asthenosphere

See also: asthénosphère

English

From Ancient Greek ἀσθενής (asthenḗs, “weak”) + -sphere.

asthenosphere (plural asthenospheres)

(geology) The zone of the Earth's upper mantle, below the lithosphere.
- 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, p. 192:
  To say that the lithosphere floats on top of the asthenosphere suggests a degree of easy buoyancy that isn't quite right.
- 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 79:
  The asthenosphere that underlies the surface plates is not liquid in any vernacular sense, although it is relatively plastic.

the zone of the Earth's upper mantle, below the lithosphere

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