Flashcards › Plate Tectonics Vocab

seismic wave vibration that travels through Earth carrying energy from earthquakes pressure is the force pushing on a surface or area crust is a layer of rock that forms Earth's outer skin mantle layer of hot rock lithosphere uppermost part of mantle crust together asthenosphere soft layer, below lithosphere outer core is a layer of molten metal that surrounds the inner core inner core is a dense ball of solid metal heat transfer movement of energy from a warmer object to a cooler object radiation transfer of energy through empty space conduction heat transfer by direct contact of particles of matter convection is heat transfer by the movement of a heated liquid plate tectonics is the geological theory that states that pieces of Earth's lithosphere are in constant motion subduction is the process by which the ocean floor sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and into the mantle mid-ocean ridge the longest chain of mountains in the world faults breaks in Earth's crust where rocks have slipped past each other density is a measure of how much mass there is in a volume of a substance trench forms where the oceanic crust bends downward geologist scientist who studies the Earth