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Geology & Earth Sciences vocabulary · Plate Tectonics & Structures

Plate tectonics

Meaning in geology & earth sciences, with examples

/ˈpleɪt tekˈtɑːnɪks/nounCore term

In geology & earth sciences, plate tectonics means: The theory that the Earth's outer shell is broken into large plates that move slowly, causing earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain building and the movement of continents.

In Turkish: levha tektoniği, plaka tektoniği

How it is used

The central theory of modern geology, widely accepted since the 1960s. It takes a singular verb: 'plate tectonics explains...'. Used in lectures, textbooks and whenever someone explains why a region has earthquakes or volcanoes.

Example sentences

  1. Plate tectonics explains why most earthquakes happen along narrow belts.

  2. You cannot understand the geology of Anatolia without plate tectonics.

Common collocations

  • theory of plate tectonics
  • plate tectonics explains
  • modern plate tectonics
  • tectonic plateOne of the large, rigid pieces of the Earth's lithosphere that move slowly over the mantle, usually by a few centimetres a year.
  • plate boundaryThe zone where two tectonic plates meet. Plates move apart at divergent boundaries, towards each other at convergent boundaries and past each other at transform boundaries.
  • continental driftThe idea, proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, that the continents have slowly moved across the Earth's surface and were once joined in a supercontinent called Pangaea.
  • subductionThe process in which one tectonic plate, usually an oceanic one, sinks beneath another plate and down into the mantle at a convergent boundary.

More terms: Plate Tectonics & Structures

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