They also hope to determine whether it has crustal plates that move, like those that cause continental drift on Earth.
This arrangement suggests that they were formed by a crustal plate moving over a hot spot.
They are authorities on the role of the earth's shifting crustal plates in the formation of mountains.
Venus is not believed to have a system of moving crustal plates similar to those largely repsonsible for earthquakes.
"It sounds like a description of the spreading boundaries between crustal plates back on Oghen's sea floor."
Geologists model the slow shift of the giant crustal plates that give rise to mountains.
According to this theory, the slow churning of the earth's hot interior constantly creates and moves big crustal plates.
Then the land got shoved upward by the movements of the crustal plates, and erosion had begun.
The hot spot itself remains more or less stationary, but the crustal plate of the ocean floor has drifted eastward across it.
Students will also understand that the movement of the Earth's crustal plates over time has influenced regional climate conditions.
Wörterbuch für Geologie