Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 ...
Obduction zones occurs when the continental plate is pushed under the oceanic plate, but this is unusual as the relative densities of the tectonic plates favours subduction of the oceanic plate. This causes the oceanic plate to buckle and usually results in a new mid-ocean ridge forming and turning the obduction into subduction. [citation needed]
The frozen continent of Antarctica was the last continent humanity set foot on. The first documented landings made below the Antarctic Circle took place in 1820, when Admiral Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and the crew of the Vostok and Mirny, as part of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, made land at Peter I Island and Alexander Island.
Thrust faults are characteristic of areas where the Earth's crust is being compressed by tectonic forces. [11] Megathrust faults occur where two tectonic plates collide. When one of the plates is composed of oceanic lithosphere, it dives beneath the other plate (called the overriding plate) and sinks into the Earth's mantle as a slab.
Volcanic anomalies are created by plate tectonics such as spreading plate boundaries or subduction zones. [9] The location of the volcanism is governed by the stress field in the plate and the amount of melt is governed by the fusibility of the mantle beneath. [6] Plate tectonics can explain most of the volcanism on Earth.
Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building') 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.
Real-world examples differ by the rigidity of the indenter, the size and rheology of both the host and the indenter, and the extent of lateral confinement. [2] The best known active example is the system of strike-slip structures observed in the Eurasian Plate as it responds to collision with the Indian Plate, but similar events can be found all over the Earth.
Type locality, also called type area, is the locality where a particular rock type, stratigraphic unit or mineral species is first identified. [1] If the stratigraphic unit in a locality is layered, it is called a stratotype, whereas the standard of reference for unlayered rocks is the type locality.