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Continental drift
hypothesis stating that the continents once formed a single landmass, broke up, and drifted into their present locations
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Continent-Continent Collision
neither plate is subducted, because they have the same density, so the colliding edges are crumpled and uplifted, producing large mountain ridges including the Himalayas
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Uniformitarianism
the theory that all geologic phenomena may be explained as the result of existing forces having operated uniformly from the origin of the earth to the present time
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Convergent
border formed by the collision of two lithospheric plates, creates deep ocean trenches
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Wegener's theory
wegener found identical fossil on both eastern South America and western Africa, and since they couldn't have swam all that way and there weren't any known land bridges, they must have been connected at some point.
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Mid-ocean Ridges
- caused by sea floor spreading, magma emerges from rift to create new rocks
- system of undersea mountain ridges that wind around the earth
- Evidence of plate movement
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Divergent
boundary formed by two lithospheric plates that are moving apart
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Transform or Strike-Slipe or Lateral Fault
boundary formed where 2 lithospheric plates slide past each other (San Andreas)
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Ocean-Continent Collisions
a collision where the less dense oceanic crust is subducted under the denser continental crust
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Oceans crust is rich with what rock?
basalt
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Continental crust composed of what rock type?
felsic
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Unconformities
Gaps in the rock record
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Subduction zones
zone where younger plates are recycles, go under the firmer, denser older plate because the younger is more malleable
- - the volcanowill be on the overriding plate, younger plate causes partial melting and
- pushes magma up
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Paleomagnetic Reversal
polarization recorded in rocks show that polarity has reversed multiple times
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