1.(used with a sing. verb)A theory that explains the global distribution of geological phenomena such as seismicity, volcanism, continental drift, and mountain building in terms of the formation, destruction, movement, and interaction of the earth's lithospheric plates. ...
The Mariana and Izu-Bonin arc system lies on the ocean bed, stretching 2800 kilometres from Japan south to Guam and beyond. It marks where twotectonic plates—the Philippine Sea Plate and the Pacific Plate—meet. As the Pacific Plate subducts, sinking into the Earth's mantle, it carrieswate...
Crustal Formation and Magma genesis Beneath Iceland: Magnetotelluric constraints, Plates, Plumes and Paradigms; Geological Society of America: Boulder, CO, USA, 2005; pp. 665–686. 63. Vilhjálmsson, A.M.; Flóvenz, Ó.G. Geothermal Implications from a Resistivity Survey in the Volcanic Rift...