BALDON, QUEENIE A.

ECE 4-3
GLOBAL VOLCANISM AND MID-OCEAN RIDGES

Volcanism volcanic action or activity

Tectonic plate massive irregularly shaped slab of solid rock, generally
composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere
Continental drift the gradual movement of the continents across the
Earths surface through geological time
Ridge a long narrow hilltop, mountain range, or watershed
Mountain range geographic area containing numerous geologically
related mountains
Rift a deep crack or opening in the ground, or rock
Rift zone feature of some volcanoes, in which linear series of fissures in
the volcanic edifice allows lava to be erupted from the volcanos flank
instead from its summit
Rift valley a large elongated depression with steep walls formed by the
downward displacement of a block of the Earths surface between nearly
parallel faults or fault systems
Fissure a narrow opening or crack
Seabed also known as seafloor or ocean floor, is the bottom of the ocean
Mid-ocean ridge -an underwater mountain system formed by plate
tectonics
Oceanic spreading center characteristic of oceanic mountain ridge
responsible for seafloor spreading
Seafloor spreading process that occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where new
oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves
away from the ridge
Oceanic crust the uppermost layer of the oceanic portion of a tectonic
plate; result of the erupted mantle material originating from below the plate,
cooled and in most instances, modified chemically by seawater.
Ridge push or sliding plate force is a proposed mechanism for plate
motion in plate tectonics, occurs when the weight of the ridge pushes the
rest of the tectonic plate away from the ridge, often towards a subduction
zone
Slab pull portion of motion of a tectonic plate that can be accouted for by
its subduction.
Subduction zone region of the Earths crust where tectonic plates meet.
Convection the movement caused within a fluid by the tendency of hotter
and therefore less dense material to rise, and colder, denser material to sink
under the influence of gravity, which consequently results in transfer of heat
Convection currents a current in a fluid that results from a convection
Oceanic trenches hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic
depressions of the seafloor, also they are the deepest parts of the ocean
floor