Earths Structure
Terms
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- inner core
- the solid innermost layer of earth
- Ritcher Scale
- is commonly used to measure earthquake strength
- volcano
- a place where hot, liquid magma is forced up through the surface by pressure inside earth and flows onto the ground;occurs most commonly along the boundries of earth's plates
- mantle
- The mantle is much thicker than the crust and contains most of the earth's mass.
- outer core
- the second to most inner part of the earths layers;liquid
- convection current
- is the flow that transfers heat within a fluid. The heat from the earth's mantle and core causes convection currents to form in the astenosphere and throughout the mantle. The heating and cooling of the fluid, changes in the fluid's density, and the force of gravity combine to set convection currents in motion.
- Alfred Wegener
- formed the hypothesis that all continents had once been joined together in a single landmass and have since drifted apart
- seafloor spreading
- The concept that the ocean floor is moving away from the mid-oceanic ridge and across the deep-ocean basin, the disappear beneath continents and island arcs.
- continental drift
- a hypothesis that proved that all the continents were once joined together in a single landmass and have since drifted apart. (Pangaea)
- seismograph
- an instrument for automatically detecting and recording the intensity, direction, and duration of a movement of the ground, especially of an earthquake
- epicenter
- point on Earth's surface directly above an earthquakes starting point
- Modified Mercalli Scale
- describes amount of damage caused by earthquakes, uses seismograph reading
- Ring of Fire
- 75% of the world's volcanoes. It is at a convergent plate boundary.
- plate
- It is large pieces of earth that move slowly through out time
- focus
- the location where earthquake movement first occurs
- plate tectonics
- the study of large scale movement and deformation of the earth's outer layers in terms of rigid plates over a partly molten layer of the upper mantle
- earthquake
- a shaking of the ground caused by sudden movements in the earth's crust
- crust
- the thin outermost layer of Earth