EVPP 111 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: San Andreas Fault, Convection, Hawaiian Islands

• School: George Mason University
• Department: Environmental Science and Public Policy
• Course: EVPP 111
• Professor: Kim Largen

Document Summary

Tectonic plate lithospheric plates that move slowly over the underlying mantle. Mid-ocean ridge a long, seismically active submarine ridge system situated in the middle of an ocean basin and marking the site of the upwelling of magma associated with seafloor spreading. Ocean trench a long narrow steep-sided depression in the earth"s oceanic crust, usually lying above a subduction zone. A curved chain of volcanoes in the overriding tectonic plate of a subduction zone. Volcanic arcs form as the result of rising magma formed by the melting of the down-going plate. They are curved because of the curvature of the earth. Subduction the sideways and downward movement of the edge of a plate of the earth"s crust into the mantle beneath another plate. Oceanic crust the relatively thin part of the earth"s crust that underlies the ocean basins; younger than continental crust.