Lithosphere and Plate Movement Mechanisms (#1)

What is the lithosphere?

• It is the strong, outermost layer of the Earth that deforms in an essentially elastic manner.
• Beneath the oceans, it is around 60-70km thick; beneath the continents, it is around 110-150km.
• At a shallow depth, the lithosphere responds to deformation in a brittle way as the rocks are colder, but with increasing depth, it is more likely to behave in a plastic or ductile manner, with more folds.

The lithosphere is separated from the mantle by a boundary called the Moho. There are…