Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics

Discover Earth's moving plates! Our Plate Tectonics worksheet explains continental drift, Pangea, and boundaries.

Word Definition Continental Drift The theory that says the continents move slowly and were once all together in a super continent. Alfred Wegener The scientist who hypothesized about continental drift. Pangea The name of the supercontinent. Plates Uneven pieces of the lithosphere. Subduction When gravity pulls denser plate edges down back into the mantle and the rest of the plate moves also. Faults Breaks in Earth's crust where rocks have slipped past each other. They form along plate boundaries. Divergent Boundaries Plates moving slowly away from each other Most occur along mid-ocean ridges where new crust is added during sea floor spreading Rift Valleys form where these boundaries occur on land. Convergent Boundaries Plates moving towards each other. At this boundary, ocean crust can push up continental crust. Two plates carrying continental crust squeeze into mountains. Transform Boundaries Where two plates slip past each other. Earthquakes occur when plates suddenly slip along this type of boundary At these boundaries, plates grab hold and "lock" into place below the surface. How did Wegener use fossils, climate, and land features to support his hypothesis of continental drift? Which theory describes the motion of and force driving Earth's plates? First Law of Motion Third Law of Motion Continental Drift Plate Tectonics The San Andreas Fault is an example of which kind of boundary? Transform Divergent Oceanic Convergent Which feature forms at convergent boundaries? Mountain Range Trench Rift Valley Mid-Ocean Ridge True Earth's plates meet atboundaries. Breaks in the crust called faults form where plates meet. Arift valley forms where plates diverge on land. Pangea is thesupercontinent that Wegener suggested occurred on Earth about 300 million years ago. Wegener used evidence from land features, fossils, andclimate to support his theory of continental drift. False Plates slide past each other at convergent boundaries. Ocean currents drive Earth's plates. Mosttransform boundaries where plates move apart occur along the mid-ocean ridges. Oceanic drift is the idea that the continents slowly move over Earth's surface. Most geologists of Wegener's time accepted Wegener's idea of drifting continents.