Plate Tectonics

Mountains, Volcanoes, & Earthquakes

SOL 5.7 Study Guide

ANSWER KEY

HISTORY
 1. Earth’s surface is not a single piece of rock. Instead, it is made up of many PLATES.

2. There are many tectonic plates on earth but only about 7 to 12 huge plates. The largest include

the African Plate, Antarctic Plate, Eurasian Plate, Indo-Australian Plate, North American Plate,

Pacific Plate, South American Plate.

3. Earth’s plates fit together like the pieces of a JIGSAW PUZZLE.

4. Scientific evidence suggests that 225 million years ago, all of the land masses of earth were

locked together as a great supercontinent called PANGAEA.

5. As time passed, some force pulled the supercontinent apart and the continents slowly moved to

the positions they are in today. This idea is known as the theory of CONTINENTAL DRIFT.

PLATE TECTONICS
6. The plates are enormous and they actually FLOAT on the soft rock of the MANTLE.

7. Plate movement is very SLOW - only a few CENTIMETERS each year.

8. The movement of one plate AFFECTS other plates.

9. Describe three ways that plates interact with one another.

 PUSH TOGETHER (collide/converge)

 PULL APART (diverge)
 SLIDE/SCRAPE
10. These interactions cause great changes in the Earth’s LANDFORMS.

11. When plates COLLIDE, it is called a CONVERGENT BOUNDARY. Here, energy is released

and new landforms are produced. On land, MOUNTAINS rise and VOLCANOES erupt. On the

ocean floor, deep TRENCHES form.

12. When plates PULL APART, it is called a DIVERGENT BOUNDARY. On land, VALLEYS

develop. Under the sea, RIDGES and MOUNTAINS form.

 13. When plates SLIDE or SCRAPE, it is called a TRANSFORM BOUNDARY. They shake the

Earth’s surface. As they grind past each other, they sometimes slip, causing EARTHQUAKES.

MOUNTAINS
14. Mountains are Earth’s HIGHEST landforms. They form as the crust folds, cracks, and bends

UPWARD because of the movements of Earth’s plates.

15. At some places, continental and oceanic plates COLLIDE. The continental rock is less DENSE

than seafloor rock, so it moves up and over the oceanic rock.

16. Plates that pull apart leave gaps between them and MAGMA builds up along the cracks, forming

long chains of mountains under the ocean called MID-OCEAN RIDGES.

VOLCANOES
17. Mountains formed by lava and ash are called VOLCANOES.

18. Lava is MAGMA that reaches Earth’s surface and ash is small pieces of hardened LAVA.

19. A circle of volcanoes that surrounds the Pacific Ocean is known as the RING OF FIRE.

EARTHQUAKES
20. Earthquakes are very common and more than a MILLION occur each year. However, most are

too small to be felt or to cause damage.

21. Many earthquakes occur along the boundaries of the PACIFIC plate and along FAULTS in the

crust.

22. Scientists measure the strengths of earthquakes with an instrument called a SEISMOGRAPH.