What is the primary force driving the movement of tectonic plates?
Convection currents in the mantle
Wind currents
The Earth's rotation
Earth's magnetic field
The process of one tectonic plate sliding underneath another is known as:
Convection
Earthquake
Seafloor spreading
Subduction
Which of the following is an example of a divergent boundary?
The San Andreas Fault
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Mount St. Helens
The Himalayan Mountains
What kind of plate boundary is this?
Convection
Transform
Convergent
Divergent
The Himalayas were formed by the collision of which two tectonic plates?
Pacific and North American
North American and Eurasian
Indian and Eurasian
African and South American
Which of the following is TRUE about the theory of continental drift?
The movement of continents is caused by ocean currents.
There was once a supercontinent called Pangaea.
Continental drift is unrelated to plate tectonics.
The continents have always been in their current positions.
Earthquakes are most commonly associated with which type of plate boundary?
Divergent
All types of plate boundaries cause earthquakes
Convergent
Transform
Continental plates are less dense than oceanic plates.
True
False
What is seafloor spreading?
The formation of new volcanoes in the ocean
The movement of continents across the ocean floor
When new oceanic crust is created at mid-ocean ridges
The sinking of oceanic plates at subduction zones
Which tectonic plate is B.C. on?
North American
Antarctic
South American
Indo-Australian
What kind of plate boundary is this?
Convergent
Divergent
Transform
Convection
Where are most volcanic eruptions like to occur?
In the middle of continents
At transform boundaries
At convergent and divergent plate boundaries
In places where there are no plate movements
What happens at a transform boundary?
Plates move away from each other and form new crust.
Plates move downward into the mantle.
Plates slide past each other horizontally; earthquakes
Plates move towards each other and form mountains.
Which of the following best describes the Earth's lithosphere?
A region where oceanic plates meet continental plates
The inner core of the Earth
The rigid outer layer, which is broken into tectonic plates
The layer of molten rock beneath the crust
What kind of plate boundary is the Mariana Trench an example of?
Convergent
Transform
Divergent
Which major tectonic plate is composed of almost 100% oceanic crust?
African
Eurasian
Pacific
North American
What is the main theory behind plate tectonics?
The Earth’s crust is completely solid and does not change.
Earth's continents are fixed in place.
The Earth’s core is made of solid iron only.
Earth's outer layer is divided into large, moving pieces.
What is formed when two tectonic plates collide at a convergent boundary?
Earthquakes ONLY
Mountain ranges or deep ocean trenches
Ocean ridges
Volcanoes
Which of the following is NOT evidence supporting the theory of plate tectonics?
The distribution of similar fossils across continents
The matching of rock layers on different continents
The shape of the continents, which appear to fit together
The presence of deep ocean trenches only at mid-ocean ridges
Who developed the theory of continental drift?
Marie Curie
Alfred Einstein
Elvis Presley
Alfred Wegener
What are the two kinds of tectonic plates?
Oceanic and Continental
What is the Ring of Fire?
A region where many meteor impacts occur
A belt of volcanic activity in the Arctic
A series of volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean
A famous earhquake zone in the Atlantic Ocean