What is the difference between the continental drift theory and plate tectonics theory?
The theory of continental drift suggests that all the land masses on earth were once part of one supercontinent. Plate tectonics is the ability to measure the movement of land masses.
What is the importance of understanding the mechanism of tectonic plates?
Plate tectonics ensures that there are important exchanges of material between high and low temperature reservoirs (e.g., midocean ridges) and provides a mechanism of returning surface material to the mantle of the Earth (e.g., subduction zones).
What is the mechanism for plate movement quizlet?
The unequal distribution of heat within Earth causes the thermal convection in the mantle that ultimately drives plate motion.
What are the main drivers of plate motion quizlet?
The main driver of plate tectonics is heat.
How does ridge push drive the motion of tectonic plates quizlet?
Ridge push or sliding plate force is a proposed mechanism for plate motion in plate tectonics. Because mid-ocean ridges lie at a higher elevation than the rest of the ocean floor, gravity causes the ridge to push on the lithosphere that lies farther from the ridge. The force is called ridge push.
What is ridge push and slab pull quizlet?
The process that results when magma rises at a mid-ocean ridge and pushes oceanic plates in two different directions away from the ridge. Slab pull. The process that results when a dense oceanic plate sinks beneath a more buoyant plate along a subduction zone, pulling the rest of the plate that trails behind it.
Which of the following is considered the most important driving factor for plate tectonics?
Heat is continuously flowing outward from Earth’s interior, and the transfer of heat from the core to the mantle causes convection in the mantle (Figure 1.7). This convection is the primary driving force for the movement of tectonic plates.
What are the main theory of plate tectonics?
The theory of plate tectonics states that the Earth’s solid outer crust, the lithosphere, is separated into plates that move over the asthenosphere, the molten upper portion of the mantle. Oceanic and continental plates come together, spread apart, and interact at boundaries all over the planet.
What are the three types of tectonic plates Class 9?
The movement of the plates creates three types of tectonic boundaries: convergent, where plates move into one another; divergent, where plates move apart; and transform, where plates move sideways in relation to each other.