Questions about plate tectonics

1. What is the general name of the current model that helps us understand the large-scale structure and evolution of the solid Earth -- in particular, the large lateral motions of continents?
2. What is the lithosphere?
3. What is the difference between oceanic and continental lithosphere?
4. What is a plate, as the term is used in plate tectonics?
5. How do we tell where one plate begins and another one ends?
6. What are the three primary types of plate boundary?
7. Where is the oceanic lithosphere formed?
8. Along what kind of plate boundary is the oceanic lithosphere formed?
9. How is the oceanic lithosphere formed?
10. What is the layered structure of the oceanic lithosphere, and how does it form?
11. What are marine magnetic anomalies and how do they form?
12. Why are marine magnetic anomalies important to our understanding of how Earth's plates move?
13. If oceanic lithosphere forms at mid-ocean ridges, does that mean that Earth is expanding?
14. If Earth is not expanding, where does the excess oceanic lithosphere go?
15. How does continental lithosphere form?
16. What makes plates move -- what are some plate-motion mechanisms?
    • What is slab pull?
    • What is ridge push?
      • How does the age of the lithosphere vary with increasing distance away from the ridge?
      • How does the depth of the sea floor vary with increasing distance away from the ridge?
      • How does the thickness of the upper-mantle lithosphere vary with increasing distance away from the ridge?
      • How does the thickness of the full lithosphere vary with increasing distance away from the ridge?
    • What is trench pull?
    • How would viscous drag in a convecting mantle contribute to plate motion?
    • What is the Eotvos force?
17. What is the most energetic (strongest) of the plate-motion mechanisms?
18. How do we detect plate motion?
19. How do hot-spot trails help us resolve plate motion relative to the mesosphere (maybe)?
20. Some questions of historical interest
    • What is the simple, main idea behind continental drift?
    • What scientist is most responsible for developing the idea of continental drift?
    • What are some of the data that the continental drift model was developed to explain?
    • Approximately when was the continental drift model developed?

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