Internal Processes
Internal processes vocabulary for Physical Geography (GES110).
Terms
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- minerals
- chemical compounds with a crystalline structure
- lithospheric plate
- * segment of lithosphere, in contact with adjacent lithospheric plates along plate boundaries
- mantle
- rock layer of the Earth beneath the crust and surrounding the core, composed of ultramafic igneous rock of silicate minerals
- subduction
- descent of the edge of a litospheric plate under an adjoining plate and into the asthenosphere
- sedimentary rocks
- rock formed from the accumulation of sediment
- core
- spherical central mass of the Earth composed mainly of iron; consists of outer liquid zone and inner solid zone
- tectonic activity
- breaking/bending of the crust under internal Earth forces
- mid-oceanic ridge
- major division of ocean basins, central belt of submarine topography with a characteristic axial rift
- metamorphic rock
- rock altered in physical or chemical composition by heat, pressure or other processes taking place at a substantial depth below the surface
- axial rift
- narrow trench-like depression along the center line of the mid-oceanic ridge; identified with active sea floor spreading
- igneous rocks
- rock formed from the cooling of magma
- nappe
- overturned recumbent fold of strata, usually associated with thrust sheets in a collision orogeny
- asthenosphere
- plastic layer below the lithosphere
- plate tectonics
- theory of tectonic activity dealing with litospheric plates and their activity
- volcanism
- ccumulations of volcanic rock form by extrusion of magma
- fault
- sharp break in rock with a slippage of the crustal block on one side with respect to the block on the other
- crust
- outermost solid layer of the earth, composed of silicate materials
- earthquake
- trembling or shaking of the ground produced by passing seismic waves
- orogeny
- major episode of tectonic activity resulting in strata being deformed by folding and faulting
- folds
- corrugations of strata caused by crustal compression
- lithosphere
- rigid outer shell of the Earth, includes crust and upper mantle