What are the similarities and differences between continental and oceanic crust?

Oceanic and Continental crusts are alike because they both shift and move and grow. They differ by there rock types. Oceanic crust is made up of dense basalt while continental crust is made up of less dense granite.

What is the similarities and differences of oceanic and continental crust?

Continental crust is low in density whereas oceanic crust has a higher density. Continental crust is thicker, on the contrary, the oceanic crust is thinner. Continental crust floats on magma freely but oceanic crust floats on magma scarcely. Continental crust cannot recycle whereas oceanic crust can recycle it.

What is the difference between the continental crust and oceanic crust?

It is the solid rock layer upon which we live. It is either continental or oceanic. Continental crust is typically 30-50 km thick, whilst oceanic crust is only 5-10 km thick. Oceanic crust is denser, can be subducted and is constantly being destroyed and replaced at plate boundaries.

What are the similarities between continental and oceanic crust?

Oceanic and Continental crusts are alike because they both shift and move and grow. They differ by there rock types. Oceanic crust is made up of dense basalt while continental crust is made up of less dense granite.

What are the differences between continental and oceanic plates?

Continental plates are much thicker that Oceanic plates. At the convergent boundaries the continental plates are pushed upward and gain thickness. The rocks and geological layers are much older on continental plates than in the oceanic plates. The Continental plates are much less dense than the Oceanic plates.

How continental and oceanic crust differ quizlet?

The oceanic crust is thinner and denser, and is similar in composition to basalt (Si, O, Ca, Mg, and Fe). The continental crust is thicker and less dense, and is similar to granite in composition (Si, O, Al, K, and Na). The mantle is made of magnesium, iron and silicon.

How do continental crust and oceanic crust differ quizlet?

Continental crust is thicker than oceanic crust; continental crust is less dense than oceanic crust; the oldest continental crust is older than the oldest oceanic crust; plus the continental crust is composed of a variety of rock types, whereas oceanic crust is composed of basalt and gabbro.

What is the main difference between oceanic oceanic crust convergence and oceanic continental crust convergence?

Continental plates are much thicker that Oceanic plates. At the convergent boundaries the continental plates are pushed upward and gain thickness. The rocks and geological layers are much older on continental plates than in the oceanic plates. The Continental plates are much less dense than the Oceanic plates.

How do the differences between continental and oceanic crust affect the way plates interact?

Differences in Formative Process

Continental plates, meanwhile, are formed primarily by convergent plate boundaries. These zones represent areas where oceanic plates collide with and plunge underneath continental plates – a process called subduction. As oceanic plates subduct, they melt to form magma.

Is oceanic plate and oceanic crust the same?

Oceanic crust is the uppermost layer of the oceanic portion of the tectonic plates. It is composed of the upper oceanic crust, with pillow lavas and a dike complex, and the lower oceanic crust, composed of troctolite, gabbro and ultramafic cumulates. The crust overlies the solidified and uppermost layer of the mantle.

What are the main differences between oceanic and continental lithosphere?

Oceanic lithosphere is typically about 50-100 km thick (but beneath the mid-ocean ridges is no thicker than the crust). The continental lithosphere is thicker (about 150 km). It consists of about 50 km of crust and 100 km or more of the uppermost mantle.

What is the relationship between the crust and lithosphere quizlet?

What is the relationship between the crust and the lithosphere? All of the crust is contained within a larger layer called the lithosphere.

What is the oceanic crust?

Oceanic crust is the part of the Earth’s crust that makes up the seafloor. It’s thinner, denser, and simpler in structure than the continental crust. Oceanic crust is also younger, on average; from its birth at a mid-ocean ridge to its end at a subduction zone is no more than 250 million years.

Is oceanic crust denser than continental?

Oceanic crust is generally composed of dark-colored rocks called basalt and gabbro. It is thinner and denser than continental crust, which is made of light-colored rocks called andesite and granite.

Why is oceanic crust younger than continental?

The oceanic crust is younger than the continental crust, largely because of subduction. The oceanic crust can be destroyed or recycled by divergent plate boundaries and convergent boundaries through which subduction occurs. Moreover, when two tectonic plates collide, they push the oceanic crust to the mantle.

Is continental crust older than oceanic?

Continental crust is almost always much older than oceanic crust. Because continental crust is rarely destroyed and recycled in the process of subduction, some sections of continental crust are nearly as old as the Earth itself.

Why is oceanic crust thinner than continental crust?

The oceanic crust is thin, relatively young and uncomplicated compared to the continental crust, and chemically magnesium-rich compared to continental material. The oceanic crust is the product of partial melting of the mantle at the mid-ocean ridges: it is the cooled and crystallized melt fraction.

Why continental and oceanic crusts differ in their density?

Because continental crust is less dense than oceanic crust it floats higher on the mantle, just like a piece of Styrofoam floats higher on water than a piece of wood does. The mantle, oceanic crust and continental crust have different densities because they are made of different kinds of rock with different densities.

Why is oceanic crust basaltic?

Magmas generated by melting of Earth’s mantle rise up below the oceanic crust and erupt on Earth’s surface at mid-ocean ridge systems, the longest mountain ranges in the world. When the magma cools it forms basalt, the planet’s most-common rock and the basis for oceanic crust.