Plate tectonics : an insider's history of the modern theory of the Earth / Naomi Oreskes, editor ; with Homer Le Grand.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Oreskes, Naomi.

LeGrand, H. E. (Homer Eugene), 1944-2017.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plate tectonics--History.

Plate tectonics.

Geology, Structural--History.

Geology, Structural.

History.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 424 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 2001.

Summary:

Can anyone today imagine the earth without its puzzle-piece construction of plate tectonics? The very term, plate tectonics, coined only thirty-five years ago, is now part of the vernacular, part of everyone's understanding of the way the earth works.

The theory, research, data collection, and analysis that came together in 1968 to constitute plate tectonics is one of the great scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century. Scholarly books have been written about tectonics, but none by the scientists-players themselves. In Plate Tectonics, editor Naomi Oreskes has assembled those scientists who played key roles in developing the theory to tell -- for the first time, and in their own words -- the stories of their involvement in the extraordinary confirmation of the theory.

The book opens with an overview of the history of plate tectonics, including in-context definitions of the terms that are discussed throughout the book. Oreskes introduces Wegener and du Toit, the forerunners of the theory, who inspired how scientists working at the key academic institutions -- Cambridge and Princeton Universities, Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Geological Observatory, and the University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institute of Oceanography -- competed and collaborated until the theory coalesced in 1968.

Contents:

Preface: History and Memory / Naomi Oreskes xi

Part I The Historical Background

1 From Continental Drift to Plate Tectonics / Naomi Oreskes 3

Part II The Early Work: From Paleomagnetism to Sea Floor Spreading

2 Stripes on the Sea Floor / Ron Mason 31

3 Reversals of Fortune / Frederick J. Vine 46

4 The Zebra Pattern / Lawrence W. Morley 67

5 On Board the Eltanin-19 / Walter Pitman 86

6 The Birth of Plate Tectonics / Neil D. Opdyke 95

Part III Heat Flow and Seismology

7 How Mobile is the Earth? / Gordon J. MacDonald 111

8 Heat Flow under the Oceans / John G. Sclater 128

9 Locating Earthquakes and Plate Boundaries / Bruce A. Bolt 148

10 Earthquake Seismology in the Plate Tectonics Revolution / Jack Oliver 155

Part IV The Plate Model

11 Plate Tectonics: A Surprising Way to Start a Scientific Career / Dan McKenzie 169

12 When Plates Were Paving Stones / Robert L. Parker 191

13 My Conversion to Plate Tectonics / Xavier Le Pichon 201

Part V From the Oceans to the Continents

14 Plate Tectonics and Geology, 1965 to Today / John F. Dewey 227

15 When the Plate Tectonic Revolution Met Western North America / Tanya Atwater 243

16 The Coming of Plate Tectonics to the Pacific Rim / William R. Dickinson 264

17 From Plate Tectonics to Continental Tectonics / Peter Molnar 288

Epilogue: Continents Really Do Move

18 Plate Tectonics: A Martian View / David T. Sandwell 331.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [347]-407) and index.

ISBN:

0813339812

OCLC:

48690310