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Earth Science Vocabulary

Part II: Plate Tectonics & Volcanism

Across

6. lava extruded beneath water characterized by pillow-type shapes.

8. a thickened elevated region of Earth's crust that is mainly (but not entirely) above sea level.

10. rigid parts of the Earth's crust and part of the Earth's upper mantle that move and adjoin each other along zones of seismic activity.

12. bent rock strata.

13. a layer of sedimentary rock; plural is strata.

15. the initial point within the Earth that ruptures in an earthquake, directly below the epicenter.

17. a plate boundary in which plates on opposite sides of the boundary move past each other in opposite directions.

19. the ocean floor.

20. applies to igneous rocks that cool on the surface of the Earth, including beneath water; typically with small crystals due to the rapidity of cooling. Synonym of extrusive. Antonym of plutonic.

21. a boundary where two plates collide to form mountains.

22. a boundary where two plates are moving in opposite directions as in a mid-ocean ridge.

23. any place where bedrock is visible on the surface of the Earth.

Down

1. the Earth's crust that includes both the continents and the continental shelves.

2. elongated rises on the ocean floor where basalt periodically erupts, forming new oceanic crust.

3. the process by which ocean floors spread laterally from crests of main ocean ridges.

4. a boundary where one plate slides beneath another plate as the two are pushed together, a subduction zone.

5. the point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake.

7. crust the Earth's crust which is formed at mid-oceanic ridges, typically 5 to 10 kilometers thick.

9. living on land.

11. applies to igneous rocks formed beneath the surface of the Earth; typically with large crystals due to the slowness of cooling. Synonym of intrusive. Antonym of volcanic.

14. a fracture or zone of fractures along the boundaries of tectonic plates.

16. the process of one plate descending beneath another.

18. deep steep-sided depression in the ocean floor caused by subduction