RLNI+1.5

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Vocabulary

 * Plates**: the lithosphere is broken into seperate sections
 * Scientific Theory**: a well tested concept that explains a wide range of observations
 * Plate Tectonics**: geological theory that states the pieces of earth's lithosphere are in constant, slow motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle
 * Faults**: breaks in earth's crust where rocks have slipped past each other
 * Transform Boundary**: place where two plates slip past each other, moving in opposite directions
 * Divergent Boundary**: place where two plates move apart
 * Convergent Boundary**: place where two plates come together
 * Rift Valley**: deep valley that forms along the divergent boundary

Outline

 * Theory of Plate Motion**


 * Wilson combined what the geologists knew about sea floor spreading, and all the other lessons about the earth into a single theory which is the theory of plate tectonics
 * explains the subduction, formation, and movement of Earth's plates
 * convection currents rise in the asthenosphere and spreads out beneath the lithosphere
 * change produces in earth's surface
 * volcanoes
 * mountain ranges
 * deep sea trenches
 * Plate Boundaries**


 * 3 types of plate boundaries are: transform, divergent, and convergent boundaries
 * Transform boundary is a place where two plates slip past each other, moving in opposite directions
 * Divergent boundary is where two plates move apart
 * Convergent boundary is where two plate come together
 * The Continent's Slow Dance
 * the plates move at a really slow rate, about 1-10 centimeters per year
 * long ago continents were joined together, forming a supercontinent Wegener called Pangaea
 * Later, Pangaea broke apart