Earth’s structure & plate boundaries

1. Which thick layer lies directly beneath Earth’s crust and makes up most of Earth’s volume: the mantle or the outer core?

2. What is the thin, outermost rocky layer of the Earth called: the crust or the inner core?

3. What drives the slow movement of tectonic plates across Earth’s surface: mantle convection and slab pull, or surface wind patterns?

4. What do we call the horseshoe-shaped belt around the Pacific Ocean where many earthquakes and volcanoes occur: the Ring of Fire or the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?

5. What type of tectonic plate boundary occurs where two plates move apart and new oceanic crust forms: divergent or convergent?

6. When slow-cooling magma solidifies deep underground (such as granite), does it form large visible crystals or no crystals?

7. What class of rock forms from the compaction and cementation of deposited layers of sand, silt or shells (e.g. sandstone and limestone): sedimentary or metamorphic?

8. What type of plate boundary occurs where two plates slide horizontally past each other (such as the San Andreas Fault): transform or divergent?

9. What instrument records the ground vibrations (seismic waves) produced by an earthquake: a seismometer or a barometer?

10. What do we call molten rock while it is still beneath Earth’s surface, before it erupts as lava: magma or shale?

11. Which type of crust is denser and thinner, causing it to subduct beneath continental crust: oceanic crust or continental crust?

12. What type of plate boundary occurs where two plates collide, forming fold mountains or subduction trenches: convergent or transform?