LITHOSPHERE

lĭthˈəsfērˌ, brittle uppermost shell of the earth, broken into a number of tectonic plates. The lithosphere consists of the heavy oceanic and lighter continental crusts, and the uppermost portion of the mantle. The crust and mantle are separated by the Moho or Mohorovicic discontinuity (see earth and seismology). The thickness of the lithosphere varies from to around 1 mi (1.6 km) at the mid-ocean ridges to approximately 80 mi (130 km) beneath older oceanic crust. The thickness of the continental lithospheric plates is probably around 185 mi (300 km) but is uncertain due to the irregular presence of the Moho discontinuity. The lithosphere rests on a soft layer called the asthenosphere, over which the plates of the lithosphere glide. See plate tectonics.

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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

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Questia Books and Articles on: Lithosphere
We found: 259 results
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books on: Lithosphere  - 215 results

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1.
Geoecology: An Evolutionary Approach
Book by Richard John Huggett; Routledge, 1995
...atmosphere, hydrosphere, toposphere, and lithosphere and with the rest of the Cosmos. On...atmosphere, hydrosphere, toposphere, and lithosphere and with the rest of the Cosmos. On...components; and that forcing factors in the lithosphere and the rest of the cosmosphere are...
2.
Continents and Supercontinents
Book by John J. W. Rogers, M. Santosh; Oxford University Press, 2004
Subjects: Continental Drift, Continents, Earth--Crust, Plate Tectonics
...drift probably meant drift of the lithosphere. More information about ocean basins...bridges and other uplifts of oceanic lithosphere were impossible. Paleomagnetic information...astheno- sphere overlain by a rigid lithosphere consisting of both upper mantle and...
3.
Environmental Change: The Evolving Ecosphere
Book by Richard John Huggett; Routledge, 1997
...55 3 LITHOSPHERE AND BARYSPHERE 56...Interactions within and between the ecosphere, lithosphere, barysphere, and the rest of the cosmosphere...Interactions between the asthenosphere, lithosphere, and mesosphere 65...
4.
Earth Features and Their Meaning
Book by William Herbert Hobbs; Macmillan Company, 1931
Subjects: Geology, Meteorology, Physical Geography
...II THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH The lithosphere and its envelopes -- The evolution...THE NATURE OF THE MATERIALS IN THE LITHOSPHERE The rigid quality of our planet...essential nature of crystals -- The lithosphere a com plex of interlocking crystals...
5.
The Earth Machine: The Science of a Dynamic Planet
Book by Edmond A. Mathez, James D. Webster; Columbia University Press, 2004
Subjects: Earth
...embedded in and thus move with the lithosphere, the relatively rigid 100-kilometer...layer of Earth, and fragments of the lithosphere move around the surface as a result...plate tectonic restructuring of the lithosphere. In the continents, we find not only...
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journal articles on: Lithosphere  - 14 results

       More journal Results: 1-10 11-14 >>  
 
1.
Global Environmental Change: The Causes and Consequences of Disruption to Biogeochemical Cycles
Journal article by A.M. Mannion; The Geographical Journal, Vol. 164, 1998
Subjects: Biogeochemical cycles--Analysis, Environmental chemistry--Analysis
...redistribution of chemical elements between the lithosphere and atmosphere. In the spirit of the...sup.6t of sulphur annually from the lithosphere into the atmosphere. Most returns to...fluxed from stores in the biosphere and lithosphere by human activity. It is inevitable...
2.
Earth Surface Systems
Journal article by Tony Parsons; The Geographical Journal, Vol. 167, 2001
Subjects: Books--Reviews, Earth Surface Systems (Book)--Reviews
...find it difficult to believe that this broad group, at whatever level, could require definitions of the atmosphere and the lithosphere (p 5) whilst being fully acquainted with (and hence in no need of a definition of) non-linear dynamical systems (p 2), Jacobean...
3.
Cosmic Dancers on History's Stage? The Permanent Revolution in the Earth Sciences
Journal article by Mike Davis; New Left Review, Vol. a, 1996
Subjects: Right And Left (Political Science), Socialism
...the quantitative contribution of radiogenic heating in the lithosphere. At worst, geophyscists see a mysterious discrepancy. In...reorganizes the chemistry of the atmosphere, oceans and lithosphere. The biosphere, therefore, encompasses all the biogeochemical...
4.
The Environment: Principles and Applications
Journal article by Peter A. Smithson; The Geographical Journal, Vol. 165, 1999
Subjects: Books--Reviews
...emphasis on global and interdisciplinary perspectives. Its structure follows fairly traditional lines with major sections on the lithosphere, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the biosphere. By trying to cover both principles and applications, it is inevitable...
5.
The International Law of Environmental Warfare: Active and Passive Damage during Armed Conflict
Journal article by Eric Talbot Jensen; Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Vol. 38, 2005
Subjects: Environmental protection--Laws, regulations and rules, Military art and science--Influence, Military science--Influence, War damage--Environmental aspects
...Convention defines environment as "the Earth, including its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or ... outer space." (19) Although...atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. Another definition is that the environment is anything...
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magazine articles on: Lithosphere  - 14 results

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1.
The Cryosphere
Magazine article by Stephen J. Pyne; Whole Earth, Spring 2000
Subjects: Antarctic regions--Geology
...PYNE The Antarctic atmosphere consists of ice clouds and ice vapor; the hydrosphere is ice rivers and ice seas; the lithosphere, ice plateaus and ice mountains.... Out of simple ice crystals emerges a vast hierarchy of ice masses, ice terranes, and...
2.
Hands-On Fire-Crafting
Magazine article by Steven J. Pyne; Whole Earth, Winter 1999
Subjects: Campfires--By-products, Fire--History
...earth for raw material, forge new tools, and redefine their relationship to the landscape--to the biosphere as well as to the lithosphere, because fire required fuel and the prodigious fires of great mines required equally immense mountains of fuelwood.--Vestal...
3.
Volcanic Catastrophe-in-Waiting Is Redefining Big Bang Theory: Volcanologists Are Watching Ancient Calderas for Signs of Life - and Danger. Not from Lava Flows or Noxious Gases, but an Eruption That Could Disturb Planetary Weather and Destroy the Fragile Ozone Layer
Magazine article by Phil Berardelli; Insight on the News, Vol. 13, August 18, 1997
Subjects: Calderas--Research, Volcanoes--Forecasts
...Pele is a "hot spot," a kind of periodic volcanic geyser. Hot spots are enormous magma chambers that lie deep within the lithosphere, part of Earths semimolten mantle. Over time, gas pressure builds at the top of the chamber and breaks through the crust...
4.
The Emergence of Gasohol: A Renewable Fuel for American Roadways
Magazine article; Focus, Vol. 45, Spring 1998
Subjects: Alcohol fuels--Economic aspects, Gasohol--Usage
...consumption is a primary cause of air pollution in many American cities. A substantial transfer of carbon compounds from the lithosphere to the atmosphere results from the burning of fossil fuels. Alternative fuels: from corn to chicken manure Human society...
5.
Gaian Naturalist
Magazine article by Pw; Whole Earth, Spring 1999
...hard rock, sands, and malleable clay mixes with nutrient blood. In Mother Soil, all the major actors on the planet meet: the lithosphere (as pebbles, boulders, and granulated rock); the fast-moving atmosphere; the more viscous hydro sphere; and the teeming biosphere...
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newspaper articles on: Lithosphere  - 5 results

 
 
1.
It's All Boldly Gone; the Real McCoy and Kirk (Left): But the Sets Were Scrapped in 1969
Newspaper article; The Daily Mail (London, England), November 3, 2008
...TECTONIC plates are large sections of earths outer shell, or lithosphere, that float on a semisoft layer of rock in the mantle. Geologists...scientists over the past 25 years have noted signs that the lithosphere is crumpling south of India a region far from the recognised...
2.
The Lord of Rock; Rolling Back: The Stones at Slane for a Second Visit in 2007
Newspaper article; The Daily Mail (London, England), November 3, 2008
...TECTONIC plates are large sections of earths outer shell, or lithosphere, that float on a semisoft layer of rock in the mantle. Geologists...scientists over the past 25 years have noted signs that the lithosphere is crumpling south of India a region far from the recognised...
3.
Mexico Lies along the Volcanic Ring of Fire
Newspaper article; Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), February 1, 2006
Subjects: Volcanoes
...about 200 miles below the earths surface is a layer of molten rock called magma. This motion jolts the layers above - the lithosphere and crust - and the tectonic plates that make up the underpinnings of the continents shift. Sometimes the movement near the...
4.
University Scientist Unlocks Earth Secret
Newspaper article; Daily Post (Liverpool, England), April 16, 2005
...whole mantle convection, the largely unconstrained heat flow from the earths core to the mantle and the fate of the subducted lithosphere with seismic data. Dr Thomas was born in Marburg in Germany and moved to Liverpool in 1999. She joined the Department of...
5.
Red Planet Wandered off Course after a Dramatic Sea Change
Newspaper article; The Birmingham Post (England), June 14, 2007
Subjects: Astronomy, Mars (Planet)
...crust explains why the shorelines are not level, it is claimed. "On planets like Mars and earth that have an outer shell, or lithosphere, that behaves elastically, the solid surface will deform differently than the sea surface, creating a non-uniform change...


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encyclopedia articles on: Lithosphere  - 11 results

       More encyclopedia Results: 1-10 11-11 >>  
 
1.
Lithosphere
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
LITHOSPHERE lith sfer , brittle uppermost shell of the earth, broken into a number of tectonic plates. The lithosphere consists of the heavy oceanic and lighter continental...see earth and seismology ). The thickness of the lithosphere varies from to around 1 mi (1.6 km) at the mid-ocean...
2.
Mantle
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...the solid upper mantle, make up the lithosphere to a depth of about 62 mi (100 km). Within the lithosphere is the Mohorovicic discontinuity, or...velocity and rigidity just below the lithosphere, called the asthenosphere , is present...
3.
Plate Tectonics
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...plate tectonics theory holds that the lithosphere , the hard outer layer of the earth...and are the sites where new oceanic lithosphere is created by the upwelling of mantle...magmas is believed to be well below the lithosphere, probably at the core-mantle boundary...
4.
Subduction Zone
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...large-scaled narrow region in the earths crust where, according to plate tectonics , masses of the spreading oceanic lithosphere bend downward into the earth along the leading edges of converging lithospheric plates where it slowly melts at about 400...
5.
Asthenosphere
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...interior, characterized by low-density, semiplastic (or partially molten) rock material chemically similar to the overlying lithosphere . The upper part of the asthenosphere is believed to be the zone upon which the great rigid and brittle lithospheric plates...
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