Plate Tectonics

An advanced undergraduate textbook offering a modern overview of plate tectonics through clear explanations and stunning colour imagery.

Haakon Fossen (Author), Christian Teyssier (Author)

9781108476232, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 December 2024

462 pages
28.5 x 22.1 x 2.8 cm, 1.53 kg

'This is a didactically excellent textbook that, in addition to the text modules, impresses above all with high-quality illustrations that have a uniform layout. The book will be an important part of my tectonics course.' Thomas Kenkmann, University of Freiburg

This advanced undergraduate textbook provides a thoroughly modern overview of plate tectonics and is the perfect resource for a capstone geology course. It presents plate tectonics as a multifaceted, interdisciplinary theory that unites many different geological observations and processes into a harmonious model so that readers grasp how the outer part of our planet works in relation to the deep interior. Supported by clear prose, helpful analogies, and stunning colour imagery, readers will gain an in-depth understanding of how and why plates interact to produce different topography, rock assemblages and deformation features along plate boundaries. Written by an author pairing renowned for their research, teaching, and textbook writing experience, this text covers necessary ground for a single-semester course without overwhelming readers and offers a truly accessible introduction to quantitative topics. Student-friendly features chart clear paths through every chapter and a rich suite of online resources bring plate tectonics to life.

1. Introduction to a Tectonically Unique Planet
2. Deformation, Stress and Strain
3. Heat, Isostasy, Petrology and Basins
4. Earth, its Interior and How it Works
5. Plates, Plumes and Kinematics
6. Continental Rifting
7. Passive Continental Margins
8. Seafloor Spreading
9. Oceanic Transform Faults and Fracture Zones
10. Continental Strike-Slip
11. Oceanic Subduction
12. Accretionary Orogeny
13. Collisional Orogeny
14. Orogenic Belts – Case Studies
15. Formation of Earth, Early Tectonics, and Continental Growth
16. Evolution Into Modern Tectonics.

Subject Areas: Geology & the lithosphere [RBG]