List of revolutionaries
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The Plate Tectonics Revolution was the scientific and cultural change which developed from the acceptance of the plate tectonics theory. The event was a paradigm shift and scientific revolution. [1]
By 1967 most scientists in geology accepted the theory of plate tectonics. [2] The root of this was Alfred Wegener's 1912 publication of his theory of continental drift, which was a controversy in the field through the 1950s. [2] At that point scientists introduced new evidence in a new way, replacing the idea of continental drift with instead a theory of plate tectonics. [2] The acceptance of this theory brought scientific and cultural change which commentators called the "Plate Tectonics Revolution". [2]
In 1975 a paper said that "plate tectonics" gained general acceptance in its field in 1968 and called that acceptance a revolution. [3]
One scientist said that the Plate Tectonics Revolution brought excitement among scientists in the field in the 1960s. [4]
Publications in generations after the event reflected on how the Plate Tectonics Revolution was an early example of data science. [5]
One commentator claimed that the plate tectonics theory became popular and established a revolution in culture even before scientists could confirm some of the claims for which evidence was lacking. [6]
There are claims that science in Russia was a significant contribution to the Plate Tectonics Revolution, but Western bias against Russia has blocked recognition of their contributions. [7]
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Continental drift is the theory, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. The theory of continental drift has since been validated and incorporated into the science of plate tectonics, which studies the movement of the continents as they ride on plates of the Earth's lithosphere.
Plate tectonics is the scientific theory that Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of continental drift, an idea developed during the first decades of the 20th century. Plate tectonics came to be accepted by geoscientists after seafloor spreading was validated in the mid-to-late 1960s. The processes that result in plates and shape Earth's crust are called tectonics. Tectonic plates also occur in other planets and moons.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge 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 American from the Eurasian Plate and the African Plate, north and south of the Azores Triple Junction. In the South Atlantic, it separates the African and South American plates. The ridge extends from a junction with the Gakkel Ridge northeast of Greenland southward to the Bouvet Triple Junction in the South Atlantic. Although the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is mostly an underwater feature, portions of it have enough elevation to extend above sea level, for example in Iceland. The ridge has an average spreading rate of about 2.5 centimetres (1 in) per year.
Tectonophysics, a branch of geophysics, is the study of the physical processes that underlie tectonic deformation. This includes measurement or calculation of the stress- and strain fields on Earth’s surface and the rheologies of the crust, mantle, lithosphere and asthenosphere.
Paleomagnetism is the study of prehistoric Earth's magnetic fields recorded in rocks, sediment, or archeological materials. Geophysicists who specialize in paleomagnetism are called paleomagnetists.
Alfred Lothar Wegener was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.
Marie Tharp was an American geologist and oceanographic cartographer. In the 1950s, she collaborated with geologist Bruce Heezen to produce the first scientific map of the Atlantic Ocean floor. Her cartography revealed a more detailed topography and multi-dimensional geographical landscape of the ocean bottom.
Plume tectonics is a geoscientific theory that finds its roots in the mantle doming concept which was especially popular during the 1930s and initially did not accept major plate movements and continental drifting. It has survived from the 1970s until today in various forms and presentations. It has slowly evolved into a concept that recognises and accepts large-scale plate motions such as envisaged by plate tectonics, but placing them in a framework where large mantle plumes are the major driving force of the system. The initial followers of the concept during the first half of the 20th century are scientists like Beloussov and van Bemmelen, and recently the concept has gained interest especially in Japan, through new compiled work on palaeomagnetism, and is still advocated by the group of scientists elaboration upon Earth expansion. It is nowadays generally not accepted as the main theory to explain the driving forces of tectonic plate movements, although numerous modulations on the concept have been proposed.
A geosyncline 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. A geosyncline was described as a giant downward fold in the Earth's crust, with associated upward folds called geanticlines, that preceded the climax phase of orogenic deformation.
Drummond Hoyle Matthews FRS, known as "Drum", was a British marine geologist and geophysicist and a key contributor to the theory of plate tectonics. His work, along with that of fellow Briton Fred Vine and Canadian Lawrence Morley, showed how variations in the magnetic properties of rocks forming the ocean floor could be consistent with, and ultimately help confirm, Harry Hammond Hess's 1962 theory of seafloor spreading. In 1989 he was awarded the Geological Society of London's highest honour, the Wollaston Medal.
William Jason Morgan was an American geophysicist who made seminal contributions to the theory of plate tectonics and geodynamics. He retired as the Knox Taylor Professor emeritus of geology and professor of geosciences at Princeton University. He served as a visiting scholar in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University until his death.
The expanding Earth or growing Earth was a hypothesis attempting to explain the position and relative movement of continents by increase in the volume of Earth. With the recognition of plate tectonics in 20th century, the idea has been abandoned.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Belousov was an Earth scientist in the Soviet Union, and a prominent advocate of alternatives to the theories of plate tectonics and seafloor spreading during the period of intense debate on these subjects in the 20th century.
The evolution of tectonophysics is closely linked to the history of the continental drift and plate tectonics hypotheses. The continental drift/ Airy-Heiskanen isostasy 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.
John "Jack" Ertle Oliver was an American scientist. Oliver, who earned his PhD at Columbia University in 1953, studied earthquakes and ultimately provided seismic evidence supporting plate tectonics. In the 1960s, Oliver and his former graduate student, Bryan Isacks, set up seismographic stations in the South Pacific to record earthquake activity, and the data collected led to the insight that part of the ocean floor was being pushed downward.
The evolution of tectonophysics is closely linked to the history of the continental drift and plate tectonics hypotheses. The continental drift/ Airy-Heiskanen isostasy 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.
Sakarya was a small continent that existed approximately 90 million years ago in the Tethys Ocean of Europe during the Cretaceous period. In later continental drift and orogeny it became part of northern Turkey.
Arthur Augustus Meyerhoff was an American petroleum geologist known for his criticisms of plate tectonics. In 1971, he collaborated with Curt Teichert to write a critique of the theory of plate tectonics, arguing that it could not be true because it would have precluded both the formation of coal and widespread glaciation. His career included positions at Standard Oil, where he worked for ten years, and at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, where he served as publications manager. He was the son of Howard Meyerhoff, who was also a geologist.
Henry Robert Frankel was an American philosopher and historian of science noted for his historical and philosophical analysis of the continental drift controversy and subsequent discovery of plate tectonics. He was emeritus professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Frankel earned his Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College and his PhD from the Ohio State University.
Ridge push is a proposed driving force for plate motion in plate tectonics that occurs at mid-ocean ridges as the result of the rigid lithosphere sliding down the hot, raised asthenosphere below mid-ocean ridges. Although it is called ridge push, the term is somewhat misleading; it is actually a body force that acts throughout an ocean plate, not just at the ridge, as a result of gravitational pull. The name comes from earlier models of plate tectonics in which ridge push was primarily ascribed to upwelling magma at mid-ocean ridges pushing or wedging the plates apart.