News tagged with lithosphere

The lithosphere ( /ˈlɪθəsfɪər/; Greek: λίθος [lithos] for "rocky" + σφαῖρα [sphaira] for "sphere") is the rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet. On Earth, it comprises the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of thousands of years or greater.