Here's a breakdown:
* Lithosphere: The rigid outer layer of the Earth, composed of the crust and the uppermost part of the mantle.
* Terrane: A distinct block of crustal material, often with a different geological history and composition than the surrounding continental crust.
Terranes are formed through a process called accretion, where pieces of crust are scraped off subducting oceanic plates and accreted onto the edge of a continent. This process can add significant amounts of landmass to continents over time.
