Plate Tectonics: The Rocky History of an Idea

Close examination of a globe often results in the observation that most of the continents seem to fit together like a
puzzle: the west African coastline seems to snuggle nicely into the east coast of South America and the Caribbean sea;
and a similar fit appears across the Pacific. The fit is even more striking when the submerged continental shelves are
compared rather than the coastlines. In 1912 Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) noticed the same
thing and proposed that the continents were once compressed into a single protocontinent
which he called Pangaea (meaning "all lands"), and over time they have drifted apart into
their current distribution. He believed that Pangaea was intact until the late Carboniferous
period, about 300 million years ago, when it began to break up and drift apart. However,
Wegener's hypothesis lacked a geological mechanism to explain how the continents could
drift across the earths surface as he proposed.

Searching for evidence to further develop his theory of continental drift, Wegener came
across a paleontological paper suggesting that a land bridge had once connected Africa with
Brazil. This proposed land bridge was an attempt to explain the well known paleontological
observation that the same fossilized plants and animals from the same time period were found in South America and
Africa. The same was true for fossils found in Europe and North America, and Madagascar and India. Many of these
organisms could not have traveled across the vast oceans that currently exist. Wegener's drift theory seemed more
plausible than land bridges connecting all of the continents. But that in itself was not enough to support his idea.
Another observation favoring continental drift was the presence of evidence for continental glaciation in the
Pensylvanian period. Striae left by the scraping of glaciers over the land surface indicated that Africa and South
America had been close together at the time of this ancient ice age. The same scraping patterns can be found along the
coasts of South America and South Africa.

Wegener's drift hypothesis also provided an alternate explanation for the formation of mountains (orogenesis). The
theory being discussed during his time was the "Contraction theory" which suggested that the planet was once a
molten ball and in the process of cooling the surface cracked and folded up on itself. The big problem with this idea
was that all mountain ranges should be approximately the same age, and this was known not to be true. Wegener's
explanation was that as the continents moved, the leading edge of the continent would encounter resistance and thus
compress and fold upwards forming mountains near the leading edges of the drifting continents. The Sierra Nevada
mountains on the Pacific coast of North America and the Andes on the coast of South America were cited. Wegener
also suggested that India drifted northward into the asian continent thus forming the Himalayas.

Wegener eventually proposed a mechanism for continental drift that focused on his assertion that the rotation of the
earth created a centrifugal force towards the equator. He believed that Pangaea originated near the south pole and that
the centrifugal force of the planet caused the protocontinent to break apart and the resultant continents to drift towards
the equator. He called this the "pole-fleeing force". This idea was quickly rejected by the scientific community
primarily because the actual forces generated by the rotation of the earth were calculated to be insufficient to move
continents. Wegener also tried to explain the westward drift of the Americas by invoking the gravitational forces of
the sun and the moon, this idea was also quickly rejected. 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.

In 1929, about the time Wegener's ideas began to be dismissed, Arthur Holmes elaborated on one of Wegener's many
hypotheses; the idea that the mantle undergoes thermal convection. This idea is based on the fact that as a substance is
heated its density decreases and rises to the surface until it is cooled and sinks again. This repeated heating and
cooling results in a current which may be enough to cause continents to move. Arthur Holmes suggested that this
thermal convection was like a conveyor belt and that the upwelling pressure could break apart a continent and then
force the broken continent in opposite directions carried by the convection currents. This idea received very little
attention at the time.

Not until the 1960's did Holmes' idea receive any attention. Greater understanding of the ocean floor and the
discoveries of features like mid-oceanic ridges, geomagnetic anomalies parallel to the mid-oceanic ridges, and the
association of island arcs and oceanic trenches occurring together and near the continental margins, suggested
convection might indeed be at work. These discoveries and more led Harry Hess (1962) and R.Deitz (1961) to publish
similar hypotheses based on mantle convection currents, now known as "sea floor spreading". This idea was basically
the same as that proposed by Holmes over 30 years earlier, but now there was much more evidence to further develop
and support the idea

Plate Tectonics: The Mechanism

The main features of plate tectonics are:

 The Earth's surface is covered by a series of crustal plates.

 The ocean floors are continually moving, spreading from the center, sinking at the edges, and being
regenerated.

 Convection currents beneath the plates move the crustal plates in different directions.

 The source of heat driving the convection currents is radioactivity deep in the Earths mantle.

Advances in sonic depth recording during World War II and the subsequent development of the nuclear resonance type
magnometer (proton-precession magnometer) led to detailed mapping of the ocean floor and with it came many
observation that led scientists like Howard Hess and R. Deitz to revive Holmes' convection theory. Hess and Deitz
modified the theory considerably and called the new theory "Sea-floor Spreading". Among the seafloor features that
supported the sea-floor spreading hypothesis were: mid-oceanic ridges, deep sea trenches, island arcs, geomagnetic
patterns, and fault patterns.

Mid-Oceanic Ridges
The mid-oceanic ridges rise 3000 m from the ocean floor and are more than 2000 km wide surpassing the Himalayas
in size. The mapping of the seafloor also revealed that these huge underwater mountain ranges have a deep trench
which bisects the length of the ridges and in places is more than 2000 m deep. Research revealed that the greatest heat
flow was centered at the crests of these mid-oceanic ridges. Seismic studies show that the mid-oceanic ridges
experience an elevated number of earthquakes.

Geomagnetic Anomalies
Occasionally, at random intervals, the Earth's magnetic field reverses. New rock formed from magma records the
orientation of Earth's magnetic field at the time the magma cools. Study of the sea floor with magnometers revealed
"stripes" of alternating magnetization parallel to the mid-oceanic ridges. As more rock forms, older rock is pushed
farther away from the ridge, producing symmetrical stripes to either side of the ridge.

Deep Sea Trenches

The deepest waters are found in oceanic trenches, which plunge as deep as 35,000 feet below the ocean surface. These
trenches are usually long and narrow, and run parallel to and near the oceans margins. They are often associated with
and parallel to large continental mountain ranges. Like the mid-oceanic ridges, the trenches are seismically active, but
unlike the ridges they have low levels of heat flow. It has been determined that the oldest seafloor often ends in the
deep-sea trenches.

These observations, along with many other studies of our planet, support the theory that underneath the Earth's crust
(the lithosphere: a solid array of plates) is a malleable layer of heated rock known as the asthenosphere which is
heated by radioactive decay of elements such as Uranium, Thorium, and Potassium. Because the radioactive source of
heat is deep within the mantle, the fluid asthenosphere circulates as convection currents underneath the solid
lithosphere. This heated layer is the
source of lava we see in volcanos, the
source of heat that drives hot springs and
geysers, and the source of raw material
which pushes up the mid-oceanic ridges
and forms new ocean floor. Magma
continuously wells upwards at the mid-
oceanic ridges (arrows) producing
currents of magma flowing in opposite
directions and thus generating the forces
that pull the sea floor apart at the mid-oceanic ridges. As the ocean floor is spread apart cracks appear in the middle of
the ridges allowing molten magma to surface through the cracks to form the newest ocean floor. As the ocean floor
moves away from the mid-oceanic ridge it will eventually come into contact with a continental plate and will be
subducted underneath the continent. Finally, the lithosphere will be driven back into the asthenosphere where it returns
to a heated state.

Read the articles and answer the following questions:

1. State Wegener’s hypothesis for his observations.

2. Identify the evidence that supported Wegener’s hypothesis.

3. Describe the difference between Wegener’s hypothesis and the previous theory for the formation of
mountains.

4. Identify the parts of Wegener’s evidence that was not supported and caused scientists to dismiss his
theory.

5. State how Holmes elaborated on Wegener’s hypothesis. Explain his theory.

6. Identify the changes in scientific understanding that supported Holmes in the 1960’s.

7. Explain how the Theory of Continental-Drift differs from the Theory of Plate Tectonics.

8. State technological development during World War 2 that provided evidence to support the Theory
of Sea-floor Spreading.

9. Explain how convection currents are produced and how they cause the plates to move.

Read the articles and answer the following questions:

1. State Wegener’s hypothesis for his observations.

2. Identify the evidence that supported Wegener’s hypothesis.

3. Describe the difference between Wegener’s hypothesis and the previous theory for the formation of
mountains.

4. Identify the parts of Wegener’s evidence that was not supported and caused scientists to dismiss his
theory.

5. State how Holmes elaborated on Wegener’s hypothesis. Explain his theory.

6. Identify the changes in scientific understanding that supported Holmes in the 1960’s.

7. Explain how the Theory of Continental-Drift differs from the Theory of Plate Tectonics.

8. State technological development during World War 2 that provided evidence to support the Theory
of Sea-floor Spreading.

9. Explain how convection currents are produced and how they cause the plates to move.