How was the tallest mountain on Earth created?
20. Draw a diagram of what happens when a
continental plate collides with an oceanic plate.
21. What is the difference between magma &
lava?
22. The layer of the Earth that is the most dense, due to
its composition, is the _________________.
23. What fault is located in California?
24. What is the Ring of Fire and where is it located?
25. What layer of Earth is divided into plates?
26. Where does seafloor spreading occur?
27. The Earth’s core drives the convection currents
which take place in the ________________.
28. Which earthquake waves are the fastest and
would reach the seismograph first?
29. Earth’s plates move because of ____________
changes in the mantle.
ANSWER

Use these symbols to show what caused the following to form :
C-C (continental converges with continental)
C-O (continental converges with oceanic)
O-O (oceanic converges with oceanic)
D (divergent)
T (transform)
HS (hot spot)
1. _____ the formation of the Andes Mnts.
2. _____ the formation of the Mid Atlantic Ridge
3. _____ the formation of the Marianna’s Trench
4. _____ the formation of folded mountain ranges
5. _____ the formation of the Himalaya Mountains
6. _____ seafloor spreading
7. _____ San Andreas Fault
8. _____ the formation of mid-ocean ridges
9. _____ plates moving apart
10._____ the formation of a chain volcanic islands in the middle of a plate
11._____ plates slide past each other in opposite directions
12. _____ two dense plates subduct when they meet
Label the following places on this map:
Ring of Fire
San Andreas Fault
- Himalayas
- Andes Mtns.
Andes Mtns. - Mariannas Trench
- Mid Atlantic Ridge
- Antarctic Plate
- Iceland