Sedimentary Rock
Forms when particles from other rocks or the remains of plants and animals are pressed and cemented together
Subduction
Oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trenches and back into the mantle (occurs at a convergent boundary)
Convergent Boundary
Two plates move toward each other
Divergent Boundary
Two plates move away from each other. A rift valley is formed along this boundary.
Transform Boundary
Two plates slide past each other
Convection
Heat transfer by movement of a fluid
Igneous Rock
Type of rock that forms from the cooling molten rock at or below the surface (granite, basalt, pumice)
Metamorphic Rock
Forms from an existing rock that is changed by heat, pressure, or chemical reactions
Erosion
Process where an igneous rock changes to a sedimentary rock
Alfred Wegener
First person to explain the theory of continental drift. It was rejected because he could not explain the force that pushes or pulls the continents
Mechanical Weathering
Causes most weathering rock in Connecticut
Sea-floor spreading
Process that adds new material to the ocean floor (occurs at a divergent boundary) Molten material beneath the surface rises and erupts - Older rock moves outward - Molten material cools and forms a strip of solid rock
Folds
Caused when Earth's crust is squeezed together by the movement of tectonic plates
Faults
Breaks in Earth's crust where rocks have slipped past each other
Plate boundaries
Put stress on rocks which cause earthquakes
Reverse Fault
Hanging wall moves up
Crust
Layer of rock that forms on Earth's outer skin
Mantle
Solid, hot plastic like rock, convection currents occur here
Outer core
Liquid molten rock. Convection currents occur here
Inner Core
Solid
Normal Fault
Hanging wall slips down to the footwall
Strike-slip Fault
Slide past each other
Shearing
Stress that pushes a mass of rock in two opposite directions
Lava
Magma that reaches the Earth's surface
Compression
Squeezes rock until it folds or breaks
Tension
Pulls on the crust, stretching the rock so that it becomes thinner in the middle