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Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building') [1] is the scientific theory that Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago.
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.
These length changes are dependent on which type of fault or tectonic structure connect with the transform fault. Wilson described six types of transform faults: Growing length: In situations where a transform fault links a spreading center and the upper block of a subduction zone or where two upper blocks of subduction zones are linked, the ...
By scaling up the number and size of impact craters seen on the Moon to fit the size of Earth, it is predicted that at least 50% of the Earth's initial crust was covered in impact basins. [8] This estimate provides a lower limit of the effect impact cratering had on the Earth's surface.
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 ...
Map of the principal tectonic plates of the Earth. The sixteen major pieces of crust and uppermost mantle of the Earth, called the lithosphere, and consisting of oceanic and continental crust.
Tectonic uplift is the geologic uplift ... If a change in surface height represents an isostatically compensated change in crustal thickness, the rate of change of ...
Movements of tectonic plates create volcanoes along the plate boundaries, which erupt and form mountains. A volcanic arc system is a series of volcanoes that form near a subduction zone where the crust of a sinking oceanic plate melts and drags water down with the subducting crust. [9]