| hot spot | | Earth's rigid outer layer consisting of the crust and uppermost mantle |
| asthenosphere | | the unequal distribution of heat within the Earth that causes thermal convection in the mantle and ultimately causes plate motion |
| mantle convection | | chain of small volcanic islands that forms when two oceanic plates converge |
| continental drift | | supercontinent proposed in the continental drift hypothesis |
| plates | | an iron-rich mineral |
| Wegener | | what Wegener could not explain for how continents can move |
| mantle plumes | | primary forces that cause plate motion |
| Pangaea | | theory that states Earth's rigid outer shell is divided into several individual segments |
| slab-pull | | Earth's rigid outer shell is divided into several segments called... |
| seafloor spreading | | comparitively weak layer of Earth's crust that is beneath the lithosphere |
| lithosphere | | evidence that supports the idea that plates move over Earth's surface |
| paleomagnetism | | the mechanism responsible for producing new oceanic crust between two diverging plates |
| transform fault boundary | | appearance of hot spots and volcanoes at Earth's surface is evidence of... |
| volcanic island arc | | boundary where oceanic lithosphere plunges beneath an overriding continental plate |
| plate tectonics | | plate boundary where plates move apart, resulting in upwelling of material from the mantle to create new seafloor |
| convergent oceanic-continental | | deep faulted structure created during the breakup of a continent along a divergent plate boundary |
| mountain belts | | occurs where two plates grind pass each other without creating or destroying lithosphere |
| subduction zone | | occurs when one oceanic plate is forced down into the mantle under anothe plate |
| mechanism | | rocks that posess the magnetic polarity of the Earth at the time they were formed |
| rift | | one type of evidence that supports Wegener's continental drift hypothesis that begins on one continent and continues on another |
| divergent | | hypothesis that states continents had once been joined to form a supercontinent |
| magnetite | | scientist who first came up with hypothesis of continental drift |
