Fear not the tectosphere (and other -spheres)

Based on a highly unrepresentative sampling of the community, not unlike Fox news polls, it has been recognized that the use of words having the suffix "-sphere" is confused and often abused. Such words include lithosphere, asthenosphere, perisphere, tectosphere, and mesosphere. In addition, there appears to be equal confusion in the use of the related terms: mechanical boundary layer, thermal boundary layer, chemical boundary layer, low velocity zone, low viscosity zone, effective elastic thickness, etc. This confusion is not confined to beginning students of the Earth sciences but is also manifest in seasoned Earth scientists (including myself), that is, it is not uncommon to find a geochemist and a geophysicist with completely different definitions of "lithosphere" and "tectosphere", for example. In this poster, an attempt will be made to illustrate the concepts behind some of these terms using visual and verbal aids. One of the focuses, could be the concept of a tectosphere, which may go something like this: A Wise maN once said to me; That cOntinents float because they are light; Then said my dog - DiorITE; Oceans sInk because they are heavy; And so I ask, why miGht this be?; With a Laugh and a Bark, she says the oceans are cOld; And to test if she's rigHT; I stick a tHermometer in the continent's core; To my surprise coNtinents are cold, if not more; So something does not Jive; A parAdox has come alive; Perhaps you surMise that the story is not coMplete; Indeed, you may be right; BecausE under the contiNents lie Green rocks - PerIdotite!; InFertile as Hell and fortuitouslY light; Together they fOrm the TecToSphere; And this is why we are here; Fear not the TecToSphere.