Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the concepts about the solid Earth that are normally developed in a freshman Earth science or physical geology course. This level of understanding is necessary for relating petrology to global Earth processes. Perhaps the most important among them is the grand unification concept of plate tectonics, which proposes that the Earth’s outer shell behaves like a composite system of plates that are constantly shifting positions in response to internal forces. Most or all observable phenomena on Earth, such as earthquakes and volcanism, are somehow tied to the movement of plates. Some basic and pertinent data on planet Earth are first presented, and then the concept of plate tectonics is briefly discussed.
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Sen, G. (2014). Introduction. In: Petrology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38800-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38800-2_1
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