Exam 5: The Tectonic Cycle

About how old are the oldest known rocks on Earth?

It was __________ who realized that the Andes Mountains were slowly being pushed upward.

Cratons are isostatically instable.

If plate tectonics operated early in Earth history, it is likely that the plates were small, rapidly moving, and constantly recycled back into the mantle.

What type of plate boundary created Iceland?

Continental Drift is a unifying theory that explains Earth's topography and integrates our understanding of rock formation, mountain building, and terrain modification.

What was the first evidence that lead Alfred Wegener to suspect the continents were once connected?

What type of plate margin is the majority of the rim surrounding the Pacific Ocean?

__________ plate margins are fractures in the lithosphere where two plates move apart.

Oceanic crust is geologically old and preserves a long record of geologic activity.

__________ plate margins occur where two plates are moving toward each other.

Large, flat areas known as __________ are a major topographic feature of the seafloor.

Where is active sea-floor spreading occurring today?

Of the following, which can be used to determine the absolute motion of plates?

When a plate capped by continental crust converges with a plate capped by oceanic crust, the continental plate will undergo subduction.

Subduction zones are marked by deep trenches where ocean-capped lithosphere sinks into the asthenosphere.

The Earth's oldest rocks are found

Passive continental margins coincide with the geologically active edges of tectonic plates.

What type of plate boundary created the Andes Mountains?

Although the Himalaya Mountains are still growing today, eventually (regardless of whether the collision between the Australian-Indian plate and the Eurasian plate continues or not) the mountain will stop growing. Why is that?