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lithosphere
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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. cross section of a tectonic plate island arc 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. World map showing the principal tectonic plates that make up Earth's lithosphere, with plate boundaries outlined in red and major plates labeled, including the Pacific, North American, South American, African, Eurasian, Indo-Australian, Antarctic, Nazca, Cocos, and Caribbean plates. Triangles mark notable geological features such as volcanoes along plate boundaries. Cross-sectional diagram of Earth's outer layers, showing oceanic and continental crust at the surface, the rigid lithosphere, the partially melted asthenosphere, and transitions from upper to lower mantle, with labeled depths and rock properties. Diagram illustrating Earth's environmental spheres, with labeled sections showing the geosphere (land and crust), biosphere (living things), atmosphere (air), and hydrosphere (water), each extending vertically from the Earth's surface. Cross-sectional diagram of a subduction zone showing oceanic crust moving beneath continental crust, with features labeled including transform fault, oceanic ridge, trench, accretionary wedge, rising magma, and the Benioff-Wadati zone.
How and where does magma form on Earth?
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plate tectonics
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Dust
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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.
lithosphere The lithosphere is the rigid, rocky outer layer of Earth, made up of the crust and the solid outermost layer of the upper mantle that extends a depth of about 60 miles (100 km).

lithosphere

geology
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lithosphere, rigid, rocky outer layer of Earth, consisting of the crust and the solid outermost layer of the upper mantle. It extends to a depth of about 60 miles (100 km). It is broken into about a dozen separate, rigid blocks, or plates (see plate tectonics).

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.
crustal generation and destructionThree-dimensional diagram showing crustal generation and destruction according to the theory of plate tectonics; included are the three kinds of plate boundaries—divergent, convergent (or collision), and strike-slip (or transform).

A series of forces that include slab pull (the sinking of dense blocks into the underlying mantle), slow convection currents deep within the mantle (which are generated by radioactive heating of the interior) and ridge pushing (generated by the upwelling of mantle at divergent boundaries [such as oceanic ridges]) are believed to cause the lateral movements of the tectonic plates (and the continents that rest on top of them) at a rate of several inches per year.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by John P. Rafferty.