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Tectonics

Tectonics, (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
Last updated: 02-27-2005 12:10:35