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Map showing Earth's principal tectonic plates and their boundaries in detail. These plates comprise the bulk of the continents and the Pacific Ocean.For purposes of this list, a major plate is any plate with an area greater than 20 million km 2 (7.7 million sq mi)
The mechanisms of plate tectonics on icy moons, particularly Earth-like plate tectonics are not widely agreed upon or well understood. [109] Plate tectonics on Earth is hypothesized to be driven by “slab pull,” where the sinking of the more dense subducting plate provides the spreading force for mid-ocean ridges. [ 109 ] “
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]
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 ...
The Eurasian plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Asia and Europe), with the notable exceptions of the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian subcontinent, and the area east of the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia.
Pages in category "Tectonic plates" The following 91 pages are in this category, out of 91 total. ... Scotia plate; Seychelles microcontinent; Shan–Thai Terrane ...
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.
From the late 18th century until its replacement by plate tectonics in the 1960s, geosyncline theory was used to explain much mountain-building. [4] The understanding of specific landscape features in terms of the underlying tectonic processes is called tectonic geomorphology , and the study of geologically young or ongoing processes is called ...