lithosphere: Quick Facts

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Photos and Videos

Cross-section diagram showing the Earth's crust and upper mantle, with the lithosphere labeled as a rigid outer layer above the deeper, more ductile asthenosphere, and depth indicated in kilometers.

Cross-sectional diagram illustrating plate tectonics, showing oceanic and continental crust moving over the asthenosphere. It highlights divergent boundaries at oceanic ridges where crust forms, convergent boundaries at trenches with subduction zones where crust is destroyed, and a transform boundary with a fault. Features such as island arcs, rising magma, and hotspots are labeled.

$World map showing the present-day configuration of continents and major lithospheric plates, highlighting tectonic features such as young orogenic belts in brown, fracture zones and transform faults as dashed lines, actively spreading oceanic ridges as heavy lines, active oceanic trenches with arrows indicating direction of subduction, and locations of active or recently extinct volcanoes marked with triangles.$