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  2. Plate tectonics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

    The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 10 cm annually. [5] Faults tend to be geologically active, experiencing earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation. Tectonic plates are composed of the oceanic lithosphere and the thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of ...

  3. Outline of plate tectonics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_plate_tectonics

    The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 10 cm annually. Faults tend to be geologically active, experiencing earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation. Tectonic plates are composed of the oceanic lithosphere and the thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of crust.

  4. Slab pull - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_pull

    Slab pull is a geophysical mechanism whereby the cooling and subsequent densifying of a subducting tectonic plate produces a downward force along the rest of the plate. In 1975 Forsyth and Uyeda used the inverse theory method to show that, of the many forces likely to be driving plate motion, slab pull was the strongest. [1]

  5. Plate reconstruction - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_reconstruction

    This article describes techniques; for a history of the movement of tectonic plates, see Geological history of Earth.. Plate reconstruction is the process of reconstructing the positions of tectonic plates relative to each other (relative motion) or to other reference frames, such as the Earth's magnetic field or groups of hotspots, in the geological past.

  6. Upper mantle - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_mantle

    Abrupt changes in density occur where the material composition changes. [1] The upper mantle begins just beneath the crust and ends at the top of the lower mantle. The upper mantle causes the tectonic plates to move. Crust and mantle are distinguished by composition, while the lithosphere and asthenosphere are defined by a change in mechanical ...

  7. Tectonic uplift - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tectonic_uplift

    If a change in surface height represents an isostatically compensated change in crustal thickness, the rate of change of potential energy per unit surface area is proportional to the rate of increase of average surface height. The highest rates of working against gravity are required when the thickness of the crust (not the lithosphere) changes ...

  8. Tectonics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tectonics

    Extensional tectonics is associated with the stretching and thinning of the crust or the lithosphere.This type of tectonics is found at divergent plate boundaries, in continental rifts, during and after a period of continental collision caused by the lateral spreading of the thickened crust formed, at releasing bends in strike-slip faults, in back-arc basins, and on the continental end of ...

  9. Tectonic phase - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tectonic_phase

    A tectonic phase or deformation phase is in structural geology and petrology a phase in which tectonic movement or metamorphism took place. Tectonic phases can be extensional or compressional in nature. When numerous subsequent compressional tectonic phases share the same geodynamic cause (usually some plate tectonic mechanism) this is called ...