Editing Tectonophysics

{{Short description|Study of the physical processes that underlie tectonic deformation}}
{{For|the scientific journal|Tectonophysics (journal)}}
'''Tectonophysics''', a branch of [[geophysics]], is the study of the physical processes that underlie [[tectonics|tectonic]] deformation. This includes measurement or calculation of the [[Stress (mechanics)|stress]]- and [[Strain (mechanics)|strain]] fields on [[Earth’s surface]] and the [[Rheology|rheologies]] of the [[Crust (geology)|crust]], [[Mantle (geology)|mantle]], [[lithosphere]] and [[asthenosphere]].<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Foulger |first=Gillian R. |title=The Plate Theory for Volcanism |date=2021 |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/B9780081029084001053 |work=Encyclopedia of Geology |pages=879–890 |access-date=2023-10-23 |publisher=Elsevier |language=en |doi=10.1016/b978-0-08-102908-4.00105-3 |isbn=978-0-08-102909-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==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.

==History==
{{See also|Timeline of the development of tectonophysics|Continental drift#History}}
Tectonophysics was adopted as the name of a new section of AGU on April 19, 1940, at AGU's 21st Annual Meeting. According to the AGU website (https://tectonophysics.agu.org/agu-100/section-history/), using the words from Norman Bowen, the main goal of the tectonophysics section was to “designate this new borderline field between geophysics, physics and geology … for the solution of problems of tectonics.” Consequently, the claim below that the term was defined in 1954 by Gzolvskii is clearly incorrect. Since 1940 members of AGU had been presenting papers at AGU meetings, the contents of which defined the meaning of the field.

Tectonophysics was defined as a field in 1954 when Mikhail Vladimirovich Gzovskii published three papers in the journal ''Izvestiya Akad. Nauk SSSR, Sireya Geofizicheskaya'': "On the tasks and content of tectonophysics", "Tectonic stress fields", and "Modeling of tectonic stress fields". He defined the main goals of tectonophysical research to be study of the mechanisms of [[fold (geology)|folding]] and [[faulting]] as well as large structural units of the [[Earth's crust]]. He later created the Laboratory of Tectonophysics at the Institute of Physics of the Earth, [[Academy of Sciences of the USSR]], Moscow.<ref name=
GzovskiiTribute>{{harvnb|Mikhailova|Nikonov|Osokina|Rebetsky|2001}}</ref>

== Applications ==
In coal mines, large amounts of horizontal stress on the rock (around two to three times greater than the vertical pressure from the overlying rock) are caused by tectonic stress and can be predicted with plate tectonics stress maps.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Lewis |first=Michael |date=3 September 2024 |title=The Canary: Michael Lewis on Chris Mark of the Department of Labor |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2024/michael-lewis-chris-marks-the-canary-who-is-government/?itid=hp_latest-headlines_p001_f015 |access-date=8 September 2024 |work=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> For example, because [[West Virginia]] experiences tectonic stress from east to west, as of around the 1990s significantly more roof collapses occurred in mines running north to south than in mines running east to west.<ref name=":1" />

==See also==
{{Portal|Earth sciences}}
{{colbegin}}
* [[Geodynamics]]
* [[Palaeogeography]]
* [[Rock mechanics]]
* [[Seafloor spreading]]
* [[Structural geology]]
* [[Tectonophysics (journal)]]
{{colend}}

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|3}}

== References ==
{{Refbegin}}
*{{cite journal
|last1=Rebetsky
|first1=Yu. L.
|title=Modern problems of tectonophysics
|journal=Izvestiya, Physics of the Solid Earth
|volume=45
|number=11
|pages=933–937
|date=2009
|doi=10.1134/S1069351309110019
|bibcode = 2009IzPSE..45..933R |s2cid=128628371
}}
*{{cite journal
|last1=Mikhailova
|first1=A. V.
|last2=Nikonov
|first2=A. A.
|last3=Osokina
|first3=D. N.
|last4=Rebetsky
|first4=Yu. L.
|last5=Yakovlev
|first5=F. L.
|year=2001
|title=Mikhail V. Gzovskii and Creation of Tectonophysics (On the 80th Anniversary of His Birth)
|journal=Izvestiya, Physics of the Solid Earth
|volume=37
|number=2
|pages=183–190
|url=http://yak.ifz.ru/pdf-lib-yak/PHE_2001c_e.pdf
|others= Translated from Fizika Zemli, No. 2, 2001, pp. 103–111
}}
*{{cite encyclopedia
 |last1=Whitcomb
 |first1=James H.
 | year = 1979
 | title = Impact of technology on tectonophysics
 | encyclopedia = Impact of technology on geophysics
 | publisher = [[National Academies]]
 | pages = 70–80
 | location = 
 | id = 
 }}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.agu.org/sections/tectonophysics/ American Geophysical Union Tectonophysics Section]

{{Geophysics navbox}}
{{Geology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Geophysics]]
[[Category:Tectonics]]