tectonic

Adjective

tectonic (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to construction or to architecture.
2. Structural.
3. Of, relating to, or caused by large-scale movements of the Earth's (or a similar planet's) lithosphere.
   • A boiling hot rock planet with extreme tectonic activity, Parnassus is home to many volcanic mountains. Surface scans reveal several geothermal and solar power stations, tapping the planet's abundant energy.2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Parnassus
   • At some point, Venus may have had its own form of plate tectonics – possibly different from the plate tectonics here on Earth. Water and rock measurements obtained from the DAVINCI mission, combined with the Venus global mapping information by NASA’s VERITAS mission, another recently selected...2021 October 20, “NASA’s DAVINCI Explores Ten Mysteries of Venus”, in NASA, archived from the original on 20 Oct 2021
4. (figuratively) Momentous, utter, vast.
   • 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.2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian