Editing Tectonophysics (section)

==Overview==

Tectonophysics is concerned with movements in the [[Crust (geology)|Earth's crust]] and deformations over scales from meters to thousands of kilometers.<ref name=Rebetsky2009>{{harvnb|Rebetsky|2009}}</ref> These govern processes on local and regional scales and at structural boundaries, such as the destruction of continental crust (e.g. gravitational instability) and oceanic crust (e.g. [[subduction]]), convection in the [[Earth's mantle]] (availability of melts), the course of continental drift, and second-order effects of plate tectonics such as thermal contraction of the lithosphere.<ref name=":0" /> This involves the measurement of a hierarchy of [[strain (materials science)|strain]]s in rocks and plates as well as deformation rates; the study of laboratory analogues of natural systems; and the construction of models for the history of deformation.