Tectonics
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A low-resolution map of the Earth's tectonic plates. Click to enlarge. US Government image.
, (from the
Greek for "builder",
tekton), is a field of study within
geology concerned generally with the structure of the
crust of the
Earth (or other
planets) and particularly with the forces and movements that have operated in a region to create this structure. Since the
1960s,
plate tectonics has become by far the dominant theory to explain how the Earth evolved, at least over the last 200 Million years. Other theories, such as earth expansion, have been championed by small groups in the scientific community but have not achieved wide acceptance. Geologic explanations derived from
religion, such as
creationism, are widely believed in some cultures but are not generally regarded by geologists as scientific. Evidence of plate tectonics has not yet been observed on any other body in the
solar system.
- See Also: Continental drift, Geophysics, Earthquake, Evolution, Seismology, Volcano
