♥Litosphere♥

Lithosphere

The outer, rigid shell of the earth. It is composed of the entire crust and uppermost part of the mantle. The thickness of the lithosphere varies from around 5km to up to 100km where there is thick continental crust. The lithosphere is above the more ductile asthenosphere. The boundary between these two layer is the Mohorovicic discontinuity.

The lithosphere is fragmented into tectonic plates which move relative to one another. This movement of lithospheric plates is described as plate tectonics.