Plate Tectonic Dictionary

Abrasion: The grinding away of rock by other rock particles carried in water, ice, or wind.
Alluvial Fan: A wide, sloping deposit of sediment formed where a stream leaves a mountain
range.
Asthenosphere: The outer part of the mantle.
Batholiths: A mass of rock formed when a large body of magma cools inside the crust.
Beach: Wave-washed sediment along a coast.
Boundary: A place where two tectonic plates meet.
Caldera: The large hole at the top of a volcano formed when the roof of a volcano’s magma
chamber collapses.
Cinder Cone Volcano: A steep, cone-shaped hill or small mountain made of volcanic ash,
cinders, and bombs piled up around a volcano’s opening.
Climate Evidence: Evidence of glaciers found in places that are currently too warm to sustain
them.
Compression: Stress that squeezes rock until it folds or breaks.
Composite Volcano: A tall, cone-shaped mountain in which layers of lava alternate with layers
of ash.
Continental Drift: The hypothesis that the continents slowly move across Earth’s surface.
Continental Glacier: A glacier that covers much of a continent or large island.
Convection Currents: A circulation pattern in which material is heated and rises in one area,
then cools and sinks in another area, flowing in a continuous loop.
Convergent Boundary: A plate boundary where two plates move toward each other.
Core: The central part of the earth below the mantle.
Crater: A bowl-shaped area that forms around a volcano’s central opening.
Creep: Very slow downhill movement of rock and soil.
Crust: Earth’s outermost layer.
Delta: A landform made of sediment that is deposited where a river flows into an ocean or lake.

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Deep-ocean Trench: A deep valley along the ocean floor beneath which oceanic crust slowly
sinks toward the mantle.
Deflation: The process by which wind removes surface materials.
Deformation: The process by which the shape of a rock changes because of stress.
Deposition: Process in which sediment is laid down in new locations.
Dike: A slab of volcanic rock formed when magma forces itself across rock layers.
Divergent Boundary: A plate boundary where two plates move away from each other.
Dormant Volcano: Not currently active but able to become active in the future (as with a
volcano).
Earthquake: The shaking and trembling that results from movement of rock beneath Earth’s
surface.
Epicenter: The point on Earth’s surface directly above an earthquake’s focus.
Erosion: The process by which rock and soil are moved from place to place.
Extinct Volcano: A volcano that has not erupted for thousands of years and probably will not
erupt again.
Fault: A break in Earth’s crust along which rocks move.
Flood Plain: The flat, wide area of land along a river.
Focus: The point beneath Earth’s surface where rock first breaks under stress and causes an
earthquake.
Folding: The bending of rock layers due to stress.
Fossil: The preserved remains or traces of an organism that lived in the past.
Fossil Evidence: Any trace of an ancient organism that have been preserved in rock.
Geometric Evidence: The continents appeared to have once fit together like a puzzle.
Glacier: Any large mass of ice that moves slowly over land.
Glacier Erosion: Detachment and removal of soil material by ice.
Gravity: The force that moves rock and other materials downhill.
Groundwater: Water that fills the cracks and spaces in underground soil and rock layers.
Gully: A large channel in soil that carries runoff after a rainstorm.

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Headland: A part of the shore that sticks out into the ocean.
Hotspot: A location where volcanoes form far from plate boundaries.
Hypothesis: An educated guess.
Ice Age: Time is Earth’s history during which glaciers covered large parts of the surface.
Island Arc: A string of volcanoes that form as the results of subduction of one oceanic plate
beneath a second oceanic plate.
Karst Topography: A region in which a layer of limestone close to the surface creates deep
valleys, caverns, and sinkholes.
Kettle: A small depression that forms when a chunk of ice is left in glacial till.
Landslides: Occurs when rock and soil slide quickly down a steep slope.
Lava: Liquid magma that reaches the surface.
Lava Flow: The area covered by lava as it flows as it pours out of a volcano’s vent.
Lithosphere: Crust and the uppermost part of the mantle.
Loess: A wind-formed deposit made of fine particles of clay and silt.
Longshore Drift: The movement of water and sediment down a beach caused by waves coming
in to shore at an angle.
Magma: The molten mixture of rock-forming substances, gases, and water from the mantle.
Magma Chamber: The pocket beneath a volcano where magma collects.
Magnetic Reversal: When Earth’s magnetic poles change places.
Magnetic Stripping: Proves magnetic reversals in Earth’s core and continental drift theory.
Magnitude: The measurement of an earthquake’s strength based on seismic waves and
movement along faults.
Mantle: The layer of hot, solid material between Earth’s crust and core.
Mass Movement: Any one of several processes by which gravity moves sediment downhill.
Meander: A looplike bend in the course of a river.
Mid-ocean Ridge: An undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced; a divergent
plate boundary under the ocean.
Modified Mercalli Scale: A scale that rates the amount of shaking from an earthquake.

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Moment Magnitude Scale: A scale that rates earthquakes by estimating the total energy
released by an earthquake.
Moraine: A ridge formed by the till deposited at the edge of a glacier.
Mountain Evidence: Mountain chains line up on a different continent.
Mountain Range: A series of connected mountains.
Mudflows: The rapid downhill movement of a mixture of water, rock, and soil.
Normal Fault: A type of fault where the hanging wall slides downward; caused by tension in the
crust.
Normal Polarity: Where the magnetic north points towards the geographic north pole.
Ocean Basin: Areas that are below sea level.
Ocean Crust: A thick mass of igneous rock which lies under the ocean.
Oxbow Lake: A meander cut off from a river.
P Wave: A type of seismic wave that compresses and expands the ground.
Pangaea: The name of the single landmass that began to break apart 200 million years ago and
gave rise to today’s continents.
Pipe: A long tube through which magma moves from the magma chamber to Earth’s surface.
Plate: A section of the lithosphere that slowly moves over the asthenosphere, carrying pieces of
continental and oceanic crust.
Plate Tectonics: The theory that pieces of Earth’s lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by
convection currents in the mantle.
Plateau: A large landform that has high elevation and a more or less level surface.
Plucking: The process by which a glacier picks up rocks as it flows over the land.
Pyroclastic Flow: The flow of ash, cinders, bombs, and gases down the side of a volcano during
an explosive eruption.
Reverse Fault: A type of fault where the hanging all slides upward, caused by compression in
the crust.
Reversed Polarity: Magnetic field that points south.
Richter Scale: A scale that rates an earthquake’s magnitude based on the size of its seismic
waves.

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Ridge Push: When the force of gravity moves a plate downward and away from a ridge.
Rift Valley: A deep valley that forms where two plates move apart.
Rill: A tiny groove in soil made by flowing water.
Ring of Fire: A major belt of volcanoes that rims the Pacific Ocean.
Runoff: Water that flows over the ground surface rather than soaking into the ground.
S Wave: A type of seismic wave in which the shaking is perpendicular to the direction of the
wave.
Sand Dune: A deposit of wind-blown sand.
Sea-floor Spreading: The process by which molten material adds new oceanic crust to the ocean
floor.
Sediment: Consist of pieces of rock or soil, or the remains of organisms.
Seismogram: The record of an earthquake’s seismic waves produced by a seismograph.
Seismograph: A device that records ground movements causes by seismic waves as they move
through Earth.
Shearing: Stress that pushes masses of rock in opposite directions, in a sideways movement.
Shield Volcano: A wide, gently sloping mountain made of layers of lava and formed by quiet
eruptions.
Silica: A material found in magma that is formed from the elements oxygen and silicon; it is the
primary substance of Earth’s crust and mantle.
Sill: A volcanic rock formed when magma squeezes between layers of rock.
Slab Pull: The pulling of a tectonic plate as its edge subducts deep into the mantle.
Slumps: A mass of rock and soil suddenly slips down a slope.
Sonar: A device that scientists use to map the ocean floor.
Spit: A beach formed by longshore drift that projects like a finger out into the water.
Stalactite: An icicle-like structure that hangs from the ceiling of a cavern.
Stalagmite: A column like form that grows upward from the floor of a cavern.
Stream: A channel through water is continually flowing downhill.
Stress: A force that acts on rock to change its shape or volume.

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Strike-slip Fault: A type of fault in which rocks on either side move past each other sideways
with little up or down motion.
Subduction: The process by which oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back
into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary.
Subsidence: Sinking of the ground.
Surface Wave: A type of seismic wave that forms when P waves and S waves reach Earth’s
surface.
Tectonic Plates: Like pieces of a puzzle.
Tension: Stress that stretches rock so that it becomes thinner in the middle.
Theory: A well tested explanation of natural events.
Till: The sediments deposited directly by a glacier.
Transform Boundary: A plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite
directions.
Trench: Dug out by both sides.
Tributary: A stream or river that flows into a larger river.
Tsunami: A huge destructive wave (especially one caused by an earthquake).
Underwater Mountain Range: Long, continuous volcanic chain of various mountains along an
oceanic ridge.
Valley Glacier: A long, narrow glacier that forms when snow and ice buildup in a mountain
valley.
Vent: The opening through which molten rock and gas leave a volcano.
Volcanic Neck: A deposit of hardened magma in a volcano’s pipe.
Volcano: A weak spot in the crust where magma comes to the surface.
Water Erosion: Detachment and removal of soil material by water.
Wind Erosion: Detachment and removal of soil material by wind.