The Continental Drift Controversy

This book explains the rapid acceptance of seafloor spreading theory and the ensuing birth of plate tectonics with the geometrification of geology.

Henry R. Frankel (Author)

9781107019942, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 April 2012

796 pages, 105 b/w illus.
25.3 x 17.8 x 3.5 cm, 1.5 kg

Praise for the 4-volume collection: '… an unparalleled study of remarkable depth, detail and quality of a key development in our ideas about how the Earth functions … because Frankel draws on his extensive oral historical work with the key players in the development of plate tectonics, this is a study which can never be repeated in terms of its proximity to the events narrated, so many of those key players now being deceased.' Progress in Physical Geography

The resolution of the sixty-year debate over continental drift, culminating in the triumph of plate tectonics, changed the very fabric of Earth science. This four-volume treatise on the continental drift controversy is the first complete history of the origin, debate and gradual acceptance of this revolutionary theory. Based on extensive interviews, archival papers and original works, Frankel weaves together the lives and work of the scientists involved, producing an accessible narrative for scientists and non-scientists alike. This fourth volume explains the discoveries in the mid 1960s which led to the rapid acceptance of seafloor spreading theory and how the birth of plate tectonics followed soon after with the geometrification of geology. Although plate tectonics did not explain the cause or dynamic mechanism of drifting continents, it provided a convincing kinematic explanation that continues to inspire geodynamic research to the present day.

Introduction
1. Reception of competing views of seafloor evolution, 1961–2
2. Explaining the origin of marine magnetic anomalies, 1958–63
3. Continuing disagreements over continental drift, the evolution of ocean floors, and mantle convection, 1963–4
4. Further work on the Vine–Matthews hypothesis and development of the idea of transform faults, 1964–5
5. Resolution of the continental drift controversy
6. Plate tectonics introduced
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Earth sciences [RB], Earth sciences, geography, environment, planning [R]