the.com/tectonics
the planet's slowest violence, drifting continents at the speed your fingernails grow.
means The study of how the Earth's crust is structured and deforms, especially the large-scale movement of the rigid plates that float on the mantle below.
from From the Greek 'tektonikos,' meaning 'of a builder,' rooted in 'tekton'—a carpenter or craftsman, the same word that names a 'tekton' as the builder of houses (and, by tradition, the trade of Jesus). The same root quietly built 'architect' (the 'chief builder'). Geologists borrowed it in the 19th century to describe the Earth as a structure under construction—the crust assembled, buckled, and rebuilt by forces below.
- split sea
- The Atlantic widens a few centimeters yearly
- future merge
- A supercontinent will reassemble in 250 million years
- recycling crust
- Subduction drags ocean floor into the mantle
- mountain factory
- India ramming Asia still lifts the Himalayas
- earth alone
- No other known planet has active plate tectonics
san andreas fault — 1906 earthquake that destroyed san francisco, california
ring of fire — horseshoe-shaped belt with 75% of world's active volcanoes around pacific ocean
mid-atlantic ridge — underwater mountain range spreading 2.5 cm per year, separating eurasian and north american plates
himalayas — mountain range still rising 5mm annually from indian plate collision with eurasian plate