PLATE TECTONICS

By ANTHONY MOORE

1 Changing Views of the Earth 1 Earth’s Early Days 2 Competing Theories 4 Catastrophes or Steady Change? 7 Charles Lyell (1797–1875): Founder of Uniformitarianism 8 Progressivism 10 Floating in a Hidden Sea 12 The Age of the Earth 16 Earth Science in Turmoil 18 2 Weather Pioneer 20 An Active Youth 20 Meteorology: The Science of Weather 22 Arctic Explorer 24 Popular Teacher and Writer 27 Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940): Pioneer Climatologist 30 A Bizarre Idea 31 Love and War 35 3 Continental Drift 38 A Challenge to Geology 39 Geologic Time 40 Ancient Continents 41 Another “Continental Drift” Theory 43 A Moving Island 45 Two Layers of Crust 46 Matching Rocks 48 Separated Twins 50 Fossil Climates and Wandering Poles 53 The Motors That Drive the Continents 55 4 “Utter, Damned Rot” 58 Early Reactions to Drift 60 Rejection in America 62 Harsh Criticisms 63 Powerful Feelings 64 Different Approaches to Science 66 Inductive and Deductive Reasoning 66 Starting All Over 68 5 Death on the Ice 70 Planning an Expedition 71 A Frustrating Start 73 Setting up Mid-Ice 75 International Polar Year: A Modern Polar Adventure 78 Visiting Mid-Ice 79 Final Journey 81 A Long Winter 83 A Memorial to Wegener: The Alfred Wegener Institute 84 Grim Discovery 85 6 Rumblings of Change 89 New Mechanisms for Drift 90 Support from South Africa 92 Comic Relief 94 Dragging Gravity 95 Artificial Earthquakes 96 War Spurs Marine Science 97 Scripps, Woods Hole, and Lamont: Three Pioneering Institutions 98 The Wound That Never Heals 99 Magnetic Moments 103 7 The Plate Tectonics Revolution 106 Seafloor Spreading 107 Linking Spreading to Magnetic Changes 109 Converging Lines of Evidence 113 Eltanin 19: “Too Perfect” 114 Shaking up Geology 116 Mathematical Support 118 A New Theory of Earth Movement 119 Plate Tectonics Today 123 Conclusion: Reaching into the Future 127