Basic Principles of Plate Tectonics:

The Earth’s lithosphere is divided into plates that move relative to one another. As a plate

moves, its internal area remains mostly, but not perfectly, rigid, and intact.

The motion of one plate relative to its neighbor takes place by slip along boundaries.

Continents are parts of some plates, and as these plates move, the continents move with

them. (This movement is the “drift” that Wegener recognized but couldn’t explain.)

Because of plate tectonics, the map of Earth’s Surface constantly changes.

Identifying Plate Boundaries:

Focus- the spot of an earthquake where the fault slips.

Epicenter- marks the point on the surface of the Earth directly above the focus.

Seismic Belts- define the positions of plate boundaries because the fracturing and sliding

that take place along these boundaries as plates move generate earthquakes.

Plate Interiors- regions away from plate boundaries remain relatively earthquake free.

Divergent Boundary- A boundary at which two lithosphere plates move apart from each other,

they are marked by mid-ocean ridges.

Black Smoker- cloud of suspended minerals formed where hot water spews out of a vent along a

mid-ocean ridge, the dissolved sulfide components of the hot water instantly precipitate when the

water mixes with seawater and cools.

Convergent Boundary- a surface across which two plates move toward each other so that one

plate sinks (subducts) beneath the other, only oceanic lithosphere can subduct.
Subduction- the process by which one oceanic plate bends and sinks down into the

asthenosphere beneath another plate.

Trench- a deep, elongated trough bordering a volcanic arc, a trench defines the trace of a

convergent plate boundary.

Wadati-Benioff Zone- a sloping band of seismicity defined by intermediate and deep focus

earthquakes that occur in the down going slab of a convergent boundary.

Accretionary Prism- a wedge-shaped mass of sediment and rock scraped off the top of a down

going plate accreted onto the overriding plate at a convergent plate margin.

Volcanic Arc- a curving chain of active volcanoes formed adjacent to a convergent plate

boundary.

Volcanic Island Arc- forms on the edge of the overriding plate where one oceanic plate subducts

beneath another oceanic plate.

Fracture Zone- a narrow band of vertical fractures in the ocean floor, fracture zones lie roughly

at right angles to a mid-ocean ridge, and the actively slipping part of a fracture zone is a

transform fault.

Transform Boundary- a boundary at which one lithosphere plate slips laterally past another.

Triple Junction- a point where three lithosphere plate boundaries intersect.

Hot Spots- a location at the base of the lithosphere where temperatures can cause melting and

igneous activity, it may be due to a mantle plume.

Mantle Plume- a column of very hot rock that rises through the mantle.
Continental Rift- a linear belt along which continental lithosphere stretches and pulls apart.

Rifting- the process by which continental lithosphere stretches horizontally and thins vertically.

Suture- the contact defining the boundary of what were two separate crustal blocks, prior to

collisions.

Collision- the process of two buoyant pieces of lithosphere converging and squashing together.

Upwelling- the upward flow of fluid

Downwelling- The downward movement of a volume of moving material, downwelling in the

mantle carries cooler, denser mantle to greater depth, downwelling in the sea carries water from

shallower depths to deeper depths.

Ridge-Push Force- a process in which gravity causes the elevated lithosphere at a mid-ocean

ridge axis to push on the lithosphere that lies farther from the axis, making it move away.

Slab-Pull Force- the force that down going plates or slabs apply to oceanic lithosphere at a

convergent margin.

Relative Plate Velocity- the movement of one lithosphere plate with respect to another

Absolute Plate Velocity- the movement of a plate relative to a fixed point in the mantle