Who are the historical figures that contributed to the tectonic theory?

1 ANSWERS

1. amomipais82
   

   Hi,
   Plate tectonic theory arose out of the hypothesis of continental drift proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912[5] and expanded in his 1915 book The Origin of Continents and Oceans. He suggested that the present continents once formed a single land mass which had drifted apart thus releasing the continents from the Earth's core and likening them to "icebergs" of low density granite floating on a sea of more dense basalt.[6] But without detailed evidence and calculation of the forces involved, the theory remained sidelined. The Earth might have a solid crust and a liquid core, but there seemed to be no way that portions of the crust could move around. Later science proved theories proposed by English geologist Arthur Holmes in 1920 that their junctions might actually lie beneath the sea and Holmes' 1928 suggestion of convection currents within the mantle as the driving force.[7][8]
   
   The first evidence that crust plates did move around came with the discovery of variable magnetic field direction in rocks of differing ages, first revealed at a symposium in Tasmania in 1956. Initially theorized as an expansion of the global crust,[9] later collaborations developed the plate tectonics theory, which accounted for spreading as the consequence of new rock upwelling, but avoided the need for an expanding globe by recognizing subduction zones and conservative translation faults. It was at this point that Wegener's theory moved from radical to mainstream, and became accepted by the scientific community. Additional work on the association of seafloor spreading and magnetic field reversals by Harry Hess and Ron G. Mason
   
   
   Hope it helps

   Report (0) (0)  |   12 years, 9 month(s) ago