地槽是大陆地壳的一级构造单元，呈狭长带状，长达数百至数千千米，但宽仅数十至数百千米，是地壳上相对活动的区域，有强烈的构造变动，频繁的岩浆活动，因此也有丰富多样的矿物存在。

地槽的发展过程分为两大阶段，在第一阶段有强烈的差异下降，接受了非常厚的沉积层；在第二阶段反而有强烈的褶皱上升，相成巨大的山系。

地槽主要位于大陆的边缘地带或两个大陆之间，现代位于大陆内部的地槽褶皱带，在当时发育时，也是处于古代大陆的边缘。

1857年，美国地质学家霍尔（James Hall)定名为“大向斜轴”，1873年地质学家丹纳（James Dwight Dana）正名为“地槽”。

In geology, geosyncline is a term still occasionally used for a subsiding linear trough that was caused by the accumulation of sedimentary rock strata deposited in a basin and subsequently compressed, deformed, and uplifted into a mountain range, with attendant volcanism and plutonism. The filling of a geosyncline with tons of sediment is accompanied in the late stages of deposition by folding, crumpling, and faulting of the deposits. Intrusion of crystalline igneous rock and regional uplift along the axis of the trough generally complete the history of a particular geosyncline. It is then transformed into a belt of folded mountains. Thick volcanic sequences, together with greywackes (sandstones rich in rock fragments with a muddy matrix), cherts, and various sediments reflecting deepwater deposition or processes, are deposited in eugeosynclines, the outer deepwater segment of geosynclines.