The evolution of
tectonophysics
Tectonophysics, a branch of geophysics, is the study of the physical processes that underlie tectonic deformation. The field encompasses the spatial patterns of stress, strain, and differing rheologies in the lithosphere and asthenosphere of the ...
is closely linked to the history of the
continental drift
Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The idea of continental drift has been subsumed into the science of pla ...
and
plate tectonics
Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large ...
hypotheses
A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obser ...
. The continental drift/ Airy-Heiskanen
isostasy
Isostasy (Greek ''ísos'' "equal", ''stásis'' "standstill") or isostatic equilibrium is the state of gravitational equilibrium between Earth's crust (or lithosphere) and mantle such that the crust "floats" at an elevation that depends on its ...
hypothesis had many flaws and scarce data. The fixist/ Pratt-Hayford isostasy, the contracting Earth and the expanding Earth concepts had many flaws as well.
The idea of continents with a permanent location, the
geosyncline theory, the Pratt-Hayford isostasy, the extrapolation of the age of the Earth by Lord Kelvin as a black body cooling down, the contracting Earth, the Earth as a solid and crystalline body, is one school of thought. A lithosphere creeping over the asthenosphere is a logical consequence of an Earth with internal heat by radioactivity decay, the Airy-Heiskanen isostasy,
thrust fault
A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks.
Thrust geometry and nomenclature
Reverse faults
A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less.
If ...
s and Niskanen's
mantle viscosity determinations.
Introduction
![Antonio Snider-Pellegrini Opening of the Atlantic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Antonio_Snider-Pellegrini_Opening_of_the_Atlantic.jpg)
Christian
creationism
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 't ...
(
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
) was popular until the 19th century, and the
age of the Earth
The age of Earth is estimated to be 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years This age may represent the age of Earth's accretion, or core formation, or of the material from which Earth formed. This dating is based on evidence from radiometric age-dating of ...
was thought to have been created circa 4,000 BC. There were stacks of calcareous rocks of maritime origin above sea level, and up and down motions were allowed (
geosyncline
A geosyncline (originally called a geosynclinal) is an obsolete geological concept to explain orogens, which was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before the theory of plate tectonics was envisaged. Şengör (1982), p. 11 A geo ...
hypothesis,
James Hall and
James D. Dana
James Dwight Dana Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE (February 12, 1813 – April 14, 1895) was an American geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist, and zoologist. He made pioneering studies of mountain-building, volcano, volcanic activity, and the ...
). Later on, the
thrust fault
A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks.
Thrust geometry and nomenclature
Reverse faults
A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less.
If ...
concept appeared, and a
contracting Earth
Before the concept of plate tectonics, global cooling was a geophysical theory by James Dwight Dana, also referred to as the contracting earth theory. It suggested that the Earth had been in a molten state, and features such as mountains formed as ...
(
Eduard Suess
Eduard Suess (; 20 August 1831 - 26 April 1914) was an Austrian geologist and an expert on the geography of the Alps. He is responsible for hypothesising two major former geographical features, the supercontinent Gondwana (proposed in 1861) and t ...
, James D. Dana,
Albert Heim
Albert Heim (12 April 184931 August 1937) was a Swiss geologist, noted for his three-volume ''Geologie der Schweiz''.
Born in Zürich, he was educated at Zürich and Berlin universities. Very early in life he became interested in the physical fe ...
) was its driving force. In 1862, the physicist William Thomson (who later became
Lord Kelvin
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, Mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy (Glasgow), Professor of Natural Philoso ...
) calculated the age of Earth (as a cooling
black body
A black body or blackbody is an idealized physical body that absorbs all incident electromagnetic radiation, regardless of frequency or angle of incidence. The name "black body" is given because it absorbs all colors of light. A black body ...
) at between 20 million and 400 million years. In 1895,
John Perry produced an age of Earth estimate of 2 to 3 billion years old using a model of a convective mantle and thin crust. Finally,
Arthur Holmes
Arthur Holmes (14 January 1890 – 20 September 1965) was an English geologist who made two major contributions to the understanding of geology. He pioneered the use of radiometric dating of minerals, and was the first earth scientist to grasp ...
published ''The Age of the Earth, an Introduction to Geological Ideas'' in 1927, in which he presented a range of 1.6 to 3.0 billion years.
Wegener had data for assuming that the relative positions of the continents change over time. It was a mistake to state the continents "plowed" through the sea, although it isn't sure that this fixist quote is true in the original in German. He was an outsider with a
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
in astronomy attacking an established theory between 'geophysicists'. The geophysicists were right to state that the Earth is solid, and the mantle is
elastic
Elastic is a word often used to describe or identify certain types of elastomer, elastic used in garments or stretchable fabrics.
Elastic may also refer to:
Alternative name
* Rubber band, ring-shaped band of rubber used to hold objects togeth ...
(for seismic waves) and inhomogeneous, and the ocean floor would not allow the movement of the continents. But excluding one alternative, substantiates the opposite alternative: passive continents and an active seafloor spreading and
subduction
Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...
, with
accretion
Accretion may refer to:
Science
* Accretion (astrophysics), the formation of planets and other bodies by collection of material through gravity
* Accretion (meteorology), the process by which water vapor in clouds forms water droplets around nucl ...
belts on the edges of the continents. The velocity of the sliding continents, was allowed in the uncertainty of the fixed continent model and seafloor subduction and upwelling with phase change allows for inhomogeneity.
The problem too, was the specialisation.
Arthur Holmes
Arthur Holmes (14 January 1890 – 20 September 1965) was an English geologist who made two major contributions to the understanding of geology. He pioneered the use of radiometric dating of minerals, and was the first earth scientist to grasp ...
and
Alfred Rittmann
Alfred Rittmann (23 March 1893 – 19 September 1980) was a leading volcanologist. He was elected President of the International Association of Volcanology for three terms (1954–1963).
Life
Rittmann was the son of a dentist in Basel, Switzerla ...
saw it right . Only an outsider can have the overview, only an outsider sees the forest, not only the trees . But A. Wegener did not have the specialisation to correctly weight the quality of the geophysical data and the paleontologic data, and its conclusions. Wegener's main interest was meteorology, and he wanted to join the Denmark-Greenland expedition scheduled for mid 1912. So he hurried up to present his Continental Drift hypothesis.
Mainly
Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known as the author of ''Principles of Geolo ...
,
Harold Jeffreys
Sir Harold Jeffreys, FRS (22 April 1891 – 18 March 1989) was a British mathematician, statistician, geophysicist, and astronomer. His book, ''Theory of Probability'', which was first published in 1939, played an important role in the revival ...
, James D. Dana,
Charles Schuchert
Charles Schuchert (July 3, 1858 – November 20, 1942) was an American invertebrate paleontologist who was a leader in the development of paleogeography, the study of the distribution of lands and seas in the geological past.
Biography
He was bo ...
,
Chester Longwell, and the conflict with the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
slowed down the acceptance of continental drifting.
*
Abraham Ortelius
Abraham Ortelius (; also Ortels, Orthellius, Wortels; 4 or 14 April 152728 June 1598) was a Brabantian cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer, conventionally recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, the ''Theatrum Orbis Terraru ...
(cited in ),
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...
(cited in ), Theodor Christoph Lilienthal (1756) (cited in , and in Schmeling, 2004
),
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...
(1801 and 1845) (cited in Schmeling, 2004
),
Antonio Snider-Pellegrini
Antonio Snider-Pellegrini (1802–1885) was a French geographer and scientist who theorized about the possibility of continental drift, anticipating Wegener's theories concerning Pangaea by several decades.
In 1858, Snider-Pellegrini published h ...
, and others had noted earlier that the shapes of
continent
A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...
s on opposite sides of the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
(most notably, Africa and South America) seem to fit together (see also , and .).
** Note: Francis Bacon was thinking of western Africa and western South America and Theodor Lilienthal was thinking about the sunken island of
Atlantis
Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas (mythology), Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias'' ...
and changing sea levels.
*
*
Catastrophism
In geology, catastrophism theorises that the Earth has largely been shaped by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope.
This contrasts with uniformitarianism (sometimes called gradualism), according to which slow increment ...
(e.g.
Christian fundamentalism
Christian fundamentalism, also known as fundamental Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity, is a religious movement emphasizing biblical literalism. In its modern form, it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among British and ...
,
William Thomson) vs.
Uniformitarianism
Uniformitarianism, also known as the Doctrine of Uniformity or the Uniformitarian Principle, is the assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in our present-day scientific observations have always operated in the universe in ...
(e.g. Charles Lyell,
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The storie ...
) .
** Term coined by
William Whewell
William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved dist ...
.
** Uniformitarism is the prevailing view in the U.S. .
* Charles Lyell assumed that land masses changed their location, but he assumed a mechanism of vertical movement . James Dwight Dana assumed a permanent location as well, influencing the American fixist school of thought . It wasn't known that the seafloor isn't mainly
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
rock (
sial
In geology, the term sial refers to the composition of the upper layer of Earth's crust, namely rocks rich in aluminium silicate minerals. It is sometimes equated with the continental crust because it is absent in the wide oceanic basins, but ...
) (as the continental
craton
A craton (, , or ; from grc-gre, κράτος "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging and ...
s) but mainly
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
rock (
sima
Sima or SIMA may refer to:
People
* Sima (Chinese surname)
* Sima (given name), a Persian feminine name in use in Iran and Turkey
* Sima (surname)
Places
* Sima, Comoros, on the island of Anjouan, near Madagascar
* Sima de los Huesos, a cav ...
).
** Quote, Lyell: "Continents therefore, although permanent for whole geological epochs, shift their positions entirely in the course of ages." ( cited in )
** Quote, Wallace about Dana: "In 1856, in articles in the American Journal, he discussed the development of the American continent, and argued for its general permanence; and in his Manual of Geology in 1863 and later editions, the same views were more fully enforced and were latterly applied to all continents." ( cited in )
* Pratt's
isostasy
Isostasy (Greek ''ísos'' "equal", ''stásis'' "standstill") or isostatic equilibrium is the state of gravitational equilibrium between Earth's crust (or lithosphere) and mantle such that the crust "floats" at an elevation that depends on its ...
is the prevailing view :
**
Airy-
Heiskanen Model; where different topographic heights are accommodated by changes in crustal thickness.
**
Pratt
Pratt is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include:
A–F
* Abner Pratt (1801–1863), American diplomat, jurist, politician, lawyer
* Al Pratt (baseball) (1847–1937), American baseball player
* Andy Pratt (baseball) (bor ...
-
Hayford Model; where different topographic heights are accommodated by lateral changes in rock density.
**
Vening Meinesz, or Flexural Model; where the lithosphere acts as an elastic plate and its inherent rigidity distributes local topographic loads over a broad region by bending.
* A
cooling and contracting Earth is the prevailing view.
** H. Jeffreys was the most important contractionist , –
* H. Wettstein ,
E. Suess,
Bailey Willis
Bailey Willis (March 31, 1857 in Idle Wild-on-Hudson, New York, United States – February 19, 1949 in Palo Alto, California) was a geological engineer who worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and lectured at two prominent Amer ...
and
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
allow horizontal move of the Earth's crust.
** . But Willis was a fixist, as he supported the permanent position of the oceans, although he didn't believe in land-bridges .
**
** Quote, Benjamin Franklin (1782): "The crust of the Earth must be a shell floating on a fluid interior.... Thus the surface of the globe would be capable of being broken and distorted by the violent movements of the fluids on which it rested".
* The vertical movement of
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
after the ice age is accepted (recent average uplift c. 1 cm/year). This implies a certain plasticity under the crust .
** The alpine geology with its theory of thrusting (as
geosyncline
A geosyncline (originally called a geosynclinal) is an obsolete geological concept to explain orogens, which was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before the theory of plate tectonics was envisaged. Şengör (1982), p. 11 A geo ...
hypothesis; today's
thrust tectonics
Thrust tectonics or contractional tectonics is concerned with the structures formed by, and the tectonic processes associated with, the shortening and thickening of the crust or lithosphere. It is one of the three main types of tectonic regime, ...
) accepted horizontal movements. cited in
* 1848
Arnold Escher shows
Roderick Murchison
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet, (19 February 1792 – 22 October 1871) was a Scotland, Scottish geologist who served as director-general of the British Geological Survey from 1855 until his death in 1871. He is noted for investigat ...
the
Glarus thrust
The Glarus thrust (german: Glarner Überschiebung) is a major thrust fault in the Alps of eastern Switzerland. Along the thrust the Helvetic nappes were thrust more than 100 km to the north over the external Aarmassif and Infrahelvetic compl ...
at the Pass dil Segnas. But Arnold Escher does not publish it as a thrust as it contradicts the geosyncline hypothesis.
* Eduard Suess proposed
Gondwanaland
Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...
in 1861, as a result of the
Glossopteris
''Glossopteris'' tymology: from Ancient Greek γλῶσσα (glôssa, " tongue ") + πτερίς (pterís, " fern ")is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct Permian order of seed ferns known as Glossopteridales (also known as Arberia ...
findings, but he believed that the oceans flooded the spaces currently between those lands. And he proposed the
Tethys Sea in 1893. He came to the conclusion that the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
to the North were once at the bottom of an ocean .
* The idea of continental drifting shows up for the first time.
John Henry Pepper
John Henry "Professor" Pepper (17 June 1821 – 25 March 1900) was a British scientist and inventor who toured the English-speaking world with his scientific demonstrations. He entertained the public, royalty, and fellow scientists with a wide r ...
merges Antonio Snider-Pellegrini's map,
Evan Hopkins' proof of northward shifting of the continents of his
neptunist
Neptunism is a superseded scientific theory of geology proposed by Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749–1817) in the late 18th century, proposing that rocks formed from the crystallisation of minerals in the early Earth's oceans.
The theory took its ...
book and his
plutonism
Plutonism is the geologic theory that the igneous rocks forming the Earth originated from intrusive magmatic activity, with a continuing gradual process of weathering and erosion wearing away rocks, which were then deposited on the sea bed, re- ...
( and cited in ).
* 1884,
Marcel Alexandre Bertrand
Marcel Alexandre Bertrand (2 July 1847 – 13 February 1907) was a French geologist born in Paris. He was the son of mathematician Joseph Louis François Bertrand (1822–1900), and son-in-law to physicist Éleuthère Mascart (1837-1908).
He stu ...
interpretes the Glarus thrust as a thrust.
**
*
Hans Schardt demonstrates that the
Prealps
The Alpine foothills, or Prealps (german: Voralpen; french: Préalpes; it, Prealpi; ), may refer generally to any foothills at the base of the Alps in Europe. They are the transition zone between the High Alps and the Swiss Plateau and the Bavar ...
are
allochthonous
River ecosystems are flowing waters that drain the landscape, and include the biotic (living) interactions amongst plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as abiotic (nonliving) physical and chemical interactions of its many parts.Angelier ...
.
**
**
**
* 1907, resolution of the "
Highlands Controversy":
thrust fault
A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks.
Thrust geometry and nomenclature
Reverse faults
A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less.
If ...
s get established:
Lapworth
Lapworth is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, which had a population of 2,100 according to the 2001 census; this had fallen to 1,828 at the 2011 Census. It lies six miles (10 km) south of Solihull and ten miles (16&nbs ...
,
Peach
The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...
and
Horne working on parts of the
Moine Thrust
The Moine Thrust Belt or Moine Thrust Zone is a linear tectonic feature in the Scottish Highlands which runs from Loch Eriboll on the north coast south-west to the Sleat peninsula on the Isle of Skye. The thrust belt consists of a series of t ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
.
**
**
** Director-Generals of the
British Geological Survey
The British Geological Survey (BGS) is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research.
The BGS h ...
:
Roderick Murchison
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet, (19 February 1792 – 22 October 1871) was a Scotland, Scottish geologist who served as director-general of the British Geological Survey from 1855 until his death in 1871. He is noted for investigat ...
(1855–1872) and
Archibald Geikie
Sir Archibald Geikie (28 December 183510 November 1924) was a Scottish geologist and writer.
Early life
Geikie was born in Edinburgh in 1835, the eldest son of Isabella Thom and her husband James Stuart Geikie, a musician and music critic. T ...
(1881–1901)
* Although Wegener's theory was formed independently and was more complete than those of his predecessors, Wegener later credited a number of past authors with similar ideas: Franklin Coxworthy (between 1848 and 1890),
Roberto Mantovani
Roberto Mantovani (25 March 1854 – 10 January 1933), was an Italian geologist and violinist. He proposed an early model of continental drift in which a single continent broke up and the continents were displaced by thermal expansion and volca ...
(between 1889 and 1909),
William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering (February 15, 1858 – January 16, 1938) was an American astronomer. Pickering constructed and established several observatories or astronomical observation stations, notably including Percival Lowell's Flagstaff Observ ...
(1907) and
Frank Bursley Taylor Frank Bursley Taylor (1860 – 1938) was an American geologist, the son of a lawyer in Fort Wayne, Indiana. although Taylor himself disapproved of the hyphenated name. But even with Wegener's extensive extra research the idea did not achieve ac ...
(1908).
** 1912–1929: Alfred Wegener develops his continental drift hypothesis. (, )
* In the 1920s Earth scientists refer to themselves as drifters (or mobilists) or fixists . Terms introduced by the Swiss geologist Émile Argand in 1924 .
* Moreover, most of the blistering attacks were aimed at Wegener himself, an outsider (PhD in Astronomy) who seemed to be attacking the very foundations of geology.
Controversy
![Antecline (PSF)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Antecline_%28PSF%29.png)
* 1912, Wegener presents his ideas at the German Geological Society, Frankfurt .
Karl Erich Andrée (
University of Marburg
The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...
) must have delivered him some references.
Strong points:
** Matching of the coastlines of eastern South America and western Africa, and many similarities between the respective coastlines of North America and Europe.
** Numerous geological similarities between Africa and South America, and others between North America and Europe.
** Many examples of past and present-day life forms having a geographically disjunctive distribution.
** Mountain ranges are usually located along the coastlines of the continents, and orogenic regions are long and narrow in shape.
** The Earth's crust exhibits two basic elevations, one corresponding to the elevation of the continental tables, the other to the ocean floors.
** The Permo-Carboniferous moraine deposits found in South Africa, Argentina, southern Brazil, India, and in western, central, and eastern Australia.
** Flooded land-bridges contradict isostasy.
** Note I: Wegener described in a sentence the seafloor spreading in the first publication only. But he believed it is a consequence of the continental drift ( in ). He abandoned this sentence probably under the advice of
Emanuel Kayser
Friedrich Heinrich Emanuel Kayser (March 26, 1845November 29, 1927) was a German geologist and palaeontologist, born in Königsberg.
He was educated at the universities of Halle, Heidelberg and Berlin, where in 1871 he qualified as a lecturer in ...
, University of Marburg.
** Note II: ‘Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen’ is one of the leading geographical monthlies of international reputation. ; Wladimir Köppen (father-in-law), , , and Kurt Wegener (brother), , , defended there the Continental drift hypothesis in a somewhat mirror controversy (in ).
** Note III: Although the climate distribution was not always similar to nowadays. In the
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...
, coal mines are remains of the Equatorial Realm, glaciation remains are near the
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...
, and between glaciation and Equatorial Realm (centered between latitude 30° and the
Tropic of Cancer
The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward ...
and the
Capricorn) there are remains of
desert
A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...
s (
evaporite
An evaporite () is a water-soluble sedimentary mineral deposit that results from concentration and crystallization by evaporation from an aqueous solution. There are two types of evaporite deposits: marine, which can also be described as ocea ...
s,
salt lakes
A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salt (chemistry), salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of ...
and
sand dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...
s) . These are consequences of the evaporation rate and the
atmospheric circulation
Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air and together with ocean circulation is the means by which thermal energy is redistributed on the surface of the Earth. The Earth's atmospheric circulation varies from year to year, but t ...
.
* 1912,
Patrick Marshall uses the term "
andesite line".
* 1914, the idea of a strong outer layer (
lithosphere
A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust (geology), crust and the portion of the upper mantle (geology), mantle that behaves elastically on time sca ...
), overlying a weak
asthenosphere
The asthenosphere () is the mechanically weak and ductile region of the upper mantle of Earth. It lies below the lithosphere, at a depth between ~ below the surface, and extends as deep as . However, the lower boundary of the asthenosphere is not ...
is introduced .
* H. Jeffreys and others, most important criticisms , :
** Continents can not "plow" through the sea, because the seafloor is denser than the continental crust.
**
Pole-fleeing force is too weak to move continents and produce mountains.
***
Paul Sophus Epstein
Paul Sophus Epstein (; Warsaw, Vistula Land, Russian Empire, March 20, 1883 – Pasadena, California, United States, February 8, 1966) was a Russian-American mathematical physics, mathematical physicist. He was known for his contributions t ...
calculated it to be one millionth of the gravity.
** If the tidal force moves continents, than the Earth's rotation would stop after only one year.
*
** Its opening sentence is
Galileo
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...
's allegedly muttered rebellious phrase ''
And yet it moves
''And Yet It Moves'' is a puzzle-platform game developed by Independent video game development, independent developer Broken Rules. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux on April 2, 2009, and for Wii as a WiiWare titl ...
''.
** Quote: "Daly,..., seeks to substitute sliding for drifting, assuming that broad domes or bulges form at the earth's surface, and on the flanks of these domes the continental masses slide downward, moving over hot basaltic glass as over a lubricated floor". (pp. 170–291)
* By the mid-1920s, A. Holmes had rejected contractionism and he had introduced a model with convection , , , .
** Note: in a way, not only A. Wegener ( in ) but A. Holmes and K. Wegener suggested seafloor spreading as well. ( in ), ( in )
* The Alps were and still are the best investigated orogen worldwide.
Otto Ampferer
Otto Ampferer (* 1 December 1875 in Hötting near Innsbruck; † 9 July 1947) was an Austrian alpinist and geologist. To explain the complex processes of Orogeny, he developed his "theory of undercurrent" with the idea of a partially plastic earth ...
(Austrian Geological Survey) rejected contractionism 1906 and he defended convection, locally only at first. Otto Ampferer even used the word swallowed in a geological sense. The Geological Society Meeting in Innsbruck, held on 29 August 1912, changed a paradigm (T. Termier words, the acceptance of
nappe
In geology, a nappe or thrust sheet is a large sheetlike body of rock (geology), rock that has been moved more than or above a thrust fault from its original position. Nappes form in compressional tectonic settings like continental collision z ...
s and
thrust fault
A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks.
Thrust geometry and nomenclature
Reverse faults
A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less.
If ...
s). So that
Émile Argand
Émile Argand (6 January 1879 – 14 September 1940) was a Swiss geologist.
He was born in Eaux-Vives near Geneva. He attended vocational school in Geneva then worked as a draftsman. He studied anatomy in Paris, but gave up medicine to pursue his ...
(1916) speculated that the Alps were caused by the North motion of the African shield, and finally accepted this reason 1922, following Wegener's Continental drift theory ( as ). Otto Ampferer in the meantime, at the Geological Society Meeting in Vienna, held on 4 April 1919, defended the link between the alpine faulting and Wegener's continental drift.
** Quote, translation: "The Alpine orogeny is the effect of the migration of the North African shield. Smoothing only alpine folds and nappes on the cross section between the Black Forest and Africa once again, then from the present distance of about 1,800 km, we have an initial gap of around 3,000 to 3,500 km, ie. a pressing of the alpine region, alpine region in a broader sense, of 1,500 km. To this amount must be Africa have moved to Europe. This brings us then to a true large scale continental drift of the African shield". cited in
* W.A.J.M. van Waterschoot van der Gracht,
Bailey Willis
Bailey Willis (March 31, 1857 in Idle Wild-on-Hudson, New York, United States – February 19, 1949 in Palo Alto, California) was a geological engineer who worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and lectured at two prominent Amer ...
, Rollin T. Chamberlin,
John Joly
John Joly FRS (1 November 1857 – 8 December 1933) was an Irish physicist and professor of geology at the University of Dublin, known for his development of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer. He is also known for developing techniques to ...
,
G.A.F. Molengraaff,
J.W. Gregory,
Alfred Wegener
Alfred Lothar Wegener (; ; 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.
During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and a ...
,
Charles Schuchert
Charles Schuchert (July 3, 1858 – November 20, 1942) was an American invertebrate paleontologist who was a leader in the development of paleogeography, the study of the distribution of lands and seas in the geological past.
Biography
He was bo ...
, Chester R. Longwell,
Frank Bursley Taylor Frank Bursley Taylor (1860 – 1938) was an American geologist, the son of a lawyer in Fort Wayne, Indiana. although Taylor himself disapproved of the hyphenated name. But even with Wegener's extensive extra research the idea did not achieve ac ...
,
William Bowie,
David White,
Joseph T. Singewald, Jr., and
Edward W. Berry
Edward Wilber Berry (February 10, 1875 – September 20, 1945) was an American paleontologist and botanist; the principal focus of his research was paleobotany.
Early life
Berry was born February 10, 1875, in Newark, New Jersey, and finished hig ...
participated on a Symposium of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG, 1926)
Although the chairman favored the drift hypothesis, it ceased to be an acceptable geological investigation subject in many universities under the influence of book .
** Quote, University of Chicago geologist Rollin T. Chamberlin: "If we are to believe in Wegener's hypothesis we must forget everything which has been learned in the past 70 years and start all over again." ,
** Quote, Bailey Willis: "further discussion of it merely incumbers the literature and befogs the mind of fellow students. (It is) as antiquated as pre-Curie physics". ,
** Bailey Willis and William Bowie saw the
sima
Sima or SIMA may refer to:
People
* Sima (Chinese surname)
* Sima (given name), a Persian feminine name in use in Iran and Turkey
* Sima (surname)
Places
* Sima, Comoros, on the island of Anjouan, near Madagascar
* Sima de los Huesos, a cav ...
with great strength and rigidity through the seismological studies, and tidal forces would act more on the sima (2800 to 3300 kg/m
3) as it is denser than the
sial
In geology, the term sial refers to the composition of the upper layer of Earth's crust, namely rocks rich in aluminium silicate minerals. It is sometimes equated with the continental crust because it is absent in the wide oceanic basins, but ...
(2700 to 2800 kg/m
3) .
** Quote, W. Van Waterschoot van der Gracht (
Wilson cycle
The Wilson Cycle is a model that describes the opening and closing of ocean basins and the subduction and divergence of tectonic plates during the assembly and disassembly of supercontinents. A classic example of the Wilson Cycle is the opening a ...
): "there may have been a pre-Carboniferous "Atlantic" that was closed up during the Caledonian orogenis" .
* By the late-1920s: discovery of the
Wadati–Benioff zone
A Wadati–Benioff zone (also Benioff–Wadati zone or Benioff zone or Benioff seismic zone) is a planar zone of seismicity corresponding with the down-going slab in a subduction zone. Differential motion along the zone produces numerous earthqu ...
by
Kiyoo Wadati
was an early seismologist at the Central Meteorological Observatory of Japan (now known as the Japan Meteorological Agency), researching deep ( subduction zone) earthquakes. His name is attached to the Wadati–Benioff zone. It was Wadati's 19 ...
(two pairs plus one paper, 1927 to 1931) of the
Japan Meteorological Agency
The , abbreviated JMA, is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It is charged with gathering and providing results for the public in Japan that are obtained from data based on daily scientific observation an ...
, and
Hugo Benioff
Victor Hugo Benioff (September 14, 1899 – February 29, 1968) was an American seismologist and a professor at the California Institute of Technology. He is best remembered for his work in charting the location of deep earthquakes in the Pacific ...
of the
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
.
*
Alexander du Toit
Alexander Logie du Toit FRS ( ; 14 March 1878 – 25 February 1948) was a geologist from South Africa and an early supporter of Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift.
Early life and education
Du Toit was born in Newlands, Cape Town in ...
's book.
** In 1923, he received a grant from the
Carnegie Institution of Washington
The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...
, and used this to travel to eastern South America to study the geology of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.
* 1931: Peacock named the
calc-alkaline
The calc-alkaline magma series is one of two main subdivisions of the subalkaline magma series, the other subalkaline magma series being the tholeiitic series. A magma series is a series of compositions that describes the evolution of a mafic mag ...
igneous rock series.
**
* 1931, age of the Earth by the
National Research Council National Research Council may refer to:
* National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development
* National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome
* National Research Council (United States), part of ...
of the US
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
.
*
* 1936,
Augusto Gansser-Biaggi
Augusto Gansser-Biaggi (28 October 1910 – 9 January 2012) was a Switzerland, Swiss geologist who specialised in the geology of the Himalayas. He was born in Milan.
Career
His geological researches were global in scope:
* Greenland, East Greenla ...
interpreted rocks located at the foot of
Mount Kailash
Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; Standard Tibetan, Tibetan: གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ; ; sa, कैलास, ), is a mountain in the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It h ...
in the Indian part of the Himalayas as having originated in the seafloor. He brings back a sample with
Ammonite
Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...
s of the
Norian
The Norian is a division of the Triassic Period. It has the rank of an age (geochronology) or stage (chronostratigraphy). It lasted from ~227 to million years ago. It was preceded by the Carnian and succeeded by the Rhaetian.
Stratigraphic defi ...
(
Triassic
The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...
). He later interpreted this
Indus-Yarlung-Zangpo Suture Zone (ISZ) as the border between the
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
and the
Eurasian Plate
The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...
.
*
* January 1939: at the annual meeting of the German Geological Society, Frankfurt,
Alfred Rittmann
Alfred Rittmann (23 March 1893 – 19 September 1980) was a leading volcanologist. He was elected President of the International Association of Volcanology for three terms (1954–1963).
Life
Rittmann was the son of a dentist in Basel, Switzerla ...
opposed the idea that the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North Ame ...
was an
orogenic uplift .
**
**
Orogenic
Orogeny is a mountain building process. An orogeny is an event that takes place at a convergent boundary, convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An ''orogenic belt'' or ''orogen'' develops as the compressed plate crumpl ...
volcanism (
Pacific Ring of Fire
The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions and ...
) is dominated by
calc-alkaline
The calc-alkaline magma series is one of two main subdivisions of the subalkaline magma series, the other subalkaline magma series being the tholeiitic series. A magma series is a series of compositions that describes the evolution of a mafic mag ...
igneous rocks
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...
(Calc series), lacking alkali-basaltic magmas (
Sodic series); whereas the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North Ame ...
(
extension
Extension, extend or extended may refer to:
Mathematics
Logic or set theory
* Axiom of extensionality
* Extensible cardinal
* Extension (model theory)
* Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate
* E ...
) has mainly alkali-basaltic magmas .
* sees subduction as the cause of Wadati–Benioff zone and volcanic activity, but does not link it to continental drifting. He was in a way an anti-drifter.
*
* Mid-1940s, paleontologist
George Gaylord Simpson
George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October 6, 1984) was an American paleontologist. Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in the Modern synthesis (20th century), modern ...
finds flaws on the paleontology data.
* Alexander du Toit, ''
Glossopteris
''Glossopteris'' tymology: from Ancient Greek γλῶσσα (glôssa, " tongue ") + πτερίς (pterís, " fern ")is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct Permian order of seed ferns known as Glossopteridales (also known as Arberia ...
'' findings in Russia are an erroneous identification. It was used as argument by anti-drifters .
* 1944, cores of deep ocean sediment show rapid rate of accumulation, suggesting that old oceans are an impossibility ( cited in ).
* 1948,
Felix Andries Vening Meinesz
Felix Andries Vening Meinesz (30 July 1887 – 10 August 1966) was a Dutch geophysicist and geodesist. He is known for his invention of a precise method for measuring gravity (gravimetry). Thanks to his invention, it became possible to measure g ...
, Dutch geophysicist who believes in convection currents as a result of his work on oceanic gravity anomalies. Highly respected by H. H. Hess, Hess even got a chance to work with him. , , , , ,
* 1949, Niskanen calculates the viscosity under the crust to be 5 10
21 CGS units.
**
* 1950, fading of the hypothesis from view.
**
* 1951, Alfred Rittmann shows that crystalline mantle is able to creep at its temperature and pressure and he shows
subduction
Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...
, volcanism and erosion in the mountainous regions. , figure 4, p. 293.
* 1951, André Amstutz uses the word subduction.
**
**
* 1953, Adrian E. Scheidegger, anti-drifter.
** E.g.: it had been shown that floating masses on a rotating geoid would collect at the equator, and stay there. This would explain one, but only one, mountain building episode between any pair of continents; it failed to account for earlier orogenic episodes.
See also
*
Further reading
*
*
*
*
References
Notes
Cited books
*
* P.M.S. Blackett, E.C. Bullard and S.K. Runcorn (ed). A Symposium on Continental Drift, held on 28 October 1965. pp. 323:
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* Review of Allan Krill, ''Fixists vs. Mobilists in the Geology Contest of the Century, 1844–1969''.
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* Presented at the annual meeting of the German Geological Society, Frankfurt am Main (6 January 1912).
* Just an overview of the article in Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen. , bibcode=1912GeoRu...3..276W
*
*
* He gives reasons for the paleo connection of the Americas and Eurasia-Africa by naming paleontological similarities, parallelism of coastal forms and the recently researched submarine Atlantic mountain range as ideal seam of continental splits (p. 181).
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{{refend
Plate tectonics
History of Earth science
Geology timelines