Tectonic studies are important as guides for economic geologists searching for fossil fuels and ore deposits of metallic and nonmetallic resources. An understanding of tectonic principles can help …

tectonics, scientific study of the deformation of the rocks that make up the Earth’s crust and the forces that produce such deformation.

Earth’s crust, called the lithosphere, consists of 15 to 20 moving tectonic plates. The plates can be thought of like pieces of a cracked shell that rest on the hot, molten rock of Earth’s mantle and fit …

Jan 23, 2026 · Tectonics is the study of the plates, the forces acting on them, and their motion. NASA has a variety of tectonic data from an assortment of sources, such as synthetic aperture radar …

A tectonic plate (also called lithospheric plate) is a massive, irregularly shaped slab of solid rock, generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere.

Jan 21, 2026 · This includes the movements of the Earth’s tectonic plates that result in the creation, destruction and rearrangement of the Earth’s crust and lithosphere.

May 21, 2025 · Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that explains how major landforms are created as a result of Earth’s subterranean movements. The theory, which solidified in the 1960s, transformed the …

Feb 10, 2024 · Learn about tectonic plates in geology. Get a tectonic plate map, learn the names of the major plates, and discover the types of boundaries.

Feb 11, 2020 · Plate tectonics thus provides “the big picture” of geology; it explains how mountain ranges, earthquakes, volcanoes, shorelines, and other features tend to form where the moving plates …

Mar 6, 2025 · The relative motion of the tectonic plates, which usually ranges from 2 to 10 cm yearly, determines the different types of plate boundaries at places where these plates meet.