What causes continental drift quizlet?

a current caused by the rising of heated fluid and sinking of cooled fluid. The earth’s crust and upper mantle are made of huge plates slowly drifting because of convection currents in the mantle.

What causes continental drift?

The causes of continental drift are perfectly explained by the plate tectonic theory. The earth’s outer shell is composed of plates that move a little bit every year. Heat coming from the interior of the earth triggers this movement to occur through convection currents inside the mantle.

What is the continental drift quizlet?

continental drift. The hypothesis that states that the continents once formed a single landmass, broke up, and drifted to their present locations.

What causes the continental plate to move quizlet?

convection currents are a process in which the materials inside the mantle heat up and rise to the surface whilst the cooler liquid sinks; as it sinks it then heats up and rises again. This continuous cycle is established: hot liquid rising, cold liquid descending. These currents cause the tectonic plates to move.

What are the 5 evidences of continental drift?

They based their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence: fit of the continents, paleoclimate indicators, truncated geologic features, and fossils.

What is continental drift in geography?

Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth’s continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have “drifted” across the ocean bed.

What energy causes continental drift?

Drifting of the large tectonic plates and the superimposed continents is not only powered by the heat-driven convection processes in the Earth’s mantle, but rather retroacts on this internal driving processes.

How are continents formed?

The emergence of plate tectonic theory

According to Wegener’s theory, Earth’s continents once formed a single, giant landmass, which he called Pangaea. Over millions of years, Pangaea slowly broke apart, eventually forming the continents as they are today.

What force causes the movement of Earth’s plates?

Heat and gravity are fundamental to the process

The energy source for plate tectonics is Earth’s internal heat while the forces moving the plates are the “ridge push” and “slab pull” gravity forces. It was once thought that mantle convection could drive plate motions.

What is the primary cause for continental drift earthquakes and volcanic eruptions?

The lithosphere is actually broken up into several large pieces, or plates. They “float” on a softer mantle layer called the asthenosphere. Their very slow motion is the cause of plate tectonics, a process associated with continental drift, earthquakes, volcanoes, and the formation of mountains.

What is the primary cause for continental drift earthquakes and volcanic eruptions Quizizz?

Lithospheric plates are destroyed at the mid-ocean ridges. Continents drift because they rest on lithospheric plates that move. Lithospheric plates move because the inner core of the Earth is liquid.

How do fossils explain continental drift?

One type of evidence that strongly supported the Theory of Continental Drift is the fossil record. Fossils of similar types of plants and animals in rocks of a similar age have been found on the shores of different continents, suggesting that the continents were once joined.

What is the primary cause of volcanoes and earthquakes quizlet?

The movement of molten rock in the mantle causes convection currents which makes the plates move. The study of these plates is called plate tectonics. Most earthquakes and volcanoes eruptions take place at plate boundaries.

What is causing the distribution of volcanoes along southern Indonesia quizlet?

The volcanoes of Indonesia are formed due to subduction zones between the Eurasian Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate.

How do volcanoes form?

On land, volcanoes form when one tectonic plate moves under another. Usually a thin, heavy oceanic plate subducts, or moves under, a thicker continental plate. When this happens, the ocean plate sinks into the mantle.

How do volcanoes form and erupt?

A volcano is formed when hot molten rock, ash and gases escape from an opening in the Earth’s surface. The molten rock and ash solidify as they cool, forming the distinctive volcano shape shown here. As a volcano erupts, it spills lava that flows downslope. Hot ash and gases are thrown into the air.

What are the 3 main causes of volcanic eruptions?

Although there are several factors triggering a volcanic eruption, three predominate: the buoyancy of the magma, the pressure from the exsolved gases in the magma and the injection of a new batch of magma into an already filled magma chamber.

What causes underwater volcanoes to erupt?

Volcanoes seem to erupt when ocean tides are at their lowest point due to the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. The timing corresponds to the six months of the year when the planet is drawing away from the sun, which loses its influence on the tides.

How do volcanoes formed what are its two main process?

Volcanoes form here in two settings where either oceanic plate descends below another oceanic plate or an oceanic plate descends below a continental plate. This process is called subduction and creates distinctive types of volcanoes depending on the setting: ocean-ocean subduction produces an island-arc volcano.

What plate boundary causes volcanoes?

convergent plate boundaries

Volcanoes are most common in these geologically active boundaries. The two types of plate boundaries that are most likely to produce volcanic activity are divergent plate boundaries and convergent plate boundaries. At a divergent boundary, tectonic plates move apart from one another.

Which is responsible for the movement of large plates and formation of volcanoes?

The movement of these tectonic plates is likely caused by convection currents in the molten rock in Earth’s mantle below the crust. Earthquakes and volcanoes are the short-term results of this tectonic movement. The long-term result of plate tectonics is the movement of entire continents over millions of years (Fig.

What boundary causes mountains?

convergent plate boundaries

Mountains are usually formed at what are called convergent plate boundaries, meaning a boundary at which two plates are moving towards one another. This type of boundary eventually results in a collision.

How do tectonic plates cause earthquakes?

The tectonic plates are always slowly moving, but they get stuck at their edges due to friction. When the stress on the edge overcomes the friction, there is an earthquake that releases energy in waves that travel through the earth’s crust and cause the shaking that we feel.

How do plate tectonics cause continental formation?

Plate motions cause mountains to rise where plates push together, or converge, and continents to fracture and oceans to form where plates pull apart, or diverge. The continents are embedded in the plates and drift passively with them, which over millions of years results in significant changes in Earth’s geography.

What are the 3 main causes of earthquakes?

5 Main Causes of Earthquakes

• Volcanic Eruptions. The main cause of the earthquake is volcanic eruptions.
• Tectonic Movements. The surface of the earth consists of some plates, comprising of the upper mantle. …
• Geological Faults. …
• Man-Made. …
• Minor Causes.