The lithosphere

• Lithosphere - made up of the brittle crust and top part of the uppermantle
• The lithosphere - the coolest most rigid part of the Earth
• The two types of lithosphere: oceanic and continental
• Oceanic lithosphere is associated with oceanic crust and is slightly denser than continental lithosphere
• The continental lithosphere is also called the continental crust
• continental lithosphere is the layer of igneous, sedimentary rock that forms the continents and the continental shelves
• Continental crust - less dense and considerably thicker (25-70km)
• 40% of the Earth's surface is covered by continental crust, but continental crust makes up about 70% of the volume of Earth's crust
• Continental crust ultimately derived from the fractional differentiation of oceanic crust over the eons
• Tectonic activity - the most known feature associated with Earth's lithosphere
• Tectonic activity describes the interaction of huge slabs lithosphere
• tectonic plates are huge slabs of lithosphere
• The nine major plates: North American, Pacific, Eurasian, African, Indo-Australian, Australian, Indian, South American, Antarctic
• The largest plate is the Pacific Plate at 39, 758, 522 square miles
• The driving force behind plate tectonics is the convection in the mantle
• three types of rock that make up earth's lithosphere: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary
• Sedimentary rocks - these are formed via weathering and erosion of existing rocks, and then deposition and cementation,and compaction
• Igneous rocks - formed by cooling and crystallization of molten rock
• Metamorphic rocks - these rocks are formed when heat is applied to other rocks