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| The natural environment where marine organisms live |
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| The deepest and largest ocean, almost as large as all others combined |
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| Slightly larger then the Indian Ocean, but similar in depth |
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| Similar in depth to the Atlantic Ocean |
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| Smallest and shallowest of the ocean basins |
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| Universal name for the interconnected system of oceans |
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| The continuous body of water that surrounds Antarctica |
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| The great cosmic explosion that occurred approx. 13.7 years ago |
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| The mass of a given volume or substance, controls how the materials settled within the planet |
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| Innermost layer of the Earth, composed mostly of iron, solid, highest pressure. |
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| 2nd innermost layer of the Earth, made up of liquid iron which swirls to produce the Earth's magnetic field. |
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| Layer outside of the Earth's core, mostly solid, high temp., causes the solid to flow almost as liquid. |
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| Outermost layer of the Earth, thinnest layer, least dense. |
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| Crust made up of basalt that is geologically young, dark in color, rich in (Fe) and (Mg), and very thin. Remains on the bottom because it is more dense. |
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| Crust that is less dense, yet much thicker, comprised of Granite, light in color, and rich in (Na), (Ca), (Al) and (K) |
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| German geophysicist who proposed the theory of Continental Drift |
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| Theory that the continents were joined once in one supercontinent, then broke apart and drifted as part of plate tectonics. |
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| Super continent that was once all of the Earth's land |
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| The process in which the surface of the Earth drifts |
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| A continuous chain of submarine volcanic mountains that encircles the globe. Largest geological frature on Earth, displaced to one side or another by faults at regular intervals. |
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| Cracks in the Earth's crust |
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| Fault which runs along the boundary of a tectonic plate |
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| The mid-ocean ridge which runs down the center of the Atlantic Ocean, forms an inverted Y in the Indian Ocean, and runs up the Eastern side of the Pacific Ocean. |
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| The main section of mid-ocean ridge in the Easter Pacific Ocean |
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| A deep depression in the sea floor that is formed when two plates collide and one of the plates dips below the other and sinks back down in to the mantle through the process of subduction. This is also called a subduction zone. |
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| Loose material like sand and mud that settles to the bottom. Deeper sediment that is farther from a mid-ocean ridge is older. |
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| Symmetric, banded stripes that run parallel to the mid-ocean ridge and that represent zones in which the direction of the swirling iron in the outer core reversed and reversed the magnetization |
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| An inference of a generalized conclusion in science. |
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| A crack in the crust where the oceanic crust is separating at the mid-ocean ridge |
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| The process by which new sea floor is created through the breaking and filling of crust at mid-ocean ridges. |
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| The fairly rigid layer of the Earth that is composed of the crust and the uppermost part of the mantle. Broken into a number of plates that can contain continental, oceanic, or both types of crust. |
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| Denser, more plastic layer of the upper mantle. |
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| Broken plates that make up the lithosphere. |
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| The downward movement of a plate into the mantle. |
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| Another name for the area in which trenches are being formed |
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| The volcanic island chains associated with the trenches and that follow the trenches curvature. |
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| Plate boundary in which two plates move in such a way that they slidepast each other, neither creating nor destroying lithosphere. |
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| Process in which heat from the Earth's core causes the mantle to swirl. |
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| The single, vast ocean surrounding Pangea. Ancestor to the Pacific Ocean. |
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| The sea that separated Eurasia from Africa. |
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| The ancient continent made up of modern day North America, and Eurasia. |
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| Ancient continent composed of modern day South America, Africa, Antarctica, India, and Australia. |
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| Sediment derived from the physical and chemical breakdown of rocks. |
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| The physical and chemical breakdown of rocks. |
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| The most common kind of lithogenous sediment on the open ocean floor. |
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| Sediment cconsisting of the skeletons and shells of marine organisms. Made mostly of calcium carbonate or silica. |
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| Preserved fossils in which each particle represents the preserved remains of a dead organism. |
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| A procedure in which the ratios of different atomic forms (isotopes)of carbon are measured, can be used to determine the age of fossils. |
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| Periods of warm climates throughout history. |
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| Periods of extremely cold climates in history. |
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| Periods of extremely cold climates in history. |
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| Last major period of glaciation, in which a series of ice ages was interspersed by brief warm periods of melting. |
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| Warming that occurs when heat fromt he sun is trapped by the Earth's atmosphere. |
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| The two main regions of the sea floor,the submerged edges of the continents and the deep-sea floor itself. |
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| The shallow, gently sloping partofthe continental margin. The shallowest part of the margin, but also the most biologically rich. |
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| The closest thing to the exact edge of a continent, it beginsat the shelf break and descends down tothe deep-sea floor. |
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| A narrow, deep depression in the continental shelf formed by the erosionof rivers or glaciers before the shelf was submerged. |
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| The section of the continental shelf where the slope abruptly becomes steeper. |
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| The gently sloping area at the base of the continental slope. |
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| A fan-like accumulation of sedimentatthe base of a submarine canyon. |
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| A continental margin that is colliding with another plate and causing an area of intense geological activity, including earthquakes and volcanoes. |
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| A continental margin that is lovated at the "trailing edge" of a continent and have relatively no geological activity. |
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| The nearly flat region of the deep-sea floor. |
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| Low hills on the deep-sea floor. |
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| Submarine volcanoes along the abyssal plain. |
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| Distinctive flattopped seamounts, common in parts of the Pacific. |
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| A great gap or depression at the mid-ocean ridge. |
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| Deep-sea hot springs where heated seawater forces its way up through the crust. |
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| Main mineral group dissolved in hydrothermal vents. |
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| Chimney-like structures that progressively build up around a hydrothermal vent and release "smoke" in the form of a cloud of mineral particles. |
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