Continental crust is the layer of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks that forms the geological continents and the areas of shallow seabed close...

including both dry land and continental shelves". The geological continents correspond to seven large areas of continental crust that are found on the tectonic...

chemical elements in Earth's upper continental crust as a function of the atomic number. The rarest elements in the crust (shown in yellow) are not the heaviest...

kinds of crust of different composition: continental crust and oceanic crust, both floating above a much deeper "plastic" mantle. Continental crust is inherently...

Continental crustal fragments, partly synonymous with microcontinents, are pieces of continents that have broken off from main continental masses to form...

A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters. It is one of the three major zones of the ocean...

(different bits of continental crust), separated across a tract of ocean (and oceanic crust), approach each other, while the oceanic crust is slowly consumed...

lithosphere. Oceanic crust is primarily composed of mafic rocks, or sima, which is rich in iron and magnesium. It is thinner than continental crust, or sial, generally...

include both structural deformation of existing continental crust and the creation of new continental crust through volcanism. Magma rising in the orogen...

the composition of the upper and lower crust are quite different, and (b) the composition of the continental crust can vary drastically by locality. The...

terrestrial planets have fairly uniform crusts. Earth, however, has two distinct types: continental crust and oceanic crust. These two types have different chemical...

formed at an active continental margin where two tectonic plates meet, and where one plate has continental crust and the other oceanic crust along the line...

of the oceanic lithosphere and the thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of crust. Along convergent plate boundaries, the process...

composition of the two types of crust differs markedly, with mafic basaltic rocks dominating oceanic crust, while continental crust consists principally of lower-density...

oceanic-continental lithosphere, and continental-continental lithosphere. The geologic features related to convergent boundaries vary depending on crust types...

iron-magnesium silicate mineral or igneous rock). The thicker crust is the continental crust, which is less dense and is felsic-rich (igneous rocks rich...

approximately 30 to 50 kilometres (19 to 31 mi) of typical continental lithosphere is crust. The crust is distinguished from the upper mantle by the change...

64 million years. Continental crust is older because continental crust is light and thick enough so it is not subducted, while oceanic crust is periodically...

active and passive margins refers to whether a crustal boundary between oceanic lithosphere and continental lithosphere is a plate boundary. Active margins...

C1 — Crust: CRC Handbook C2 — Crust: Kaye and Laby C3 — Crust: Greenwood C4 — Crust: Ahrens (Taylor) C5 — Crust: Ahrens (Wänke) C6 — Crust: Ahrens (Weaver)...

the Hadean, it would have formed continental crust. Different models predict different amounts of continental crust during the Hadean. The work of Dhiume...

complex. The process of subduction has created most of the Earth's continental crust. Rates of subduction are typically measured in centimeters per year...

covering 70.8% of Earth's crust. The remaining 29.2% of Earth's crust is land, most of which is located in the form of continental landmasses within Earth's...

thermal swells. Other oceanic plateaus, however, are made of rifted continental crust, for example the Falkland Plateau, Lord Howe Rise, and parts of Kerguelen...

lies below sea level is known as the oceanic crust, while on land it is known as the continental crust. The former is thinner and is composed of relatively...

is formed by the subduction of young oceanic crust under a thick felsic continental plate. Oceanic crust is hydrothermally altered causing addition of...

that slowly cools and solidifies underground. It is common in the continental crust of Earth, where it is found in igneous intrusions. These range in...

dispersal of Earth's continental crust. Cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis, where the axis of rotation of a planet may have shifted or the crust may have shifted...

average composition of the continental crust is andesitic. Along with basalts, andesites are a component of the Martian crust. The name andesite is derived...

in Earth's crust. The graph at right illustrates the relative atomic-abundance of the chemical elements in Earth's upper continental crust—the part that...