Plate Tectonics Study Guide Name ______

Short answer:

1. Who came up with the idea of Pangaea? 2. List 4 pieces of evidence to support Pangaea? 3. Tectonic plates can be made up of what types of crust? 4. At a mid-ocean ridge two plates are…? 5. In seafloor spreading the oldest rocks are found where? 6. The major lithospheric plate the United States sits on is called 7. At divergent boundaries plates do what? 8. The lithosphere is the… 9. Tropical plant found fossilized in Antarctica, South America, India, & Africa. 10. Which of the following is an extinct lizard looking creature that Alfred Wegener used to support Pangaea? 11. The movement of a continent into their current positions is called 12. As two tectonic plates separate what can happen? 13. When two ocean plates collide what two things can form? 14. The theory of plate tectonics explains… 15. Which part of Earth’s mantle has the lowest density?

Make the statement true!

____ 16. Tectonics plates shift on the ______due to convection currents . _____17. Fossils of the ______were discovered in Africa and South America. _____ 18. The first “super continent” Pangaea formed around ______million years ago. _____ 19. All plates do not ______at the same speed and same direction. _____ 20. “Snow Ball Earth” caused the worst mass extinction on earth ______years ago. _____ 21. When 2 plates collide the denser plate goes ______the other. _____ 22. A trench can form at the base of a ______boundary.

Matching ____ 23. Harry Hess a. formed when two continental plates collide _____ 24. Mountain b. large underwater mountain chain formed as a result of seafloor spreading _____ 25. Mid-Ocean Ridge c. man who came up with sea-floor spreading _____ 26. Trench d. deep V shaped valley.

Label the earth’s layers.

27 28.

29.

30. Base your answers to the following questions on the map of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge shown below. Points A through D are locations on the ocean floor. Line XY connects locations in North America and Africa. (2 points)

31. Based on distance from the ridge, list the oldest letter to the youngest.

32. In which cross section do the arrows best show the convection occurring within the asthenosphere beneath line XY?

Short Essay One of the most fascinating of all prehistoric creatures was the Cynognathus. Classified as a "cynodont," or dog-toothed, therapsid, Cynognathus was a fast, fierce predator, much like a smaller version of a modern day wolf. Clearly it was successful in its evolutionary niche, because its remains have been found in middle Triassic sediments on three continents, Africa, South America and Antarctica. Evidence points to Cynognathus having a warm-blooded, "mammalian" metabolism, quite unlike most of the cold-blooded reptiles of its day. It was about 3 feet long and weighed somewhere between 25-50 pounds. Its habitat was the interior woodlands. Q: Would the Cynognathus fossil information have helped Alfred Wegener to support his theory of continental drift? Why or why not?