The word "tectonic" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to something related to the study of the structure and motion of the Earth's crust and upper mantle, as in "The tectonic plates shifted suddenly, causing a minor earthquake."
Yet his death, and the tributes to him following it, compound the overriding impression in Dublin that there has been a tectonic shift in the politics of Irish and British history.
He became the first unionist leader to sense the tectonic shift in politics leading to the earthquake of May 1 1997 when New Labour stormed to power.
It's a problem not confined to pop music – hello, fashion photography – but pop is where the tectonic plates of sex and commerce rub up against each other most vigorously.
Paul MacInnes It may not have triggered a tectonic shift in the musical landscape, but the elusive singer-songwriter's instrumental album should be a strong Mercury contender.
Should either Jordan or Victoria flout the prevalent doctrine of mutually assured destruction in the coming weeks, tectonic shifts beneath the city would very likely toss up another natural disaster, opening a gaping chasm that would swallow both these precious entertainment personalities.
You may wish to place money on Radiohead being among those springing new music upon the world with no notice, given the rumblings along the group's tectonic plates.
Tesco boss Philip Clarke has warned that the "tectonic plates are shifting" in the retail industry as shoppers increasingly rely on the internet and smartphones.
It looks as if, after some cataclysmic tectonic tremor, every commercial shed alongside the expressway had piled up in a great collision.
Away from places where tectonic plates abut, the temperature of the underlying rocks increases by roughly 25º-30ºC 25º-30ºCmetre (23º-26ºF per 1,000 feet) of depth.
Mount Paektu is far from the edge of the Pacific plate, a lively tectonic boundary, which makes the power of its past eruptions a mystery.
The entire country lies in a "ring of fire", a band of fault-lines where the earth's tectonic plates collide, which covers the Pacific rim, and arches across Central Asia to the Mediterranean.
