tectonicadj.

1656 T. Blount Glossographia Tectonick (tectonicus), of or belonging to a builder.

1864 Daily Tel. 1 Aug. That law of necessity and of demand which is at the foundation of all tectonic art.

1903 G. B. Brown Arts in Early Eng. II. 178 A form produced..by the exigencies of construction—or, to use a convenient term familiar in Germany, a tectonic form.

1894 Boyd-Dawkins in Geol. Mag. Oct. 459 The relation existing between the tectonic anticlines and synclines in the districts of South Wales, Gloucester, and the West of England.

1902 Ld. Avebury Scenery of Eng. 213 The primary configuration of the country's surface is no doubt due to tectonic causes.

1905 Athenæum 1 Apr. 404/3 Whilst the most powerful and destructive disturbances are of this tectonic character, many other earthquakes are no doubt connected with volcanic phenomena.

1962 F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics iii. 65 They [sc. the rills on the moon] are apparently the result of tectonic activity.

1976 Science 24 Dec. 1386/3 By 2·5 billion years ago the volcanic-tectonic circus on Mars had folded.

1982 Nature 28 Jan. 293/2 Additional mapping and analysis based on Voyager images should help resolve many remaining questions about the tectonic evolution of Ganymede.

1939 Geogr. Jrnl. 94 499 There are also discussions of the tectonical..and general geological problems of Tanganyika Territory.

1972 Rep. 24th Internat. Geol. Congr. iii. 3 Among the most important geological (tectonical) factors..are the concentrations of heat flow and juvenile matter ascending from the mantle..along steep, deep-seated tectonic zones.

1925 J. Joly Surface-hist. Earth 191 Laccolith, and intrusive mass of igneous rock..generally associated tectonically with a mountain range.

1974 Nature 25 Jan. 194/1 Many investigators interpret ophiolites as slices of oceanic crust which have been tectonically emplaced in orogenic belts.

1976 J. Kleczek Universe iv. 155 On the whole, the Moon is tectonically a very quiet body.

1981 J. Hicks In Singer's Temple iii. 79 Many of the sixteen fictions seem concerned with..the tectonic shifts in domestic relationships in the American 1970s and 1980s.

1993 Guardian 7 Aug. 22/4 He says they have brought not only important shifts in key policy areas, but also a tectonic movement in the whole philosophy of local government.

2000 Nation (N.Y.) 21 Aug. 16/2 The demographic shift of recent times has been tectonic. A city that was 70 percent white in 1960 is now only 31 percent so.

2004 A. Schwartz Numbers Game iii. 50 Spotlighting players' statistics in greater detail..began a tectonic shift in sports, as intrigue that once focused mostly on teams began to go to individual players.