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Earth's crust is its thick outer shell of rock, referring to less than one percent of the planet's radius and volume. It is the top component of the lithosphere, a solidified division of Earth 's layers that includes the crust and the upper part of the mantle. [1] The lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates whose motion allows heat to escape ...
Tectonophysics is concerned with movements in the Earth's crust and deformations over scales from meters to thousands of kilometers. [2] These govern processes on local and regional scales and at structural boundaries, such as the destruction of continental crust (e.g. gravitational instability) and oceanic crust (e.g. subduction), convection in the Earth's mantle (availability of melts), the ...
Isostasy (Greek ísos 'equal', stásis 'standstill') or isostatic equilibrium is the state of gravitational equilibrium between Earth 's crust (or lithosphere) and mantle such that the crust "floats" at an elevation that depends on its thickness and density. This concept is invoked to explain how different topographic heights can exist at Earth ...
Continental and oceanic crust on the upper mantle. Continental crust is the layer of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks that forms the geological continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves. This layer is sometimes called sial because its bulk composition is richer in aluminium ...
Tectonics. Tectonics (from Latin tectonicus; from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building ') [1] are the processes that result in the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. The field of planetary tectonics extends the concept to other planets and moons. [2][3]
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. [2][3][4] The model builds on the concept of continental drift ...
Earth science. The rocky side of a mountain creek in Costa Rica. Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. [1] This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres: the biosphere, hydrosphere ...
Computer simulation of the Earth's magnetic field in a period of normal polarity between reversals [2] Geophysics (/ ˌdʒiːoʊˈfɪzɪks /) is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis.