| crust | | stable,central part of the continent |
| atmosphere | | the earth's water |
| hydrosphere | | middle layer of the earth |
| climate | | substance with only one kind of atoms |
| plate tectonics | | melted to form liquid |
| volcano | | outer layer of the earth |
| earthquake | | low area shaped like a bowl |
| erosion | | crack in the outer layer of the earth |
| brittle | | formed from cooling magma |
| mantle | | transformed by heat and/or pressure |
| dense | | sudden movement in the outer layer of the earth |
| lithosphere | | Greek root meaning "weak" |
| litho | | loose rock particles |
| astheno | | wearing away of earth's surface |
| asthenosphere | | one plate slides underneath another plate |
| molten | | when the lithosphere splits apart |
| core | | method of determining the age of rocks |
| oceanic | | scientist that studies earth and it's movements |
| continental | | two plates moving in the opposite direction |
| magma | | smallest part of matter that retains properties of the particle |
| current | | air surrounding the earth |
| divergent boundary | | a vent in the earth that allows gas and magma to escape |
| rifting | | mass of ice and snow |
| convergent boundary | | theory of how earth's plates move and interact |
| subduction | | spot in a plate where magma rises |
| transform boundary | | partially melted rock below earth's surface |
| fault | | time it takes for radioactive parent to decay to daughter element |
| hotspot | | in or from the ocean |
| tectonic | | center of the earth |
| craton | | contains crust and upper mantle |
| igneous rock | | two plates come together |
| metamorphic rock | | semi-molten middle layer of earth |
| basin | | tightly packed |
| sediment | | a solid breaking under pressure |
| sedimentary rock | | average weather over a long period of time |
| geologist | | Greek root meaning "stone" |
| glacier | | formed by compression of sediments |
| continental platform | | part of the craton where ancient rocks are exposed |
| continental shield | | constantly moving mass of liquid |
| radiometric dating | | relating to the large land masses of earth |
| element | | forces that produce movement and change in the earth's crust |
| atom | | craton that is covered by sediments and sedimentary rock |
| half-life | | two plates slide against each other |
