What provides evidence of plate tectonics?
Modern continents hold clues to their distant past. Evidence from fossils, glaciers, and complementary coastlines helps reveal how the plates once fit together. Fossils tell us when and where plants and animals once existed.
Which of the following is evidence of plate tectonics quizlet?
There is a great deal of scientific evidence in support of plate tectonics. Coastlines on opposite continents appear to fit together like puzzle pieces, indicating that they were once joined. Rock and fossils found in South America match those found in Africa, although there is an ocean in between.
What are the 5 evidences of plate movements?
Evidence for Plate Tectonics
- Shape of continents. From almost the creation of the first true maps of the Earth, people started seeing how continents would be able to fit together. …
- Location of mountains and fossils. …
- Earthquakes and Volcanoes. …
- Hot Spot Volcanoes.
Dec 22, 2016
What is the strongest piece of evidence for plate tectonics?
Stripes of magnetic material in the seafloor provide strong evidence for tectonic theory. The stripes alternate between those with magnetic material orientated toward magnetic north, and those oriented in the opposite direction. Seafloor spreading is the mechanism behind this phenomenon.
Which of the following provides evidence for plate tectonics and the theory of continental drift?
The distribution of fossils is used as evidence for plate tectonics. The distribution of four different fossil organisms over three different continents is shown in the diagram.
Which of the following best describes the theory of plate tectonics?
Which of the following best describes Plate Tectonics? A theory explaining the structure of the Earth's crust and plate movement.
Are earthquakes evidence of plate tectonics?
Earthquakes occur along fault lines, cracks in Earth's crust where tectonic plates meet. They occur where plates are subducting, spreading, slipping, or colliding. As the plates grind together, they get stuck and pressure builds up.
What evidence did scientists use for continental drift?
The four pieces of evidence for the continental drift include continents fitting together like a puzzle, scattering ancient fossils, rocks, mountain ranges, and the old climatic zones' locations.
How do mountains provide evidence of past plate motion?
Sheared-up mountain ridges and valleys form in a narrow zone where one plate slides past another at a transform plate boundary. And a mountain chain of volcanoes forms where a plate rides over a hotspot; the volcanoes get older and lower as the plate moves them away from the hotspot.
Which of the following is part of tectonic plates?
In plate tectonics, Earth's outermost layer, or lithosphere—made up of the crust and upper mantle—is broken into large rocky plates. These plates lie on top of a partially molten layer of rock called the asthenosphere.
What is plate tectonics?
A tectonic plate (also called lithospheric plate) is a massive, irregularly shaped slab of solid rock, generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere. Plate size can vary greatly, from a few hundred to thousands of kilometers across; the Pacific and Antarctic Plates are among the largest.
What are the two main factors of tectonic plates movement?
Heat and gravity are fundamental to the process The energy source for plate tectonics is Earth's internal heat while the forces moving the plates are the “ridge push” and “slab pull” gravity forces.
What is the theory of plate tectonics?
Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into large slabs of solid rock, called “plates,” that glide over Earth's mantle, the rocky inner layer above Earth's core. Earth's solid outer layer, which includes the crust and the uppermost mantle, is called the lithosphere.
What are the 5 evidences of continental drift theory?
They based their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence: fit of the continents, paleoclimate indicators, truncated geologic features, and fossils.
How are earthquakes evidence of plate tectonics?
Earthquakes occur along fault lines, cracks in Earth's crust where tectonic plates meet. They occur where plates are subducting, spreading, slipping, or colliding. As the plates grind together, they get stuck and pressure builds up. Finally, the pressure between the plates is so great that they break loose.
What are the 3 theories of plate tectonics?
The three types of plate boundaries are divergent, convergent, and transform.
What is the evidence for continental drift and plate tectonics?
Fossil Evidence One type of evidence that strongly supported the Theory of Continental Drift is the fossil record. Fossils of similar types of plants and animals in rocks of a similar age have been found on the shores of different continents, suggesting that the continents were once joined.
What is the theory of plate tectonics quizlet?
Plate Tectonics. A theory that states that pieces of Earth's lithosphere are in slow constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle. Fault. Breaks in the Earth's crust where rocks have slipped past each other.
What are the 4 evidences of continental drift?
The four pieces of evidence for the continental drift include continents fitting together like a puzzle, scattering ancient fossils, rocks, mountain ranges, and the old climatic zones' locations.
What are the 5 evidences of continental drift?
They based their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence: fit of the continents, paleoclimate indicators, truncated geologic features, and fossils.
Which is part of the theory of plate tectonics?
Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that explains how major landforms are created as a result of Earth's subterranean movements. The theory, which solidified in the 1960s, transformed the earth sciences by explaining many phenomena, including mountain building events, volcanoes, and earthquakes.
What are 3 pieces of evidence for continental drift?
The evidence for continental drift included the fit of the continents; the distribution of ancient fossils, rocks, and mountain ranges; and the locations of ancient climatic zones.
What were the 4 main evidence of continental drift?
The four pieces of evidence for the continental drift include continents fitting together like a puzzle, scattering ancient fossils, rocks, mountain ranges, and the old climatic zones' locations.