lithosphere
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- USGS - Earthquake Science Center - Processes of lithosphere evolution: new evidence on the structure of the continental crust and uppermost mantle
- National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Lithosphere architecture characterized by crust–mantle decoupling controls the formation of orogenic gold deposits
- Pressbook - Cryosphere and Lithosphere
- Biology LibreTexts - The Lithosphere
- International Geographic Society - Structure and Evolution of the Lithosphere Beneath the Rocky Mountains: Initial Results from the CD-ROM Experiment
- Space.com - The lithosphere: Facts about Earth's outer shell
- National Geographic - Lithosphere
lithosphere, rigid, rocky outer layer of Earth, consisting of the crust and the solid outermost layer of the upper mantle. It extends to a depth of about 60 miles (100 km). It is broken into about a dozen separate, rigid blocks, or plates (see plate tectonics).
A series of forces that include slab pull (the sinking of dense blocks into the underlying mantle), slow convection currents deep within the mantle (which are generated by radioactive heating of the interior) and ridge pushing (generated by the upwelling of mantle at divergent boundaries [such as oceanic ridges]) are believed to cause the lateral movements of the tectonic plates (and the continents that rest on top of them) at a rate of several inches per year.