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The Earth’s crust is a thin, rocky outer layer that supports ecosystems, hosts geological activity, and provides essential resources. For a detailed description, click on the article title.
Earthquakes occur when tectonic plates move, causing ground shaking with varying intensity and impact. For a detailed description, click on the article title.
A geologic hot spot is a mantle area where magma rises close to the crust, creating island chains and thermal features like Hawaii and Yellowstone. For a detailed description, click on the article title.
A graben, or rift valley, forms when a block of Earth’s crust sinks between parallel faults, creating a depressed landform in tectonically active regions. For a detailed description, click on the article title.
The dominant force in the creation of the continents, mountain systems, and ocean deeps.
A long, thin valley created by the moving apart of the continental plates, present in east Africa, stretching over 4,000 miles (6,437 km) from Jordan in southwest Asia to Mozambique in southern Africa.
Processes that derive their energy from within the earth’s crust and serve to create landforms by elevating, disrupting, and roughening the earth’s surface.