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TECTONIC
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of or pertaining to construction or architecture
Synonyms:
architectonic; tectonic
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Pertainym:
tectonics (the science of architecture)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Pertaining to the structure or movement of the earth's crust
Example:
tectonic valleys
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Domain category:
geology (a science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks)
Pertainym:
tectonics (the branch of geology studying the folding and faulting of the earth's crust)
Context examples:
At some point we were looking at increasingly less-plausible mechanisms, like if tectonic plates were rubbing against each other, could you get a plasma spark that generated phosphine?
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
In the summers of 2016 and 2017, the research team returned to the Hiawatha Glacier to map tectonic structures in the rock near the foot of the glacier and collect samples of sediments washed out from the depression through a meltwater channel.
(Unexpected Discovery Under Greenland Ice, NASA)
The Moon doesn't have tectonic plates; instead, its tectonic action occurs as the Moon slowly loses heat from when it was formed nearly 4.5 billion years ago.
(Study Finds New Wrinkles on Earth's Moon, NASA)
Many other factors also change the ground level, such as the movement of tectonic plates, volcanic activity, high- and low-pressure weather systems, and Earth's slow rebound from the last ice age.
(Sierras Lost Water Weight, Grew Taller During Drought, NASA)
Slow-motion collisions of tectonic plates under the ocean drag about three times more water down into the deep Earth than previously estimated, according to a first-of-its-kind seismic study that spans the Mariana Trench, a crescent-shaped trench in the Western Pacific that measures 1,500 miles long and is the deepest ocean trench in the world.
(Seismic study reveals huge amount of water dragged into Earth’s interior, National Science Foundation)
Tectonic pushing and pulling of the lunar crust also sculpt curved hills called lobate scarps and shallow trenches known as graben.
(Study Finds New Wrinkles on Earth's Moon, NASA)
