How Plate Tectonics Discovered

Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into several plates that glide over the mantle, the rocky inner layer above the core. Compared to the mantle, the plates are a hard, tough, and rigid shell. California is made up of different types of plates that are unique in the way that they form and move. (LiveScience)

The plate tectonics theory was made by a German named Alfred Wegener. He stated that a single continent existed about 300 million years ago named Pangaea and that it split into two continents of Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south. Today’s continents were formed by further splitting of the two masses.

II: Plate tectonics shows the features and movement of the Earth. The theory of plate tectonics says that the outer shell of the earth is broken down into pieces often called plates (Korenaga). These plates hover over the mantle creating movement (Marshak). With plate tectonics you can determine the earth’s features without actually seeing it.

But in fact these also proved plate tectonic theory because they showed temporal change ie they were once at plate boundaries but have moved away because of plate movement. All the evidence, sea floor spreading, hot spots and subduction proved the plates moved this knowledge then developed into the understanding that something must be providing energy or a current so that the plates could move; This theory then came about as ‘convection currents’. Convection currents is a liquid in the mantle that moves and the currents come from the subduction zones.

In junior high school, I have learned the Continental Drift Theory, and my geography teacher told me there was a new theory based on the Continental Theory, i.e. Plate Tectonics. I accessed to the Internet to find the information about Plate Tectonics.

James Hutton was the first scientist to address the Earth was millions of years old, as well as alive and is continuously being formed. Charles Lyell popularized uniformitarianism, and believed the Earth was being shaped by slow moving forces. Alfred Wegener introduced the foundation for the theory of continental drift. Wegener was one of the first to recognize and have an understanding of how the Earth works which required data and information from earth sciences. In the 1960s, the theory for the continental drift became known as the theory of plate tectonics or plate building.

Plate tectonics is the scientific theory that attempts to explain the movements of the Earth's lithosphere that have formed the landscape features we see across the globe today” (Briney). Geology defines “plate” as a large slab of solid rock, and “tectonics” is part of the Greek root word for “to build.” Together the words define how the Earth’s surface is built up of moving plates. The theory of plate tectonics dictates that individual plates, broken down into large and small sections of rock, form Earth’s lithosphere. These fragmented bodies of rock move along each other atop the Earth’s liquid lower mantle to create the plate boundaries that have shaped Earth’s landscape. Plate tectonics originated from meteorologist Alfred Wegener’s theory, developed in the early 20th century. In 1912, he realized that the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa appeared to piece together like a jigsaw puzzle. He further examined the globe and deduced that all of Earth’s continents could somehow be assembled together and proposed the idea that the continents had once been linked in a single supercontinent called Pangaea. To explain today’s position of the continents, Wegener theorized that they began to drift apart approximately 300 million years ago. This theory

of the effects of plate tectonics acting over geologic time. The story begins with the

Continental drift was a theory offered by Alfred Wegener in 1912 that hypothesized that all the continents at one time fit together as one land mass. Wegener, explained that the ends of each continent could fit together like a puzzle and that over time the continents drifted apart. "The model explained why the same types of fossils occur in sedimentary rock on both sides of the vast Atlantic Ocean" (Star, 2008, pg. 250), in other words allopatric speciation. Wegener's theory did not have a supporting geological mechanism. Many years later and advances in technology brought about the plate tectonics theory. Essentially it says:

The Plate Tectonic Theory developed in the late 1960’s, when people noticed how continents either side of the Atlantic Ocean seemed to almost fit together. Francis Bacon, an English Philosopher was aware of this as early as 1620. Topographical and geological evidence built up and allowed Alfred Wegener to publish a theory in 1912, suggesting that the continents were once all joined together in a supercontinent he called Pangaea. Wegener proposed that at some time, the land masses had drifted apart until they occupied their current positions on the globe. There was lots of evidence to support his theory including

Earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains and the Earth’s crust are unique yet have one common denominator; the amazing topic of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics has a place or specifically places a role in each of these natural wonders of the world. In the following, Team C will discuss the theory of plate tectonics and how the theory shaped the form and composition of the movement within the Midwest region of the United States. A discussion of various geological events and the types of rocks that formed because of these events will also be covered including the importance of the economic value of these rocks to the Midwest region

Explain the Theory of Plate Tectonics. The theory of plate tectonics is that plate tectonics is what moved pangea, a supercontinent with all the continents combined away from each other.

For millions of years the Earth has experienced geologic catastrophes. Since the existence of Theia itself, the Earth’s crust has been formed, deformed, and even demolished. The crust has never been a completed masterpiece due to this. Why is this? The most recent physical changes were caused by the theory of plate tectonics and earth’s crust displacement. Plate tectonics and its movement resulted in our continents drifting across the earth’s surface, and the creation of mountain belts, volcanoes, and the faults of today’s Earth.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, James Hutton proposed a theory, uniformitarianism; “the present is the key to the past”. It held that processes such as geologic forces- gradual and catastrophic-occurring in the present were the same that operated in the past. (Matt Rosenberg, 2004) This theory coincides with the theory of Continental Drift that was first proposed by Abraham Ortelius in December 1596, who suggested that North, South America, Africa and Eurasia were once connected but had been torn apart by earthquakes and floods. He also discovered that the coasts of the eastern part of South America and the

The viscosity of this base is a function of the temperature. The study of shifting continental plates is called Plate Tectonics. Plate Tectonics allows scientists to locate regions of geothermal heat emission. Shifting continental plates cause weak spots or gaps between plates where geothermal heat is more likely to seep through the crust. These gaps are called Subduction Zones.