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  2. Earth's crust - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_crust

    Plates in the crust of Earth. Earth's crust is its thick outer shell of rock, referring to less than one percent of the planet's radius and volume.It is the top component of the lithosphere, a solidified division of Earth's layers that includes the crust and the upper part of the mantle. [1]

  3. Lithosphere - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithosphere

    This thickening occurs by conductive cooling, which converts hot asthenosphere into lithospheric mantle and causes the oceanic lithosphere to become increasingly thick and dense with age. In fact, oceanic lithosphere is a thermal boundary layer for the convection [10] in the mantle. The thickness of the mantle part of the oceanic lithosphere ...

  4. Mountain formation - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_formation

    Mountain formation occurs due to a variety of geological processes associated with large-scale movements of the Earth's crust (tectonic plates). [1] Folding , faulting , volcanic activity , igneous intrusion and metamorphism can all be parts of the orogenic process of mountain building. [ 2 ]

  5. Tectonics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tectonics

    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 ...

  6. Orogeny - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orogeny

    Orogeny (/ ɒ ˈ r ɒ dʒ ə n i /) is a mountain-building process that takes place at a convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An orogenic belt or orogen develops as the compressed plate crumples and is uplifted to form one or more mountain ranges.

  7. Subduction - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subduction

    Subduction typically occurs at a moderately steep angle by the time it is beneath the volcanic arc. However, anomalous shallower angles of subduction are known to exist as well as some that are extremely steep. [33] Flat slab subduction (subducting angle less than 30°) occurs when the slab subducts nearly horizontally. The relatively flat slab ...

  8. Rock cycle - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_cycle

    A less obvious role of water is in the metamorphism processes that occur in fresh seafloor volcanic rocks as seawater, sometimes heated, flows through the fractures and crevices in the rock. All of these processes, illustrated by serpentinization , are an important part of the destruction of volcanic rock.

  9. Biogeochemical cycle - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogeochemical_cycle

    In the water cycle, the universal solvent water evaporates from land and oceans to form clouds in the atmosphere, and then precipitates back to different parts of the planet. Precipitation can seep into the ground and become part of groundwater systems used by plants and other organisms, or can runoff the surface to form lakes and rivers.