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tectonic plates

 
Sci-Tech Dictionary: tectonic plate
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(tek′tän·ik ′plāt)

(geology) Any one of the internally rigid crustal blocks of the lithosphere which move horizontally across the earth's surface relative to one another. Also known as crustal plate.

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Science Dictionary: tectonic plates
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(tek-ton-ik)

The dozen or so plates that make up the surface of the Earth. Their motion is studied in the field of plate tectonics.

  • The plates are not the same as the continents. The North American plate, for example, extends from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast of the United States and Canada. These plates are about thirty miles thick.

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    Sci-Tech Dictionary. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
    Science Dictionary. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more