What term describes the large pieces into which Earth's lithosphere is divided?

What term describes the large pieces into which Earth's lithosphere is divided?

• A. Tectonic plates
• B. Continents
• C. Ocean basins
• D. Fault lines

Answer: (A)

Earth's outer shell is not a single solid layer; it’s broken into enormous, rigid slabs that move on the partially molten layer beneath. These are tectonic plates, and they carry both continental crust and oceanic crust as they drift, collide, pull apart, and slide past one another. This movement at plate boundaries explains much of Earth’s seismic and volcanic activity and the formation of mountains. Continents are part of these plates but aren’t the plates themselves; ocean basins describe features on the ocean floor rather than the large divisions of the lithosphere; fault lines are the cracks or boundaries where rocks slip, not the large pieces that make up the lithosphere. So the best term for the large pieces into which Earth’s lithosphere is divided is tectonic plates.

Earth's outer shell is not a single solid layer; it’s broken into enormous, rigid slabs that move on the partially molten layer beneath. These are tectonic plates, and they carry both continental crust and oceanic crust as they drift, collide, pull apart, and slide past one another. This movement at plate boundaries explains much of Earth’s seismic and volcanic activity and the formation of mountains.

Continents are part of these plates but aren’t the plates themselves; ocean basins describe features on the ocean floor rather than the large divisions of the lithosphere; fault lines are the cracks or boundaries where rocks slip, not the large pieces that make up the lithosphere. So the best term for the large pieces into which Earth’s lithosphere is divided is tectonic plates.