What surface features may result from tectonics?
Deep ocean trenches volcanoes island arcs submarine mountain ranges and fault lines are examples of features that can form along plate tectonic boundaries. Volcanoes are one kind of feature that forms along convergent plate boundaries where two tectonic plates collide and one moves beneath the other.
What process has shaped Earth’s surface more than any other quizlet?
What process has shaped Earth's surface more than any other? shield volcano on Mars. How did the lunar maria form? Large impacts fractured the Moon's lithosphere, allowing lava to fill the impact basins.
Which of the following best describes impact cratering?
Which of the following describes impact cratering? the excavation of bowl-shaped depressions by asteroids or comets striking a planet's surface.
Which two geological process appears to be most important in shaping the present surface of Venus?
8) Erosion is the most important geological process on Venus. 9) There is no erosion of surface features on the Moon. 10) In the inner solar system, the largest surface features are found on the largest planets. 11) Earth is the only terrestrial planet to have experienced tectonic stresses and volcanic activity.
What are tectonics?
tectonics, scientific study of the deformation of the rocks that make up the Earth's crust and the forces that produce such deformation.
How is the surface of our planet affected by the movement of tectonic plates?
Plate motions cause mountains to rise where plates push together, or converge, and continents to fracture and oceans to form where plates pull apart, or diverge. The continents are embedded in the plates and drift passively with them, which over millions of years results in significant changes in Earth's geography.
How does seafloor crust differ from continental crust?
Oceanic crust differs from continental crust in several ways: it is thinner, denser, younger, and of different chemical composition. Like continental crust, however, oceanic crust is destroyed in subduction zones. The lavas are generally of two types: pillow lavas and sheet flows.
What is the main factor that makes Earth more geologically active than the other terrestrial planets?
Internal heat Why is Earth geologically active? Internal heat drives geological activity. – Larger the planet, more heat retained. – Circulation of liquid outer core creates Earth's magnetic field.
Why is the surface of Mercury covered with meteor impact craters while Earth’s surface has relatively few craters?
Q. Why is the surface of Mercury covered with meteor impact craters, while Earth's surface has relatively few craters? Mercury is larger than Earth, so it gets hit with more meteors. Mercury is an older planet, so it has a longer history of meteor impacts.
Which two properties are the most important in determining the surface temperature of a planet?
The surface temperature of a terrestrial planet is determined by how much energy the planet receives from the Sun and how quickly it radiates that solar energy back to space. As described in a later section, a terrestrial planet's interior temperature is determined by its size.
How might the surface of the earth be different if it were not divided into tectonic plates?
If the continents were eroded completely into the oceans there would be no continents and no land left. The continents are being eroded. Without plate tectonics that push the continents up the erosion would result in the continents disappearing under the surface of the oceans.
What is tectonic in geography?
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 tectonic factors?
The term tectonics refers to the study of the Earth's surface structure and the ways in which it changes over time. Tectonic processes typically occur at plate boundaries which are one of three types: convergent boundaries, divergent boundaries, or transform boundaries.
How do tectonic plates form different surface features?
As these plates slowly move about, they interact with each other, forming boundary zones. Each of these different types of plate boundaries produces unique geographical features on the surface, including fault lines, trenches, volcanoes, mountains, ridges and rift valleys.
Which effects are caused by plate tectonics?
Plate movement can cause both short-term and long-term changes on Earth, including volcanic activity, earthquakes, mountain building, and even the movement of entire continents over millions of years.
What is the difference between oceanic crust and continental crust in tectonic plates?
Difference Between Oceanic and Continental Crust The oceanic crust is mainly made out of dark basalt rocks that are rich in minerals and substances like silicon and magnesium. By contrast, the continental crust is made up of light-colored granite rocks full of substances like oxygen and silicon.
What features and characteristics are different between oceanic and continental plates?
Differences in Composition Oceanic plates are mafic in nature, composed of basalt rock and its coarse-grained equivalent, gabbro, both rich in iron, magnesium and calcium. In contrast, continental plates are felsic in nature, dominated by granitic rock with its abundant silica, aluminum, sodium and potassium.
How might the surface of the Earth be different if it were not divided into tectonic plates?
If the continents were eroded completely into the oceans there would be no continents and no land left. The continents are being eroded. Without plate tectonics that push the continents up the erosion would result in the continents disappearing under the surface of the oceans.
Which geologic feature resulted from the collision of North America and Africa as parts of Pangaea joined together in the Pennsylvanian Period?
Approximately 300–250 million years ago, through the Pennsylvanian and Permian periods, a final mountain-building event occurred as Gondwana collided with North America to form the supercontinent Pangaea, creating the central and southern Appalachians.
Why is the surface of Mercury covered with meteor impact?
Q. Why is the surface of Mercury covered with meteor impact craters, while Earth's surface has relatively few craters? Mercury is larger than Earth, so it gets hit with more meteors. Mercury is an older planet, so it has a longer history of meteor impacts.
What affects surface temperature?
On global scales, three things can affect this energy flow and therefore, the average global surface temperature. As shown in the figure below, they are the planet's distance from the Sun, the planet's surface reflectivity (albedo), and the planet's atmosphere (through a process called the greenhouse effect).
What properties of a planet’s atmosphere affect its temperature and why?
The composition of a planet's atmosphere also influences its temperature, particularly the concentration of greenhouse gases present. The Earth converts solar radiation in the visible spectrum to infrared radiation, which it emits; greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation and warm the atmosphere.
What would the surface of the Earth be like without tectonic activity?
Erosion would continue to wear the mountains down, but with no tectonic activity to refresh them, over a few million years they would erode down to low rolling hills. So the whole planet would be flatter, and the topography would be a heck of a lot less exciting.
What are tectonic features?
Deep ocean trenches, volcanoes, island arcs, submarine mountain ranges, and fault lines are examples of features that can form along plate tectonic boundaries.
What is tectonic and example?
Tectonic definition The definition of tectonic is related to building, or related to the movement of the crust of the earth. An example of something tectonic is morpho-tectonic architecture. An example of something tectonic are tectonic plates, the parts of the earth's crust that move and cause earthquakes.
Is erosion a result of plate tectonics?
Tectonic erosion or subduction erosion is the loss of crust from an overriding tectonic plate due to subduction. Two types of tectonic erosion exist: frontal erosion at the outer margin of a plate and basal erosion at the base of the plate's crust.
Which feature forms as a result of a tectonic plate boundary?
Deep ocean trenches, volcanoes, island arcs, submarine mountain ranges, and fault lines are examples of features that can form along plate tectonic boundaries.
Which of the following is a result of plate tectonics?
The movement of these tectonic plates is likely caused by convection currents in the molten rock in Earth's mantle below the crust. Earthquakes and volcanoes are the short-term results of this tectonic movement. The long-term result of plate tectonics is the movement of entire continents over millions of years (Fig.
Which physical feature is formed by tectonic plates?
Deep ocean trenches, volcanoes, island arcs, submarine mountain ranges, and fault lines are examples of features that can form along plate tectonic boundaries.
What are 3 effects of tectonic plate movement?
Plate movement can cause both short-term and long-term changes on Earth, including volcanic activity, earthquakes, mountain building, and even the movement of entire continents over millions of years.