Which statement best describes Plate Tectonics?

Which statement best describes Plate Tectonics?

• A. Continental Drift
• B. Plate Tectonics
• C. Subduction Zone
• D. Mantle

Answer: (B)

Understanding what Plate Tectonics describes is about a unifying explanation for how the Earth's outer shell moves. The theory says the lithosphere is broken into rigid plates that ride on the partly molten asthenosphere and move slowly due to convection in the mantle. At different boundaries these plates interact: they pull apart, collide and push up, or slide past each other, causing earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain belts. Continental Drift was an earlier idea that continents once shifted position; it doesn’t by itself explain the mechanism or the system of moving plates. A Subduction Zone is one kind of boundary where one plate sinks under another, not the general description of the theory. The Mantle is a layer beneath the crust, not the description of the moving-plates system. So the best description is Plate Tectonics, the name of the theory that links all these observations.

Understanding what Plate Tectonics describes is about a unifying explanation for how the Earth's outer shell moves. The theory says the lithosphere is broken into rigid plates that ride on the partly molten asthenosphere and move slowly due to convection in the mantle. At different boundaries these plates interact: they pull apart, collide and push up, or slide past each other, causing earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain belts. Continental Drift was an earlier idea that continents once shifted position; it doesn’t by itself explain the mechanism or the system of moving plates. A Subduction Zone is one kind of boundary where one plate sinks under another, not the general description of the theory. The Mantle is a layer beneath the crust, not the description of the moving-plates system. So the best description is Plate Tectonics, the name of the theory that links all these observations.