Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The structural behavior of an element of the earth's crust.
- noun Crustal instability.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The deformation of the
Earth 'scrust due totectonic activity.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Analysis of Martian impact craters from orbital and surface robotic missions reveals that Mars has experienced a complex geologic history involving liquid water and ice as well as volcanism, tectonism, and aeolian processes.
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This image reveals an interesting coincidence of two important planetary processes: impact cratering and tectonism.
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Thomas studies the paleoceanography of the past 350 million years, using the marine sedimentary record to investigate the relationship between global tectonism, atmospheric greenhouse gases, and the evolution of the earth's climate system.
Media Newswire 2008
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The major Chihuahuan basins in Ecoregion 24a, such as the Hueco, Salt, and Presidio basins, formed during the Basin and Range tectonism when the Earth’s crust stretched and fault collapse resulted in sediment-filled basins.
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The major Chihuahuan basins formed during Tertiary Basin and Range tectonism when the Earth’s crust stretched and fault collapse resulted in sediment-filled basins.
hernesheir commented on the word tectonism
(n): large-scale movements of the Earth's lithosphere; the processes of plate tectonics, including seafloor spreading, continental drift, mountain building, etc.
January 1, 2009