Talk:Tectonics

Britannica

This article has some sort of citation here [1], in Encyclopaedia Brittanica. Anyone know what's going on?--Shtove 08:48, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Theories it made obsolete

The German Wikipedia has an article on Geotektonik with a list of various theories on Earth formation that preceded tectonics; "Kontraktionstheorie", "Permanenztheorie" etc. There doesn't appear to be any articles on them in the English Wikipedia. Hexmaster (talk) 16:55, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Unhelpful introduction

The introduction tries to explain 'tectonics' with the use of the adjective 'tectonic' twice in its first sentence. This seems rather self-referential, and does very little to explain the term to anyone not already familiar with the subject. Can anyone rewrite this to be clearer, without straying into the 'plate tectonics' description which has a separate entry? Peace Makes Plenty (talk) 14:17, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Good spot. I've revised the lede to try to remove the assumed knowledge. DanHobley (talk) 18:00, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Why does "geotectonics" redirect here?

No mention of the word within the article. 86.160.126.67 (talk) 01:42, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Etymology

The word tectonics, according to this source [2], derives from the Late Latin tectonicus, although that derives from the Greek tektonikos and ultimately from tekton. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary confirms this and records the first use in its geological meaning in 1893. Mikenorton (talk) 19:38, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Crust and lithosphere

We're all working together to improve the article since it is this week's Wikipedia:Today's articles for improvement, so I'll post here. In raising this, I'm not criticizing AuthorAuthor. My aim is simply to ensure accuracy in the article.

In this edit, I twice added "the" before "lithosphere". Before, the first one read:

• Thrust tectonics is associated with the shortening and thickening of the crust or lithosphere.

I thought it was unclear whether "crust" and "lithosphere" were meant to be two different words for the same thing, or two different things. I read the first few paragraphs of the article on Lithosphere, and it seemed to me that they were not one and the same thing, so I added "the" before "lithosphere" to make it clear that they were two different things, not synonyms. In this edit, AuthorAuthor added a comma before "or the lithosphere", presumably thinking that the two words were referring to the same thing, and that these terms were presenting alternate words for the same thing.

• If the comma inadvertently changed the meaning, feel free to undo my edit. No problem. - AuthorAuthor (talk) 20:51, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

If the terms are to be understood as alternate terms for the same thing, then the comma is correct, but we've got to remove "the". If the terms are to be understood as two distinct things, then we've got to remove the comma. I'd like to ask Vsmith, a geologist, how the two terms are to be understood, in the two instances. Thus:

(a) Thrust tectonics is associated with the shortening and thickening of the crust, or lithosphere. [Note the comma.]

or:

(b) Thrust tectonics is associated with the shortening and thickening of the crust or the lithosphere.

Of course, it is possible to say that the crust and the lithosphere are, technically, two different things, but for the purposes of this article (or at least at this point in the article) they can be considered the same thing. If that is the case, then they can be treated as synonyms, and (a) would be the best wording. Vsmith, what do you think?  – Corinne (talk) 16:36, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

Not the same as lithosphere is more inclusive: from Lithosphere "On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of thousands of years or greater. The outermost shell of a rocky planet, the crust, is defined on the basis of its chemistry and mineralogy."

Tectonics is not restricted to the crust and mantle material is included in tectonic events, especially in oceanic terrains where the crust is quite thin. Vsmith (talk) 19:53, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, Vsmith. Then I think we'll go with (b), above. Is that all right with you, AuthorAuthor?  – Corinne (talk) 15:09, 27 December 2016 (UTC) Unless you and Vsmith think it is clear enough without the second "the":

That is fine with me. -AuthorAuthor (talk) 22:54, 28 December 2016 (UTC)

(c) Thrust tectonics is associated with the shortening and thickening of the crust or lithosphere.

 – Corinne (talk) 15:11, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

Map size

I think that the plate-tectonics map is ridiculously large and poorly positioned, but I thought I’d check to see what others think before I try to rearrange things. Anyone care to opine? — Gorthian (talk) 06:10, 9 August 2018 (UTC)

Agreed - I've made it smaller and repositioned it, but if you have an alternative in mind that takes care of the issues that you pointed out, then I'm okay with that too. Mikenorton (talk) 12:26, 9 August 2018 (UTC)

Thanks. It looks much better. I did move the TOC to the right, though; I think it lets the text “breathe” more than when it’s on the traditional left side. — Gorthian (talk) 01:17, 10 August 2018 (UTC)