Plate Tectonics Theory
The story of Plate Tectonics is the story of continents drifting from place to place, breaking apart, colliding, and grinding against each other (Story pp). It is also the story of terrestrial mountain ranges rising up while being pushed together, of oceans opening and closing, of undersea mountain chains girdling the planet like seams on a baseball, and of violent earthquakes and fiery volcanoes (Story pp). Plate Tectonics describes the intricate design of a complex, living planet in a state of dynamic flux (Story pp).
Examination of the globe usually results in the observation that most of the continents seem to fit together like a puzzle (Plate pp). For example, the west African coastline appears to snuggle into the eat coast of South America and the Caribbean sea, and a similar fit appears across the Pacific (Plate pp). The fit is even more evident when the submerged continental shelves are compared rather than the coastlines (Plate pp).
In 1912, Alfred Wegener, 1880-1930, noticed this same thing and proposed that the continents were once compressed into a single proto-continent that he called Pangaea, meaning "all lands," and over time they have drifted apart into their current distribution (Plate pp). Wegener believed that Pangaea was intact until about 300 million years ago during the late Carboniferous period, when it started to break up and drift apart (Plate pp). However, his hypothesis lacked a geological mechanism to explain how the continents could drift across the earth's surface as he proposed (Plate pp). Wegener's inability to provide an adequate explanation of the forces responsible for continental drift and the prevailing belief that the earth was solid and immovable resulted in the scientific dismissal of his theories (Plate pp).
In 1929, Arthur Holmes elaborated on one of Wegener's many hypotheses with the idea that the mantle undergoes thermal convection, and this repeated heating and cooling results in a current that may be enough to cause continents to move,...
Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics Theories It is by now universally recognized that the continents and other land masses on the earth are constantly moving, albeit at a very slow rate and have been on the move for millions of years. The land masses have collided, broken apart and drifted across the planet while floating on the fiery mantle beneath the outer layer of its crust. The Continental Drift and
Bibliography Kious and Tilling, 1996, This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics: USGS Special Interest Publication in: Ring of Fire, Plate Tectonics, Sea-floor Spreading, Subduction Zones, Hot Spots (nd) USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory, Vancouver, Washington. Online available at: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/description_plate_tectonics.html Mian, Z. (1993) Understanding Why the Earth is a Planet with Plate Tectonics. R.A.S. Quarterly Journal Vol.34 No.4 Dec 1993. Online available at Harvard at: http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1993QJRAS..34..441M/0000443.000.html Ring of Fire, Plate Tectonics, Sea-floor Spreading, Subduction
plate tectonics is responsible for changing continental landmasses through geological occurrences. Thousands of years ago the earth's surface has been hypothesized as one big landmass. The Earth's surface has been constant motion. "Fragmented into giant sheets of solid rock that glide atop a layer of hotter, more pliable material, the globe's appearance is forever changing." [Cowen, 1999]. These plates are semi-rigid, floated on flow of mantle. The plates measured around
continental drift to the present to explain the plate tectonics theory and how the Earth is forever shifting. Use some examples of past and present changes in the earth and the effect they caused. A newer theory in geological history, plate tectonics is used to explain many geological changes in the Earth, both past and present, and indicates how the Earth is forever adjusting and shifting, creating uplifts and
Plate Tectonics and Landform Processes The Aleutian Islands, Alaska The Aleutian Islands are located along the southwestern coast of Alaska, ad at the northern edge of the Pacific plate. This plate runs along the Pacific coast of North America, with its well-known faults -- the San Andreas and the Denali -- causing the strike-slip plate motion that is familiar to residents of the Pacific coastal areas. However, at the Aleutian Island location
theory on plate tectonics, the theory of Motion of heavenly bodies and several other theories that were developed during his lifetime. Mathematicians Life and Works: Karl Gauss There are many well-known mathematicians from history whose work is well-known and position widely recognised. However, there are also many lesser known mathematicians that have also made equally valuable contributions. Karl Friedrich Gauss is one of these, and as such is a worthwhile individual
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