the earth's interior

• Seismic Waves


  Energy from earthquakes that radiates in all directions from the focus
• Types of Seismic Waves

  • Body Waves
  • Surface Waves
• Body Waves

  • Primary Waves
  • Secondary Waves
• Primary Waves


  They compress and expand the ground back and forth in the direction of travel. Moves through solid, liquid, and gas. 1st wave to be detected. Pressure wave.
• Secondary Waves


  Shear waves that are transverse in nature. 2nd wave to be detected. Moves up and down, or side-to-side.
• Love Waves


  Move parallel to the Earth's surface and perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation.
• Rayleigh Waves


  Moves the ground up and down, and forward and backward in the direction that the wave is moving.
• Divergent and Transform

  Convection Current - Heat created in the core that moves plate apart
• Types of Divergent Boundary

  • Oceanic-Oceanic
  • Continental-Continental
• Oceanic-Oceanic


  Mid-ocean ridge is formed.
• Mid-Ocean Ridge


  Undersea mountain range located where tectonic plates are moving away from each other.
• Rift Valley


  Lowland region that forms in a divergent plate boundary.
• Continental-Continental

  1. Rifting - The splitting of a tectonic plate into two.

  2. Stage 1 (Upwarping) - Production of fault zones.

  3. Stage 2 - Rift valley formation.

  4. Stage 3 - Formation of linear sea or rift lakes.

  5. Stage 4 - Linear sea transforms into an ocean.