How to Use tectonics in a Sentence

tectonics

noun
  • Plate tectonics controls pretty much the fact that life exists on Earth.
    Quanta Magazine, 14 Apr. 2021
  • Plate tectonics is one of the most romantic theories in all of science.
    Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 26 Oct. 2021
  • Plate tectonics roughly like Earth's might have held sway there, or might be starting today, hidden under the clouds.
    Paul Voosen, Science | AAAS, 2 June 2021
  • Plate tectonics shapes Earth's atmosphere as well as its surface.
    David Bressan, Forbes, 24 Apr. 2022
  • By studying this pack ice pattern on Venus, researchers could use it to study exoplanets outside of our solar system and even the tectonics that were active on early Earth.
    Ashley Strickland, CNN, 21 June 2021
  • These studies mark only the beginning of what genome tectonics and genetic syntenies can teach us.
    Quanta Magazine, 2 Feb. 2022
  • But in the endless writing about these individuals, their demands and moral virtue, observers have yet to reckon with the full emotional tectonics grinding beneath the protests.
    Zoë Hu, The New Republic, 10 June 2020
  • Along with many other creatures, it had been thought that these spiders were separated from their companions by the slow breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana as the Earth's tectonics plates shifted.
    Ben Panko, Smithsonian, 2 Aug. 2017
  • Plate tectonics predicts that the boundaries of tectonic plates — where two plates collide, slide over or under one another, grind side by side, or move apart — are where most of the planet’s geologic fireworks can be found.
    Quanta Magazine, 15 Sep. 2021
  • The Moon Europa, orbiting Jupiter, is also believed to possess similar tectonics.
    David Bressan, Forbes, 14 Oct. 2021
  • The researchers modeled this surface deformation and determined that these tectonics actually match the slow movement of the planet's interior.
    Ashley Strickland, CNN, 21 June 2021
  • As teams monitor for aftershocks, which continue to rumble through, the data promises to help future scientists better understand the hazards woven into the region's wild tectonics.
    Maya Wei-Haas, National Geographic, 30 Oct. 2020
  • Shifting tectonics created varying surface textures overtime that allowed experts to recognize whether the ice was melting or freezing and when, which provided a timeline of Pluto's surface changes, Bierson said.
    Khrysgiana Pineda, USA TODAY, 24 June 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tectonics.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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