Tectonic Shift

• Tectonic Shift Meaning
• Tectonic Shifts
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English[edit]

What is Tectonic Shift? Techtonic Shift is the movement of the plates that make up the Earth's crust. The Earth is made up of roughly a dozen major plates and several minor plates. The Earth is in a constant state of change. Tectonic shift is the movement of the plates that make up Earth’s crust. The Earth is made up of roughly a dozen major plates and several minor plates. The Earth is in a constant state of change. Earth’s crust, called the lithosphere, consists of 15 to 20. Tectonic plates are able to move because the Earth's lithosphere has greater mechanical strength than the underlying asthenosphere. Lateral density variations in the mantle result in convection; that is, the slow creeping motion of Earth's solid mantle. At Tectonic Shift Fitness, our mission is to provide the best quality products at an affordable price, and to become one small place in your journey to success. We, here at Tectonic Shift Fitness, make up a community of everyday people who push through our daily challenges. Executive summary The US domestic crude oil grades market has seen a tectonic shift in the first quarter of 2020 in response to the global demand and supply shocks that flowed from the COVID-19.

Etymology[edit]

1650s, in sense of building, from Late Latintectonicus, from Ancient Greekτεκτονικός(tektonikós, “pertaining to building”), from Ancient Greekτέκτων(téktōn, “carpenter, joiner, maker”), from Proto-Indo-European*tek-(“to make”) (from which also texture). In sense of geology, attested 1894.^[1] Surface analysis is τέκτων(téktōn) +‎ -ic(“pertaining to”).

Adjective[edit]

tectonic (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to construction or to architecture
2. (biology)Structural
3. (geology) Of, relating to, or caused by large-scale movements of the Earth's lithosphere
4. (figuratively)momentous, utter, vast
   • 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     But it would be a mistake to imagine that we are benignly coming full circle, or even that we are finding that the old ways are still the most efficient. A tectonic shift has occurred.

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ Douglas Harper, “tectonic”, in Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2021.

Anagrams[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Frenchtectonique

Tectonic Shift Meaning

Adjective[edit]

tectonicm or n (feminine singulartectonică, masculine pluraltectonici, feminine and neuter pluraltectonice)

Declension[edit]

Tectonic Shifts

When I equated the quantum leap to the big bang, I overlooked another term borrowed from another science: tectonic shift. The adjective tectonic is older than modern geology; it comes from the Greek, meaning pertaining to building or construction in general (OED). We are familiar with it for its application to the tectonic plates underlying the oceans and continents, which, driven by deep currents in the mantle, cause earthquakes and volcanoes. The idea of these mobile tectonic plates developed during the 1960s, although the term tectonics had already entered geology, referring simply to the structure of the Earth’s crust or changes affecting it. Paradoxically, a tectonic shift occurs very slowly, but the subsequent events can be catastrophically sudden.

The geological term has been borrowed by medicine in ophthalmology: it is a form of corneal surgery. And also, as very many terms have been, in genetics, where Tectonic is a protein in the Hedgehog-mediated patterning of the neural tube. Anyone searching for metaphorical uses will have to wade through a large number of these uses, as well as geological and ecological articles. Most metaphorical uses ignore the slow process and the catastrophic result, and merely mean very big. There is often an overtone of difficulty, although there is nothing in the dictionary definition (COD: a very significant or considerable change or development) to imply that. Thus, in its occasional application in medicine, the slowness is usually ignored; the tectonic shift is just, like the quantum leap and the big bang, something from which authors want you to infer that something terribly important is happening.

Here are three examples: “The advent of epigenetics brought in a tectonic shift in the understanding of molecular basis of complex diseases”; “our understanding of the intricacies of gene regulation has undergone tectonic shifts almost every decade”; “…has resulted in a tectonic shift in the way physicians and the general population perceive infertility and ethics”. Is tectonic shift any better than“great change” or “important advance”?

But sometimes the metaphor is necessary. Rudolf Klein used it well when he wrote about how to reform US healthcare:his abstract ends, “Importing systems from countries with different histories and institutions would require a tectonic shift in the American political landscape”; and his article ends with, “For the United States, the lessons learned are therefore likely to depend on whether increasing inequality, linked to increasing economic turbulence, produces a tectonic shift in the country’s political scenery”. Yes, a tectonic shift: big forces, consummate effort, unshakeable resolve.

I quite liked a description of changes to the Declaration of Helsinki as significant but not tectonic, although it implied to me that the authors were—to use a word the OED labels as humorous—underwhelmed. However, I have no idea what the authors of an article on training the brain meant when they wrote that their paper provided “a tectonic integration and synthesis of cognitive training approaches.”

Neville Goodman is a retired consultant anaesthetist and a writer. He is co-author of a book on medical English.

Tectonic Shifting Car

Competing interests: I have read and understood BMJ policy on declaration of interests and declare that my only competing interest is my co-authorship of a book about medical English.