Handout 2 (yellow) Tectonic Plate Motion

Standard 2 Objective 3.b and d

Plate Tectonics and Mountains

Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics

1. The major mountain belts are located along

• B. convergent plate boundaries.Pg. 15

2. What does the location of the two major mountain belts tell scientists?

• D. Most mountains form as a result of collisions between tectonic plates.

Pg. 15

3. When oceanic lithosphere and continental lithosphere collide at convergent plate boundaries, what may be formed?

• A. mountains

Pg. 15

4. What happens when moving plates collide at convergent plate boundaries?

• C. The oceanic lithosphere subducts beneath the continental lithosphere.

Pg. 15

5. What happens when plate collision produces large-scale deformation?

• B. High mountains are uplifted.Pg. 15

6. What is produced by the partial melting of the mantle and crust?

• B. magma that may erupt to form volcanic mountains on Earth’s surface

Pg. 15

7. Where do volcanic mountains commonly form?

• Where two plates whose edges consist of oceanic lithosphere collide.

Pg. 15

8. What happens during the collision of two plates whose edges consist of oceanic lithosphere?• The denser plate subducts beneath the other

oceanic plate.

Pg. 15

9. When the denser oceanic plate subducts, what happens?

• Fluids from the subducting lithosphere cause partial melting of the overlying mantle and crust, resulting in magma breaking through the oceanic lithosphere. An arc of volcanic mountains is formed on the ocean floor.

Pg. 15

10. Why did the subduction of the oceanic lithosphere of the Indian plate stop when the continental lithosphere of India collided with the continental lithosphere of Eurasia, and what happened to the Himalayas?

• The two continents had equally dense continental lithosphere. The deformation from the collision uplifted the Himalayas.

Pg. 15

11. Why are the Himalayas still growing taller?

• The plates are still collidingPg. 15

12. Geologists think that earthquakes are caused by

• B. elastic rebound.Pg. 13

13. The sudden return of elastically deformed rock to its undeformed shape is called• A. elastic rebound.

Pg. 13

14. The location within Earth along a fault where the first motion of an earthquake occurs is called the• C. focus.

Pg. 13

15. Define epicenter• The point on Earth’s surface directly above an

earthquake’s focus

Pg. 13 & 16

16. Why do earthquakes that usually cause the most damage have shallow foci?

• By the time vibrations from an earthquake that has a deep focus reach the surface, much of their energy has dissipated.

Pg. 13 &16

17. When rocks along a fault slip into new positions, they release energy in the form of vibrations called• C. seismic waves.

Pg. 13

18. Where do seismic waves travel?

• A. outward in all directions from the focus through the surrounding rock

Pg. 13

19. How do surface waves form?

• From motion along a shallow fault or from the conversion of energy when P waves and S waves reach Earth’s surface.

Pg. 13

Matching 20-2320. tectonic plate

boundaries

a. a point at which two continental

plates converge, diverge, or

move horizontally in opposite

directions

21. convergent plate

boundaries

b. a point at which plates move

away from each other

22. divergent plate

boundaries

c. a point at which stress on rock is

the greatest

23. continental plate

boundaries

d. a point at which plates move

toward each other and collide

The End!!!