Introduction to Geophysics

The subject of tectonics is concerned with the Earth’s large-scale structural features. It forms a multidisciplinary framework for interrelating many other geologic disciplines, and thus it provides an integrated understanding of large-scale processes that have shaped the development of our planet. These structural features include mid-oceanic rifts; transform faults in the oceans; intracontinental rifts, as in the East African Rift System and on the Tibetan Highlands; wrench faults (e.g., the San Andreas Fault in California) that may extend hundreds of kilometres; sedimentary basins (oil potential); thrusts, such as the Main Central thrust in the Himalayas, that measure more than 2,000 kilometres long; ophiolite complexes; passive continental margins, as around the Atlantic Ocean; active continental margins, as around the Pacific Ocean; trench systems at the mouth of subduction zones; granitic batholiths (e.g., those in Sierra Nevada and Peru) that may be as long as 1,000 kilometres; sutures between collided continental blocks; and complete sections of mountain belts, such as the Andes, the Rockies, the Alps, the Himalayas, the Urals, and the Appalachians-Caledonians. Viewed as a whole, the study of these large-scale features encompasses the geology of plate tectonics and of mountain building at the margins of or within continents.