Continental drift- Supercontinent Pangea broke and spread over time.

Continents are still

moving slowly across the Earth’s surface.

Plate tectonics- theory that suggests the lithosphere is made of separate plates that move with

respect to each other.

Bathymetry- the shape of the seafloor surface (variation in depth)

Abyssal Plains- flat regions that lie at a depth of 4-5 km below sea level.

Mid-Ocean Ridges- elongated submarine mountain ranges which peaks lie about 2-2.5 km

below sea level.

Fracture zones- narrow bands of vertical cracks and broken-up rock locally cut across mid-

ocean ridges.

Deep-sea Trenches- a deep, elongated trough bordering a volcanic arc, a trench defines the trace

of a convergent plate boundary.

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

boundary.

Seamounts- isolated submarine mountains

Seismic Belts- the relatively narrow strips of crust on the Earth at which most earthquakes occur.

Seafloor Spreading- the gradual widening of an ocean basin as new oceanic crust forms at a

mid-ocean ridge axis and then moves away from the axis.

Subduction- the process by which one oceanic plate bends and sinks down into the

asthenosphere beneath another plate.

Paleomagnetism- the record of ancient magnetism preserved in rock.

Magnetic declination- angle between the direction a compass needle points at a given location

and the direction of true north.

Magnetic inclination- angle between a magnetic needle free to a pivot on a horizontal axis and a

horizontal plane parallel to the Earth’s surface

Paleopole- the supposed position of the Earth’s magnetic pole in the past with respect to a

particular continent

Apparent polar-wander path- a path on the globe along which a magnetic pole appears to have

wandered over time, in fact the continents drift while the magnetic pole stays fixed.

Normal Polarity- polarity in which the paleomagnetic dipole has the same orientation as it does

today.

Reversed Polarity- polarity in which the paleomagnetic dipole points north.

Magnetic-reversed chronology- history of magnetic reversals through geologic time

Chron- time interval between successive magnetic reversals

Subchrons- the time interval between magnetic reversals if the interval is of short duration (less

than 200,000 years long