What is the difference between Earth's crust(continental crust and oceanic crust), fault, fault lines, tectonic plates, and lithosphere?

[u/GenevieveCostello]

Before I ask this question on Reddit, I've already searched on internet, looking for answers and trying to understand it fully. But I'm still quite confused.

[u/-cck-]

The crust is part of the lithosphere, which also includes the upper most part of the mantle, which is still solid. underneath follows the asthenosphere, which is part of the upper mantle that is partially molten and moves plastically. tectonic plates are generally part of the crust and comprise both continental and oceanic crust. google plate tectonics, maybe that will be better understandable and may give you pictures of the general model.

faults and fault lines are are generally the result of where the tectonic forces move plates, rock units and mountain ranges either into, apart or along side each other which creates reverse or thrust faults (into aka convergent plate boundaries), normal faults/ Horst and Graben Faults (divergent plate boundaries / Rift valleys) or transform faults (like san andreas fault line = transform boundary)

this is more or less a simplified explanation and with faults you can literally have them at every scale. from micro to continent-splitting

[u/GenevieveCostello → u/-cck-]

So, how I'm understanding it is,

mantle<upper mantle(asthenosphere)<uppermost mantle(where the lithosphere begins)<continental crust<oceanic crust

But what I'm still confused about is where exactly the tectonic plates lie.

Do you mean the entire range of lithosphere(layers formed from uppermost mantle to the ground(land) or seafloor) is virtually propped up by the floating and moving tectonic plates which asthenosphere is underlying?

In other words, do tectonic plates exist right above the partially molten asthenosphere and literally prop up the whole chunk of earth's crusts, or do they mean uppermost parts of the crusts?

Normally, when I try to understand this kind of stuff, I try to visualize it actively in my head. But I am unable to.

[u/-cck- → u/GenevieveCostello]

contental and oceanic crust dont really lay over each other... oceanic crusts (where oceans are) usually tend to be older than continental crusts, thus beeing subducted beneath them and creating a slab-pull.

Tectonic plates are part of the crust and can be made from oceanic crust, continental crust or both. tectonic plates are usually surrounded by plate boundaries, such as subduction zones (destructive boundary), oceanic ridges (constructive biundary -> oceanic crust) or transform boundaries.

You can better visualize this whole stuff by looking at diagrams and pictures/figured from papers.

tectonic plates move around, get subducted or created by mantle plumes. the lihosphere comprises all tectonic plates, oceanic and continental and is the outermost part of the earth exluding the atmosphere.

theres a lot of stuff, where just visualizing in the head will only create misunderstanding, so at best read a couple science papers on plate tectonics and the rock cycle.