PLATE

T E C T O N IC S
This page intentionally left blank
P L A T E
TECTONICS
A N I N S I D E R ' S H I S T O R Y
O F T H E
MODERN THEORY
OF THE EARTH
NAOMI ORESKES
E D I T O R
w i t h Homer Le Grand
A Member of t h e Perseus Books Group
All righ ts reserved. Pri nt ed in th e Uni t ed States of America. No part of t h i s
publi cat i on may be reproduced or t ransmi t t ed i n any form or by any
means, elect roni c or mech ani cal, i ncludi ng ph ot ocopy, recordi ng, or any
i nformat i on storage and retrieval system, w i t h out permission i n w ri t i ng
from t h e publish er.
Copyright 2003 by Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books
Group
Westview Press books are available at special di scount s for bulk purch ases
i n t h e Uni t ed States by corporat i ons, i nst i t ut i ons, and ot h er organizations.
For more i nformat i on, please cont act t h e Special Market s D epart ment at
the Perseus Books Group, 11 Cambridge Cent er, Cambridge MA 02142, or
call (617) 252-5298 or (800) 255-1514 or emai l
j.mccrary@perseusbooks.com.
Publi sh ed in 2003 in the Uni t ed States of Ameri ca by Westview Press, 5500
Cent ral Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301-2877.
Find us on th e World Wide Web at www.westviewpress.com
A Cataloging-in-Publication data record for this book i s available from t h e
Library of Congress.
ISBN 0-8133-4132-9
Th e paper used i n t h i s publi cat i on meet s t h e requi rement s of t h e
Ameri can Nat i onal Standard for Permanence of Paper for Pri nt ed Li brary
Materials Z39.48-1984.
1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the late Chuck Drake,
who was always interested in people's stories
This page intentionally left blank
C O N T E N T S
Acknow ledgment s ix
Naomi Oreskes and Homer Le Grand
Preface: Hi st ory and Memory xi
Naomi Oreskes
PART I T HE HIS T O RIC AL BAC KGRO UN D
1 From Cont i nent al D ri ft t o Plate Tectonics 3
Naomi Oreskes
PART II T HE E ARLY WO RK: FRO M PALE O MAGN E T IS M
T O S E A FLO O R S PRE ADIN G
2 Stripes on the Sea Floor 31
Ron Mason
3 Reversals of Fort une 46
F rederic k J. Vine
4 The Zebra Pat t ern 67
Lawrenc e W. Morley
5 On Board the Eltanin-19 86
Walter Pitman
6 The Bi rt h of Plate Tectonics 95
NeilD. Op dyke
PART HI HE AT FLO W AN D S E IS MO LO GY
7 How Mobile is the Eart h ? 111
Gordon J. Mac Donald
8 Heat Flow under the Oceans 128
John G. Sc later
Vii
viii CONTENTS
9 Locating Eart h quakes and Plate Boundaries 148
Bruc e A. Bolt
10 E art h quake Seismology in th e Plat e Tect oni cs Revolut i on 155
Jac k Oliver
PART IV T HE PLAT E MO DE L
1 1 Plat e Tectonics: A Surpri si ng Way to St art a
Sci ent i fi c Career 169
Dan Mc Kenzie
12 Wh en Plates Were Paving Stones 191
Robert L. Parker
13 My Conversion to Plat e Tectonics 201
Xavier Le Pic hon
P ART V FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTI NENTS
14 Plate Tect oni cs and Geology, 1965 to Today 227
John F . Dewey
15 Wh en t h e Plate Tect oni c Revolut i on Met West ern
Nort h Ameri ca 243
Tanya Atwater
16 The Comi ng of Plat e Tectonics to the Paci fi c Rim 264
William R. Dic kinson
17 From Plate Tectonics to Cont i nent al Tect oni cs 288
Peter Molnar
E PILO GUE : C O N T IN E N T S RE ALLY Do MO VE
18 Plat e Tectonics: A Mart i an View 331
David T. Sandwell
Not es 347
Furt h er Readi ng 407
I ndex 415
A C KN O WLE DGME N T S
1 HE IDEA FOR THIS PROJECT EMERGED FROM THE HlSTORY
Commi t t ee of t h e Ameri can Geoph ysi cal Uni on (AGU), t h en ch ai red by
Ed Cliver. For some t i me, t h e AGU h as been commi t t ed t o t h e i mpor-
tance of h i st ory as a resource for th e sci ent i fi c communi t y. With its com-
mi t ment t o publi cat i ons, oral h i st ory, and h i st ori cally ori ent ed t h emes
at annual meet i ngs, t h e AGU h as been a model of w h at h i st ory can do
for a sci ent i fi c communi t y, bri ngi ng diverse specialists t oget h er i n ways
t h at t h e daily pract i ce of sci ence rarely does. Beyond expressi ng our
t h anks to th e AGU as an organi zat i on, w e are part i cularly i ndebt ed to
Ed Cliver. Th e i dea for t h i s project w as Ed' s, and h e convi nced us t o take
it on. Moreover, h e st ayed involved every st ep of th e way: h elpi ng to i den-
t i fy and t rack dow n cont ri but ors, calli ng t o ch eck progress, readi ng man-
uscri pt s, and provi di ng moral support and good h umor all along t h e way.
We also wish to express our appreci at i on for the 17 scientists whose
essays appear i n t h i s volume. Wh en w e began t h i s project , w e di d not
know h ow our i nvi t ees w ould respond, and w e h ad some concerns t h at
t h ey mi gh t be dismissive of h i st ory, as sci ent i st s somet i mes are. Th i s
t urned out not t o be t h e case. On t h e cont rary, our aut h ors responded
w i t h ent h usi asm and made t i me i n t h ei r busy lives t o t ake on t h i s ext ra
t ask. Each of t h em h as been a pleasure t o w ork w i t h , and w e h ave
learned a great deal from our interactions w i t h th em. Nearly every one
of our aut h ors t ook addi t i onal t i me t o h elp resolve di screpanci es i n t h e
h i st ori cal record; t o di scuss h i st ori cal, ph i losoph i cal, personal, and
poli t i cal quest i ons rai sed by t h e h i st ory of plat e t ect oni cs; or t o send us
relevant repri nt s, ph ot os, and i nt ervi ew s. To each and every one of t h em
w e are ext remely grat eful. We ow e a special debt of grat i t ude to Xavi er
Le Pi ch on, Dan McKenzi e, Pet er Molnar, and Jack Oli ver for ext ended
conversations and email communi cat i ons, and to local colleagues at the
Scri pps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y (S I O ) Joh n Sclater and Bob
Parker for t h ei r const ant w i lli ngness t o h elp clari fy t ech ni cal poi nt s.
Jason Morgan and Ted I rvi ng w ere unable t o w ri t e essays for t h i s vol-
ume, but generously gave of t h ei r t i me t o t alk about t h ei r cont ri but i ons.
We are grat eful also t o SIO arch i vi st D eborah Day, w h ose professi onal
t i t le scarcely does just i ce t o t h e myri ad ways sh e support s and promot es
IX
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
h istorical underst andi ng, not only at SIO, but t h rough out t h e eart h sci-
ences communi t y.
Several colleagues read manuscri pt s and provided feedback at various
stages in th e project Kennet h Belitz, Ron Doel, Gary Ernst , Fred Spiess,
Norm Sleep, Ken Taylor, Gary Weir, and David van Keuren. T h rough out
t h e project , D uncan Agnew h as been ever-ready and w i lli ng not only t o
read and comment on materials, but even to go to th e li brary to find th e
reference t h at w ould resolve a quest i on t o w h i ch no one else knew t h e
answ er (or i n some cases even w h ere t o look). Th e dept h and breadt h
of his knowledge is not h i ng sh ort of remarkable, and on more t h an one
occasion h e h as saved us from embarrassi ng mi st akes.
No w ork can be done w i t h out logistical support , and we wish to express
our gratitude to SIO di rect or Charles Kennel for his generosity in provid-
ing seed money for the larger project on the h i st ory of oceanography, of
w h i ch this volume is a part, and ever-precious offi ce space. Equally impor-
t ant is the ongoi ng support of colleagues in the Science Studies Program
at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), for creating a com-
muni t y interested in diverse approaches to underst andi ng science and its
role in all of our lives. I am particularly i ndebt ed to Robert Westman for
deepeni ng my appreciation of w h at it means to be a h istorian, my under-
standing of why h istory is so w ort h doing.
Several UCSD st udent s w orked on t h i s project at various stages, and
w e need to t h ank Andrea Santos, Sue Ki m, Brook Mangi n, and Katie
Atw ood, and above all the i nest i mable James Peters, w ho si mply did
everyth ing t h at needed to be done.
A book is only a pile of papers w i t h out an editor and a press, and h ere
we have more t h an the usual debts to acknowledge. This project was orig-
inally signed at Columbia University Press, and we are grateful to Director
William B. Strachan for releasing us from our contract and permitting us
to move the project to Westview Press along with our editor and publisher,
Holly Hodder. It is di ffi cult to describe the work t h at Holly has done on this
project w i t h out lapsing i nt o platitudes. Suffice it to say that she has been
t h ere every step of the way: editing, talking, brainstormirig, cajoling, sup-
porting, encouraging. She has never wavered from her commi t ment to the
importance, significance, and meaning of this project , never wavered from
her belief t h at earth science is exciting, i mport ant , and w orth know ing.
Naomi Oreskes
Lajolla, Cali forni a, July 2001
Homer Le Grand,
Melbourne, Australia, 2001
PREFACE:
HIS T O RY AN D ME MO RY
In reali t y, t h e i nt erest of t h e past i s t h at i t i llumi nat es t h e present .
Jacques Le Goff, History and Memory, p. xx.
H I S T O R I AN JA CQ UE S LE GO F F H AS WR I T T E N T H AT T H E JO B O F
h i st ory is to correct memory.
1
If so, t h en t h i s book is not a w ork of h is-
tory. The essays present ed h ere are w orks of memory, st ori es told by sci-
ent i st s w hose w ork ch anged t h e w ay w e t h i nk about t h e planet w e live
on. Before th e 1960s, t h ere w as no generally accepted global t h eory to
explain t h e major feat ures of t h e eart h : t h e cont i nent s and oceans, t h e
mount ai ns and valleys, th e volcanoes and eart h quakes. In th e 1960s, a
new t h eory emerged t h at explai ned all t h i s and more as t h e result of t h e
i nt eract i ons of movi ng pieces of t h e eart h ' s surface layer, h encefort h t o
be know n as tec tonic p lates. Wh ile th e development of plat e t ect oni cs w as
a long t i me i n comi ng - sci ent i fi c evidence of cont i nent al mobi li t y h ad
been recogni zed si nce t h e early 20t h cent ury - i t s accept ance w as rapi d
and nearly absolut e. By the early 1970s, vi rt ually all eart h scientists
accept ed t h e new t h eory and textbooks w ere rew ri t t en.
2
It has been more t h an 30 years since the events retold h ere. Wh en w e
i nvi t ed the aut h ors to write for this volume, w e asked t h em to tell t h ei r sto-
ries as best as t h ey could recall and to reflect on t h ei r si gni fi cance w ith the
benefi t of h i ndsi gh t . Th e aut h ors were young w h en t h ey did th e w ork
described h ere, and considerable t i me has elapsed. All of the aut h ors are
bri lli ant and creative people, and th eir sci ent i fi c careers did not end w i t h
the cont ri but i ons th ey made to plate tectonics. They all cont i nued to w ork
as scholars and t each ers, some remai ni ng in the specialties t h ey began in,
ot h ers sh i ft i ng t h ei r focus. Our authors have h ad to reach back in time to
w rite these essays, and the result i ng stories are works of memory, not his-
tory. If memory is fault y - and w e all know t h at it is - t h en w h y bot h er w i t h
it? One recent psychological study suggests t h at accurat e memory of ado-
lescent experi ence is no bet t er t h an w h at mi gh t be expected by ch ance.
3
So why not simply w rite history, and correct memory?
xi
xii PREFACE
T h ere are at least t h ree reasons w h y t h e essays i n t h i s volume are
i mport ant cont ri but i ons t h at complement h i st ori es w ri t t en by profes-
si onal h i st ori ans.
4
Th e most obvious i s t h at , w h i le memory i s oft en fault y,
i t i s not always fault y. People do remember i mport ant and format i ve
event s i n t h ei r lives, somet i mes i n ext raordi nary det ai l, and t h ey oft en
remember connect i ons t h at are not recorded elsew h ere. Wh i le h i st ori -
ans prefer t o rely on w ri t t en document s, w h i ch are less readi ly subject t o
subsequent di st ort i on or mani pulat i on, cont emporary document s are
not always available. Even w h en t h ey are, document at i on i s selective:
many t h i ngs are never w ri t t en dow n, and most of w h at i s w ri t t en dow n i s
not saved.
Th e w ri t t en record i s most si lent about t h e lives of ordi nary people,
and social h i st ori ans have come t o reply on oral account s t o capt ure t h e
voices of people w h ose lives mi gh t ot h erw i se go unh eeded. How ever, t h e
aut h ors of t h ese essays are not ordi nary people - i ndeed, t h ey are qui t e
ext raordi nary - and t h ei r sci ent i fi c w ork i s amply document ed i n t h ei r
publi sh ed papers. Sci ent i fi c research by i t s nat ure leaves an ample paper
trail. But in t h ei r ow n way, sci ent i fi c papers are as i ncomplet e as any poli t -
ical or social records. Wh i le t h ey recount t h e evi dence and argument s at
stake, t h ey omi t much of w h at i s of h uman i nt erest : h ow people came t o
t h ei r discoveries and i nsi gh t s and h ow t h ey felt about t h em. Moreover,
as h i st ori an Steven Brush poi nt ed out some years ago, sci ent i fi c papers
are deli berat ely i ncomplet e, i f not dow nri gh t mi sleadi ng.
5
Sci ent i fi c
papers are w ri t t en as i f t h ei r aut h ors knew from t h e st art w h ere t h ey w ere
h eadi ng and saw all along w h ere t h e dat a w ere leadi ng. Th e false starts,
t h e mi si nt erpret at i ons, t h e w asted effort s, t h e fai led experi ment s - t h ese
are almost always expunged from publi sh ed report s. Ph i losoph er H ans
R ei ch enbach called t h i s t h e "rat i onal reconst ruct i on of know ledge"
h ow i t sh ould h ave h appened i n a perfect w orld, i f everyt h i ng h ad been
done ri gh t from t h e st art .
6
Th e result i s a pi ct ure of sci ence and scien-
tists as far more effi ci ent t h an t h ey really are. Because rat i onal recon-
st ruct i on i s t h e norm for sci ent i fi c report i ng, many sci ent i st s follow t h i s
pat t ern even w h en speaki ng off t h e record, perpet uat i ng t h e i mage of
sci ent i st s as coldly rat i onal, even robotic.
Beyond t h e cogni t i ve cleansi ng t h at occurs i n sci ent i fi c publi cat i ons,
t h ere i s also an emot i onal cleansi ng: feeli ngs are left out . Science i s sup-
posed t o be about w h at w e know , not about h ow w e feel. S ci ent i fi c papers
are w ri t t en as i f t h e aut h ors h ad no feeli ngs about t h e mat t ers under dis-
cussi on (or anyt h i ng else, for t h at mat t er).
7
Th ey are w ri t t en as i f t h e
aut h ors di dn' t care about t h e out come of t h ei r w ork.
8
Yet surely t h ey do
care, or w h y w ould t h ey w ork so h ard? Wh y w ould t h ey call t h ei r col-
Pref ac e xiii
leagues - as Tanya At w at er vividly recount s - at 2 A.M. t o di scuss t h ei r lat-
est i dea?
If sci ent i st s' account s of t h ei r w ork are drai ned of emot i on, popular
account s oft en err i n t h e opposi t e di rect i on, pai nt i ng sci ent i fi c w ork as
a st eady st ream of dramat i c discovery. To anyone w h o h as ever done sci-
ent i fi c research , such account s ri ng equally false as t h ei r reverse. Th e sto-
ri es t old h ere at t empt t o st ri ke a reali st i c mi ddle ground: t o recount t h e
genui ne exci t ement t h ei r aut h ors felt as t h ey became involved i n one of
t h e great sci ent i fi c development s of t h e 20t h cent ury, w h i le conveyi ng
t h e frust rat i ons and false st art s as w ell. As i mport ant and t rue as Tanya
At w at er' s unbri dled exci t ement i s Xavi er Le Pi ch on' s poi gnant port rayal
of t h e moment h i s w orld collapsed, as h e reali zed t h at everyt h i ng h e h ad
w ri t t en i n h i s just -fi ni sh ed Ph .D. di ssert at i on w as w rong.
A second reason for present i ng t h ese essays i s t o gat h er a mult i pli ci t y
of perspect i ves i n a si ngle volume. Several of our aut h ors h ave w ri t t en
about t h ei r w ork before, but never h ave t h ei r di fferi ng perspect i ves been
present ed t oget h er i n one place. And t h ei r perspect i ves are i ndeed di f-
ferent . Th e 17 sci ent i st s w h o t ell t h ei r st ori es h ere became sci ent i st s for
di fferent reasons, approach ed t h ei r w ork i n di fferent ways, and made
i mport ant cont ri but i ons by di fferent means. As t h ey look back now on
t h ei r w ork, t h ey come t o vari ous (and not always reconci li able) conclu-
si ons. One aut h or - Gordon MacD onald - candi dly recount s h i s objec-
t i ons t o plat e t ect oni cs i n t h e 1960s, w h i ch , h e argues, h ave still not been
adequat ely answ ered. As edi t ors, w e h ave not at t empt ed t o enforce a uni -
form style or t o reconci le opposi ng views. We h ave done our best t o cor-
rect errors on fact ual mat t ers, but beyond t h at w e h ave sough t t o pre-
serve t h e di verse voices of our aut h ors as an i mport ant part of t h e uni que
value of t h i s volume.
Wh i le t h e value and legi t i macy of mult i ple perspect i ves h as become
w i dely accept ed i n many fi elds - art , arch i t ect ure, li t erat ure, h i st ory - i n
sci ence w e are st i ll w edded t o t h e not i on of the ri gh t answ er. Wh i le t h ere
is a single ri gh t answer to cert ai n ki nds of t ech ni cal questions - How old
i s t h e eart h ? Wh at i s t h e composi t i on of t h e sun? - many sci ent i st s ext end
t h e presumpt i on of a si ngle ri gh t answ er t o quest i ons i n ph i losoph y of
sci ence: How does sci ence advance? Wh at i s t h e correct sci ent i fi c
met h od? Wh at makes a sci ent i st great ? (As i f t h ese w ere comparable
quest i ons t o w h at t h e radi us of t h e eart h i s!) Th e essays i n t h i s volume
argue agai nst a narrow answ er t o t h ese ki nds of quest i ons. Some of t h e
st ori es told h ere involve data-driven sci ence, ot h ers i nvolve concept ual
or mat h emat i cal i nnovat i on, st i ll ot h ers i nvolve novel i nst rument s and
dat a analysi s. Li kew i se, i f one w ere t o ask, "w h at ki nd of a personali t y
xiv PREFACE
does i t t ake t o succeed i n sci ence?" t h e answ er provided by t h i s volume
would have to be mult i ple. The aut h ors of these essays are uni que and
di verse i ndi vi duals, and i t w ould be no more possible t o say w h at uni t es
t h em t h an t o say w h at uni t es all great artists or all w onderful mot h ers.
This leads t o t h e t h i rd and most i mport ant reason for present i ng
th ese essays: th e scientists w ri t i ng in t h i s volume speak w i t h th e voice of
experi ence. Each of t h e aut h ors h as h ad t i me t o consi der h i s or h er ow n
sci ent i fi c life and cont ri but i ons. Each h as, i n some way, been forced i nt o
such consi derat i on by t h e promi nence of h i s or h er cont ri but i ons (or,
in Law rence Morley's case, by th e poi gnancy of seei ng someone else
become famous for an i dea t h at h e also h ad, but saw reject ed for publi -
cat i on at t w o leadi ng sci ent i fi c journals). By t h e nat ure of our sample -
sci ent i st s w ri t i ng about events 30 years lat er - t h ese are people w h o
made major cont ri but i ons early i n t h ei r sci ent i fi c careers. All h ave h ad
t h e opport uni t y t o w ork on ot h er t h i ngs, t o make cont ri but i ons i n ot h er
areas, and t o reflect on w h at made t h e 1960s such a special t i me t o be
an eart h sci ent i st . Psych i at ri st Dani el O ffer and h i s colleagues call mem-
ories a form of "exi st ent i al reconst ruct i on" - a means by w h i ch people
make sense of t h ei r lives.
9
Th e stories present ed h ere are t h e sense t h at
17 di st i ngui sh ed scientists h ave made of t h ei r sci ent i fi c lives. Th ey may
not be w orks of h i st ory, but t h ey may w ell be w orks of w i sdom.
MA N Y I N DI VI DUA L S , BUT O N L Y A FE W I N S T I T UT I O N S
Besides t h e i nsi gh t s from i ndi vi dual st ori es, t h ere are pat t erns t h at
emerge from t h e collective w h ole. Perh aps t h e most st ri ki ng feat ure of
t h e development of plat e t ect oni cs i s t h e small number of i nst i t ut i ons
but large number of i ndi vi duals involved. Th e bulk of t h e st ory told h ere
takes place at only four i nst i t ut i ons worldwide: Cambridge University,
Columbi a Uni versi t y's Lamont Geological Observatory, t h e Uni versi t y of
Cali forni a's Scripps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y, and Pri ncet on Uni -
versity.
10
A st ri ki ng feat ure of th e st ori es in t h i s volume is h ow many of
t h e players moved back and fort h among Cambri dge, Lamont , Pri nce-
t on, and Scripps, and h ow dat a-sh ari ng faci li t at ed t h e rapi d develop-
ment of ideas, and i dea-sh ari ng faci li t at ed t h e effect i ve i nt erpret at i on of
data. Kei t h R uncorn brough t t h e w ork of British paleomagnet i sm t o t h e
at t ent i on of sci ent i st s at Lamont ; Dan McKenzi e, Robert Parker, and
Joh n Sclater brough t th eir physics-oriented Cambridge training to
Scripps; Harry Hess brough t h is idea of sea floor spreadi ng to th e at t en-
Pref ac e xv
tion of Fred Vi ne at Cambri dge. And so on. Research t h ri ves w h ere smart
people can w ork t oget h er and sh are dat a and ideas.
Th e concent rat i on of i nt ellect ual and mat eri al resources i n t h ese
i nst i t ut i ons w as also self-perpet uat i ng. Several of our aut h ors h ad per-
sonal connect i ons t h at h elped t h em get t o t h ese places: a fat h er w h o also
st udi ed at Cambri dge, anot h er fat h er w h o w as a ph ysi ci st w h o knew geo-
physicists at Lamont . Th e i mport ance of personal ties h elps t o explai n
w h y only a very few w omen, and no Afri can Ameri cans, appear i n these
stories: i n t h e early 1960s w omen and Afri can Ameri cans w ere not admi t -
t ed t o graduat e st udy at Pri ncet on, and only begrudgi ngly at Scripps; t h e
available evi dence suggests t h e si t uat i on w as si mi lar at Cambri dge and
Lamont .
11
As Tanya At w at er makes clear i n h er essay, t h e w omen w h o
made i t t o t h ese places h ad t o mai nt ai n t h ei r good h umor despi t e
numerous sligh ts and pet t y obstacles. At w at er di d h er best t o focus on
t h e w ork sh e loved, i gnori ng t h e fact t h at many of t h e people around
h er consi dered h er a "freak."
In cont rast to th e small number of i nst i t ut i ons, th e development of
plate tectonics involved a large number of individuals. Seventeen of them
tell t h ei r stories h ere; t h ere could h ave been many more. Many key play-
ers h ave passed away: P. M. S. Blacket t , Sir Edw ard Bullard, D rummond
Mat t h ew s, and Kei t h R uncorn i n Great Bri t ai n; Allan Cox, Robert Di et z,
Bruce Heezen, Harry Hess, Bill Menard, and Tuzo Wilson i n Nort h Amer-
ica. As edi t ors, w e struggled w i t h li mi t at i ons of t i me and space and the
need t o balance cont ri but i ons from scientists represent i ng di fferent insti-
t ut i ons and specialties. Our solut i on, albei t an i mperfect one, w as t h at i f
a group of scientists w orked t oget h er on a project , w e generally asked
only one of t h em t o t ell t h e story. Lamont alumni will t h erefore not i ce
th e absence of Jim Hei rt zler, Lynn Sykes, Bryan Isacks, and Marie Th arp;
t h ei r absence sh ould by no means be read as a negative judgment on t h e
i mport ance of t h ei r w ork. Finally, some w h om w e i nvi t ed (alt h ough only
a very small number) decli ned t o part i ci pat e, bei ng busy w i t h ot h er
things. All in all, th ere are at least th ree dozen individuals who could eas-
ily be count ed as major cont ri but ors to the development of plat e tecton-
ics, st i ll more if w e ext end our view to i nclude the recogni t i on of its impli-
cations for cont i nent al geology and eart h h istory.
12
This raises a si gni fi cant h istorical poi nt . We t end to li nk sci ent i fi c advance
to sci ent i fi c genius, w h i ch by defi ni t i on is i ndi vi dual. Wh en most of us
t h i nk of the great advances in the h i st ory of science, we t h i nk of great
names - Coperni cus, New t on, Darw i n, E i nst ei n. An earli er generat i on
xvi PREFACE
of historians oft en labeled sci ent i fi c advances by the names of the indi-
vi duals credi t ed w i t h t h em: t h e Coperni can Revolut i on, t h e Darw i ni an
revolut i on. Cert ai nly, si mple labels are conveni ent . But w h en h i st ori ans
scrat ch t h e surface of sci ent i fi c discovery, t h ey usually fi nd many scien-
tists w orki ng around a t opi c. O ft en ot h er i ndi vi duals h ave ei t h er h i t
upon t h e same i deas or evi dence as t h ei r more famous count erpart
(t h i nk of Alfred Russell Wallace and Ch arles D arw i n) or h ave been
aw fully close to it. So we mi gh t ask, is plate tectonics di fferent t h an oth er
major sci ent i fi c advances i n involving so many i ndi vi duals? Or i s i t sim-
ply t h at t i me h as yet t o obscure t h e det ai ls?
Perh aps t h e large number of i ndi vi duals involved i n t h e development
of plate t ect oni cs is a funct i on of th e time w h en t h ese event s t ook place.
The 1950s and 1960s w ere a period of unprecedent ed fundi ng for scien-
t i fi c research , part i cularly i n t h e Uni t ed States, w h ere much of t h e criti-
cal w ork of plate tectonics was accomplish ed. (Several of the British sci-
ent i st s w h ose w ork i s discussed i n t h i s volume recei ved fundi ng from t h e
U.S. Offi ce of Naval Research .) As is w ell know n, the expansive federal
fundi ng of Ameri can science in th e 1950s coupled w i t h th e G.I. Bi ll,
w h i ch greatly i ncreased t h e numbers of i ndi vi duals i n h i gh er educat i on,
dramat i cally boosted th e number of Ameri can scientists.
13
Moreover, mil-
i t ary fundi ng of sci ent i fi c research i n ai d of nat i onal securi t y oft en
involved large laboratories and team-oriented approach es.
14
This implies
t h at , ot h er t h i ngs bei ng equal, i t i s likely t h at discoveries i n t h e 20t h cen-
t ury will involve more people t h an discoveries i n earlier cent uri es.
Th ere i s also somet h i ng i n t h e nat ure of t h ese di scoveri es t h at h elps
t o explai n w h y so many people w ere i nvolved. Plat e t ect oni cs i s a global
t h eory- t h e fi rst global t h eory ever t o be generally accept ed i n t h e ent i re
h i st ory of eart h science.
15
Put t i ng i t t oget h er w as a w ork of synt h esi s,
involving dat a of many ki nds from many places. Wh ile Ron Mason and
Walt er Pi t man w ere maki ng paleomagnet i c measurement s of rocks on
t h e sea floor, Law rence Morley w as maki ng si mi lar measurement s on
land, Jack Oliver and Bruce Bolt w ere analyzi ng sei smi c dat a from eart h -
quakes, and Joh n Sclater w as measuri ng h eat flow over t h e mid-ocean
ridges. Wh at made plat e t ect oni cs so compelli ng w as t h e w ay i t uni fi ed
t h ese di fferent ki nds of dat a from all part s of t h e eart h . Unli ke some
ki nds of t h eoret i cal argument s i n ph ysi cs or laborat ory experi ment s i n
ch emi st ry, w h i ch mi gh t concei vably be ach i eved by an i ndi vi dual, t h ere
i s simply no w ay all t h i s w ork could have been done by one person, or
even a small h andful of persons.
Moreover, many of th e cri t i cal data of plat e t ect oni cs w ere collect ed
on oceanograph i c expedi t i ons, as t h e essays by Mason, Pi t man, Opdyke,
Pref ac e xvii
Atw ater, and ot h ers recount . O rgani zi ng t h ese expedi t i ons w as a major
undert aki ng, and every expedi t i on involved many sci ent i st s, as w ell as
t ech ni ci ans and crew. People also w orked beh i nd t h e scenes: before-
h and t o make t h e expedi t i ons h appen, aft erw ard t o compi le, cat alogue,
and preserve t h e dat a. Frequent ly lurki ng i n t h e background of our st ory
i s Mauri ce Ew i ng, t h e t i reless di rect or of t h e Lamont Geological Obser-
vatory, w h ose relent less pursui t of dat a - and t h e fi nanci ng t h at kept h i s
sh i ps at sea almost cont i nuously for t w o decades - made possible much
of w h at i s recount ed h ere. Roger Revelle played a si mi lar role at Scri pps,
but Revelle h ad di verse i nt erest s, and Scri pps w as far less syst emat i c i n
i t s pursui t and cat alogui ng of dat a. Th i s di fference proved si gni fi cant :
w h en cri t i cal i deas w ere put fort h , i t w as Lamont more t h an any ot h er
i nst i t ut i on t h at w as i n a posi t i on t o t est t h em, t o make sense of t h em, and
t o prove t h em ri gh t or w rong.
Th e i mport ance of expedi t i ons and t h ei r organi zat i on poi nt s t o a sec-
ond t h eme t h at emerges from t h ese essays: t h e role of dat a- lots and lot s
of it. In h i st ory, ph i losoph y, and sociology of sci ence it h as become rou-
t i ne to say t h at observations are "theory-laden," and t h at people can be
resi st ant t o i nformat i on t h at fai ls t o fi t t h ei r cogni t i ve framew orks. On
many account s, concept ual i nnovat i on i s a prerequi si t e not merely t o t h e
rei nt erpret at i on of dat a, but even t o i t s recogni t i on. One popular ren-
di t i on of t h i s view, somet i mes emblazoned on T-shirts, reads "If I h adn' t
beli eved i t , I w ouldn' t h ave seen i t ." Ph i losoph ers of sci ence i n t h e mi d-
t o lat e 20t h cent ury vi rt ually abandoned t h e i dea t h at observat i on could
drive sci ence, and focused i nst ead on t h e role of h ypot h eses or t h eori es
i n gui di ng observat i on, suggest i ng t est s.
Wh i le concept ual i nnovat i on w as an i mport ant part of t h e develop-
ment of plat e t ect oni cs, t h e st ori es t old h ere st rongly suggest t h at t h e
most pow erful dri vi ng force w as dat a. By h i s ow n account , Harry Hess
w as dri ven t o develop t h e i dea of sea floor spreadi ng - t h at new ocean
crust i s generat ed at mi d-ocean ridges, w h ere t h e ocean floor splits apart ,
driving the mot i ons of the cont i nent s - by the paleomagnetic data col-
lect ed by Bri t i sh geoph ysicists Kei t h R uncorn, Ted Irvi ng, P. M. S. Black-
et t , and t h ei r colleagues. These dat a sh ow ed t h at t h e cont i nent s h ad
been movi ng, somet i mes separat ely, somet i mes t oget h er, t h rough out
geological h i st ory. Th e evi dence t h at t h i s w as so preceded t h e concep-
t ual explanat i on of h ow it w as so.
Paleomagnet i c data also drove t h e furt h er development of Hess' i dea.
As Ron Mason recount s in his essay, in the late 1950s and early 1960s,
Art h ur R aff, Vi ct or Vacqui er, and h e w ere collect i ng magnet i c dat a on
rocks of t h e sea floor off t h e coast of Cali forni a pri mari ly because t h e U.S.
xviii PREFACE
Navy w as i nt erest ed i n paleomagnet i sm for i t s relevance t o submari ne
detection; scientists, largely because it was there. Wh en Mason and Raff
discovered a distinctive pat t ern of "magnetic stripes" - zones w hose mag-
net i c polari t y w as th e same as th e present -day eart h fi eld, paralleled by
zones w h ose polari t y w as opposite t h ey w ere frankly at a loss for h ow t o
explain t h em, and t h ey said so i n t h ei r publi sh ed w ork. Ot h ers took up
the ch allenge. As Law rence Morley recount s, the "zebra pat t ern" w as so
peculiar, so unexp lained, t h at i t caused h i m t o drop w h at h e w as doi ng t o
focus on i nt erpret i ng i t s meani ng. Fred Vi ne di d t h e same. Dan McKen-
zi e and Joh n Sclater argue t h at i t w as precisely th is, dat a t h at people
acknow ledged must be ri gh t , but could not be explai ned by available the-
ory, w h i ch drove eart h scientists toward a new explanat i on, how ever
unli kely it h ad seemed at th e outset of t h ei r investigations. In th e devel-
opment of plate t ect oni cs, recalci t rant data drove concept ual i nnovat i on.
Geophysical dat a can' t be gat h ered w i t h out geoph ysical i nst rument s,
and t h e stories told h ere also involve t h e development of new i nst ru-
ment s and analytical t ech ni ques. As bot h Ron Mason and Law rence Mor-
ley di scuss, th e i nvent i on of accurat e magnet omet ers - mot i vat ed by
bot h mi li t ary concerns and commerci al i nt erest s - w as a prerequi si t e t o
t h e data collect i on t h at revealed t h e exi st ence of sea floor magnet i c
st ri pes. Analyt i cal t ech ni ques also played a critical role i n permi t t i ng t h e
i nt erpret at i on of key seismic data. Th e accurat e locat i on of eart h quakes
and t h e underst andi ng of slip mech ani sms became major concerns of
the U.S. government in the late 1950s and early 1960s, w h en people real-
ized t h at underground nuclear tests produced seismic waves si mi lar t o
but pot ent i ally di st i ngui sh able from eart h quakes. So t h e U.S. govern-
ment dramat i cally increased fundi ng for seismology. Wi t h rat i fi cat i on of
th e Li mi t ed Test Ban Treaty in 1963, w h i ch forbade t est i ng of nuclear
w eapons i n t h e at mosph ere or oceans, i dent i fi cat i on of underground
nuclear tests became essential for t reat y veri fi cat i on. Bruce Bolt, Jack
Oliver, and Pet er Molnar w ere among t h e benefi ci ari es of t h i s largesse,
and t h e data t h ey produced proved cruci al for developi ng t h e parame-
t ers of plat e t ect oni cs.
Advances i n seismology w ere cruci al t o underst andi ng t h e i nt erac-
t i ons at convergent plat e boundari es, w h i ch w ere i n t urn cri t i cal t o for-
mulat i ng an i nt egrat ed global th eory. Th e focus of an eart h quake i s t h e
place w h ere t h e rupt ure begins, and most eart h quakes' foci are close t o
t h e eart h ' s surface, i n t h e upper 200 or 300 miles (300-450 ki lomet ers).
However, some occur as deep as 450 miles (720 kilometers) - these are
know n as "deep-focus" eart h quakes - and t h ey mostly occur on moun-
t ai n ch ai ns on t h e edges of cont i nent s, for example, below t h e South
Pref ac e xix
Ameri can Andes, or beneat h island-arc ch ai ns w i t h i n ocean basi ns, such
as th e Aleut i an islands. In th e 1950s, t h ese deep-focus eart h quakes w ere
consi dered perplexi ng, because most seismologists t h ough t t h e eart h
w as t oo h ot at dept h s t o sustain t h e rigid mot i ons t h at occur i n quakes.
Yet t h ey did occur. Before the mid-1960s, most seismologists accept ed the
view of Canadi an J. H. Hodgson t h at t h e mot i on on fault s associated w i t h
deep-focus eart h quakes w as strike-slip, i nvolvi ng one block of rock slip-
pi ng sideways past t h e ot h er.
16
Yet i f t h e plat e t ect oni cs model w as cor-
rect , and pieces of t h e eart h ' s crust w ere sli ppi ng down i nt o t h e mant le,
t h en one block of crust sh ould be sli di ng under t h e ot h er - w h at geolo-
gists call thrust (or reverse) f aults. Hodgson's w ork showed ot h erw i se.
Hodgson and h i s co-w orkers h ad been analyzi ng t h e slip di rect i ons i n
eart h quakes around t h e w orld - so-called fi rst mot i on st udi es - but t h ey
faced t w o subst ant i al problems. First, t h ei r met h od involved maki ng
fault -plane solut i ons (graph i cal plots of zones of compressi on and zones
of t ensi on around t h e cent er of an eart h quake) but fault -plane solut i ons
are non-uni que: for every set of dat a, t h ere are t w o possible solut i ons.
(Th i s remai ns t rue t oday.) Second, t h ei r project involved compi li ng dat a
from seismic st at i ons around t h e globe, and t h e quali t y of t h ese data w as
i nconsi st ent and oft en poor. Th e fi rst mot i ons of eart h quakes could be
mi si nt erpret ed easily due t o w eak signals or i ncorrect ly set-up gal-
vanomet er w i res (i n w h i ch case compressi on w ould look li ke t ensi on,
and vice versa). Wh i le Hodgson acknow ledged th ese di ffi cult i es, ot h ers
t ook his result s as if t h ey w ere est abli sh ed fact s.
17
As late as 1963, Harry
Hess w as argui ng t h at t h e st ruct ure beneat h t h e t rench es consisted of
vert i cal dow nw arpi ngs, or "t ect ogenes," i n part because of Hodgson's
w ork. As Bruce Bolt, Jack Oliver, and Robert Parker explai n i n t h ei r
essays, i t t ook t h e est abli sh ment of t h e w orld w ide st andard sei smograph
net w ork (WWSSN), w h i ch solved t h e problems of i nconsi st ent dat a, t o
resolve these ambi gui t i es and demonst rat e t h at t h e deep-focus eart h -
quakes w ere comi ng from t h rust fault s, consi st ent w i t h slabs of t h e
eart h ' s crust sli di ng down i nt o t h e mant le.
Th e large number of people involved in th e development of plat e tec-
t oni cs and t h e i mport ance of dat a as a dri vi ng force for concept ual i nno-
vat i on h elp t o explai n anot h er st ri ki ng feat ure of t h i s story: t h e fre-
quency of si mult aneous discovery. Robert D i et z and H arry Hess bot h
w rot e semi nal papers suggest i ng sea floor spreadi ng; Law rence Morley
and Fred Vi ne and D rummond Mat t h ew s proposed i ndependent ly t h at
magnet i c st ri pes could provi de a test of t h e spreadi ng t h eory; Jason Mor-
gan and Dan McKenzi e separat ely developed t h e quant i t at i ve analysis of
crust al mot i ons t h at now bears t h e name p late tec tonic s.
xx PREFACE
In the case of Hess and Dietz, it is w idely know n t h at Hess w rot e his now-
classic paper on sea floor spreadi ng, "History of the Ocean Basins," in
1960, and circulated a pre-pri nt in 1961. This was the same year t h at Dietz
publi sh ed his art i cle, "Cont i nent and Ocean Basin Evolut i on by Spread-
ing of the Sea Floor," in the journal Nature. In 1962, Di et z acknowledged
t h at Hess had priority, and later scientists have generally assumed t h at
Di et z's w ork w as derived from Hess'.
18
Perh aps it was, but Dietz's version
of sea floor spreadi ng was di fferent from Hess', and by the standards of
current knowledge closer to bei ng correct.
19
How ever D i et z came t o sea floor spreadi ng, t h ere i s no di sput e t h at
Law rence Morley and Fred Vi ne i ndependent ly developed t h e idea t h at
sea floor magnet i c stripes offered a test of i t . Vi ne w as a graduat e st udent
at Cambri dge, w orki ng under Professor D ummond Mat t h ew s. Morley
w as a geoph ysi ci st w orki ng w i t h th e Geological Survey of Canada. Th e
t w o men h ad never met , never corresponded, never read each ot h er' s
w ork. But each h ad read t h e w ork of Mason and Raff, each h ad been
st ruck by t h e remarkable pat t ern of magnet i c anomali es off t h e coast of
Nort h Ameri ca, and each realized t h at , i f sea floor spreadi ng w as real,
t h en combi ni ng i t w i t h global magnet i c polari t y reversals w ould lead t o
a symmet ri cal pat t ern of magnet i c stripes on ei t h er side of th e mid-ocean
ri ft . Th at i s, each t i me t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld sh i ft ed, t h e next batch
of magmas t h at erupt ed at t h e mid-ocean ridges w ould have opposite
polari t y t o t h e bat ch before.
However, as Vi ne and Morley recount h ere, t h ei r ideas di d not receive
i dent i cal t reat ment : Morley's w as reject ed by t h e edi t ors at Nature; Vine
and Mat t h ew s' w as accept ed. In ret rospect , t h e Vi ne and Mat t h ew s' pre-
sent at i on w as much more developed, i ncludi ng a soph i st i cat ed analysis
of exi st i ng sea floor magnet i c dat a. Wh i le many people believe t h at ideas
are t h e key t o sci ence, t h e di fference i n t h e t reat ment of t h e t w o papers
shows t h at good ideas alone are not enough ; you need good dat a, t oo,
and you need t o show h ow t h e dat a fi t w i t h t h e idea. And perh aps Vi ne
and Matthew s' Cambridge credentials carried w eight at Nature that Mor-
ley's Canadi an ones di d not .
A t h i rd major example of si mult aneous discovery is th e w ork of Dan
McKenzi e and Robert Parker at Scripps, andjason Morgan at Pri ncet on,
w h i ch establish ed t h e plat e t ect oni c model: t h at crust al mot i ons could
be underst ood as rigid body rot at i ons on a sph ere. Both McKenzi e and
Parker and Morgan made use of a t h eorem developed by 18th -century
Swiss mat h emat i ci an Leonh ard Euler, t h at t h e mot i on of a ri gi d body
over a sph ere can be described as a rot at i on about an axis t h rough th e
cent er of t h e sph ere. I magi ne a satellite i n orbi t over E art h . It s mot i on
Pref ac e xxi
can be descri bed as a rot at i on about an axis. A second satellite w i t h a di f-
ferent orbi t can be descri bed as a rot at i on about a di fferent axis. Th e
quest i on is: w h at is th e relat i ve mot i on of th e tw o sat elli t es? As McKen-
zi e explai ned, E uler' s t h eorem states t h at t h ese t w o rot at i ons are "equiv-
alent t o a si ngle rot at i on about a di fferent axis, and t h erefore any rela-
tive mot i on of plat es on th e surface of a sph ere is a rot at i on about some
axis."
20
If one assumed t h at t h e crustal segment s w ere rigid, t h ey could be
t reat ed as i nt erlocki ng solid blocks and th e mot i on of any one block cal-
culat ed relat i ve t o anot h er. Do t h i s for each block i n t urn, and all t h e
mot i ons of t h e plat es could be det ermi ned. Visually, one could i magi ne
t h e plat es li ke i nt erlocki ng pavi ng st ones, albei t on a movi ng surface.
McKenzi e and Parker, w orki ng on t h e w est coast of t h e Uni t ed States at
Scripps, based t h ei r analysis on sei smi c data i n t h e Nort h Paci fi c; Mor-
gan, w orki ng on t h e east coast of t h e Uni t ed States at Pri ncet on, based
h i s analysis pri mari ly on t h e ori ent at i on of fract ure zones and spreadi ng
rat es from magnet i c anomali es i n t h e At lant i c.
21
McKenzi e and Parker' s art i cle w as publi sh ed fi rst , i n Nature i n late
December 1967; Morgan' s w as publi sh ed i n t h e Journal of Geop hysic al
Researc h t h ree mont h s lat er, i n March 1968. However, Morgan h ad
already present ed h i s result s at a meet i ng of t h e Ameri can Geophysical
Uni on t h e previ ous spri ng. McKenzi e w as present at t h at meet i ng, but
h e h adn' t h eard Morgan' s talk. Morgan h ad ori gi nally i nt ended t o speak
about gravi t y measurement s i n t h e Cari bbean, and h i s t i t le reflect ed t h i s.
Uni nt erest ed i n gravity, McKenzi e ski pped t h e t alk. But Morgan di d not
t alk about gravity, he t alked about rigid rot at i ons of crust al blocks. So sci-
ent i st s w h o at t ended Morgan' s t alk, such as Xavi er Le Pi ch on, h ave gen-
erally credi t ed Morgan w i t h pri ori t y for t h e i dea.
22
Di d McKenzi e someh ow h ear about Morgan' s w ork? Perh aps, but
Morgan and McKenzi e w ere not t h e only ones t h i nki ng along t h ese li nes.
In a paper present ed at a symposi um on cont i nent al dri ft at t h e Royal
Society in London in 1964, and publi sh ed in 1965, McKenzi e' s Cam-
bri dge ment or, Si r Edw ard ("Teddy") Bullard, h ad draw n on E uler' s th e-
orem t o analyze t h e geomet ry of t h e fi t of t h e cont i nent s across t h e
At lant i c Ocean.
23
Also in 1964, Scripps sci ent i st George Backus pub-
li sh ed an art i cle i n Nature also i nvoki ng E uler' s t h eorem. Backus w as on
sabbat i cal leave at Cambri dge, w h ere h e met Bullard, Vi ne, Mat t h ew s,
and McKenzi e, and suggested t h at t h e h ypot h esi s of sea floor spreadi ng
could be tested by comparing the spacing of magnet i c stripes in the
Nort h and South At lant i c. Since t h e lat t er w as w ider, t h e spreadi ng rat e
must have been great er, and so t h e w i dt h of t h e st ri pes sh ould be greater.
xxii PREFACE
Moreover, h e poi nt ed out , E uler' s t h eorem could be used t o calculat e
just h ow w ide t h ose st ri pes sh ould be as a di st ance from t h e pole of rot a-
t i on. As h e put i t i n nearly a t h row aw ay li ne, "Of course, any rigid dis-
placement of a cont i nent on a sph eri cal globe i s a rot at i on about some
poi nt ," and t h erefore t h e mot i on of any poi nt could be calculat ed based
on its posi t i on relative to the pole of rot at i on. (T h i nk of a li ne of spin-
ni ng i ce skat ers. Th e one at t h e cent er rot at es slowly i n place, t h e ones
at t h e ends must skate much fast er. If you knew t h e speed at w h i ch t h e
cent er skat er w as rot at i ng [and i f t h e li ne w ere perfect ly ri gi d], t h en you
could calculat e t h e speed of any skat er along t h e li ne by know i ng h er or
h i s di st ance from t h e cent er.) However, magnet i c dat a for t h e Sout h
At lant i c w ere not available, so Backus present ed h i s i dea as a proposal
for a test of sea floor spreadi ng, rat h er t h an as a compreh ensi ve t h eory
of plat e mot i ons.
24
More clearly i nfluent i al w as Tuzo Wi lson' s 1965 Nature paper, "A New
Class of Faults and t h ei r Beari ng on Cont i nent al Dri ft ."
25
Wi lson argued
t h at i f sea floor spreadi ng w as t aki ng place, t h en t h e fract ure zones t h at
cut across t h e mid-ocean ridges mi gh t i n fact be fault s, along w h i ch
crust al blocks w ere displaced. But t h ey w ould be a di fferent ki nd of fault
t h an previ ously recogni zed. In t h e i nt roduct i on t o h i s paper, Wi lson
argued t h at t h e eart h ' s mobi le zones - t h e mount ai ns and volcanoes
along cont i nent al margi ns, and t h e ri ft s t h at ran t h rough cont i nent s,
li ke t h e East Afri can R i ft - w ere "connect ed i nt o a cont i nuous net w ork
of mobi le belt s about t h e E art h w h i ch divide t h e surface i nt o several
large rigid plates." Moreover, "any feat ure at i t s apparent t ermi nat i on
may be t ransformed i nt o anot h er feat ure of one of t h e ot h er t w o
types."
26
In ot h er w ords, a ri ft could be t ransformed i nt o a strike-slip
fault zone, a st ri ke-sli p fault could give w ay t o an ocean t rench , formi ng
a cont i nuous net w ork of t ect oni c boundari es around t h e globe. Wilson
coi ned t h e t erm transf orm f aults t o describe t h e junct i ons w h ere h ori-
zont al sh ear fault s t ermi nat e at bot h ends agai nst ot h er t ect oni c feat ures,
most notably the fault s t h at displace segments of the mid-ocean ridges.
Lat er w orkers w ould focus on Wi lson's defi ni t i on of t ransform fault s
as a key element of t h e plat e t ect oni c synt h esi s, but equally i mport ant at
t h e t i me w as Wi lson's argument t h at t h e eart h ' s mobi le belt s w ere con-
t i nuous, di vi di ng t h e w orld i nt o a small number of segment s, and t h at
t h ese segment s could be t h ough t of as rigid plat es. If so, t h en th e
mot i ons along t ransform fault s could be descri bed as rigid mot i ons on
a plane. (T h i nk of t h e sli di ng plast i c t i les i n t h ose number puzzles w h ere
you h ave t o get t h e numbers back i n order, but t h e tiles can only move
up and dow n, ri gh t or left .) Bot h McKenzi e and Parker and Morgan
made t h e li nk bet w een Wi lson's ri gi d mot i ons on a plane and Bullard' s
Pref ac e xxiii
appli cat i on of E uler' s t h eorem for mot i ons on a sph ere: McKenzi e and
Parker descri bed t h ei r w ork as an ext ensi on of Wi lson' s "concept of
t ransform fault s t o mot i ons on a sph ere." Morgan called h i s w ork "an
ext ensi on of t h e t ransform fault concept t o a sph eri cal surface."
27
Wil-
son lai d out t h e i dea of plat es and rigid mot i ons; McKenzi e, Parker, and
Morgan ext ended i t t o t h e sph eri cal eart h , quant i fi ed i t , and sh ow ed t h at
i t w as consi st ent w i t h t h e geoph ysi cal dat a.
By t h e early t o mid-1960s, many people h ad become convi nced of con-
t i nent al mobi li t y, and w ere t h i nki ng about h ow i t mi gh t w ork. Li ke t h e
Bri t i sh geologi st Art h ur Holmes before t h em (w h o fi rst proposed an
i dea of sea floor spreadi ng i n t h e lat e 1920s), Hess and D i et z w ere pon-
deri ng t h e mech ani sms t h at generat ed ocean floor; Vi ne and Morley
w ere t ryi ng t o make sense of sea floor magnet i c st ri pes i n t erms of sea
floor mobi li t y; and Bullard, Backus, Wi lson, McKenzi e, Parker, and Mor-
gan w ere all t h i nki ng geomet ri cally: h ow w ould t h e crust al pi eces move
and still fi t t oget h er? Moreover, t h ese are not t h e only examples of more
t h an one sci ent i st or group of sci ent i st s w orki ng on t h e same problem.
As Nei l Opdyke recount s, Jan Hospers h ad been w orki ng on t h e ques-
t i on of magnet i c reversals i n rocks si nce t h e 1950s; t h i s w as i ndepen-
dent ly pursued by Allan Cox, R i ch ard Doell, and Brent D alrymple i n t h e
Uni t ed States, and by I an McDougall and Don Tarli ng i n Aust rali a.
Xavi er Le Pi ch on si mi larly not es t h at h e recogni zed t h e si mi lari t y of t h e
magnet i c st ri pes over t h e Juan de Fuca and R eykjanes ri dges at just about
t h e same t i me as Fred Vi ne di d.
28
Geoph ysi ci st Geoffrey Davies recent ly
not ed t h at Wi lson' s t ransform fault s w ere proposed i ndependent ly i n
1965 by A. M. Coode.
29
These are examples of mult i ple discovery of
good ideas; i f one w ere t o recount t h e h i st ory of mult i ple di scovery of
bad i deas, no doubt one w ould fi nd st i ll more.
If a problem i s i mport ant , more t h an one person w ill be at t ract ed t o
w orki ng on i t , and somet i mes more t h an one person will h i t on t h e solu-
t i on at more or less t h e same t i me. Th e more people w orki ng on t h e
problem, t h e more t h ey know and t alk t o each ot h er, and t h e more pub-
li c t h e relevant dat a, t h e more li kely t h i s i s t o be t h e case. Th e mult i ple
cases of si mult aneous discovery i n plat e t ect oni cs emerge from a cont ext
i n w h i ch many smart people w ere w orki ng closely i n a small number of
i nst i t ut i ons w h ere cri t i cal dat a w ere avai lable.
A C O MMO N T HR E A D?
T h rough out t h i s i nt roduct i on, I have emph asi zed t h e di versi t y of peo-
ple, approach es, dat a, and ideas t h at cont ri but ed t o t h e global synt h esi s
xxiv PREFACE
of plat e t ect oni cs. Do our 17 aut h ors h ave anyt h i ng in common? One
common t h read i s t h at t h ey are all i ndi vi duals w h o took advant age of
opport uni t i es and w ere w i lli ng t o take ch ances. Fred Vi ne delivered an
undergraduat e geology club lect ure on cont i nent al dri ft at Cambri dge,
know i ng t h at many of h i s t each ers opposed t h e idea. Nei l Opdyke joi ned
Kei t h R uncorn as a fi eld assi st ant on only a few days' not i ce, h avi ng never
before met t h e man. Tanya At w at er ret urned t o t h e Uni t ed States from
Ch i le det ermi ned not t o miss out on t h e revolut i on t h at sh e reali zed w as
t aki ng place, and w orri ed t h at sh e w ould get t h ere t oo late. Pet er Mol-
nar refused t o set t le for a second-rat e t h esi s t opi c, search i ng ardent ly for
a problem h e could fall i n love w i t h . Both Joh n Dewey and Bill Di cki n-
son w ere det ermi ned t o show h ow t h i s new geoph ysical t h eory could
ch ange geologists' w orldvi ew - Dewey by t alki ng t o anyone w h o w ould
li st en, Di cki nson by organi zi ng a conference i n w h i ch h e i nvi t ed people
h e h ad never met t o present t h ei r most out rageous ideas.
Among t h e aut h ors w h o w ere graduat e st udent s or fresh ly mi nt ed aca-
demi cs at t h e t i me, w h at st ands out most i s t h ei r w i lli ngness t o w ork h ard,
t ake ch ances, and not be afrai d t h at t h ei r ideas mi gh t be scoffed at by
t h ei r elders. Among t h e aut h ors w h o w ere more seni or at t h e t i me, w h at
st ands out i s t h ei r w i lli ngness t o admi t t h at w h at t h ey h ad previously
believed w as w rong, t o ret h i nk t h ei r commi t ment s, regroup, recover,
and keep w orki ng. Scientists w h o h ad been raised t o believe t h at t h e
eart h ' s crust w as fi xed, t h at cont i nent al dri ft w as i mpossi ble, and t h at
Alfred Wegener w as a crank, now cont ri but ed t h ei r ow n sci ent i fi c bril-
li ance t o sh ow i ng h ow t h e crust moved, w h at made i t move, and t h at
Wegener, i n h i s overall i nsi gh t i f not i n every det ai l, w as ri gh t . This, per-
h aps, i s t h e most i mport ant part of t h e story, a st ory of sci ent i st s w h o real-
ized w h at t h ey h ad previ ously believed w as w rong, and set i t ri gh t .
P A R T I
T HE HIS T O RIC AL BAC KGRO UN D
The idea that c ontinents move was f irst seriously c onsidered in the early 20th
c entury, but it took sc ientists 40 years to dec ide that it was true. Pan I desc ribes
the historic al bac kground to this question: how sc ientists f irst p ondered the
question of c rustal mobility, why they rejec ted the idea the f irst time around,
and how they ultimately c ame bac k to it with new evidenc e, new ideas, and a
global model of how it works.
This page intentionally left blank
CH A PT E R 1
FR O M CO NT I NE NT AL D R I FT
TO PLATE T E CT O NI CS
Naomi Oreskes
SINCE THE l6TH CENTURY, CARTOGRAPHERS HAVE NOTICED THE
ji gsaw -puzzle fi t of t h e cont i nent al edges.
1
Since t h e 19th cent ury, geol-
ogists h ave know n t h at some fossi l plant s and ani mals are ext raordi nar-
i ly si mi lar across t h e globe, and some sequences of rock format i ons i n
di st ant cont i nent s are also st ri ki ngly ali ke. At t h e t urn of t h e 20t h cen-
tury, Aust ri an geologist E duard Suess proposed th e t h eory of Gond-
w analand t o account for t h ese si mi lari t i es: t h at a gi ant supercont i nent
h ad once covered much or all of E art h ' s surface before breaki ng apart
t o form cont i nent s and ocean basins. A few years lat er, German meteo-
rologist Alfred Wegener suggested an alt ernat i ve explanat i on: cont i -
nent al dri ft . Th e paleont ologi cal pat t erns and ji gsaw -puzzle fi t could be
explai ned i f t h e cont i nent s h ad mi grat ed across t h e eart h ' s surface,
somet i mes joi ni ng t oget h er, somet i mes breaki ng apart . Wegener argued
t h at for several h undred mi lli on years duri ng t h e lat e Paleozoi c and
Mesozoi c eras (200 mi lli on t o 300 mi lli on years ago), t h e cont i nent s
w ere uni t ed i nt o a supercont i nent t h at h e labeled Pangeaall E art h .
Cont i nent al dri ft w ould also explai n paleocli mat e ch ange, as cont i nent s
dri ft ed t h rough di fferent cli mat e zones and ocean ci rculat i on w as
alt ered by t h e ch angi ng di st ri but i on of land and sea, w h i le t h e i nt erac-
t i ons of ri ft i ng and dri ft i ng land masses provi ded a mech ani sm for t h e
ori gi ns of mount ai ns, volcanoes, and eart h quakes.
Cont i nent al dri ft w as not accept ed w h en fi rst proposed, but i n t h e
1960s it became a cornerst one of th e new global t h eory of plat e t ect on-
ics. The mot i on of land masses is now explai ned as a consequence of
moving "plates"large fragment s of t h e eart h ' s surface layer i n w h i ch
t h e cont i nent s are embedded. These plat es compri se t h e upper 45 t o 60
3
4 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
mi les (80 t o 100 ki lomet ers) of t h e eart h ' s surface (now called t h e li t h o-
sph ere), and move at a rat e of 1 to 4 i nch es (3 to 10 cent i met ers) per
year. E art h quakes, volcanoes, and mount ai ns are concent rat ed on plate
margi ns w h ere t w o plat es colli de, spli t apart , or sli de past one anot h er.
Moreover, th e global confi gurat i on of cont i nent s and oceans is con-
st ant ly ch angi ng. As Wegener suggest ed, t h e breakup of Pangea pro-
duced t h e confi gurat i on of cont i nent s and oceans t h at w e h ave today.
BE F O R E CO N T I N E N T A L D R I F T :
VE R S I O N S O F CO N T R A CT I O N T H E O R Y
One of th e cent ral sci ent i fi c quest i ons of 19t h -cent ury geology w as th e
origin of mount ai ns. How w ere t h ey formed? Wh at process squeezed and
folded rocks li ke put t y? Wh at made t h e eart h ' s surface move? Most t h e-
ories i nvoked t errest ri al cont ract i on as a causal force. It w as w i dely
believed t h at E art h h ad formed as a h ot , i ncandescent body, and h ad
been steadily cooli ng si nce th e begi nni ng of geological t i me. Because
most mat eri als cont ract as t h ey cool, i t seemed logical t o assume t h at
Eart h h ad been cont ract i ng as i t cooled, too. As i t di d, i t s surface w ould
have deformed, produci ng mount ai ns.
In Europe, Aust ri an geologist Edw ard Suess (1831-1914) populari zed
t h e i mage of E art h as a dryi ng apple: as t h e planet cont ract ed, i t s surface
w ri nkled t o accommodat e t h e di mi ni sh ed surface area. Suess assumed
t h at Eart h ' s i ni t i al crust w as cont i nuous, but broke apart as t h e i nt eri or
sh runk. Th e collapsed port i ons formed t h e ocean basins; t h e remai ni ng
elevat ed port i ons formed t h e cont i nent s. Wi t h cont i nued cooli ng, t h e
ori gi nal cont i nent s became unst able and collapsed t o form t h e next gen-
erat i on of ocean floor, and w h at h ad formerly been ocean now became
dry land. Over th e course of geological h i st ory, t h ere w ould be a con-
t i nual i nt erch ange of land and sea, a peri odi c rearrangement of t h e land
masses.
Th e i nt erch angeabi li t y of cont i nent s and oceans explai ned a number
of ot h er perplexi ng geological observat i ons, such as the presence of
mari ne fossi ls on land (w h i ch h ad long before puzzled Leonardo Da
Vi nci ) and t h e extensive i nt erleavi ng of mari ne and t errest ri al sedi ment s
i n t h e st rat i graph i c record. Suess' t h eory also explai ned t h e st ri ki ng sim-
i lari t i es of fossils in part s of I ndi a, Afri ca, and South Ameri ca. I ndeed, in
some cases t h e fossi ls seemed t o be i dent i cal, even t h ough t h ey w ere
found t h ousands of mi les apart . These si mi lari t i es h ad been recogni zed
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 5
since t h e mi d-cent ury, but t h ey h ad been made newly problemat i c by
Darw i n's t h eory of evolut i on. If plant s and ani mals h ad evolved inde-
pendent ly i n di fferent places w i t h i n diverse envi ronment s, t h en w h y di d
t h ey look so similar? Suess explai ned t h i s conundrum by at t ri but i ng
these si mi lar species to an early geological age w h en th e cont i nent s w ere
cont i guous i n an anci ent supercont i nent called Gondw analand.
2
Suess' t h eory w as w idely discussed and t o varying degrees accept ed
i n Europe, but i n Nort h America geologist James Dw i gh t Dana (1813-
1895) h ad developed a di fferent versi on of cont ract i on th eory. D ana
suggested t h at t h e cont i nent s h ad formed early i n eart h h i st ory, w h en
low -t emperat ure mi nerals such as quart z and feldspar h ad soli di fi ed.
Th en t h e globe cont i nued t o cool and cont ract , unt i l t h e h i gh -t emper-
at ure mi nerals such as olivine and pyroxene fi nally soli di fi ed: on t h e
moon, t o form t h e lunar crat ers; on E art h , t o form t h e ocean basi ns. As
cont ract i on cont i nued aft er E art h w as solid, i t s surface began t o deform.
Th e boundari es bet w een cont i nent s and oceans t ook up most of t h e
pressureli ke t h e seams on a dressand so mount ai ns began t o form
along cont i nent al margi ns. Wi t h cont i nued cont ract i on came cont i nued
deformat i on, but w i t h t h e cont i nent s and oceans always i n t h e same rel-
ative positions.
3
Alt h ough Dana' s t h eory w as a versi on of cont ract i on, it
came to be know n as permanence t h eory, because it viewed cont i nent s
and oceans as globally permanent feat ures.
In Nort h America, permanence t h eory was li nked to the t h eory of geo-
synclines: subsiding sedi ment ary basins along cont i nent al margins. This
idea was developed primarily by James Hall (1811-1889), state paleontol-
ogist of New York and the fi rst presi dent of the Geological Society of Amer-
ica (1889). Hall not ed t h at , beneat h th e forest cover, th e Appalachian
mount ai ns w ere bui lt up of folded layers of shallow-water sedi ment ary
rocks, thousands of feet t h i ck. How did these sequences of shallow-water
deposits form? How w ere t h ey folded and upli ft ed i nt o mount ai ns? Hall
suggested t h at materials eroded off the continents accumulated in the
adjacent marginal basins, causing the basins to subside. Subsidence
allowed more sediments to accumulat e, causing more subsidence, unt i l
fi nally the w eight of the pile caused the sediments to be h eat ed, converted
to rock, and t h en uplifted into mountains.
4
(The process of uplift, or
mountain-building, is called orogeny.} Dana modi fi ed Hall's view by argu-
ing t h at th ick sedi ment ary piles w ere not th e cause of subsidence but th e
result of it. E i t h er w ay the t h eory provided a concise explanat i on of how
thick sequences of shallow-water rocks could accumulate, but was vague
on th e quest i on of h ow t h ey were t ransformed i nt o mount ai n belts.
6 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
C O N T I N E N T A L DR I FT A S A L T E R N A T I V E
T O C O N T R A C T I O N T HE O R Y
I n t h e early 20t h cent ury, cont ract i on t h eory w as ch allenged by t h ree
i ndependent li nes of evi dence. Th e fi rst came from fi eld mappi ng. Ni ne-
t eent h -cent ury geologists h ad w orked i n great det ai l t o det ermi ne t h e
st ruct ure of mount ai n belt s, part i cularly t h e Swiss Alps and t h e Nort h
Ameri can Appalachians. Wh en they mapped the folded sequences of
rocks i n t h ese regi ons, t h ey found t h e folds t o be so ext ensi ve t h at i f one
could unfold t h em t h e rock layers w ould ext end for h undreds of mi les.
Impossi bly h uge amount s of t errest ri al cont ract i on w ould h ave t o be
i nvolved. Geologi st s began t o doubt cont ract i on t h eory as an explana-
t i on for t h e ori gi ns of mount ai ns.
Th e second li ne of evi dence came from geodesyt h e sci ence of t h e
shape (or fi gure) of th e eart h . While field geologists were unraveli ng th e
st ruct ure of t h e Alps and Appalach i ans, cart ograph ers w i t h t h e Great
T ri gnomet ri cal Survey of I ndi a w ere maki ng geodet i c measurement s t o
produce accurat e maps of Bri t i sh coloni al h oldi ngs.
5
In t h e early 1850s,
Colonel (lat er Si r) George Everest , t h e surveyor-general of I ndi a, dis-
covered a di screpancy i n t h e measured di st ance bet w een t w o st at i ons,
Kali ana and Kali anpur, 370 mi les (600 ki lomet ers) apart . Wh en mea-
sured on the basis of surveyor's t ri angulat i ons, the lat i t ude di fference
w as fi ve seconds great er t h an w h en comput ed on t h e basis of ast ronom-
ical observat i on. Everest t h ough t t h e di fference mi gh t be due t o t h e
gravi t at i onal at t ract i on of t h e Hi malayas on t h e surveyors' plumb bobs,
and enli st ed Joh n Prat t (1809-1871), a Cambri dge-t rai ned mat h emat i -
ci an and t h e arch deacon of Calcut t a, t o exami ne t h e problem. Prat t cal-
culat ed t h e expect ed gravi t at i onal effect of t h e mount ai ns, and discov-
ered t h at the discrepancy w as less t h an it sh ould have been: it w as as if
part of t h e mount ai ns w ere mi ssi ng. Prat t proposed t h at t h e observed
effect s could be explai ned i f t h e surface t opograph y of t h e mount ai ns
w ere someh ow compensat ed by a defi ci t of mass beneat h t h eman i dea
t h at came t o be know n as isostasy, or "equal st andi ng." In t h e early 20t h
cent ury, isostasy w as confi rmed by det ai led geodet i c and gravi t y mea-
surement s across t h e Uni t ed States. Joh n Hayford (1868-1925) and
William Bowie (1872-1940), w orki ng at th e U.S. Coast and Geodetic Sur-
vey, demonst rat ed t h at t h e di st ri but i on of gravity w as most consi st ent
w i t h t h e assumpt i on of isostasy, not just i n mount ai n belt s, but across t h e
cont i nent s. Isost asy could be ach i eved ei t h er i f t h e cont i nent s w ere less
dense t h an t h e layers of rock beneat h t h em, or i f t h ey h ad deep root s,
li ke i cebergs. E i t h er way, t h ey "float ed" i n t h e subst rat e beneat h t h em,
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 7
and t h erefore th ey could not sink to become ocean basins. Cont i nent s
and oceans w ere not i nt erch angeable.
Th i rd, and most fundament al, physicists discovered radi ogeni c h eat ,
w h i ch cont radi ct ed t h e basic assumpt i on of cont ract i on t h eory t h at t h e
eart h w as steadily cooli ng. Wi t h cont ract i on no longer assumed, eart h
scientists w ere mot i vat ed t o search for ot h er dri vi ng forces of deforma-
t i on. By the 1920s, many consi dered the science to be in a state of crisis:
w ith contraction t h eory discredited, how w ere geologists to account for
t h e evi dence of pri or cont i nent al connect i ons? How w ere t h ey t o rec-
onci le t h e evidence from h i st ori cal geology for t h e ch angi ng confi gura-
t i on of land masses w i t h t h e apparent permanence of cont i nent s and
oceans? This crisis w as felt most acut ely by E uropean geologists w h o
h ad accept ed Suess' t h eory, but Ameri cans also reali zed t h at t h ey faced
a di lemma. A number of sci ent i st s began t o put forw ard alt ernat i ve
th eories of cont i nent al fragment at i on or mi grat i on. Alfred Wegener
(1880-1930) i s t h e most si gni fi cant , for h i s t h eory w as t h e most w idely
discussed at the time, and the one t h at was later vindicated.
A pi oneeri ng met eorologi st and aut h or of an early t ext on t h e t h er-
modynami cs of t h e at mosph ere, Wegener reali zed t h at paleocli mat e
ch ange could be explai ned i f cont i nent s h ad mi grat ed across cli mat e
zones and t h e reconfi gurat i on of land masses alt ered E art h ' s cli mat e pat -
t erns.
6
However, cont i nent al dri ft w as more t h an just a t h eory of paleo-
cli mat e ch ange. Wegener expli ci t ly present ed h i s t h eory as a means t o
reconcile historical geology with isostasy: on the one h and, paleonto-
logical evi dence t h at t h e cont i nent s h ad once been connect ed; on t h e
ot h er, geodetic evi dence t h at t h ey could not be connect ed i n t h e w ay
European cont ract i oni st s h ad supposed by now -sunken crust . Wegener's
answ er w as t o reconnect t h e cont i nent s by movi ng t h em laterally.
Wegener' s t h eory was widely discussed in the 1920s and early 1930s.
It w as also h ot ly reject ed, part i cularly by geologists i n t h e Uni t ed States,
w ho labeled it bad science. The standard explanation for the rejection
of cont i nent al dri ft i s t h e lack of a causal mech ani sm, but t h i s explana-
t i on is false. T h ere w as a spirited and rigorous i nt ernat i onal debat e over
t h e possible mech ani sms of cont i nent al mi grat i on, w h i ch ult i mat ely set-
tled on t h e same explanat i on generally accept ed t oday for plat e t ect on-
ics: convect i on current s i n t h e eart h ' s mant le.
Th e debate over th e mech ani sm of cont i nent al dri ft cent ered on th e
implications of isostasy. If continents floated in a denser substrate, th en
this substrate had to be ei t h er fluid or plastic, and cont i nent s could at least
in principle move through it. There was good evidence t h at this was
indeed the case: in Scandinavia, geologists had document ed a progressive
8 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
upli ft of Fi nland and Scandinavia since th e end of th e Pleistocene epoch
(10,000 years ago), w h i ch t h ey called t h e F ennosc andian rebound. Th e
accepted explanat i on for th is ph enomenon w as t h at duri ng th e Pleis-
t ocene epoch , t h e region h ad been depressed under t h e w eight of a t h i ck
sh eet of glacial ice; as the ice gradually melt ed, the land surface gradually
rebounded. This provided empirical evidence t h at continents could move
t h rough t h e subst rat e i n w h i ch t h ey w ere embedded, at least i n t h e verti-
cal di rect i on and at least duri ng the Pleistocene. However, in Scandinavia
the cause of mot i on was generally agreed: fi rst the w eigh t of glacial ice,
t h en the pressure release upon its removal. Wh at force would cause hori-
zont al movement ? Would t h e substrate respond t o h ori zont al movement
as it did to vertical movement ? Debate over the mech ani sms of dri ft con-
centrated on the long-term behavior of the substrate and the forces t h at
could cause cont i nent s to move laterally.
In t h e Uni t ed States, t h e quest i on w as addressed by Harvard geology
professor Regi nald A. Daly (1871-1957), Nort h Ameri ca's st rongest
defender of cont i nent al dri ft . Daly argued t h at t h e key t o t ect oni c prob-
lems w as t o be found i n t h e eart h ' s layered st ruct ure. Advances i n seis-
Regi nald Daly' s mech ani sm of cont i nent al dri ft by gravity sli di ng. Repri nt ed w i t h
permi ssi on of Scribner, a Division of Simon and Sch ust er, from Our Mobile Earth by
Regi nald A. Daly, copyri gh t 1926 by Ch arles Scri bner's Sons, renew ed 1954 by
Regi nald A. Daly, on p. 269.
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 9
mology suggested t h at the eart h contained th ree major layers: crust, sub-
st rat e (or mant le), and core. Th e subst rat e, h e suggested, mi gh t be
glassy, and t h erefore could flow in response to long-term stress just as old
plat es of glass gradually t h i cken at t h ei r low er edges and glassy lavas flow
dow nh i ll. Cont i nent s mi gh t do t h e same. Bui ldi ng on t h e geosyncline
concept of Dana and Hall, Daly suggested t h at sedi ment at i on along t h e
cont i nent al margi ns result ed i n subt le elevat i on di fferences, w h i ch i n
t urn produced gravi t at i onal instabilities. Eventually, t h e cont i nent could
rupt ure, sli di ng dow n over t h e glassy subst rat e under t h e force of grav-
ity. Th e sliding fragment w ould t h en override th e ot h er h alfan early
suggestion of subduct i onand, over t i me, th e accumulat i on of small
i ncrement s of sli di ng w ould result i n global cont i nent al dri ft .
7
Daly urged h i s Ameri can colleagues t o t ake up t h e quest i on of dri ft ,
but few di d. React i on i n E urope w as more favorable. Iri sh geologist Joh n
Joly (1857-1933) li nked th e quest i on to discoveries in radioactivity.
Trained as a ph ysi ci st , Joly h ad demonst rat ed t h at t h e commonly
observed dark rings in micasso-called pleochroic haloeswere caused
by radi at i on damage from t i ny i nclusi ons of urani um- and t h ori um-bear-
i ng mi nerals, such as apat i t e. Radi oact i ve element s w ere t h erefore ubi q-
ui t ous i n rocks, suggest i ng t h at radi ogeni c h eat w as also ubi qui t ous. If i t
w as, t h en i t could be a force for geological ch ange. Joly proposed t h at as
radi ogeni c h eat accumulat ed, t h e subst rat e w ould begin t o melt . D uri ng
t h ese episodes of melt i ng, t h e cont i nent s could move under t h e i nflu-
ence of small forces, such as mi nor gravitational effect s, t h at would oth-
erwise be i neffect ual.
8
Peri odi c melt i ng, associated w i t h magmat i c cycles
caused by the build-up of radiogenic h eat, would lead to the periods of
global mount ai n-bui ldi ng t h at many geologists saw evi dence of w h en
t h ey compared t h e geology of E urope and Nort h Ameri ca.
Joly's t h eory responded t o a geoph ysical complai nt against a plastic
subst rat e, voiced most clearly by Cambri dge geoph ysicist Harold Jeffreys
(later Sir H arold), t h at the propagation of seismic waves i ndi cat ed a fully
solid and rigid E art h . Jeffreys argued on ph ysical grounds t h at cont i nen-
tal dri ft was impossible in a solid, rigid Eart h ; Joly not ed t h at although
Eart h w as solid now, i t mi gh t not always have been. More w idely credi t ed
w as the suggestion of British geologist Art h ur Holmes (1890-1965) t h at
th e substrate w as partially molt en or glassylike magma. Underscori ng
argument s made by Wegener, Holmes emph asi zed t h at t h e subst rat e di d
not need t o be liquid, only plastic, and t h at i t mi gh t be rigid under h i gh
strain rat es (duri ng seismic event s) yet still be duct i le under t h e low st rai n
rates t h at prevailed duri ng orogeny (mount ai n-bui ldi ng). If it was plastic
i n response t o long-term stress, t h en cont i nent s could move w i t h i n i t .
10 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Art h ur Holmes' model of continental dri ft driven by mant le convection currents,
from H olmes (1929), Radi oact i vi t y and eart h movement s, Transac tions of the Geolog-
ic al Soc iety of Glasgow 18: 579 (1929), used by permi ssi on of the Geological Society of
Glasgow.
Holmes' dri vi ng force w as convection current s i n t h e mant le. He argued
t h at radiogenic h eat w ould generate t h e convection: t h e mid-ocean ridges
w ere fragment s of cont i nent al crust left beh i nd aft er cont i nent s h ad spli t
apart above upw elli ng convect i on current s; th e ocean deeps (geosyn-
clines) w ere the sites of downwelling current s w h ere cont i nent s deformed
as t h e subst rat e descended. Betw een t h e ridges and t h e t rench es, conti-
nent s w ere dragged along i n conveyor-belt fash i on.
9
T HE R E J E C T I O N O F C O N T I N E N T A L DRI FT
Art h ur Holmes' papers w ere w idely read and ci t ed; many geologists
t h ough t h e h ad found t h e cause of cont i nent al dri ft . However, opposi-
tion was noneth eless strong, particularly in the Uni t ed States, w h ere
react i on t o Wegener's t h eory w as vi t ri oli c.
Th ree mai n fact ors cont ri but ed t o t h e Ameri can ani mosi t y t o cont i -
nent al dri ft . First, Ameri cans w ere w i dely commi t t ed t o t h e met h od of
mult i ple w orki ng h ypot h esest h e i dea t h at sci ent i fi c evidence sh ould
be w ei gh ed i n li gh t of compet i ng (mult i ple) t h eoret i cal explanat i ons,
w h i ch one h eld provi si onally unt i l t h e w ei gh t of evi dence w as suffi ci ent
t o compel assent . Th i s provisional stage w as t h ough t t o requi re a long
t i mecert ai nly years, perh aps even decades. Most closely associated
w i t h the Uni versi t y of Ch i cago geologist T. C. Ch amberli n (1843-1928),
w h o h ad named i t , t h e met h od of mult i ple w orki ng h ypot h eses reflect ed
American ideals expressed since the 18th cent ury li nki ng good science
to good government . Good science w as ant i -aut h ori t ari an, li ke democ-
racy; good science w as plurali st i c, li ke a free society. Ameri cans going
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 11
back t o Th omas Jefferson and Benjami n Frankli n promot ed t h e idea
t h at good sci ence provi ded an exemplar for good government ; Jefferson
advocated sci ent i fi c st udy i n large part for t h i s very reason. And i f good
science w as a model for a free society, t h en bad sci ence i mpli ci t ly t h reat -
ened it.
10
Consi st ent w i t h t h e met h odology of mult i ple w orki ng h y-
pot h eses, Ameri cans believed good sci ent i fi c met h od w as empi ri cal,
inductive, and modest, h olding close to the objects of study and resist-
ing th e i mpulse to go furt h er. Alfred Wegener's w ork w as i nt erpret ed as
vi olat i ng t h ese pri nci ples on several count s. I t put t h e t h eory fi rst and
t h en sought evidence for it. It settled too quickly on a single interpretive
framew ork. It w as t oo large, t oo uni fyi ng, t oo ambi t i ous. Feat ures t h at
w ere lat er viewed as vi rt ues of plat e t ect oni cs w ere at t acked as flaws of
cont i nent al dri ft .
11
Second, cont i nent al dri ft w as i ncompat i ble w i t h t h e version of isostasy
t o w h i ch Ameri cans subscri bed. Wh i le Joh n Prat t h ad suggested t h at iso-
static compensat i on could be achieved by subsurface densi t y vari at i ons,
Bri t i sh Ast ronomer Royal George Biddell Airy (1801-1892) had poi nt ed
out t h at t h e same surface effect s could be produced by di fferences i n
crust al t h i ckness. In Prat t 's view, t h e mount ai ns w ould be underlai n by
low -density crust , but t h e dept h of isostatic compensat i on w ould be t h e
same everywhere. In Airy's view, the depth of compensation would be
vari able, w i t h t h e h i gh est mount ai ns underlai n by t h e deepest roots.
Wh en Hayford and Bowie set out to investigate isostasy, t h ey based t h ei r
test on Prat t 's model. By maki ng th e assumpt i on of a uni form dept h of
compensat i on, t h ey w ere able t o predi ct t h e surface effect s of isostasy
very accurat ely t h rough out t h e Uni t ed St at est h at i s, t o sh ow t h at t h e
dat a w ere consi st ent w i t h t h e predi ct i ons of t h e model. T h erefore, t h ey
concluded t h at t h e model w as correct . Hayford and Bowie used Prat t ' s
model because it w as si mpler and t h erefore easier to use. Wh at began as
a si mpli fyi ng assumpt i on evolved i nt o a belief about t h e st ruct ure of t h e
crust . This beli ef h ad consequences for t h e recept i on of t h e t h eory of
dri ft , for if continental dri ft were t rue, t h en th e large compressive forces
involved w ould squeeze t h e crust t o generat e t h i ckness di fferences, ult i -
mat ely endi ng up w i t h t h e Ai ry version of isostasy. Cont i nent al dri ft
seemed to refut e Prat t isostasy, w h i ch h ad w orked for Ameri cans so w ell.
Rat h er t h en reject Prat t isostasy, t h ey reject ed cont i nent al dri ft .
T h i rd, Ameri cans reject ed cont i nent al dri ft because of t h e legacy of
uni formi t ari ani sm. Uni formi t ari ani sm w as t h e pri nci ple, art i culat ed
most famously by Bri t i sh geologist Sir Ch arles Lyell (1797-1875), t h at
t h e best w ay t o underst and t h e geological record w as by reference t o
present ly observable processes. To underst and h ow sandst ones formed,
12 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
st udy beach processes. To underst and volcani c rocks, st udy modern vol-
canoes. To underst and fossi ls, st udy modern organi sms i n si mi lar h abi -
tats. And so on. Lyell proposed uni formi t ari ani sm in part as an intellec-
t ual response t o t h e di ffi cult i es of i nt erpret i ng t h e rock record, and i n
part as a react i on agai nst an earli er generat i on of nat ural h i st ori ans w h o
h ad looked t o t h e Bi ble as a basis for i nt erpret i ng eart h h i st ory. So uni -
formi t ari ani sm w as associated i n many geologi st s' mi nds w i t h t h e exclu-
si on of reli gi ous argument s from geology and t h e consoli dat i on of geol-
ogy as a sci ence.
Wh et h er or not Lyell's argument s w ere correct , by t h e early 20th cen-
t ury t h e met h odologi cal pri nci ple of usi ng t h e present t o i nt erpret t h e
past w as deeply embedded i n t h e pract i ce of h i st ori cal geology. Hi st ori -
cal geologists rout i nely used fossil assemblages to make i nferences about
cli mat e zones. Accordi ng t o dri ft t h eory, h ow ever, cont i nent s i n t ropi cal
lat i t udes di d not necessari ly h ave t ropi cal faunas, because t h e reconfi g-
urat i on of cont i nent s and oceans mi gh t ch ange mat t ers alt oget h er.
Wegener' s t h eory rai sed t h e spect er t h at t h e present w as not t h e key t o
t h e past t h at i t w as just a moment i n eart h h i st ory, no more or less ch ar-
act eri st i c t h an any ot h er. Th i s w as not an i dea t h at Ameri cans w ere w ill-
ing to accept.
I n Nort h Ameri ca, t h e debat e over cont i nent al dri ft w as quelled by an
alt ernat i ve account of t h e faunal evi dence. In 1933, geologists Ch arles
S ch uch ert (1858-1942) and Bailey Willis (1857-1949) proposed t h at t h e
cont i nent s h ad been i nt ermi t t ent ly connect ed by i st h mi an li nks, as t h e
i st h mus of Panama present ly connect s Nort h Ameri ca and South Amer-
i ca and t h e Beri ng Land Bridge recent ly connect ed Nort h Ameri ca and
Asia. Th e isth muses h ad been raised up by orogenic forces, t h en sub-
si ded under t h e i nfluence of isostasy. Th i s explanat i on w as pat ent ly ad
h oct h ere w as no evi dence of i st h mi an li nks ot h er t h an t h e paleont o-
logical dat a t h ey w ere desi gned t o explai n (aw ay). Nevert h eless, t h e idea
w as w i dely accept ed, and i t undercut a major li ne of evi dence of con-
t i nent al dri ft . In 1937, Sout h Afri can geologi st Alexander du Toit
(1878-1948) publi sh ed Our Wandering Continents, a compreh ensi ve syn-
thesis of the geological evidence of cont i nent al dri ft , but it had little
i mpact i n Nort h Ameri ca. E lsew h ere, part i cularly i n Sout h Afri ca and
Aust rali a, some geologists cont i nued t o advocat e dri ft and t o use i t t o
i nt erpret t h ei r geological dat a, but t h ese i ndi vi duals w ere most ly iso-
lat ed. Th e consensus of sci ent i fi c opi ni on w as agai nst cont i nent al dri ft .
Th ere t h e mat t er rest ed for t w o decades, unt i l t h e debat e w as reopened
on t h e basis of ent i rely new evi dence.
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 13
FR O M L A N D T O S E A :
G R A V I T Y A N O M A L I E S A N D C R U S T A L MO T I O N S
S ch uch ert and Wi lli s' alt ernat i ve t h eory satisfied most Nort h Ameri can
geologists t h at cont i nent al dri ft w as no longer somet h i ng t h ey needed t o
w orry about , but t h e issue di d not qui t e stop t h ere. In t h e 1920s, a group
of Ameri can scientists led by Wi lli am Bowie h ad begun a program in
cooperat i on w i t h th e U.S. Navy to measure gravity at sea. Bowie and Hay-
ford h ad demonst rat ed t h at isostasy appli ed over t h e cont i nent s, but di d
i t also apply over t h e oceans? Wh at was t h e st ruct ure of t h e crust under
t h e ocean basins? Wh at w as t h e ocean floor made of? Th e answ ers t o t h ese
fundament al quest i ons w ere unknow n, and one' s view of t h e eart h mi gh t
ch ange dramat i cally accordi ng t o w h at t h e answers t urned out t o be.
Measuri ng gravi t y at sea w as ext remely di ffi cult , because w i nd and
waves di st urbed t h e sensi t i ve apparat us used. Th e w orld's expert on t h e
subject w as a D ut ch geodesi st , Felix Veni ng Mei nesz (1887-1966), w h o
h ad i nvent ed a novel gravi met er t h at w as resi st ant t o ext ernal di st ur-
bance. In 1923, h e demonst rat ed i t s effi cacy i n a series of D ut ch subma-
ri ne expedi t i ons t o I ndonesi a, w h ere h e h ad di scovered major gravity
anomali es associated w i t h t h e Java Trench . Support ers of Wegener h ad
proposed t h at t h e Java Trench w as t h e si t e of convergence of t w o gi ant
crust al slabs, and Veni ng Mei nesz became i nt erest ed i n t h e possible con-
nect i on among gravity anomali es, ocean t rench es, and crust al move-
ment s. In 1928, Bowie i nvi t ed Veni ng Mei nesz t o t h e Uni t ed St at es, and
a seri es of gravity expedi t i ons follow ed, focused on t h e Cari bbean Sea
and t h e Gulf of Mexi co. Among t h e sci ent i st s w h o part i ci pat ed i n t h ese
expedi t i ons w ere t w o assi st ant professors, Harry H. Hess (1906-1969), a
young pet rologi st at Pri ncet on, and Mauri ce Ew i ng (1906-1974) a fledg-
li ng geoph ysi ci st at Leh i gh w h o w as rapi dly becomi ng know n for h i s pio-
neeri ng w ork on refract i on sei smology (usi ng explosives t o send sh ock
waves t h rough t h e eart h ' s crust t o det ermi ne i t s st ruct ure). On t h e 1937
Barrac uda expedi t i on, t h ey w ere joi ned by anot h er ri si ng st ar, Bri t i sh
geoph ysi ci st Edw ard ("Teddy") Bullard (1907-1980).
12
These expeditions confi rmed Veni ng Meinesz's earlier discoveries: grav-
ity measurement s in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico demonst rat ed
an association bet w een negative gravity anomalies (regions of lower t h an
normal gravity) and regions w h ere the ocean was part i cularly deep. Hess
discussed th ese results w ith Veni ng Mei nesz, and bot h agreed t h at t h ey indi-
cated some form of crustal di st urbance or deformat i on. Apparently the
ocean basins w ere not static, but actively deformi ng, at least in certain zones.
14 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Teddy (lat er Si r E dw ard) Bullard, t aki ng a break from gravity measure-
ment s in East Afri ca, ca. 1937. The ph ot ograph w as t aken by Bullard's fi rst
w i fe, Margaret Lady Bullard, and supplied courtesy of Robert Parker,
Scripps Inst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y.
Familiar with European argument s over cont i nent al dri ft , Vening Meinesz
proposed th at convection current s migh t be dragging the crust downward
into the denser mantle below, explaining both the ocean deeps and the neg-
ative gravity anomalies associated w ith them.
13
Hess imagined vertical buck-
les in the crust, expressed on the surface as ocean trenches or deeps, and in
gravity measurements as negative anomalies. Borrowing a term from Ger-
man geologist Erich Haarmann, he called these downwarpings tectogenes.
14
Th e t ect ogene concept received support from Veni ng Mei nesz's
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 15
H arry Hess' t ect ogene concept explai ni ng th e ori gi ns of ocean deeps associ-
ated w i t h negat i ve gravity anomali es, from Hess (1933), I nt erpret at i on of geo-
logical and geoph ysi cal observat i ons, i n The Navy-Princ eton Gravity Exp edition
to the West Indies in 1932, edi t ed by R. M. Field. Wash i ngt on, D.C., U.S. Gov-
ernment Pri nt i ng O ffi ce, p. 30.
D ut ch colleague, Ph i li p Kuenen, w h o undert ook a series of experi ment s
t o sh ow t h at t h e i dea w as at least ph ysi cally possi ble, and from Uni versi t y
of Cali forni a professor David Griggs, w h o creat ed a laborat ory model of
cont i nent al dri ft usi ng a layer of paraffi n over a t ank of oil, i n w h i ch con-
vect i on current s w ere si mulat ed by t h e act i on of t w o rot at i ng drums.
15
Wh i le h i s experi ment al apparat us w as very small, Griggs argued t h at t h e
scale of mant le convection currents could be very large, perh aps "cov-
eri ng t h e w h ole Paci fi c basi n, compri si ng si nki ng peri ph eral current s
locali zi ng t h e ci rcum-Paci fi c mount ai ns and ri si ng current s i n t h e cen-
ter."
16
He noted t h at seismologists such as Caltech's Beno Gutenberg
and Ch arles R i ch t er h ad not i ced t h at t h e eart h quakes around t h e edges
of t h e Paci fi c basi n w ere concent rat ed i n zones t h at di pped about 45
degrees t ow ard t h e cont i nent s; perh aps t h ese quakes w ere "caused by
slippage along t h e convect i on current surface."
17
Hess w as excited by
th ese suggestions, w h i ch h elped t o li nk h i s Cari bbean w ork t o global t h e-
ory. In 1939 h e began to put th e pieces t oget h er, w riting:
16 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Recent ly an i mport ant new concept concerni ng th e origins of th e negative
strip [of gravity anomali es] . . . has been set forw ard by David Griggs. It is
based on model experi ment s i n w h i ch ... by means of h ori zont al rot at i ng
cylinders, convect i on current s w ere set up i n a flui d layer beneat h t h e
"crust," and a convect i on cell w as formed. A dow n-buckle in th e crust , sim-
i lar to t h at produced in Kuenen' s experi ment s, w as developed w h ere tw o
opposi ng current s meet and plunge dow nw ard. So long as the current s are
i n operat i on, t h e dow n-buckle i s mai nt ai ned. . . . Th e current s w h i ch
Griggs suggested w ould have velocities [in nat ure] of one to ten centime-
ters [1/2 to 4 i nch es] per year.
18
Th e year w as 1939, and Griggs and Hess h ad h i t upon w h at sci ent i st s
w ould lat er affi rm as t h e rat e of plat e mot i ons. But before t h ey could go
any furt h er, World War II broke out .
A N E W A GE O F E X P L O R A T I O N
In t h e 1920s t h e Navy h ad been caut i ous about fundi ng basic sci ent i fi c
research , concerned about t h e appropri at e expendi t ure of Navy funds
and doubt ful t h at w ork such as gravity measurement w as li kely t o be of
operat i onal use. World War II ch anged t h e si t uat i on, largely because of
submari ne w arfare. Allied forces suffered h eavy losses i n t h e early part
of t h e w ar from at t ack by German U-boats, and t h e U.S. Navy reali zed
t h at geophysics and oceanograph y mi gh t provi de means t o det ect or
avoid submari nes. Part i cularly sali ent w ere t w o li nes of research : mag-
net i cs, w h i ch mi gh t provide di rect means of submari ne det ect i on, and
ph ysi cal oceanograph y, w h i ch mi gh t gui de evasive maneuvers.
In t h e early 1940s, t h e U.S. Navy w as experi enci ng di ffi cult i es w i t h i t s
sonar equi pment , w h i ch t ended not t o w ork w ell i n t h e aft ernoon.
T h i nki ng t h at mari ne organi sms w ere i nt erferi ng w i t h t ransmi ssi ons (or
t h at operators were dozi ng off aft er lunch ), t h e Navy asked Maurice
Ew i ng, t h en w orki ng at t h e Woods Hole O ceanograph i c I nst i t ut i on, t o
i nvest i gat e. Togeth er w i t h colleague J. Lamar (Joe) Worzel, Ew i ng dis-
covered t h at t emperat ure effect s w ere bendi ng t h e sound w aves i n such
a w ay as t o creat e a "shadow zone"a regi on i n w h i ch sonar t ransmi s-
si ons w ent undet ect ed. Th i s discovery h ad enormous i mpli cat i ons for
submari ne w arfare: i f a submari ne commander could accurat ely locat e
t h e sh adow zone, h e could h i de h i s sh i p w i t h i n i t . Moreover, Ew i ng and
Worzel discovered t h at under cert ai n condi t i ons sound waves w ould be
focused i nt o a narrow regi on, i n w h i ch t h ey traveled for great di st ances.
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 17
Th ey called t h i s ph enomenon sound c hanneling, and i t became t h e basis
for SOFAR (S O und Fi xi ng and R angi ng), w h i ch t h e Navy used duri ng
t h e w ar t o locat e dow ned ai rmen, and SOSUS (S O und SUrvei llance Sys-
t em), t h e Navy's Cold War underw at er acoust i c array est abli sh ed t o
det ect Soviet submari nes.
19
Wh i le Ew i ng w orked on underw at er sound i n a ci vi li an capaci t y, Hess
joi ned th e Naval Reserve and in 1941 w as called to active duty. He
became t h e capt ai n of an assault t ransport , t h e USS Cap e Johnson, and
among h er tasks w as t h e ech o-soundi ng of t h e Paci fi c basi n. Th is w as a
project w i t h bot h mi li t ary and sci ent i fi c si gni fi cance: for t h e Navy, an
accurat e t opograph i c map of t h e sea floor w ould provi de capt ai ns w i t h
an i ndependent ch eck on t h ei r navi gat i on; for sci ent i st s, underst andi ng
of t h e sea floor w ould be great ly enh anced by know i ng i t s sh ape and
st ruct ure. Th i s lat t er h ope w as fulfi lled by Hess' discovery of "guyots"
flat -t opped mount ai ns, w h i ch h e named aft er Arnold Guyot , t h e fi rst
professor of geology at Pri ncet on. Hess i nt erpret ed t h ese mount ai ns as
anci ent volcanoes w h ose t ops h ad been eroded by wave act i on as t h ey
gradually sank on a subsi di ng ocean floor.
20
Guyot s w ere st rong evi dence
t h at t h e ocean basi ns w ere not fossi ls of an early st age of eart h h i st ory,
but w ere geologically active t h rough out t i me.
By w ar' s end, th e U.S. Navy w as convi nced of th e value of geoph ysi cal
research . T h rough t h e new ly est abli sh ed O ffi ce of Naval Research
(O NR ), funds began t o flow generously i nt o Ameri can laborat ori es.
21
T h ree i nst i t ut i ons part i cularly benefi t ed from O NR support : Woods
Hole, t h e Scripps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y, and t h e new ly creat ed
Lament Geological Observat ory at Columbi a Uni versi t y, now di rect ed by
Ew i ng. Work at t h ese i nst i t ut i ons focused on ph ysi cal oceanograph y for
i t s relat i on t o underw at er sound, magnet i cs for i t s relevance t o subma-
ri ne det ect i on, and bat h ymet ry for mappi ng t h e sea floor. At Scri pps and
Lament , sei smologyt h e st udy of eart h quakes and h ow sh ock waves
t ravel t h rough t h e eart h w as also developed, fi rst as means t o investi-
gate t h e st ruct ure of t h e sea floor and t h e nat ure of eart h quakes; lat er
t o det ect underground nuclear explosi ons.
Th e years 1945-1970 may w ell h ave been t h e most exci t i ng t i me i n t h e
h i st ory of Ameri can eart h sci ence, as abundant fundi ng led t o a new age
of sci ent i fi c explorat i onnot t o get across t h e oceans, but t o spend t i me
w i t h i n and under t h em, and ult i mat ely t o underst and t h em. Woods
Hole, Scripps, and Lament launch ed a series of major oceanograph i c
expeditions, collecting an enormous quant i t y of diverse data on the
bat h ymet ry and st ruct ure of t h e sea floor, t h e ph ysi cal and ch emi cal
propert i es of t h e w at er column, t h e air-sea i nt eract i on and generat i on
18 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
of waves and current s, t h e sedi ment s on t h e sea floor, and t h e magnet i c
and gravi t y si gnat ures of t h e solid rocks at t h e bot t om of t h e sea. More
w as learned about t h e oceans duri ng t h ese 25 years t h an i n t h e ent i re
previ ous h i st ory of sci ence. But t h ere w as one dow nsi de: much of t h e
dat a gat h ered w as classi fi ed.
I n t h e Uni t ed Ki ngdom as i n t h e Uni t ed St at es, many sci ent i st s w orked
duri ng t h e w ar on mi li t ary-sci ent i fi c problems, among t h em Teddy
Bullard and P. M. S. Blacket t (1897-1974). In the lat e 1920s, Bullard w as
a graduat e st udent at t h e Cavendi sh Laborat ory at Cambri dge Uni ver-
sity, di rect ed by Nobel Laureat e E rnest R ut h erford. Blacket t w as also a
member of t h e lab and Bullard w as assigned t o w ork under Blacket t on
t h e scat t eri ng of elect rons i n gases; Bullard soon di scovered di ffract i on
pat t erns t h at support ed recent t h eoret i cal advances i n quant um
mech ani cs.
22
Bullard' s career w as off t o an out st andi ng st art , but t h e year
w as 1931, th e Depressi on w as at its nadi r, and t h ere w as no w ork to be
h ad. R ut h erford advised h i m t o t ake w h at ever job h e could fi nd; t h at
t urned out t o be t each i ng surveyi ng under Cambri dge geodesi st Colonel
Si r Lenox-Conyngh am. Bullard became a demonst rat or i n t h e new ly
est abli sh ed D epart ment of Geodesy and Geoph ysi csnow consi st i ng of
t w o men.
Over t h e next ei gh t years, Bullard w orked on gravity measurement s,
i ncludi ng a 1937 t ri p t o t h e Uni t ed States w h ere h e met Hess and Ew i ng.
T h rough Ew i ng, h e also learned about refract i on seismology, and began
st udi es of t h e cont i nent al sh elf on t h e Bri t i sh si de of t h e At lant i c Ocean
t o parallel Ew i ng' s st udi es of t h e Nort h Ameri can side. Meanw h i le Black-
et t w as cont i nui ng w ork h e h ad begun under R ut h erford on t h e ori gi n
of cosmi c rays, for w h i ch h e w ould w i n t h e 1948 Nobel Pri ze i n Ph ysics.
In 1939 bot h Bullard and Blacket t became i nvolved i n w ar w ork.
Among ot h er t h i ngs, Bullard concent rat ed on magnet i c mi nesw eepi ng
and demagnet i zi ng sh i ps. Aft er t h e w ar, bot h Bullard and Blacket t
t urned t o quest i ons of geomagnet i sm. For Blacket t , t h e deci si on w as a
consci ous move away from nuclear ph ysi cs, w i t h i t s connect i ons t o t h e
at omi c bomb.
23
In 1947, now w orki ng at t h e Uni versi t y of Manch est er,
Blacket t proposed a t h eory t o explai n t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld: t h at
magnet i sm arose as a fundament al propert y of rot at i ng mat t er. Wh en
t h e planet rot at ed, i t generat ed a magnet i c fi eld. To t est h i s t h eory,
Blacket t desi gned an ast at i c magnet omet er, a h i gh ly sensi t i ve device i n
w h i ch h e w ould rotate a massive object i n an at t empt t o generat e a
det ect able magnet i c fi eld. Draw i ng on ri ch poli t i cal connect i ons from
h i s w ar w ork and a di st i ngui sh ed fami ly background, Blacket t arranged
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 19
t o borrow 37.4 pounds (17 ki lograms) of pure gold from t h e Royal Mi nt ,
w h i ch h e rot at ed at h i gh speed t o si mulat e t h e effect s of t h e more mas-
sive eart h movi ng at low er speed.
24
Th e experi ment fai ledno di scern-
able fi eld w as generat ed.
Meanw h i le, Bullard h ad become an advocat e of an alt ernat i ve view:
t h at t h e eart h ' s fi eld result ed from t ransi ent fact ors such as convect i on
current s i n a li qui d i ron coret h e so-called dynamo t h eory.
25
Th i s led
Bullard t o concei ve a t est of t h e t w o t h eori es. If Blacket t w ere correct ,
and th e magnet i c fi eld arose from th e total mass of th e eart h (li ke grav-
i t y) , t h en i t w ould be a di st ri but ed propert y and t h e i nt ensi t y of mag-
net i sm w ould decrease w i t h dept h (as does gravi t y). On t h e ot h er h and,
i f Bullard w ere correct , t h e st rengt h of t h e planet ary magnet i c fi eld
w ould be unaffect ed by dept h . Th i s suggest i on w as t aken up by Black-
et t ' s Manch est er colleague, S. K. (Kei t h ) R uncorn (1922-1995), w h o
began t aki ng magnet omet ers dow n t h e sh aft s of coal mi nes. He found
no dept h effect , and by 1951 i t w as clear t h at Blacket t ' s t h eory w as w rong.
At t h i s poi nt , R uncorn and Blacket t t urned t h ei r at t ent i on t o mag-
net i sm i n rocks. If t h e magnet i c fi eld w as t ransi ent , t h en t h e h i st ory of
vari at i ons i n t h e magnet i c fi eld mi gh t be recorded i n rock remanent
magnet i smt h e anci ent magnet i c si gnat ures of rocks. In t h e early 20t h
cent ury, Pi erre Curi e h ad discovered t h at rocks cooled i n a magnet i c
fi eld t ake on t h e polari t y of t h at fi eld (t h e t emperat ure at w h i ch t h i s
occurs eventually became know n as the Curie poi nt ). Th erefore, if the
magnet i c fi eld vari ed, t h ese vari at i ons mi gh t be recorded i n rocks, par-
t i cularly volcani c rocks t h at began li fe as magmas at t emperat ures above
t h e Curi e poi nt . T h ere w as evi dence t h at t h i s w as so dat i ng back t o t h e
early 20t h cent ury; more recent ly t h e i dea h ad been revived by Jan Hos-
pers, a D ut ch graduat e st udent w h o h ad ent ered t h e Ph .D. program at
Cambri dge i n 1949 t ryi ng t o use remanent magnet i sm t o correlat e lava
flow s i n I celand, and by Joh n Grah am, w orki ng i n t h e Uni t ed States at
t h e Carnegi e I nst i t ut i on of Wash i ngt on.
26
R uncorn, now back at Cam-
bridge, borrowed Blackett's magnet omet er and began to develop a geo-
magnet i c research group. He also h i red a fi eld assi st ant , a recent geol-
ogy graduat e named Edw ard (Ted) I rvi ng. R uncorn and I rvi ng began a
program of collect i ng samples of rocks from di fferent age st rat a (rock
layers) i n t h e Uni t ed Ki ngdom.
In 1953, Blackett moved to Imperi al College, London, w h ere he set up
h is ow n remanent magnet i sm group. He also encount ered geology pro-
fessor H. H. Read, t h e man w h o i nspi red Art h ur Holmes t o make geology
h i s professi onal focus. Duri ng t h e w ar years w i t h few st udent s t o t each ,
Holmes h ad w ri t t en a compreh ensi ve t ext book t h at h ad an extensive
20 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
discussion of continental dri ft , including the evidence of it and the possi-
ble role of convection current s to drive it. Years lat er at Imperi al College,
it w as said t h at w h en Blacket t t urned to Read to learn about rocks, Read
sent Blackett to th e li brary to read Holmes. Wh at ever th e t rut h of th e mat-
ter, by th e mid-1950s bot h Blackett and h is group at I mperi al and Run-
corn and h i s group at Cambridge were convinced t h at remanent mag-
net i sm h eld a record of t h e variations i n t h e eart h ' s magnetic fi eld, and
t h at these variations showed t h at rocks had not remained stationary rela-
tive to Eart h ' s magnet i c field over the course of geological history.
27
T h ere w ere t w o possible i nt erpret at i ons of t h ei r dat a: ei t h er t h e
eart h ' s poles h ad moved relative t o t h e land masses (t rue polar w ander),
or t h e land masses h ad moved relat i ve t o t h e poles (cont i nent al dri ft ).
R uncorn reali zed t h i s ambi gui t y could be resolved by compari ng mag-
net i c vari at i ons i n rocks of t h e same age on di fferent cont i nent s. By com-
piling remanent magnetism of rocks of varying ages, one could construct
a record of h ow t h e poles h ad seemed t o move over t i me, an "apparent
polar-w anderi ng pat h ." If all t h e cont i nent s produced t h e same appar-
ent polar w anderi ng pat h , i t w ould mean t h at t h e poles h ad moved. I f
t h ey vari ed, i t w ould i ndi cat e cont i nent al dri ft . Irvi ng left Cambri dge for
t h e Aust rali an Nat i onal Uni versi t y, w h ere h e began t o compare appar-
ent polar-w anderi ng pat h s for Aust rali a, I ndi a, Nort h Ameri ca, and
Europe. Th e result ? Th e pat h s w ere distinctly di fferent among t h e con-
t i nent s. By 1956, bot h I rvi ng and Blacket t ' s groupnow w orki ng on
rocks from I ndi aw ere argui ng for t h e paleomagnet i c data as evi dence
for cont i nent al dri ft , and R uncorn soon accept ed t h ei r views.
28
So di d
Teddy Bullard, and so did Harry Hess.
Inspi red by t h ese development s, Hess revisited t h e quest i on h e h ad
set aside w h en h e h ad gone off t o w ar 20 years before: w h et h er mant le
convect i on current s mi gh t drive cont i nent al dri ft . I n a paper w ri t t en i n
1960, alt h ough not publi sh ed unt i l 1962, Hess argued t h at t h e Bri t i sh
paleomagnet i c w ork h ad reopened t h e quest i on, and t h e answ er w as
dri ft . Moreover, h eat flow measurement s by Bullard, w orki ng w i t h
Scripps sci ent i st s Art h ur Maxwell and Roger Revelle, sh ow ed t h at h eat
flow t h rough t h e oceani c crust w as great est at t h e mid-ocean ri dges, con-
si st ent w i t h ri si ng convect i on current s.
29
Hess t h erefore suggested t h at
mant le convect i on mi gh t be driving t h e crust apart at mid-ocean ri dges
and dow nw ard at ocean t rench es, forci ng t h e cont i nent al mi grat i ons i n
t h ei r w ake. "One may qui bble over t h e det ai ls," h e w rot e, "but t h e gen-
eral pi ct ure on paleomagnet i sm i s suffi ci ent ly compelli ng t h at i t i s more
reasonable t o accept t h an t o disregard it."
30
He i nt erpret ed t h e oceani c
crust as an upper layer of t h e mant le t h at h ad been alt ered by i nt erac-
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 21
t i on w i t h sea w at er; Scripps geologist Robert Di et z (1914-1995) modi-
fi ed the hypothesis by argui ng t h at the ocean crust w as formed by sub-
mari ne basalt erupt i ons, and gave i t t h e name i t h olds today: sea f loor
sp reading. Di et z' s i nt erpret at i on w as lat er confi rmed by di rect exami na-
t i on of the sea floor.
Hess referred to h is paper as an "essay in geopoet ry," no doubt to
deflect cri t i ci sm from t h e many Nort h Ameri cans w h o w ere still h ostile
t o cont i nent al dri ft .
31
Wh ile t h e Bri t i sh h ad generally viewed t h e out-
come of th e 1920s debat e as a st alemat e, and t h erefore open to recon-
si derat i on on t h e basis of new data, Ameri cans generally believed t h at
dri ft h ad been refut ed.
32
It w ould t ake more w ork t o convi nce Nort h
Ameri can sci ent i st s to reconsi der. Moreover, w h i le Hess grew convi nced
of cont i nent al dri ft on t h e basis of t h e apparent polar-w anderi ng pat h s,
ot h ers doubt ed t h e paleomagnet i c data. Wh ile i t w as t rue t h at some rock
sequences produced h i gh ly coh erent pat t erns, ot h ers w ere less coh er-
ent , and some w ere reversely magnet i zed. T h at i s, t h e polari t y of t h e mag-
net i c fi eld recorded i n t h e rock w as opposi t e t o E art h ' s magnet i c fi eld.
Most people i nt erpret ed t h i s as a sign t h at t h e data w ere unst able: some
rocks accurat ely recorded t h e surroundi ng magnet i c fi eld, ot h ers di dn' t .
Perh aps some mi nerals di d not record t h e surroundi ng fi eld, but some-
h ow reversed t h e di rect i on. Or perh aps t h e polarities w ere alt ered by
lat er events.
Or perh aps E art h ' s magnet i c fi eld peri odi cally reversed i t s polarity.
Early in th e 20t h cent ury, French physicists B. Brunh es and P. L. Mer-
cant on h ad suggested th is idea: t h at reversed remanant magnet i sm i n
rocks mi gh t be recordi ng reversed polari t y i n t h e planet ary fi eld. But t h e
ori gi n of t h e eart h ' s fi eld w as t h en unknow n; t o post ulat e reversals i n a
fi eld of unknow n ori gi n w as speculative i n t h e ext reme.
33
In t h e 1920s,
Japanese geoph ysi ci st Mot onari Mat uyama undert ook a det ai led st udy
of magnet i sm i n volcani c rocks i n Japan and found a very consi st ent pat-
t ern: recent ly erupt ed lavas w ere consi st ent ly polari zed i n li ne w i t h t h e
present fi eld, but reversed rocks w ere all Plei st ocene i n age or older
(more t h an 10,000 years). Mat uyama argued for a Plei st ocene fi eld
reversal: t h at somet i me around 10,000 years ago, E art h ' s magnet i c fi eld
reversed i t s polarity. But h i s w ork appears t o h ave been largely i gnored
by E uropean and Ameri can scientists.
34
Worki ng i n I celand i n t h e early
1950s, Jan Hospers found si mi lar result s: basalt flow s t h ere w ere alter-
nat ely normally and reversely magnet i zed.
35
The question w as taken up by a group in the Uni t ed States at the Uni-
versi t y of Cali forni a at Berkeley: geoph ysics professor Joh n Verh oogen,
h i s post doct oral fellow Ian McDougall, and graduat e st udent s Allan Cox
22 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
(1923-1987), Ri ch ard Doell, and Brent Dalyrymple. T h ey w ant ed t o
det ermi ne w h et h er reversals reflect ed t h e ambi ent magnet i c fi eld or
w ere a consequence of t h e ph ysi cal propert i es of t h e mi nerals i nvolved.
Cox began a project analyzi ng h undreds of samples from t h e Snake
River basalts i n t h e nort h w est Uni t ed States, and found result s t h at con-
fi rmed t h e w ork of Mat uyama and Hospers: t h e pat t erns w ere coh erent ,
and t h ey appeared t o depend upon t h e age of t h e basalt flow s. To pi n
t h i s dow n, Cox needed accurat e ages for t h e flow s.
At t h i s poi nt , a key i nst rument al development emerged. Th e radio-
met ri c urani um-lead (U-Pb) met h od for dat i ng rocks h ad been around
si nce t h e 1910s, but given t h e long h alf-li fe of urani um, i t w as accurat e
only for very old mat eri als. However, Berkeley geoch emi st s h ad devel-
oped t h e pot assi um-argon (K-Ar) dat i ng t ech ni que t o t h e poi nt w h ere
i t w as accurat e for very young rocks, i ncludi ng basalts t h at mi gh t be only
a few h undred t h ousand years old. By t h i s t i me, Cox, Doell, and Dal-
rymple h ad been h i red as sci ent i st s at t h e U.S. Geological Survey, and
McDougall h ad moved t o t h e Aust rali an Nat i onal Uni versi t y, w h ere h e
est abli sh ed a K-Ar laborat ory w i t h colleagues Don Tarli ng and Frangoi s
Ch amalaun. Th e t w o groups w ere now w orki ng concurrent ly on t h e
same problem: accurat e K-Ar dat i ng of t h e magnet i c reversals i n rocks
t o prove w h et h er t h ey recorded t i me-speci fi c events i n eart h h i st ory, and,
if so, w h en t h ey h ad occurred. By 1963, th e combi ned w ork of th e tw o
groups led t o t h e est abli sh ment of a paleomagnet i c t i mescale, w i t h four
clearly dat ed reversals ext endi ng over t h e past four mi lli on years. Scien-
tists named t h e fi rst t w o of t h ese peri ods aft er Brunh es and Mat uyama:
w e live i n t h e Brunh es normal epoch , w h i ch w as preceded, st art i ng
around 700,000 years ago, by th e Mat uyama reversed epoch .
36
Meanw h i le, t h rough out t h e 1950s, research ers at Scripps and Lament
h ad been collect i ng sea floor magnet i c dat a, w i t h funds and logistical
support provi ded by th e U.S. Navy. In 1961, Scripps sci ent i st s Ronald
Mason and Art h ur Raff publi sh ed a w idely read paper document i ng a
di st i nct i ve pat t ern of normal and reversely magnet i zed rocks off t h e
nort h w est coast of t h e Uni t ed States. Th e anomali es formed a series of
st ri pes, rough ly parallel t o t h e sh oreli ne. Publi sh ed i n black and w h i t e,
t h ey looked a bi t li ke zebra st ri pessli gh t ly i rregular, but st ri pes
nonet h eless. Magnet i c reversals plus sea floor spreadi ng added up t o a
t est able h ypot h esi s, proposed i ndependent ly by Canadi an geoph ysi ci st
Law rence Morley and Cambri dge geoph ysi ci st s Frederi ck Vi ne and
Drummond Matth ew s (1931-1997). If the sea floor spreads w h i le Eart h ' s
magnet i c fi eld reverses, t h en t h e basalts formi ng t h e ocean floor w ill
record t h ese event s i n t h e form of a series of parallel "stripes" of normal
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 23
and reversely magnet i zed rocks. Bot h Morley and Vi ne and Mat t h ew s
reali zed t h at Mason and R aff' s zebra st ri pes mi gh t be t h e t angi ble evi-
dence needed t o convert Hess' geopoet ry i nt o geo-fact.
Th e group best si t uat ed t o exami ne t h e evi dence w as at Lamont , led
by James Hei rt zler. T h rough out t h e 1950s, Ew i ng h ad made sure t h at
magnet omet ers w ere tow ed beh i nd every sh i p, and t h at t h e data col-
lect ed w ere cat alogued systematically. For some years, Hei rt zler and h i s
st udent s h ad been st udyi ng sea floor remanent magnet i sm, and t h ey h ad
i nadvert ent ly amassed t h e dat a needed t o confi rm or deny sea floor
spreadi ng. Very qui ckly t h ey did.
37
In 1965, Hei rt zler and Xavi er Le
Pi ch on publi sh ed t h e fi rst of several art i cles document i ng t h e magnet i c
pat t erns of t h e At lant i c Ocean; by 1967-1968, Lamont sci ent i st s, i nclud-
i ng Walter Pi t man, proved t h at t h e sea floor magnet i c st ri pes w ere con-
si st ent w i t h t h e predi ct i ons of t h e Vi ne and Mat t h ew s model.
38
Mean-
w h i le Nei l Opdyke, also w orki ng at Lamont , sh ow ed t h at mari ne
sedi ment s recorded t h e same magnet i c event s as t errest ri al and sea floor
basalts, li nki ng th e cont i nent s w ith th e oceans.
39
Anot h er group at Lamont h ad focused on bat h ymet ri c dat amea-
surement s of t h e dept h of t h e sea floorpri mari ly i n t h e At lant i c.
Th ese dat a w ere h i gh ly classi fi ed, but Bruce H eezen (1924-1977) and
Mari e T h arp h ad found a creat i ve means around securi t y rest ri ct i ons: a
ph ysi ograph i c map, essent ally an art i st ' s rendi t i on of w h at t h e sea floor
w ould look li ke drai ned of w at er, based on quant i t at i ve measurement s,
but w i t h out act ually reveali ng t h em. I n one glance, a geologi st could see
t h e most i mport ant feat ure: a mount ai n ch ai n runni ng dow n t h e mi d-
dle of t h e At lant i c O cean floor, crosscut by an enormous seri es of east-
w est beari ng fract ures t h at di slocat ed t h e ri dge all along i t s lengt h . A
fract ure zone also ran down the mi ddle of the mid-ocean ridge, and
T h arp not ed t h at t h e sh ape of t h i s cent ral fract ure zone suggest ed i t w as
a ri ft , a place w h ere t h e ocean floor w as bei ng pulled apart . H eezen
i nt erpret ed t h e medi al ri ft as evi dence i n support of t h e expandi ng
eart h h ypot h esi s, an i dea t h at h ad been promot ed i n t h e mid-1950s by
Aust rali an geologi st S. Warren Carey. But ot h er Lamont sci ent i st s now
saw i t as st rong evi dence of Hess' t h eory. Th e sea floor w as spli t dow n
t h e mi ddle, t h e t w o sides w ere movi ng apart , and t h e rocks on ei t h er
side preserved a symmet ri cal pat t ern of t h e peri odi c reversals of E art h ' s
magnet i c fi eld.
One more pi ece i n t h e puzzle w ould h elp t o bri ng t h e w h ole pi ct ure
together: the recognition of t ransform fault s by Canadian geologist J.
Tuzo Wi lson (1908-1993). An unusually creat i ve and i nsi gh t ful sci ent i st ,
Wi lson h ad been st udyi ng Paci fi c oceani c i slands, such as t h e Haw ai i an
World Ocean Floor, Bruce C. Heezen and Mari e T h arp, 1977. Copyri gh t Mari e Th arp, 1977.
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 25
ch ai n, and found t h at the ages of the islands increased as one moved far-
t h er from t h e East Paci fi c Risea mount ai nous regi on on t h e east ern
side of t h e Paci fi c. He reali zed t h i s could be explai ned i f t h e rise w ere a
volcanic cent er above an upw elli ng convection current and the islands
w ere movi ng progressively from t h at cent er by sea floor spreadi ng.
40
Th e
w ei gh t of geological dat a, t oget h er w i t h t h e fi t of t h e cont i nent s,
revealed t h at t h e eart h ' s surface w as "divided i nt o rigid blocks separat ed
by zones of w eakness," and t h at t h e "peri odi c break-up of cont i nent s and
t h en t h ei r slow progressi on t o a new pat t ern may h ave h appened several
times."
41
In 1965, Wilson vi si t ed Cambri dge, w h ere h e spoke at lengt h
w i t h Teddy Bullard, Fred Vi ne, Dan McKenzi e, and ot h ers i nt erest ed i n
cont i nent al mobility, i ncludi ng Harry Hess, w ho also visited Cambridge
t h at year.
42
Wilson now reali zed t h at t h e fract ure zones t h at displaced t h e mid-
Atlantic ridgeand similar fract ure zones mapped by Scripps scientist
W. H. (Bi ll) Menard (1920-1986) in the Paci fi cprovi ded a clear test of
th e idea t h at th e tw o sides of th e ridge w ere moving apart as solid blocks.
Most people assumed t h at these fract ure zones were strike-slip fault s,
because t h e ridges w ere di splaced across t h em. But Wilson h ad a new
i dea. Normally, w h en geologists look at blocks of rock di st urbed by an
eart h quake, they can det ermi ne w h ich direction the land has moved
based on t h e observable feat ures t h at are displaced: a fence, a road, a
bri dge, or a di st i nct i ve rock layer. If t h e fault i s a strike-slip (or t ranscur-
rent ) fault , w h ere two blocks slip alongside each oth er as th ey do along
t h e San Andreas Fault , t h en geologists look across t h e fault t o see w h i ch
w ay t h i ngs h ave moved: if object s have moved to th e ri gh t , t h en i t 's a righ t-
lat eral fault ; i f t h ey h ave moved t o t h e left , t h en i t 's a left -lat eral fault . But
i f t h e mi d-ocean ri dges w ere ri ft s, w i t h t h e ocean floor spli t t i ng apart
along t h em, t h en t h e slip di rect i ons on t h e fault s t h at displaced t h e
ri dgesw h at Wilson now called transf orm f aultsw ould be t h e opposite
of w h at t h ey w ould be along convent i onal strike-slip fault s.
43
This w as a clear and unequi vocal test, and developments in seismol-
ogy, h ast ened by t h e U.S. government ' s fundi ng of a w orld w ide st andard
sei smograph net w ork (WWSSN), h ad recent ly made i t possible t o accu-
rately det ermi ne the slip di rect i ons on faults. Once again, Lamont sci-
ent i st s w ere posi t i oned t o perform t h e test. In 1967, sei smologi st Lynn
Sykes demonst rat ed t h at t h e sli p di rect i ons on t h e fract ure zones t h at
cut across the mid-Atlantic ridge w ere consistent w ith Wilson's i nt erpre-
t at i on. T h e offset s w ere not t ranscurrent fault s, but , i n Wi lson' s new t er-
mi nology, t ransform fault s, w h ere a mi d-ocean ri ft w as locally t rans-
formed into a zone of crustal sliding, and t h en back again i nt o anot h er
26 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Th e di fference bet w een t ranscurrent and t ransform fault s, (a) I n a
t ranscurrent (or strike-slip) fault , th e direction of movement can be
det ermi ned from t h e offset of a feat ure i nt ersect i ng t h e fault . If t h e
feat ure is moved to the left , it is a left-lateral fault , as shown here. The
nort h side of th e fault h as moved to th e left (w est ), th e sout h side of
t h e fault h as moved t o t h e ri gh t (east ), and t h e fault may cont i nue
i ndefi ni t ely, (b) In a ri dge-t o-ri dge t ransform fault , a sect i on of t h e
mid-ocean ridge is fract ured perpendi cular to its lengt h . In this case,
th e ri gh t side of th e ridge is movi ng to th e ri gh t (east ), th e left side is
moving to th e left (w est ), and th e sense of mot i on is opposi t e of t h at
illustrated in (a). Note also that the fault does not extend indefinitely,
but t ermi nat es against t h e nort h -sout h runni ng ri dge segments.
ri ft i ng ri dge segment . Th ere w as no longer any doubt t h at t h e oceans
were spli t t i ng apart.
Sykes and co-workers Jack Oliver and Bryan Isacks also exami ned th e
slip di rect i ons on eart h quakes associated w i t h th e edges of ocean basins.
Th ese edges are ch aract eri zed by zones of deep-focus eart h quakes, ei t h er
beneat h volcani c i sland ch ai ns li ke t h e Aleut i ans on t h e nort h ern edge
of t h e Paci fi c, or beneat h cont i nent al margi n mount ai n belt s such as t h e
Andes on th e east ern edge of th e Paci fi c. Sykes, Oliver, and Isacks found
t h at t h e slip di rect i ons w ere consi st ent w i t h t h e overlap of one crustal
plat e ont o anot h er, w i t h t h e lower one sli ppi ng dow nw ard; t h e zones of
deep-focus eart h quakes marked the position of the down-going slab.
44
A global pi ct ure now emerged. Oceans spli t apart at t h ei r cent ers,
w h ere new ocean floor i s creat ed by submari ne volcani c erupt i ons. Th e
F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s 27
crust t h en moves laterally across the ocean basins. Ultimately, it collides
w ith cont i nent s along th eir margins (edges), w here the ocean crust sinks
underneat h , back i nt o Eart h ' s mant le. As i t does, i t compresses t h e con-
t i nent al margi ns, generat i ng folded mount ai n belt s and magmas t h at
rise t o t h e surface as volcanoes, and deep eart h quakes as t h e cold, dense
ocean slab si nks fart h er and fart h er back i nt o t h e eart h .
45
In 1967-1968, t h i s pi ct ure w as i nt egrat ed i nt o a synt h et i c, quant i t a-
tive t h eory. Worki ng i ndependent ly, Dani el P. McKenzi e and Robert L.
Parker at Scripps and Jason Morgan at Pri ncet on established t h e plate
tectonic model: t h at crustal motions could be understood as rigid body
rotations on a sph ere.
46
Building on Morgan's w ork, Xavier Le Pich on
summari zed the relevant data in a map of the world divided i nt o plates,
and calculat ed t h ei r rates of movement on th e basis of paleomagnet i c
dat a.
47
Th e result became know n as plat e t ect oni cs, and i t w as now t h e
uni fyi ng t h eory of the eart h sciences. By the early 1970s, geologists w ere
w orki ng out i t s meani ng for cont i nent al tectonics.
48
Aft er nearly a cen-
t ury, sci ent i st s h ad fi nally answ ered t h e quest i on of t h e origin of moun-
t ai ns: t h ey form w h en plat es collide.
This h as been a very broad overview. We t urn now to h ow these events
looked at th e time, to th e people w h o made t h em h appen.
This page intentionally left blank
P A R T 11
T HE E ARLY WO RK:
FRO M PALE O MAGN E T IS M
T O S E A FLO O R S PRE ADIN G
When World War II broke out, arguments about c rustal mobility were p ut on
hold as earth sc ientists ap p lied their sp ec ial knowledge and skills to surf f ore-
c asting, submarine navigation, anti-submarine warf are, and other p ressing
issues of the day. Af terward, a group of British geop hysic ists who had worked
on magnetism and warf are (mine-sweep ing and demagnetizing ship s) turned
their attention to roc k magnetism. Initially, they hop ed to answer questions
about the origins of the earth's magnetic f ield. But they disc overed something
else entirely: roc ks on land rec orded evidenc e that the p osition of the land
masses relative to the earth's p oles had c hanged over the c ourse of geologic al
time. Some of them began to think again about c ontinental drif t. Yet these data
did not immediately c ause a stamp ede, f or they were new and unc ertain, and
p eop le doubted their reliability.
Meanwhile, Americ an sc ientists had been measuring the magnetism of
roc ks on the sea f loor, p artly out of c uriosity, p artly bec ause the U.S. Navy
hop ed these measurements might suggest new means to hide or detec t sub-
marines. The result surp rised everyone: a distinc tive p attern in whic h some
roc ks were magnetized in c onc ert with the earth's c urrent f ield and some in
op p osition to it. When p lotted on p ap er in blac k and white, the p attern looked
like zebra strip es. Sc ientists wondered what these magnetic strip es meant, and
no one at f irst c onnec ted the p attern to c ontinental drif t. Then, another group
of sc ientists p roved that over the c ourse of geologic al history the earth's mag-
netic f ield had reversed its p olarity many times. Suddenly the meaning of the
strip es bec ame c lear: the sea f loor was sp litting ap art, or "sp reading, " and new
volc anic roc ks were magnetized in alignment with the earth's f ield eac h time
they erup ted on the sea f loor. Onc e the idea was in p lac e, it took only a f ew
years to demonstrate that it was right.
This page intentionally left blank
CH A PT E R 2
STRI PES ON THE SEA FLOOR
Ron Mason
IN 1955, T H R O UGH A FORTUNATE S E Q UE NCE OF E VE NT S , THE SCRIPPS
Institution of Oceanography was in a position to make an accurately posi-
tioned survey of the earth's magnetic field covering a significant area of the
northeast Pacific. This was the first survey of its kind, and it was to have a
quite unexpect ed outcome: the discovery of a li near pattern of magnetism
in the rocks of the sea floor not previously seen anyw h ere else. These lin-
ear magnetic pat t erns later came to be called sea floor magnetic "stripes"
(because t h at 's w h at th ey looked like w h en plotted on a map) and t h ey
pointed to apparent movements of the ocean floor in excess of 600 miles
(1,000 kilometers). The lineations themselves became the first step in what
eventually became a new global t h eory of the eart h : plate tectonics.
It all st art ed in 1952, but my i nt erest in geophysics goes back to my
st udent days. On complet i ng my undergraduat e course i n physics at
I mperi al College, London, i n t h e i mmedi at e prew ar years, I w as looki ng
for an alternative to spendi ng my w orking life in a laboratory w h en I dis-
covered geophysics. It appealed to me as a developing, outw ard-looking
subject w ith vari ous i nt erest i ng opport uni t i es, so I opted t o t ake t h e mas-
t er' s course i n geophysics at I mperi al. But before I could settle dow n t o
a steady career I found myself draw n i nt o t h e w ar effort , w h ere I gai ned
experi ence t h at w as t o prove invaluable i n later li fe. Wh en t h e w ar ended
I ret urned to Imperial as a lect urer in geophysics. And t h at is w h en life
st art ed t o become i nt erest i ng.
In 1951 I took a year' s sabbatical, w h i ch I spent at the Cali forni a Insti-
t ut e of Technology (Calt ech ). Wh ile t h ere, in the spri ng of 1952, I
at t ended the annual meet i ng of the Uni versi t y of Cali forni a Inst i t ut e of
Geophysics, h eld t h at year in La Jolla. The location of the meet i ng, right
by the ocean, and the several presentations on marine seismology, a
branch of geophysics new to me, set me t h i nki ng about ot h er geophysical
31
32 THE EARLY WORK
Ron Mason w i t h pi st on core sample of sedi ment s from t h e sea floor, on t h e Sp enc er
F . Baird, 1954. (Ph ot ograph court esy of t h e Scri pps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y,
used by permi ssi on of t h e Uni versi t y of Cali forni a.)
t ech ni ques t h at h ad been or mi gh t be used for st udyi ng t h e oceani c crust .
Apart from seismology, very li t t le seemed to have been done. Some i mpor-
t ant gravity w ork h ad been undert aken usi ng i nst rument s i nst alled i n sub-
mari nes, t h us avoiding t h e large ups and downs of surface sh i ps, w h i ch
would swamp the small gravity variations expected of sea floor st ruct ures,
but I w as unaw are of any at t empt t o exploi t t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld,
ot h er t h an Project Magnet .
Project Magnet w as a joi nt effort of several bodi es, i ncludi ng t h e
O ffi ce of Naval Research (O NR ), t h e U.S. Geological Survey (US GS ),
and th e Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NO L).
1
Th e main purpose of its
i ni t i al ph ase w as t o map t h e magnet i c anomali es associated w i t h volca-
noes and ot h er st ruct ures i n t h e Aleut i ans, and w i t h t w o at olls i n t h e Mar-
sh all Islands, Bikini and Kw ajalei n, usi ng a magnet omet er installed i n an
ai rcraft . I t w as t h e fi rst serious at t empt t o st udy t h e magnet i c anomali es
ari si ng from oceani c st ruct ures. Talki ng casually t o Scri pps' seismologist
Russ R ai t t duri ng t h e morni ng coffee break, I asked w h et h er anyone h ad
t h ough t of i nvest i gat i ng t h e magnet i c anomali es associ at ed w i t h sea
floor structures by towing a magnet omet er beh i nd a sh i p, an operation
t h at could enable sh i ps t o obt ai n valuable dat a w h i le engaged i n ot h er
operat i ons. "What's t h at ?" came a deep voice from beh i nd me. Roger
Strip es on the Sea F loor 33
Revelle, di rect or of Scri pps, h ad overh eard t h e conversat i on. Aft er t h e
bri efest of explanat i on, Roger, i n h i s ch aract eri st i cally di rect way, asked,
"Well, do you w ant to do it?" to w h i ch I prompt ly replied, 'Yes," and I
became Scri pps' magnet omet er man.
My fi rst task w as to look for a suitable magnet omet er. Wh ile t raw li ng th e
Uni t ed States, I discovered t h at the Lamont Geological Observatory (now
t h e Lamont -Doh ert y E art h Observat ory) h ad towed a magnet omet er
across t h e At lant i c four years earlier. Th i s fact w as not know n at Scripps;
the results were not to be published unt i l a year later.
2
However, my visit
t o Lamont h ad one favorable out come: Lamont offered t o loan us t h ei r
magnet omet er for Scri pps' upcomi ng Cap ric orn expedi t i on t o t h e south -
west Pacific (September 1952-February 1953). This presented a great
opport uni t y for us t o fami li ari ze ourselves w i t h t h e problems associated
w ith operat i ng a ship-towed magnet omet er, and w e grat efully accepted.
Aft er a scramble to get it to the west coast in time, we towed it successfully
over more t h an 8,000 mi les (12,500 ki lomet ers) of sh i p's t racks, duri ng
w hich w e recorded magnet i c anomali es associated w ith seamount s, atolls,
scarps, and ot h er feat ures of th e sea floor. Alt h ough th e result s h ad lim-
ited quant i t at i ve value, i t w as clear t h at t h ere w as a fut ure i n ship-towed
magnet omet ry. We just had to acquire a magnet omet er of our own.
T HE S C R I P P S MA GN E T O ME T E R
Th e h eart of t h e Lamont magnet omet er w as a mi li t ary ASQ-3A magnet i c
airborne detector (MAD ), originally designed for installation i n ai rcraft
for t h e det ect i on of enemy submari nes. It w as an i nst rument know n as a
fluxgat e magnet omet er, i n w h i ch t h e measuri ng element w as mount ed
in a gimbals mech ani sm and automatically mai nt ai ned in th e direction
of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld. It t h erefore measured t h e st rengt h of t h e
fi eld w i t h out bei ng adversely affect ed by t h e mot i on of t h e ai rcraft . Mod-
ified by NOL for geophysical investigations (and used in Project Mag-
net ) , i t w as furt h er modi fi ed by Lamont , w h ere t h e fluxgat e uni t w as
i nst alled i n a st reamli ned "fi sh ," a cont ai ner for t ow i ng i t beh i nd a sh i p.
From our experience on Cap ric orn, w e felt t h at w e could do no better
t h an t o base our magnet omet er on t h e Lamont i nst rument . A part i cular
advant age of doi ng t h i s w as t h at its h igh ly developed elect roni c and
mech ani cal component s w ere i mmedi at ely available as surplus from t h e
mi li t ary. However, alt h ough t h e Lamont i nst rument w as qui t e adequat e
for maki ng qualitative surveys of sea floor st ruct ures, its system w as prone
t o unpredi ct able dri ft , w h i ch made i t unsui t able for exacting geophysical
34 THE EARLY WORK
tasks. We t h erefore i mplement ed a development program ai med at pro-
duci ng an i nst rument w i t h a more accurat e and stable measuri ng system,
for w h i ch my w art i me experi ence stood me in good st ead. We also exper-
i ment ed w i t h t h e design of t h e fi sh and i t s tow ing arrangement s, and w i t h
th e lengt h of th e tow cable, so t h at th e fi sh w ould ride as smoot h ly as pos-
sible, mi ni mi zi ng magnetic "noise" caused by erratic movements.
Th rough the generosi t y of Varian Associates in Palo Alto, w e w ere able
to study the short-term and long-term stabilities of our fi nal i nst rument by
compari ng i t w i t h t h ei r newly developed proton-precession magnet ome-
ter, an i nst rument based on atomic principles. By cont rast w ith th e flux-
gate i nst rument , w h i ch measures relative values of t h e magnet i c fi eld and
needs to be calibrated, th e prot on magnet omet er is an absolute instru-
ment , w h ose out put gives t h e t rue value of t h e magnet i c fi eld. Th e com-
pari sons showed t h at our i nst rument w as h i gh ly stable over periods of a
few h ours and h ad a steady long-term dri ft t h at could easily be corrected.
T HE PIONEER S U R VE Y
Early i n 1955 I learned from Scri pps' mari ne geologist Bill Menard t h at
the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (USCGS) sh i p Pioneer w as about
t o commence a det ai led bat h ymet ri c survey off t h e w est coast of t h e
Uni t ed States. Th e object w as t o produce a map of t h e sea floor topog-
raph y by recordi ng t h e dept h along a grid of long parallel east-west li nes
about 5 mi les (8 ki lomet ers) apart , usi ng a cont i nuously operat i ng ech o
sounder. Joi ni ng poi nt s of equal dept h on adjacent li nes w ould enable
surveyors t o const ruct a cont our map of t h e sea floor. Th e area t o be
surveyed ext ended from t h e foot of t h e cont i nent al shelf outw ard for
bet w een 250 and 300 mi les (400 and 500 ki lomet ers), and from t h e Mex-
ican border in the sout h to the sout h ern end of Q ueen Charlotte Islands
i n t h e nort h . A radi o navi gat i on system w i t h fi xed beacons ash ore w ould
enable the position of the ship's tracks to be accurately det ermi ned. The
probable error of a posi t i on w ould vary w i t h t i me of day and w i t h dis-
t ance from t h e beacons, but w as expect ed t o be on t h e order of 300 feet
(100 met ers). Th e survey w ould occupy t h e best part of t w o years.
Scri pps i mmedi at ely sough t permi ssi on from t h e U.S. Navy Hydro-
graph i c O ffi ce, t h e sponsors of t h e survey, t o t ow i t s magnet omet er
beh i nd t h e Pioneer. Unfort unat ely, t h i s w as not i mmedi at ely fort h com-
i ng, because t h e Hydrograph i c O ffi ce w as concerned t h at t ow i ng t h e fi sh
and h andli ng i t overboard mi gh t slow dow n t h ei r operat i on! So w e
missed th e fi rst few mont h ly cruises. Eventually, t h rough th e persuasive
effort s of Roger Revelle, t h ese fears w ere allayed, and my assi st ant Art
Strip es on the Sea F loor
35
Raff and I joi ned the sh i p in August 1955. This was to be the first of 12
mont h ly cruises, the last of w h i ch t ook place in October 1956. By this
time w e had covered an area ext endi ng from 32N to 52N, a distance
of more t h an 1,250 miles (2,000 ki lomet ers).
The August 1955 cruise was in the nat ure of a trial run. We had no idea
w h at to expect. Our h ope was t h at we would be able to produce a mean-
i ngful cont our map of th e magnet i c field by follow ing th e procedure used
i n maki ng t h e bat h ymet ri c map, t h at i s, by joi ni ng poi nt s of equal fi eld
value on adjacent tracks. Th ere w ere a number of uncert ai nt i es: w ould
t h e magnet omet er prove suffi ci ent ly stable duri ng t h e rigors of several
w eeks at sea, and w ould t h e spaci ng of t h e sh i p's t racks prove suffi ci ent ly
close to enable us to cont our th e result s? Th e fi rst w as answ ered by our
calibrations of t h e magnet omet er at Palo Alto, bot h before and aft er t h e
cruise. These show ed t h at th e magnet omet er w as more t h an adequately
stable. They also enabled us to adjust our readi ngs so t h at th ey repre-
sented the true value of the earth's magnetic fi eld. As it t urned out, the
spacing of the ship's east-west tracks was not a problem in plotting the
results, because the domi nant t rend of the contours was north-south.
Ini t i al result s of th e Pioneer survey of rock magnet i sm off th e w est coast of Nort h
America, aft er t h ree mont h s' operat i on. Th e di st i nct ly li near pat t ern i n t h e sout h -
west corner of the map area, w h ere we started, persuaded us to cont i nue with the
survey. (From Mason, 1958, Figure 2.)
36 THE EARLY WORK
Fort unat ely, t h e posi t i ons of t h e sh i p' s t racks w ere made available t o
us i n real t i me, so w e w ere able t o plot t h e result s on a ch art and bui ld
up a pi ct ure of t h e fi eld as w e w ent . Th e i ni t i al result s w ere di scourag-
ing; t h ey were apparent ly so errat i c as to make it vi rt ually impossible to
cont our t h em. At t h i s st age w e mi gh t easily h ave abandoned t h e w h ole
operat i on. But as t h e dat a accumulat ed, t h e nat ure of t h e fi eld began t o
emerge: i t w as domi nat ed by bands of approxi mat ely nort h -sout h t rend-
i ng cont ours t h at ext ended t h e full 100 mi les (160 ki lomet ers) nort h -
sout h ext ent of t h e August crui se.
3
Th i s w as a peri od of great exci t ement ,
because not h i ng li ke i t h ad ever been observed before, on land or at sea.
T h ere w as no longer any quest i on of abandoni ng t h e survey.
Aft er a furt h er 11 mont h ly crui ses, t h e survey w as complet ed i n Octo-
ber 1956, and t h e rat h er t edi ous t ask of plot t i ng t h e result s w as com-
plet ed i n t h e fi rst h alf of 1957. Th e out come w as a map domi nat ed by
cont ours t rendi ng mai nly bet w een nort h -sout h and nort h east -sout h -
w est. However, before t h e result s could be properly apprai sed i t w as nec-
essary t o separat e out t h e geologi cally relat ed magnet i c anomali es from
t h e eart h ' s background fi eld. We di d t h i s by overlayi ng our map on t h e
map of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld publi sh ed by t h e H ydrograph i c O ffi ce,
and subt ract i ng t h e one from t h e ot h er graph i cally. Th i s rat h er t edi ous
procedure greatly si mpli fi ed t h e ori gi nal map.
Th e fi nal map show ed t h at t h e bands of domi nant ly nort h -sout h con-
t ours bounded st ri ps of positive or negative anomaly.
4
Th ese li neat ed
anomali es, up t o one percent of t h e eart h ' s background fi eld i n ampli -
t ude and a few t ens of mi les in w i dt h , covered most of th e 1,250 miles
(2,000 ki lomet ers) nort h -sout h ext ent of t h e survey, w i t h i nt errupt i ons i n
places and some ch anges of di rect i on. In part i cular, i t w as i nt errupt ed as
it crossed tw o of th e great east-west fault s of th e nort h east Paci fi c, th e
Mendoci no and t h e Murray, and a previ ously unrecogni zed fault , subse-
quent ly named t h e Pi oneer Fault . At t h e Mendoci no and Pi oneer Faults
t h ere appeared t o be no relat i on bet w een t h e pat t erns on opposi t e sides,
but at t h e Murray Fault t h ey could be mat ch ed i n such a w ay as t o suggest
t h at si nce i t s i ncept i on t h e fault h ad been offset by about 100 mi les (160
ki lomet ers) i n a ri gh t -lat eral sense (t h at i s, crossi ng t h e fault , t h e pat t ern
on t h e far side w ould be offset t o t h e ri gh t ). Th e absence of a mat ch across
t h e t w o ot h er fault s raised an i nt ri gui ng quest i on: could i t be t h at dis-
placement s across t h em w ere so great as to exceed th e w i dt h of th e map?
Th i s w as a mat t er t h at could only be set t led by ext endi ng t h e survey i n
t h ei r nei gh borh oods, but t h i s w ould have t o w ai t for anot h er day.
Late in 1956 I w as di vert ed to h ead an I nt ernat i onal Geoph ysical Year
(IGY) project i n t h e equat ori al Paci fi c. Th i s w as one of Scri pps' cont ri -
but i ons t o t h e i nt ernat i onal program. I t involved t h e set t i ng up and oper-
Strip es on the Sea F loor 37
S ummary map of t h e magnet i c pat t ern i n t h e area nort h of t h e Mendoci no Fault ,
off the northw est coast of Nort h America. The areas of positive magnetic anomaly
are sh ow n in black. (From R aff and Mason, 1961, Fi gure 1, reproduced court esy of
the Geological Society of Ameri ca).
at i on of t emporary magnet i c observat ori es on several islands spanni ng
t h e magnet i c equat or. It s purpose w as t o st udy cert ai n nat ural ph enom-
ena arising i n t h e i onosph ere, and w e w ere cert ai nly not prepared for t h e
spect acular effect s of t h e Bri t i sh nuclear tests on nearby Ch ri st mas Island,
reflect ed in our magnet i c records.
5
To take care of the logistics of th is
38 THE EARLY WORK
operat i on Scripps ch art ered a sch ooner, w i t h its owner, Uni versi t y of
Hawaii mat h emat i ci an Mart i n Vi t ousek, w h i le I t ook care of t h e sci ence
and provi ded a li nk bet w een Scripps and t h e fi eld operat i on. Th i s kept
me away from Scripps for much of t h e t i me, and Art Raff t ook care of t h e
remai nder of the Pioneer's 1956 fi eld season and w orked up the 1956 data.
In th e meant i me, Vic Vacqui er came to Scripps to develop its ship-towed
magnetometry program.
D uri ng t h e follow i ng t w o years Vic's pri ori t y w as t o ext end t h e survey,
w h i ch h e di d by runni ng east-west li nes, more t h an 1,250 miles (2,000
ki lomet ers) long on bot h sides of all t h ree fault s, usi ng Scri pps' research
ships.
6
These w ere suffi ci ent ly long t h at in all cases he was able to obtain
mat ch es bet w een t h e pat t erns on opposite sides. On t h e Mendoci no and
Pi oneer Faults th e pat t erns w ere di splaced in a left -lat eral sense by 710
and 160 mi les (1,140 and 260 ki lomet ers) respectively, and on th e Mur-
ray Fault the displacements ranged bet w een 95 and 425 miles (150 and
680 ki lomet ers) i n a ri gh t -lat eral sense.
7
At t h e t i me, t h ese result s w ere
t aken t o i mply t ranscurrent (st ri ke-sli p) di splacement s of t h e ocean
floor of t h e same order as t h e largest of th ose observed on t h e cont i -
S ummary of Vi ct or Vacqui er' s lat eral di splacement s across t h e Mendoci no, Pi oneer,
and Murray Fault s. (Aft er Menard, 1960, Figure 6.)
Strip es on the Sea F loor 39
nent s. Th is w as a qui t e unexpect ed di scovery; t h at such large movement s
of blocks of t h e oceani c crust could t ake place w i t h so li t t le di st ort i on of
the magnetic pat t ern at t h ei r margi ns w as taken as evidence for the rigid-
i t y of t h e upper part of t h e oceani c crust . However, Tuzo Wilson of t h e
Uni versi t y of Toront o w as sh ort ly t o publi sh h i s ideas about a new class
of oceani c fault s connect i ng offset s of ocean ridges, t o w h i ch h e gave t h e
name transf orm f aults.
8
Th is w ould t h row doubt on t h e reali t y of our pro-
posed di splacement s.
Wi lson' s i dea i nvoked t h e concept of sea floor spreadi ng proposed by
Harry Hess and Bob Dietz: t h at new crust is formed by magmatic i nt ru-
sion along t h e crests of mi d-ocean ri dges, and t h en dri ft s st eadi ly away
from those crests.
9
Ocean ridges typically suffer numerous lat eral offset s,
and most people assumed t h e t w o segment s w ere i ni t i ally ali gned, and
w ere di splaced t o t h ei r present posi t i ons by movement along t ranscur-
rent (st ri ke-sli p) fault s. Wi lson proposed t h at , on t h e cont rary, t h e off-
sets w ere pri mary feat ures, h avi ng always been i n t h ei r present posi t i ons.
As a consequence, not only would relative di splacement s betw een oppo-
site sides of t h e fault be confi ned t o t h at sect i on bet w een t h e t w o ri dge
segments, but th e tw o sides would move in opposite directions away from
t h ei r respect i ve ridges; t h e pat t erns on opposi t e si des w ould be t h e
reverse of one anot h er, and no si mple mat ch w ould be possi ble. Confi r-
mat i on of Wi lson's t ransform fault s came from t h e w ork of Lament ' s
Lynn Sykes. St udyi ng t h e fi rst mot i ons of eart h quakes occurri ng on off-
sets of t h e mi d-At lant i c ri dge, h e show ed t h at movement s on t h ei r t w o
sides w ere i n t h e di rect i ons predi ct ed by Wi lson.
10
Out si de of t h i s ridge-
to-ridge section, no relative movement bet w een the two sides takes place,
but t h e fault t race cont i nues, because t h e spreadi ng process h as brough t
crust s of di fferent ages and ch aract ers i nt o cont act w i t h one anot h er.
Hence, correspondi ng feat ures on t h e t w o sides are di splaced by an
amount equal t o t h e offset of t h e ri dge. I f t h e fault s st udi ed by Vacqui er
w ere t ransform fault s, relat ed t o segment s of t h e East Paci fi c Rise now
buri ed under t h e Nort h Ameri can cont i nent , t h en no relat i ve displace-
ment betw een opposite sides would have occurred. Instead of the h un-
dreds or t h ousands of mi les of offset , t h ere mi gh t not be any.
T HE MA GN E T I C L I N E A T I O N S
Th e cause of t h e magnet i c li neat i ons - or st ri pes - led t o much specula-
t i on. I w as able to show t h at t h ey could be explained by shallow slablike
st ruct ures, i mmedi at ely underlyi ng t h e positive st ri pes and more h i gh ly
40 THE EARLY WORK
E volut i on of a t ransform fault , (a) Tw o expandi ng ri dges, connect ed by a t ransform
fault , (b) The same aft er a lapse of time. The offset of the ridge has not ch anged,
and movement across t h e fault i s confi ned t o t h e ridge-ridge sect i on. (Aft er Wi lson,
1965, Fi gure 1.)
magnet i zed t h an t h e surroundi ng crust , but t h ere w as no plausible geo-
logical model to support such st ruct ures. Th e situation remained unex-
plai ned for fi ve years, unt i l Fred Vi ne and D rummond Mat t h ew s, study-
ing tw o comparatively isolated volcano-like submarine st ruct ures in the
nort h w est I ndi an Ocean, observed t h at w h ereas one appeared t o be
magnet i zed i n t h e present di rect i on of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld (w h ere
a compass poi nt s tow ard t h e nort h magnet i c pole), t h e ot h er w as mag-
net i zed i n t h e opposi t e di rect i on.
11
Th i s, and ot h er observat i ons i n t h ei r
Strip es on the Sea F loor 41
fi eld area, suggest ed t o t h em t h at perh aps h alf t h e oceani c crust w as
reversely magnet i zed. This led t h em to propose a new model to account
for t h e magnet i c pat t erns observed over mi d-ocean ri dges, bri ngi ng
t oget h er ideas current at t h e t i me about sea floor spreadi ng and peri-
odi c reversals of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld.
12
New crust i s formed as a
result of magmat i c act i vi t y along t h e crest s of mi d-ocean ridges, and as
it cools it acquires permanent magnetization in the prevailing direction
of t h e eart h ' s fi eld. If t h e eart h ' s fi eld t h en reverses i t s polari t y, t h e next
bat ch of crust w ould be magnet i zed i n t h e opposite di rect i on. Vi ne and
Mat t h ew s suggested t h at t h ese t w o processes - sea floor spreadi ng and
fi eld reversals w ould lead t o successive st ri ps of alt ernat ely normally
and reversely magnet i zed crust dri ft i ng away from t h e axis of t h e ri dge.
Vi ne and Mat t h ew s' h ypot h esi s offered an elegant explanat i on of h ow
the magnetic lineations of the northeast Pacific could have come about,
alt h ough in t h i s case t h ere w as no obvious connect i on w i t h an ocean ri dge.
I was fami li ar w ith ideas about sea floor spreading and reversals of the
eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld, and I could h ave ki cked myself for not t h i nki ng of
t h e idea, part i cularly because, h ad I looked more carefully at our map, I
would have realized t h at some of the seamounts mi gh t be reversely mag-
net i zed, and t h i s mi gh t h ave h eaded my t h ough t s i n t h e ri gh t di rect i on. I
had absolutely no doubt as to the correctness of t h ei r hypothesis. But to
my surprise t h e idea w as not uni versally accept ed. One reason for doubt
w as t h at no detailed magnet i c survey spanni ng an oceani c ridge w as
t h ough t to be available. Perh aps more i mport ant , in 1963 nei t h er sea floor
spreadi ng nor geomagnet i c fi eld reversals w ere universally accepted. In
t h at regard, the Vine-Matthews hypothesis was built upon two oth er
hypotheses, about w h i ch many people still h ad doubts.
However, i t t urned out t h at support for t h e Vine-Matthews hypothesis
h ad been st ari ng us i n t h e face. In search i ng for examples of t ransform
fault s i n t h e nort h ern part of t h e magnet i c map, Wilson h ad i dent i fi ed t h e
Juan de Fuca and Gorda Ridges as sh ort sections of young, active oceanic
ridges, connect ed by a conject ured submari ne extension of th e San
Andreas Fault, w hich he interpreted as a transform fault .
13
Both ridges
w ere marked by seismic activity and symmet ry of th e magnet i c pat t ern on
opposite sides, as w ould be predi ct ed by the Vine-Matthews h ypoth esis,
ext endi ng in the case of the Juan de Fuca Ridge to 110 miles (175 kilo-
met ers) on each side. Sh ortly aft erw ard, Ji m Hei rt zler and colleagues at
Lamont published the results of an aeromagnetic survey spanni ng the
Reykjanes Ridge, t h e most nort h erly part of t h e mid-Atlantic ri dge, south
of Iceland.
14
This showed magnetic lineations parallel to the ridge and
symmetrical about it, ext endi ng to about 100 mi les (160 ki lomet ers) on
42
THE EARLY WORK
Sketch map showing th e relat i on of th e magnet i c pat t ern and eart h quake epicenters
(dot s and open ci rcles) t o t h e Juan de Fuca and Gorda Ri dges. Tw o possi ble pat h s
of a submari ne ext ensi on of t h e San Andreas Fault are also sh ow n. (Aft er Wi lson,
1965, Figure 3.)
Strip es on the Sea f loor 43
each side. To my mi nd, t h ese discoveries should have cli nch ed the
Vine-Matthews h ypoth esis. However, doubt s w ere still being expressed
about the universal association of magnet i c lineations w i t h spreadi ng axes.
It was not unt i l 1966 t h at the Lament group, who had been among the
most i nfluent i al doubt ers, fi nally came around t o accepting i t .
MAG NETI C S TRI P ES AND THE AG E OF THE S EA FL OOR
One consequence of t h e Vine-Matth ew s h ypoth esis i s t h at i t offered t h e
possibility of assi gni ng ages to i ndi vi dual st ri pes, and h ence to th e under-
lying sea floor. Th e met h od depends on mat ch i ng t h e pat t ern of suc-
cessive magnet i c st ri pes to the t i mescale of reversals of the eart h ' s mag-
netic fi eld. Because field reversals occur at irregular intervals, it follows
t h at , assumi ng a const ant rate of spreadi ng, t h e w i dt h s of successive
stripes will follow a si mi lar pat t ern; under favorable ci rcumst ances t h e
t w o pat t erns can be mat ch ed, and ages of part i cular stripes det ermi ned.
In 1968 Fred Vi ne di d t h i s for t h e nort h ern part of t h e magnet i c map
nort h of the Mendocino Fault.
15
The timescale he used, covering the
past 3.5 mi lli on years, is based on measurement s of the di rect i on of mag-
net i zat i on of rock samples and det ermi nat i on of t h ei r ages usi ng radio-
met ri c met h ods. This timescale could be ext ended by t aki ng advantage
of th e fact t h at th e pat t erns of magnetic stripes about mid-ocean ridges
are remarkably similar wherever they occur. From a very long profile of
t h e magnet i c fi eld spanni ng t h e Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, and assuming a
const ant rat e of sea floor spreadi ng, Pi t man and Hei rt zler ext rapolat ed
the timescale back to 11 mi lli on years.
16
As expected, the youngest part s
of the sea floor in the area are the actively spreadi ng Juan de Fuca and
Gorda Ridges; the oldest is in the north w est corner of the area, with an
age in excess of 10 million years. The process has since been applied to
most parts of th e ocean floor w h ere magnet i c stripes have been i dent i fi ed.
S E R E N DI P I T Y A N D S C I E N T I FI C DI S C O VE R Y
I st art ed t h e project described h ere w i t h no t h ough t of i t s possible rele-
vance to cont i nent al dri ft . Th e discovery of sea floor magnet i c st ri pes w as
serendi pi t ous: w e w ere not looki ng for t h em, nor could w e h ave been,
because no one knew they existed! Now, so long aft er the event, it is dif-
fi cult t o assess w h at i nfluence t h ei r discovery h ad on t h e development
of plat e t ect oni cs, but i t i s clear t h at t h ey h elped t o set event s i n mot i on.
S ummary of t h e magnet i c anomali es sout h w est of Vancouver I sland. Areas of pos-
i t i ve anomaly, assumed t o represent normal magnet i zat i on of t h e underlyi ng crust ,
are sh aded t o mat ch t h e radi omet ri cally deri ved reversal t i mescale for t h e past 4
mi lli on years, ext ended t o 11 mi lli on years on t h e basis of a long magnet i c profi le
spanni ng t h e Paci fi c-Ant arct i c Ri dge. T h e st rai gh t li nes mark geological fault s.
(Aft er Vi ne, 1968, Fi gure 1, reproduced court esy of the Geological Soci et y of
Ameri ca.)
Strip es on the Sea F loor 45
Th e recogni t i on of sea floor magnet i c stripes led i mmedi at ely t o t h e
h ypoth esis of large di splacement s of th e ocean floor w h i ch , alt h ough
lat er t h row n i n doubt by Wi lson's t ransform fault h ypot h esi s, st i mulat ed
i nt erest i n t h e mobi li t y of t h e oceani c crust , and i t raised i nt erest i ng
quest i ons. Th e Vine-Matth ew s h ypot h esi s provi ded a speculat i ve answ er
to one of those quest i ons, and the w ork of Tuzo Wilson, follow ed sh ort ly
by Lament ' s aeromagnet i c survey of th e Reykjanes Ridge, proved it to be
correct . For most people t h ese result s placed beyond doubt t h e exis-
t ence of ocean floor spreadi ng, a fact or fundament al t o t h e concept of
plat e t ect oni cs.
As t o my ow n views on t h e subject , at no t i me h ad I any doubt about
th e reali t y of cont i nent al dri ft or th e vali di t y of plate t ect oni cs. This is
pri nci pally because I came t o t h e subject at a t i me w h en favorable dat a
w ere rapi dly accumulat i ng and, i n cont rast t o t h e at t i t ude tow ard cont i -
nent al dri ft on t h e Ameri can side of t h e At lant i c, opposi t i on i n t h e
Uni t ed Ki ngdom w as mut ed. I h ad frequent cont act s w i t h Teddy Bullard,
Kei t h R uncorn, and ot h er Bri t i sh w orkers i n t h e fi eld and I cannot recall
any out spoken opposi t i on. Bullard h ad offi ci ally sat on t h e fence for
many years, fi nally comi ng out i n pri nt i n support of cont i nent al dri ft i n
1964.
17
But , i n fact , h e h ad been fully convi nced four years earli er by t h e
paleomagnet i c data brough t t oget h er by P. M. S. Blacket t and col-
leagues.
18
In 1960, t h ey h ad present ed t h ei r dat a in such a w ay t h at , as
h e w rot e, "i t clearly i ndi cat ed t h e reali t y of cont i nent al dri ft ."
A C K N O WL E D G ME N T S
Th e sea floor magnet i sm project owed i t s exi st ence t o t h e ent h usi asm
and support of Roger Revelle, t h en di rect or of th e Scripps I nst i t ut i on of
Oceanograph y. Various members of Scripps, in part i cular Jim Snodgrass
and Jeff Frautschy, made valuable contributions to the design and con-
st ruct i on of th e magnet omet er' s h ardw are. Art Raff w as a t ow er of
st rengt h t h rough out .
We ow e our t h anks t o Captain Pearce and t h e offi cers and men of t h e
Pioneer for put t i ng up w ith us, to th e numerous students and oth ers w h o
mai nt ai ned sh i pboard w at ch es, somet i mes under di ffi cult condi t i ons,
and t o Mart i n Packard of Varian Associates for maki ng cali brat i on faci l-
ities available bet w een cruises. Th e w ork w as support ed by th e U.S.
Offi ce of Naval Research and the U.S. Bureau of Ships.
C HA P T E R 3
R E VE R S ALS O F F O R T UNE
F rederic k J. Vine
MY CO N T R I BUT I O N T O T H E N E W UN D E R S T A N D I N G O F GLO BA L
t ect oni cs predat ed t h e recogni t i on of "plat es," and t h e formulat i on of
t h e plat e t ect oni c paradi gm, i n 1967. In 1963, D rummond Mat t h ew s and
I added a ri der t o t h e concept of sea floor spreadi ng, w h i ch h ad been
proposed by H arry Hess of Pri ncet on Uni versi t y.
1
Accordi ng to Hess,
"conveyor belt s" of crust and upper mant le move symmet ri cally away
from mid-ocean ridges and passively dri ft cont i nent s apart .
2
We pro-
posed t h at t h e conveyor belt s mi gh t also act as t ape recorders t h at record
reversals i n t h e polari t y of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld i n t h e ' fossi l' (i .e.,
remanent ) magnet i sm of t h e oceani c crust . Th is record can be played
back by measuri ng t h e ch anges i n t h e i nt ensi t y of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c
fi eld at or above sea level from sh i ps or ai rcraft .
Th e vali di t y of our i dea depended on t h e reali t y of t h ree ph enomena:
sea floor spreadi ng, reversals of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld, and t h e i mpor-
tance of remanent magnet i sm in the oceani c crust. Not one of th ese w as
w idely accepted at th e t i me, even by expert s in th e respective fi elds. In addi-
t i on, from t h e li mi t ed magnet i c data available t o us, largely from t h e Nort h
Atlantic and the northw est Indian Oceans, it appeared t h at the record w as
not very clearly w ri t t en. For example, t h ere w as no obvious symmet ry of th e
observed anomalies i n t h e eart h 's magnet i c fi eld about t h e ridge crests i n
these areas as predicted by the simple model. This seemed to i mply a rat h er
di ffuse zone of format i on of oceanic crust at a ridge crest, presumably by a
process of ext rusi on and i nt rusi on of basaltic magma. It w as not surpri si ng,
t h erefore, t h at in 1963 the idea was, in general, rat h er poorly received.
How ever, i n 1965, follow i ng t h e recogni t i on of t h e Juan de Fuca Ri dge
sout h w est of Vancouver Island and t h e defi ni t i on of t h ejarami llo event
w i t h i n the geomagnetic reversal timescale for the past 3.5 mi lli on years,
46
Reversals of F ortune 47
Fred Vi ne, at Pri ncet on i n 1967, exami ni ng magnet i c profi les. (Ph ot o court esy of
Fred Vine.)
it became clear t h at over this ridge the magnetic fi eld anomalies are not
only symmet ri cal about t h e ridge crest , but also reflect t h e reversal his-
tory.
3
This, in t urn, implies an essentially const ant rate of spreading on
t h e Juan de Fuca Ri dge, of just over an i nch (2.4 cent i met ers) per year
per ridge flank for the past 3.5 mi lli on years. In 1966, the acqui si t i on of
new magnet i c anomaly dat a for t h e Paci fi c-Ant arct i c Ri dge, i n t h e Sout h
Pacific, and t h e Reykjanes Ridge, sout h of Iceland, confi rmed t h e Juan
de Fuca Ridge result .
4
Th i s enabled Ji m Hei rt zler, of Lament Geological
Observatory, Columbi a Uni versi t y, and me t o make a convi nci ng case for
t h e vali di t y of t h e sea floor spreadi ng h ypot h esi s at a meet i ng h eld at t h e
Goddard I nst i t ut e for Space Sciences, New York, i n November of t h at
year.
5
I also presented the case at the annual meeting of the Geological
Society of Ameri ca in San Francisco in November 1966. It is probably
true to say t h at these presentations, and the publications by Jim Heirt-
zler and Walter Pi t man also of Lament , and myself, in D ecember 1966,
were i nst rument al in finally convincing most earth scientists of the valid-
ity of sea floor spreadi ng, and h ence of cont i nent al dri ft .
6
S ummary of anomali es i n t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld measured at sea level off Bri t i sh
Columbia, Wash i ngt on, and Oregon. Areas of anomalously h i gh fi eld st rengt h are
shown i n black. S t rai gh t li nes i ndi cat e fault s offset t i ng t h e anomaly pat t ern; arrow s,
t h e axes of t h ree sh ort ridge lengt h s i n t h e area - from nort h t o sout h , t h e E xplorer,
Juan de Fuca, and Gorda Ri dges. Reproduced court esy of t h e Geological Society of
Ameri ca. (Raff and Mason, 1961, not e 11.)
Reversals of F ortune 49
E A R L Y I N T E R E S T I N C O N T I N E N T A L DRI FT A N D G E O P HY S I C S
In April 1955, at the age of 15, I was a st udent at Latymer Upper School,
West London, and studying for my 'O' (Ordi nary) level examinations,
w h ich were just tw o mont h s away. It w as the Easter holiday and in a rat h er
desultory attempt to st udy for geography, I opened a physical geography
text, probably for the fi rst time, for as I recall, on the first page of the fi rst
chapter, t h ere was a diagram illustrating the approximate fit of the Atlantic
coastlines of South America and Africa. In the text, it stated th at although
it had been suggested on the basis of th is fit t h at these cont i nent s were once
part of a supercont i nent t h at subsequently split and dri ft ed apart to form
the South Atlantic Ocean, geologists had no idea w h et h er th ere was any
t rut h in this hypothesis. I was st ruck at once both by the boldness of the idea
t h at seemingly stable cont i nent s migh t have drifted across the face of the
earth in th e past, and by th e fact t h at w e did not know w h et h er th is h ad
occurred. It seemed to me t h at one could h ardly conduct any meani ngful
st udy of the h istory of the earth unt i l one had resolved th is issue. Surely th ere
must be some way of proving or disproving the concept of cont i nent al dri ft .
In my 'O' level examinations I did well in mathematics, physics, and
geography, but onlyjust managed to pass Engli sh , Latin, and French . I w as
not an "all-rounder" academically. However, my li mi t ed abilities w ere well-
suited to the English 'si xt h -form' system w h ereby, betw een the ages of 16
and 18, one studied just t h ree or four subject s to 'A' (Advanced) level. My
own preference w ould have been to take 'A' levels in mat h emat i cs, physics,
and geography, but I w as persuaded to take th e t h en more convent i onal
combi nat i on of pure and applied mat h emat i cs, physics, and ch emi st ry,
w h i ch could lead on to a w i der spect rum of possible careers in the physi-
cal sciences or engi neeri ng. I ret ai ned my i nt erest in geography, however,
and continued to be an active member of the school's Geographical Soci-
ety. As a sixth-former I h ad a great i nt erest in th e physical envi ronment and
read everything I could find, for example, about th e Int ernat i onal Geo-
physical Year (I GY ), w h ich lasted for 18 mont h s (!) duri ng 1957 and 1958.
My performance in th e 'A level exami nat i ons earned me a state sch olar-
ship and a place at St. Joh n's College, Cambridge, to study natural sciences.
U N D E R G R A D U A T E Y E A R S A T C A M B R I D G E , 1959-1962
Only subsequently have I realized just h ow unusual t h e nat ural sciences
course at Cambri dge w as at th e t i me, given its large range of opt i ons. By
now I w as det ermi ned t o drop ch emi st ry; I h ad also decided t h at I w ant ed
50 THE EARLY WORK
t o be a sch oolt each er and w ould probably t each physics and/or mat h e-
matics. I h ad spent four t erms, aft er 'A' levels and before ent eri ng Cam-
bri dge, t each i ng mat h emat i cs at Latymer, an experi ence I h ad not only
survived but enjoyed. My di rect or of st udi es respected my w ish es, but
poi nt ed out t h at w e needed t o i dent i fy one or more opt i ons i n addi t i on
t o mat h emat i cs and physics i n order t o fulfi ll t h e degree requi rement s.
He ran dow n the list and alighted on geology. He said, "How about geol-
ogy?" T h ere w as a sli gh t pause, and h e looked up. "Do you like t h e open
air? Would you enjoy the fieldw ork?" "Why, yes," I said, "of course." "Well
t h at ' s done t h en, geology i t is."
At t h e t i me, i t w as not possible t o do a degree course i n geophysics,
and t h ere w as very li t t le geoph ysics i n ot h er, relat ed courses such as
geology. For th e fi rst tw o years of geology I h ad to cont ent myself w ith
t ryi ng t o i dent i fy anyt h i ng i n w h at I read or w as t augh t t h at w as i ncom-
pat i ble w i t h t h e concept of cont i nent al dri ft . I found not h i ng. I n t h e
t h i rd and fi nal year of t h e degree (so-called Part I I ), one st udi ed just a
si ngle di sci pli ne, i n my case geology w i t h emph asi s on mi neralogy and
petrology. Th ere w as also a sh ort , i nt roduct ory course on soli d-eart h geo-
physics given by Sir Edw ard Bullard, h ead of the D epart ment of Geodesy
and Geophysics at Cambri dge, w h i ch w as essent i ally a small graduat e
research sch ool. Sir Edw ard (uni versally know n as "Teddy") w as an ent er-
t ai ni ng and i nspi ri ng lect urer. He cert ai nly conveyed t h e exci t ement i n
the field at the time, not least it seemed to me in the area of mari ne geo-
ph ysi cs, w h ere t h e development of new t ech ni ques duri ng t h e previ ous
decade h ad yi elded some surpri si ng and fasci nat i ng result s. Teddy's
depart ment i ncluded a mari ne geoph ysics sect i on (t h e only one i n t h e
count ry) h eaded by Dr. Mauri ce Hi ll, and funded largely by t h e U.S.
O ffi ce of Naval Research . Teddy h i mself h ad been involved w i t h t h e
development of a new t ech ni que t o measure h eat flow t h rough t h e floor
of t h e deep ocean basi ns; Hi ll h ad pi oneered t h e use of t h e prot on pre-
cession magnet omet er t o make underw at er measurement s of t h e eart h ' s
magnetic field.
7
Teddy's short "taster" course was followed by a longer,
more convent i onal course on geoph ysi cal met h ods given by Hi ll. Th ese
t w o courses confi rmed and st rengt h ened my belief t h at t h i s w as t h e sub-
ject t h at i nt erest ed me most , and t h at i f I w ere t o undert ake post gradu-
at e research i t w ould be i n t h i s area, i deally i n t h e subdi sci pli ne of
mari ne geology and geophysics. At about t h i s t i me, h ow ever, I also con-
t act ed t h e uni versi t y' s D epart ment of E ducat i on w i t h a view t o doi ng a
post graduat e Cert i fi cat e of Educat i on t h e follow i ng year.
To h ave been t augh t geophysics by tw o of the leadi ng exponent s of
t h e fi eld i n my fi nal year as an undergraduat e w as good fort une enough ,
Reversals of F ortune 51
but t h ere w as more. In January 1962, Cambri dge w as h ost to th e 10th
Inter-University Geological Congress, an annual three-day meet i ng,
organi zed pri mari ly by undergraduat es, t h e venue for w h i ch rot at ed
around Bri t i sh uni versi t i es t h at offered degree programs i n geology. Th e
t h eme for t h i s part i cular meet i ng w as "The Evolut i on of t h e Nort h
At lant i c," and th e lead, guest speaker w as Professor Harry Hess of Pri nce-
ton Uni versi t y. As a st udent of geology, and mi neralogy and pet rology in
part i cular, I w as already fami li ar w i t h and an admi rer of Hess' w ork,
w h i ch ranged over mi neralogy, pet rology, t ect oni cs, geophysics, and
mari ne geology. His t alk, ent i t led "I mpermanence of th e Ocean Floor,"
w as essentially equi valent t o h i s paper publi sh ed subsequent ly under t h e
title "History of Ocean Basins." Th e fi rst part w as a summary of th e geo-
logical and geoph ysical ch aract eri st i cs of t h e deep ocean floor and t h e
second part an explanat i on of t h em i n t erms of mant le convect i on and
w h at soon became know n as "sea floor spreadi ng," t h anks to Bob Di et z,
of t h e U.S. Navy E lect roni cs Laborat ory and t h e Scripps I nst i t ut i on of
Oceanograph y, San Diego.
8
Th i s radi cal i dea w as proposed in part to
explai n w h at w as know n of t h e ocean floor and mid-ocean ri dges i n gen-
eral, but also to explai n th e distinctive ch aract eri st i cs of ri dge crests in
part i cular. From Hess' personal poi nt of view i t h ad t h e addi t i onal meri t
of provi di ng w h at h e regarded as t h e most plausi ble and sat i sfact ory
explanat i on for t h e subsi dence of t h e flat -t opped seamount s t h at h e h ad
discovered w h i le capt ai n of th e USS Cap e Johnson and on convoy escort
dut y across t h e Pacific duri ng t h e lat t er part of t h e Second World War.
9
To me t h i s w as an i nspi ri ng and exci t i ng synthesis and explanat i on;
above all, it w as a testable h ypot h esi s and a pot ent i al explanat i on of con-
t i nent al dri ft . The w hole t enor of t h i s meet i ng was, if only by implica-
t i on, favorable tow ard t h e concept of cont i nent al dri ft . Th is w as i n great
cont rast , I suspect , t o t h e cli mat e of opi ni on i n Nort h Ameri ca at t h e
time, w h ere such ideas w ould h ave been regarded as vergi ng on th e
h eret i cal. It i s probably t rue t o say t h at t h rough out t h e fi rst h alf of t h e
20t h cent ury t h ere w as not t h e same degree of opposi t i on t o t h e concept
of cont i nent al dri ft in Britain and the British Commonw ealth countries
as t h ere w as i n Nort h Ameri ca.
10
In part i cular, i n t h e late 1950s and early
1960s, t h ere w as renew ed i nt erest i n t h e i dea follow i ng t h e development
of paleomagnetic techniques to det ermi ne paleolatitudes. In March
1962, for example, I at t ended a meet i ng of t h e Nat ural Sciences Club at
Cambri dge addressed by P. M. S. Blacket t in w h i ch he provided an ele-
gant summary of the results of such paleomagnetic studies; cont i nent al
dri ft w as assumed t o be axi omat i c. In cont rast , i n Nort h Ameri ca up t o
t h at t i me, t h e use of t h e paleomagnet i c met h od t o det ermi ne paleolati-
52 THE EARLY WORK
t udes h ad been largely neglect ed, i f not sh unned, perh aps because of
t h e underlyi ng assumpt i ons.
In Apri l 1962 I w as aw arded a t h ree-year Sh ell S t udent sh i p t o under-
t ake a Ph .D . i n t h e mari ne geoph ysics sect i on of t h e D epart ment of Geo-
desy and Geoph ysi cs at Cambri dge. Th i s w as qui t e surpri si ng i n t h at t h e
depart ment consisted almost entirely of th eoreticians (mat h emat i cal
ph ysi ci st s) and appli ed ph ysi ci st s, w h o bui lt new i nst rument s. T h e one
except i on w as Dr. D rummond H. Mat t h ew s, a geologi st w i t h a back-
ground si mi lar t o my ow n, w h o h ad ent ered t h e depart ment as a gradu-
at e st udent i n January 1958. It w as deci ded t h at I sh ould be D rum
Mat t h ew s' fi rst research st udent , and t h at I sh ould w ork on t h e i nt er-
pret at i on of magnet i c dat a. At any one t i me, t h ere w as at least one grad-
uat e st udent w orki ng on each of t h e mai n geoph ysi cal t ech ni ques, such
as gravity, h eat flow , refract i on sei smi cs, magnet i cs, and so on. T h ere w as
a ' vacancy' i n t h e magnet i c area and i t w as ent i rely appropri at e t h at
D rum Mat t h ew s sh ould supervi se me, not only because of our si mi lar
backgrounds, but also because he w as involved in the acquisition of mag-
net i c dat a at t h e t i me and h ad measured t h e magnet i c propert i es of
some basalt i c rocks dredged from t h e ocean floor as part of h i s Ph .D.
t h esi s. By t h i s t i me, surface, deep-t ow ed, buoy, and di fferent i al prot on
magnet omet ers h ad been bui lt i n t h e depart ment , and t h e mai n requi re-
ment w as t o develop t ech ni ques and i deas for i nt erpret i ng t h e magnet i c
fi eld dat a, w h i ch w ere accumulat i ng at an ever i ncreasi ng rat e, but w ere
largely uni nt erpret ed.
Presi dent s of t h e Geological Society at Cambri dge - t h e Sedgwick Club
- w ere t radi t i onally draw n from t h e fi nal year undergraduat es, and h eld
offi ce for one t erm. D uri ng t h i s t erm t h ey w ere expect ed (or w as i t
requi red?) to give a presi dent i al address. In May 1962, as presi dent for
t h e summer t erm, I gave a t alk ent i t led "HypotHESSes" at t h e 870th meet -
i ng of t h e club. Th i s topic w as a nat ural ch oi ce for me, i n t h at H arry Hess'
range of i nt erest s closely paralleled my own, and I h ad been i nspi red bot h
by h i s papers and by h i s talk a few mont h s earli er. Th e address w as t h ere-
fore somet h i ng t h at I enjoyed prepari ng. In addi t i on, i t w as useful review
for my fi nals, w h ich by t h en w ere very i mmi nent . In t h e talk I summari zed
Hess' w ork and ideas on layered i gneous i nt rusi ons, on t h e mi neralogy
and cryst allograph y of pyroxenes, on th e alt erat i on of ult rabasi c rocks
and i n mari ne geology, emph asi zi ng t h e connect i ons bet w een t h em. I
assumed t h at most or all of my audi ence h ad been present at t h e meet -
i ng i n January, and t h e t alk w as i nt ended t h erefore t o provi de t h e back-
ground t o t h e development of Hess' current ideas. As a consequence I
only made bri ef ment i on of t h e subst ance of h i s January t alk.
Reversals of F ortune 53
D rum Mat t h ew s and Tony Laugh t on, from t h e Nat i onal I nst i t ut e of
Oceanograph y, Wormley, w ere present , and i t soon became clear duri ng
t h e di scussi on t h at follow ed t h at t h ey h ad not been present at Hess' t alk
i n January. Th i s w as t h ei r fi rst encount er w i t h t h e concept of sea floor
spreadi ng. Someone, qui t e possibly D rum or Tony, asked w h et h er I
t h ough t t h at t h e nort h -sout h ' grai n' of li near magnet i c anomali es
recent ly di scovered i n t h e nort h east Paci fi c mi gh t be relat ed t o sea floor
spreadi ng.
11
(T h e lack of any reference t o t h ese anomali es, and t o t h e
cent ral magnet i c anomaly observed over ri dge crest s, w as a not able omis-
sion from Hess' talk and subsequent paper.) I replied t h at I felt t h at th ey
must i n some w ay be an expressi on of mant le convect i on as envisaged by
Hess, but I h ad no i dea h ow t h i s effect w as produced.
B A C K G R O U N D T O T HE VI N E -M A T T HE WS HY P O T HE S I S
Wh en I joi ned t h e D epart ment of Geodesy and Geoph ysics at Madi ng-
ley Rise, Cambri dge, i n Oct ober 1962, D rum Mat t h ew s w as at sea i n t h e
nort h w est I ndi an Ocean. At t h e t i me h e w as coordi nat or of t h e U.K. con-
t ri but i on t o t h e I nt ernat i onal I ndi an Ocean Expedi t i on. I ni t i ally I w as
put under the w i ng of Mauri ce Hill. My mai n assignment w as clear, how-
ever: t o review publi sh ed magnet i c surveys and t raverses at sea, t h e met h -
ods t h at h ad been used i n i nt erpret i ng t h em, and current li nes of
approach.
Th e depart ment w as a very fri endly and h appy place, not least because
of t h e lead provi ded by t h e seni or st aff. Coffee and t ea breaks w ere some-
t h i ng of an i nst i t ut i on. Tech ni ci ans, academi c st aff, st udent s, and visitors
(t ypi cally from Nort h Ameri ca, because of Teddy Bullard' s reput at i on
and cont act s t h ere) almost li t erally rubbed sh oulders seat ed at long
t ables. Conversat i ons ranged from seri ous sci ence t o w h et h er Teddy's
new car befi t t ed h i s st at us. I t clearly di dn' t but h e w ould be t h e last per-
son t o be bot h ered by t h i s. Th ere w as an ai r t h at doi ng sci ence w as fun,
and t h at t h ere h ad never been a bet t er t i me t o do geoph ysi cs. Cert ai nly,
as far as mari ne geoph ysi cs w as concerned, t h e sh i p t i me and resources
t h at had been made available since World War II had led to major devel-
opment s i n i nst rument at i on and t ech ni ques t h at w ere yi eldi ng new dat a
at an accelerat i ng rat e. Th e general ph i losoph y i n t h e depart ment w as
t h at one mi gh t well w ast e one' s fi rst year as a research st udent investi-
gat i ng a di ffi cult problem t h at ult i mat ely proved t o be i nt ract able, but
t h at i t w as only by t aki ng such a ri sk t h at you i ncreased your ch ances of
doi ng si gni fi cant and ori gi nal research .
54 THE EARLY WORK
I h ad h ad li t t le opport uni t y t o discuss t h e project w i t h D rum, but I
h ad got t en t h e i mpressi on t h at h e h ad i n mi nd const ruct i ng analogue
models w i t h i ron fi li ngs and put t y, t o si mulat e t h e volcani c t opograph y
at ri dge crests, and t h en measuri ng t h e di st urbances i n an appli ed fi eld
caused by t h e i nduced magnet i zat i on i n t h e model t opograph y. Even i f
t h e si mulat ed anomali es bore no relat i on t o t h e observed anomali es,
one mi gh t still be able t o make a correct i on for t h e i nduced magnet i za-
t i on of t h e volcani c t opograph y. Everyone w as myst i fi ed by t h e fact t h at
despite the relatively strong magnetization of the volcanic rocks of the
ocean floor t h ere w as no syst emat i c correlat i on bet w een t opograph y and
t h e magnet i c anomali es developed over i t . In many ways t h i s w as t h e crux
of the problem.
My complet ed li t erat ure review, dat ed January 1963, i ncluded th e fol-
low ing st at ement s: "Seamounts and volcanic i slands give rise to large and
obvious anomali es but t h ese can rarely be explai ned by models assum-
i ng uni form magnet i zat i on t h rough out and di rect ed parallel t o t h e pres-
ent eart h ' s fi eld. Th i s di screpancy suggests t h at t h ere may be a large t h er-
moremanent component of magnet i zat i on, probably oft en reversed
relative t o t h e present eart h ' s fi eld."
12
Ron Gi rdler and George Peter,
bot h w orki ng at Lamont at t h e t i me, consi dered i t essent i al "t o assume
reversed magnet i zat i on i n order t o i nt erpret a li near anomaly i n t h e Gulf
of Aden and support t h i s by convi nci ng calculat i ons."
13
However, t h ey
favored a mineralogical self-reversal mech anism to explain the reversed
magnet i zat i on rat h er t h an a reversal of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld. I con-
t i nued: "This does not st ri ke one as bei ng a necessary corollary. If cur-
rent t h eori es regardi ng i mpermanence of t h e ocean floor are correct ,
paleomagnet i c evi dence w ould suggest t h at t h e t h ermoremanent com-
ponent of oceani c basalts sh ould, in most cases, be approxi mat ely nor-
mal or reversed.
14
All t oo li t t le i s know n about t h e magnet i c propert i es
of oceanic basalts. Work on dredged samples suggests t h at t h ey are not
essent i ally di fferent from exposed basalts but w ould i ndi cat e t h at t h ey
invariably have a very strong remanent component , such t h at t h e rema-
nence i s very much great er t h an t h e i nduced i nt ensi t y.
15
Values of sus-
cept i bi li t y (t h at det ermi ne t h e i nduced magnet i zat i on) assumed i n
models si mulat i ng magnet i c anomali es, oft en, necessarily, h ave t o be
h i gh , h i gh er t h an i s reasonable i n t h e li gh t of exi st i ng measurement s (of
susceptibility) on basalt samples."
16
I concluded t h at i t seemed "highly desirable t h at any i nt erpret at i on
t ech ni que sh ould be able t o take account of remanent magnet i c i nt en-
si t y even i f unknow n. Cert ai n comput er programs w ould appear t o be
capable of doi ng t h i s. Possibly (analogue) model st udi es could also, but
Reversals of F ortune 55
t h ere i s no evi dence for t h i s. Such st udi es w ould also appear t o necessi-
tate very elaborate, cumbersome and, presumably costly apparatus."
"The use of comput ers i n more recent years t o si mulat e anomalies, and
conversely, magnet i c bodi es from anomali es, may h erald a breakt h rough
in i nt erpret at i on meth ods. Comput er tech niques are probably more
pot ent t h an model st udi es and easier t o h andle, judgi ng by t h e deart h
of model st udi es i n t h e li t erat ure."
On reading these conclusions Drum' s face visibly fell. Q uite apart from
t h e fact t h at h e w as, I suspect , looki ng forw ard t o playing around w ith
physical models, h e h ad not h ad t h e t i me t o keep abreast of t h e rapi d
developments in scientific computing at th at time. However, plent y of
h elp w as at h and. Several ot h er research st udent s i n t h e depart ment w ere
usi ng comput er met h ods, albeit i n ot h er cont ext s, and Teddy h i mself w as
not only at th e forefront of development s in comput i ng in relation to geo-
physics, but h ad also w ri t t en a program t o comput e a magnet i c anomaly
profi le across a t w o-di mensi onal model. However, t h i s program w as w rit-
t en i n mach i ne code and could only assume i nduced magnet i zat i on i n
t h e body produci ng t h e anomaly. I h ad t aken a course i n comput er pro-
grammi ng duri ng t h e previous t erm and, alt h ough I h ad learned
mach i ne code, i t w as clear t h at all fut ure programmi ng w ould be i n
h igh er-level aut ocode. I t h erefore set about w ri t i ng my ow n tw o-dimen-
sional program for t h e i nt erpret at i on of profi les, usi ng mat h emat i cal
expressions publi sh ed i n several places i n t h e li t erat ure, and allowing for
any di rect i on of result ant magnet i zat i on, t h at i s, remanent plus i nduced
magnet i zat i on.
17
Drum Mat t h ew s ret urned from t h e I ndi an Ocean w i t h a large quant i t y
of magnetic data, i ncludi ng a detailed survey of the crest of the Carlsberg
Ridge in the nort h w est Indi an Ocean at 5N. Th is survey, measuri ng 51 by
39 naut i cal mi les and know n as Area 4A, was the largest and most detailed
survey of a know n mid-ocean ridge crest at t h at time.
18
Clearly if I was to
i nt erpret t h i s quantitatively, I would need a program capable of calculat-
i ng t h e anomaly over th ree-dimensional feat ures so t h at I could carry out
th e correction for i nduced magnet i zat i on as envisaged by D rum.
At about t h i s t i me, I visited I mperi al College, London, w h ere a mat h -
emat i ci an, Dr. K. Kunarat nam, h ad just complet ed h i s Ph .D. under Pro-
fessor J. M. Brucksh aw and Dr. R. G. Mason.
19
He had developed a vari-
et y of t ech ni ques for i nt erpret i ng bot h gravi t y and magnet i c anomali es
i n ei t h er profi le or survey form, assumi ng two- or t h ree-di mensi onal
models respectively. Hi s program for a t h ree-di mensi onal source regi on
used a part i cularly elegant met h od bot h t o approxi mat e t h e body and
t o calculat e t h e anomaly i n t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld developed over i t .
56 THE EARLY WORK
Th is w as an i mport ant consi derat i on at th e t i me in view of th e slow speed
and small storage capacity of comput ers. The program could also
deduce t h e di rect i on and i nt ensi t y of magnet i zat i on of a speci fi c topo-
graph i c feat ure, given details of t h e t opograph y and of t h e anomaly
observed over it. Such a program w as ideal for i nt erpret i ng the anom-
alies measured over isolated seamount s. Kunarat nam h ad developed i t
i n order t o i nt erpret t h e anomali es associated w i t h seamount s w i t h i n t h e
area surveyed off t h e w est coast of Nort h Ameri ca i n t h e mi d- t o lat e
1950s by Mason and Art h ur Raff.
20
In a si mi lar vei n, part of my Ph .D.
project w as t o i nt erpret earli er magnet i c surveys acqui red by t h e depart -
ment , and t h ese w ere t ypi cally of isolated seamount s. Dr. Kunarat nam
gave me a draft copy of h i s thesis and said t h at I w as w elcome t o use any
of t h e mat h emat i cal formulat i ons h e h ad developed. I t h erefore w rot e
t h e equi valent of h i s t h ree-di mensi onal program for use on t h e Cam-
bri dge (Mat h emat i cal Laborat ory) comput er, EDSAC 2. Subsequent ly,
i n order t o i nt erpret larger surveys of i rregular t opograph y, such as t h e
w h ole of Area 4A, I w ould need to ut i li ze a more convent i onal, if less effi -
ci ent , formulat i on i n w h i ch t h e bat h ymet ry (ocean floor t opograph y) i s
approxi mat ed by a grid of vert i cal pri sms.
In many ways the result s of D rum' s magnet i c survey of Area 4A w ere
so spect acular t h at t h ey di d not need quant i t at i ve i nt erpret at i on. Wh i le
maki ng t h e survey h e w as concerned, on t h e basis of t h e bat h ymet ry, t h at
t h ey w ere not over t h e ridge crest. Wi t h h i ndsi gh t t h i s w as underst and-
able because approxi mat ely one-t h i rd of the survey area is occupi ed by a
transverse fract ure zone (i ncludi ng w h at w e w ould now call a t ransform
fault ), and away from t h i s, t h e cent ral valley i s not w ell, or cont i nuously,
developed. At one poi nt t h e cent ral valley appears t o be blocked, pre-
sumably by volcani sm. In cont rast t o t h e bat h ymet ry, away from t h e frac-
t ure zone t h e magnet i c anomali es generally form areas of positive and
negative anomalies separat ed by st eep anomaly gradi ent s t h at parallel t h e
t rend of t h e ridge and largely disregard t h e bat h ymet ry beneat h t h em.
Wi t h i n the areas of positive anomaly, t h ere are some positive correlat i ons
w i t h bath ymetry, and w i t h i n areas of negative anomaly some negative cor-
relations. This i s w h at one w ould expect for reversely and normally mag-
net i zed feat ures respectively at t h i s lat i t ude. T h us quali t at i ve i nspect i on
alone indicated t h at , away from the fract ure zone, the area is underlai n
by blocks or avenues of normally and reversely magnet i zed crust t h at par-
allel th e t rend of th e ridge crest . Moreover, th e cent er or crest of th e ridge
is more reliably identified by a large amplitude negative magnetic anom-
Reversals of F ortune 57
anomaly, i mplyi ng t h at i t i s underlai n by normally magnet i zed crust , t h an
by th e medi an valley, w h i ch is less cont i nuous.
Once I h ad seen t h e Area 4A magnet i c survey and made t h i s preli m-
i nary assessment of t h e result s, i t w as a very small st ep t o t h e formulat i on
of w h at became know n as t h e Vi neMat t h ew s h ypot h esi s, part i cularly i n
view of my prejudi ces regardi ng sea floor spreadi ng and cont i nent al
dri ft . (Th e lat t er, i nci dent ally, amount ed t o no more t h an t est i ng a
h ypot h esi s, w h i ch I h ad been t augh t w as t h e essence of t h e sci ent i fi c
met h od.) Wh at w as now clear, h ow ever, w as t h at D rum' s deci si on t o
devote sh i p t i me t o such a det ai led and t i me-consumi ng survey w as an
i nspi red one.
I am unable t o pi npoi nt exact ly w h en t h e i dea fi rst came t o me. I t i s
clear from t h e quot at i ons given above t h at I w as qui t e close t o i t w h en
w ri t i ng my li t erat ure review i n January 1963. I t seems probable t h at i t
occurred i n February or March 1963. Unbeknow n t o me, at preci sely t h i s
t i me, Law rence Morley, of t h e Canadi an Geological Survey, penned a let -
t er t o Nature proposi ng exactly t h e same i dea. He w as unable, h ow ever,
t o draw on a survey of a know n ri dge crest and h ad t o make t h e case w i t h
reference t o t h e linear anomalies mapped i n t h e nort h east Pacific,
w h i ch w ere not obvi ously relat ed t o a mi d-ocean ri dge. Morley' s paper
w as reject ed by Nature, and subsequent ly by t h e Journal of Geop hysic al
Researc h, for bei ng t oo radi cal and speculat i ve. I t w as four years before I
became aware of this remarkable coi nci dence and 18 before Morley's
' let t er' w as reproduced i n pri nt i n full.
21
Meanw h i le, D rum Mat t h ew s and I h ad deci ded t h at h ow ever con-
vi nci ng t h e case mi gh t be t o t h ose w ell-versed i n t h e i nt erpret at i on of
magnet i c anomalies (w h i ch t urned out not t o be t rue) t h ere w ere very
few people i n t h i s category. In t h e h ope of convi nci ng a w i der audi ence,
t h erefore, w e deci ded t h at I sh ould undert ake some comput er-based
i nt erpret at i on before w ri t i ng up t h e i dea for publi cat i on. T h us i t w as
May before I sat down and w rot e th e fi rst draft of th e Vi ne and Mat t h ew s
paper; D rum w as on h i s h oneymoon at t h e t i me. I t di ffered from t h e
publi sh ed paper i n t h at i t di d not i nclude t h e fi rst t w o paragraph s and
t h e penult i mat e paragraph (excludi ng t h e acknow ledgment s). I t di d,
however, i nclude more details of the acquisition and reduct i on of the
Area 4A survey. It w as review ed i nt ernally by Mauri ce H i ll, Teddy Bullard,
and ult i mat ely D rum. I cannot be cert ai n, but I suspect t h at Hi ll w as very
unh appy w i t h i t , t h at Teddy w as qui t e exci t ed about i t (recogni zi ng t h e
t remendous implications i f i t t urned out t o be correct ), and t h at D rum,
caugh t i n t h e mi ddle, di d not know w h at t o t h i nk, except perh aps t h at
58 THE EARLY WORK
h avi ng a research st udent was somet h i ng of a mixed blessing. All agreed
t h at t h e full details of t h e acqui si t i on and reduct i on of t h e Area 4A sur-
vey w ere i nappropri at e t o a let t er t o Nature and so t h i s sect i on w as
removed. Th e problem t h en w as t h at i t became rat h er long on i nt er-
pret at i on and speculat i on and sh ort on ori gi nal dat a.
In order t o solve t h i s problem, as I t h i nk h e i n part i cular saw i t , Hi ll
gave us permi ssi on t o i nclude t w o long, unpubli sh ed magnet i c profi les
across the crests and flanks of the Nort h Atlantic and nort h w est Indi an
Ocean ridges acqui red by th e group in 1960 and 1962 respectively. Th e
t i t le w as ch anged from "Magnet i c Anomali es over t h e Oceans" t o "Mag-
net i c Anomali es over Oceani c Ridges," and t h e i nt roduct ory paragraph s
w ere added t o set t h e scene and i ncorporat e t h e ri dge profi les. Know i ng
now t h e di ffi cult y t h at Larry Morley h ad i n get t i ng h i s art i cle publi sh ed,
t h i s could h ave been a very si gni fi cant addi t i on, and I suspect t h at Mau-
rice Hill had a very shrewd idea as to w h at would be acceptable to Nature.
I t h i nk t h at t h e paper w as submi t t ed t o Nature i n lat e June or early July,
probably by D rum or Mauri ce, for I have no record of i t . It appeared i n
Nature for Sept ember 7, 1963. By t h i s t i me the t h ree of us w ere at sea on
t h e RRS Disc overy on a four-mont h expedi t i on i n t h e nort h w est I ndi an
Ocean, ret urni ng t o t h e Uni t ed Ki ngdom i n December.
A P O O R R E C E P T I O N
I ni t i al react i on t o t h e paper was, t o say t h e least , mut ed. In part i cular,
those most fami li ar w i t h t h e i nt erpret at i on of magnet i c anomali es w ere
less t h an impressed. At t h e Royal Society Discussion Meet i ng on Cont i -
nent al D ri ft h eld i n London on March 19-20, 1964, Vi c Vacqui er, t h e
only speaker t o ment i on t h e h ypot h esi s, said t h at th is "attractive mech -
ani sm i s probably not adequat e t o account for all t h e fact s of observa-
t i on. A t h eory consi st ent w i t h t h e fact s i s still needed t o account for t h e
exi st ence of t h e nort h -sout h magnet i c li neat i ons i n t h e nort h -east ern
Paci fi c. Wh ere t h e East Paci fi c Rise can act ually be seen, no li neat ed
magnet i c pat t ern w as found."
22
Mani k Talw ani, of Lamont , i n w ri t i ng a
review of mari ne geoph ysi cs, referred to our i dea as "i mprobable, star-
tling."
23
In papers publi sh ed in 1965 George Pet er and H arry Stew art,
of t h e U.S. Coast and Geodet i c Survey, Wash i ngt on, and Ji m H ei rt zler
and Xavi er Le Pi ch on, at Lamont , fai led t o i nvoke or ment i on t h e pos-
si bi li t y of reversely magnet i zed crust i n modeli ng oceani c magnet i c
anomali es.
24
On t h e ot h er h and, i n let t ers t o Nature, Harry Hess referred
t o t h e "frui t ful Vi ne and Mat t h ew s h ypot h esi s" (a pun of w h i ch h e w as
Reversals of F ortune 59
qui t e proud), and George Backus, of t h e I nst i t ut e of Geoph ysi cs and
Planet ary Ph ysi cs, San Di ego, w h o h ad probably been convert ed by an
enth usiastic exposition from Teddy Bullard, w rot e constructively, sug-
gest i ng a possi ble test for t h e h ypot h esi s.
25
Backus poi nt ed out t h at , i f
t h e idea i s correct , t h e magnet i c anomali es measured along east-west
profi les across t h e South At lant i c Ocean sh ould i ncrease i n w i dt h t o t h e
sout h , reflect i ng t h e fact t h at t h e separat i on of Sout h Ameri ca and Afri ca
becomes great er as one moves sout h .
For me, 1964 w as a fallow year as far as t h e h ypot h esi s w as concerned,
and I concent rat ed on produci ng more substantial, or at least conven-
t i onally accept able, mat eri al for my t h esi s, as w ell as h elpi ng t o run a
Scout t roop. Th e most si gni fi cant t h i ng I di d w as t o get marri ed, i n
March , and probably t h e next most si gni fi cant t h i ng w as t o w ri t e t o
H arry Hess at Pri ncet on, tow ard t h e end of t h e year, t o ask h i m i f t h ere
w as any possi bi li t y of fi ndi ng me a job t h ere once I h ad complet ed my
Ph .D., h opefully by Sept ember 1965.1 h ad h eard t h at Hess w as t o spend
a sabbatical at Madi ngley Rise duri ng th e early part of 1965, and I did
not w ant t o confront h i m face t o face w i t h t h i s quest i on, but t o give h i m
t i me t o t h i nk about i t . I di d not receive a w ri t t en reply, w h i ch w as unsur-
pri si ng, but i t meant t h at I w as on t ent erh ooks w h en h i s arri val w as
i mmi nent . Much t o my deli gh t , on h i s arrival t h e fi rst t h i ng h e said t o
me w as t h at h e t h ough t t h at our idea w as great , and t h e second t h i ng h e
said w as t h at h e t h ough t h e w ould be able t o fi nd a posi t i on for me at
Pri ncet on.
T HE J UA N DE FUC A RI DGE
Tuzo Wi lson, from t h e Uni versi t y of Toront o, w as also on sabbatical at
Madi ngley Rise duri ng t h e early part of 1965, and i t w as duri ng t h i s t i me
t h at h e formulat ed t h e concept of t ransform fault s.
26
I n applyi ng t h i s
i dea t o t h e w orldw i de system of ri dges and t rench es, h e event ually
arri ved at t h e Gulf of Cali forni a and recogni zed t h at t h e San Andreas
must be a major t ransform fault system. Fart h er t o t h e nort h , t h e Q ueen
Ch arlot t e Islands st ri ke-sli p fault system appeared t o be anot h er trans-
form fault t ermi nat i ng i n (' t ransformi ng' i nt o) t h e Aleut i an t rench at i t s
nort h ern end. How ever, off t h e states of Wash i ngt on and Oregon t h ere
i s a gap and offset i n t h e sei smi ci t y associ at ed w i t h t h ese t w o fault sys-
t ems. Th e logic of Wi lson' s h ypot h esi s predi ct ed t h at t h ere sh ould be a
sh ort lengt h of ri dge bet w een t h e t w o fault s i n t h i s area w h i ch h e named
th e Juan de Fuca Ridge aft er th e Strait of Juan de Fuca, w h i ch forms th e
60 THE EARLY WORK
boundary bet w een t h e Uni t ed States and Canada along t h i s coastline.
Tuzo w as explai ni ng t h i s t o H arry Hess and me w h en H arry suddenly
i nt errupt ed h i m and said, "If you w ant t o put a ridge t h ere, t h at i s one
of t h e few oceani c areas for w h i ch t h ere i s a det ai led magnet i c survey,
and if Fred is ri gh t , t h ere sh ould be a clear expression of th e ri dge in
t h at survey." I dash ed upst ai rs t o t h e li brary t o look at t h e volume of t h e
Bulletin of the Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a cont ai ni ng t h e relevant art i cle
by Raff and Mason.
27
I cannot remember w h et h er I t ook a qui ck look at t h e summary map
before rush i ng back t o Tuzo's offi ce and set t i ng i t before Tuzo and
Harry. All t h ree of us stared at i t i n amazement . Not only w ere t h ere lin-
ear magnet i c anomali es paralleli ng t h e t rend of Tuzo's put at i ve ridge,
but t h ere w as also a symmet ry t o t h e pat t ern of anomali es about t h e ridge
crest. Despi t e t h e fact t h at t h i s di agram h ad been i n t h e li t erat ure for
four years, no one i t seems h ad not i ced t h i s symmetry. Th e i rony of t h e
discovery of th e Juan de Fuca Ri dge, or rat h er its non-discovery at an ear-
li er dat e, i s t h at because t h e survey w as undert aken for mi li t ary purposes
duri ng t h e Cold War - det ai led maps of t h e bat h ymet ry and gravity fi eld
w ere requi red for t h e nuclear submari ne det errent - only t h e full details
of t h e magnet i c dat a w ere declassi fi ed. Alt h ough t h e t opograph i c
expressi on of th e Juan de Fuca Ridge is obscured by sedi ment from th e
Columbi a River fan, w h i ch spills over i t and i nfi lls much of t h e topogra-
ph y very rapidly, t h ere i s still enough on a det ai led survey t o reveal t h e
locat i on of t h e ri dge. Had t h e detailed bat h ymet ry been released at t h e
same t i me as t h e magnet i cs, t h i s w ould almost cert ai nly be a very di ffer-
ent story. In fact , Bill Menard, of t h e Scripps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanogra-
ph y, San Diego, w as aware of the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the sh ort er
Gorda Ridge to th e sout h of it, h avi ng discovered th e lat t er in 1952, and
h avi ng seen t h e classified data. He w as qui t e convi nced however, t h at
these ridges were not equivalent to mid-ocean ridges.
28
Tuzo w as planni ng to w ri t e up h is discovery of th e Juan de Fuca Ridge
as an actively spreadi ng ridge as an art i cle for the journal Sc ienc e. He pro-
posed t h at h e and I should w ri t e a second paper for Sc ienc e on t h e i nt er-
pret at i on of th e magnet i c anomali es over th e ridge. He also persuaded
me (and presumably Harry as w ell) t h at w e sh ould present these tw o
papers at the annual meet i ng of the Geological Society of Ameri ca to be
h eld i n Kansas City i n November. My w ork sch edule for t h e comi ng few
mont h s w as now clear, if a li t t le ambitious: to w rite th e paper for Sc ienc e,
to complet e and be exami ned on my thesis, and to move to Pri ncet on.
Progress on the Sc ienc e article w as slow, mai nly but not ent i rely because of
t h e compet i ng demands of t h e thesis, and Tuzo became a little i mpat i ent
Reversals of F ortune 61
because h e w as keen t o submi t t h e t w o papers togeth er. Th e paper w as
fi nally fi ni sh ed in June, th e th esis in August , and on Sept ember 16 my
w ife and I set sail from Sout h ampt on for New York on t h e United States.
Alt h ough t h e symmet ry of t h e magnet i c anomali es about t h e crest of
t h e Juan de Fuca Ridge provi ded st unni ng support for t h e i dea t h at t h ey
mi gh t result from a combination of sea floor spreading and reversals of
t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld, t h ere w as a problem w i t h t h e more detailed
i nt erpret at i on. If one assumed t h e reversal t i mescale for t h e past few mil-
lion years as defi ned t h en by Allan Cox, Ri ch ard Doell, and Brent Dal-
rymple, of t h e U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, t h e pat t ern of anom-
alies i mpli ed major ch anges i n spreadi ng rat e w i t h t i me.
29
Alt h ough
i nelegant , and count eri nt ui t i ve if spreadi ng w as relat ed to large-scale
convection in the mant le, w i t h i n this pre-plate tectonic paradigm it w as
not at all clear w h et h er one w ould expect spreadi ng t o be at a uni form
rat e or somew h at errat i c. Consi derat i on of t h i s and of th e ambi gui t y in
t h e t h i ckness of t h e source regi on for t h e anomali es meant t h at w ri t i ng
t h e Sc ienc e paper on t h e magnet i c anomali es w as not as st rai gh t forw ard
as one w ould h ave w i sh ed. Th e t w o papers appeared i n Sc ienc e on Octo-
ber 22, 1965, just a few w eeks before t h e meet i ng of t h e Geological Soci-
ety of America in Kansas City.
30
T HE J A R A M I L L O E VE N T
Tuzo w as ri gh t , of course. Th e meet i ng in Kansas City provided me w i t h
an excellent opport uni t y t o publi ci ze my ideas and t o meet Nort h Amer-
ican geologists. One such meet i ng w as part i cularly memorable and sig-
ni fi cant ; i ndeed, i t provi ded me w i t h t h e last pi ece of t h e ji gsaw puzzle
and enabled me t o make a convi nci ng and essent i ally unarguable case for
th e vali di t y of th e Vine-Matth ew s h ypot h esi s. It w as w i t h Brent Dalrym-
ple, from Menlo Park, w h o told me t h at t h ey w ere i ncreasi ngly confi dent
t h at t h ey h ad discovered an addi t i onal detail of th e reversal timescale at
around 0.9 mi lli on years before present . It w as a peri od of normal polar-
ity, of perh aps 100,000 years' durat i on, and t h ey had named it the
Jaramillo event. I reali zed at once, h avi ng pored over t h e problem for so
long and so recent ly, t h at w i t h t h i s revised timescale it w ould be possible
to i nt erpret the Juan de Fuca anomaly sequence w ith an essentially con-
st ant rat e of spreadi ng. To me, at t h at i nst ant , it w as all over, bar the sh out -
i ng. From t h e si t uat i on less t h an a year earlier, w h en I t h ough t t h at I
mi gh t spend my w h ole career t ryi ng to convi nce people of th e validity of
our idea, I could now make a compelli ng case t h at t h e sea floor not only
62 THE EARLY WORK
Successive refi nement s of t h e geomagnet i c reversal t i mescale for t h e past 3.5 mi lli on years,
obt ai ned by Cox, Doell, and Dalrymple, of t h e U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, duri ng t h e
1963-1966 peri od. Th e dat es are publi cat i on dates (Cox, A., R. R. Doell, and G. B. Dalrymple,
1963. Geomagnet i c polari t y epoch s and Plei st ocene geoch ronology. Nature 198: 1049-1051;
Cox, Doell, and Dalrymple, 1964, not e 29; Doell and Dalrymple, 1966, note 3)
spreads symmet ri cally about mid-ocean ri dges but at an essentially con-
st ant rat e, and in doi ng so, it fai t h fully records th e t i mescale of reversals
of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld. At once, t h e possibility of document i ng t h e
evolut i on of th e present -day ocean basins and th e geomagnet i c reversal
timescale for th e past 150 mi lli on to 200 mi lli on years opened up.
I N DE P E N DE N T C O N F I R MA T I O N
In February 1966 I visited th e Lament Geological Observat ory (as it w as
t h en called), at t h e i nvi t at i on of Nei l Opdyke. Nei l h ad moved t h ere i n
1963 to set up a paleomagnetic laboratory, and was housed in the same
sui t e of offi ces as Ji m Hei rt zler and h i s Magnet i cs D epart ment , w h ose
w ork i ncluded t h e st udy of mari ne magnet i c anomali es. Wh en I arri ved,
Nei l w as w orki ng on a di agram on a li gh t t able. It t ranspi red t h at i t w as
th e diagram t h at w ould become ' fi gure 1' of h is paper on th e paleo-
magnet i sm of Ant arct i c deep-sea cores t h at w as publi sh ed i n Sc ienc e lat er
t h at year.
31
"Look at t h i s Fred," h e said. "Not only h ave w e found t h e
complet e Cox, Doell, and Dalrymple t i mescale i n th ese cores, but w e
h ave also discovered an addi t i onal, normal event at around 0.9 mi lli on
years. We h ave called it th e E mperor event." "Well, I am sorry to have to
Reversals of F ortune 63
di sappoi nt you," I sai d, "but t h e Menlo Park group h ave already resolved
such an event and named i t t h e Jarami llo." Nei l' s jaw dropped. O n t h e
wall of t h e same room w ere pi nned up t h e now famous Eltanin magnet i c
and bat h ymet ri c profi les across t h e Paci fi c-Ant arct i c Ri dge t h at h i s La-
mont colleague Walt er Pi t man h ad recent ly reduced. By t h i s t i me Walt
h ad joi ned us. "Furt h ermore," I said, "one can see i t on t h ese magnet i c
profi les just as you can on t h e Juan de Fuca Ridge." Walt 's jaw dropped.
Wi t h t h e addi t i on of t h e w ork on deep-sea cores w e now h ad t h ree
i ndependent records of th e geomagnetic reversal timescale for th e past
3.5 mi lli on years, and I could, w i t h some confi dence, set about review -
i ng t h e st at us of t h e Vi ne-Mat t h ew s h ypot h esi s i n t h e li gh t of new dat a,
new i deas, and t h e revised reversal t i mescale. E i t h er duri ng t h i s meet i ng
at Lamont , or soon aft er, Ji m H ei rt zler let me h ave copies of t h e Eltanin-
19 profi le and det ai ls of the aeromagnet i c survey of the R eykjanes Ridge
sout h of I celand, w h i ch w as t h e second ext ensi ve survey t o demonst rat e
t h e symmet ry of t h e magnet i c anomali es about t h e ri dge crest . Presum-
ably t h i s h ad already been prepared for publi cat i on, i n t h at i t appeared
i n pri nt a few mont h s lat er i n t h e journal Deep Sea Researc h.
32
I n t h e mont h s t h at follow ed my memorable meet i ng w i t h Nei l, Wal-
t er, and Ji m, I prepared my revi ew art i cle and made a furt h er vi si t t o La-
mont t o give a t alk. I n May or June, Walt er andji m vi si t ed Pri ncet on and
w ere surpri sed, I t h i nk, t o di scover t h at my revi ew art i cle w as rat h er w ide-
rangi ng and essentially complete. Inevitably, it drew heavily upon and
reproduced a number of magnet i c surveys and profi les acqui red by ot h -
ers. I w as anxi ous t h at I sh ould not only h ave t h ei r permi ssi on t o do t h i s
but also t h at t h e w ork sh ould be publi sh ed. Th i s w as t rue but for t h e
not able except i on of t h e Eltanin-19 profi le. Sh ould I w i t h draw i t from
t h e paper or w ai t unt i l i t w as publi sh ed? Ji m very generously suggest ed
t h at w e sh ould t ry t o arrange t o publi sh si mult aneously i n Sc ienc e, and I
w as h appy t o agree t o t h i s.
Th e paper on t h e Eltanin profi les by Ji m H ei rt zler and Walt er Pi t man
was publish ed two w eeks ah ead of mi ne, on December 2, 1966; t h i s
st ruck me as ent i rely reasonable.
33
T h ere w ere many rumors ci rculat i ng
at t h e t i me regardi ng t h e lobbyi ng and di scussi ons t h at w ere goi ng on
i n relat i on t o t h ese t w o papers. Th e only h ard evi dence I ever h ad of t h i s,
apart from t h e delay i n publi cat i on, w as a comment from H arry Hess,
w h o w as a good fri end of Ph il Abelson, t h e edi t or of Sc ienc e at t h e t i me.
Abelson h ad asked H arry w h et h er h e t h ough t t h at my paper w as w ort h
publi sh i ng; apparent ly h e felt t h at Sc ienc e w as carryi ng t oo many eart h
sci ence art i cles at t h e t i me.
At t h e meet i ngs h eld i n New York and San Franci sco i n November
64 THE EARLY WORK
1966, at w h ich I presented the cont ent of this paper, Lynn Sykes, of La-
mont , gave present at i ons of h i s recent w ork on focal mech ani sm solu-
t i ons for eart h quakes associated w i t h mid-ocean ridge crests.
34
Th i s
confi rmed t h e vali di t y of Tuzo Wi lson' s t ransform fault h ypot h esi s, and
provi ded furt h er, and ent i rely i ndependent , evidence for t h e reali t y of
sea floor spreadi ng. Togeth er w i t h t h e symmet ry of t h e magnet i c anom-
alies about ri dge crests and t h ei r correlat i on w i t h t h e geomagnet i c rever-
sal timescale, this result fi nally convinced most eart h scientists of the
vali di t y of th e h ypot h esi s of sea floor spreadi ng, and h ence of cont i nen-
tal dri ft .
P O S T S C R I P T
In early 1963, w h en Drum Matthew s and I fi rst discussed the possibility
of combi ni ng sea floor spreadi ng w i t h reversals of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c
fi eld t o explai n oceani c magnet i c anomali es, w e could not h ave dreamed
t h at t h e i dea w ould be spect acularly confi rmed w i t h i n less t h an t h ree
years. Th e magnet i c data t h at w e w ere w orki ng w i t h show ed no symme-
t ry or regulari t y, except for a large, cent ral anomaly over mid-ocean
ridge crests, and t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld, i f i t h ad reversed at all, w as
t h ough t to reverse at a fixed interval (possibly bet w een a half to one mil-
li on years). Taken t oget h er w i t h t h e vari able w i dt h of t h e st ri pes of t h e
nort h east Paci fi c, reversals w i t h a fi xed peri odi ci t y i mpli ed t h at t h e
spreadi ng rat e must be very i rregular. Ult i mat ely, of course, i t t ranspi red
t h at i t i s t h e t i me bet w een reversals t h at i s very i rregular and t h at t h e rat e
of spreadi ng h as been remarkably const ant for mi lli ons of years. Th e fi rst
problem, of t h e complexi t y of t h e magnet i c profi les, w as more seri ous,
alt h ough as geologists w e di d not fi nd i t surpri si ng. It i mpli ed t h at new
crust is formed by a process of i nt rusi on and ext rusi on of basalt i c mate-
ri al, and by fault i ng, over a zone perh aps a few t ens of ki lomet ers i n
w i dt h . Th i s seemed very li kely by analogy w i t h t h e cent ral zone of active
volcani sm and fault i ng on Iceland, w h i ch lies ast ri de t h e mi d-At lant i c
ridge. Wh at w e di d not reali ze at t h e t i me w as t h at spreadi ng rat es vary
greatly, by a fact or of t en, around t h e mid-ocean ri dge system, and t h at
t h e complexi t y of t h e crust al st ruct ure decreases w i t h i ncreased spread-
i ng rat e, presumably as t h e zone of format i on gets progressi vely nar-
rower. Th e spreadi ng rat es i n t h e Nort h At lant i c and t h e nort h w est
I ndi an Oceans are relat i vely slow, w h ereas t h ose on t h e East Paci fi c Rise
are t h ree t o fi ve t i mes h i gh er, and t h at for t h e Juan de Fuca Ridge i s tw ice
t h at i n t h e Nort h At lant i c. Th us t h e Paci fi c ridges beh ave more li ke a
Reversals of F ortune 65
tape recorder t h an w e could ever h ave i magi ned. I ndeed, i t h as been sug-
gested t h at fast -spreadi ng crust not only preserves a record of t h e rever-
sals of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld but , i n addi t i on, i nformat i on on
ch anges i n t h e i nt ensi t y of t h e fi eld w i t h t i me.
Wi t h i n t en years of t h e confi rmat i on of t h e Vine-Matthew s-Morley
(VMM) h ypot h esi s, t h e same sequence of magnet i c anomali es, reflect -
i ng t h e h i st ory of reversals of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld duri ng t h e past
160 mi lli on years, had been recognized in all the major ocean basins. By
rew i ndi ng t h e tape recorder i t w as possible t o det ermi ne t h e relat i ve
positions of t h e cont i nent s, and t h e sequence of cont i nent al dri ft ,
t h rough out t h i s peri od of t i me. My one regret , as a geologist, w as t h at
t h i s det ai led record, w ri t t en w i t h i n t h e 60 percent of t h e eart h ' s surface
covered by oceani c crust , i s only available for 4 percent of geologic t i me.
Earli er ph ases of cont i nent al dri ft w ould h ave t o be deduced from t h e
more complex and fragment ary geological record w i t h i n t h e 40 percent
of t h e eart h ' s surface covered by cont i nent al crust .
A surpri si ng aspect of t h e w i despread accept ance of t h e VMM h ypot h -
esis in 1966 w as the fact t h at t h ere w as no di rect evidence t h at the mag-
net i c st ri pes are underlai n by bands of normally and reversely magne-
tized crust. It w as only i nferred, t h ere bei ng no oriented samples from
t h e volcani c rocks of t h e ocean floor. It w as many years before t h ere w as
evidence for this: initially from measurement s of the magnetic fi eld
made very close t o t h e sea floor, and ult i mat ely from t h e recovery of ori-
ented drill cores. In a similar vein, it was 20 years before it became pos-
sible to confi rm th e rates of spreadi ng deduced in 1966 by an i ndepen-
dent t ech ni que. By the mid-1980s, it was possible to det ermi ne the
ch ange i n t h e di st ance bet w een t w o poi nt s w i t h i n t h e i nt eri ors of di ffer-
ent plates, by maki ng repeat measurements over several years using the
satellite laser rangi ng t ech ni que.
Still out st andi ng is the nat ure and vertical ext ent of the magnetic
crust t h at gives rise t o t h e anomali es. Th e basalt i c layer, w h i ch i s typically
less t h an one kilometer (0.6 mile) thick, is strongly magnetized w h en
fi rst formed, but i t s magnet i zat i on decays w i t h t i me. I t w ould appear t h at
a lower crustal layer also preserves the magnetic record, and t h at this
magnet i zat i on i s more stable w i t h t i me. It s cont ri but i on t o t h e magnet i c
anomalies probably becomes more si gni fi cant as the crust gets older, but
t h e preci se nat ure, geomet ry, and t h i ckness of t h i s layer are still not fully
understood.
Th e cont ri but i on t h at I w as able t o make t o t h i s subject , duri ng t h e
19631966 period, was a classic example of being "in the right place at
t h e ri gh t t i me." I w as lucky. I t h i nk I could claim t h at , t o some ext ent , I
66 THE EARLY WORK
maneuvered myself i nt o an area t h at st ruck me as bei ng fert i le ground
for a possible breakt h rough . Th ere i s li t t le doubt , h ow ever, t h at t h e i nt el-
lect ual envi ronment in the Depart ment of Geodesy and Geophysics at
Cambri dge at t h e t i me w as an i deal spaw ni ng ground for such an i dea.
In t h e 1950s, much of t h e early paleomagnet i c w ork t h at provi ded sup-
port for t h e t h eory of cont i nent al dri ft w as carri ed out t h ere. Teddy
Bullard h ad w orked on t h e origin and nat ure of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c
fi eld. Bullard and Mauri ce Hill w ere w orki ng i n mari ne geology and geo-
physics, and D rum Mat t h ew s w as one of very few people w h o h ad mea-
sured the magnetic properties of basaltic rocks dredged from the ocean
floor. I also h ad t h e advant age of h avi ng h eard t alks by Pat ri ck Blacket t
and Harry Hess on cont i nent al dri ft and sea floor spreadi ng. Basically,
t h ere w as very li t t le left for me t o do.
C HA P T E R 4
T HE Z E BRA PAT T E RN
Laurence W. Morley
67
68 THE EARLY WORK
T H I S MAP WAS CH O S E N AS T H E CE N T E R PI E CE O F MY E S S AY BE -
cause, i n my opi ni on, i t w as t h e trigger t h at set off t h e escalation of inves-
t i gat i ons and ideas t h at culmi nat ed i n t h e t h eory of plat e t ect oni cs. Pro-
fessor R. G. Mason and his co-author, A. D. R aff, undert ook several
voyages, plow ing back and fort h across t h e nort h east ern Paci fi c i n a sh i p
t ow i ng a magnet omet er t h at cont i nually measured t h e i nt ensi t y of t h e
eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld.
1
These data w ere compi led and present ed i n t h e
fi gure above. I shall at t empt to trace the train of events and discoveries
over the years from 1946 unt i l 1963 t h at led to the t h eory of plat e tec-
t oni cs. I sh all also t ry t o sh ow t h at i t w as t h i s map and i t s lat er i nt erpre-
t at i on t h at provided t h e i ncreased i nt erest and research activity t h at led
t o t h e legi t i mi zat i on of t h e t h eory of cont i nent al dri ft and plat e t ect on-
ics. Of necessi t y, i t will be li mi t ed t o my personal experi ence i n recalli ng
t h e fact s as t h ey w ere revealed t o me t h rough my ow n w ork and research
and t h rough t h e available sci ent i fi c li t erat ure. My di rect i nvolvement i n
paleomagnet i c research cut s off i n 1963, w h en my consumi ng i nt erest
sw itch ed t o remot e sensi ng. Anyone promi nent i n t h i s fi eld aft er 1963
sh ould not feel sli gh t ed by my lack of reference t o t h ei r w ork.
E A R L Y I N T E R D I S C I P L I N A R Y T R A I N I N G
My i nt erest in geophysics goes back to my undergraduat e years at the Uni -
versity of Toront o, Canada. In 1938, I had enrolled in mat h emat i cs and
physics and w as h eaded toward a career in act uari al science. Duri ng th e
summer aft er my fi rst year, I w orked w i t h a life i nsurance company calcu-
lat i ng policy dividends on a mech ani cal calculator. The w ork w as so bor-
i ng t h at t h e t h ough t of spendi ng my career i n t h at envi ronment caused
me to choose the option in my second year w h ich w as h onors physics and
geology. I soon found out t h at t h i s course w as i nt ended as an interdisci-
pli nary experi ment , t h at t h ere were only tw o of us enrolled, and t h at pre-
viously t h ere had only been one graduate in the past six years, J. Tuzo Wil-
son. He later became my Ph .D. supervisor and still lat er h e became one
of t h e group t h at originated t h e t h eory and t h e name p late tec tonic s.
I also soon learned about t h e h uge gulf t h at exi st ed, at t h e t i me,
bet w een t h e geologist's mi nd and t h e ph ysi ci st 's mi nd. Ph ysicists looked
down upon geology as bei ng a descri pt i ve and quali t at i ve subject t h at di d
not really quali fy as a sci ence, and geologists t h ough t t h at ph ysicists w ere
"egg h eads" w h o did not live in th e real w orld. Needless to say, th e tw o
groups h ad di ffi cult y i n communi cat i ng professi onally. Th e ph ysi cs and
geology course w as set up so t h at h alf of my lect ures w ere in th e Geology
The Zebra Pattern 69
Law rence Morley, around 1963. (Ph ot o court esy of Law rence Morley.)
D epart ment and t h e ot h er h alf i n t h e Ph ysics D epart ment . I t w ould be
a few years before I could fi gure out h ow t o fi t t h e t w o subjects together,
so di fferent w ere t h ei r cult ures. T h rough out my career, t h i s i nt erdi sci -
pli nary t rai ni ng put me i n t h e h abi t of readi ng t h e new li t erat ure from
bot h di sci pli nes, w h i ch I reali zed, i n ret rospect , enabled me t o envisage
t h e h ypot h esi s t h at w ould explai n t h e zebra pat t ern.
In my st udi es, I h ad become qui t e i nt erest ed i n geomagnet i sm, espe-
cially i n i t s appli cat i on t o mi neral prospect i ng. In 1940, i n t h e mi ddle
of my t h i rd year, I left the university to joi n the British Navy as a radar
offi cer at sea. In lat er years, t h i s experi ence i n elect roni cs h elped me
devise i nst rument s for my Ph.D. thesis. It also aroused my interest in
oceanograph y. Aft er World War II, I graduat ed i n 1946 and t ook a job
70 THE EARLY WORK
w i t h a small geoph ysi cal prospect i ng company doi ng magnet omet er sur-
veys usi ng t h e most sensi t i ve magnet omet er know n at t h e t i me. It w as an
Askani a magnet omet er, i nvent ed i n Germany and desi gned for
prospect i ng for magnet i c ore. I t measured t h e ch anges i n t h e i nt ensi t y
of t h e vert i cal component of t h e geomagnet i c fi eld, w h i ch deflect ed a
magnet i zed needle balanced h ori zont ally on a kni fe edge. Th is w as h i gh -
t ech at t h e t i me. It w ould t ake a w h ole day t o collect a mi le-long mag-
net i c profi le of dat a. Th i s t edi ous w ork, combi ned w i t h unbeli evable
clouds of mosqui t oes i n t h e Canadi an Sh i eld, led me t o t h i nk t h at per-
h aps I h ad made a mi st ake i n droppi ng act uari al sci ence.
T HE A I R B O R N E M A G N E T O M E T E R
I remembered from lect ures t h at t h e Gulf Research and D evelopment
Corporat i on, a research subsi di ary of t h e Gulf Oi l Corporat i on, w as
w orki ng on a new i nvent i on - an ai rborne magnet omet er t h at h ad been
used experi ment ally duri ng World War II t o det ect submerged sub-
mari nes.
2
I dreamed of th e possibility of bei ng able to collect a li ne-mi le
of dat a w i t h an ai rborne magnet omet er in 20 seconds i nst ead of t aki ng a
w h ole day on t h e ground. Wh at a pow erful prospect i ng tool t h i s w ould be!
It could be used to cover ext remely large areas very qui ckly and cheaply.
With these t h ough t s in mi nd in the fall of 1946,1 emerged from the bush
and h eaded for t h e Gulf Research and Development Corporation locat ed
in Harmarvi lle, Pennsylvania, just outside Pi t t sburgh , to see if I could get
ajob connect ed w i t h t h ei r ai rborne magnet omet er. They w ere put t i ng t h e
fi nal touches on the latest version t h at Victor Vacquier (now at the Scripps
I nst i t ut e of Oceanograph y) h ad adapt ed for use as an ai rborne i nst rument
to be towed on an 80-foot cable beh i nd an ai rcraft to avoid bei ng mag-
net i cally cont ami nat ed by stray magnet i c fi elds ori gi nat i ng i n t h e ai rcraft
itself. They di dn' t hire me because "I di dn' t have a Ph.D." However, they
i nt roduced me to an executive of Fai rch i ld Aerial Surveys, Los Angeles,
named Max Ph i lli ps, w ith w h om Gulf h ad just cont ract ed t o magnet i cally
survey th e major part of th e Llanos areas east of th e Andes in Venezuela
and Colombia. To my surprise and delight I was instantly hired as the part y
ch ief for t h e two-year project (1947-1948). As i t t urned out , t h at i nst ant
det ermi ned my career for t h e next 20 years.
Th e Llanos area w as totally vi rgi n t erri t ory as far as know ledge of th e
geology w as concerned. It w as mostly covered w ith t h i ckjungle and t h ere
w ere few open areas or rock out crops t o map t h e geology. T h us, t h e
dream about t h e pow er of t h i s i nst rument for conduct i ng reconnai s-
The Zebra Pattern 71
sance surveys over very large areas qui ckly and ch eaply w as reali zed a lot
fast er t h an I could have imagined. This w as the world's fi rst commercial
aeromagnet i c survey, and i t effect i vely demonst rat ed t h e pow er of t h e
i nst rument . As a result of this survey, sedimentary basins w ere discovered
t h at today h ave become i mport ant oi l-produci ng regi ons. (Most of t h e
pot ent i al oi l and mi neral areas of t h e w orld, i ncludi ng t h e cont i nent al
shelves, have now been covered by aeromagnet i c surveys.) Ten years
lat er, th e same magnet omet er w as adapt ed by R. G. Mason and A. D. Raff
for use as a sh i pborne i nst rument t h at could be towed on a long cable
t o avoid bei ng affect ed by t h e sh i p's magnet i zat i on. It w as t h i s i nst ru-
ment t h at w as used t o cover t h e very large area i n t h e nort h east Paci fi c
from w h i ch t h e zebra pat t ern map w as produced.
I ret urned from South America to Toronto in September 1948 to w ork
w i t h D omi ni on Gulf Company, a Canadi an subsi di ary of th e Gulf Oil
Corporation. They wished to exploit the use of t h ei r new "toy" in the
explorat i on for mi nerals as w ell as for oil. In t h e fi rst fli gh t over a por-
tion of the Precambri an Shield in nort h ern Ontario, we recorded a mag-
net i c anomaly so i nt ense t h at i t ran t h e recorder off-scale. For t h e next
t en years, t h ere w as a feedi ng frenzy of prospect ors looki ng for magnet i c
ore deposits i n t h e Canadi an Sh i eld. Th e end result w as t h at enough
i ron ore w as di scovered t o meet t h e demand for t h e next 50 years.
I joi ned th e Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) in 1952, as t h ei r fi rst
geoph ysi ci st , t o take ch arge of an aeromagnet i c mappi ng project . In t h e
GSC the magnet omet er proved useful for assisting geological mappi ng
in areas covered by lakes and sw amps. In 1960, w e i ni t i at ed a cont ract
project to cover the w hole Canadian Shield, at h alf-mile spacing at a cost
of about $30 mi lli on over 17 years. More t h an 5,000 aeromagnet i c maps
at a scale of one i nch to the mile w ere published and made available to
prospect ors for 75 cent s each . Th e benefi t s of t h i s survey t o t h e mi ni ng
i ndust ry i n Canada h ave never been calculat ed, but t h ey must be more
t h an several bi lli on dollars and are still goi ng st rong.
P O S T G R A D U A T E T HE S I S WO R K
In 1949,1 left D omi ni on Gulf t o ret urn t o t h e Uni versi t y of Toront o for
postgraduate training because of a remark made by one of Gulfs senior
geologists: "geoph ysicists are great at going out and gat h eri ng and com-
piling data, but w h en it comes to i nt erpret i ng the maps, t h ey look like
a bunch of monkeys t ryi ng t o read t h e New York Times."" Th i s remark
cert ai nly described me, so i n an effort t o underst and and i nt erpret t h e
72 THE EARLY WORK
geological causes of magnetic anomalies t h at were depicted by cont our
li nes on aeromagnet i c maps, I began t h e st udy of rock magnet i sm under
Professor J. Tuzo Wilson, w ho had recent ly been appoi nt ed h ead of the
Geoph ysi cs D epart ment . Wilson w as most ly i nt erest ed i n macro-geology:
t h e t h eory of cont i nent al grow t h , mount ai n-bui ldi ng, and geosyncli nes.
In st udyi ng rock magnet i sm, I w as very much on my ow n at t h e t i me: Wil-
son w as not a "dri ft er," a w ord used t o descri be "t h e lunat i c fri nge" w h o
believed t h at cont i nent al dri ft mi gh t h ave been possible.
Underst andably, I got no h elp from ei t h er t h e Ph ysi cs or Geology
Depart ment s because none of th e staff in ei t h er depart ment h ad any
i dea w h at I w as t ryi ng t o do w i t h such an esot eri c subject . I also found
t h e i nt ernat i onal li t erat ure very t h i n i n t h i s fi eld. Previ ous i nvest i gat ors
h ad begun t o use t h e term f ossil magnetism because t h ey found t h at rema-
nent magnet i sm appeared t o be ' frozen' i nt o t h e rocks i n t h e di rect i on
of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld prevai li ng at t h e t i me t h e rocks became con-
soli dat ed.
3
Th ey post ulat ed t h at t h e process w as analogous t o t h e fos-
silization of sea li fe, so the term f ossil magnetism began to be used. Later,
w h en i t s pot ent i al began t o be fully reali zed, i t w as given t h e more eru-
di t e Greek descri pt i on p aleomagnetism.
French i nvest i gat ors i n t h e 1920s h ad measured t h e remanent mag-
net i zat i on of anci ent eart h enw are pot s found by arch aeologi st s. Th e
purpose w as t o det ermi ne t h ei r ages, or alt ernat i vely, i f t h ey knew t h e
age of t h e pot , t h ey could est i mat e t h e angle of decli nat i on bet w een t h e
geomagnetic and geographic nort h poles at th e time th e pot w as fi red.
I t h ad been sh ow n experi ment ally t h at i f an eart h enw are pot w ere fi red
i n a ki ln t o a t emperat ure above t h e Curi e poi nt for h emat i t e (675C)
and subsequent i ally cooled t o room t emperat ure, i t always acqui red a
remanent magnet i zat i on i n a di rect i on parallel t o t h e eart h ' s fi eld.
4
As
pots are always placed vert i cally on t h ei r bot t oms w h en bei ng fi red, i t
means t h at i t i s possible by measuri ng t h e di rect i on of t h e remanent vec-
tor, to calculat e th e magnet i c ori ent at i on of th e eart h ' s fi eld. Th e French
sci ent i st s used t h i s t ech ni que t o t ry t o t rack t h e secular movement of t h e
eart h ' s magnet i c poles duri ng history, a paramet er of great i nt erest in
t h e days before sat elli t e navi gat i on, as mari ne navi gat ors depended on
t h i s know ledge.
Before st art i ng my t h esi s research , I w as most ly i nt erest ed i n measur-
i ng t h e cont ent of t h e mi neral magnet i t e i n rocks of t h e Canadi an
Shield, because i t h as long been know n t h at i t i s ch i efly t h e varyi ng mag-
net i t e cont ent i n t h e rocks t h at causes t h e magnet i c anomali es. To mea-
sure th e magnetite cont ent of a rock in th e fi eld, I used an adapted
w art i me mi ne det ect or. I t measured magnet i c suscept i bi li t y, w h i ch h ad
The Zebra Pattern 73
been sh ow n t o be proport i onal t o t h e magnet i t e cont ent of a rock. I cal-
ibrated it by mi xi ng know n amount s of magnet i t e grains w ith non-mag-
net i c sand. I w as going t o devot e my t h esi s ent i rely t o t h i s w ork. However,
sh ortly aft er I started my research i n 1949,1 came across Joh n Grah am's
paper, w h i ch added "anot h er st ri ng t o my bow," namely, t h e measuri ng
of magnet i c remanence i n rock samples.
5
He referred t o a paper by R.H.
Joh nson t h at descri bed a ' spi nner' magnet omet er adapt ed for measur-
i ng t h e di rect i on of remanent magnet i zat i on i n small rock cubes t h at
h ad been cut from spatially ori ent ed rock speci mens broken away from
solid bedrock.
6
Usi ng t h i s t ech ni que, Grah am demonst rat ed t h at sedi-
ment ary rocks have th e ability to h ang ont o t h ei r primeval remanent
magnet i zat i ons. He di d t h i s by t aki ng a number of closely spaced rock
samples from a sedi ment ary layer t h at h ad been folded i nt o an anticline.
Even t h ough t h e rock w as folded, i t managed t o h ang ont o i t s ori gi nal
magnetization and was said to be magnetically stable. By studying the
magnet i sm i n rocks, i t w ould be possi ble t o unravel geological folds and
fault s i n compli cat ed st ruct ures. But w h at i nspi red me w as th is: Grah am
also w rot e t h at i t mi gh t be possible t o prove w h et h er or not t h e cont i -
nent s h ad dri ft ed! Geologists and geoph ysi ci st s i n t h e 1920s t h ough t
t h ey h ad buri ed Wegener's i dea of cont i nent al dri ft , w h i ch h e fi rst pub-
li sh ed i n 1912.
7
How can cont i nent s dri ft li ke sh i ps t h rough solid rock
across oceans? t h ey asked. Yet t h e ci rcumst ant i al evi dence w as mount -
i ng. Grah am w as ri gh t i n t h e end: p akomagnetism di d give quant i t at i ve
proof to cont i nent al dri ft , but not in th e w ay h e expected.
Off I w ent i nt o t h e Grenvi lle subprovi nce of t h e Canadi an Shield i n
the summer of 1951 w i t h my spi nner magnet omet er and the magnet i c
suscept i bi li t y met er. I labored for t h ree mont h s, spendi ng most of my
t i me sawing about 300 rock cubes w i t h an i nadequat e di amond-st udded
ci rcular blade. Wh en I ret urned t o t h e laborat ory i n Toront o, I remea-
sured all my samples, and t o my di smay and di sgust , most of t h e mea-
surement s h ad ch anged radically. It w as so frust rat i ng. I found t h at by
merely bangi ng t h em on t h e t able, I could ch ange t h e measured di rec-
t i on of magnet i zat i on by as much as 90! I fooled around for a bi t , mag-
net i zi ng and demagnet i zi ng my samples w i t h a permanent magnet , but
basically I considered the paleomagnetism part of my thesis a fai lure.
Th ere w as, h ow ever, an i nt erest i ng facet . Th e fi ne-grai ned volcani c rocks
held t h ei r original fossil magnet i sm, w h ereas th e coarse-grained
bat h oli t h i c rocks di d not . Furt h ermore, t h e rat i o of t h e magnet i c rema-
nent component t o t h e component i nduced by t h e eart h ' s fi eld w as
h i gh er i n t h e volcani c rocks. Th is fact lat er became i mport ant i n t h e
i nt erpret at i on of t h e zebra map.
74 THE EARLY WORK
Th e t h i ng t h at i nt erest ed me w as t h at all t h e mat h emat i cal models,
developed for i nt erpret i ng magnet i c anomali es, t ook i nt o account only
t h e i nduced component .
8
Th ey ignored t h e remanent component ,
because t h ere is no way to know the direction of the remanent compo-
nent w i t h out ext ract i ng and measuri ng a rock sample. Th i s i s not very
pract i cal w h en you are i nt erpret i ng an aeromagnet i c map h undreds of
mi les square. Th e i nduced component is always in th e same di rect i on as
t h e eart h ' s fi eld. I used t o dream "w ouldn' t i t be w onderful i f w e could
pull th e main switch on th e eart h 's magnetic field?" We could t h en do
our paleomagnet i sm w i t h out h avi ng t o cut rock samples out of t h e out -
crops. Aft er recei vi ng my Ph .D ., I left t h i s research i n order t o joi n t h e
Geological Survey of Canada in June 1952 to manage t h ei r aeromagnet i c
program.
P O L A R -WA N DE R I N G C U R VE S
In 1953,1 w as able t o at t end my fi rst meet i ng of t h e Ameri can Geophys-
ical Uni on. The keynote speaker w as Dr. Keith Runcorn, a recent Ph .D.
graduat e from Cambri dge, E ngland. To my surpri se, h e w as speaki ng on
paleomagnet i sm. To my know ledge, h e h ad not publi sh ed t h e result s of
h i s research at t h e t i me, so I knew not h i ng about h i m or h i s w ork. He
w as a very dramat i c and art i culat e speaker. He present ed t h e paleomag-
net i c results from the Torridonian Old Red Sandstones in the Uni t ed
Ki ngdom. Th ey w ere so spect acular t h at , from t h at t i me on, eart h sci-
ent i st s sat up and t ook not i ce of paleomagnet i sm (t h e fi rst t i me I h ad
ever h eard t h e t erm used). He relat ed h ow t h e magnet i zat i ons of t h ese
sedi ment s w ere unusually stable, alt h ough h e di d say one h ad t o h ave a
"green t h umb" in selecting samples t h at were stable. Also, an idea new
t o me w as t h at he c alc ulated the p osition of the geomagnetic North Pole from
t h e di rect i on of t h e magnet i zat i on at t h e t i me t h ese sedi ment s w ere laid
dow n or h ad become consoli dat ed. Th i s i mpli ed t h at i f t h e same t h i ng
w ere done on ot h er rocks of t h e same age from all over t h e w orld, t h e
pole should be in the same position. He w ent one step furt h er and stated
t h at i f many rocks of many ages from all over t h e w orld w ere measured,
w e w ould be able to plot th e posi t i on of th e pole for th e w h ole of geo-
logical h i st ory and thereby c reate a p olar-wandering c urve. Because of conti-
nent al dri ft , how ever, a polar-w anderi ng curve for each cont i nent w ould
have to be constructed. Plotting the polar-wandering curves for each
cont i nent from t h at moment on for t h e next 12 years became t h e "holy
grail" for most paleomagnet i st s.
The Zebra Pattern 75
A R E VE R S I N G E A R T H' S FI E L D?
R uncorn admi t t ed t h at t h ere w as t h ere w as a sli gh t problem w i t h t h e
result s h e h ad obt ai ned. A number of h i s samples h ad a reverse polari t y
of exact ly 180. Wi t h out ski ppi ng a beat , h e said t h at t h i s w as not a bi g
problem. He si mply count ed t h em as t h ough t h ei r polari t i es w ere not
reversed - "The E art h ' s fi eld w as probably reversed at t h e t i me." Wait a
mi nut e: w as h e saying t h at t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld w as act ually fli p-
pi ng i nsi de out t h rough out geological h i st ory, t h at t h e Nort h Pole peri -
odically became t h e Sout h Pole and t h e South Pole became t h e Nort h
Pole almost i nst ant aneously? Th e Ameri can research ers w orki ng i n pale-
omagnet i sm w ere t h ere: Joh n Grah am of t h e Carnegie I nst i t ut e and t h e
Ji m Balsley-Art h ur Buddi ngt on t eam from Pri ncet on Uni versi t y. D uri ng
t h e quest i on peri od, t h ey spoke up, st rongly di sagreei ng t h at polari t y
reversals w ere h appeni ng. Th ei r explanat i on w as t h at cert ai n rocks h ad
a peculi ar mi xt ure of ferromagnet i c mi nerals t h at someh ow caused a so-
called self-reversal duri ng t h e t i me of t h ei r emplacement . Th e debat e
w ent on for about 15 years before i t w as set t led. In t h e end, R uncorn w as
ri gh t . I t i s now know n t h at t h e eart h ' s fi eld h as been reversi ng t h rough -
out geological h i st ory.
My t h esi s supervisor, Tuzo Wi lson, w as si t t i ng besi de me and h e urged
me t o get up and "say somet h i ng" about my th esis result s. I remarked at
t h e meet i ng t h at w h ereas R uncorn w as w orki ng on sedi ment ary rocks, I
h ad been w orki ng on i gneous rocks i n t h e Precambri an Sh ield and t h at
my rocks w ere qui t e unst able - t h at I could ch ange t h ei r magnet i c ori-
ent at i on by bangi ng t h em on the table. This at t ract ed some at t ent i on,
because i t placed some doubt on t h e reli abi li t y of paleomagnet i c data. I
was invited the next summer, in 1954, to at t end a Nat i onal Science Foun-
dat i on conference at Idyllw yld, a mount ai n ret reat outside Los Angeles.
Th ere w ere 25 attendees, about half of w h om w ere young paleomagnetic
i nvest i gat ors, t h e ot h er h alf w ere seni or sci ent i st s, represent i ng a
broader area of expertise, i ncludi ng famous physicists w ith expertise in
ferromagnet i sm, geologists, and geoph ysicists. We w ere h onored by t h e
presence of the Nobel laureate, Linus Pauling. The conference lasted
t h ree days. It s mai n object i ve w as t o t ry t o cast some li gh t on w h et h er or
not th e eart h ' s fi eld h ad been reversing duri ng geological history. All th e
paleomagnet i st s present ed t h ei r result s and conclusi ons. Long discus-
sions and disagreements ensued, but not h i ng w as resolved.
I n 1955, t h e year aft er t h e AGU meet i ng i n Wash i ngt on, I h ad a
ch ance to visit Joh n Grah am in h is laborat ory at th e Carnegie Institu-
t i on, D epart ment of Terrest ri al Magnet i sm. He set me st rai gh t on t h e
76 THE EARLY WORK
i nst abi li t y of my i gneous rocks by explai ni ng t h at all rocks h ad t w o ki nds
of magnet i zat i on, a soft component and a h ard component . T h e h ard
component w as t h e one w e w ere aft er because i t h ad consi st ent result s
from w i t h i n t h e same geologi cal format i on. I t i s consi dered t o be t h e
t rue paleomagnet i c magnet i zat i on. T h e soft component , w h i ch may
h ave been caused by any number of t h i ngs - from li gh t ni ng st ri kes t o
glacial scraping - h ad to be eli mi nat ed before measuring. He h ad
devised a met h od of doi ng t h i s by subject i ng t h e sample t o an alt ernat -
i ng demagnet i zi ng fi eld at t h e cent er of a H elmh olt z coi l over t h e
period of a few mi nut es w hile gradually di mi ni sh i ng th e fi eld to zero.
9
Aft er such "magnet i c w ash i ng," t h e samples sh ow ed a consi st ency i n
t h ei r result s. I don' t know w h et h er or not h e w as t h e fi rst t o do t h i s, but
from t h en on all i nvest i gat ors magnet i cally "washed" t h ei r samples
before measuri ng. Th i s t ech ni que meant t h at almost all rocks could be
used paleomagnet i cally and t h at one di d not h ave t o h ave a "green
t h umb."
At t h e Geologi cal Survey i n Ot t aw a, I deci ded t o st art some research
i n paleomagnetism and devised anot h er spi nner magnet omet er like t h e
one I h ad made at t h e Uni versi t y of Toront o t h ree years earli er. Ph i li p
Duboi s, w h om I met at t h e geomagnet i c ret reat i n Idyllw yld, Cali forni a,
and w h o h ad complet ed h i s doct orat e at Cambri dge Uni versi t y under
Kei t h R uncorn, joi ned me at Geologi cal Survey of Canada i n 1956 for a
year or t w o t o do paleomagnet i c research . In 1957, h e h ad publi sh ed t h e
fi rst compari son of t h e polar-w anderi ng curves for E urope and Nort h
Ameri ca.
10
It sh ow ed a separat i on of t h e t w o curves equal t o w h at one
w ould expect from t h e presumed dri ft i ng apart of t h e t w o cont i nent s.
Th i s w as t h e fi rst st udy I h ad seen t h at t ri ed t o fulfi ll Joh n Grah am' s 1949
dream of usi ng rock magnet i sm t o measure cont i nent al dri ft . Because
of t h e uncert ai nt y about t h e posi t i on of some of t h e anci ent poles, h ow -
ever, a lot of skept i ci sm about t h e result s remai ned. In any event , loyal
follow ers of t h e polar w anderi ng school cont i nued t o gat h er such dat a
from all over th e world.
11
Th e more data gathered, th e greater th e con-
fusi on became about polar-w anderi ng curves. Th e t h eory seemed t o
w ork for t h e younger rocks, but fell apart w i t h t h e older rocks, w h et h er
sedi ment ary or i gneous. Th e Bri t i sh di rect i onali st s spread t h ei r gospel
t o t h e Uni t ed St at es, w h ere t h ey also seemed t o i gnore t h e reversal prob-
lem at fi rst . Th i s ph i losoph y domi nat ed t h e paleomagnet i c li t erat ure
unt i l about t h e mid-1960s, w h en plat e t ect oni cs w as born.
D uri ng t h e 1950s, how ever, a few paleomagnet i st s concent rat ed on
t h e problem of reverse magnet i zat i on. Th ey w ere i nt ri gued by t h e sug-
The Zebra Pattern 77
gest i on t h at t h e eart h ' s fi eld may h ave been reversi ng peri odi cally
t h rough out geologi cal h i st ory. In 1955, Tr. E i narsen and T. Sigurgeirs-
son exami ned t h e polari t y of a large number of samples t aken from a
t h i ck sect i on of lava flow s i n Iceland, w h i ch i s part of t h e mi d-At lant i c
ri dge.
12
Th ey sh ow ed t h at t h ere w ere as many w i t h reversed polari t y as
t h ere w ere sh ow i ng normal polari t y. I h ad observed several reverse polar-
i t i es i n volcani c rocks i n my ow n t h esi s w ork i n t h e Canadi an Sh i eld. In
1958, Andre Laroch elle joi ned th e Geoph ysics Division of th e GSC. I
urged h im to ret urn to McGill Uni versi t y for h is Ph .D. and to study th e
reverse polari t y of t h e rocks i n Yamaska Mount ai n, a volcani c plug sout h -
east of Mont real. A negat i ve anomaly h ad sh ow n up i n an aeromagnet i c
survey w e h ad done over t h e area. I w as pret t y sure i t w as caused by
i nverse remanence, w h i ch Laroch elle confi rmed by h i s paleomagnet i c
sampli ng. I n addi t i on t o t h i s, w e h ad observed many ot h er negat i ve
anomali es occurri ng i n t h e vast areas w e h ad surveyed i n t h e Canadi an
Sh i eld. Th e cri t eri on I used t o i dent i fy an aeromagnet i c anomaly t h at
w as caused by i nverse remanence i n t h e underlyi ng rock w as as follow s:
if the negative anomaly occurred to the nort h of a larger positive anom-
aly, t h e effect w as not ascri bed t o i nverse magnet i sm but t o t h e nort h erly
di p of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld. If, how ever, t h ere w as a negat i ve anom-
aly w i t h out t h e associ at ed posi t i ve anomaly t o t h e sout h , i t w as i nt er-
pret ed as negat i ve polari zat i on. Yamaska met t h i s cri t eri on, as di d
numerous ot h er anomali es w e h ad surveyed. Toget h er w i t h all t h e ot h er
evi dence i n t h e li t erat ure of reverse polari t y, even i n sedi ment ary rocks,
t h i s put me fi rmly on t h e side of t h ose w h o advocat ed a reversi ng of t h e
eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld. Th e year w as 1957.
T HE WO N DE R O F T HE M I D -O C E A N R I D GE S
Th e most i mport ant i ngredi ent i n t h e formulat i on of t h e sea floor
spreading and th e later plate t ect oni c th eories w as th e know ledge of th e
exi st ence of th e mi d-ocean ri dge syst em. Th e presence of mi d-ocean
undersea mount ai ns h ad long been know n, but recogni t i on of t h ei r full
ext ent i nt o a connect ed w orldw i de system h ad t o aw ai t t h e i nvent i on and
use of t h e ech o sounder, or fat h omet er. Even w h en i t s exi st ence as a uni -
fi ed system became know n, few geologists h ad t h e opport uni t y t o con-
si der i t s i mpli cat i ons because of i t s i naccessi bi li t y. It remai ned t o
oceanograph ers and geoph ysi ci st s, w i t h an i nt erest i n ocean basin geol-
ogy, t o explore and explai n. Th ey discovered t h at t h e floor of t h e ocean
78 THE EARLY WORK
w as covered largely by relatively recent volcani c rocks, as opposed to th e
cont i nent s, w h i ch h ave a mi xt ure of very young and very old rocks. Th e
seismologists suppli ed t h e i nformat i on t h at bot h t h e mid-ocean ridges
and t h e cont i nent al margi ns w ere seismologically very active. Th i s i nfor-
mat i on i mpli ed t h at t h e mid-ocean ridge system w as a si gni fi cant part of
t h e eart h ' s basic st ruct ure. It suggested t h at t h e eart h i s analogous t o a
cracked egg, i nt ermi t t ent ly leaki ng h ot li qui d out along t h e ext ent of t h e
ri dge system. It must h ave been t h ese t h ough t s t h at led Hess and Di et z
t o t h e t h eory of sea floor spreadi ng - a concept t h at i s fundament al t o
plat e t ect oni cs.
13
MA S O N A N D R A FF
I do not know w h at led Ron Mason and Art h ur Raff t o undert ake t h ei r
magnet i c survey of th e nort h east ern Paci fi c in th e 1950s. Because seis-
mologi st s h ad plot t ed a large number of eart h quake epi cent ers i n t h e
vi ci ni t y of th e mid-ocean ridges as w ell as near th e edges of th e cont i -
nent al shelves, a lot of curi osi t y h ad been aroused about t h e largely
unknow n geology i n t h e ocean basi ns. T h ere h ad also been a lot of spec-
ulat i on about t h e ori gi n of t h e cont i nent s: di d t h ey grow out w ard along
t h ei r margi ns, as Tuzo Wi lson w as espousing, or di d t h ey spli t apart from
one large supercont i nent , by th e process of cont i nent al dri ft ?
14
Most of
t h e sci ent i fi c est abli sh ment h ad long si nce poured cold w at er on
Wegener' s t h eory. Now t h ey began t o w onder i f perh aps h e h ad been at
least part ly correct .
Anot h er fact or t h at must h ave led Mason and Raff t o do t h i s survey
w as t h at t h ere w as available t o t h em an ai rborne magnet omet er w h i ch
t h ey could adapt t o t ow beh i nd a sh ip.
15
Th e ai rborne/sh i pborne mag-
net omet er w as perh aps t h e only i nst rument capable of reveali ng some
basic reconnai ssance i nformat i on about t h e geology of t h e ocean basins
over large areas. I w as fami li ar w i t h aeromagnet i c dat a over t h e cont i -
nent s and, li ke Mason and R aff, w e at t h e GSC w ere gat h eri ng magnet i c
data from a sh i pborne magnet omet er over t h e cont i nent al sh elves off
New foundland and Nova Scotia. However, I never t h ough t of operat i ng
over t h e ocean basi ns, as t h ere w as no economi c i ncent i ve for t h e dis-
covery of oil or mi nerals in th e deep ocean basins.
Mason and Raff complet ed t h ei r w ork and publi sh ed t h ei r result s i n
th e form of th e zebra maps. They admitted they h ad no explanation for
t h e cause of t h ese li near anomali es. Th ey t ri ed correlat i ng t h em unsuc-
cessfully w i t h gravity dat a and w i t h sea-bottom topograph y. Th e dat a
The Zebra Pattern 79
remai ned i n t h e li t erat ure for about four years w i t h no plausi ble expla-
nation as to t h ei r cause. Th en, along came Hess and Dietz.
O C E A N FL O O R S P R E A D I N G
Th e concept of ocean floor spreadi ng w as first envisaged in detail in
1960 by Professor Harry H. Hess, a renow ned professor of geology at
Pri ncet on Uni versi t y.
16
Unfort unat ely, h i s paper w as i n t h e form of a
report to th e Offi ce of Naval Research and, as it w as support ed by a con-
t ract , i t di d not appear i n t h e open li t erat ure. Th e follow i ng year, i n
1961, Robert S. D i et z publi sh ed essent i ally th e same h ypot h esi s in th e
journal Nature.
17
In h i s paper, h e clearly descri bed t h e "spreadi ng sea
floor th eory." I n essence, h e st at ed t h at t h e eart h ' s mant le (t h e mai n
solid part of th e eart h out si de th e li qui d core) is compri sed of very vis-
cous rock of pi t ch li ke consi st ency, moving in a number of convect i on
cells t h at are i n a state of const ant , slow movement , fueled by h eat gen-
erat ed by t h e decay of radi oact i ve mi nerals. Th i s movement forces t h e
rock up from t h e deep part of t h e mant le and spews i t out all along t h e
mid-ocean ridges i n t h e form of lava. At t h e ocean ridges, t h e mat eri al
bi furcat es, h alf movi ng out from t h e ri dge one w ay and t h e ot h er half
movi ng th e ot h er way. As more lava ari ses, th e soli di fi ed lava t h at w as
t h ere before moves out , maki ng room for t h e new mat eri al. This process
cont i nues so t h at th e w h ole ocean floor behaves like a wide conveyor belt
unt i l i t reach es t h e edge of t h e cont i nent al sh elf. At t h i s poi nt , t h e h eav-
i er ocean floor si nks under t h e cont i nent al sh elf, and cont i nues down t o
t h e dept h s, event ually t urni ng back t ow ard t h e ridge from w h i ch i t orig-
i nat ed, t h us complet i ng t h e convect i on cell. Di et z suggested t h at t h ere
are a number of convect i on cells operat i ng i ndependent ly, all relat ed i n
position to th e mid-ocean ridges and cont i nent al shelves.
An i ngeni ous and out landi sh h ypot h esi s, i t nevert h eless provided a
mech ani sm for cont i nent al dri ft . Instead of t h e cont i nent s h avi ng t o push
t h rough solid rock in th eir migrations, th ey ride around like so much
scum on th e top of a boi li ng porridge pot. Th e ocean basin rocks push -
ing up against cont i nent s also explai ned th e process of mount ai n-bui ld-
ing, which geologists had been debating for 100 years. And it explained
w h y all th e rocks in th e ocean basin are comparatively young lavas. Th e
really old rocks are all in th e cont i nent s. Like cont i nent al dri ft i t self, it w as
a nice dream, but how were we going to prove it? I was not aware of this
concept unt i l aft er I saw Raff and Mason's zebra pat t ern map. Unbeknow n
to me, Art h ur Holmes h ad actually proposed such a t h eory in th e 1920s.
80 THE EARLY WORK
T H E E UR E KA MO ME N T
Raff and Mason' s zebra map fi rst appeared i n August 1961. I li t erally
freaked out w h en I saw i t ! I h ad been st udyi ng aeromagnet i c maps from
all over t h e w orld - bot h on t h e cont i nent s and on t h e cont i nent al shelves
- and h ad never seen such a regular li near pat t ern of posi t i ve and nega-
tive anomali es st ret ch i ng for 600 mi les (1,000 ki lomet ers) or more. All
t h e cont i nent al maps w i t h w h i ch I w as fami li ar h ad anomali es i n a sort
of random bird's-eye maple pat t ern, not h i ng li ke t h ese long, li near fea-
t ures, and Mason and Raff w ere unable t o explai n t h em. Th ey mi gh t just
as well have been maps of feat ures on Mars because the geology w as so
unknow n. Mason and Raff at fi rst t h ough t t h ey mi gh t be caused by long
ridges and t rough s i n t h e ocean bot t om, but no correlat i on w as found.
Th ey t h ough t t h at t h ere mi gh t be a series of long, dike-like bodies. Th is
w as ch ecked by gravity surveys, but none w as found. Th e data remai ned
i n t h e li t erat ure for a year and a h alf w i t h no plausi ble explanat i on.
I h ad t h ese maps on my mi nd for nearly t w o years before I spot t ed t h e
D i et z paper on ocean floor spreadi ng. E ureka! Th e i dea came t o me so
suddenly t h at I sat dow n and submi t t ed t h e follow i ng (unexpurgat ed)
paper to Nature in February 1963.
Several i nvest i gat ors and aut h ors w ri t i ng on t h e subject of cont i nent al
dri ft and convect i on current s i n t h e eart h ' s mant le h ave referred t o t h e
puzzli ng li near magnet i c anomali es i n t h e East ern Paci fi c Ocean Basin
report ed by sci ent i st s of t h e Scripps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y.
If one accepts, in pri nci ple, the concept of mant le convect i on current s
ri si ng under t h e ocean ri dges, t ravelli ng h ori zont ally under t h e ocean floor
and si nki ng at ocean t rough s, one cannot escape t h e argument t h at t h e
upw elli ng rock under the ocean ridge, as it rises above the Curie Poi nt geo-
t h erm, must become magnetized in th e direction of th e eart h 's fi eld pre-
vailing at the t i me. If this port i on of the rock moves upw ard and t h en hori-
zont ally t o make room for new upw elli ng material and i f, i n t h e meant i me,
th e eart h 's fi eld h as reversed, and th e same process cont i nues, it stands to
reason t h at a li near magnetic anomaly pat t ern of the type observed w ould
result. This explanat i on h as th e advantage, over many ot h ers put forw ard,
t h at i t does not requi re a petrologically, structurally, t h ermally or strain-
banded oceani c crust. It requi res a convection cell w h ose axis of rot at i on is
at least as long as the linear magnet i c anomali es and w hose h ori zont al dis-
tance-of-travel stretch es from ocean rise to ocean t rough . In addi t i on to t h i s
it requires a large number of reversals of th e eart h ' s magnet i c field from at
least t h e Cretaceous period t o t h e present (si nce no older rocks t h an t h e
Cretaceous have been found in th e ocean basi ns).
The Zebra Pattern 81
R.L. Wilson report ed t h at Mrs. J. Cox, i n a recent search of t h e palaeo-
magnet i c li t erat ure, w as able to find 136 normally polari zed cases and
141 reversely polari zed from t h e Carboni ferous t o t h e present . Si nce
t h ere i s no evi dence t o suggest t h at t h e eart h ' s fi eld sh ould h ave been
' normally' polari zed for any more peri ods or for longer peri ods t h an i t
h as been reversely polari zed, i t i s ent i rely possible t h at t h ere may h ave
been as many as 180 reversals si nce th e Lower Cret aceous. Th i s w ould be
one reversal about every h alf mi lli on years on t h e average (a fi gure w h i ch
T. E i narson(5) gives from h i s i nvest i gat i on of Icelandi c lavas). He also
suggests t h at t h e t i me t aken for a reversal of t h e fi eld i s geologically very
sh ort - a few cent uri es t o 10,000 years.
From an exami nat i on of t h e Scri pps magnet i c maps, t h e w idth of a
complet e positive and negat i ve cycle, averaged over t h e w i dest part of t h e
avai lable surveyed sect i on, is about 35 ki lomet ers. To travel t h i s di st ance
i n 1,000,000 years (t i me of t w o reversals), t h e convect i on current must
h ave a rat e of about 3.5 cent i met ers per year. Th i s fi gure i s only good t o
an order of magni t ude, because no accurat e dat a are avai lable on t h e
lengt h of t h e peri ods of reversals. A bet t er w ay t o arri ve at t h e rat e of con-
vect i on t ravel and t h e reversal peri od w ould be t o measure t h e ages of
rocks at w i dely spaced locat i ons i n t h e Paci fi c and t o count t h e number
of reversals occurri ng bet w een t h ese poi nt s.
Mason and Raff (1) report t h at some of t h e many guyots w h i ch w ere
det ect ed on t h e ech o sounder produced magnet i c anomali es, w h i le ot h -
ers apparent ly h ad li t t le or no effect . I t seems unli kely t h at t h ese guyots
w ould be di vi ded i nt o t w o classes - t h ose cont ai ni ng magnet i t e and
t h ose cont ai ni ng li t t le or none. A more li kely explanat i on w ould be t h at
t h e ones w h i ch give li t t le or no effect are negat i vely polari zed t o an
i nt ensi t y w h i ch nearly equali zes t h ei r magnet i zat i on i nduced by t h e pre-
sent eart h ' s fi eld. I f t h e ' non-magnet i c guyot s' alw ays occur i n t h e nega-
tive anomaly bands, and t h e magnet i c ones i n t h e posi t i ve bands, t h i s
w ould be evi dence t h at t h ey cooled below t h e Curi e Poi nt at approxi -
mat ely t h e same t i me as t h e rock surroundi ng t h em, because t h ey
w ere magnet i zed i n t h e same di rect i on. I ndeed, si nce at t h at t i me t h ey
w ould have been in th e shallow w at er of th e ocean ridge, t h ey w ould
h ave prot ruded above t h e surface and h ave t h ei r t ops flat t ened by ero-
si on. As t h ey proceeded along w i t h t h e mant le convect i on current , t h ey
w ould pass i nt o deeper w at er. Th i s i s an alt ernat i ve explanat i on of ori-
gi n t o t h at suggest ed by D arw i n for t h e flat -t opped guyot s i n t h e deep
Paci fi c.
T h ere are a few di ffi cult i es. Th e sei smi c result s post ulat i ng 3 layers
above t h e Moh o must be i ncorporat ed i nt o t h e t h eory. Mason and Raff
(1) offer t h ree models t o marry t h e sei smi c and magnet i c result s:
82 THE EARLY WORK
(1) A 2 km-t h i ck slab of i nt ensely magnet i zed lava of K - .015 uni t s
underlai n by a relatively non-magnet i c crust al layer.
18
(2) A t opograph i cal plat eau 2 km h igh composed of mat eri al K =
.015 underlai n by a mai n crust al layer of the same magnet i c sus-
ceptibility.
(3) A 6 km-t h i ck slab ext endi ng from t h e bot t om of t h e unconsoli -
dated sedi ment t o t h e Moh o composed of 2 seismic layers, but
all of the same magnet i c suscept i bi li t y K = .005.
From measurements of several thousands of basaltic lavas from the
Canadian S h i eld(6), none have been shown to possess a magnetic suscepti-
bility of as great as .015 c.g.s. This w ould mitigate against accepting models
(1) and (2). On th e ot h er h and, many lavas have a susceptibility as high as
.005. This is not to imply, however, t h at we are postulating not h i ng but lavas
down to the Moh o. The ot h er seismic layer in betw een must be explained.
If t h i s layer were unalt ered ult ramafi c rock, it w ould not be suffi ci ent ly mag-
net i c to cause the observed anomalies, nor would it have a significant seis-
mic velocity contrast w ith th e mant le material. Hess (7) h as suggested t h at
the mai n crustal layer beneat h the oceanic basalt could be serpentinized
ult ramafi c rock. This w ould satisfy both the magnetic and seismic require-
ments, since the serpentinization process bot h increases the magnetic sus-
ceptibility of the ult ramafi c rock and lowers the seismic velocity.
Thus Mason and R affs (1) model number 3 i s favored, w i t h t h e modifi-
cation t h at adjacent prisms w ould be magnetized oppositely. The prism pro-
duci ng the positive anomaly would be normally polarized w ith a total mag-
netization (remanent plus i nduced) equal to > .005 c.g.s. The prism pro-
duci ng the adjacent negative anomaly would be inversely polarized, so t h at
t h e remanent magnetization w ould approximately cancel t h e induced."
Th e purpose of th is let t er i s t o poi nt up t h e possibility of cali brat i ng
t h e frequency and durat i on of reversals of t h e eart h ' s fi eld i n geological
h i st ory from a st udy of t h e ocean basi ns, and t h e i dea present ed i s con-
si dered t o support t h e t h eory of convect i on i n t h e eart h ' s mant le.
REFERENC ES
1. Mason, R.G. and R aff, A.D. 1961: Magnet i c Survey of the West Coast
of Nort h Ameri ca 32 degrees N Lat i t ude to 42 degrees N Lat i t ude;
G.S.A. Bull. 72. 1259-70.
2. Vacquier,V. 1962: Magnet i c Evidence for Hori zont al D i splacement
i n t h e Floor of t h e Paci fi c Ocean, Ch apt er 5, Continental Drif t,
Academic Press.
3. Wi lson, J. Tuzo, 1963: Cont i nent al D ri ft , Sc ientif ic Americ an, v 208,
No. 4. pp. 83-100.
The Zebra Pattern 83
4. Wi lson, R.L.1962: Th e Palaeomagnet i sm of Baked Cont act Rocks
and Reversal of t h e E art h ' s Magnet i c Fi eld; Geop hy.Jour. of theR.A.S.,
V.7 No. 2, 194-201.
5. Ei narsson, T. 1957: Magnet o-geologi cal Mappi ng in I celand w i t h
the Use of a Compass; Advanc es in Physic s, V. 6.
6. MacLaren, A.S., personal communi cat i on.
7. Hess, H.H. 1946: Amer.Jour. Sc i. V. 244, p. 772
T HE P A L E O M A G N E T I C E S T A B L I S HME N T R E J E C T E D T HE I DE A
I never h ad any doubt s about t h e concept . I t locked t h ree di sparat e and
unproven t h eori es t oget h er i n a mut ually support i ve way: t h e t h eori es of
cont i nent al dri ft , sea floor spreadi ng, and t h e peri odi c reversi ng of t h e
geomagnet i c fi eld. It w as like fi ndi ng t h e key pi ece t o an enormous jig-
saw puzzle t h at made everyt h i ng fi t t oget h er. And i t w as based on act ual
quant i t at i ve dat a spread over t h ousands of square mi les. To me, t h i s w as
such a st rai gh t forw ard idea t h at I w ant ed t o get i t i nt o pri nt i n a widely
recogni zed journal as soon as possi ble, before someone else t h ough t of
i t . I t h erefore put i t i n t h e form of a sh ort paper t h at I submi t t ed t o Nature
in February 1963. I received a rejection notice two mont h s later st at i ng
t h at t h ey di d not h ave room t o pri nt i t . I t h en i mmedi at ely submi t t ed i t
t o the Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h i n Apri l but recei ved no answ er unt i l
late August. Duri ng this h iatus, I h ad assumed t h at my let t er would
sh ort ly be publi sh ed, but as I w as i mpat i ent t o get some feedback, I pre-
sent ed t h e i dea at t h e June 1963 meet i ng of t h e Royal Society of Canada
h eld in Q uebec City. Duri ng the present at i on, about 40 geologists and
geoph ysi ci st s w ere present . Wh i le I h ad not expect ed a st andi ng ovat i on,
I w as somew h at surpri sed t h at not even one quest i on w as asked. In ret -
rospect, I realize t h at t h ere w as probably no one t h ere w h o h ad read any-
t h i ng about sea floor spreadi ng or paleomagnet i sm and t h at I h ad not
t aken enough t i me t o explai n. I now know t h at t h i s i s a common fault
among inexperienced authors.
In August 1963, I at t ended t h e San Franci sco meet i ng of t h e I nt er-
nat i onal Uni on of Geodesy and Geoph ysics. Agai n, I st i ll t h ough t I
w as safe to talk about it before publi cat i on, so w h en I saw R uncorn and
Hess engaged i n conversat i on, I w ent up t o t h em and bri efly explai ned
my i dea. R uncorn w as ei t h er bored or di st ract ed, because h e w as obvi-
ously not li st eni ng, but Hess, w h o h ad been push i ng h i s ocean floor
spreadi ng t h eory, w as very i nt erest ed and expressed t h e desi re t o meet
w i t h me agai n. Unfort unat ely, h e di ed before w e h ad t h e opport uni t y
to do so.
84 THE EARLY WORK
Toward th e end of August 1963, I received a reject i on not i ce from th e
edi t or of the Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h, accompani ed by a not e from
t h e reviewer w i t h h i s name cut off from t h e let t er. It st at ed: "Found your
not e w i t h Morley' s paper on my ret urn from t h e fi eld. Hi s i dea i s an i nt er-
est i ng one -I suppose - but i t seems most appropri at e over mart i ni s, say,
[rat h er] t h an i n the Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h."
I received t h i s bad new s at t h e end of August and w as t h i nki ng of pub-
li sh i ng elsew h ere, but i n t h e Sept ember 7, 1963 issue of Nature, t h e now
famous article by Vi ne and Mat t h ew s ent i t led "Magnet i c Anomali es over
Oceani c Ridges" appeared.
19
It cont ai ned essent i ally t h e same i dea t h at
I h ad unsuccessfully at t empt ed t o publi sh tw ice. In t h e parlance of t h e
t i me, I w as "scooped." Obviously I could not publi sh elsew h ere because
I could h ave been accused of plagi ari sm.
I felt frust rat ed w i t h t h e system. I knew t h at w h en a sci ent i fi c paper i s
submi t t ed t o a journal, t h e edi t ors choose reviewers w h o are expert s on
t h e topic bei ng discussed. But t h e very expert i se t h at makes t h em appro-
priate review ers also generat es a confli ct of i nt erest : t h ey h ave a vested
i nt erest in th e out come of th e debate. We could call t h i s th e "not i nvent ed
h ere syndrome": sci ent i st s may be biased agai nst good ideas emergi ng
from someone else's lab. In ret rospect , t h at i s exactly w h at h appened.
Th e h ypoth esis w as not generally accept ed unt i l about 1965, th e dat e
commonly regarded as t h e bi rt h of plat e t ect oni cs. At t h e t i me I t ook less
i nt erest i n geophysics because I h ad received approval t o set up a satel-
li t e remot e sensi ng branch for t h e Canadi an government , and soon left
t h e Geological Survey of Canada t o manage t h e Canada Cent re for
Remot e Sensing.
In 1982, Professor Fred Vi ne and I h ad lunch t oget h er i n London. He
told me t h en t h at h i s paper also w as not generally w ell received at fi rst .
However, by ch ance, bot h Professors Hess and Tuzo Wilson w ere t aki ng
a sabbatical at the same time at Cambridge University in 1965. The t h ree
of t h em got t oget h er. Wilson h ad envisaged a new ki nd of ' t ransform
fault ' t h at explai ned t h e st ruct ure of t h e mid-ocean ridges. I underst ood
t h at i t w as at t h at t i me t h at t h e fully i nt egrat ed t h eory of plat e t ect oni cs
w as put forw ard.
C O N C L US I O N
It seems to me t h at juni or scientists are oft en cowed by the self-assurance
of recogni zed aut h ori t i es. In ret rospect , w h at st ands out for me i s h ow
Mason and Raff frankly admi t t ed t o h avi ng no plausi ble explanat i on for
The Zebra Pattern 85
t h e "zebra st ri pes," w h i ch t h ey h ad spent so much t i me and effort t o
acqui re. If t h ey h ad suggested t h at one of t h ei r i nt erpret at i ons w as
i ndeed correct , I w ould probably have accept ed i t , t h i nki ng t h at t h ey h ad
t h e si t uat i on i n h and. I nst ead, t h ei r fort h ri gh t approach creat ed a space
for a young scientist like myself to at t empt an explanation of t h ei r data.
But i f juni or sci ent i st s w ere generally afrai d t o ch allenge accept ed wis-
dom, w h at of the senior scientists? For two years, the "zebra stripe" data
remai ned i n t h e open li t erat ure, w i t h no plausi ble explanat i on. Were
senior scientists in t urn cowed by w h at the recognized aut h ori t y of t h ei r
day, Si r Harold Jeffreys, h ad said 40 years earli er: t h at cont i nent al dri ft
w as ph ysically i mpossi ble?
Plate t ect oni cs ult i mat ely requi red i nt egrat i on of evidence and
i nsi gh t s from various fi elds. Many people missed t h e boat because t h ey
lacked t h e breadt h t o see t h e larger pi ct ure. Most geophysicists at t h e
t i me, bei ng grounded i n ph ysi cs, w ere not i n t h e h abi t of readi ng geo-
logical li t erat ure, and probably w ould h ave missed th e papers on sea
floor spreadi ng t h at count ered Jeffreys' di ct um about t h e physical
impossibility of cont i nent al dri ft . Likewise, few geologists underst ood
anyt h i ng about t h e geomagnet i c fi eld, ferromagnet i sm, or rock mag-
net i sm.
Hence a w ord t o h umble eart h sci ence st udent s: don' t be cowed by
the experts, and don't be too narrow in your reading habits. Science has
only scrat ch ed t h e surface of t h e nat ural w orld. O pport uni t i es for new
i mport ant discoveries are limitless.
C HA P T E R 5
O N BO AR D T H E E LTANI N- 1 9
Walter Pitman
1 HE SHIP WAS THE ELTANIN, A MILITARY SEA TRANSPORTATION
service frei gh t er convert ed t o do oceanograph i c w ork i n Ant arct i c
w at ers. At t h e t i me, early Sept ember 1965, w e w ere h eaded due sout h
t h rough t h e far sout h w est ern Paci fi c, tow ard t h e i ce t h at fri nges t h e
Ant arct i c. We w ere t h ere t o w ork east w ard along i t s edge st udyi ng t h e
w at er column, t h e bi ot a, and t h e geology beneat h i t all.
We h ad an orni t h ologi st on board, w h o spent h i s t i me on t h e wings
of t h e bri dge, not ebook i n h and, peeri ng t h rough bi noculars, scanni ng
t h e sky for Ant arct i c bi rds. S uddenly h e i nformed t h e capt ai n t h at w e
w ere w i t h i n a few mi les of t h e ice. He h ad spot t ed some sort of bi rd t h at
lived only along its fri nges and in h alf an h our w e w ere t h ere, at th e edge
of a vast expanse of pancake-i ce, a mosai c of flat slabs, large and small,
coveri ng t h e ocean surface as far as w e could see. Most w ere several feet
t o t ens of feet i n di amet er, ri di ng several i nch es above t h e w at er and
ground t o a near roundness as t h ey bumped and rubbed agai nst each
ot h er. Th e spaces bet w een t h e larger w ere fi lled w i t h t h e smaller pi eces
of ice debri s.
Th e sh i p h ad a rei nforced h ull and ot h er modi fi cat i ons t o make i t sea-
w ort h y i n t h e pancake ice. Aft er some preparat i on w e h eaded sout h
again i nt o th is great expanse of bri lli ant w h i t e, push i ng aside all the icy
pi eces large and small t o see t h em gat h er t oget h er again ast ern of us.
T h en, abrupt ly, aft er an h our or t w o t h e sh i p came t o a h alt , all t h e deck
li gh t s out , t h e pow er sh ut dow n. We w ere dead i n t h e w ater. A ch unk of
i ce h ad been sucked i nt o t h e w at er i nt ake system used t o cool t h e
engi nes. In fact , t h i s part i cular pi ece of i ce h ad a fi sh frozen i nsi de i t . So
t h e sh i p h ad t o be sh ut dow n w h i le t h e w at er i nt ake w as cleared. All rot at -
i ng mach i nery w as secured except for an emergency generat or some-
w h ere i n t h e sh i p' s bow els. We w ere adri ft .
86
On Board the E lt ani n-79 87
Aboard the Eltanin research vessel. From left: Tom Wustenberg, Walter Pi t man, Ellen
H erron, and Larry Oblinger. (Ph ot o courtesy of Lamont -Doh ert y E art h Observat ory)
Walt er Pi t man. (Ph ot o court esy of aut h or)
It w as near t h e t i me of t h e equi nox, so alt h ough t h e sun w as up for
almost 12 h ours each day, it barely ski mmed along the h ori zon. A disk of
deep red i n a gray sky, i t yi elded li t t le li gh t and no w armt h . But w e di dn' t
have even t h at cold w armt h , for i t w as ni gh t t i me, and t h e seascape (i f t h at
is w h at it can be called), w as well lit by reflect i on. It w as a vast w h i t eness,
ri si ng and falli ng, almost i mpercept i bly, ever so slowly, ever so gently, w i t h
th e rh yt h m of th e ocean. Th ere w as only a gent le breeze, and because w e
w ere not too far from th e open water, th e air w as w arm, perh aps ri gh t
88 THE EARLY WORK
about t h e freezi ng mark. Th e li gh t w as as at dusk; i t seemed t o come from
everyw h ere. Th e silence w as profound, i nt ensi fi ed i n our mi nds by t h e
cont rast w i t h t h e weeks w e h ad been on board, li vi ng w i t h t h e const ant
h um and rumble and bangi ng of mach i nery and equi pment , people
yelli ng and sh out i ng, th e sea rush i ng by th e sides of th e sh i p. Even w h en
hove-to, a w orki ng sh i p like th is one is a box of noise. Now, t h ere seemed
to be no sound at all, except the gri ndi ng of slabs of ice against each ot h er
and agai nst th e sh i p. Th e h eavy layer of ice damped th e waves, but t h ey
still rolled slowly, li ft i ng the ice ever so gent ly a few i nch es and down
again, perpet ually groani ng, as if the ice itself w ere alive.
Th e overall mission of th e Eltaninwas to do oceanograph i c w ork in th e
areas surroundi ng Ant arct i ca, to gradually obtain dat a over a number of
years to underst and th e geologic h i st ory of th e regi on, th e ci rculat i on of
its w aters, and its mari ne li fe. This part i cular leg of th e Eltanin cruises,
Eltanin-20, w as conduct ed mostly for th e purpose of obt ai ni ng ph ysical
oceanograph i c data i n t h e Ant arct i c w aters. Ini t i ally w e w ere t o make one
geophysical traverse of th e Elt ani n fract ure zone system, and lat er to
make tw o crossings of the Paci fi c-Ant arct i c Ridge. I w as consi deri ng a
st udy of th e E lt ani n fract ure zone as a possible doct oral th esis topic.
Alt h ough t h i s part i cular leg of th e Eltanin w as to make only one more or
less i nci dent al crossing of th e E lt ani n fract ure zone, I w as on board to
"pay my dues," to be part of the data-collecting process. The sat i sfact ory
complet i on of t h i s ri t ual w ould give me access to ot h er Eltanin data.
Wh en t h e engi ne i nt ake w as cleared, w e h eaded back nort h a bi t , out
of th e ice, and t h en eastw ard along 60 degrees sout h lat i t ude, t h en to
about 63 degrees sout h lat i t ude, and t h en along 105 degrees w est lon-
gi t ude, all t h e w h i le t aki ng a range of measurement s of t h e ph ysi cal and
bi ologi cal envi ronment . We tow ed a magnet omet er, and a single-ch an-
nel seismic system t h at measured t h e sedi ment cover on t h e ocean floor.
Wh en w e w ould heave-to, w h i ch w as frequent ly, w e gat h ered oceano-
graph i c and biological samples, and drove pipes i nt o t h e bot t om t o
obtain sediment cores.
Part of the cruise plan was to make two long geophysical traverses of the
Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, obt ai ni ng magnetic, topographic, and seismic
reflection data. This was a segment of a cont i nui ng st udy of the mid-ocean
ridge system conduct ed by several scientists at Lament Doh ert y Geological
Observatory. For years, t h ere had been puzzlement about the st rong mag-
netic anomaly (irregularity among th e measurement s) t h at seemed always
to be associated w i t h the ridge axes, particularly in the Nort h Atlantic. So
w herever possible, the research ships over w h i ch Lamont had any control
w ere oriented to make clean passes over the ridges. We headed nort h , from
On Board the E lt ani n-19 89
60 degrees south and 105 degrees west, t h en north w est across the ridge
axis, t h en east across it again, and t h en northeast to Valparaiso, Chile. Lit-
tle did w e know w h at treasure lay beneat h us in these crossings, or the h eat
and smoke t h at would arise from the magnetic data w e collected.
Th e crossings w ere qui et and unevent ful, conduct ed as part of t h e
sh i p' s rout i ne as w e rolled and pi t ch ed along t h rough perpet ually rough
seas beneath a gray sky. We crossed the ridge twice, and although we plot-
t ed t h e magnet i c dat a by h and, not h i ng st ri ki ng sh ow ed, mai nly because
of the scales w e used, and because the ideas of Vine and Mat t h ew s had
not yet really sunk i n.
In 1965 I w as a graduat e st udent and only vaguely aware of th e h ypot h -
esis of "sea floor spreading" t h at had been proposed by Harry Hess, at
Pri ncet on, and by Robert Di et z at t h e Naval Elect roni cs Laborat ory and
the Scripps Inst i t ut i on of Oceanography. The suggestion of Vine and
Mat t h ew s - t h at t h e spreadi ng at t h e ridge axes combi ned w i t h magnet i c
reversals w ould generat e a pat t ern of magnet i c stripes parallel and sym-
met ri c w i t h respect t o t h e ri dge axis - i n t h e end proved t o be a bri lli ant
i nsi gh t . But t h e dat a t h ey present ed, t aken from over t h e Carlsberg
Ridge in the northw est Indi an Ocean, were not very impressive w ith
regard to correlat abi li t y, li neari t y, and symmetry. I w as skept i cal and dis-
missive, as w ere most ot h ers. I cert ai nly h ad no expect at i on t h at t h ere
mi gh t be such a very defi ni t i ve set of magnet i c anomali es, all li ned up,
one aft er t h e ot h er, i n sequent i al "stripes" runni ng parallel t o t h e axis of
t h e Paci fi c-Ant arct i c Ridge system.
To many sci ent i st s, cont i nent al dri ft w as still a ki nd of myth ology. Dur-
ing the 1950s, it had received a substantial boost because of the paleo-
magnet i c w ork i ni t i at ed by P. M. S. Blacket t , and cont i nued by Kei t h Run-
corn and Ted Irving.
1
Alt h ough th e paleomagnet i c data seemed to
st rongly support t h e t h eory of cont i nent al dri ft , t h ere w as still much
doubt . In t h e process of doi ng t h e paleomagnet i c experi ment s, a num-
ber of instances were found in w h i ch the magnetic field seemed to have
a reversed polarity. Th is observation cont ri but ed great ly t o t h e ongoi ng
skepticism. The idea t h at eart h 's magnetic field could reverse polarity
seemed so fant ast i c t h at t h e meani ng and si gni fi cance of t h e paleomag-
net i c dat a w ere di sput ed by many. Still, t h e naggi ng quest i on remai ned:
h ow could cont i nent s move about t h rough t h e oceani c crust w i t h out
leavi ng a t race? "Sea floor spreadi ng" provi ded a system of crust al
motion t h at solved this problem.
2
In effect , the ocean was regarded as
dri ft i ng with t h e cont i nent s. All t h e t ect oni c act i on w as seen t o take
place at t h e very narrow zones of separat i on w h ere new oceani c crust
w as formed, at narrow convergent zones w h ere mount ai n-bui ldi ng
90 THE EARLY WORK
occurred, and at very narrow boundari es w h ere t ranscurrent (t rans-
form) mot i on t ook place. But t o many, "sea floor spreadi ng" w as a fan-
tasy, as w as t h e corollary t h at t h ere w ould be a consequent pat t ern of
magnet i c anomalies symmetric and parallel to the spreading ridge axis.
Aft er t h e fi nal ri dge crossi ng, t h e sh i p h eaded for Valparai so. I t h ad
been a long crui se, 60 days i n t h e sout h erly w at ers. I w ould ret urn h ome
t o my fami ly and t o a ch i ld w h o, w h en I left , w as speaki ng i n sent ences,
and t w o and a h alf mont h s lat er, w as t alki ng i n pages. Li t t le di d w e know
t h at in the belly of our vessel w e carried a treasure trove. No one could
h ave possi bly guessed t h e bount y t h at t h e Eltanin-19 and -20 crui ses
w ould bestow.
Th e processi ng of t h ese dat a w as carri ed out as part of a rout i ne t h at
h ad been developed at Lamont , h andli ng t h e dat a from t h ree sh i ps,
each logging 30,000 to 40,000 naut i cal miles per year. In particular, all
magnet i c, gravity, and bat h ymet ri c dat a w ere processed and format t ed
i n t h e same way; t h us t h ey could be ret ri eved and plot t ed i n a number
of di fferent confi gurat i ons t h at could be accessed over and over agai n.
I h ad read Art h ur H olmes' proposal of a "purely h ypot h et i cal mech -
ani sm for 'engi neeri ng' cont i nent al dri ft " in h is 1945 edition of Princ i-
p les of Physic al Geology.
3
Th e sch eme envi si oned a convect i ve upw elli ng at
a mi d-ocean swell and a convergence beneat h and at t h e edge of cont i -
nent s, t ransport i ng bot h t h e cont i nent s and t h e oceans. Some of t h e
basic element s of sea floor spreadi ng w ere already t h ere. As already men-
t i oned, "sea floor spreading" had been proposed in the early 1960s by
Hess and D i et z; i t s corollary of t ransform fault s h ad been posi t ed by
Toront o' s J. Tuzo Wi lson.
4
Fred Vi ne and D rummond Mat t h ew s, w ork-
i ng at Cambri dge, publi sh ed a paper i n 1963 w h i ch suggested t h at i f
crust al separat i on w ere t aki ng place at t h e ri dge axis and i f t h e eart h ' s
magnet i c fi eld w ere reversing polarity, t h en t h ere sh ould be a pat t ern of
magnet i c anomali es parallel t o and symmet ri c w i t h respect t o t h e ri dge
axis.
5
I t w as envi si oned t h at t h e volcani c mat eri al magnet i zed by t h e
eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld as i t w as i nt ruded at t h e ri dge axis and t ransport ed
lat erally away by t h e sea floor spreadi ng process w ould preserve li ke a
tape recorder th e polarity h i st ory of eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld. This w ould
give ri se t o a pat t ern of magnet i c anomali es, appeari ng li ke st ri pes,
w h i ch w ere symmet ri c t o t h e spreadi ng ri dge axis and reflect ed t h e h is-
t ory of magnet i c reversals.
I t t ook us a mont h t o get t h e magnet i c dat a di gi t i zed. Wh en w e ran
preli mi nary plots from Eltanin-19 and -20 (st art i ng w ith Eltanin-19) ,
t h ere i t was: t h i s marvelous sect i on from over t h e Paci fi c-Ant arct i c Ri dge,
a pat t ern so very symmet ri cal. In i t s cent ral part , i t w as very w ell corre-
On Board the E lt ani n-19 91
lat ed t o anot h er magnet i c profi le const ruct ed from t h e Juan de Fuca
Ridge (off t h e Paci fi c nort h w est coast of t h e Uni t ed S t at es), t h e result s
of w h ich had just been published by Vine and Wilson in the December
1965 issue of the journal Sc ienc e.
6
Th e development of t h e pot assi um/argon (K/Ar) dat i ng t ech ni que
allowed very precise age det ermi nat i on of volcani c rocks. Th i s t ech nol-
ogy w as sei zed by Allan Cox and colleagues to det ermi ne the age of rever-
sal boundaries of suites of young volcanic rocks from a number of sites
around t h e w orld. Th ey w ere able t o develop a magnet i c reversal
t i mescale, and t o prove t h e occurrence of polari t y reversals once and for
all.
7
Fred Vine and Tuzo Wilson had tried to mat ch the magnet i c anom-
aly profi le from t h e cent ral axial area of t h e Juan de Fuca Ridge t o t h e
know n h i st ory of magnet i c polari t y reversals.
8
But t h ei r experi ment w as
not persuasive. One problem w as t h at t h e Jarami llo event , a normal t i me
i nt erval t h at occurred just less t h an one mi lli on years ago, h ad not yet
been discovered. It w as missing from the know n polarity timescale, and
i t seemed t h at t h e models di d not fi t t h e dat a. It w as only t h e most cen-
t ral part of these axial profi les, t h e cent ermost 40 miles (100 ki lomet ers),
t h at seemed t o correlat e. Still, i n ret rospect , i t i s di ffi cult t o see w h y Vi ne
and Wi lson' s paper di d not at t ract more at t ent i on. Several anomali es di d
seem to correlate, especially w h en taken in conjunct i on w ith the (by
t h en) famous Art Raff and Ronald Mason li neat i ons descri bed i n t h ei r
side-by-side sci ent i fi c papers of 1961.
9
The at t i t ude toward cont i nent al dri ft seemed to be divided i nt o two
camps: beli evers and non-beli evers. And i t seemed t h at w i t h each new
idea or discovery, and t h e grow ing compendi um of paleomagnet i c dat a,
t h e sea floor spreadi ng mech ani sm, t oget h er w i t h Vi ne and Wi lson' s t en-
tative proof, drew a reluct ant few more i nt o t h e camp of support ers.
10
A
part i cular target of criticism was Vine and Matth ew s' idea t h at separation
w as t aki ng place at t h e ri dge axis along a very narrow line.
11
If t h e accre-
t i on of new mat eri al w as symmet ri c about the li ne of separat i on, if the
separat i on rat e w as steady for a long t i me i nt erval, and i f E art h ' s mag-
net i c fi eld reversed polari t y, t h en t h ere sh ould be a pat t ern of magnet i c
anomalies parallel to the ridge axis and symmetric to it. Moreover, these
anomali es sh ould reflect t h e pat t ern of know n reversals as found by
Allan Cox and h i s colleagues.
12
If sea floor spreadi ng occurred, t h e evi-
dence would exhibit a degree of orderliness not previously know n in
major geologic processes.
A lot of "ifs." Th e ast oni sh i ng fact w as t h at th e Eltanin-19 profi le ful-
fi lled all of th e "ifs."
13
Th e very preci si on of th e symmet ry and th e pre-
ci pi t ous nat ure of t h e reversal boundari es, bot h quali t i es t h at w ere
92 THE EARLY WORK
reflected in the anomaly profiles, put off some scientists. In a sense, it
w as t oo perfect . Th e cent ral port i on of t h e profi le w as compared t o t h e
know n h i st ory of the reversals of the past 3.4 million years (except for
t h e more recent Jarami llo event , w h i ch h ad not yet been found). Th e
profi les act ually could be modeled assumi ng an almost const ant spread-
i ng rat e, and t h e correspondence bet w een t h e modeled anomali es and
t h e data show ed t h at t h e reversals w ere abrupt . At t h e fast -spreadi ng
ridges, t h e separat i on of plates occurred w i t h i n a very narrow zone, and
th e accret i on of new mat eri al w as symmet ri c on ei t h er side of t h at zone
w i t h respect to the separating plates.
Th e presence of symmet ri c and correct able anomali es beyond 3.3
mi lli on years clearly i mpli ed a h i st ory of reversals beyond t h e know n
paleomagnet i c st udi es made on lava flow s.
14
It w ould be a simple mat t er
t o ext rapolat e t o t h e end of t h e profi le, defi ni ng polari t y event s out t o
10 mi lli on years ago. Lava flow s are not ori ously discrete events, and
alt h ough t h ey may give a cont i nuous appearance for t h ousands of years,
t h ey are much more episodic: occurring h ere, and t h en ceasing, and
t h en occurri ng t h ere. In cont rast , t h e pat t erns of mid-ocean ridge flow s
w ere st acked side by side in an arrangement so t h at th e layers w ere sys-
t emat i cally older t h e fart h er t h ey w ere from t h e ri dge axis. Furt h ermore,
some events apparent i n t h e magnet i c anomaly profi le h ad not been
det ect ed yet by paleomagnet i c t ech ni ques i n use, si mply because t h e res-
olut i on w as not preci se enough . One of t h e problems t h at t h e lava flow
K/Ar dating met h od would encount er w as t h at the error in the age
det ermi nat i ons w as oft en larger t h an t h e i ndi vi dual polari t y reversal
event s th emselves.
Th e Eltanin-19 profi le st i rred a profound react i on among t h e Lament
scientists. Some responded negatively, but most responded positively. Neil
Opdyke h ad come to Lamont th e year before, to set up a Paleomagnetics
D epart ment , mostly for t h e st udy of tectonic movement s and cont i nent al
dri ft . One of his graduate students, Joh n Foster, had developed a slow
spi nner magnet omet er for t h e speci fi c purpose of maki ng paleomagnet i c
measurements on sediment cores.
15
This was the ri gh t opport uni t y at the
right time and place. The Lamont core collection in 1967 exceeded
10,000 samples from all over the w orld. It would be a mat t er of fi ndi ng
one t h at cont ai ned clean, cont i nuous ch aracteristics back t o some 2 mil-
li on years ago. Cores t h at w ere most ly composed of sedi ment s w ould yield
a bet t er record of Eart h 's polari t y t h an cores composed of lavas. We
located several such cores from th e Lamont collection, and to augment
these samples, the Lamont research ships were deployed to find and
retrieve new, longer sedi ment samples. The cores soon yielded the
On Board the E lt ani n-19 93
sequences of know n magnet i c reversals, t oget h er w i t h th e very di st i nct
Jaramillo event. In addition, polari t y events beyond the range of the 3.3
million year mark could be correlated w ith t h e Eltanin-19 profi le - nearly,
but not qui t e to its end.
16
(By t h i s time in early 1966, Di ck Doell and Brent
Dalrymple h ad found t h e Jarami llo event .) These data, part i cularly from
t h e cores w i t h a h i gh sedi ment ary deposition rat e, demonst rat ed clearly
th at the reversals w ere quite precipitous, t h at changes in polarity took
place in less t h an several t h ousands of years.
17
Following Tuzo Wi lson's predi ct i ons of undersea t ransform fault s off-
set t i ng t h e mi d-ocean ri dge, Lamont ' s Lynn Sykes began h i s fi rst eart h -
quake st udi es t h at w ould sh ow compelli ng correlat i ons of eart h quake
activity along the ridge axes.
18
In fact , it w as realized quickly t h at the
plat e boundari es w ere t h e locus of most of t h e w orld' s eart h quakes: t h at
normal fault i ng eart h quakes took place at separating boundaries along
t h e ri dge axes. Strike-slip eart h quakes occurred at t ransform fault s, and
a more complex combi nat i on of t h rust mech ani sms occurred at sub-
duct i on boundari es. Lamont ' s Bryan Isacks, Jack Oliver, and Lynn Sykes
called t h i s syst emat i c arrangement of plat es and t h ei r mot i ons "The New
Global Tectonics."
19
Th e Eltanin-19 profi le spanned only t h e most cent ral port i on of t h e
ridge system, out to 10 million years before present . As the magnet i c data
from t h e ri dge flanks w ere exami ned, i t became apparent t h at a pat t ern
of correlat ed anomali es ext ended w ell out over t h e flanks of t h e ri dge
system, ri gh t t o t h e edges of t h e cont i nent s. These magnet i c anomali es
w ere symmet ri c, aligned along bot h sides of t h e ri dge axes, and consti-
tuted a uni que and readily identifiable pat t ern.
Fred Vi ne h ad used t h e Raff and Mason li neat i ons t o propose an ext en-
sion of the magnet i c polari t y events from the 10 million years encom-
passed by t h e Eltanin-19 profi le cont i nuously back t o t h e Upper Creta-
ceous era, some 80 mi lli on years ago.
20
In addi t i on, Vi ne correlat ed one
of the oldest fragment s of the Raff and Mason lineations to patches else-
w h ere in th e Nort h and South Paci fi c Oceans. By December 1966, Jim
Heirtzler, Geof Dickson, Ellen Herron, Xavier Le Pich on, and myself
t oget h er w ere able t o correlat e t h e ent i re set of Raff and Mason li neat i ons
from t h e Nort h Paci fi c w ith equi valent li neat i ons from t h e Sout h Paci fi c
Ocean, t h e Sout h east I ndi an Ocean, and t h e South At lant i c Ocean.
21
From t h i s more extensive data set, a timescale w as deri ved, w h i ch di ffered
in its Upper Cretaceous to Lower Tertiary section from Vine's. All of this,
and Jason Morgan' s paper on t ect oni cs on a sph ere, essentially set fort h
a w h ole eart h t reat ment of plate tectonics, and defi ned t h e geomet ry of
t h e plat e mot i ons i n a ri gorous mat h emat i cal framew ork.
22
Togeth er,
94 THE EARLY WORK
t h ese concomi t ant ideas w ere present ed at t h e spri ng Ameri can Geo-
physical Uni on meet i ng i n 1967. It w as a w at ersh ed event.
For me i t w as a t i me of great exci t ement but also w onderment . I h ad
started out my thesis st udyi ng t i me vari at i ons of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c
fi eld, i n part i cular di urnal vari at i ons and mi cropulsat i ons, and sw i t ch ed
over to mari ne geology and geoph ysics only at the begi nni ng of 1965. So
t h e problems w ere all new t o me. We h ad been fed some not i on of t h e
i dea of cont i nent al dri ft somet i me back i n grammar sch ool geograph y
class ("see h ow South Ameri ca and Afri ca seem to fit t oget h er li ke pieces
i n a puzzle?"), but i t w as not unt i l 1965 t h at I began t o be aware of t h e
i mmense cont roversy t h i s i dea h ad provoked. I n effect I w as learni ng
about t h e problem as I w as h elpi ng t o solve i t . It w ould t ake some t i me
for t h e full magni t ude of w h at h ad h appened t o si nk i n.
The Eltanin-I9 profi le w as fi rst recogni zed in December 1965. By
D ecember 1966 t h ere w as a far more ext ensi ve magnet i c anomaly pat -
t ern reach i ng from t h e mid-ocean ridge axes down t h e flanks, from t h e
present back t o 80 mi lli on years before present . Th e pat t ern h ad been
i dent i fi ed i n h alf t h e Paci fi c Ocean, most of t h e sout h east I ndi an Ocean,
and half t h e South At lant i c Ocean. With t h i s accompli sh ment came t h e
confi dence t h at t h e same or even older pat t erns w ould be found i n t h e
rest of t h e oceani c areas. T h us w i t h i n t h ose 12 mont h s ideas t h at h ad
seemed t o many no more t h an dubi ous, and at best cont roversi al, proved
i rrevocably t h e h ypot h esi s of Alfred Wegener, Th e i nsi gh t s and specula-
tions provided by Harry Hess, Bob Di et z, Tuzo Wilson, Fred Vi ne, and
D rum Mat t h ew s w ere t ransformed i nt o marvelous reali t y. Not only di d
sea floor spreadi ng explai n t h e origin of t h e oceans and provi de t h e
mech ani sm for cont i nent al dri ft and mount ai n-bui ldi ng, but t h e preci-
sion of t h e process w as ast oni sh i ng. Plate mot i ons could be descri bed
w ith geometric rigor. It had been a very good year.
C HA P T E R 6
THE BI R T H OF PLATE TECTONICS
NeilD. Opdyke
1 HE FACT THAT THE EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD HAS CHANGED
magnet i c polari t y repeat edly t h rough geologic t i me i s one of t h e most
i mport ant discoveries of paleomagnetism, the study of the h i st ory of the
eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld. Early w ork by M. Mat uyama (1929) and P. L. Mer-
canton (1936) had pointed to possible polarity changes in the eart h 's
magnet i c fi eld.
1
Th e st ory t h at I w ant t o descri be i s t h e demonst rat i on
t h at t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld di d reverse polarity, a demonst rat i on
ach i eved by paleomagnet i c st udi es i n E urope, Nort h Ameri ca, and Aus-
tralia duri ng the 1950s and 1960s.
In th e 1950s t h ere w ere small groups of paleomagnet i st s, sci ent i st s
w h o st udy t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld, w orki ng i n di fferent count ri es. I n
France an active paleomagnet i c group led by E. Th elli er w as w orki ng at
t h e Uni versi t y of Paris. Th elli er made many i mport ant cont ri but i ons t o
paleomagnetism, in particular in studies of paleointensity, the change in
st rengt h of t h e magnet i c fi eld w i t h t i me, and paleosecular vari at i on, t h e
change in direction of the eart h 's magnet i c field. A. Roch e, one of his
st udent s, w as actively research i ng reverse and normal rocks i n Cent ral
France, at Pay du Dome.
2
Thellier, however, w as very skept i cal of rever-
sals of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld. Later, w h en reversed di rect i ons w ere
found i n mari ne sedi ment s, h e asked me t o provide h i m w ith samples.
Th i s I di d, but h e never cont act ed me concerni ng h i s result s so I expect
h e obt ai ned t h e same result s as I di d.
In E ngland, several paleomagnet i c groups w ere formed i n t h e early
1950s. Two of th ese groups ori gi nat ed from research by P. M. S. Blacket t
on t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld. Th e fi rst of t h ese groups w as establish ed
at I mperi al College, London, under t h e di rect i on of Dr. Joh n Clegg. Th e
oth er was at Cambridge under the direction of S. K. R uncorn. A t h i rd
95
Paleomagnetists in the 1950s. a) Jan
Hospers, collect i ng lava samples for
magnet i c measurement s on Mt .
Hekla, I celand, in th e early 1950s.
b) Kei t h R uncorn, collect i ng red
sandst ones for magnet i c analysis i n
Bryce Canyon, Ut ah , summer 1957.
c) Ted Irvi ng, i n Canberra, Aus-
tralia, at t h e Aust rali an Nat i onal
Uni versi t y, 1956. Ph ot os a) and b)
court esy of Nei l Opdyke, c) court esy
of Ted Irvi ng.
The Birth of Plate Tec tonic s 97
group st udyi ng paleomagnet i sm w as earli er est abli sh ed at London Uni -
versi t y under th e di rect i on of J. Brucksh aw . In Japan, active paleomag-
net i c st udi es w ere under w ay at Tokyo Uni versi t y under t h e di rect i on of
T. Nagat a, w ho w as a st udent of M. Mat uyama. The Japanese group w as
t o provi de i mport ant i nformat i on concerni ng self-reversi ng mi nerals i n
rocks.
3
In t h e Uni t ed States, an act i ve group of research ers w as st udyi ng
the paleomagnetism of rocks under the direction of Joh n Graham and
Merle Tuve at t h e Carnegi e I nst i t ut i on of Wash i ngt on. Work at t h e
Carnegie Inst i t ut i on h ad begun before World War II and w as reest ab-
li sh ed t h ere i n t h e lat e 1940s. Anot h er research group w as est abli sh ed
at UC Berkeley under t h e di rect i on of Joh n Verh oogan, a w idely
respected eart h scientist. Anot h er paleomagnetic group was established
before 1955 at t h e Bernard Pri ce I nst i t ut e i n t h e Republi c of South
Africa under the direction of Ant on Hales and his student, Ian Gough.
One of t h e most i mport ant and i nfluent i al st udi es t o be publi sh ed i n
th e early 1950s w as t h at of J. Hospers, a D ut ch st udent w h o w as st udyi ng
at Cambri dge Uni versi t y. Hospers i ni t i at ed paleomagnet i c st udi es on t h e
long sequence of lavas exposed i n I celand, result i ng i n i mport ant i nfer-
ences relat i ng to polar w anderi ng and fi eld reversal.
4
Hospers interacted
w i t h S. K. R uncorn, w h ose paleomagnet i c laborat ory w as just begi nni ng
to be assembled, and Hosper's collection of samples from Iceland w ere
measured not at Cambri dge but at London Uni versi t y i n Brucksh aw ' s
laboratory. The result s of t h i s st udy w ere publi sh ed in 1951-1953/54
w ith the title "Reversals of the Main Geomagnetic Field."
Th e st udi es of t h ese lava sequences sh ow ed clearly t h at ch anges of
polarity were not random in t i me, but t h at groups of normal and reverse
lavas follow ed each ot h er i n st rat i graph i c order and appeared t o be time-
dependent . In all cases recent lavas possessed normal polarity. Anot h er
piece of evi dence for reversal of t h e magnet i c fi eld w as t h e fact t h at
w h ere lavas flow ed over soil, baki ng i t , t h e di rect i on of magnet i zat i on of
the baked zone agreed w ith t h at of the lava flow. The t h i rd piece of evi-
dence t h at support ed fi eld reversal w as t h at 180 reversals of polari t y h ad
been observed in sediments, initially in pre-Cambrian Torridonian sed-
i ment s from Scotland st udi ed by E. Irvi ng.
5
Th is observat i on w as dupli -
cat ed qui ckly i n sedi ment s of ot h er ages and areas by Joh n Grah am i n
t h e Uni t ed States and Ken Creer i n t h e Uni t ed Ki ngdom. Th e fact t h at
180 ch anges i n polari t y w ere observed i n lavas, w h ere t h e magnet i sm i s
a t h ermal magnetization, as well as in sediments t h at acquired t h ei r
magnet i zat i on duri ng sedi ment at i on or di agenesi s, w ould seem t o con-
fi rm t h e h ypot h esi s t h at ch anges of polari t y of t h e geomagnet i c fi eld
w ere t aki ng place.
98 THE EARLY WORK
A compli cat i ng piece of evi dence, how ever, became available from
Japan in 1951, w h ere Professor T. Nagata found a rock, the "Haruna
daci t e," w h i ch w as self-reversi ng.
6
Wh en a sample of t h i s rock w as h eat ed
and cooled in a fi eld of know n di rect i on, it would become magnet i zed
i n a di rect i on opposite t h at of t h e appli ed fi eld. A complet e st udy of self-
reversal in t h i s rock w as carri ed out by Seiya Uyeda in h is doct ori al th e-
sis.
7
L. Neel, a French t h eoret i cal solid state ph ysi ci st , h ad suggested sev-
eral ways i n w h i ch self-reversal could t ake place i n i gneous rocks. Th e
Japanese scientists, bei ng intellectual descendant s of Mat uyama, were
i ncli ned t o favor reversal of t h e mai n fi eld and w ere embarrassed t o fi nd
t h i s self-reversi ng rock.
8
In Nort h Ameri ca, A. F. Buddi ngt on and Jim
Balsley argued for self-reversal for t h e ori gi n of reversed magnet i zat i on
observed i n met amorph i c rocks from t h e Adi rondacks. Buddi ngt on w as
a very i nfluent i al mineralogist from Princeton University and h is opin-
i on carri ed consi derable w ei gh t i n Nort h Ameri ca. Balsley w as i n ch arge
of th e aeromagnet i c survey of th e Uni t ed States - th e st udy of th e varia-
t i ons of t h e i nt ensi t y of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld by ai rborne magne-
t omet ers - and w ant ed t o underst and negat i ve magnet i c anomali es asso-
ciated w ith reversely magnetized igneous rocks.
9
In t h e mid-1950s t h e paleomagnet i c communi t y divided i nt o t w o
camps. In Nort h Ameri ca, Joh n Grah am w as very skept i cal of fi eld rever-
sal, as w as much of t h e geoph ysical communi t y. Th ey di d not favor ei t h er
reversal of t h e geomagnet i c fi eld or cont i nent al dri ft . Th e t w o h ypot h e-
ses w ere related. Aft er being rejected in the 1920s and 1930s, cont i nen-
tal dri ft w as now bei ng revi si t ed on th e basis of paleomagnet i c evi dence
of apparent polar w anderi ng. Since bot h t h i s new found support for con-
t i nent al dri ft and t h e argument for fi eld reversals rest ed on paleomag-
net i c observat i ons and w ere oft en argued by t h e same people, t h ey w ere
lumped togeth er as radical and unreliable. In France, Thellier was skep-
t i cal of magnet i c fi eld reversals and remai ned so unt i l t h e mid-1960s.
Th e ot h er poi nt of view w as favored by groups i n England, especially t h e
Cambri dge group led by S. K. (Kei t h ) R uncorn.
In 1955, I became a fi eld assi st ant for R uncorn w orki ng i n Ari zona,
essentially by accident. Keith Runcorn was in New York in June 1955
prepari ng t o go t o Ari zona t o collect ori ent at ed rock samples. A st udent
from Pri ncet on w as slat ed t o be h i s assi st ant , but h e w i t h drew at t h e last
mi nut e. Th i s t urn of event s set Kei t h looki ng for a replacement . Run-
corn w as a keen sw i mmer and w ent t o t h e Columbi a Uni versi t y pool. It
so h appened t h at a fri end of mi ne, Max Pirner, was in charge of the pool.
R uncorn asked h i m i f h e knew of any geology st udent s w h o w ere bi g
enough t o carry rock samples out of t h e Grand Canyon, preferably a
The Birth of Plate Tec tonic s 99
foot ball player. Max and I h ad played foot ball t oget h er and i t w as cert ai n
t h at I w as th e only st udent t h at met all th e qualifications. I h ad gradu-
ated t h at spri ng and w as h ome i n French t ow n, New Jersey, w orki ng for
my uncle as a carpent er. R uncorn called on a Sat urday morni ng, reach -
i ng my grandparent s by mi st ake. I h appened t o be t h ere and spoke w i t h
h i m. He asked i f I w ould be w i lli ng t o go w i t h h i m on Monday morni ng
to Ari zona to be a fi eld assistant. At fi rst I t h ough t t h at it w as a hoax. Aft er
a w h i le i t became clear t h at i t w as a real offer. I said t h at I w ould h ave t o
talk it over w ith my uncle and th e rest of th e family. We all agreed t h at I
sh ould take t h e opport uni t y. I called Kei t h and told h i m t h at I w ould go
w i t h h i m, and gave h i m i nst ruct i ons h ow t o get t o French t ow n. I told h i m
to ask anyone w h ere I lived and t h ey w ould know h ow to fi nd me. (Th e
populat i on of th e tow n w as only 1,150 at th e t i me.) On Monday morn-
ing I w as sitting in front of my grandparent s' h ome on th e only rout e
i nt o t ow n from New York. At 11 o'clock a car pulled up and t h i s red-
h ai red guy in a T-shirt rolled down the w i ndow and said, "I say, do you
know a ch ap called Nei l Opdyke?" I said, "It is I." We drove to my par-
ent s' h ome and h ad lunch . Th en w e st art ed for t h e w est . Kei t h drove
over a st ump t h at was just in front of the car and spent the fi rst 10 miles
of t h e t ri p t elli ng me all about paleomagnet i sm. Unfort unat ely, h e h ad
neglected to sh i ft i nt o t h i rd gear. I sat t h ere t h i nki ng: Shall I tell him or
let h i m fi nd out for h i mself? Fi nally I could not st and i t ; I h ad t o tell h i m
t h at h e w as dri vi ng i n second gear. It w as t h e st art of my sci ent i fi c career.
Th e fi eldw ork w ent well t h at summer and as a result R uncorn i nvi t ed
me to go to Cambri dge as his st udent . I w as to w ork on paleocli mat e as
it related to paleomagnetism. Subsequently, I w ent w ith Runcorn to the
Uni versi t y of New cast le, w h ere I received my Ph .D. i n 1958. It t urned out
t h at t h e fi rst paper I w as t o aut h or w ith R uncorn w as on t h e reversal
sequence of t h e lava flow s around Flagst aff, Ari zona. T h at art i cle
appeared i n t h e journal Sc ienc e i n 1956, ent i t led "New Evi dence for
Reversal of Geomagnet i c Field near t h e Pli o-Plei st ocene Boundary."
10
Follow i ng t h i s foray i nt o fi eld reversals, I spent t h e next few years
research i ng crustal mobility, h oldi ng postdoctoral fellowships in Aus-
tralia w i t h Ted Irvi ng, and i n Afri ca (Zi mbabw e) w i t h Ian Gough and
Mi ke McElh i nny.
D uri ng t h e late 1950s t h e si t uat i on regardi ng t h e underst andi ng of
reversals of t h e fi eld remai ned more or less w h at i t h ad been i n 1955.
However, new players w ere ent eri ng th e fi eld and new i nformat i on
became available. In Nort h Ameri ca Allan Cox and Ri ch ard Doell h ad
received t h ei r doctorates from Berkeley under th e supervision of Joh n
Verh oogen. Th ey w rot e a very i nfluent i al review of paleomagnet i sm t h at
100 THE EARLY WORK
appeared i n t h e Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin in 1960, i n w h i ch t h ey
concluded correct ly t h at t h e paleomagnet i c dat a i ndi cat ed t h at bot h
reversals of t h e geomagnet i c fi eld and mi neralogi cal reversals occurred.
Th ey poi nt ed out t h at all late Pleistocene (rough ly th e last 800,000
years) and recent lavas h ad normal magnet i zat i on, w h ereas t h e youngest
reversed rocks w ere all early Plei st ocene or late Pli ocene in age (1 mil-
li on t o 2.5 mi lli on years). One year later, i n 1961, t h ey met and per-
suaded Brent Dalrymple t o joi n t h em i n an at t empt t o use t h e radio-
met ri c decay of potassium-40 to argon-40 (K/Ar) to dat e the age of t h i s
reversal, and demonst rat e t h at reversals w ere t i me-dependent .
Th e ot h er i mport ant observat i on of th e lat e 1950s w as th e magnet i c
anomaly pat t ern observed i n mari ne magnet omet er surveys off t h e coast
of Cali forni a, by Ron Mason and Art h ur Raff in 1961.
11
Th e li neari t y and
cont i nui t y of these magnet i c anomalies w ere remarkable, and the origin
w as unknow n, si nce t h ey di d not correlat e w i t h t opograph i c feat ures.
Th ey w ere, how ever, offset by t h e large fract ure zones such as t h e Mendo-
ci no fract ure zone, w h i ch at t h at t i me w as assumed t o be a t ranscurrent
fault .
12
In Russia, paleomagnetic research rapidly led to the use of magnet i c
st rat i graph y for correlat i on of sedi ment ary sect i ons i n Pli ocene and
Plei st ocene rocks of w est ern T urkmeni a by A. N. Kh ramov in 1958.
13
Th is w ork w as largely unknow n i n t h e West unt i l t ranslat i ons of t h i s w ork
began to appear in th e 1960s.
In 1960, I traveled to Canberra, Australia, to w ork w ith Ted Irving for
one year as a Fulbri gh t Scholar. Irvi ng and Joh n Jaeger at t h e Research
Sch ool of E art h Sciences at t h e Aust rali an Nat i onal Uni versi t y (ANU)
w ere prepari ng t o do K/Ar dat i ng of young lavas t o det ermi ne i f rever-
sal of t h e geomagnet i c fi eld w as t i me-dependent . Ian MacDougall, w h o
w as t o do t h e radi omet ri c dat i ng, h ad just fi ni sh ed h i s Ph .D. and w ent
off t o Cali forni a t o learn K/Ar dat i ng t ech ni ques, w h i le Don Tarli ng, a
st udent of Irvi ng, began t o collect samples from Plio-Pleistocene lavas i n
t h e Sout h Paci fi c t o st udy secular vari at i on of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld.
At t empt s w ere made t o set up t h e K/Ar li ne at t h e ANU t h at year, and
Jack Evernden came out to Australia to h elp. These developments set the
stage for t h e fut ure compet i t i on bet w een t h e ANU (Ted I rvi ng, Don Tar-
li ng, and Ian MacDougall) and t h e U.S. Geological Survey (Allan Cox,
Di ck Doell, and Brent D alrymple) t o produce t h e fi rst geomagnet i c
t i mescale.
I traveled from Australia to Afri ca and spent t h ree years at th e Uni -
versi t y of Rh odesi a and Nyasaland research i ng cont i nent al dri ft , w h i ch
w as absorbi ng and ch allengi ng. Meanw h i le, i mport ant development s
The Birth of Plate Tec tonic s 101
w ere h appeni ng i n Nort h Ameri ca and E urope. In 1962 t h e concept of
sea floor spreadi ng w as launch ed by Harry Hess, support ed by Bob
Di et z.
14
In 1963 t h e corollary t o t h e sea floor spreadi ng h ypot h esi s w as
publi sh ed by Fred Vi ne and D rummond Mat t h ew s. Th i s stated t h at i f sea
floor spreadi ng w as t aki ng place, t h en one mi gh t expect t h at li near
magnet i c anomali es w ould form parallel t o t h e ridge crest and be sym-
met ri cal on ei t h er side of it.
15
Th is h ypot h esi s mi gh t explai n t h e li neat ed
magnet i c anomali es observed in th e Paci fi c as w ell as ot h er areas of th e
w orld ocean. Larry Morley, a Canadi an geoph ysi ci st , h ad put t h i s i dea
forw ard i ndependent ly pri or t o Vi ne and Mat t h ew s, but h i s paper w as
reject ed by review ers i n Nort h Ameri ca w h o di d not believe t h at rever-
sals of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld h ad t aken place.
16
In fact , I knew not h -
i ng about t h i s paper at t h e t i me and di d not meet Morley unt i l years later.
Th e Vi ne and Mat t h ew s paper, on t h e ot h er h and, h ad been publi sh ed
i n t h e Bri t i sh journal Nature, w h ere i t recei ved a favorable review and h ad
w ide di st ri but i on.
Th e race t o establish a radi omet ri cally dat ed magnet i c polari t y
t i mescale ended i n a t i e i n 1963, w h en papers w ere publi sh ed bot h by
Cox, Doell, and D alrymple, and by McDougall and Tarli ng.
17
These
i mport ant papers and t h e ot h ers t h at follow ed t h rough out t h e 1960s
support ed t h e h ypot h esi s of reversal of t h e geomagnet i c fi eld, because
t h e reversals appears t o be t i me-dependent . Nevert h eless, geoph ysicists
i n Nort h Ameri ca remai ned h ost i le t o t h e i dea. If reversal of t h e fi eld
w ere accept ed, t h en cont i nent al dri ft , as support ed by paleomagnet i sm,
mi gh t seem more credi ble. I t w as easi er t o di scount t h e w h ole di sci pli ne
t h an t o accept fi ndi ngs t h at mi gh t lead t o t aki ng t h e w h ole subject of
dri ft seriously.
I ret urned t o t h e Uni t ed States from Afri ca i n December 1963 and
began w orki ng at Lament Geological Observat ory of Columbi a Uni ver-
sity. At t h e t i me, t h e Lamont Observat ory and t h e D epart ment of Geol-
ogy at Columbi a Uni versi t y w ere ci t adels of beli ef i n permanent cont i -
nent s and oceans. Since paleomagnet i st s w ere t h e h i gh pri est s of
cont i nent al dri ft , i t mi gh t be a li t t le di ffi cult t o underst and w h y t h e
observat ory h ad h i red me. I lat er found out t h at t h e reason w as very sim-
ple. Mauri ce (D oc) Ew i ng, t h e observat ory's founder and one of t h e
most promi nent geoph ysi ci st s of t h e 20t h cent ury, h ad been t h e pri me
mover i n t h e observat ory's acqui si t i on of large numbers of pi st on cores
from t h e w orld' s oceans. Ever alert , h e h ad deci ded t h at i t mi gh t be pos-
sible t o correlat e t h ese cores usi ng reversal of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld.
He w as always i nt erest ed i n t h e paleocli mat ology of t h e Plei st ocene,
and I believe t h at h e badly w ant ed t o correlat e mari ne mi crofossi ls w i t h
102 THE EARLY WORK
cli mat i c proxi es such as ice raft ed det ri t us, and, if possible, to dat e t h em.
I w as h i red t o do just t h at . I h ad previously become acquai nt ed w i t h
paleomagnet i c research on mari ne sedi ment s carried out at Scripps
I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y by Ch ri s Harrison under th e di rect i on of
Joh n Belsh e, w h om I h ad know n at Cambri dge. Belshe h ad present ed a
lect ure in 1960 at th e ANU, w h i ch I h ad at t ended. In t h at lect ure, h e pre-
sent ed data from sh ort gravity cores t h at showed a reversal of th e fi eld.
18
However, t h e dat a w ere not clear-cut and I knew t h at Chris h ad encoun-
tered many di ffi cult i es. I w as t h erefore not t erri bly ent h usi ast i c about
w orki ng on cores, but I knew i t could be done.
Th e Magnetic D epart ment i n w h i ch I w as t o do my w ork w as under
t h e di rect i on of Ji m Hei rt zler, w h o h ad, i n fact , h i red me. Ji m w as heav-
i ly involved i n research on small ch anges i n t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld
called mic rop uhations, and most of t h e st udent s i n t h e depart ment w ere
research i ng t h i s fi eld. Jim w as also in ch arge of th e acqui si t i on and curat -
ing of mari ne magnet i c data. Th i s data set w as very extensive and w ide-
spread geographically, due to the way the Lamont research ships were
rout ed. However, it w as not regarded as a very i mport ant data set, since
everybody supposed t h at t h e observed magnet i c anomali es only
reflect ed t opograph y, w h i ch at t h e t i me w as t h e only know n w ay of pro-
duci ng magnet i c anomalies.
Sh ort ly aft er my arrival at Lamont , a meet i ng w as called to consi der if
cont i nent al dri ft w as possible. This w as done at th e i nst i gat i on of Bill
D onn, an at mosph eri c sci ent i st , w h o w i t h Doc Ew i ng h ad put forw ard a
t h eory t o explain t h e Ice Ages. D onn h ad at t empt ed t o apply h i s h ypot h -
esis to th e great Permo-Carboni ferous glaciation (300 mi lli on years ago)
on t h e Gondw ana cont i nent but fai led because of t h ei r dispersal. I w as
not scheduled to speak at this meeting, but was th ere as an observer and
resource person. D uri ng t h e course of t h e discussions, paleomagnet i c
dat a w ere ment i oned. Joe Worzel, t h e associate di rect or of t h e observa-
tory, made a st at ement beli t t li ng paleomagnet i c research and result s,
i mplyi ng t h at paleomagnet i st s w ere di sh onest and t h ei r result s could not
be t rust ed. I w as i ncensed and demanded an apology. I believe t h at h e
h ad ent i rely forgot t en t h at Lamont h ad employed a paleomagnet i st , and
t h at I w as act ually t h ere. Doc Ew i ng t act fully calmed everyone dow n. I
left t h e meet i ng w i t h t h e feeli ng t h at perh aps I w ould not be around t oo
long. I w as mi st aken.
Duri ng my fi rst year at Lamont , most of my t i me w as engaged in set-
t i ng up th e paleomagnetic laboratory, w h ich became operational in
March 1965.1 also di d fi eldw ork duri ng t h i s t i me, and w h en t h e labora-
t ory came onli ne, t h ere w as much t o do. In my fi rst year at Lamont , Hans
The Birth of Plate Tec tonic s 103
Wensi nk, a D ut ch sci ent i st , w as a post doct oral research er w orki ng w i t h
me and h e h elped set up t h e laboratory.
19
We subsequent ly carri ed out
a st udy of t h e Wh i t e Mount ai ns i gneous rocks of Vermont and New
Hampsh i re. As part of h i s Ph .D. t h esi s i n Holland, Hans h ad done a st udy
of the magnet i c st rat i graph y of Pli ocene and Plei st ocene lavas of Ice-
land, bui ldi ng on t h e w ork begun by Hospers. He gave a sci ent i fi c report
of t h ese result s at t h e Lament semi nar series. Th e talk w as qui t e w ell
received and Mani k Talwani and Xavier Le Pi ch on waylaid Hans on h i s
w ay back t o t h e offi ce and asked many quest i ons. However, not h i ng
seemed t o develop from t h i s conversat i on, at least i n t h e sh ort t erm.
I also acquired my fi rst graduate st udent t h at year, Joh n Foster, w ho
w as an excellent i nst rument desi gner and very h elpful i n set t i ng up t h e
laborat ory. He developed a slow-speed spi nner magnet omet er of h i gh
sensi t i vi t y t h at used fluxgat es t o measure t h e di rect i on of magnet i zat i on
i n rock speci mens. Th is i nst rument and i t s derivatives w as w idely used i n
paleomagnet i c research unt i l t h e advent of t h e cryogeni c magnet ome-
ter in th e late 1970s.
20
Joh n w as given th e job of research i ng th e paleo-
magnet i sm of mari ne cores; research on cores began slowly in the sum-
mer of 1965 on some pi st on cores t h at h ad been t aken by Walt er
Broecker on t h e 20t h crui se of t h e research vessel Vema, t o t h e Cent ral
Paci fi c Ocean.
Anot h er i nt erest i ng st udy h ad been under w ay i n t h e Magnet i c
D epart ment . Sci ent i st s from t h e Naval Research Laborat ory i n Wash-
i ngt on, D.C., w ere collaborat i ng w i t h H ei rt zler on t h e st udy of magnet i c
anomali es along t h e R eykjanes Ridge sout h of Iceland.
21
An ai rborne
survey h ad been t aken duri ng a t i me of qui t e severe magnet i c st orms,
and t h ese effect s w ere bei ng subt ract ed from t h e dat a set. Th e U.S. Navy
w as i nt erest ed i n t h e magnet i c fi eld around Iceland because seaborne
magnet omet ers w ere used i n ant i submari ne w arfare. One day, Ji m
H ei rt zler called me i n t o sh ow me t h e results. Lo and beh old: a beauti-
ful set of li near magnet i c anomali es h ad emerged from t h e noise. These
magnet i c anomali es w ere parallel t o t h e ri dge axis as requi red by t h e
Vi ne-Mat t h ew s h ypot h esi s. I comment ed t h at I guessed t h at Vi ne and
Mat t h ew s w ere correct . Alt h ough h e w as i mpressed by t h e anomali es,
Ji m w as as yet unw i lli ng t o accept t h e reversal h ypot h esi s for t h ei r ori gi n.
Anot h er i nci dent took place duri ng t h ese early days at Lament . I w as
asked t o be a reader on a paper by Xavi er Le Pi ch on on t h e magnet i c
anomali es associated w i t h t h e mi d-At lant i c ri dge, on w h i ch h e di d h i s
thesis. In the paper, Xavier had mai nt ai ned t h at the basalts of the ocean
floor di d not h ave a h i gh enough magnet i c i nt ensi t y t o give rise t o mag-
net i c anomali es caused by fi eld reversals. I w as aw are of a Nature paper
104 THE EARLY WORK
byJi m Ade-Hall t h at i ndi cat ed ot h erw i se.
22
Xavier di d not alter t h e man-
uscri pt , but t h e discussion caused me t o begin research on t h e magnet i c
propert i es of mari ne i gneous rocks i n concert w i t h anot h er French sci-
ent i st , Roger H ekeni an. I t t urned out t h at t h ey w ere i ndeed strongly
magnet i c and w ere resi st ant t o ch ange. It i s i nt erest i ng t o not e t h at sea
floor basalts w ere an i mport ant element i n t h e extensive dredge collec-
t i on at Lament , yet h ad h ardly been looked at unt i l t h i s t i me.
One of t h e most i mport ant events t o affect t h e mari ne program i n
1965 w as t h at Lamont ' s Walter Pi t man ch anged h i s research from
mi cropulsat i on st udi es (small vari at i ons of i nt ensi t y) of t h e eart h ' s fi eld
t o mari ne magnet i cs. In t h e aut umn of 1965, h e w ent t o sea on t h e
research vessel Eltanin-20 across t h e East Paci fi c Rise. On h i s ret urn, h e
began t o process t h e magnet i c data from Eltanin-19 and -20 cruises.
Much of t h e comput er w ork t h at w as done at Lament w as oft en done at
ni gh t ; one morni ng I came i n t o w ork t o see t h e Eltanun-19 profi le
pi nned t o my offi ce door. Th is profi le i s beaut i fully bi lat erally symmet -
rical and t h e ent i re t i mescale as know n at t h at t i me w as displayed by t h e
magnet i c anomali es. Th e reversal pat t ern w as unknow n beyond 3.5 mil-
li on years, but displayed on t h i s profi le w ere magnet i c anomali es w ell
i nt o t h e Mi ocene (up t o 10 mi lli on years old). Th e profi le also displayed
a magnet i c anomaly t h at occurred just below t h e Brunh es-Mat uyama
boundary, t h e last know n reversal of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld. Th i s
came t o be know n as t h e Jarami llo event , a peri od of normal polari t y
about 50,000 years i n lengt h , and t h e profi le w ould become know n as
"Pi t man' s magi c profi le" because of its beaut i ful symmet ry.
23
At about t h e t i me Walt er w as at sea, i mport ant development s w ere tak-
i ng place i n t h e paleomagnet i c st udy of mari ne sedi ment s at Lament .
Joh n Foster, w h o h ad been given t h e task of st udyi ng reversals i n mari ne
sedi ment s, w as t alki ng about h i s research w i t h ot h er st udent s, i n part i c-
ular w i t h Billy Glass, a st udent of Bruce Heezen. D uri ng t h e course of
t h ei r di scussi ons, Billy suggested t o Fost er t h at perh aps i t w ould be a
good idea t o st udy h i gh er-lat i t ude cores, i n part i cular th ose around t h e
Ant arct i c t h at h ad been st udi ed by James Hays for h i s Ph .D. thesis. I told
t h em t o go ah ead and give t h em a try, w h i ch t h ey di d. Sure enough , t h ey
w ere qui t e h i gh ly magnet i c and ch anges i n polari t y w ere soon observed.
Progress w as very rapi d, and by early 1966 research on reversal stratig-
raph y of cores spread to sedi ment s of th e Nort h Paci fi c on th e sugges-
t i on of D. Ni nkovi t ch , a colleague of H eezen, w h o w as i nt erest ed in cor-
relat i ng volcani c ash layers in cores sout h of th e Aleut i an islands. By
February 1966, w e h ad magnet i c st rat i graph y from fossi l-beari ng mari ne
sedi ment s t o t h e base of t h e Gauss normal peri od 2.6 mi lli on years ago,
The Birth of Plate Tec tonic s 105
and w e h ad i dent i fi ed a new normal event older t h an t h e Brunh es-
Mat uyama boundary, w h i ch w e called t h e Emp eror event , aft er t h e
E mperor seamount ch ai n. Th i s event w as also observed on t h e profi les
from t h e East Paci fi c Rise (Eltanin-19 profi le). By March 1966, w e h ad all
of t h i s i nformat i on at our di sposal, but i t w as know n only t o t h e mem-
bers of t h e Magnet i cs D epart ment , and t o Bruce H eezen, w h o w as very
ent h usi ast i c about t h e appli cat i on of magnet i c st rat i graph y t o mari ne
geology.
In March 1966, Fred Vi ne visited Lament t o see t h e Eltanin dat a. I
sh ow ed h i m t h e new result s from t h e cores, and t h e fi rst t h i ng h e said
w as, "I see you have found t h e Jarami llo event ." I repli ed, "What's t h at ?"
I t t urned out t h at t h e event at t h e end of t h e Mat uyama (about one mil-
li on years ago), w h i ch I h ad called t h e E mperor event , h ad been found
by Doell and D alrymple and w as already i n press. Th ey h ad called i t t h e
Jarami llo event aft er a locat i on i n New Mexico. Th ere w ent t h e E mperor
event ri gh t out t h e w indow . D uri ng t h i s vi si t , H ei rt zler arranged t o give
t h e Eltanin data t o Fred Vi ne, w ith t h e st i pulat i on t h at Walt er Pi t man and
h e w ould publi sh fi rst . Vi ne w as elat ed by t h e Eltanin data: i t convi nced
h i m beyond a sh adow of a doubt t h at t h e Vi ne-Mat t h ew s h ypot h esi s w as
correct .
Soon aft er t h i s, Walter suggested t h at I show Doc Ew i ng t h e results t h at
w e w ere get t i ng from t h e sedi ment ary cores. I made t h e appoi nt ment and
w i t h t repi dat i on w ent t o see t h e great man. I laid t h e st rat i graph y out on
t h e long sheets w h ere w e h ad recorded t h e data. He w as ent h usi ast i c and
i mpressed w i t h t h e results. For some reason h e di d not make t h e con-
nect i on among sea floor spreadi ng, reversals of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld,
and cont i nent al dri ft , w h i ch h e still adamant ly opposed. At t h e t i me, i t w as
clear t h at t h e same polari t y ch anges w ere observed i n t h ree di fferent
recordi ng systems, (1) t errest ri al lavas dated by radioactive decay of potas-
sium t o argon, (2) sea floor magnet i c anomalies, and (3) mari ne sedi-
ment s, w h i ch w ere fully t i me-dependent . It w as clear t h at reversal of t h e
eart h 's magnetic fi eld was a fact . However, the details were only know n by
a small group, mai nly at Lamont .
Th e spri ng meet i ng of t h e Ameri can Geoph ysi cal Uni on w as rapi dly
approach i ng. I h ad put i n an abst ract t o t alk about t h e Wh i t e Mount ai ns
result s and Walt er and Ji m H ei rt zler h ad an abst ract i n on t h e Eltanin.
T h ere w as a lot of di scussi on i n t h e depart ment about h ow far t h ey
sh ould go i n endorsi ng sea floor spreadi ng. I poi nt ed out t h at i f you pre-
sent t h e Eltanin-19 profi le and say not h i ng about sea floor spreadi ng, you
w ould look very fooli sh . So Walt er w as given permi ssi on by Jim to t ake
t h e gi ant st ep forw ard. I deci ded t h at I w ould cancel t h e paper on t h e
106 THE EARLY WORK
Wh i t e Mount ai n seri es and i nst ead give t h e paper on reversals i n cores.
I remember goi ng around AGU t elli ng everyone t h at t h e Front i ers of
Geoph ysi cs lect ure could be mi ssed, but you h ad t o h ear Pi t man' s t alk.
It caused a stir, as di d t h e dat a I present ed, but t h e new s w as really spread
by w ord of mout h .
Th i s meet i ng saw the last gasp of mi neralogi cal self-reversal as a seri-
ous cont ender t o explai n reversed di rect i ons i n rocks. Rod Wi lson at
I mperi al College beli eved t h at h e could correlat e di fferences i n oxida-
t i on state of magnet i c mi nerals w i t h magnet i c polari t y i n lavas. Th e pre-
sent at i on of t h e reversal dat a from t h e cores essent i ally ended t h e argu-
ment , si nce i t w as clear t h at reversal of t h e eart h ' s fi eld w as fully
t i me-dependent . Aft er t h i s meet i ng I don' t beli eve t h e i dea t h at t h e
eart h ' s geomagnet i c fi eld reversed polari t y w as ever seriously t h reat ened
agai n. At t h e next meet i ng of t h e AGU, over 40 papers on crust al mobi l-
i t y and associ at ed t opi cs w ere present ed t o st andi ng room-only audi-
ences.
Follow ing t h e AGU meet i ng I flew t o Tallahassee, Flori da, w h ere t h e
Eltanin cores w ere st ored. Ji m Hays h ad previ ously i dent i fi ed several
cores t h at h e believed w ere lat e Mi ocene i n age (ci rca 6 mi lli on years
old) based on t h e mi crofauna; I sampled t h e cores at 4 i nch (10 cent i -
met er) i nt ervals. Norman Wat ki ns h ad just arri ved t o set up a paleo-
magnet i cs laborat ory. In a year w e w ould soon become keen compet i t ors
but w e w ere always good fri ends. I ret urned t o t h e observat ory i n t h e
summer of 1966. Th e di rect i on of magnet i zat i on i n t h ese cores h ad been
measured, so I w orked on t h e core t h at w ent back fart h est i n t i me, and
as I w orked t h e magnet i c pat t ern w as revealed t o t h e base of t h e know n
st rat i graph y, about 3.6 mi lli on years. We h ad t h e Eltanin-19 profi le as a
t emplat e so w e knew w h at pat t ern sh ould emerge. Wh en I got t o t h i s
poi nt i n t h e core I i nformed Pi t man t h at t h e pat t ern t h at h e h ad
observed sh ould soon be revealed - t h at i s, of course, i f w e w ere correct
i n all our assumpt i ons. Walt er came t o t h e laborat ory w i t h me, sh aped
th e samples, and h anded t h em to me to be measured: sure enough th e
pat t ern emerged as expect ed, just li ke magi c. We w ere bot h ecst at i c. Wal-
t er and I w ere now secure i n our predi ct i ons t h at t h e reversal h i st ory of
t h e fi eld w as accurat ely recorded i n bot h t h e sedi ment s and t h e sea floor
basalts.
Th e act i vi t y i n t h e Magnet i cs D epart ment w as soon brough t t o t h e
at t ent i on of members of t h e Seismology D epart ment , w h o began rapi dly
and aggressively t o pursue t h e i mpli cat i ons of crust al mobi li t y for seis-
mology. On t h e ot h er h and, Doc Ew i ng and t h e Mari ne Geology group
h eld fi rm agai nst cont i nent al dri ft . Th i s ferment result ed i n a meet i ng
The Birth of Plate Tec tonic s 107
h eld at t h e Goddard I nst i t ut e for Space Studies i n November 1966. Th e
meet i ng was organized by Paul Gast and Robert Jastrow and was by invi-
t at i on only. Th e pow er st ruct ure of Nort h Ameri can eart h science w as
t h ere. I w as i nvi t ed only because Allan Cox could not make i t . Th e dat a
t h at h ad been accumulat i ng at Lament w ere present ed and every
speaker w as aggressively i nt errogat ed. Th e i dea w as to hold a debat e on
w h et h er crustal mobi li t y w as a real possi bi li t y or not . At t h e end, Si r
Edw ard Bullard w as t o sum up i n favor of crust al mobi li t y and Gordon J.
MacDonald agai nst . Th e open h ost i li t y tow ard crust al mobi li t y gradually
receded as t h e meet i ng w ore on. At t h e end, MacDonald fai led t o give a
summary, essentially yielding to the mobilists. The summary in favor of
crust al mobi li t y w as provided elegant ly by Bullard. It i s my opi ni on t h at
t h i s meet i ng set t h e stage for t h e comi ng plat e t ect oni c revolut i on.
24
It w as an exci t i ng t i me for all eart h sci ence. Th e next few years w ere
t o see a complet e ch ange i n t h e w ay t h at w e viewed t h e eart h . One mi gh t
ask, are t h ere any lessons t o be learned from my experi ences? I w ould
say t h at t h ere probably are. From my perspect i ve I feel t h at i f you fai l t o
take advant age of opport uni t i es offered, t h en your ch ances of success
are di mi ni sh ed. I could h ave t urned R uncorn dow n. Th e second poi nt
t h at i s clear t o me i s t h at i f a sci ent i st w ant s t o make an i mpact , h e or sh e
must seek t o solve i mport ant problems and mast er t h e necessary tools
t h at provi de t h e opport uni t y t o solve t h em.
Th e ch oices t h at a sci ent i st makes i n research are all i mport ant . Some
are sci ent i fi c bi g game h unt ers; ot h ers w ould rat h er not take a ch ance
and fi nd t h at sh oot i ng fi sh i n a barrel i s more fun. Persistence pays off; i f
you t h i nk you are ri gh t , keep going. It i s not bad t o be a li t t le aggressive.
This page intentionally left blank
PA R T I I I
HE AT FLO W AN D S E IS MO LO GY
The c onf irmation of sea f loor sp reading led to a rush - some might say a stam-
p ede - to p ut together the p iec es of a global story. There were several imp ortant
lines of evidenc e, and at f irst it was not entirely c lear if they would f it together.
If sea f loor sp reading at the mid-oc ean ridges was c aused by c onvec tion c ur-
rents rising f rom deep within very hot regions in the earth, then heat f low
should be highest over these ridges, but sc ientists f ound some heat f low values
at the ridges that were extremely low. This didn 't seem to f it the big p ic ture. Nor
did the f ac t that heat f low over the c ontinents was the same, on average, as
over the oc ean f loors. F or some sc ientists, these were reasons to remain unc on-
vinc ed. But while heat f low measurements c aused a c ertain amount of c on-
f usion, seismic data p roved c omp elling.
Advanc es in seismology were c ruc ial to illuminating the big p ic ture. F or
some time, seismologists had been map p ing the distribution of global earth-
quakes and attemp ting to determine the nature of the motions assoc iated with
them. But their data were of ten sp arse, inac c urate, or c onf using. The devel-
op ment of the world wide standard seismograp h network (WWSSN) to aid in
detec ting nuc lear weap ons tests c ame at just the right time to solve the p rob-
lems of p late tec tonic s: ac c urate loc ations of earthquakes disp layed a f abulous
p attern outlining the earth's c rustal bloc ks, and ac c urate determination of
earthquakes' slip direc tions p roved that these bloc ks were moving in just the
ways that global tec tonic s required.
This page intentionally left blank
C HA P T E R 7
How MO BI LE i s THE EARTH?
Gordon J. MacDonald
IN THE 1950s, POLAR WANDERING AND CONTINENTAL DRIFT WERE
cont roversi al subject s, oft en leadi ng t o h eat ed discussions bet w een
Nort h Ameri can and E uropean geophysicists and geologists. Many Euro-
peans favored mobi li t y w h i le most Ameri cans believed i n stable cont i -
nent s and oceans. I st art ed seri ous w ork on t h ese topics i n 1957, w h en
Walt er Munk and I began t h e research and w ri t i ng for our book, The
Rotation of the Earth.
1
At t h e t i me, Walt er w as one of t h e leadi ng oceanog-
raph ers of t h e 20t h cent ury and a longt i me professor at t h e Scripps Inst i -
t ut i on of Oceanograph y; I w as st art i ng my academi c career as a profes-
sor of geology at t h e Massach uset t s I nst i t ut e of Tech nology (MI T ).
In planni ng t h e book, Walt er and I h ad a mi ld debat e on w h et h er or
not t o i nclude di scussi ons of cont i nent al dri ft and polar w anderi ng. I
argued w e sh ould, so as to tw eak th e geologists i nt o consi deri ng li mi t a-
t i ons (i mposed by geoph ysi cs) on t h ei r w i lder speculat i ons. George Dar-
w i n' s analysis of polar w anderi ng provi ded a st art .
2
Furt h ermore, Walt er
w as always ready for a good argument . Th e fi nal ch apt er of The Rotation
of the Earth t akes up t h e subject of t h e eart h ' s mobi li t y, as w e underst ood
it in 1960.
Wh en I w as an undergraduat e at Harvard i n t h e lat e 1940s, my pro-
fessors i gnored or di smi ssed (w i t h ri di cule) speculat i on t h at cont i nent s
move relat i ve t o each ot h er, t h e poles t i p, and convect i on current s con-
st ant ly st i r t h e i nt eri or of t h e eart h . However, I w as very much i mpressed
in 1949 by readi ng Regi nald Daly's book, Our Mobile Earth.
3
By th e t i me
I reach ed H arvard, Daly h ad ret i red, but from t i me t o t i me h e appeared
on campus and occasi onally engaged i n bri ef conversat i ons w i t h stu-
dent s. Daly's book provi ded a compreh ensi ve overview of t h e evi dence
favori ng dri ft , and, li ke Alfred Wegener (a met eorologi st and early pro-
ponent ) , Daly advocat ed dri ft in th e 1920s and early 1930s. By th e 1940s,
111
112 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
Gordon MacDonald at t h e Scri pps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y on
t h e occasion of t h e 65th bi rt h day of geoph ysi ci st Walt er Munk, Octo-
ber 1982. (Ph ot o by Roy Porello, court esy of t h e Scripps I nst i t ut i on
of Oceanograph y, used by permi ssi on.)
Daly cont i nued t o advance h i s view t h at a plausi ble mech ani sm for
mount ai n-bui ldi ng i nvolved blocks of crust movi ng as a result of gravi-
t at i onal forces, crush i ng sedi ment s deposi t ed along t h e coast.
4
Wh at ever sympat h y I h ad for Daly's not i on of cont i nent al dri ft w as
overw h elmed by t h e w ork of t w o gi ant s of 20t h cent ury geoph ysics:
Cambri dge professor S i r Harold Jeffreys and H arvard professor Franci s
Bi rch . I n fact , Walt er Munk and I dedi cat ed our book t o Jeffreys. Wal-
t er, i n h i s many visits t o Cambri dge, E ngland, h ad come t o know Si r
Harold and Lady Jeffreys qui t e w ell; my personal i nt eract i ons w i t h S i r
Harold w ere very much more li mi t ed. In th e early 1950s, h e present ed
a course on flui d dynami cs at H arvard. Despi t e t h e broad t i t le of t h e
How Mobile is the Earth ? 113
course, i t s subject mat t er w as basically t h e mech ani cs of boi li ng por-
ri dge. Wh i le Si r Harold' s w ri t i ngs w ere admi rably clear and conci se,
t h ese t alent s di d not carry over t o h i s lect ures. Typically, h e w ould w ri t e
dow n a number of equat i ons on t h e blackboard, w ander over t o an
open w i ndow , and di scuss t h e peculi ari t i es of t h e mat h emat i cal prop-
ert i es of t h e equat i ons t h at descri be t h e mot i on of flui ds. Apparent ly,
Si r Harold felt t h at a flock of Cambri dge pi geons w ould appreci at e h i s
i nsi gh t far more t h an h i s h uman audi ence of four or fi ve scruffy Har-
vard graduat e st udent s.
Si r Harold' s book, The Earth, defi ned t h e subject of t h e ph ysics of t h e
eart h ' s i nt eri or.
5
In my view, t h e early edi t i ons, part i cularly t h e fi rst (pub-
li sh ed i n 1924), w ere t h e most i nfluent i al. Th e mai n object i ve w as t o
compare t h eory w i t h observat i ons i n a quant i t at i ve way. How w ell t h eory
fi t observation w as a major t h eme i n much of Si r Harold' s research ; i t
led h i m t o w ri t e h i s most i mport ant w ork, The Theory of Probability, pub-
li sh ed i n 1939.
6
In recent years, t h i s mast erpi ece, demonst rat i ng t h e
w ide range of appli cat i ons of the w ork of 18th cent ury mat h emat i ci an
Th omas Bayes, h as been redi scovered and h as spaw ned li t erally h un-
dreds of books t h at discuss Bayes' approach t o probabi li t y.
Not surprisingly, geologists in th e pre-World War II period found t h at
The Earth, t h e book, w as much more mat h emat i cal t h an t h e real t h i ng.
Jeffreys' answer w as simple: the results sough t were quantitative and
t h ere w as no w ay of obt ai ni ng quant i t at i ve result s w i t h out mat h emat i cs.
The later editions, begi nni ng w ith the fourt h , published in 1959, suf-
fered as t h e vast amount of new dat a relevant t o t h e eart h ' s i nt eri or
rolled in as a result of great advances in i nst rument at i on. One person,
even one as bri lli ant as Jeffreys, could not h ave easily assimilated such a
wealth of new i nformat i on.
I found Jeffreys' reasoni ng about t h e st rengt h of t h e eart h , based on
gravity observations and the existence of mount ai n ranges and ocean
t rench es, t o be convi nci ng. In essence, h e argued t h at t h e eart h w as t oo
strong to permi t significant crustal mobility. It w as rigid, not flexible. I
carri ed t h i s view i nt o t h e 1960s di scussi on of t h e eart h ' s rot at i on and
into my later investigations w ith respect to continental dri ft and polar
w anderi ng.
I was fort unat e enough to know Francis Birch well. In his laboratory,
I began t o underst and t h e art of research on h i gh pressure. Bi rch
received a bachelor's degree in electrical engi neeri ng from Harvard in
1924. He ret urned to Harvard in 1928 as a graduat e st udent in ph ysi cs,
w orki ng ch iefly on high-pressure experi ment s in the laboratory of Percy
114 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
W. Bri dgman, a 1946 Nobel Laureate for his work on high-pressure
ph ysi cs. In t h e early 1930s, Bri dgman and Regi nald Daly, an almost dai ly
visitor to Bridgman's laboratory, combined to set up a committee on
experi ment al geology and geoph ysi cs t h at w ould be devot ed t o revital-
i zi ng a program of seismology, t h e st udy of t h e eart h ' s i nt eri or usi ng
observat i ons on th e propagat i on of sound and ot h er waves, and to devel-
opi ng a program for compreh ensi ve h i gh -pressure st udi es t o sh ed li gh t
on condi t i ons deep w i t h i n t h e eart h . Birch w as i nvi t ed t o lead t h e h i gh -
pressure research program, and research on t h e ph ysi cal and ch emi cal
properties of the eart h 's i nt eri or became his li felong task.
Probably t h e most si gni fi cant among Bi rch ' s many cont ri but i ons
appeared i n a now classic paper publi sh ed i n 1952, ent i t led "Elast i ci t y
and t h e Const i t ut i on of t h e E art h ' s Int eri or."
7
In t h i s paper, Bi rch
demonst rat ed t h at (1) t h e mant le i s predomi nant ly composed of si li cat e
mi nerals; (2) t h e upper and lower mant le regi ons are each essent i ally
h omogeneous but w i t h somew h at di fferent composi t i ons, separat ed by
a t h i n transition zone associated w ith a silicate ph ase t ransi t i on; and (3)
t h e i nner and out er cores are composed of cryst alli ne and molt en i ron
respectively. Wh i le these i deas h ad been earli er proposed by ot h ers,
i ncludi ng Jeffreys and Dani sh seismologist Inge Leh mann, alt ernat i ve
i nt erpret at i ons w ere st i ll i n play at t h e t i me. For example, some geo-
ph ysi ci st s t h ough t t h e core mi gh t be composed of li qui d or solid h ydro-
gen. By 1965, th e available evi dence confi rmed th e essent i als of th e
Birch model.
Bi rch felt t h at h i s demonst rat i on of t h e h omogenei t y of t h e mant le
in bot h th e upper and lower regions ruled out large-scale convective
mot i ons. Hi s posi t i on w as t h at , given t h e h omogenei t y of t h e t w o
regi ons of t h e mant le, t h ere w ould be no dri vi ng force for large-scale
convect i on (t h e mot i on of a flui d dri ven by densi t y di fferences result -
i ng from t emperat ure di fferences; accordi ng t o t h i s t h eory, h ot t er, less
dense mat eri al w ould move upw ard against gravity w h i le cooler mat eri -
als w ould si nk). Bi rch argued t h at convect i on w as unli kely t o break
t h rough t h e transition i n densi t y bet w een t h e lower and t h e upper man-
t le. I agreed.
Elast i c mat eri als h ave w h at ph ysi ci st s call a "fi ni t e" st rengt h , w h i ch
means t h at upon t h e appli cat i on of a st ress (a force over an area) t h ey
w i ll deform a cert ai n amount i n proport i on t o t h at st ress. But no mat -
t er h ow long t h e stress i s appli ed t h e deformat i on i s li mi t ed. Th e mat e-
ri al does not deform i nfi ni t ely; i t h as a fi ni t e (non-zero) st rengt h . I n
cont rast , flui ds cont i nue to flow and deform as long as a stress is bei ng
appli ed. T h erefore, t h ey h ave no fi ni t e st rengt h ; t h ei r st rengt h i s zero.
How Mobile is the Earth ? 115
The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its rate of deformat i on: more vis-
cous flui ds flow more slowly t h an less vi scous flui ds under a given st ress.
Most of us know t h i s from common experi ence: h oney i s more viscous
t h an w at er, and so t akes longer t o flow out of ajar. Th e quest i on w i t h
respect t o t h e eart h w as t h i s: i s i t a viscous flui d, li ke h oney, w i t h no fi ni t e
st rengt h , w h i ch w ill cont i nue t o flow under st ress i ndefi ni t ely, or i s i t
an elast i c mat eri al of fi ni t e st rengt h , resi st i ng deformat i on aft er a cer-
tain poi nt ? Based on my readings of Jeffreys and my close i nt eract i on
w i t h Bi rch , I concluded t h at t h e eart h i ndeed possessed a fi ni t e
st rengt h . This had to be taken into account in any discussion of the
eart h ' s i nt eri or, and i t seemed t o argue agai nst crust al mobi li t y even
i f geologists consi dered mobi li t y essent i al t o t h e explanat i on of many
of t h ei r observat i ons.
In t h e 1960s I found t h e cont radi ct i on bet w een t h e geoph ysical evi-
dence for a st rong eart h and t h e mobility requi red by some geologic
observat i ons deeply t roubli ng. My w ork as a young geologist i n New En-
gland and th e Alps convinced me t h at duri ng periods in w hich moun-
t ai ns w ere formed layers of rock beh aved plast i cally, w ith t h e layers
w rapped up i n gi ant folds, and breaks or fault s i n t h e rocks permi t t i ng
large di splacement s of masses of rocks - a view sh ared by most fi eld geol-
ogists. I could explain t h ese deformat i on pat t erns i n t erms of t h e prop-
ert i es of rocks at high t emperat ures and pressure w ith t h e rocks h avi ng
a h i gh w at er cont ent : rocks w ould deform li ke viscous flui ds under such
conditions. But these local and regional observations could not be
ext rapolat ed t o t h e mot i on of w h ole cont i nent s, because cont i nent s h ad
ph ysi ograph i c feat ures such as t h e Ri o Grande Valley t h at h ave persi st ed
unt ouch ed by large-scale deformat i ons over h undreds of mi lli ons of
years.
In th e 1950s and 1960s, th e st ruct ure of th e sea floor h ad not been
mapped i n t h e detail t h at t h e cont i nent s h ad, but i t w as nonet h eless
clear t h at volcanic activity, w i t h massive flows of liquid lava, had taken
place i n t h e ocean basi n. Given t h e abundance of volcani c activity i n t h e
basins, I considered the possibility t h at the sea floor in the i nt eri or of the
ocean basi n w as mobi le compared t o st able cont i nent s, w h i ch mai n-
t ai ned t h ei r relat i ve geograph i cal posi t i on over t i me. Perh aps t h e sea
floor moved w i t h out di splaci ng t h e cont i nent s?
In t h e early 1960s, new observat i ons and i nt erpret at i ons of t h e sea
floor data led t o t h e t h eory of plate tectonics, w h i ch permanent ly
alt ered t h e di scussi ons of t h e mobi li t y of t h e eart h . H arry Hess, Bob
Dietz, Law rence Morley, Frederick Vi ne, and D rummond Matth ew s
cont ri but ed t o t h e i nvent i on of t h e t h eory of plat e t ect oni cs i n vari ous
116 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
ways.
8
Plat e t ect oni c t h eory post ulat es t h at t h e surface of t h e eart h can
be descri bed by breaki ng i t up i nt o plat es w i t h a ri gi d upper layer,
t h e li t h osph ere, compri sed of crust and upper mant le. Th e ast h enos-
ph ere, supposed t o beh ave as a viscous flui d, underli es t h e li t h osph ere.
Accordi ng t o t h i s t h eory, low -i nt ensi t y, long-t erm st resses dri ve t h e
h ori zont al mot i on of t h e plat es. New ly defi ned plat es replace cont i -
nent s as movi ng object s near t h e surface of t h e eart h . In most versi ons
of t h e t h eory, mant le convect i on provides t h e mot i ve force for plat e
di splacement .
T HE DE E P S T R U C T U R E O F T HE C O N T I N E N T S
In th e 1960s, follow i ng complet i on of The Rotation of the Earth, I took on
th e issue of w h et h er geophysical know ledge of th e eart h ' s i nt eri or w as
consi st ent w i t h large-scale di splacement of cont i nent s. This research
also involved th e relat ed quest i on of w h et h er th e concept of fi xed con-
t i nent s w as consi st ent w i t h geoph ysical evi dence. Th e most pert i nent
observat i ons at t h e t i me w ere th ose t h at dealt w i t h t h e subcrust al st ruc-
t ure of cont i nent s and ocean basins. I argued in two papers t h at the
large-scale di fferences bet w een cont i nent s and oceans w ere not re-
st ri ct ed t o t h e upper few t ens of mi les, as plat e t h eory w ould h ave i t , but
ext ended t o several h undred mi les' dept h .
9
One cannot , of course,
di rect ly observe t h at cont i nent s ext end t o great dept h s; i t i s a conclusi on
I believed w as demanded by t h e analysis of: (1) h eat flow and gravity
observations t aken over t h e surface of t h e eart h ; (2) seismological data
t h at i ncluded newly observed free oscillations; and (3) new and very
i mport ant i nformat i on secured from observat i on of t h e beh avi or of
eart h -orbi t i ng sat elli t es.
H eat flow i s a funct i on of bot h t h e eart h ' s i nt ernal composi t i on - pri-
mari ly t h e concent rat i on of h eat -generat i ng radioactive element s - and
t h e processes such as convect i on and conduct i on t h at t ransfer h eat from
t h e eart h ' s i nt eri or t o i t s ext eri or. Gravity as measured at or near t h e sur-
face depends upon the underlyi ng mass of rocks or fluids. If the rocks
underlyi ng a part i cular observi ng st at i on h ave a h i gh er densi t y t h an
t h ose under nearby st at i ons, t h e pull of gravity w ill be h i gh er t h ere. Free
oscillations are t h e vi brat i ons produced by a di st urbance w i t h i n t h e
eart h , such as an eart h quake or underground explosi on. Th e t i me i t
takes for elastic waves t o t ravel from a di st urbance t o t h e recordi ng
device (i .e., a sei smomet er) depends upon t h e propert i es of t h e rocks
How Mobile is the Earth ? 117
lying along th e pat h from th e disturbance to th e i nst rument . If th e dis-
t urbance i s large enough , t h en t h e w h ole eart h ri ngs li ke a bell; t h e
peri ods of osci llat i on are much longer t h an th ose t h e ear can det ect
(mi nut es t o h ours for E art h versus mi lli seconds for t h e bell), but t h ey
can be det ect ed by sei smomet ers. Heat flow , gravity, and free osci llat i ons
can be used as i ndi rect measures of t h e eart h ' s i nt ernal composi t i on and
st ruct ure.
Today, satellites permi t determination of these properties w ith great
accuracy. For example, i f t h e eart h w ere a perfect sph ere h avi ng uni form
densi t y and lacki ng an at mosph ere, and i f t h ere w ere no moon, sun, or
planet s, an orbi t i ng sat elli t e's pat h w ould be a fi xed ci rcle about t h e cen-
t er of t h e eart h . Obviously, t h ese condi t i ons do not h old. Th e equat or-
i al radi us of t h e eart h i s great er t h an t h e polar radi us, and t h e equat or-
i al bulge pert urbs t h e orbi t of eart h satellites. O t h er pert urbat i ons ari se
from irregularities in the distribution of mass w i t h i n the eart h . Precise
measurement of t h e sat elli t es' pat h about t h e eart h t h erefore gives valu-
able i nformat i on about the distribution of mass under cont i nent s and
oceans. Similarly, measurement s of th e st rengt h of gravity made by
i nst rument s at t h e surface are st rongly i nfluenced by local i rregulari t i es
in th e di st ri but i on of mass. Observat i ons of sat elli t e orbi t s provi de dat a
on t h e large-scale i rregulari t i es of mass and are much less sensi t i ve t o t h e
local vari at i ons t h an observations made on t h e surface. Both surface and
sat elli t e gravi t y observat i ons i ndi cat e t h at t h e total mass of mat eri al per
uni t area in the earth 's upper layer is equal. This condition is called
isostasy, a t erm coi ned i n t h e late 19th cent ury by Ameri can geologi st
Clarence D ut t on meani ng "equal standing."
10
Gravity measurement s
sh ow t h at t h e rock mass cont ai ned i n a h i gh mount ai n i s compensat ed
by a defi ci ency of mass i n rocks at dept h under t h e mount ai n - and t h e
net effect i s almost as i f t h ere w ere no mount ai n at all.
In t h e 1960s, th ese propert i es could only be measured at t h e surface,
but the basic result was the same as today: gravity measurement s pointed
t o mass di fferences below t h e cont i nent s and oceans t h at compensat ed
for t h e observable topography. I f t h i s di fference bet w een cont i nent s and
oceans ext ends t o great dept h s, t h en a t h eory of cont i nent al dri ft must
be very di fferent t h an t h at fi rst i magi ned by Alfred Wegener. I n
Wegener's view, t h e mot i on of cont i nent s requi red a w eak oceani c crust
ext endi ng dow nw ard i nt o t h e mant le; cont i nent s w ere st i ff plat es push -
ing t h rough t h at weak crust. In my view, t h i s w as inconsistent w ith the
evidence for deep di fferences bet w een t h e oceans and t h e cont i nent s.
My argument s can be si mply summari zed:
118 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
1. Isostasy generally prevai ls, but devi at i ons from isostasy sh ow t h at
t h e mant le possesses a fi ni t e st rengt h , as argued by Harold Jeffreys.
T h at i s, t h e mant le i s not complet ely w eak li ke a flui d.
2. Th e surface rocks of cont i nent s are less dense t h an t h ose of t h e
ocean floor. Th e deeper rocks of cont i nent s are denser t h an t h e
near-surface rocks, a necessary condi t i on t o obt ai n observed
approxi mat e isostatic balance.
3. Th e surface h eat flow s of cont i nent s and ocean basi ns are approx-
i mat ely equal, but t h e cont ent of radi oact i ve h eat -generat i ng ele-
ment s i s h i gh er i n cont i nent al rocks t h an i n rocks underlyi ng t h e
oceans. Th e approxi mat e equali t y of h eat flow i n cont i nent s and
ocean basi ns requi res t h at h i gh er concent rat i on of radi oact i ve ele-
ment s i n near-surface cont i nent al rocks be compensat ed for by
low er concent rat i ons at great er dept h s.
11
T h erefore t h e h i gh con-
cent rat i on of such element s i n t h e cont i nent al crust must be com-
pensat ed by low er radioactive concent rat i on i n rocks deep under
cont i nent s.
4. E art h quakes are clust ered along ocean-cont i nent borders and
eart h quake foci can be as deep as 450 mi les (720 ki lomet ers).
5. The agreement bet w een calculated and observed oscillations caused
by eart h quakes i ndi cat es a h omogeneous lower mant le.
These argument s are elaborated below.
GR A VI T Y
Studies of t h e eart h ' s gravity fi eld h ave long sh ow n t h at despi t e t h e di f-
ference i n densi t i es bet w een t h e uppermost layers of rocks under oceans
and under cont i nent s, t h e amount of mass per uni t area under cont i -
nent s very nearly equals t h at under th e ocean, a condi t i on know as
isostasy.
12
In th e early 1960s, know ledge of th e eart h ' s gravi t y field
i ncreased si gni fi cant ly. Observat i ons of t h e orbi t s of sat elli t es comi ng
close t o t h e eart h ' s surface est abli sh ed t h at regi onal vari at i ons of gravi t y
exist over large h ori zont al distances. As Walter Munk and I noted at the
t i me, th ese cannot be account ed for i n t erms of t h e near-surface crust al
st ruct ure.
13
Th e analysis of t h e eart h ' s gravi t at i onal fi eld proceeds by expandi ng
the external gravitational pot ent i al in terms of a series of sp heric al har-
monic s, a form of mat h emat i cal analysi s used t o descri be a pat t ern on
How Mobile is the Earth ? 119
t h e surface of a sph ere. Th e analysis w orks by breaki ng t h e large
pat t ern dow n i nt o a sequence of si mple pat t erns i n a h i erarch y of
i ncreasi ng complexi t y. "Low-order" sph eri cal h armoni cs describe large-
scale vari at i ons; for example, order one represent s a funct i on t h at
i s positive i n one h emi sph ere and negative i n t h e ot h er. A "zonal" sph er-
ical h armoni c does not vary w i t h lat i t ude; a "sectoral" h armoni c does
not vary w ith longitude; "tessera!" h armoni cs have nei t h er of these
symmet ri es.
If the earth were fluid, devoid of st rengt h , certain zonal h armoni cs
w ould vani sh , and t h e eart h ' s rot at i on and i nt ernal di st ri but i on of den-
sity would det ermi ne the remai ni ng h armoni cs. The tesseral h armoni c
and t h e sectoral h armoni c w ould also vanish for a flui d eart h . But t h i s
does not h appen. A compari son bet w een t h e observed values and t h e
values appropri at e for a flui d eart h , rot at i ng at t h e same veloci t y as t h e
eart h and h avi ng t h e same radial densi t y di st ri but i on as est i mat ed by seis-
mologists in 1963, provi des a measure of th e stresses support i ng th e devi-
at i ons from a flui d eart h . Th e h armoni cs i ndi cat e an eart h t h at i s not a
flui d, but h as fi ni t e st rengt h .
A compari son bet w een t h e observed gravity fi eld and t h e fi eld
expected from an isostatically compensat ed crust shows t w o st ri ki ng fea-
t ures. For t h e low -order h armoni cs (t h ose represent i ng large-scale vari-
at i on), t h e gravitational anomaly expect ed from t h e cont i nent al crust i s
small compared w i t h th e observed pot ent i al and is of opposite si gn. Th e
small magnitude of the crustal cont ri but i on indicates t h at the mass
anomaly t h at gives rise t o t h e observed values must come from some-
w h ere else, and the only plausible alternative is the mantle. The fai lure
of t h e cont i nent al crust t o account for t h e observed values of gravi t y
requires density inhomogeneities t h at extend well below the oceanic
and cont i nent al upper layers. Th e correlat i on of t h e large-scale anom-
alies i n t h e ext ernal pot ent i al w i t h t h e cont i nent -ocean st ruct ure
requi res a di fferent densi t y di st ri but i on for t h e rocks at dept h under
oceans and under cont i nent s. I n sh ort , t h e mant le under t h e cont i nent s
appears t o be di fferent from t h e mant le under t h e oceans.
HE A T FL O W
In t h e 1950s, Roger Revelle and Art h ur Maxwell at t h e Scripps I nst i t u-
tion of Oceanography, studying the Pacific, and Teddy Bullard at Cam-
bri dge Uni versi t y, st udyi ng t h e At lant i c, found t h e surpri si ng result t h at
120 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
t h e h eat flow t h rough t h e surface of t h e ocean floor i s vi rt ually t h e same
as t h e h eat flow t h rough t h e surface of t h e cont i nent s.
14
Th e surpri se
arose from t h e know n di fference i n radioactive element composi t i on of
t h e rocks under t h e ocean and under t h e cont i nent s. Th e cont i nent s are
composed of grani t i c rocks and sedi ment s derived from t h em, w h i ch
cont ai n h i gh concent rat i ons of h eat -produci ng radi oact i ve element s. In
cont rast , the ocean floor is composed of basalt, w h ich contains relatively
low concent rat i ons of radi oact i ve element s. T h erefore, i t h ad been
assumed t h at h eat flow t h rough t h e cont i nent s w ould be much great er
t h an h eat flow t h rough th e oceans. By 1963, approxi mat ely 1,000 h eat
flow measurement s h ad been made, a si gni fi cant majori t y of t h em i n
oceani c areas, and t h ere w as no si gni fi cant di fferences i n t h e h eat flow
bet w een t h e oceans and t h e cont i nent s.
Based on these dat a, I concluded t h at major di fferences i n ch emi cal
composition must exist betw een the subcont i nent al and suboceanic por-
t i ons of t h e mant le.
15
Toget h er w i t h t h e gravity evi dence, t h e h eat flow
dat a suggested t h at t h e cont i nent al st ruct ure ext ends t o consi derable
dept h s w i t h i n t h e mant le, and t h at t h e cont i nent al crust cannot be imag-
i ned as a t h i n block overlying a h omogeneous mant le.
S E I S MI C E V I DE N C E
In t h e mid-1960s, st udi es of t h e propagat i on of body and surface seismic
waves w ere i nsuffi ci ent t o yield a det ai led pi ct ure of t h e di fferences
bet w een mant le mat eri als underlyi ng cont i nent s and th ose underlyi ng
oceans. Th e classic di st ri but i ons of elastic wave veloci t y i n t h e mant le as
det ermi ned by Jeffreys and by Calt ech seismologists Beno Gut enberg
and Charles Ri ch t er deviate principally in the upper 300 miles (500 kilo-
met ers) of t h e mant le; at great er dept h s, t h e t w o di st ri but i ons are very
similar.
16
Evi dence t h at t h e mant le at great er dept h s great er i s h omoge-
neous on a large scale came from the radial velocity distribution shown
by t h e st udi es of free osci llat i ons of t h e eart h - t h e ri ngi ng of t h e eart h
as a w h ole. At t h e t i me, I w as one of several research ers w h o obt ai ned
close agreement bet w een observed and calculat ed oscillations.
17
This
fi ndi ng clearly i ndi cat ed t h at , on average, t h e deep mant le can be
descri bed by veloci t y di st ri but i ons t h at are funct i ons of dept h alone. Th e
low -order osci llat i ons are not at all sensi t i ve t o vari at i ons i n mant le prop-
ert i es at sh allow dept h s.
I t h ad long been know n t h at t h e pri nci pal eart h quake zones of t h e
eart h are at t h e boundari es bet w een cont i nent s and oceans. Moreover,
How Mobile is the Earth ? 121
at a dept h of about 400 mi les (650 ki lomet ers) t h e frequency of eart h -
quakes decreases rapi dly, and no eart h quake foci are found below
approxi mat ely 450 miles (720 ki lomet ers).
18
Th e association of eart h -
quake foci w i t h cont i nent al borders i s part i cularly marked for t h ose
eart h quakes w h ose foci are at dept h s great er t h an 180 miles (300 kilo-
met ers) . Th e i nt erpret at i on of t h e association of eart h quake zones w i t h
cont i nent al borders and the limits of eart h quakes to the upper reaches
of t h e eart h depends on t h e mech ani sms by w h i ch eart h quakes are gen-
erated. Eart h quakes release stray energy developed t h rough processes
t h at elast i cally deform t h e eart h . D i fferences i n h eat product i on and
h eat loss lead to the build up of t h ermal stresses. In one paper I argued
t h at t h e di fference of h eat source di st ri but i on bet w een cont i nent s and
oceans i s pri mari ly responsi ble for t h e concent rat i on of eart h quake
zones along cont i nent -ocean boundari es.
19
Th e li mi t at i on of eart h quake foci t o t h e upper 450 mi les of t h e eart h
can be i nt erpret ed i n t erms of ei t h er a ch ange i n mech ani cal propert i es
of mat eri als at t h i s dept h , or t o t h e vani sh i ng of t h e effect s of di fferen-
tial t h ermal losses. Th us, i f t h e cont i nent s w ere formed by t h e upw ard
concent rat i on of mant le mat eri al and i f t h i s process h ad affect ed t h e
upper 300 miles (500 ki lomet ers) of t h e mant le, t h en t h e t h ermal
stresses associated w i t h cont i nent al ocean boundari es w ould be li mi t ed
t o t h e upper few h undred miles of t h e eart h . Below this dept h , radioac-
tive sources w ould be h ori zont ally h omogeneous, t h ermal st resses due
to di fferent i al t h ermal losses would not develop, and th ere w ould be no
eart h quakes.
FI N I T E S T R E N GT H
Th e cent ral issue i n t h e dynami cs of polar w anderi ng and cont i nent al
dri ft i s t h e problem of t h e eart h ' s st rengt h . As discussed above, i f t h e
eart h can be t reat ed as a h i gh ly viscous flui d, t h en i t h as no fi ni t e
st rengt h and a very small stress can t urn i t around, on a t i mescale t h at
depends on t h e eart h ' s viscosity. As Walt er Munk and I discussed i n our
book, a flui d eart h w i t h out fi ni t e st rengt h i s unst able, because an i nfi n-
i t esi mal stress could produce large ch anges in th e posi t i on of th e axis of
rot at i on w ith respect t o surface feat ures.
20
Since t h i s does not h appen,
t h e eart h must h ave some measurable (fi ni t e) st rengt h .
By the early 1960s t h ere w as abundant evidence from laborat ory
experi ment s t h at a w i de vari et y of si li cat e mat eri als resist bot h fract ure
and plastic flow up to some defi ni t e stress di fference. Once this stress is
122 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
exceeded, t h e mat eri als fai l ei t h er by fract uri ng or by undergoi ng a large
plast i c deformat i on. But laborat ory experi ment s are of sh ort durat i on
and may not be applicable on geological timescales. As Jeffreys emph a-
si zed, evidence for t h e fi ni t e st rengt h of mat eri als of t h e eart h i s found
i n t h e exi st ence of cont i nent s, oceans, mount ai ns, and ocean t rench es.
Major gravity anomali es are associated w i t h Paleozoic mount ai n ch ai ns,
so t h at t h e stress di fferences result i ng from t h ese di st ri but i ons of mass
must h ave persi st ed for long peri ods of t i me. Jeffreys concluded t h at
gravi t y anomali es i ndi cat e a st rengt h on the order of 150 to 300 bars in
th e upper 375 miles (600 ki lomet ers), th e range of values dependi ng on
w h et h er t h e mat eri al below t h i s level h as any st rengt h .
21
Furt h ermore,
t h e fact t h at t h e present axis of rot at i on i s not movi ng t ow ard t h e pri n-
cipal pole of the cont i nent or ocean system can be interpreted in terms
of fi ni t e st rengt h . Th e mi ni mum st rengt h requi red t o prevent polar wan-
deri ng is on th e order of 10 bars. E nt h usi ast s for convect i on argue t h at
t h e surface feat ures are mai nt ai ned by fri ct i onal drag result i ng from t h e
flow of deep convective current s. Th ey emph asi ze t h e ki nemat i cs
(geomet ry) of t h e flow but avoid t h e dynami cs.
I n t h e 1950s, evidence agai nst fi ni t e st rengt h came from t h ree major
sources:
1. The upli ft of areas formerly covered by glaciers in Fennoscandi a
and Nort h Ameri ca w as t h ough t t o be evidence for fi ni t e viscosity
and zero st rengt h . Theories of mant le convect i on adopt t h e viscos-
i t y obt ai ned from t h e t i mescale of upli ft of formerly glaciated
regi ons. Jeffreys cri t i ci zed t h i s i nt erpret at i on i nasmuch as ot h er
regions of the earth w ith similar or larger negative gravity anom-
alies w ere not ri si ng.
22
2. Th e fi gure of t h e eart h closely approxi mat es t h at of an equi valent
rot at i ng flui d. This i s not necessari ly an argument agai nst fi ni t e
st rengt h ; rat h er, i t i mposes an upper li mi t . Sat elli t e dat a i ndi cat e
t h at t h e eccent ri ci t y i s great er t h an t h e equi li bri um value and t h at
a st rengt h on th e order of 100 bars is requi red to mai nt ai n t h i s
deviation from a flui d eart h . Th e evidence from t h e pole position
and t h e eccent ri ci t y i s not i nconsi st ent . Th e former i ndi cat es a
mi ni mum st rengt h on t h e order of 10 bars and t h e lat t er a maxi-
mum st rengt h of 100 bars. Moreover, t h ese values are not i ncon-
si st ent w i t h t h ose obt ai ned from gravi t y anomali es or from obser-
vat i ons of h i gh er-order t erms i n t h e eart h ' s ext ernal gravi t at i onal
pot ent i al.
How Mobile is the Earth ? 123
3. Geological observat i ons requi re a mobile eart h and t h us th e eart h ' s
i nt eri or must be i n const ant mot i on t o support upli ft ed mount ai n
ch ai ns and deep ocean t rench es by fri ct i onal drag.
MY C O N C L US I O N S A B O U T C O N T I N E N T A L S T R U C T U R E
Heat flow , gravity, and seismic observations available in th e early 1960s
strongly suggested t h at cont i nent al st ruct ure extends to depth s of about
300 mi les (500 ki lomet ers). Such a deep st ruct ure posed a di ffi cult y for
any quant i t at i ve t h eory of cont i nent al dri ft or polar w anderi ng. Con-
vect i on w as t h e only proposed mech ani sm quant i t at i vely adequat e t o
move cont i nent s. (Convect i on as discussed h ere w ould be requi red at a
large scale, and sh ould not be confused w i t h penet rat i ve convect i on,
w h ere regi ons undergo melt i ng and buoyant low er-densi t y li qui ds move
upw ard t h rough fract ures i n t h e overlying mat eri al. Th ere can be no
doubt t h at t h i s lat t er type of mot i on occurs, as i s evi dent i n t h e gi ant
flow s of basalt in the Columbia River basin and in Indi a.)
But if the cont i nent al st ruct ure extends to a dept h of h undreds of miles,
it is not possible to imagine th in cont i nent al blocks carried along by a flow-
i ng mant le. Th e large h orizontal mot i ons ext endi ng near t h e surface
would tend to homogenize the upper mantle and destroy density di ffer-
ences betw een t h e cont i nent and oceanic structures. A furt h er di ffi cult y for
mantle-wide convection was posed by observations on the mechanical
properties of the mant le. If i ndeed the earth possesses a fi ni t e st rengt h ,
then the convective forces would have to overcome this fi ni t e strength.
DE BA T E S
Th e early 1960s saw numerous meet i ngs and conferences at w h i ch par-
t i ci pant s review ed recent development s i n plat e t ect oni c t h eory and
i mpli cat i ons of t h e t h eory for many out st andi ng issues i n geology. I par-
t i ci pat ed i n a number of th ese meet i ngs, argui ng t h at a deep st ruct ure
for cont i nent s present ed severe di ffi cult i es, perh aps fat al, t o surface dis-
placement result i ng from mant le convect i on. My i nsi st ence t h at geo-
ph ysical const rai nt s must be discussed led many part i ci pant s and lat er
comment at ors to dismiss me as a troglodyte w h o w as slow ing th e con-
vergence in t h ough t t h at was later to be labeled eith er as a revolution in
geology or a paradi gm sh i ft . For example, Scripps mari ne geologi st Bill
124 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
Menard descri bed my role as follow s: "In 1963, Gordon MacDonald w as
like Harold Jeffreys in 1923 ... he w as to use his analytical powers to con-
test cont i nent al dri ft . Th is t i me, h ow ever, t h e cont est w ould not be an
indecisive side at t ract i on li ngeri ng for decades. It w ould be t h e mai n
event, bri ef, and w on by a knockout ."
23
Of t h ese many meet i ngs, I remember t w o vividly. Th e Royal Society
sponsored t h e fi rst , h eld i n t h e lect ure t h eat er of t h e Royal I nst i t ut i on,
March 19-20, 1964. My favori t e combat ant , Teddy Bullard, a relatively
lat e convert t o dri ft , present ed w h at h e regarded as proof t h at t h ere w as
a precise fi t bet w een t h e t w o coasts of Afri ca and South Ameri ca. I joi ned
Joe Worzel i n poi nt i ng out t h at t h e comput er reconst ruct i on made i t
necessary t o forget about Cent ral Ameri ca, Mexi co, t h e Gulf of Mexi co,
t h e Cari bbean Sea, and t h e West I ndi es, along w i t h t h ei r pre-Mesozoi c
rocks.
24
Th e last session of th e meet i ng w as on th e physics of mant le
convect i on and I once again argued for deep roots t o cont i nent s and
t h e di ffi cult i es t h ese i mposed on any dri ft sch eme. Teddy Bullard, i n a
mast erful put dow n, responded, "Many precedent s suggest t h e un-wis-
dom of bei ng too sure of conclusi ons based on supposed propert i es of
i mperfect ly underst ood mat eri als i n i naccessi ble regi ons of t h e eart h ."
Alt h ough I mai nt ai ned an i nt erest i n t h e st ruct ure of t h e eart h ' s i nt e-
rior, I h ad act ually begun t o di sengage from t h e fi eld of cont i nent al dri ft
in 1962, w h en I w as asked to ch ai r a Nat i onal Academy of Sciences Com-
mi t t ee exami ni ng w eat h er modi fi cat i on. Th e issue of w h et h er i nt ro-
duced i ce nuclei can enh ance preci pi t at i on from clouds rai sed seri ous
st at i st i cal quest i ons. Most i mport ant for me, t h i s review brough t me i nt o
cont act w i t h David Keeli ng of Scripps. Reeli ng' s met i culous observat i on
on t h e at mosph eri c cont ent of carbon di oxi de clearly poi nt ed t ow ard
long-t erm ch anges i n cli mat e result i ng from h uman act i vi t i es. Since
t h en, I h ave devoted a good part of my sci ent i fi c career t o underst and-
i ng cli mat e and i t s ch anges.
I also became convi nced t h at societal problems requi red i nput from
sci ent i st s. Argui ng t h e reali t y of cont i nent al dri ft present ed an exh i la-
rat i ng i nt ellect ual ch allenge, but nei t h er cont i nent al dri ft nor plat e tec-
t oni cs h as h ad much i nfluence on t h e h ealt h of society. For example,
eart h quake predi ct i on w as i mpossi ble before t h e accept ance of plat e tec-
t oni cs and has remai ned so aft erw ard. The t i me demands of the Presi-
dent ' s Science Advisory Commi t t ee, of w h i ch I w as t h en a member,
requi red me t o move from Cali forni a t o Wash i ngt on, and i n 1967 I
became vice-president of the Inst i t ut e for Defense Analyses.
Nevert h eless I still accept ed an i nvi t at i on t o part i ci pat e i n w h at t urned
out t o be t h e second memorable meet i ng: t h e "Hi st ory of t h e E art h ' s
How Mobile is the Earth ? 125
Crust ," convened by t h e Goddard I nst i t ut e for Space Studies of t h e
Nat i onal Aeronaut i cal and Space Admi ni st rat i on (NASA) on November
10-12, 1966.
25
Many adh erent s of plat e t ect oni cs lat er regarded t h i s
meet i ng as a defi ni ng moment for t h e th eory. Abundant evi dence w as
present ed sh ow i ng t h at basalt s pouri ng from t h e mid-ocean ri dge, t h e
process driving sea floor spreading, was a global ph enomenon t h at gen-
erat ed t h e ocean floor. I never quest i oned t h e vali di t y of t h ese observa-
t i ons, but my unfami li ari t y w i t h t h e w ealt h of evidence convi nced me
t h at I h ad dri ft ed far away from t h e ph ysics of t h e eart h ' s i nt eri or.
Because of my new commi t ment s, I h ad li t t le t i me t o t h i nk about t h e
recent development s. I let t h e organi zers know t h at I could not be pre-
sent at t h e summary session and arranged for Teddy Bullard t o present
my argument s. Having listened to me make the same case a number of
t i mes, h e i mi t at ed my present at i on i n a deli gh t ful and comical way,
accordi ng t o t h ose w h o h eard h i m.
A F T E R T HO U G HT S
In all science t h ere is a st rong "h erd i nst i nct ." Members of th e h erd find
congeni ali t y i n i nt eract i ng w i t h ot h er members w h o h old t h e same view
of t h e w orld. Th ey may argue vigorously about details, but t h ey mai nt ai n
soli dari t y w h en ch allenged or cri t i ci zed by t h ose out si de t h ei r comfort -
able h erd. If i ndi vi dual sci ent i st s st ray t oo far from t h e accepted dogma
of t h e day, t h at of t h e h erd, t h ey are gent ly (or not so gent ly) ost raci zed.
Th e h erd i nst i nct i s st rengt h ened enormously i f t h e paymast ers are
members of t h e h erd. Strays do not get funded and t h ei r w ork, some-
t i mes h i gh ly i nnovat i ve, i s neglect ed as t h e h erd rumbles along. Wh en
leaders of t h e h erd deci de t o st ri ke out i n a new di rect i on, t h e h erd oft en
follows. Before the 1950s, the Nort h American h erd of geologists found
i t comfort i ng and amusi ng t o ri di cule t h ose forei gn geologists w h o advo-
cat ed cont i nent al dri ft . In t h e early 1960s, Harry Hess, Tuzo Wi lson, and
Bob D i et z, all respect ed leaders of t h e Nort h Ameri can geologi st h erd,
deci ded t o sh i ft di rect i ons and t h e h erd soon follow ed.
By cont rast , i f t h e i nnovat ors are not part of t h e h erd i t becomes very
much more di ffi cult , i f not i mpossi ble, t o ch ange di rect i on. Over t h e
years, I have seen examples of the h erd ment ali t y in many fields of
sci ence. Current ly t w o cases spri ng t o mi nd. Th omas Gold, an astro-
ph ysi ci st w i t h a long h i st ory of i nnovat i ve cont ri but i ons, h as over t h e past
t w o decades forcefully argued t h at at least some fract i on of t h e eart h ' s
nat ural gas ori gi nat ed abi ogenet i cally, h avi ng been capt ured deep
126 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
w i t h i n t h e eart h at t h e t i me of i t s format i on. Gold developed a t h eory of
a deep h ot biosphere.
26
Th e t h eory proposes t h at living creatures pop-
ulat e t h e crust of t h e eart h , dow n t o dept h s of several mi les. Th e crea-
t ures t h at w e see on th e surface of th e eart h are only part of th e bio-
sph ere; t h e great er and more anci ent part of t h e bi osph ere lies at dept h ,
at h i gh t emperat ures and pressures. Some of th e evidence in support of
t h i s concept remai ns cont roversi al, but ot h er part s are not . However, t h e
w orld's pet roleum geologists fi nd i t di ffi cult t o accept t h at t h ey may h ave
been w rong, at least i n part , i n post ulat i ng t h at rot t i ng plant s are respon-
sible for deposits of nat ural gas. Th e h erd of Nort h Ameri can pet roleum
geologists found i t i ncompreh ensi ble t h at a mere ast roph ysi ci st w ould
dare meddle i n t h e h erd' s business.
A second example, closer t o h ome, involves a modi fi cat i on of t h e
Mi lankovi t ch t h eory of t h e i ce ages. Ri ch ard Muller, a h i gh -energy
nuclear ph ysicist, and I are not members of t h e paleocli mat e h erd, w h i ch
has fi xed on the dogma of Mi lankovi t ch ' s origin of glacial cycles as its
worldview. We quest i on one element of t h e t h eory - an element t h at i s
of key i mport ance: th e origin of th e 100,000-year cycle found in proxy
measures of the volume of glacial i ce.
27
We at t ri but e fluct uat i ons in ice
volume t o t h e noddi ng of t h e eart h ' s orbital plane w i t h respect t o t h e
solar system's invariable plane w i t h a 100,000-year cycle. Despite abun-
dant evi dence support i ng our view, t h e domi nant h erd i s di st i nct ly ner-
vous about any i nt rusi on i nt o i t s mi dst by sci ent i st s t h ey do not know and
are uncomfort able w i t h .
Are plat e t ect oni cs for geologists t h e equi valent of Boh r' s t h eory of
t h e at om for ph ysi ci st s, as h as been clai med?
28
I am cert ai nly no longer
a member of t h e h erd of solid eart h geoph ysicists, h avi ng sw itch ed h erds
i n t h e mid-1960s. However, I not e t h at a recent st udy usi ng great ly
i mproved seismic observat i ons shows t h at subplat e st ruct ures ext end t o
dept h s of 150 miles (250 ki lomet ers) or more.
29
Moreover, models of
convect i on h ave not expli ci t ly t aken i nt o account t h e compli cat ed sub-
st ruct ure of bot h cont i nent s and oceans.
Th e t h eory of plat e t ect oni cs offers many more degrees of freedom
for geologists t h an t h e concept of deep cont i nent al st ruct ures. R at h er
t h an w orki ng w i t h six cont i nent s, th e geologist now h as 11 plat es and
can suggest more if th e geologic evidence poi nt s t h at way. Th e loosen-
ing of geoph ysical const rai nt s h as led to many speculat i ve explanat i ons
of geological observations. But w i t h a large number of degrees of free-
dom, it becomes increasingly di ffi cult to test w h et h er the postulated
processes are even self-consi st ent . Th e lack of any di sci pli ne requi red by
How Mobile is the Earth ? 127
geophysical observation places few, if any, limits on the creativity of geol-
ogists i n i nt erpret i ng t h e past. Long ago, t h e geologic h erd overcame
t h e ph ysi ci st h erd i n t h e bat t le about t h e age of t h e eart h . Th ey now h ave
a comfort able confi dence t h at t h ey h ave found t rut h i n plate tectonics,
even i f t h ere are a few t roublesome details yet t o be dealt w i t h .
C HAP TER 8
HEAT FLOW U NDER THE OC EANS
John G. Sclater
THE INTERNAL ENGINE OF THE EARTH IS DRIVEN BY RADIOACTIVELY
generated h eat and h eat left over from t h e format i on of t h e planet . Th e
ultimate source of energy for the elevated t emperat ure in mines, volca-
noes, h ot springs, eart h quakes, th e upli ft of mount ai ns, and global plate
mot i ons i s t h i s h eat from t h e i nt eri or. Th e t h i ck cont i nent al crust i s know n
t o have many more h eat -produci ng radioactive element s t h an t h e much
t h i nner oceani c crust . As a result, i t w as expected t h at t h e h eat flow i ng out
t h rough t h e ocean floor w ould be si gni fi cant ly less t h an t h at flow i ng
t h rough t h e cont i nent s.
Th e out w ard flow of h eat from t h e eart h i s det ermi ned as t h e prod-
uct of t h e t emperat ure gradi ent and t h e t h ermal conduct i vi t y. I n t h e
oceans, t h e t emperat ure gradi ent i s measured by forci ng t emperat ure-
sensi ng element s i nt o t h e soft sedi ment s of t h e ocean floor. Th e t h ermal
conduct i vi t y i s det ermi ned di rect ly by measurement on t h e sedi ment s i n
si t u or on a sample brough t t o t h e surface i n a cori ng t ube.
Th e early measurement s of h eat flow in th e oceans made by Roger Rev-
elle, th e di rect or of Scripps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y, and h is st udent ,
Art Maxw ell, gave values t h at w ere very si mi lar t o t h ose on t h e cont i -
nent s.
1
Si r Edw ard ("Teddy") Bullard, w h o h ad designed t h e i nst rument
t h ey used, proposed t h at t h e ext ra h eat w as created by slow-moving con-
vect i on current s i n t h e upper mant le beneat h t h e oceans.
2
Teddy and
many ot h ers argued t h at t h ese current s w ere t h e same as t h ose responsi -
ble for movi ng t h e cont i nent s. Di ck Von H erzen h ad part i ci pat ed as an
undergraduat e i n some of t h e original Scripps expedi t i ons on w h i ch h eat
flow measurement s h ad been t aken. He ret urned t o Scripps for graduat e
studies under t h e di rect i on of Russell Rai t t t o make t h e fi rst systematic
measurement s of t h e flow of h eat t h rough t h e ocean floor.
Aft er fi ni sh i ng h i s t h esi s Di ck accept ed a job as a sci ent i fi c at t ach e at
128
Heat F low under the Oc eans 129
Joh n Sclat er and Si r E dw ard Bullard at a part y for SIO expedi t i on NOVA, Suva Fi ji ,
July 1967. On t h e next leg Sclat er found h i gh h eat flow on t h e Fi ji Plat eau. He
draft ed a paper w h i ch Bill Menard t yped and amended w h i le t h ey w ere st i ll at sea.
At t h e next port , t h ey submi t t ed i t t o Nature, w h i ch publi sh ed i t w i t h out revi si on i n
t h e same year.
UNESCO i n Paris. I fi rst met Di ck t h ere, i n t h e summer of 1964, on my
w ay t o joi n t h e research vessel Argo on t h e (S cri pps) DODO expedi t i on
t o t h e Cent ral I ndi an Ocean. At t h e t i me I w as a graduat e st udent i n t h e
D epart ment of Geodesy and Geophysics, Cambridge University, based at
Madi ngley Rise. My t h esi s involved t h e use of a new t ype of h eat flow
i nst rument bui lt by Clive Lister, w h o h ad preceded me i n t h e mari ne
group at Cambri dge. Bob Fi sh er of Scri pps, w h o w as on sabbat i cal at
Madi ngley Rise, h ad arranged t h at I take t h e Cambri dge h eat flow equi p-
ment to Mauri t i us for use on Argo. Dick and Victor Vacquier, th e chief
sci ent i st s for t h i s leg of t h e expedi t i on, h ad agreed t o my part i ci pat i on.
Th ey planned t o det ermi ne t h e relat i on of t h e axis of t h e Cent ral I ndi an
Ri dge, as defi ned by t h e cent ral magnet i c h i gh , t o t h e h eat flow fi eld.
This w as t o be my fi rst expedi t i on at sea on my ow n w i t h out t h e support
of the Cambridge seagoing group run by my supervisor Maurice Hill.
Th e professi onali sm of t h e crew, t ech ni ci ans, and sci ent i st s on board
Argo i mpressed me. Everyone from t h e capt ai n on dow n w orked t o max-
i mi ze t h e use of t h e sh i p for sci ent i fi c purposes. Th ei r combi ned effort s
ensured t h e reli abi li t y and effi ci ency of t h e sh i pboard operat i ons. Di ck
and Vic had a limited but clear set of scientific objectives. These w ere to
130 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
maxi mi ze t h e number of crossings of t h e ridge and t o t ake as many h eat
flow measurements near th e crest as possible. Furt h er, th ey h ad t h ough t
t h rough carefully just w h at compromi ses w ere needed t o at t ai n t h ese
objectives. I saw, fi rst h and, t h e low-key but h i gh ly effi ci ent Ameri can w ay
of operat i ng at sea. This contrasted favorably for me w ith the more struc-
t ured but much less focused operat i on I h ad observed on a t h ree-mont h
expedi t i on t o t h e I ndi an Ocean on t h e Disc overy t h e previ ous year. On
my w ay back from sea I h ad th e opport uni t y to w ork at Scripps for tw o
mont h s (November and D ecember 1964). R et urni ng t o foggy, frozen
sout h ern E ngland i n December aft er t h e balmy I ndi an Ocean and a
November i n sout h ern Cali forni a w as a t rue cult ure sh ock!
I next met Di ck i n November 1965, w h en h e came t o Cambri dge t o
be t h e ext ernal exami ner for my Ph .D. t h esi s defense. Teddy Bullard w as
my i nt ernal exami ner. Wh en prepari ng t h i s essay I found a copy of my
t h esi s t h at i ncluded Di ck' s h andw ri t t en comment s.
3
I t w as h i s copy from
my defense. Th e Cambri dge Uni versi t y Li brari an h ad very exact i ng stan-
dards for t h e format of th eses, and i n t h e days before w ord processors,
t h ese st andards made rew ri t i ng bot h di ffi cult and t i me-consumi ng. I
now agree w i t h many of D i ck' s comment s, but I h ave t o admi t t h at I di d
not i nclude most of t h em i n t h e fi nal versi on of my t h esi s. To do so w ould
h ave caused t oo many problems w i t h t h e uni versi t y li brari an and I
w ant ed t o ret urn t o Scri pps and Cali forni a as qui ckly as possible; t h ere
I h ad a job t o follow Di ck as t h e person di rect ly responsi ble for t h e h eat
flow program at Scripps. One of t h e fi rst t h i ngs I found on arri vi ng at
Scri pps w as a copy of Di ck' s th esis.
4
Aft er h i s st i nt as sci ent i fi c at t ach e w i t h UNESCO i n Paris, Di ck ret urned
to th e Uni t ed States to a position at th e Woods Hole Oceanograph i c Insti-
t ut i on. Th ere h e resumed h is career as an active seagoing mari ne scien-
tist. In t h i s long and di st i ngui sh ed career h e h ad many accompli sh ment s.
He w as th e fi rst to document th e high h eat flow anomaly at th e crest of
the mid-ocean ridges.
5
He w as co-chief sci ent i st w i t h Art Maxwell on Leg
III of th e Deep Sea Dri lli ng program t h at showed th e li near increase in
age of the ocean crust away from the crest of the mid-Atlantic ridge.
6
His
st udent , Dave Williams, t oget h er w i t h Di ck, Roger Anderson (a st udent of
mi ne), and Vi c Vacquier, and me, discovered t h e fi rst h ydrot h ermal vent
emanat i ng from a mid-ocean ridge.
7
Finally, h e and ot h ers found higher
t h an expect ed h eat flow over t h e oceanic swells, w h i ch t h ey at t ri but ed t o
t h ermal anomali es i n t h e upper mant le.
8
In the fi rst part of this essay, I concent rat e on Dick's cont ri but i ons to
t h e early h eat flow measurement s at sea and t h e i nfluence t h ey h ad upon
H arry Hess i n h i s development of t h e t h eory of sea floor spreadi ng.
9
In
Heat F low under the Oc eans 131
t h e second part , I at t empt t o answ er t w o quest i ons of i nt erest t o th ose
w h o st udy t h e h i st ory of sci ent i fi c discoveries. Wh y di d t h e h eat flow com-
muni t y not come up w ith t h e idea of sea floor spreadi ng before Harry
Hess, and why, once h e h ad publi sh ed h i s ideas, di d t h i s communi t y t ake
so long to apply the concept to i nt erpret i ng the h eat flow data? Later in
t h i s volume Dan McKenzi e, w h o overlapped w i t h me at Madi ngley Rise,
presents an approach to i nt erpret i ng the occurrence of advances in the
eart h sci ences. Hi s approach st i mulat ed me t o reexami ne t h ese ques-
t i ons from his observation-oriented poi nt of view. At the end of his essay,
Dan raises h i s ow n quest i on regardi ng t h e h i st ory of plat e t ect oni cs.
"The paleomagnet i c observat i ons di d not h ave t h e i mpact i n ret rospect
t h at t h ey sh ould h ave h ad. . . . Wh y t h ey di d so remai ns for me a puzzle
and also t h e most i nt erest i ng h i st ori cal quest i on t o be rai sed by t h e dis-
covery of plate tectonics."
10
Usi ng my explanat i on of t h e di ffi cult y t h at
t h e h eat flow communi t y h ad w i t h sea floor spreadi ng as a basi s, I
at t empt t o answ er t h i s quest i on. I fi ni sh by present i ng a summary of my
ow n views on h ow advances occur in th e eart h sci ences.
V ON HERZEN AND THE EARL Y HEAT FL OW MEAS U REMENTS
Roger Revelle enlisted Teddy Bullard in the early 1950s to set up a program
at Scripps to measure the h eat flow t h rough the floor of the oceans. In 1956,
Teddy, Roger, and their student Art Maxwell summarized the results of mea-
surement s made at Scripps and those made by Teddy t h rough the National
Physical Laboratory in England.
11
Most of the measurements gave values
very similar to those on the cont i nent s. However, on Scripps' 1952-1953
Cap ric orn expedition, Revelle and Maxwell had observed two much h i gh er
values at the crest of the East Pacific Rise. It was these measurements t h at
led Dick to concent rat e his systematic investigation of oceanic h eat flow val-
ues on th e relation bet w een high h eat flow and th e rise.
In h i s fi rst sci ent i fi c paper, publi sh ed i n Nature, Di ck summari zed t h e
measurement s h e t ook, and t h ose report ed by Bullard and ot h ers.
12
He
plot t ed all t h e values on a t opograph i c ch art of t h e East Paci fi c Rise.
Th ree feat ures st and out: t h e large percent age of h i gh values near t h e
crest of th e East Paci fi c Rise, th e close-to-average values elsew here in th e
oceans, and the scattered low values t h at occur even very close to the crest
of th e rise. Th ree years later, Scripps graduat e st udent s Bob Nason and
Willie Lee used the Scripps h eat flow equi pment to show similar very high
values at th e ridge crest on a crossing of th e mid-Atlantic ridge.
13
In 1962, on Scripps' Risep ac expedition, Dick and Seiya Uyeda, from
132
HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
Map of heat flow stations w ith generalized 4,000 meter and 5,000 meter bot-
t om dept h cont ours. Not e t h e h i gh values (> 2 cal/cm
2
sec) near t h e crest of
th e East Paci fi c Rise, th e close-to-average values (1.0-2.0 cal/cm
2
sec) else-
w h ere i n t h e oceans, and t h e scattered low values (< 1.0 cal/cm
2
sec) t h at
occur everyw h ere, even very close to th e crest of th e rise. (Von H erzen, R.,
1959. Heat-flow values from the South-Eastern Pacific. Nature 183: 882-883.
Reproduced w i t h permi ssi on of Nature, h t t p://w w w .nat ure.com)
th e E art h quake Research I nst i t ut e of Tokyo Uni versi t y, ran a series of
h eat flow stations at 30 mi le (50 ki lomet er) spaci ng across th e crest of
t h e East Paci fi c Rise at 14S.
14
Values up t o five t i mes average occurred
near th e crest of th e broad swell of th e East Paci fi c Rise. How ever, a num-
ber of average or below average values also occurred w i t h i n 30 miles (50
ki lomet ers) of t h e h i gh est values. In addi t i on, t h ey found low values,
some less t h an one-third of average, at greater distances from the crest
of t h e ri se. Th ey devoted consi derable space i n t h e result i ng manuscri pt
t o an unsuccessful at t empt t o explain t h ese values.
In a st udy publi sh ed i n t h e same year i n t h e journal Sc ienc e, Di ck com-
pared t h e h eat flow values h e h ad t aken i n t h e Gulf of Cali forni a w i t h
Heat F low under the Oc eans 133
Heat flow and t opograph y across t h e East Paci fi c Rise. Not e t h e correlat i on bet w een
the high h eat flow values and the crest of the East Pacific Rise. (Von Herzen, R. P., and
Uyeda, S., 1963. Heat flow t h rough the eastern Paci fi c Ocean floor. Journal of Geop hysi-
c al Researc h 68: 4219-4250. Copyright 1963, Ameri can Geophysical Uni on. Reproduced
by permission of the American Geophysical Uni on.)
t h ose from th e Gulf of Aden.
15
In bot h areas, h e observed values signifi-
cant ly h i gh er t h an t h e w orldw ide average. In t h e abstract, h e stated,
" [The gulfs] ... closely coi nci de w i t h t h e i nt ersect i on of oceanic ri ses w ith
cont i nent s and have likely been formed under tensional forces, w h i ch
suggests an association w i t h mant le convection current s." Th e fi gure on
th e next page, taken directly from h is thesis, present s h is idea of h ow
these convection currents affect the surface h eat flow field.
16
This con-
cept w ith more geological embelli sh ment appears in Scripps professor
Bill Menard' s 1964 book, Marine Geology of the Pac if ic .
17
Clearly the idea of
an upw elling convection current beneat h the rise w as generally accepted
at Scripps at th e time. Both Di ck and Bill knew from th e absence of a
major gravity anomaly t h at th e East Pacific Rise must h ave a low density
root. Th ey i nferred t h at h i gh er t emperat ures caused t h i s root and pos-
t ulat ed t h at t h e upw elli ng li mb of a major convection current w i t h i n t h e
mantle lay beneath the crest of the rise. The upwelling of hot mantle
mat eri al creat ed bot h t h e h i gh h eat flow anomaly and t h e elevation.
THE HYP OTHES I S OF S EA FL OOR S P READI NG
In h i s now classic paper, Harry Hess used t h e follow i ng li ne of reasoni ng
t o just i fy sea floor spreadi ng:
134 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
Possible mant le convect i on pat t ern beneat h t h e east ern Paci fi c Ocean. Not e t h e
smoot h i ncrease of t h e predi ct ed h eat flow over t h e upw elli ng li mb of t h e convec-
t i on cell. Th e closed curves represent t h e mot i on of t h e mat eri al i n t h e upper man-
t le. Th e arrow s sh ow t h e di rect i on of flow . Th e st rai gh t li nes w i t h arrow s represent
t h e flow of h eat by conduct i on from t h e convect i on current t o t h e st at i onary crust
above. (Von Herzen, 1960. Paci fi c Ocean H eat Flow Measurement s, T h ei r I nt er-
pret at i on and Geoph ysi cal I mpli cat i ons, Ph .D. t h esi s, UCLA, p. 119.) Used w i t h t h e
permi ssi on of Ri ch ard Von H erzen.
Th e Mi d-Ocean Ridges are t h e largest t opograph i c feat ures on t h e sur-
face of t h e E art h . Menard (1958) h as shown t h at t h ei r crests closely cor-
respond t o medi an li nes i n t h e oceans and suggests t h at t h ey may be
eph emeral feat ures. Bullard, Maxw ell and Revelle (1956) and Von
Herzen (1959) sh ow t h at t h ey h ave unusually h i gh h eat flow along t h ei r
crests. Heezen (1960) h as demonst rat ed t h at a medi an graben exists
along t h e crests of t h e At lant i c, Arct i c, and I ndi an Ocean ri dges and t h at
sh allow -dept h eart h quake foci are concent rat ed under t h e graben. This
leads h i m t o post ulat e ext ensi on of t h e crust at ri gh t angles t o t h e t rend
of t h e ridges. . . . Paleomagnet i c dat a present ed by R uncorn (1959),
Irvi ng (1959), and ot h ers st rongly suggest t h at t h e cont i nent s have
moved by large amount s i n geologically comparat i vely recent t i mes. One
may qui bble over t h e det ai ls, but t h e general pi ct ure on paleomagnet i sm
i s suffi ci ent ly compelli ng t h at i t i s much more reasonable t o accept i t
t h an t o di sregard i t . ... Menard' s t h eorem t h at mid-ocean ridge crest s
correspond t o medi an li nes now t akes on new meani ng. Th e mi d-ocean
Heat F low under the Oc eans 135
Th e concept of sea floor spreadi ng as proposed by H arry Hess. Abst ract ed
from a di agram t o port ray t h e h i gh est elevat i on t h at t h e 500 degrees C
i sot h erm can reach over t h e ascendi ng li mb of a mant le convect i on cell,
and expulsi on of w at er from mant le w h i ch produces h ydrot h ermal alt er-
at i on, formi ng t h e mi neral serpent i ne, above t h e 500 degrees C i sot h erm
(Hess, 1962, not e 9). Th e sh aded area i s t h e oceani c crust t h at i s creat ed
by t h e i nt rusi on of h ot molt en mat eri al. I t moves away from t h e cent er of
spreadi ng w i t h t h e i nt rusi on of more mat eri al from below. R eproduced
w i t h permi ssi on of t h e Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a.
ri dges could represent t h e t races of t h e ri si ng li mbs of convect i on cells,
w h i le t h e ci rcum-Paci fi c belt of deformat i on and volcani sm represent s
descendi ng li mbs. Th e mi d-At lant i c Ri dge i s medi an because t h e cont i -
nent al areas on each side h ave moved away from i t at t h e same rat e, about
1 cm/yr. Th i s i s not exact ly t h e same as cont i nent al dri ft . Th e cont i nent s
do not plow t h rough oceani c crust i mpelled by unknow n forces; rat h er
t h ey ri de passi vely on mant le mat eri al as i t comes t o t h e surface at t h e
crest of t h e ri dge and t h en moves lat erally away from i t .
18
Hess recogni zed t h at t h e h i gh h eat flow values could only be explai ned
by massi ve amount s of i nt rusi on at t h e crest of t h e mid-ocean ri dges. It
i s t empt i ng t o beli eve t h at i t w as t h e coupli ng of t h ese measurement s
w i t h t h e i nsi gh t of Bruce H eezen t h at led H arry di rect ly t o t h e concept
of sea floor spreadi ng.
19
Th e act ual i nt rusi on of mant le mat eri al i nt o t h e
crust at t h e crest of a mi d-ocean ri dge and t h e movement of t h i s mat er-
i al away from t h e crest di fferent i at es sea floor spreadi ng from t h e man-
t le convect i on current h ypot h esi s t h at preceded i t .
T h e sci ent i fi c communi t y di d not i mmedi at ely accept t h e concept of
sea floor spreadi ng. For example Di ck, Vi c Vacqui er, and ot h ers st i ll
found i t necessary i n 1963 and 1964 t o t est t h e relat i on bet w een h i gh
136 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
h eat flow and t h e crest of t h e mid-ocean ri dges. In 1963, on t h e Scri pps
Lusiad expedi t i on, Vi c and Di ck crossed t h e mi d-At lant i c ri dge a num-
ber of t i mes i n t h e Sout h At lant i c.
20
Th ey found a st ri ki ng relat i on
bet w een h i gh h eat flow and t h e crest of t h e ri dge as defi ned by t h e cen-
t ral magnet i c h i gh . In t h e follow i ng year, t h ey made a series of crossi ngs
of t h e Cent ral I ndi an Ocean. As expect ed, t h ey observed t h e same rela-
t i on bet w een h i gh h eat flow and t h e crest of t h e mi d-ocean ri dge t h at
t h ey h ad found i n t h e South At lant i c.
21
I t w as w h i le t raveli ng t o joi n t h i s
expedi t i on t h at I st opped off i n Pari s t o meet D i ck. I h ad just submi t t ed
my fi rst sci ent i fi c paper on h eat flow measurement s i n t h e Somali Basin
and th e Gulf of Aden to a Royal Society symposi um devot ed to geologi-
cal and geoph ysi cal st udi es i n t h e I ndi an Ocean.
22
Th ey present ed t h ei r
result s i n t h e same symposi um.
A quest i on t h at h as puzzled me, i n ret rospect , i s t h i s: w h y di d t h e t h ree
of us not combi ne at t h i s t i me t o analyze ei t h er (a) t h e t w o h eat flow data
sets quant i t at i vely assumi ng sea floor spreadi ng, or (b) at t empt t o rei n-
t erpret t h e magnet i c dat a usi ng t h e h ypot h esi s of Fred Vi ne and D rum-
mond Mat t h ew s?
23
Th i s quest i on becomes even h arder for me t o under-
st and w h en I add t h ree ot h er fact s. Fi rst , I h ad sh ared a cabi n w i t h Fred
Vi ne for t h ree mont h s on t h e Disc overy I I t h e previ ous year. Hi s h ypot h -
esis w as not t aken seri ously by our supervi sor and ch i ef sci ent i st on t h e
crui se, Mauri ce Hi ll, but I h ad fough t h ard i n support of Fred so h e
w ould get some sh i p t i me t o test i t by surveyi ng a seamount near t h e crest
of t h e Carlsberg Ridge. Second, I h ad available t o me duri ng t h e fi nal
stages of w ri t i ng my t h esi s t h e manuscri pt of a paper on t h e Gulf of Aden
by Tony Laugh t on, from t h e Nat i onal I nst i t ut e of O ceanograph y i n Eng-
land, t o be publi sh ed i n t h e same symposi um as my ow n paper and t h at
by Di ck and Vi c.
24
In h i s paper, Tony, w h o h ad been on t h e Disc overy II
expedi t i on w i t h me, poi nt ed out t h e necessi t y for t h e creat i on of new
ocean floor i n t h e cent er of t h e Gulf t o fi t t h e t w o edges back t oget h er
agai n. T h i rd, Harry Hess and Tuzo Wilson w ere bot h at Cambri dge on
sabbatical i n 1964 and 1965, and I spent many w eekends, duri ng one of
t h e coldest w i nt ers on record, i n Madi ngley Rise w i t h t h em i n one of t h e
few cent rally h eat ed bui ldi ngs i n Cambri dge.
I t w as not unt i l t h e publi cat i on of t h e i nt erpret at i on of t h e magnet i c
st ri pes over I celand' s Reykjanes Ridge t h at t h e t h eory of sea floor spread-
i ng received overw h elmi ng support , even from among t h e h eat flow
communi t y.
25
Wh y such a si gni fi cant delay? I beli eve t h at t h e answ er t o
t h i s quest i on lies i n t h e w ay t h e h eat flow communi t y approach ed obser-
vat i onal dat a.
Heat F low under the Oc eans 137
A N O B S E R VA T I O N A L A P P R O A C H T O S C I E N T I FI C D I S C O VE R Y
Unt i l I started w ri t i ng this essay I di d not reali ze h ow much my personal
ph i losoph y of h ow sci ence advances h ad domi nat ed t h e w ay I t h i nk
about eart h science. To underst and the answer to the questions I have
posed, I need t o st art from t h e poi nt at w h i ch I developed my ow n
approach to the subject . This h appened w h en I w as an undergraduat e
at E di nburgh Uni versi t y. I planned t o w ork as a geoph ysi ci st aft er I grad-
uat ed, but such a degree w as not available at Edi nburgh at the time. As
a compromi se I proposed t o supplement a convent i onal four-year geol-
ogy degree w i t h t w o years of ph ysi cs. I di d much bet t er i n my fi rst year
in ph ysi cs t h an geology. Follow ing th e advice of my undergraduat e advi-
sor I ch anged my degree t o experi ment al ph ysics duri ng my second year.
I graduat ed i mbued by t h e h ypot h esi s-t est i ng met h od of doi ng sci ence,
w h i ch I h ad pi cked up i n t h e experi ment al ph ysi cs courses t h at I h ad
t aken.
26
I st art ed and fi ni sh ed my graduat e career at Cambri dge w i t h t h e
same basic approach .
At Madi ngley and Scripps in the 1960s, I became acquai nt ed w ith
most of t h e major fi gures i n t h e development of sea floor spreadi ng and
plate tectonics. My major effect regardi ng plate t ect oni cs as a st udent
w as negat i ve. In 1964,I successfully convi nced Tuzo Wi lson t h at th e mag-
netic anomalies observed on ei t h er side of the ridge axis on the recently
publi sh ed Vema crui se across t h e mi d-At lant i c ri dge i n t h e South Adant i c
w ere not symmetric. Th us I talked him out of developing a magnetic
t i mescale from t h i s profi le. Lat er t h i s profi le w as t o become t h e basis of
the Cenozoic magnetic timescale.
27
Wh en I arrived at Scripps, I w orked
closely w i t h Bill Menard, Vi c Vacqui er, Bob Fish er, and Art Raff, and by
the end of 1966 my opposi t i on to sea floor spreadi ng had evaporat ed. In
1967, I sh ared a cot t age w i t h Dan McKenzi e i n Lajolla w h en h e and Bob
Parker, also a st udent at Madi ngley, w rot e t h ei r pat h -breaki ng paper on
t ect oni cs on a sph ere.
28
Dan and I appli ed t h e t h eory t o produce t h e fi rst
quant i t at i ve t ect oni c h i st ory of t h e I ndi an Ocean.
29
Scripps st udent s
Jean Franch et eau, Roger Anderson, Mi ller Lee Bell, and I sh ow ed t h at
t h e creat i on of new plat e at a spreadi ng cent er could account for t h e
h eat flow and subsidence of th e ocean floor.
30
As a result of my i nt i mat e i nvolvement in the development of such a
major advance, I have lost my belief t h at advances in the earth sciences
occur primarily as a result of hypothesis testing. Nei t h er Harry Hess nor
Tuzo Wilson was testing a hypothesis.
31
Rather, they were creating new con-
cepts out of the synthesis of poorly-constrained observational i nformat i on.
138 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
They t h ough t t h ei r concepts h ad validity because they explained th e pat-
terns th ey recognized in so many di fferent sets of data. Nor do I believe t h at
advances necessarily result from a paradigm sh i ft duri ng a sci ent i fi c crisis,
as has been advocated by Thomas Kuh n.
32
The advances occurred in the
earth sciences before the fi eld even realized t h at t h ere w as such a crisis. It
is i nt erest i ng to not e t h at no advance occurred back in the 1920s w h en sci-
entists did t h i nk there was a crisis. They resolved the crisis by maintaining
t h e status quo and rejected t h e necessity for a paradigm sh i ft - w hich i s
anot h er blow to Ruh n' s hypothesis.
33
T HE O B S E R VA T I O N A L A P P R O A C H
E art h sci ence i s an observat i onal di sci pli ne. However, many processes
affect any observat i on. E art h scientists cannot separat e any single
process ent i rely from all t h e processes t h at h ave occurred. Furt h er,
except for a li mi t ed number of cases, laborat ory experi ment s do not
scale to the real world. Thus, unli ke physics or chemistry, eart h science
i s not an experi ment al di sci pli ne. E art h sci ent i st s, i n most cases, observe
and descri be ph enomena rat h er t h an conduct i ng experi ment s t o t est
hypotheses. Synthesizing data and/or recognizing pat t erns in "noisy"
dat a are i n many cases more i mport ant t h an any experi ment s t h at t h ey
could perform. Major progress occurs by const ruct i ng si mple ph ysi cal
models t h at describe t h e pat t erns t h at eart h scientists h ave select ed out
of t h e background noi se. Th ey h ave t o exercise care w i t h t h ei r observa-
t i ons because, occasionally, t h e background "noise" carri es i nformat i on
t h at i s cri t i cal t o t h e process or processes under study.
In h i s observat i on-ori ent ed analysis of sci ent i fi c discovery, Dan
McKenzie, in a later essay in this volume, separates sci ent i fi c observa-
t i ons i nt o four categories: (1) observations t h at are w rong, (2) observa-
t i ons t h at are correct and can be descri bed by exi st i ng t h eori es, (3)
observations t h at are correct but are too complex to be described by any
si mple model, and (4) observat i ons t h at are correct but t h ere i s no th e-
ory t h at describes t h em. A sci ent i fi c advance occurs w h en a model t h at
account s for t h e data i n Category 2 also account s for t h e observations
grouped in Category 4.
It is easiest to see how t h i s approach w orks by applyi ng it to the evo-
lut i on of plat e t ect oni cs. Tuzo Wilson developed a concept t h at i ncor-
porat ed sea floor spreadi ng, li near magnet i c anomali es, and t rench es t o
explain t ransform fault s, fract ure zones, and t h e fi t of t h e cont i nent s.
34
Lynn Sykes, Dan McKenzi e and Bob Parker, Jason Morgan, and Bryan
Heat F low under the Oc eans 139
Isacks and colleagues sh ow ed t h at t h e same concept also explai ned t h e
type and di st ri but i on of eart h quakes.
35
In addi t i on, Xavier Le Pichon
show ed t h at i t provided a self-consi st ent descri pt i on of t h e t ect oni cs of
t h e ent i re surface of t h e eart h .
36
It w as consi dered a major advance
because one simple concept could explain so many di fferent sets of
observat i ons, w h i ch previously h ad no t h eory t o explai n t h em.
T HE HE A T FL O W C O MMUN I T Y A N D S E A FL O O R S P R E A DI N G
Th e early mari ne h eat flow communi t y w as made up of seagoing scien-
tists w h o h ad th e ability to build and run sensitive equi pment under
adverse mari ne condi t i ons. All w ere able sci ent i st s w h o combi ned phys-
ical endurance w ith a strong physics or geophysics background. They
i ncluded some of th e best mari ne sci ent i st s of t h ei r generat i on, such as
Si r Edw ard Bullard, Art Maxw ell, Di ck Von H erzen, Marcus Langset h ,
Vi ct or Vacqui er, and Clive Lister.
I believe t h at , li ke me, t h ey let t h ei r experi ment al physics background
domi nat e the w ay th ey looked at the earth. We knew t h at the h eat flow
at t h e ri dge crest s w as h i gh .
37
In addi t i on, Teddy Bullard and ot h ers at
Scripps knew t h at th e East Paci fi c Rise w as elevated because it w as h ot ,
and t h at t h ere w as a correlat i on bet w een h eat flow and t h e dept h of t h e
ocean floor.
38
How ever, as experi ment al ph ysi ci st s, w e w ere st ymi ed by
the fact t h at w e could not explain the very low values, especially those
found by Dick Von Herzen and Seiya Uyeda near t h e crest of t h e East
Pacific Rise.
39
Wh en I w as a graduat e st udent at Madi ngley, Teddy Bullard joki ngly
complai ned t h at h e h ad not accompli sh ed very much i n geophysics
because h is name h ad not been given to any h ypoth esis or law. To rec-
t i fy t h i s omi ssi on, t h e st udent s and juni or staff at Madingley, w i t h sup-
port from Maurice Hill, created "Bullard's Law." This law asserted,
"Never take one mari ne h eat flow measurement w i t h i n 50 ki lomet ers of
anot h er measurement because i t i s likely t h at i t will di ffer from t h e fi rst
by at least one order of magni t ude." Alt h ough h umorous, t h i s i nci dent
shows just h ow li t t le respect w as pai d t o t h e early h eat flow measurement s
by most geophysicists. It i llust rat es t h e problem t h at t h e communi t y h ad
w i t h t h e i nt erpret at i on of t h ei r empi ri cal dat a. Wi t h out an explanat i on
of the low values th at created h uge scatter in the data, no one was will-
i ng t o at t empt t o i nt erpret t h e overall pat t ern quantitatively. We con-
cent rat ed instead on t ryi ng to underst and these low values. As I men-
t i oned previously, Di ck Von Herzen and Seiya Uyeda devoted a large part
140 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
of t h ei r t ext t o t ryi ng t o account for t h e low values found over t h e East
Paci fi c Rise.
40
Th is paper i nfluenced my t h esi s more t h an any ot h er. I
devoted about half of my thesis at t empt i ng to fi nd an explanation for
t h e low values.
41
WHY T HE C O MMUN I T Y MI S S E D S E A FL O O R S P R E A DI N G
We w ere ph ysicists w h o w i sh ed to test a h ypot h esi s. Led by Teddy Bullard,
w e w i sh ed t o discover w h et h er or not t h e h eat flow measurement s pre-
sent ed evi dence for t h e upw elli ng li mb of a convect i on cell beneat h t h e
mi d-ocean ri dge axes. Int ui t i vely, w e expect ed t o observe a relat i vely
smoot h i ncrease from near normal on t h e flanks t o a fact or of four
h i gh er t h an normal over t h e crest of t h e ridges. Th e apparent ly random
occurrence of low values complet ely confused us, especially th ose near
t h e crest of ridges, close t o values 20 t i mes h i gh er. Th e scat t er i n t h e dat a
w as so h i gh t h at t h e mean values over t h e crest w ere i ndi st i ngui sh able
st at i st i cally from t h ose on t h e flanks. Th e data nei t h er st rongly agreed
nor di sagreed w i t h t h e h ypot h esi s.
The low values and the scatter in the data became a major concern to
bot h myself and ot h ers w orki ng i n t h e fi eld. As a consequence w e over-
looked th e pat t ern in th e measurements. We did not see ei t h er t h at th e
envelope of t h e h i gh values showed a clear correlat i on w i t h di st ance
from the crest of all the mid-ocean ridges or t h at the drop-off rate for
t h ese h i gh values vari ed w i t h t h e w i dt h of t h e ri dge. T h us, w e di d not
reali ze t h at di fferi ng rat es of i nt rusi on at t h e i ndi vi dual ri dge crests
could explai n t h e di fferent drop-off rates. We believed our dat a, but
w i t h out an explanat i on of t h e low values, w e w ere unw i lli ng t o i nt erpret
t h e measurement s quant i t at i vely. We placed t h em w i t h i n Cat egory 3: t oo
complex t o be explai ned by any si mple t h eory. Most geoph ysicists w ere
less ch ari t able. Th ey could not believe a measurement t h at could di ffer
by more t h an an order of magni t ude over a di st ance of only 30 mi les (50
ki lomet ers). Th ey placed t h e measurement s i n Category 1: observat i ons
t h at w ere obviously w rong. It t ook a geologist li ke Harry Hess t o see t h e
pat t ern i n t h e dat a.
42
He recogni zed t h at w h at w as critical for under-
st andi ng t h e eart h as a w h ole w as not t h e i solat ed low s, but t h e large
number of very high values at the crest of the mid-ocean ridges. It was
more i mport ant t o recogni ze t h e consi st ent envelope of t h e h i gh values
from one ridge to anot h er rat h er t h an to be overly concerned w ith th e
scat t er creat ed by t h e low values.
Heat F low under the Oc eans 141
T HE S U C C E S S E S
Once Harry Hess and Tuzo Wilson had articulated the key concepts of
plate tectonics, the hypothesis-testing approach of the h eat flow commu-
ni t y moved t h e fi eld forw ard very quickly.
43
Even before t h e concept w as
applied to earthquakes, Marcus Langseth, Xavier Le Pichon, and Maurice
Ew i ng of Lamont Geological Observatory had i nt roduced the idea of a 60
mile (100 ki lomet er) th ick plate created at a ridge axis to try to explain
t h e h eat flow and subsi dence data across t h e mid-Atiantic ridge.
44
From
th e poor fit of th e observed to th e predi ct ed subsi dence, and th e observed
t o predi ct ed decrease i n h eat flow w i t h distance from t h e ri dge crest, th ey
argued t h at t h e concept di d not w ork. Th e follow i ng year Dan McKenzi e
recast the problem non-dimensionally and showed th at by varying the
boundary condi t i ons t h e same model could be made t o match t h e h eat
flow data.
45
University of Wisconson professor Ned Ostenso and his grad-
uat e st udent , Pet er Vogt, poi nt ed out t h at Langset h , Le Pi ch on, and Ew i ng
had omitted the loading effect of the water.
46
Rather t h an being a poor
fit, the model actually gave a reasonable fit to the subsidence of the ridge.
(Due to a surprising omission by Nature, Peter Vogt and Ned Ostenso have
not received t h e credi t t h ey deserve for recogni zi ng t h e i mport ance of t h i s
correct i on. In t h e publish ed paper, t h e ent i re paragraph t h at discussed
th e isostatic correct i on for th e loading effect of th e w at er w as omi t t ed. Th is
omission w ent unnot i ced because t h e paragraph was included i n t h e
repri nt s t h at t h e journal sent back t o t h e aut h ors!)
Th e t h i ck plat e concept adopt ed by t h e h eat flow communi t y w as t h e
forerunner to the plate models t h at Dan McKenzi e and Bob Parker,
Jason Morgan, Bryan Isacks and colleagues, and Xavier Le Pi ch on devel-
oped to establish the quantitative aspects of plate tectonics.
47
It also gave
Norman Sleep, Jean Franch et eau, my st udent s Roger Anderson and
Miller Lee Bell, and me a h ypoth esis to test.
48
Very qui ckly w e established
t h at t h e plat e model t h at explai ned t h e ri dges, t rench es, and eart h -
quakes could also account for t h e subsi dence of t h e ocean floor as t h e
age of th e ocean crust i ncreased.
Th e explanat i on for t h e very low h eat flow values fi nally came from
t h e w ork of Clive Lister.
49
He h ypot h esi zed t h at t h e low values w ere due
t o h ydro t h ermal ci rculat i on i n t h e ocean crust . Usi ng dive's concept as
a basis for selecting an area w h ere h eat loss by h ydrot h ermal circulation
probably di d not occur, my st udent s and I showed t h at th ese carefully
selected h eat flow data fit th e same plate model t h at accounted for th e
subsi dence of th e ocean floor.
50
In t est i ng Clive's concept , Dave Williams
142 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
and ot h ers found t h e fi rst h ydrot h ermal vent at a ridge crest.
51
This led
t o t h e reali zat i on of t h e i mport ance of h ydrot h ermal ci rculat i on on t h e
ocean floor and th e discovery of h ydrot h ermal vent i ng at th e crest of all
of the mid-ocean ridges.
WHY DI D P A L E O MA GN E T I S T S Miss S E A FL O O R S P R E A DI N G?
Later in this volume, Dan McKenzie raises tw o questions regarding the
h i st ory of t h e development of plat e t ect oni cs: (1) Wh y di d t h e paleo-
magnet i c communi t y not come up w i t h t h e i dea of sea floor spreadi ng
ah ead of Hess? (2) Wh y di d t h e rest of t h e eart h sci ences communi t y
t ake so long t o accept t h ei r conclusi ons regardi ng cont i nent al dri ft ?
52
I
offer h ere some personal comment s based on some obvious parallels
bet w een paleomagnet i sm and h eat flow and my experi ences answ eri ng
t h e same quest i ons for t h e h eat flow communi t y.
Bot h fi elds w ere relat i vely new at t h e t i me of t h e development of sea
floor spreadi ng and plat e t ect oni cs. Bot h fi elds w ere based on di ffi cult
observat i ons. Li ke h eat flow , paleomagnet i sm at t ract ed a number of
unusually able sci ent i st s, for example, P. M. S. Blackett, Keith R uncorn,
Ted Irvi ng, Allan Cox, Di ck Doell, Vi ct or Vacqui er, Nei l Opdyke, Ch ri st o-
ph er Harrison, and Ron Girdler. As a consequence of the di ffi cult i es
w i t h t h e t ech ni que, i n t h e early stages sci ent i st s w i t h a classical experi -
ment al physics background dominated th e fi eld.
Kei t h R uncorn and Ted Irvi ng believed t h at t h ei r measurement s con-
fi rmed th e idea t h at th e cont i nent s h ad moved.
53
In addition, they knew
of E uler' s t h eorem and called t h e poi nt s about w h i ch t h e cont i nent s
rot at ed "pivot poi nt s." However, t h e early paleomagnet i st s could not
explai n w h y t h ey found some rocks magnet i zed i n t h e opposi t e di rec-
t i on t o t h at of t h e present eart h ' s fi eld. Th i s t h rew some doubt on t h e
reli abi li t y of t h e ent i re operat i on. Th is doubt w as exacerbat ed by t h e fact
t h at one of t h e major fi gures i n geoph ysics at t h e t i me i n E urope, Si r
Harold Jeffreys, di d not believe i n cont i nent al dri ft and doubt ed t h e reli -
abi li t y of paleomagnet i c measurement s. I ndeed, h e di smi ssed t h em w i t h
th e follow i ng st at ement : "In st udyi ng th e magnet i sm of rocks th e speci-
men h as t o be broken off w i t h a geological h ammer and t h en carri ed t o
t h e laboratory. It i s supposed t h at i n t h e process i t s magnet i sm does not
ch ange t o any i mport ant ext ent , and t h ough I h ave oft en asked h ow t h i s
comes to be the case I have never received any answer."
54
I took the opi n-
i ons of Jeffreys very seriously, si nce h e w as generally credi t ed w i t h h av-
ing made prewar geophysics i nt o a respectable discipline.
Heat F low under the Oc eans 143
Harold Jeffreys and ot h ers w h o opposed dri ft used t h e fact t h at t h e
reversals w ere apparent ly i nconsi st ent and unexplai ned t o di sregard t h e
entire category of paleomagnetic measurement . They believed t h at the
paleomagnet i c measurement s w ere w rong and placed t h em i n Category
1. Like h eat flow sci ent i st s, the early paleomagnet i st s w ere ph ysi ci st s by
t rai ni ng. Wi t h out an unambi guous explanat i on of reversals t h ey could
not answ er Jeffreys and t h e opponent s of cont i nent al dri ft . Th us t h ey
concentrated ei t h er on making more measurements of polar w anderi ng
t o overw h elm t h e opposi t i on w i t h t h e w ei gh t of t h e observat i ons, or on
t ryi ng t o underst and t h e reversals. Th ey placed t h ei r measurement s i n
Category 3: correct observations t h at w ere too complex to be explained
by any simple model. Apart from R uncorn t h ey di d not at t empt t o i ncor-
porat e t h em i nt o an overall t h eory of h ow t h e eart h w orked. Th ey w ere
li mi t ed furt h er by t h ei r lack of underst andi ng of t h e observations from
t h e oceans t h at mi gh t support dri ft . Ron Gi rdler from New cast le Uni -
versity and George Peter from Lamont showed t h at positive and nega-
tively magnet i zed st ri pes of mat eri al on t h e ocean floor could explai n
t h e st ri ped magnet i c anomali es i n t h e Red Sea.
55
Th ey came t h e closest
of all to arri vi ng at th e h ypot h esi s of sea floor spreadi ng before H arry
Hess.
56
However, t h ey did not expand upon t h i s i dea of reversals or sug-
gest w h at process could have created the stripes.
It t ook a geologist li ke Harry Hess w i t h t rai ni ng i n synt h esi zi ng dat a
and pat t ern recogni t i on t o place t h e result s i n broad perspect i ve.
57
In a
w onderful i nt roduct i on to th e paleomagnetic measurement s - "One
may qui bble over t h e details, but t h e general pi ct ure on paleomagnet -
ism is suffi ci ent ly compelli ng t h at it is much more reasonable to accept
i t t h an t o di sregard i t " - H arry dismissed t h e opposi t i on. Th is permi t t ed
h i m t o use t h e paleomagnet i c data t o argue t h at t h e cont i nent s moved
significantly over geologic time. As a geologist, he recognized t h at the
i mport ant observat i on for underst andi ng t h e eart h as a w h ole w as t h at
t h e cont i nent s had moved. He used t h ese measurement s and t h e dat es
of ext ensi onal processes on t h e cont i nent s borderi ng t h e At lant i c Ocean
t o propose a spreadi ng rat e of one cent i met er (less t h an h alf an i nch )
per year. Th at he was w i t h i n a fact or of two of the actual rate shows the
pow er of h i s reasoni ng. Hess recogni zed a pat t ern t h at few ot h ers w ere
w i lli ng t o accept . He sh ow ed t h at a model t h at could explai n w h y t h e
mid-ocean ridges occurred in the center of the ocean basins (Category
2: observat i ons t h at are correct but can be descri bed by exi st i ng th eo-
ri es) could also explai n t h e h eat flow measurement s and t h e paleomag-
net i c result s (Cat egory 4: observations t h at are correct but t h ere i s no
t h eory t h at descri bes t h em).
144 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
Meanw h i le Allan Cox and colleagues i n t h e Uni t ed States, and Ian
McDougall and colleagues i n Aust rali a, h ad been systematically docu-
ment i ng magnet i c reversals i n rocks.
58
Th ey det ermi ned t h at lava flow s
of th e same age h ad th e same di rect i on of magnet i zat i on, but t h at t h i s
di rect i on ch anged from t i me t o t i me. Th ey w ere able t o dat e t h e t i me at
w hich the field changed. Fred Vine and Drummond Matthews showed
t h at combi ni ng reversals of t h e fi eld w i t h an i nt rusi on process t h at added
material equally on eith er side of a spreading center would create posi-
tive and negative magnet i c stripes of mat eri al on the ocean floor.
59
(Unknow n to me at the time, Lawrence Morley had developed the same
concept but w as unable t o get h i s paper publi sh ed.)
60
These stripes
explained the linear magnetic anomalies observed on shipboard profiles
and provided st rongly positive evidence in favor of th e t h eory of sea floor
spreading. In this case, it was the underst andi ng of reversals - the "noise"
i n t h e paleomagnet i c data - t h at provided t h e most pow erful confi rma-
tion of sea floor spreading: the striped mari ne magnetic anomalies.
T H E PR O CE S S O F S CI E N T I F I C D I S CO VE R Y
Th e key ori gi nat ors of sea floor spreadi ng and plat e t ect oni cs, H arry
Hess and Tuzo Wilson, each had a field-oriented and geographically
diverse geological background.
61
Th ey demonst rat ed great abi li t y at
both data synthesis and pat t ern recognition. This gave t h em the i nsi gh t
t o look at t h e w orld from a t ot ally new perspect i ve. However, t h e physics-
trained younger generation had skills at developing simple quantitative
models from ph ysi cal concept s. These skills permi t t ed t h e compari son
of the observations w ith predictions and led to the general acceptance
of the th eory.
As a result of my involvement in the development of plate tectonics I
now believe t h at advances i n t h e eart h sci ences occur i n t h ree stages.
The fi rst involves the origination of the concept; the second, the con-
st ruct i on of a model w h ere t h e predi ct i ons can be compared w i t h a set
of observations, the t h i rd, the application of the model to anot h er set of
data. Wh at i s common t o each stage i s t h e recogni t i on of t h e i mport ance
of the observations. The fi rst stage involves synthesis and pat t ern recog-
ni t i on; t h e second and t h i rd stages emph asi ze reli able measurement s
and th e quantitative compari son of th ese measurement s w ith predi ct ed
values.
Th e fi rst stage can occur - as it did w ith sea floor spreadi ng - as th e
result of t h e synt h esi s and recogni t i on of pat t erns i n large quant i t i es of
Heat F low under the Oc eans 145
dat a. It can also arri ve serendi pi t ously. For example, Marcus Langset h ,
Xavier Le Pi ch on, and Mauri ce Ewing creat ed t h e fi rst t h ermal model
of t h e oceani c li t h osph ere t o demonst rat e t h at plat e t ect oni cs could not
explai n t h e h eat flow and subsi dence across a mid-ocean ridge.
62
Dan
McKenzie generalized th e approach, but fit th e h eat flow observations
w ith a plat e t h at w as t oo t h i n.
63
However, h i s generali zat i on showed t h e
power of such an approach and led to a much clearer underst andi ng of
t h e concept .
Th e second stage involves t h e t est i ng and refi ni ng of t h e concept . Th e
eart h science communi t y accepted t h e concept s of sea floor spreadi ng
and plat e t ect oni cs so readi ly because of the abi li t y of a group of scien-
tists to construct models based on these concepts. The comparison of
t h e predi ct i ons of these models w i t h reli able observat i ons permi t t ed a
quant i t at i ve evaluation of the concept s.
Th e t h i rd stage involves t h e appli cat i on of t h e concept t o describe a
set of observat i ons t h at are believed t o be correct but are not as yet
underst ood. I n plat e t ect oni cs t h i s occurred w h en a concept const ruct ed
t o explai n t h e feat ures of t h e ocean floor and t h e reconst ruct ed posi t i on
of cont i nent s was found suitable to explain the worldwide distribution
of eart h quakes. For t h e t h ermal models, i t occurred w h en i t w as reali zed
t h at t h e concept t h at account ed for t h e h eat flow data could also explain
t h e subsi dence of a mid-ocean ri dge.
For t h e development of a concept , select i ng t h e appropri at e and key
observations is most i mport ant . At this stage geological t rai ni ng involv-
i ng pat t ern recogni t i on i s at i t s most valuable. However, i n t h e second
and t h i rd stages, the ability to construct a physical model and t h en test
it is requi red. For t h ese stages, th e h ypot h esi s-t est i ng met h ods of exper-
i ment al ph ysi cs become more i mport ant . Th e approach es are comple-
ment ary; for sea floor spreadi ng and plat e t ect oni cs bot h occurred, and
t h i s account s for t h e speed at w h i ch t h e h ypot h eses became accepted
theories.
C O N C L US I O N
Th e problem w i t h t h e hypothesis-testing approach as appli ed t o t h e
eart h sci ences i s t h at fi eld-measurement noise oft en cont ai ns cruci al
i nformat i on about the process under study. In the case of the interpre-
t at i on of t h e early h eat flow and paleomagnet i c measurement s, i t w as t h e
i nabi li t y t o get past this noise t h at prevent ed t h e observat i onal scientists
from movi ng on t o a deeper i nt erpret at i on of t h ei r result s.
146 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
However, t h i s t akes not h i ng away from t h e early h eat flow communi t y.
Th ey made t h e ori gi nal measurement s under oft en appalli ng condi t i ons
i n rough w eat h er and from very small oceangoi ng t ugs or convert ed sail-
i ng ships. Th e foremost of t h i s i nt repi d group of mari ne sci ent i st s w as
Di ck Von H erzen. He made arguably some of t h e most i mport ant mea-
surement s ever t aken at sea. Harry Hess appears t o h ave developed t h e
concept of sea floor spreadi ng almost i mmedi at ely aft er h e h ad read and
di gest ed t h e i mport ance of Di ck' s discovery of very h i gh h eat flow mea-
surement s near t h e crest of t h e East Paci fi c Rise.
Wh at appears surpri si ng i s t h at t h e h eat flow communi t y t ook uncom-
monly long t o t ry t o model t h e h i gh values at t h e ridge axis. I believe t h at
t h ey di d not press t o explain t h ei r result s quant i t at i vely because of t h ei r
concern about t h e scat t er creat ed by t h e low values. Alt h ough obviously
an oversi mpli fi cat i on i n li gh t of t h e effort s of Kei t h R uncorn and Ted
Irvi ng, I argue t h at t h e early paleomagnet i c communi t y may h ave
behaved similarly because of t h ei r lack of a convi nci ng explanat i on for
reversely magnet i zed rocks. In bot h cases, t h e eart h sci ence communi t y
at large did not believe the early measurements and h ence the implica-
t i ons of t h ese measurement w ent unh eeded.
In the 1950s and early 1960s geological-geophysical expeditions at
Scri pps, and t o a lesser ext ent , t h e Lament Geological Observat ory con-
cent rat ed on maki ng theory-relevant observations in a real-world setting.
(For example, Bill Menard encouraged Von H erzen t o pursue h eat flow
measurement s because h e understood t h ei r significance for ideas about
mant le convect i on.) Th e h i st ory of t h e development of sea floor spread-
ing and plate tectonics demonstrates the importance of these th ough t-
fully t aken observat i ons. Th e concept s w ere developed as a result of cor-
relating many di fferent types of observations i nt o a coh erent pat t ern.
Th e advances occurred so qui ckly because of t h e complement ary nat ure
of this basically geological approach, w i t h its emphasis on data collect-
i ng, w i t h t h e h ypot h esi s-t est i ng approach of sci ent i st s t rai ned i n experi-
ment al physics.
As a consequence of my analysis, I do not believe t h at i t w as by ch ance
t h at the Depart ment of Geodesy and Geophysics at Cambridge had such
a major effect upon t h e fi eld. Teddy Bullard, t h e ch ai r of t h e depart -
ment , and Maurice Hill, th e leader of th e mari ne group, actively encour-
aged and h ost ed t h e i nt eract i on bet w een global-t h i nki ng geologists such
as Harry Hess and Tuzo Wilson, observational mari ne geologists such as
Bi ll Menard and Bob Fisher, and t h ei r much younger, domi nant ly
physics-educated graduate st udent s. I believe t h at it w as the symbiosis
creat ed by t h i s i nt eract i on t h at led so many of t h e st udent s and younger
Heat F low under the Oc eans 147
staff ult i mat ely to cont ri but e so significantly to this major advance in the
eart h sci ences.
A C K N O WL E D G M E N T S
An abbrevi at ed versi on of t h i s essay w as present ed on December 13,1999
at the annual meet i ng of the American Geophysical Uni on in San Fran-
cisco at a symposi um: "Heat Flow and Oceani c Li t h osph ere: H onori ng
R. P. Von Herzen," organized by C. A. Stein and J. Lin. I would like to
t h ank Ji an Li n for giving me t h e opport uni t y t o express my appreci at i on
of t h e long-t erm cont ri but i on t o t h e h eat flow communi t y of Di ck Von
H erzen. My t h anks also go t o Dan McKenzi e, w h o asked me t o look at
an early versi on of t h e essay h e present s i n t h i s volume. It made me t h i nk
for t h e fi rst t i me long and h ard about h ow I actually believe advances i n
t h e eart h sci ences occur. This essay w as st art ed w h i le I w as on a Guggen-
h ei m Fellowship at the Ecole et Observatoire de la Science de la Terre
i n St rasbourg, France. I t h ank Marc Munsch y for t h e ch ance t o st udy i n
such a w ork-fri endly envi ronment . I t h ank Jerry Wi nt erer for i nt roduc-
i ng me t o t h e i mport ance of pat t ern recogni t i on i n geology and Bob
Fi sh er for revi ew i ng t h i s manuscri pt .
C HA P T E R 9
LO CAT I NG E AR T H Q UAKE S
AND PLATE BO UND AR I E S
Bruce A. Bolt
1 H E F O CUS O F T H I S E S S AY I S O N T H E R O LE O F T WO KE Y S E I S MO -
logi cal cont ri but i ons t o t h e evolut i on of plat e t ect oni cs, based on t w o
personal experi ences. Th e fi rst , i n 1960 at (t h en) Lamont Geological
Observatory, led t o a key advance i n reli able locat i ons of t h e i ni t i at i on
poi nt s of di st ant eart h quakes, w h at sci ent i st s call tekseism hyp oc enters. Th e
second w as aft er 1962 w h en I resi ded at UC Berkeley, t h e h ome of t h e
met h od of fault -plane solutions for seismic sources, developed t h ere by
Perry Byerly.
1
My discussion ai ms t o demonst rat e h ow t h e crossi ng of dis-
ci pli nary boundari es w as vi t al t o t h e est abli sh ment of plat e t ect oni cs and
more generally to geophysics.
As an appli ed mat h emat i ci an, I w as i nt erest ed in th e const ruct i on of
algori t h ms and comput er programs in seismology and, as a st udent of Sir
Harold Jeffreys at Cambridge, England, and K. E. Bullen at th e Uni ver-
si t y of Sydney, Australia, in the i ncorporat i on of appropri at e statistical
met h ods i n geophysical analysis. My i nvolvement i n t h e plat e t ect oni cs
"movement " began w i t h my 1960 publi cat i on on the revision of eart h -
quake epi cent ers, focal dept h s, and origin t i mes of eart h quakes usi ng a
high-speed comput er.
2
Th e mai n task of seismologists, part i cularly at
observatories, h ad long been t h e det ermi nat i on of t h e posi t i on of t h e
eart h quake cent er at t h e eart h ' s surface (t h e epi cent er) and t h e t i me of
the seismic wave initiation. It was also i mport ant from the view point of
eart h st ruct ure t o know h ow deep each eart h quake source w as (t h e
h ypocent er or focus). Unt i l 1960, graph i cal met h ods w ere used t o t ri an-
gulate for the location usi ng travel times (source-to-station) of seismic
waves recorded by sei smograph s at observatories around t h e w orld.
Th ese met h ods h ad large uncert ai nt i es, result i ng i n syst emat i c and ran-
148
Loc ating Earthquakes and Plate Boundaries 149
Bruce Bolt. (Ph ot o court esy of Bruce Bolt .)
dom scat t er i n t h e maps of t h e eart h ' s seismicity. In order t o improve pre-
cision of global maps of eart h quake locat i ons and t h ei r t i mes of occur-
rence, I developed a statistical algori t h m for use on t h e new ly available
fast digital computers. I checked this program for precision and robust-
ness against t h e know n location of some large explosi ons from at omi c
w eapons tests and, also, agai nst a large, unusual eart h quake located deep
under th e Iberian Peni nsula.
3
Successful tests led me to th e conclusi on
t h at "t h e program may be useful for research organi zat i ons requi ri ng reg-
ular or speci al locat i ons of epi cent ers." A few ot h er comput er programs
for eart h quake locat i on emerged about t h e same t i me, and t h ese pro-
grams i mproved our capaci t y t o locat e eart h quakes, h elpi ng t o defi ne t h e
boundari es of t h e t ect oni c plat es and ult i mat ely leadi ng t o visually arrest -
ing maps of t h ose boundari es.
4
150 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
Wh i le at Lament my w ork involved many now -ant i quat ed met h ods of
comput er programmi ng. Th ese i ncluded t h e use of dat a punch ed ont o
H olleri t h cards, such as th e complet e 1958 seismological t ravel time-
t ables of Jeffreys and Bullen. Wi t h t h e h elp of James D orman, t h en at
Lament , I coded t h e algebrai c sch eme i n FORTRAN for an IBM di gi t al
comput er, namely t h e model 704 at t h e IBM Research Cent er i n Pough -
keepsi e, New York. Special aspects of the 1960 algori t h m w ere "bi-
w ei gh t " mat h emat i cal fi lt ers t o h andle scat t ered observat i ons, smoot h -
i ng devi ces, and t h e use of probabi li t y di st ri but i ons est i mat ed from t h e
eart h quake t ravel t i mes report ed i n t h e International Seismologic al Sum-
mary (ISS) . I n general t erms, t h e problem addressed i n such comput a-
t i ons i s an i nverse one. In t h e locat i on problem t h e i nverse can be
explai ned si mply as follow s: given t h e eart h quake source locat i on, i t i s a
di rect appli cat i on of Pyt h agoras' t h eorem t o comput e t h e travel t i mes of
t h e sei smi c waves t o a recordi ng st at i on. But t h e act ual problem t o be
solved i s t h e opposite: given t h e observed arri val t i mes, w h at i s t h e best
est i mat e of t h e locat i on of t h e source? At t h e end of 1960,1 left t h e t est ed
program i n w orki ng order at Lament , w h ere i t w as t aken up i n a most
product i ve w ay by Lynn Sykes.
5
By the end of the 1960s, t h ree key sei smologi cal underpi nni ngs of
plat e t ect oni cs w ere i n place. Th e fi rst one w as t h e w orld w i de st andard
sei smograph net w ork (WWSSN), w h i ch w as i nst alled in stages from 1961
t h rough 1967 by th e U.S. Coast and Geodet i c Survey (USCGS) under
agreement s w i t h st at i on operat ors i n vari ous count ri es.
6
Th is net w ork
not only great ly reduced t h e errors i n measuri ng t i mes of arrival of seis-
mi c ph ases, but also t h e new sei smograph desi gn and i mproved clocks
aided in pi cki ng correctly the various seismic phases on the seismo-
grams. Such a system of st andard sei smograph s, di st ri but ed w orldw i de,
h ad grown out of t h e effort s of t h e Uni t ed States t o ensure adequat e sur-
vei llance of underground tests of nuclear devices det onat ed i n forei gn
countries. It also gave a more complete record of nat ural eart h quakes
t h at occur as background seismic sources i n Test Ban Treaty moni t ori ng.
Th e dat a made avai lable by t h e WWSSN w ere cruci al for t h e rapi d evo-
lut i on and confi dent adopt i on of t h e plat e t ect oni c model.
A second and almost as critical aspect of the relatively quick acceptance
of the plate tectonic formulat i on was the availability of high-speed comput -
ers t h at allowed uni form, rapid, and accurate computations of epicenters.
7
Th e t h i rd i mprovement w as t h e abi li t y t o make more reliable mea-
surement s of the motions of the fi rst arriving P (longitudinal) waves on
seismograms provided by the WWSSN. Th ese wave polari t i es w ere
needed t o i nfer mech ani sms of t h e geological fault rupt ure (or under-
Loc ating Earthquakes and Plate Boundaries 151
ground explosion) t h at generated the seismic waves. The basic method
had been i nt roduced in 1928 by Perry Byerly and w as developed relatively
slowly by his students and other seismologists over several decades.
8
For
example, A. R. Ri t sema in Holland i mproved th e analysis by i nt roduci ng
t h e art i fact of project i ng each station measurement on a concept ual focal
sph ere, and W. Stauder at Berkeley and lat er St. Louis exami ned t h or-
ough ly th e vi abi li t y of a "double-couple" fault mech ani sm as th e expla-
nat i on of t h e observed fi rst mot i on pat t ern on such a sphere.
9
Nevert h eless, overall t h e t ech ni que h ad proved di sappoi nt i ng: solu-
tions from w h i ch geological i nferences could be made were oft en ques-
t i onable because of vari ous uncert ai nt i es, part i cularly of t h e t rue polar-
i t i es of t h e fi rst P mot i ons, t h at i s, w h et h er t h e ground w ent up or dow n
at t h e begi nni ng of t h e P w ave. Seismograms from t h e older i nst rument s
w ere so vari able i n quali t y t h at t h e seismological analyst oft en found i t
di ffi cult to pick th is di rect i on. Seismographs of th e WWSSN, part i cularly
th ose w i t h t h e longer peri od pendulums, permi t t ed Sykes and ot h ers t o
have confi dence in the correctness of the choice of fi rst motion direc-
t i ons. In doi ng so, t h ey found t h at earli er i nt erpret at i ons of deep-focus
eart h quakes as strike-slip w ere w rong; t h e fault s w ere i n fact t h rust fault s,
i n w h i ch one crust al block overrode t h e ot h er. For t h e fi rst t i me, i t w as
now possible t o say w i t h confi dence w h i ch w ay t h e ground w as moving.
By th e 1950s th e compi lers of w orldw i de seismic dat a - th e I nt erna-
t i onal Sei smologi cal S ummary (ISS) - usi ng only h and calculat ors and
some subjective judgment in selection of wave identification and travel
t i mes, h ad fallen seri ously beh i nd i n cat alogui ng w orld eart h quakes.
Many eart h quake locations w ere det ermi ned by graphical meth ods or by
compari son w i t h past eart h quake posi t i ons. My h ypocent er est i mat i on
program on a fast di gi t al comput er w as adopt ed, aft er some h esi t at i on,
at t h e ISS i n 1961, a ch ange made possible by my movi ng from Lamont
for a sabbat i cal leave t o Cambri dge Uni versi t y i n England duri ng t h at
year. Its use enabled the backlog of the ISS eart h quake lists to be
removed rapidly. Moreover t h ere i s li t t le doubt t h at t h e subsequent pub-
lished solutions w ere more uni formly reliable.
T HE E VO L UT I O N O F T HE T w o T E C HN I Q UE S
By 1964, the t h ree seismological tools discussed above w ere in place and
i n use by di fferent research groups and at t h e ISS. Th ey provi ded bot h
improved catalogues of eart h quake h ypocenters around the world and
a grow i ng sample of relat i vely h i gh -quali t y polari t y dat a. St andardi zed
152 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
programs, usi ng readi ngs from t h e WWSSN, now provi ded reli able loca-
t i ons for current eart h quakes, and could be employed t o revisit earli er
eart h quake dat a sets and revise t h em.
10
I n a parallel development , a new means of graph i ng t h e dat a from t h e
fi rst mot i ons of eart h quakes came i nt o use. I t now became apparent t h at
t h e t ech ni que t h at w as i n general use w as mi sleadi ng. Suddenly, i t w as
clear w h y seismologists h ad t h ough t t h e mot i ons associated w i t h deep-
focus eart h quakes w ere strike-slip: t h e plot t i ng t ech ni que h ad made
poi nt s from di st ant sources appear t o li e on st eeply di ppi ng planes, even
w h en t h ey w eren' t . Steeply di ppi ng fault planes are usually associated
w i t h st ri ke-sli p fault s, so i t w as nat ural t o assume t h at t h ey were st ri ke-sli p.
Now i t w as evi dent t h at t h e fault s w ere not st eeply di ppi ng at all; t h ey
w ere shallow , and consi st ent w i t h t h rust fault s and w i t h t h e new ly mea-
sured accurat e fi rst mot i ons.
Several cruci al tests of t h e plat e boundary model could be performed
usi ng t h e new t ech ni que for plot t i ng fault planes. I n h i s 1968 edi t ori al
review i n The History of the Earth's Crust (Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press),
Robert Ph i nney st at ed t h at "t h e convi nci ng confi rmat i on of t h e predi c-
tions [of Tuzo Wilson's t ransform fault model] in 1966 must be regarded
as a major t urni ng poi nt i n st udi es of t h e E art h ." Th is confi rmat i on w as
made possible by accurat e fault plane mech ani sm analysis.
Th e cruci al seismological advances w ere a di rect consequence of t h e
improved worldwide eart h quake recording net w ork and the availability
of h igh -speed comput ers for more adequat e st at i st i cal analyses. Th e seis-
mi ci t y pat t ern t h at h elped t o defi ne plat e boundari es depended upon t h e
use of accurat e comput er programs for locat i ng eart h quake epi cent ers.
11
Table 9.1
Milestones in the development of the analytical tools
for locating and understanding earthquakes
World Wide St andard
Seismograph Net w ork
U.S .Coast and Geodet i c
Survey (1961-1967)
Comput er H ypocent er
Locat i on
Bolt , Lamont , (1960)
U.S. Coast and
Geodet i c Survey (1960)
I.S.S. (1961)
Fault Mech ani sm
(Fi rst P Mot i ons)
Byerly, Berkeley
(1923)
Hodgson, Ottaw a
(1951)
Ritsema (1952)
St auder (1962)
S ykes(1963, 1967)
Loc ating Earthquakes and Plate Boundaries 153
Th e met h od pi oneered by Byerly of fi ndi ng fault mech ani sms by
usi ng t h e polari t y of P wave fi rst mot i ons w as an early example of remot e
sensi ng - det ect i ng eart h processes from a di st ance.
12
I t t ook a long t i me
to be t h orough ly accept ed in seismology. In his 1958 book, Ch arles
R i ch t er st at ed, "Byerly pi oneered t h i s fi eld as early as 1926 and estab-
li sh ed pri nci ples and met h ods now generally i n use."
13
He remarked fur-
t h er t h at "In spite of earnest effort , well established results are still too
few for w orldw i de generali zat i on." About t h e same t i me, h i s colleague
Hugo Beni off at t h e Cali forni a I nst i t ut e of Tech nology w rot e, "The fi rst
mot i on met h od . . . for measuri ng t h e st ri ke and di p i s of quest i onable
reli abi li t y . . . evi denced by report s of J. H. Hodgson."
14
O t h er aut h ori -
ties w ere si mi larly unent h usi ast i c about t h e Byerly met h od. For example,
i n h i s 1947 t ext book, Kei t h Bullen barely ment i oned t h e fault -plane
met h od; i n t h e 1963 edi t i on h e devot ed a th ree-page quali t at i ve discus-
sion t o i t , but leaned tow ard "t h e need for caut i on i n i nt erpret i ng ost en-
sible pat t erns of fi rst motion."
15
From the mid-1960s on, the more reliable and uni form WWSSN obser-
vations produced consistent fault-plane solutions. As Sykes concluded in
1967: "Long-period WWSSN seismographs now furni sh data of greater sen-
sitivity, greater reliability and broader geographical coverage t h an were
available in previous investigations for mechanisms of earthquakes."
16
C O N C L US I O N S
Di verse i nt eract i ons of applied mat h emat i cs, geology, numeri cal com-
put er analyses, and st at i st i cs cont ri but ed t o t h e rapi d development of
plat e t ect oni cs i n t h e 1960s. Perh aps surpri si ngly, t h e t w o key seismo-
logical algorithms cont ai ned strictly no new theory. Indeed, optimiza-
t i on of t h e t h eory involved i n comput i ng ch aract eri st i cs of remot e eart h -
quake sources and geological st ruct ures usi ng sei smi c waves w ere not
w orked t h rough unt i l almost a decade later.
17
From a personal poi nt of
view, aft er 1970 my cont ri but i ons to t h ese seismological tools cont i nued
at UC Berkeley. T h ere I w as involved i n t h eoret i cal i mprovement s i n
bot h t h e algori t h ms for h ypocent ral locat i on and for focal mech ani sm
est i mat i on, but these advances w ere not i n t i me t o affect t h e argument s
for t h e plat e t ect oni c model.
18
I t mi gh t be asked: w ould t h e convi nci ng argument s for plat e t ect on-
i cs h ave been si gni fi cant ly delayed i f t h e WWSSN h ad not been estab-
li sh ed as a consequence of th e U.S. effort to moni t or clandestine under-
ground nuclear explosi ons?
19
Of course, t h e i ndependent argument s
154 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
for t h e plat e model from geomagnet i sm w ould not h ave been affect ed,
but t h e quali t at i ve st rengt h of t h e sei smologi cal ones w ould h ave been
w eakened.
20
More elaborat e statistics w ould h ave been essent i al t o sup-
port t h e argument s, t h us ensuri ng addi t i onal skept i ci sm and cont rover-
sies. It sh ould be remembered t h at i n t h e early 1960s t h ere w as much sci-
ent i fi c opposi t i on t o t h e plat e t ect oni c view. Th e rapi d conversi on t o t h e
new model w as enh anced great ly by t h e avai labi li t y and pow er of t h e
global seismological observat i ons and robust comput at i ons. For exam-
ple, if the non-seismological evidence had been accompanied by global
pat t erns t h at sh ow ed very scat t ered eart h quake epi cent ers and non-sys-
t emat i c fault mech ani sms along t h e mi d-oceani c ridges, t h e st rong argu-
ment s so qui ckly assembled w ould surely h ave been much w eaker.
21
Since t h e 1970s, addi t i onal i mprovement s h ave been made i n t h e
speed and convergence of comput er-based algori t h ms for bot h hypo-
cent ral locat i on and est i mat i on of source mech ani sms. Bot h comput ed
locat i ons and fault mech ani sms h ave become much more reli able and
complet e. We can now depend t o a large ext ent on h i gh resolut i on of
th e recorded seismic wave forms and unvaryi ng t i mi ng precision at th e
global digital sei smograph i c st at i ons t h at replaced t h e WWSSN. How-
ever, i t i s curi ous t h at upgraded comput er programs t o est i mat e t h ese
i mport ant propert i es, w h i ch are embedded i n defi ned probabi li t y mod-
els, are still seldom used at seismological dat a cent ers or i n publi sh ed
research . Th e explanat i on may be t h at t h e plat e t ect oni cs model i s nowa-
days so complet ely accept ed i n geology t h at t h ere i s no longer a cri t i cal
demand for global algori t h ms t h at embody all t h e mat h emat i cal
i mprovement s now available.
C HA P T E R 10
E ART HQ UAKE S E I S MO LO GY IN T HE PLAT E
T E C T O N IC S RE VO LUT IO N
Jack Oliver
E
ARTH
SCIENTISTS WHOWERE ACTIVE DURING THE 1 960sWERE
able t o w i t ness, and i n some cases t o be a part of, t h e comi ng of plat e
t ect oni cs, one of t h e great h appeni ngs i n t h e h i st ory of eart h sci ence.
Each of us, h ow ever, saw t h at unusual event (act ually, t h at series of
event s) from a di fferent perspect i ve and i n a di fferent li gh t . Hence i t
seems t o us t h at any at t empt by someone else t o record t h e h i st ory of
w h at w ent on duri ng t h at special t i me i s di st ort ed, i ncomplet e, or some-
h ow not qui t e righ t. I have no doubt t h at th e story about eart h quake seis-
mology i n t h e plat e t ect oni cs revolut i on t h at I am about t o relat e w i ll
provoke such a reaction in some. All I can say in my defense is t h at I have
t ri ed carefully and pai nst aki ngly t o make i t correct as I saw i t , or at least
as I remember i t more t h an 30 years lat er. I also h ope t h at any w eaknesses
i n my st ory will be compensat ed by t h e si mi lar effort s of ot h ers t o relat e
t h at h i st ory i n t h i s book or elsew h ere.
1
This i s not t h e fi rst t i me t h at I h ave t aken on this task. In 1996, my
book, Shoc ks and Roc ks, Seismology in the Plate Tec tonic s Revolution, w as pub-
lished by the Ameri can Geophysical Uni on. In 1991, Columbia Univer-
si t y Press publi sh ed The Inc omp lete Guide to the Art of Disc overy, i n w h i ch I
explore t h e discovery of t h e dow n-going li t h osph eri c slabs i n island arcs
t h at i s t h e key element of subduct i on as an example of sci ent i fi c discov-
ery.
2
Subduct i on i s t h e process by w h i ch t h e eart h ' s crust and uppermost
mant le descend i nt o t h e i nt eri or at t h e so-called arcs, t h ose promi nent
arcuat e st ruct ures t h at are di st ri but ed w i dely over t h e eart h and t h at
incorporate such feat ures as deep sea t rench es, explosive volcanism, and
sh allow and deep eart h quakes. I h ave also given a number of t alks on t h e
subject , somet i mes follow ed by publi sh ed papers. One such paper w as
155
156 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
Jack Oliver i n h i s offi ce at t h e Lament Geological Observatory, mi d t o lat e
1960s. Th e cart oon on t h e w all depi ct s Oli ver and Bryan Isacks i n Tonga,
w orki ng on t h e i nst allat i on of sei smograph s t o measure sli p on dow n-going
crust al slabs i n subduct i on zones. (Ph ot o court esy of Jack Oliver.)
present ed at t h e AGU symposi um i n 1992 on t h e 25t h anni versary of t h e
advent of plat e t ect oni cs.
As many of t h e det ai ls t h at I mi gh t ot h erw i se feel I h ad t o bore you
w i t h are already i n pri nt , h ere I w i ll use t h umbnai l sket ch es t o descri be
t h e essence of w h at w ent on i n seismology before and duri ng t h e plat e
t ect oni cs revolut i on, and t h en make some comment s about t h i ngs t h at
I, or we, learned as a result of our experience duri ng those exciting and
provocative days of the 1960s.
S E I S MO L O GY A T L A MO N T
In t h e mid-1960s I w as i n my early 40s, a professor at Columbi a Uni ver-
si t y and t h e h ead of t h e eart h quake seismology group at w h at w as t h en
t h e Lament Geological Observatory (now t h e Lamont-Doh erty Eart h
O bservat ory). Lynn Sykes and Bryan Isacks, about w h om you w ill read
more lat er, w ere bot h 30-ish and former graduat e st udent s of mi ne
Earthquake Seismology in the Plate Tec tonic s Revolution 157
t urned research scientists at Lament . Jim Dorman w as anot h er research
sci ent i st , and Muaw ia Barazangi and Pet er Molnar w ere young graduat e
st udent s w h o w ere part of t h i s story. We h ad a very active, lively, and i nno-
vative group i n eart h quake seismology at Lamont , and i t w as rat h er w ell
funded because of t h e money t h at h ad come i nt o seismological research
as a result of i nt erest duri ng t h e Cold War i n a nuclear t est ban t reat y.
3
Mauri ce Ew i ng, an out st andi ng seismologist among ot h er t h i ngs, w as
the founder and director of Lamont. He had i nfect ed us all w ith the joy
of discovery i n eart h sci ence, and h ad est abli sh ed cert ai n h abits around
Lamont , such as extensive archiving of data and w orki ng ni gh t and day
on sci ence, t h at w ould serve us w ell w h en t h e plat e t ect oni cs exci t ement
arose. Early i n t h e h i st ory of Lamont , i n t h e 1950s, Ew i ng w as oft en active
on a day-to-day basis in eart h quake seismology. By about 1960, however,
h i s dut i es as di rect or h ad grow n more burdensome and time-consum-
i ng, and t h e eart h quake group h ad sh i ft ed i t s location t o new quart ers
far removed from i t s former h ome near Ew i ng's offi ce. So h e reli n-
quished some of his close ties w ith t h at activity, but the overall style of
doi ng sci ence t h at h e h ad i nst i lled i n us carri ed on.
Ew i ng w as a bri lli ant sci ent i st and a pow erful leader. He w as a key fac-
t or i n, and oft en t h e i nst i gat or of, t h e post-World War II explorat i on of
t h e ocean basi ns t h at , i n my opi ni on, t ri ggered w h at w ould become t h e
st ory of plat e t ect oni cs. How ever, h e i ni t i ally di d not favor t h e sea floor
spreadi ng and plat e t ect oni cs h ypot h eses. One reason, I t h i nk, w as t h at
in the early seismic reflect i on studies of the sea floor, the t ech ni que was
not w ell developed and det ect ed most ly t h e flat and undeformed sea
floor sedi ment s, fai li ng t o resolve t h e deformed ones. T h at sort of evi-
dence seemed t o speak against great deformat i on of t h e sea floor, and
h ence agai nst t h e great movement s post ulat ed i n plat e t ect oni cs t h eory.
Later, of course, t h e reflect i on t ech ni que at sea w as developed furt h er,
so t h at i t now det ect s deformed as w ell as undeformed sedi ment s.
I have seen and h eard it claimed t h at in one way or anot h er Ew ing dis-
couraged h i s Lamont sci ent i st s from publi sh i ng pro-plat e t ect oni cs stud-
ies. I can' t speak for all such scientists, but I can state unequivocally t h at
Ew i ng di d not prevent , di scourage, or even speak t o me i n any w ay
agai nst t h e w ork of our seismology group. We encount ered no opposi-
t i on w h at soever from h i m, and w e publi sh ed a good fract i on of t h e most
pro-plate t ect oni cs sci ence t o come from Lamont . Wh at ever h i s ow n rea-
sons for opposi ng plate tectonics, h e di d not i mpose t h em on us.
Before t urni ng to a discussion of those Lamont seismological cont ri bu-
tions to plate tectonics, let me fi rst mention some relevant contributions
by the fi eld of seismology prior to the plate tectonics furor. Seismologists
158 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
of t h at earli er era surely deserve some of t h e credi t for w h at h appened
later. For example, the creation in the early 1960s of the world wide stan-
dard seismograph net w ork (WWSSN), as a result of i nt erest in a nuclear
test ban treaty, provided critical and unprecedent ed data for study of tec-
t oni c eart h quakes. Th ere were i mprovement s i n t h e t ech ni ques for deter-
mi ni ng precise h ypocent ral locations, t h e places w h ere eart h quake rup-
t ures begin, by Kei t h Bullen and Bruce Bolt, and for det ermi ni ng focal
mech ani sms by H. Honda, Perry Byerly, and Joh n Hodgson. And t h ere
w ere the studies of seismicity by Beno Gut enberg, Charles Ri ch t er, and E.
Rot h e, and th e at t ent i on to th e deep eart h quake zones, fi rst found by K.
Wadati in Japan and later by Hugo Beni off in th e Uni t ed States. I nnu-
merable ot h er seismologists also deserve credit for h elpi ng to bri ng seis-
mology to th e poi nt w h ere it w as ready to make some major cont ri but i ons
to the plate tectonics revolut i on. Much of th is w ork w as carried out well
before the Lamont Geological Observatory w as formed in 1949, but , by
the early 1960s, w h en the ideas and concepts t h at would grow to become
t h e t h eory of plat e tectonics w ere arising, t h e Lamont program i n eart h -
quake seismology w as established and bust li ng. The at mosph ere, the facil-
ities, th e data archives, and th e colleagues at Lamont made it a very favor-
able envi ronment for t h e earth quake-based research t h at w ould t urn out
to be an i mport ant part of the plate tectonics revolut i on.
Let us now focus on Lamont and st udi es t h ere t h at affect ed t h e revo-
lut i on. Some w ere carri ed out w ell before t h e mid-1960s. Studies of
eart h quake surface waves, th ose seismic waves t h at t ravel t h rough t h e
sh allow layers of t h e eart h and h ence provide i nformat i on on t h e crust
and uppermost mande, by Ew i ng, Frank Press, and me (among ot h ers),
h elped t o show t h at t h e crust beneat h t h e deep sea w as not subsided con-
t i nent al crust , as some eart h sci ent i st s h ad argued. T h en Mari e T h arp,
w orki ng w i t h Bruce Heezen on a ph ysi ograph i c map of t h e sea floor,
found t h at t h e mid-ocean ridge system t h at st ret ch es for large di st ances
around t h e globe h ad t h e ki nd of narrow valley near i t s crest t h at sug-
gested t h at t h e crust h ad been ri ft ed apart t h ere, and t h at many oceani c
earthquakes occurred beneath these rifts. Ew ing, Heezen, and Th arp
described t h e great ext ent and cont i nui t y of t h e globe-enci rcli ng mid-
ocean ri ft system usi ng sei smi ci t y as one key pi ece of i nformat i on. Th at
study may have been a fact or in Harry Hess's t h i nki ng, w h en h e made
h i s great proposal of sea floor spreadi ng: t h at t h e sea floor w as spread-
i ng apart at t h e mid-ocean ri ft s w h ere magmas w elled up from below t o
form new oceanic crust.
Hess' sea floor spreadi ng h ypot h esi s w as know n at Lamont from t h e
t i me h e fi rst proposed i t publi cly, but i t langui sh ed for a w h i le. T h en t h e
Earthquake Seismology in the Plate Tec tonic s Revolution 159
Lament geomagnet i c group caugh t fi re and brough t Lament ' s h uge
supply of magnet i c dat a on t h e sea floor t o bear on t h e mat t er, and so
st rengt h ened the case for spreading substantially, as has been described
elsew h ere i n papers focusi ng on t h e geomagnet i c part of t h e plat e tec-
t oni cs story.
4
Th e exci t ement w i t h i n t h e geomagnet i c group soon spread t o t h e
eart h quake seismology group, as Ji m H ei rt zler and Joh n Foster t ook
pai ns t o pass new s of t h ei r successes across t h e Lament campus t o Lynn
Sykes and me. At t h e t i me, Sykes w as w orki ng on h ypocent ral locat i ons
and on earth quake focal mech ani sms, t h at is, the orientation of and
di rect i on of mot i on of th e eart h on opposite sides of th e mid-ocean ri ft s
and t h e t ransform fault s t h at displaced t h em. Just t h e t h i ngs, i t t urned
out , for t h e next major st ep i nt o global t ect oni cs by seismology.
J. Tuzo Wi lson h ad t aken up t h e case of t h e peculi ar st epli ke offset s
of ocean ri dges. He called t h em transf orm f aults and proposed a mech a-
ni sm t o account for t h em; h e t h en publi sh ed a paper i n t h e journal
Nature that suggested a seismological test of the hypothesis. Jim Dorman
at Lamont called t h at paper t o t h e at t ent i on of Lynn Sykes, w h o w as
abroad at th e time, and h e soon ret urned to Lamont to take up Wilson's
ch allenge. Lynn w as t h e only seismologist anyw h ere t o do so, at least so
far as I know .
Lynn qui ckly report ed positive result s based on t h e pat t erns of seis-
mi ci t y and of t h e focal mech ani sms at t h e ri dge offset s, and h i s paper
added subst ance and credibility t o t h e t ransform fault h ypot h esi s, and
h ence t o t h e concept of sea floor spreadi ng.
5
Th at concept , w i t h t h e
addition of the hypothesis by Fred Vine and Drummond Matthews at
Cambri dge t h at connect ed reversals of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld w i t h
magnet i c anomali es of t h e sea floor, w as gai ni ng w i der at t ent i on. Sykes'
paper support ed t h e concept and w as a clear example of good deduc-
tive sci ence: Vi ne and Mat t h ew s h ad a h ypot h esi s, Wilson deduced a con-
sequence, and Sykes show ed it w as t rue.
A major quest i on w as t h en obvious. If new sea floor w as creat ed at t h e
ridges, t h en w h at ? Was Eart h expandi ng to accommodate th e new sur-
face area? Or w as old surface area bei ng lost as i t descended somew h ere
else? Some said t h e former, some said t h e lat t er, and i f crust di d descend
t h ere w as di sagreement about w h ere. Some percept i vely said at t h e arcs,
t h e sites of t h e deep t rench es. Some said beneat h t h e cont i nent s. Just
h ow and w h y i t descended w h erever i t di d w as eni gmat i c. At Lamont w e
h ad t h e dat a t o provi de t h e answer. Wi t h support from t h e Nat i onal Sci-
ence Foundation, Bryan Isacks and I had been operat i ng a seismograph
net w ork i n t h e Tonga-Fiji i sland area of t h e Sout h Paci fi c, a regi on of
160 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
except i onally deep eart h quake activity. We h ad begun t h e project sim-
ply t o observe and st udy t h e poorly know n ph enomenon of deep eart h -
quakes i n i nduct i ve st yle, not t o t est some part i cular h ypot h esi s.
We found t h at t h e zone of eart h quake act i vi t y t h at di pped from just
beneat h t h e arc t o dept h s of about 450 mi les (720 ki lomet ers) marked
a t h i cker zone of very effi ci ent seismic wave propagation. Seismic waves
t raveled up t h i s zone w i t h far less at t enuat i on t h an waves t raveli ng
t h rough a comparable range of dept h s i n part s of t h e mant le far
removed from a deep eart h quake zone.
Wh en w e assumed t h at t h e shallow mant le east of Tonga propagat ed
seismic waves similarly, w h i ch w e now know t h at i t does, and t h at effi ci ent
propagat i on correlat ed w i t h st rengt h , w e w ere able t o draw a now -famous
cross-section showing a layer of st rengt h , the lith osph ere, dipping
beneat h Tonga and h ence descendi ng and likely bei ng undert h rust
t h ere. Th e basi s for t h e modern subduct i on model appeared one day on
our blackboard, and t h us t h e mat t er of di sappeari ng surface area w as
resolved, as w ere a lot of ot h er t h i ngs ch aract eri st i c of i sland arcs w h er-
ever t h ey are found. Those t h i ngs i ncluded t h e nat ure and cause of t h e
deep sea t rench es or ocean deeps; th e explosive volcani sm associated
w ith the arcs; the accretionary wedges t h at were piled up against the arc
as th e sea floor descended; th e grabens, or dow n-dropped li t t le depres-
sions on t h e seaward wall of t h e t rench es; t h e eart h quake sei smi ci t y and
t h e focal mech ani sms of associated sh allow and deep shocks; and t h e
gravity anomali es t h at result ed from t h e rearrangement of mass as t h e
region of t h e arc deformed t o accommodat e t h e down-going li t h osph ere.
I t w as a t rue E ureka moment for us. Ot h ers h ad suggest ed before t h at
material descended in th e t rench areas, and Robert Coats, in a fi ne
paper t h at at t ract ed li t t le at t ent i on unt i l our model appeared, h ad
explai ned Aleut i an volcani sm as a consequence of such descent t o about
60 mi les (100 ki lomet ers).
6
But , so far as I know , no one before us h ad
t h ough t i n t erms of such a large-scale t h rust i ng ph enomenon t h at
moved a 60 mi le (100 ki lomet er) t h i ck slab of li t h osph ere from near t h e
surface t o dept h s of at least 450 mi les (720 ki lomet ers), or h ad even
brough t t h e li t h osph ere-ast h enosph ere st ruct ure i nt o t h e pi ct ure. Th e
TongaFi ji project , as w e t ended t o call i t , w as a clear and unambi guous
example of i nduct i ve sci ence and serendi pi t y.
7
We w ere more or less ont o t h e concept of t h e movi ng plat es t h en, but
w e called i t t h e mobile lithosp here model, usi ng t h e t erms lithosp here and
asthenosp here. These t erms h ad been est abli sh ed much earli er t o descri be
t h e near-surface layer of st rengt h and t h e underlyi ng w eak zone needed
Earthquake Seismology in the Plate Tec tonic s Revolution 161
t o explain glacial rebound, but h ad not appeared i n studies of large-scale
tectonics.
8
The term p late tec tonic s, w h i ch is so well know n and widely
used today, h ad t h en not been i nvent ed and h ence w as not i n use. We
had not w orked out the global pattern of the plates and their motions.
Th at w as done by Jason Morgan at Pri ncet on.
9
Morgan not only devel-
oped the global pattern of the plates, but also gave the basis for a geo-
met ri cal descri pt i on of t h ei r mot i on, from w h i ch Xavi er Le Pi ch on at
Lament soon provided a global map of the plat es w ith quant i t at i ve val-
ues for relative plat e mot i on. Morgan' s paper on t h i s subject , and our
paper on t h e Tonga-Fiji mobi le li t h osph ere story, w ere bot h present ed
at th e out st andi ng 1967 annual meet i ngs of th e Ameri can Geoph ysi cal
Uni on i n Wash i ngt on, B.C.
As a result of our early successes, Lynn Sykes, Bryan Isacks, and I w ere
flyi ng h i gh , and w e set out t o relat e all relevant i nformat i on from eart h -
quake seismology to the plate model so as to test and furt h er develop it.
We did so rat h er t h orough ly, and our paper, "Seismology and th e New
Global Tectonics," published in the Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h in 1968,
became somet h i ng of a classic.
10
It show ed t h at t h e global pat t ern of
eart h quake belts, i ncludi ng th e sites of deep eart h quakes, th e global pat-
t ern of eart h quake focal mech ani sms, and a vari et y of ot h er evi dence
from eart h quake st udi es, w as i n accordance w i t h t h e plat e model
(alt h ough t h e t erm p late tec tonic s was still not i n use).
Th ere w ere many ot h er t h i ngs special about t h at paper. For one t h i ng,
t h e order of aut h ors w as det ermi ned by lot , but not because of any fri c-
tion among us. We agreed to do so as the w ork w as begun so t h at the bur-
den would not fall mostly on one individual. All t h ree of us worked h ard
and made major cont ri but i ons t o t h e paper, w h i ch called for a lot of spe-
cialized detail as well as generalizations, as it reported on all evidence
from eart h quake seismology relevant t o global t ect oni cs. We t h ough t ,
and hoped at the time, t h at we were w riting a basic paper on earth sci-
ence. Th e Lamont cont ri but i on number assigned i n rout i ne fash i on t o
the paper was, coincidentally, "1234"!
The paper i ncluded a map of global seismicity prepared by Muaw ia
Barazangi and James Dorman at Lamont , w ho used comput i ng techniques
developed by Bruce Bolt for the IBM704, one of the first digital comput ers
to become widely available in earth science. The paper also included the
simple block diagram t h at illustrates schematically plates and plate
motions, and t h at has been widely reproduced in original or modi fi ed form
many times. It still appears in most basic geology textbooks. The prelimi-
nary sketch on w h i ch t h at figure is based was, incidentally, first doodled on
162 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
a sketch pad duri ng a rat h er unexci t i ng UNESCO commi t t ee meet i ng in
Paris, a meeting called for anot h er purpose and on a complet ely di fferent
topic. The fi gure was done privately and not discussed at t h at meeting.
The "New Global Tectonics" paper w as widely read and ci t ed and is
probably the principal reason why I was asked to prepare the present
essay, alt h ough I must say h ere t h at , for me, t h e t h ri ll of discovery w as
far greater w h en we came across the down-going slab mech ani sm in the
Tonga-Fiji project . Th at w as t h e t rue Eureka moment for me. Th e "New
Global Tectonics" paper w as more of a h i gh ly successful, broad-rangi ng
synth esis. It produced more or less w h at w e expect ed and di d not h ave
th e element s of surprise and revelation t h at w ere part of th e Tonga-Fiji
study.
Many ot h er papers on seismology and t ect oni cs began t o appear at
about t h at t i me or sh ort ly t h ereaft er. William Stauder, at St . Louis Uni -
versity, w rote a fi ne paper on focal mech ani sms along t h e Aleut i an arc.
11
Dan McKenzi e and Robert Parker at Cambridge Uni versi t y h ad w ri t t en
one earli er on focal mech ani sms and plat e t ect oni cs i n one part of t h e
Pacific.
12
Th ei r paper preceded th e "New Global Tectonics" paper, but
follow ed t h e "Tonga-Fiji" paper, w h i ch t h ey referenced. Pet er Molnar at
Lamont and I published a paper showing how seismic waves propagated
w ell w i t h i n any plat e, but poorly across t h e boundary or gap bet w een
plates.
13
Each new seismological paper seemed supportive of the plate
model. None ch allenged it. Now, some 30 years later, alt h ough t h ere
have been refi nement s and modifications of t h at early model, t h ere have
not , as far as I know , been any effect i ve ch allenges to it.
S O ME T HO UGHT S O N S C I E N T I FI C D I S C O VE R Y
Wh at can w e learn from our experiences w i t h t h e comi ng of t h e very
robust plat e t ect oni cs t h eory t h at may h elp guide t h e di rect i on of eart h
sci ence, or any sci ence, i n t h e fut ure? Some t h i ngs have occurred t o me,
w h i ch i s not t o say t h at t h ey h aven' t also occurred t o ot h ers. I ' ll t ry t o
cast t h em h ere i n t h e li gh t of t h e seismological research on plat e tec-
t oni cs described h ere.
First, in order to make an i mport ant discovery in science, it is essen-
tial to be at the right place at the right time. Lamont was clearly a good,
perh aps t h e best , place for a seismologist t o be w h en t h e plat e t ect oni cs
story was beginning. Fine colleagues were t h ere, i ncludi ng those work-
i ng i n geomagnet i sm at just t h e critical t i me. Th ere w ere also arch i ves of
w h at t urned out to be key seismological data. We had access to, and train-
Earthquake Seismology in the Plate Tec tonic s Revolution 163
ing available for, t h at new fangled device, the computer, a good line of
communi cat i on t o events elsew h ere i n relat ed fi elds of sci ence, and an
i nnovat i ve spi ri t and i nner confi dence i n our capaci t y t o learn more
about t h e eart h . Bei ng i n t h e ri gh t place at t h e ri gh t t i me i s, of course,
oft en pri mari ly a mat t er of fat e or dest i ny, but nevert h eless a savvy sci-
ent i st can i mprove h i s or h er lot by recogni zi ng t h e feat ures t h at w ere
favorable t o discovery i n t h e past and t h en seeki ng opt i mal surround-
ings and opportunities accordingly. The Lamont contributions - in fact ,
almost all cont ri but i ons anyw h ere t o t h e development of plat e t ect oni cs
- w ere not so much the result of a brilliant idea, t h at is, a stroke of genius
by one h uman unfami li ar w i t h t h e observat i onal dat a of t h e sci ence.
Rat h er, t h ey w ere t h e result of good h ard w ork by very capable people
w h o h appened t o h ave, for one reason or anot h er, t h e ri gh t skills, and
h appened t o be i n fert i le envi ronment s w i t h appropri at e dat a and col-
leagues at t h e ri gh t t i me.
Second, I t h i nk t h e i mport ant role of sci ence i n t h e i nduct i ve style
must be noted, not only in seismology, but in the development of the
early stages of plat e t ect oni cs in general. It w as surely th e explorat i on of
t h e ocean basins follow i ng World War II, almost all done i n i nduct i ve
st yle, t h at brough t about t h e events i n t h e eart h sciences of t h e 1960s.
Th e i nduct i ve st yle w as i mport ant early i n seismology t h rough st udy of
seismicity and focal mech ani sms and lat er in discovery of th e nat ure of
t h e subduct i on process i n Tonga-Fiji. I t h i nk w e must keep a subst ant i al
fract i on of our research effort in earth science in the inductive style. I
really don' t h ave much pat i ence w i t h t h e peer review er w h o reject s some-
t h i ng because t h e "problem i s not clearly st at ed" w i t h out looki ng at
ot h er aspects of w h at is proposed. For me, a key quest i on is w h et h er an
i mport ant part of t h e unknow n i s bei ng explored.
Th e ot h er style of sci ence, t h e deduct i ve style, t ends t o li mi t us t o w h at
w e are capable of i magi ni ng. We need not be so const rai ned. The i nduc-
tive style of science improves our chances of learni ng things beyond our
i magi nat i on. In a sense, t h e i nduct i ve style requi res a bi t more h umi li t y,
but it offers the possibility of greater rewards.
14
In addi t i on t o t h e collect i on of new observations of t h e eart h i n t h e
i nduct i ve style, t h e comi ng of plat e t ect oni cs w as also dependent upon
t h e bri ngi ng t oget h er of many observat i ons, and oft en very diverse
observat i ons. Synth eses, part i cularly global ones, w ere an i mport ant part
of th e revolut i on. I refer not just to "The New Global Tectonics" paper,
of course, but also to ot h ers such as th e maps of sea floor magnet i c anom-
alies, sea floor topography, the global plate confi gurat i on, and many oth-
ers. In my opi ni on, not enough effort i n sci ence i s put i nt o synt h esi s, and
164 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
not enough effort i s put i nt o forms of communi cat i on t h at break t h e
boundari es of modern speci alt i es. In ot h er w ords, I t h i nk t oo many sci-
ent i fi c papers are so loaded w i t h jargon t h at i nformat i on is not spread
beyond t h e bounds of t h at specialty.
I t h as long seemed t o me t h at a sci ent i st w h o h as w h at h e or sh e t h i nks
i s an i mport ant i dea or result sh ould w ri t e i t up i n a st rai gh t forw ard st yle,
mi ni mi zi ng jargon, so t h at t h e audi ence w i ll be as large and as broadly
based as possi ble, and t h e good w ork w i ll spread beyond just a few spe-
ci ali st s. On t h e ot h er h and, i t i s easy t o suspect t h at someone w h o loads
a paper w ith jargon is t ryi ng to conceal from many t h at th e w ork is really
not t h at si gni fi cant , alt h ough , of course, t h at i s not always t h e case. Per-
h aps I am overly cyni cal on t h i s mat t er.
Icons, si mple fi gures t h at conveyed i m medi at ely t h e essence of a con-
cept or an i dea, w ere very i mport ant i n t h e revolut i on. I've ment i oned
t h e block di agram of t h e plat e model. O t h ers w ere t h e global sei smi ci t y
map, t h e sket ch es of t h e Vi neMat t h ew s model i llust rat i ng t h ei r h ypot h -
esis, the global map of the plat es, and Tuzo Wi lson's cart oons of t rans-
form fault i ng.
To back up my poi nt on th e emph asi s on th e i nduct i ve style of science,
I w ould like to draw furt h er at t ent i on to th e role of, and th e cont rol of sci-
ence, by observations. Aft er a li fet i me of doi ng science, and of bei ng a part
of the world of sci ence, my underst andi ng of the essence of sci ence can
be described in a few words. Science is the "organi zat i on of observations."
Furt h ermore, t h at 's all it is. Science is basically empirical. Observations are
th e only t rut h , or fact s, of sci ence. Hypot h eses, t h eori es, laws, or w h atever,
mat h emat i cal or not , are merely ways w e have devised to organi ze those
facts so t h at we can compreh end and interrelate t h em. Any part of the the-
oretical side of science is subject to revision if observations so di ct at e. The
scope of science is h ence det ermi ned and deli mi t ed by its observations.
Th erefore one good way, probably the best way, to add to the scope of sci-
ence is to make reliable new observations of the unknow n.
In saying t h ese t h i ngs, I do not mean t o mi ni mi ze t h e i mport ance of
t h eory and new i deas for new t h eori es. Our level of compreh ensi on of
t h e world can sometimes make a dramat i c advance upon t h e i nt roduc-
t i on of a new and cleverly devised t h eory. Nevert h eless, regardless of t h e
beaut y, elegance, or soph i st i cat i on of a t h eory, th e observat i onal data-
base remai ns i n cont rol, part i cularly over t h e long t erm.
To make t h i s poi nt clear, consi der th e h i st ory of th e concept of con-
t i nent al dri ft . It w as fi rst proposed i n A.D. 1596 by Abrah am Ort eli us, t h e
famous Flemi sh cart ograph er of German ancest ry, probably because h e
w as fi rst , or among the fi rst , to see the key observational data, namely
reasonably accurat e maps of t h e At lant i c coasts of Afri ca and South
Earthquake Seismology in the Plate Tec tonic s Revolution 165
Ameri ca.
15
T h at great idea w as qui ckly forgot t en or i gnored i n t h e
absence of additional observational data to test it. Others later proposed
t h e same idea i ndependent ly, and w ere also pret t y much i gnored, basi-
cally for t h e same reason. It w as not unt i l t h e early 20t h cent ury, w h en
Alfred Wegener, a German geoph ysi ci st /met eorologi st , h ad th e idea of
dri ft i ng cont i nent s, backed i t up w i t h sound observat i on, and commu-
ni cat ed i t w ell, t h at i t began t o cat ch h old w ith some sci ent i st s. By t h en,
t h e geology of t h e land areas h ad become reasonably w ell-observed, and
so t h ere w as consi derable support from geology for Wegener's model.
However, Wegener' s i dea falt ered and sput t ered for a long w h i le, many
decades, unt i l new observat i ons, t h i s t i me of t h e geology of t h e sea floor,
saved t h e day and allowed i t t o be i ncorporat ed i nt o t h e new concept of
geodynamics called plate tectonics.
16
Some will recogni ze, correcdy, t h at it w as t h i s ki nd of t h i nki ng t h at led
me t o at t empt t o explore and obt ai n new observat i ons of a poorly know n
part of th e eart h , th e deep cont i nent al crust and uppermost mant le,
t h rough deep seismic reflect i on profi li ng, t h at i s, ech o soundi ng, of t h at
part of t h e eart h . Th e cont i nent al crust i s typically about 25 mi les (40
ki lomet ers) t h i ck. Th e mant le i s about 1,800 mi les (2,900 ki lomet ers)
t h i ck, but I focus h ere only on t h e crust and t h e upper few t ens of miles
of t h e mant le. Th e project , Consort i um for Cont i nent al Reflect i on Pro-
fi li ng (CO CO R P), i s desi gned t o probe t h i s part of t h e eart h usi ng t h e
h i gh ly soph i st i cat ed t ech ni ques of t h e pet roleum i ndust ry. I ndust ry
normally confi nes its at t ent i on to the upper 6 miles (10 ki lomet ers) of
t h e crust t h at can be dri lled for oil, but w e are ext endi ng our reach t o
explore t h e underlyi ng 60 miles (100 ki lomet ers).
I remain convinced of the great potential for major advance in eart h
sci ence t h rough acqui si t i on of t h i s ki nd of observat i onal dat a. For t h ose
w h ose goal i s t o make a great advance i n eart h sci ence, perh aps on t h e
scale of plat e t ect oni cs, my recommendat i on i s t o make a major effort ,
i n t h e i nduct i ve st yle, t o explore and underst and t h at region of eart h ,
t h e deep crust and uppermost mant le, compreh ensi vely, t h rough appli-
cat i on of t h e sei smi c reflect i on profi li ng t ech ni que t h at w e know w ill
w ork and t h at w e are fully capable of carryi ng out . Th e envelope of our
w orld of science t h at is det ermi ned by our observational database will be
push ed back. If h i st ory i s any ki nd of a gui de, new discoveries and a new
level of underst andi ng of eart h w ill follow . We are not li kely to get to t h at
goal as fast as we mi gh t , however, if we confi ne our effort s to observation
only i n an area w h ere a "clear geological problem can be solved."
Th e ki nd of reasoni ng t h at I h ave just been usi ng for t h e last few para-
graph s is desi gned to reveal effect i ve st rat egy and tactics from st udy of
th e h i st ory of previous successes in sci ence, so t h at such st rat egi es and
166 HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
t act i cs can be appli ed t o new topics. Such reasoni ng, i n my opi ni on, i s
sound and very li kely t o produce major discoveries. I t h i nk h i st ori ans
sh ould focus on and analyze success stories from t h e past, and pass th ose
analyses along t o active scientists so t h at t h ey can i mprove upon t h ei r
effort s i n t h e fut ure. As a pract i ci ng sci ent i st for h alf a cent ury, I felt lit-
t le need t o know t h e personal h abi t s of great ach i evers i n sci ence of t h e
past t h at h i st ori ans somet i mes dw ell upon, but I longed t o know , and
could rarely fi nd, h ow t h ose ach i evers t h ough t and planned as t h ey
made t h ei r great discoveries.
I' m goi ng t o leave a few w ords for young sci ent i st s and research ers
now t h at w e are i n an era w ell beyond t h e 25t h anni versary of plat e tec-
t oni cs. My message is t h i s. Wh en you h ear st ori es of great advances in sci-
ence i n t h e past, such as plat e t ect oni cs, w h at ever you do, don' t get t h e
feeli ng t h at you came along too late and so missed the fun. Th at's w h at
my fellow st udent s and I t h ough t w h en w e read of some early discovery
t h at w e h ad mi ssed. We w ere fooli sh . Plat e t ect oni cs w as just ah ead.
Surely, t h ere are ot h er bi g discoveries i n eart h sci ence ri gh t around t h e
corner and w ai t i ng for someone li ke you. Work h ard, develop clever
st rat egi es and t act i cs, t ry t o posi t i on yourself appropri at ely i n t h e w orld
of sci ence (t h at ' s not so easy!), and, w i t h luck, you' ll be part of a bi g dis-
covery of t h e fut ure. T h ere may even come a t i me i n your career w h en
t h e session on t h e h i st ory of geophysics at an AGU meet i ng w ill be about
your discovery, not about the discovery of plate tectonics!
P A R T I V
T HE PLAT E MO DE L
By 1967 most geop hysic ists and oc eanograp hers were either c onvinc ed or on
the verge of being c onvinc ed that the earth's surf ac e was divided into large
bloc ks that were moving en masse: sp litting ap art at mid-oc ean ridges, mov-
ing laterally ac ross the oc ean basins, and then sinking bac k into the earth at
the boundaries between c ontinents and oc eans. Moreover, it was bec oming
c lear that the geologic al arguments that had been p ut f orward f or c ontinental
drif t more than 40 years earlier were p robably largely c orrec t. But those data
had been c ritic ized as qualitative and not verif iable - or at least they looked
unverif iable in retrosp ec t. It remained to quantif y the motions of the c rustal
bloc ks, and to show that the motions c alc ulated f or any one bloc k were c onsis-
tent with the motions c alc ulated f or their adjac ent bloc ks. The bloc ks began to
be ref erred to as "p lates " -f lat, thin, and rigid - and the result was a theory
c alled p late tec tonic s.
This page intentionally left blank
C HA P T E R 11
PLAT E T E C T O N IC S :
A S URPRIS IN G WAY T O
S T A RT A S C IE N T IFIC C ARE E R
Dan McKenzie
JjETWEEN 1963 AND 1968 A SMALL GROUP OF GEOPHYSICISTS, WORKING
at t h e Uni versi t i es of Cambri dge, Toront o, and Pri ncet on, t h e Scripps
Inst i t ut i on of Oceanography, and at Lamont Geological Observatory of
Columbi a Uni versi t y, put t oget h er t h e group of ideas now know n as t h e
t h eory of plat e t ect oni cs. Some of t h ese people w ere already major fig-
ures i n t h e fi eld, w h ereas ot h ers, li ke me, w ere only just out of graduat e
sch ool. As the far-reach i ng success of t h ese ideas became clear, w e all
rapidly became famous, to a degree t h at surprised even those of us who
w ere already w ell know n. Not h i ng any of us di d before or aft er w as as sci-
ent i fi cally spect acular, alt h ough all of us spent our w orki ng lives as active
sci ent i st s publi sh i ng papers.
Th e publi sh ed papers t h at led t o t h e t h eory w ere collected by Allan
Cox of Stanford University, who grouped t h em by subject area and wrote
excellent i nt roduct i ons.
1
Th e h i st ory of th e event s is well descri bed by
Bill Menard of Scripps, w h o w as closely involved i n many of t h em.
2
Per-
h aps because t h ese t w o excellent books provide such a good h i st ori cal
record, t h e edi t ors of t h i s collect i on asked us t o w ri t e about t h e event s
from our own poi nt of view. Although this is in some ways easy to do, it
i s not a normal activity for sci ent i st s, nor one at w h i ch t h ey h ave much
pract i ce. Furt h ermore, t h e event s t ook place more t h an 30 years ago. But
t h i s sociological side of sci ent i fi c discovery has (ri gh t ly) become recog-
ni zed as of great i mport ance by t h ose, such as Th omas Kuh n, w h o w ri t e
about the history of science, even t h ough the formalism t h at they have
generat ed seems t o me at least st range and somew h at art i fi ci al.
3
But i t i s
169
170 THE PLATE MO D E L
Dan McKenzi e, ast ri de t h e San Andreas Fault i n 1967. (Ph ot o court esy of
Breck Belts, Scri pps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y.)
no good complai ni ng w h en so few of t h ose i nvolved h ave w ri t t en about
t h ei r experi ences, si nce such account s must form part of t h e raw mat e-
rial used by h i st ori ans of sci ence.
I have tried to organize this essay around the events of the mid-1960s,
w i t h an account of h ow I came t o be at t h e D epart ment of Geodesy and
Geoph ysics at Cambri dge, or Madi ngley as i t i s oft en called, aft er Mad-
i ngley Rise, w h i ch h ouses i t . Li t t le h as yet been w ri t t en about t h e h i st ory
of t h i s remarkable place, w h ere many of t h e di scoveri es t h at led t o plat e
t ect oni cs w ere made, and so I t h ough t a bri ef h i st ory mi gh t be of i nt er-
est. I myself only became involved i n plat e t ect oni cs aft er I fi ni sh ed my
Ph .D. i n 1966. Th e fi nal versi on of t h e t h eory w as put t oget h er very
rapi dly duri ng 1967-1968.1 t h ough t I sh ould say somet h i ng about w h at
major sci ent i fi c advances look like to those involved at th e time, rat h er
Plate Tec tonic s 171
t h an t o t h ose w h o w ri t e about t h em aft erw ard. Th e most i nt erest i ng
aspect of the peri od si nce 1968 is how the ideas t h at w ere so new and rev-
olut i onary a few years before w ere so qui ckly and t h orough ly i nt egrat ed
i nt o our underst andi ng of h ow t h e eart h h as evolved, and h ow qui ckly
t h ose sci ent i st s w h o w ere involved i n t h ese discoveries became recog-
ni zed i nt ernat i onally.
How I C A ME T O BE WHE R E l WA S I N 1967
I w as born i n February 1942, aft er my parent s h ad deci ded t h at H i t ler
w as not going t o w i n t h e war. My fat h er w as a surgeon w h o quali fi ed just
before t h e w ar st art ed. Hi s fat h er w as also a surgeon, w ith a pract i ce i n
London on Harley St reet , a large h ouse i n High gate i n Nort h London,
and a ch auffeur. My fat h er, li ke me, w ent t o Cambri dge as an under-
graduate. My mot h er's background w as quite di fferent . Her fat h er w as a
laborer w h o sh oveled coal i nt o t h e furnace i n a pow er st at i on i n Leeds,
w h ich was t h en a grim industrial town in nort h ern England. She was
i nt elli gent , and benefi t ed from one of t h e earli est socialist measures i n
t h e Uni t ed Kingdom, w h ich opened up free university education t o
about 200 people a year w h o w on sch olarsh i ps. Sh e w on a sch olarsh i p
and applied to Cambridge, w h ich invited her to an interview w h ere she
w as made t o read aloud. Th ey reject ed h er because of h er t h i ck nort h -
ern accent, and she never forgave t h em. She was never entirely h appy
t h at I became a Cambri dge academi c. Unt i l I w as 7 w e lived i n t h e coun-
try but w e moved to London w h en my fat h er, like h is fat h er, became a
Harley St reet doctor. My grandfat h er w as grand enough t o have a ch auf-
feur w h o drove h im to w ork every day from Highgate, but w e could only
afford t o rent a flat above my fat h er' s consult i ng rooms i n Harley St reet .
My mot h er, whose mai den name w as Fairbrother, later w rot e a book
about t h i s peri od, w h en sh e w as bri ngi ng up t w o ch i ldren largely by h er-
self in the count ry, and a second book about our li fe once we moved to
London.
4
My brot h er and I fi gure promi nent ly, but sh e used our mid-
dle names, Pet er and Joh n, to try to save us from problems at school. I
am still embarrassed by h er vivid pi ct ure of me as an i nt rovert ed, hesi-
t ant child, in most ways less successful t h an my younger brother. I w ent
t o t h ree excellent pri vat e sch ools i n London, alt h ough I w as not at all
successful academically unt i l I was about 14. Th en I started to learn
proper mat h emat i cs (I h ave never been able t o add or spell), ph ysi cs,
and chemistry, and to w in prizes. Although my fat h er made some uncon-
vi nci ng at t empt s t o deflect me i nt o medi ci ne, I w as clear t h at I w ant ed
172 THE PLATE MODEL
to go to Cambri dge and be a physical sci ent i st . Th i s I duly did in 1960,
aft er an i nt ervi ew i n w h i ch I t alked t o a di st i ngui sh ed classicist about
Dostoevsky and Bri t i sh w ild orch i ds, on t h e st rengt h of w h i ch h e gave
me a place at Cambridge to read physics. Cambridge interviews are now
much more seri ous and professi onal affai rs, and I am sure t h at my
mot h er w ould now be accept ed.
Th e nat ural sci ences course at Cambri dge di ffers from t h ose at most
Engli sh uni versi t i es because i t requi res st udent s t o take lect ures and
exams in t h ree sciences (mat h emat i cs does not count as a science,
alt h ough i t i s requi red for ph ysics and ch emi st ry). I ch ose t o t ake geol-
ogy as my t h i rd sci ence, largely i nfluenced by t h e 19t h -cent ury books on
t h e subject by Ch arles Darw i n, Ch arles Lyell, and Arch i bald Geikie i n
t h e sch ool li brary. But t h e geology course at Cambri dge w as aw ful: I
learned the h undreds of fossils necessary to i dent i fy stratigraph ic zones,
and t o draw and name t h e part s of ech i noi ds, ammoni t es, and so on.
Alt h ough I li ked t h e people, and especially t h e fi eld t ri ps, I t h ough t t h e
course w as st upi d, and gave up geology aft er a year t o t ake a degree i n
ph ysics. It w as part ly t h e people, especially Mauri ce Hi ll and D rummond
Matthews (who was always know n as "Drum"), and part ly the idea of
usi ng ph ysics t o underst and t h e processes operat i ng w i t h i n t h e eart h ,
t h at at t ract ed me back t o t h e eart h sci ences. I joi ned t h e D epart ment of
Geodesy and Geoph ysics at Madi ngley Rise as Sir Edw ard Bullard' s grad-
uat e st udent in 1963.
MA DI N GL E Y R I S E
Th i s i s not t h e place t o give a det ai led account of t h e h i st ory of h ow t h ere
came to be a Depart ment of Geodesy and Geophysics at Cambridge
(now t h e Bullard Laborat ori es of t h e D epart ment of E art h S ci ences).
But t h i s place played such an i mport ant role i n t h e development of our
present ideas t h at I t h i nk I sh ould give some account of i t s ori gi ns. Frag-
ment s of th e st ory are descri bed in th e bi ograph i es of some of t h ose
involved: Sir Gerald Lenox-Conyngham, Maurice Hill, and Sir Edw ard
Bullard, w h i ch h ave been w ri t t en for t h e Royal Society.
5
Th e depart ment
w as st art ed by tw o people, Sir Gerald Lenox-Conyngh am, a ret i red
colonel from t h e I ndi an Army, and Professor Hugh New all, w h o w as pro-
fessor of ast ronomy at Cambridge. Th e correspondence bet w een t h em
is now in the Bullard Archives in Ch urch i ll College, Cambridge. Th ei r
i dea w as t o found an I mperi al Geodet i c I nst i t ut e at Cambri dge, li ke t h e
Prussi an Geodet i c I nst i t ut e i n Pot sdam, and on a si mi lar scale. But t h ere
Plate Tec tonic s 173
w as no money. Th e depart ment t h erefore i ni t i ally consi st ed of Lenox-
Conyngh am alone. He obt ai ned a post for an assistant i n 1931 and h i red
Edw ard Bullard, w h o w as always know n as "Teddy," and w h o h ad just
obt ai ned h is Ph .D. (in quant um scattering of elect rons) in th e Cavendi sh
Laborat ory under R ut h erford.
Teddy w as a first-class experi ment al physicist. He st art ed by usi ng grav-
i t y t o study eart h processes, but w as soon exploi t i ng seismic met h ods on
land and at sea, as w ell as th e measurement of h eat flow . His i nt erest in
t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld developed duri ng t h e Second World War, w h en
h e w as concerned w i t h magnet i c mi nes. He became frust rat ed w h en h e
ret urned t o Cambri dge aft er t h e w ar, w h ere Lenox-Conyngh am, now i n
h is late 70s, w as still h ead of th e depart ment (t h ere w as no ret i rement
age), and h e left for t h e Uni versi t y of Toront o. He di d not ret urn t o Cam-
bri dge unt i l 1956, aft er t h e group w h o w orked t h ere w ith Kei t h R uncorn
h ad broken up w h en Kei t h left t o become professor of physics at New -
castle. Th e paleomagnet i c w ork on cont i nent al dri ft , w h i ch w as carri ed
out by Kei t h R uncorn, Ted Irvi ng, Ken Creer, Jan Hospers, and ot h ers
w i t h such energy and success at Cambri dge in th e early 1950s, stopped
w i t h Kei t h ' s depart ure, and h ad surpri si ngly li t t le i nfluence on lat er
developments-even at Cambri dge, w h ere i t h ad been so promi nent .
Later discoveries h ave clearly sh ow n t h at t h e conclusi ons based on
palaeomagnet i c measurement s w ere correct , and t h ei r fai lure t o con-
vince t h e w i der communi t y of geologists and geophysicists remai ns t o me
t h e most i nt erest i ng part of t h e h i st ory of plat e t ect oni cs.
6
Teddy and Mauri ce Hi ll t oget h er developed a very active group con-
cerned w i t h mari ne geology and geoph ysics. Alt h ough t h ey w ere i n com-
pet i t i on w i t h si mi lar larger groups at Lament and Scripps, t h ey ret ai ned
excellent relat i ons w i t h t h e Ameri cans. Th ey at t ract ed undergraduat es
w h ose backgrounds w ere i n ph ysics and w h o w ant ed t o bui ld i nst ru-
ment s or do t h eory, and numerat e geologists. I arri ved as Teddy's grad-
uat e st udent i n Oct ober 1963, aft er Fred Vi ne and D rum Mat t h ew s h ad
publish ed t h ei r explanation of how the magnetic stripes in the oceans
are formed, and w h i le Teddy Bullard, Ji m E veret t , and Alan Smi t h w ere
usi ng a w ell-know n t h eorem di scovered i n t h e 18th cent ury by t h e Ger-
man mat h emat i ci an E uler t o reconst ruct t h e posi t i on of t h e cont i nent s
around t h e At lant i c before t h ey w ere ri ft ed apart .
7
People oft en say t o me h ow exci t i ng i t must h ave been t o be at Cam-
bri dge at t h i s cri t i cal t i me. But t h i s i s a ret rospect i ve view. At t h e t i me i t
looked qui t e di fferent . Fred and D rum w ere search i ng for magnet i c
anomali es i n t h e Nort h At lant i c magnet i c records from t h e many crui se
records avai lable at Cambri dge, but found li t t le convi nci ng evi dence
Plate Tec tonic s 175
t h at t h ei r suggest i on w as correct . Wh y t h ey w ere h avi ng such problems
only became clear w h en Carol Williams, a graduat e st udent at Cam-
bri dge, and I reanalyzed t h e same data i n 1971, usi ng w h at w ere by t h en
st andard met h ods.
8
Th e navigation w as carri ed out w i t h a sext ant , by tak-
i ng si gh t s on t h e sun and stars (sat elli t e navi gat i on only came i nt o gen-
eral use i n 1968). Because t h e Nort h At lant i c i s so oft en covered w i t h
clouds, the navi gat i on errors in the data w ere somet i mes as large as 30
mi les (50 ki lomet ers). So i t w as di ffi cult t o mat ch anomali es bet w een di f-
ferent sh i p t racks.
Anot h er problem i s t h at magnet i c anomaly pat t erns from slowly
spreadi ng ri dges like t h e Nort h At lant i c are oft en vari able and h ard t o
recogni ze w i t h out a t h eoret i cal model. Teddy t ri ed t o fi nd evi dence t h at
t h e boundari es bet w een t w o geological provi nces of di fferent ages i n
Afri ca mat ch ed si mi lar boundari es on t h e ot h er side of t h e South
At lant i c i n South Ameri ca. But t h e evi dence w as not very convi nci ng,
because ri ft i ng generally exploits such geological boundari es rat h er
t h an cut t i ng across t h em. I w rot e a Ph .D. t h esi s on mant le convect i on,
w h i ch t augh t me flui d mech anics and enough materials science to know
t h at all mat eri als creep at h i gh t emperat ures and low stresses. Alt h ough
i t now seems st range, nei t h er I nor t h e ot h er graduat e st udent s ch anged
t h esi s topics t o w ork w i t h Fred and D rum. Th e only person t o joi n t h em
w as Tuzo Wilson from t h e Uni versi t y of Toront o, w h en h e w as on sab-
bat i cal at Madi ngley. He w rot e h i s w ell-know n paper on t ransform fault s
Th e fi t bet w een Afri ca and Sout h Ameri ca obt ai ned by Teddy Bullard and h i s col-
leagues usi ng E uler' s Th eorem (Bullard et al., 1965). Th e t h eorem states t h at any
mot i on of a rigid plat e on th e surface of a rigid sph ere corresponds to a rot at i on of
t h e plat e about some axis t h at passes t h rough t h e cent er of t h e sph ere. Th e prob-
lem on t h e Eart h i s t h at every poi nt on i t s surface i s on a movi ng plat e, and no rigid
sph ere exists. So one plat e must be ch osen and t aken t o be fi xed. Th en t h e mot i on
of any ot h er plat e w i t h respect t o t h i s fi xed plat e corresponds t o a rot at i on about an
axis. In this figure Africa has been taken to be fixed, so South America moves, (a)
shows t h e locat i on of t h i s axi s, marked w i t h an arrow , t h at Teddy and h i s colleagues
found for t h e mot i on bet w een Afri ca and Sout h Ameri ca. Th e circles are li nes of lat-
i t ude about t h i s axis, just li ke t h e usual li nes of lat i t ude about t h e E art h ' s rot at i onal
axi s, (b) shows t h e ori gi nal posi t i on of t h e t w o cont i nent s before t h e Sout h At lant i c
opened, obt ai ned by fi t t i ng t h e edges of t h e cont i nent s t oget h er. Th ese edges are
under t h e sea, and are not t h e present coast li nes. As t h e cont i nent s move, every
poi nt on t h e Sout h Ameri can plat e moves i n a di rect i on t h at i s parallel t o t h e lati-
t ude li nes. Th i s beh avi or i s easily seen by compari ng t h e posi t i ons of t h e lat i t ude
li nes i n t h e t w o pi ct ures before and aft er openi ng. Th ei r posi t i on on Sout h Amer-
i ca does not ch ange.
176 THE PLATE MODEL
w h i le h e sh ared an offi ce w i t h Harry Hess from Pri ncet on Uni versi t y, and
a lesser know n paper w i t h Fred Vi ne on magnet i c anomali es w h i le Fred
w as still a graduat e st udent at Cambri dge.
9
As graduat e st udent s w e w ere
not especi ally st upi d, and t h ree of us (Bob Parker, Joh n Sclater, and
myself, i n addi t i on t o Fred Vi ne) h ave si nce been elected t o t h e Royal
Society. At t h e t i me i t si mply w as not obvious t o us t h at w h at Fred and
D rum w ere doi ng w as so i mport ant .
O C T O BE R 1966-O C T O BE R 1968
Teddy persuaded t h e organi zers of a NASA conference t o i nvi t e me t o
t alk about h i gh t emperat ure creep.
10
It w as h eld i n New York, close t o
Columbi a, and w as at t ended by many people w h ose names I knew from
t h ei r publi cat i ons, and to w h om I w as i nt roduced by Teddy. Tw o of th e
papers made a deep i mpressi on on me: one by Fred Vi ne, w h o h ad
moved t o Pri ncet on, sh ow i ng t h at t h e Paci fi c magnet i c anomali es beau-
t i fully confi rmed h i s and D rum' s suggest i on, and t h e ot h er by Lynn
Sykes from Lamont , w h om I met for t h e fi rst t i me, sh ow i ng t h at t h e sense
of mot i on on t ransform fault s agreed w i t h Tuzo's proposal and could
only be explai ned by sea floor spreadi ng.
11
At last t h ere w as good data
t o confi rm t h e earli er ideas. I ret urned t o Cambri dge, complet ely con-
vi nced I sh ould w ork on sea floor spreadi ng. I stayed for a mont h , dur-
i ng w h i ch I w as exami ned for my Ph .D. I also carri ed out all t h e calcula-
t i ons for my fi rst paper on plat e t ect oni cs, sh ow i ng h ow a spreadi ng ri dge
can account for t h e elevated h eat flow t h at Teddy h ad found t o be asso-
ci at ed w i t h w h at w e now knew t o be spreadi ng ri dges.
12
Th e i dea for t h i s
paper came from w ork by Xavier Le Pi ch on and h i s colleagues at La-
mont , alt h ough t h ey h ad argued t h at t h e h eat flow observat i ons w ere not
compat i ble w i t h sea floor spreadi ng. I carri ed out t h e necessary numer-
ical calculat i ons at t h e Seismological Laborat ory at Calt ech , w h ere I w ent
for si x mont h s as a post doct oral fellow i n January 1967, and w as pleased
w i t h t h e paper.
Unli ke Xavier, I used an analyt i cal solut i on t o t h e equat i ons, w h i ch I
obt ai ned by fi rst convert i ng t h em t o di mensi onless form. I h ad learned
h ow t o do t h i s from t h e flui d dynami ci st s, part i cularly Adri an Gi ll, w h o
w as t h en at Scri pps, and my approach i s still w i dely used t o const ruct
t h ermal models of spreadi ng ridges.
14
How ever, w h at most pleased me
w as t o be able t o demonst rat e t h at t h e h eat flow (and, lat er, t h e topog-
raph y and melt generat i on) of spreadi ng ridges does not requi re a h ot
upw elli ng regi on of convect i on beneat h t h e ri dge, but can si mply be
explai ned by plat e separat i on and t h e upw elli ng of h ot mant le i nt o t h e
Plate Tec tonic s 177
Wh en I fi rst became i nt erest ed i n plat e t ect oni cs i t w as generally accept ed t h at ridges
w ere everyw h ere underlai n by plumes of solid mant le mat eri al t h at w as h ot t er t h an
t h e surroundi ng rock, and for t h i s reason moved upw ards. Th is proposal i s i llust rat ed
i n (a), but i s very di ffi cult t o reconcile w i t h h ow ridges beh ave. New ones form sud-
denly w h en cont i nent s split, t h ei r axes are offset sh arply i n many places by enormous
fault s, and t h ey somet i mes suddenly jump i nt o older part s of plat es. I n t h e fi rst paper
I w rot e on plat e t ect oni cs, I suggested i nst ead t h at ridges are ent i rely passive, and are
formed by passive upw elli ng of t h e same h ot mant le t h at everyw h ere underli es t h e
plates (D. P. McKenzi e, 1967. Some remarks on h eat flow and gravity anomali es, Jour-
nal of Geoph ysical Research , 72: 6261-6273). Th i s model is i llust rat ed in (b), and sat-
i sfi es all t h e observations and avoids t h e problems faced by (a). (Modi fi ed from D.
McKenzi e and M. J. Bi ckle, 1988. Th e volume and composi t i on of melt generat ed by
ext ensi on of the li t h osph ere, Journal of Petrology 29: 625-679, and R. L. Oxburgh , 1980.
Heat flow and magma genesi s. In Physic s of the Magmatic Proc esses, R. B. Hargraves, ed.
Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press, pp. 161-199.)
178 THE PLATE MO D E L
space i n bet w een t h e t w o plat es. Th i s i dea resolved a long-st andi ng puz-
zle, w h i ch I discussed w i t h Tuzo w h en h e w as at Madi ngley i n 1965. Afri ca
is surrounded by spreadi ng ridges, all of w h i ch h ave moved away from
t h e cont i nent as t h ey spread. If t h ey w ere convect i on cells, h ow could
t h ese cells know h ow t o move at exact ly t h e ri gh t veloci t y t o remai n
beneat h t h e spreadi ng ri dges on ei t h er side of Afri ca, t h ousands of kilo-
met ers apart ? T h ere i s obviously no problem i f ridges h ave no deep struc-
t ure, but are si mply formed w h erever plat es separate.
Most of my t i me at t h e Seismological Laborat ory at Caltech I spent
learni ng eart h quake seismology. At t h e t i me, my geoph ysi cal back-
ground know ledge w as rat h er poor. I knew a li t t le old-fash i oned geology,
and some bi t s and pi eces of geophysics I h ad learned duri ng my t h ree
years as a graduat e st udent . But Cambri dge h ad (and h as) no courses
for graduat e st udent s i n eart h sci ences, and no one w orked on eart h -
quake seismology at Madingley. So I took Calt ech courses, some in eart h
sciences and some i n physics, especially from t h e ph ysi ci st Ri ch ard Feyn-
man, w hose sh ow mansh i p annoyed me, but w h ose mast ery of analyt i cal
met h ods I found dazzli ng.
I also w ent t o my fi rst Ameri can Geophysical Uni on (AGU) meet i ng,
in th e spri ng of 1967 in Wash i ngt on, D.C. I h ave always found such meet -
ings h ard to exploi t properly. I try to do so by goi ng t h rough th e abstracts
of t h e talks carefully, maki ng a list of w h ere I need t o be w h en. Jason Mor-
gan, from Pri ncet on Uni versi t y, i ncluded an abst ract of a paper h e h ad
recent ly publi sh ed, w h i ch rei nt erpret ed some Lamont dat a from t h e
Puert o Rico Trench . I knew several of t h e Lamont people w ere cross w i t h
w h at Jason h ad done, and t h at t h ey i nt ended t o give h i m a h ard t i me,
principally, I suspect ed, because Jason h ad rei nt erpret ed t h ei r dat a. I w as
not involved and not i nt erest ed, so I left t h e session just before h i s t alk.
As i s now w ell know n, h e di d not t alk about h i s publi sh ed paper, but
about plat e t ect oni cs. Hi s t alk generat ed li t t le i nt erest , and I di d not
become aw are of w h at h appened unt i l November of t h at year.
But t w o aspects of t h e meet i ng di d make a deep i mpressi on on me.
By Apri l 1967, most mari ne geoph ysi ci st s h ad seen th e Paci fi c magnet i c
anomali es t h at I fi rst saw i n New York, and w ere equally i mpressed. Th ey
h ad looked at t h ei r ow n records, found si mi larly beaut i ful profi les, and
submi t t ed abst ract s t o t h e AGU meet i ng.
15
Th e result w as a sea floor
spreadi ng bandw agon - w h at D rum Mat t h ew s always di sparagi ngly
referred t o as 'me-too' sci ence, and w h at I t h i nk Kuh n means w h en h e
talks about scientific revolutions as changes in worldview.
16
Th ere w ere
no new ideas, nor any proper modeli ng, just an overw h elmi ng sense t h at
t h e w h ole ocean floor w as covered w i t h st ri pes. Th e ot h er w as a paper
Plate Tec tonic s 179
Th is fi gure shows t h e mot i on of t h e Paci fi c plat e, obt ai ned from t h e mot i on on fault s
duri ng eart h quakes, w h en t h e Nort h Ameri can plat e i s fi xed. Th e solid dot s sh ow
t h e locat i ons of a number of large eart h quakes, produced by t h e mot i on bet w een
t h ese tw o plat es. Th e arrows show th e di rect i on of mot i on bet w een th e tw o sides of
t h e fault s on w h i ch t h ese eart h quakes occur w h en t h e side of t h e fault t h at i s part
of the Nort h American plate is taken to be fixed and the Pacific side is moving. The
map i s i n a speci al project i on, ch osen so t h at t h e mot i on of t h e Paci fi c plat e i s every-
w h ere parallel t o t h e bi g arrow i f t h e plat e moves rigidly, (b) Cont ours of t h e dept h
of th e ocean round Hawaii, usi ng th e same project i on as (a). If th e volcano t h at
forms t h e Haw ai i an Ridge i s fi xed t o Nort h Ameri ca, t h e ri dge sh ould be parallel t o
t h e large arrow , w h i ch i s approxi mat ely t rue.
180 THE PLATE MODEL
by Fat h er William St auder, from Saint Loui s Uni versi t y, concerned w i t h
t h e mech ani sms of eart h quakes along t h e Aleut i an Trench , w h i ch I mis-
understood. Earth quakes are generated by movement on fault s, w h en
one side of t h e fault slides past t h e ot h er. Th e di rect i on of t h i s mot i on
i s know n as t h e slip vec tor. I t h ough t St auder h ad plot t ed t h ese slip vec-
tors, w h ereas i n fact h e plot t ed w h at h e believed t o be t h e di rect i ons of
great est and least stress. Th i s rat h er t ech ni cal issue sounds trivial but i s
not : plate t ect oni cs i s concerned w i t h slip vectors, not w i t h stresses, and
t h e relat i ve mot i on bet w een plat es produces eart h quakes w hose slip vec-
tors show the di rect i on of t h ei r relative mot i on.
I ret urned t o Calt ech , and moved t o a post doct oral research posi t i on
at Scripps at t h e end of June. I h ad sent off t h e paper on ridges, and w as
looki ng around for ot h er good problems. I read all of Harry Hess'
papers and h ad ret urned t o Teddy's paper on t h e geomet ri c fi t s because
I remembered I h ad di sli ked t h e met h od h e used t o fi t t h e cont i nent s
togeth er.
17
I w as readi ng h i s sect i on on E uler' s t h eorem w h en i t
occurred to me t h at this w as w h at w as needed to describe plate mot i ons.
Once I h ad t h e idea of doi ng so, everyt h i ng else follow ed, and w i t h i n a
day or t w o I h ad t h ough t t h rough t h e consequences. I saw t h at I could
divide the surface of the earth i nt o plates using the earth quake zones,
and use a Nat i onal Geograph i c globe w i t h a t ransparent plast i c cap t o
w ork out w h ere t h e relative poles of rot at i on w ere from t h e t ransform
fault s and ot h er feat ures on t h e plate boundari es. My problem w as t h at
I h ad no dat a, such as spreadi ng rat es from magnet i c anomali es, because
t h e Scripps data h ad not been digitized or i nt erpret ed. Th en I remem-
bered St auder's AGU t alk, and reali zed I could use t h e slip vectors from
eart h quakes t h at he and his students and colleagues had det ermi ned to
obtain th e di rect i on of relative mot i on bet w een th e tw o sides of th e fault s
w h i ch moved i n eart h quakes (w h i ch I found h e h ad not done), and a
mappi ng program t h at Bob Parker, w h o h ad also moved t o Scripps, h ad
w ri t t en w i t h a project i on t h at made t h e w h ole i dea si mple. I explai ned
everyt h i ng t o Bill Menard at Scripps, w h o could see not h i ng w rong and
soon became equally ent h usi ast i c.
Shortly th ereafter, Joh n Mudie, who was also doing postdoctoral
reseach at Scripps, ret urned from a conference at Woods Hole and gave
an account of Jason Morgan's t alk t h ere. Alt h ough Joh n' s account w as
somew h at unclear, i t w as i mmedi at ely obvious t o me t h at Jason h ad h ad
t h e same i dea as I h ad, and I asked Bill w h at I sh ould do. Wi t h out hesi-
t at i on h e said, "Publish." I t h ough t I could w ri t e a ni ce compact paper
on t h e idea and used t h i s as a carrot t o w rite up t h e last part of my Ph .D.,
a long, dull, w orth y paper on the effect of rotation on convection in a
Plate Tec tonic s 181
rot at i ng sph ere.
18
As soon as I fi ni sh ed, I w rot e t h e fi rst publi sh ed paper
on plat e t ect oni cs w i t h Bob Parker.
19
It t ook only t w o or t h ree days. Bob and I w ent dow n t o t h e mai n post
offi ce i n La Jolla i n late Oct ober t o send i t off, but w ere nearly defeat ed.
It w as Saturday, so t h e offi ce w as closed. But w e got quart ers and fed t h e
st amp mach i ne unt i l w e h ad enough st amps t o send i t t o t h e journal
Nature i n London by ai r mai l. T h ere w as just enough space for t h e
address. We never saw t h e paper agai n. Nature received i t on November
14, but w e never got referees' comment s or page proofs. Th e paper w as
publi sh ed on D ecember 30, 1967.
Soon aft er Bill Menard t old me t o publi sh h e received Jason's paper
t o review.
20
In h i s book Menard says t h at h e recei ved a pre-pri nt of t h i s
paper i n t h e spri ng of 1967, but h e never ment i oned t h i s t o me, ei t h er
at t h e time or later.
21
I don' t remember readi ng Jason's paper at t h e
t i me, alt h ough I may h ave done so. Jason and I took di fferent ap-
proach es t o explai ni ng t h e same ideas, and used di fferent data, from
seismology and from mari ne magnet i c anomali es, t o sh ow t h at t h e ideas
w orked i n pract i ce.
Wh en I w rot e t h e Nature paper I w as i nexperi enced, bot h i n w ri t i ng
sci ent i fi c papers and i n present i ng dat a. It w as only t h e fourt h extensive
paper I h ad w ri t t en. Unli ke Jason, I made li t t le at t empt t o explai n h ow
t h e ideas connect ed w i t h earli er w ork, and t ri ed t o be as economi cal w i t h
w ords as possible. I di d not publi sh t h e fi gure I drew sh ow i ng t h e obser-
vat i ons th emselves. I have always regret t ed not doi ng so, and t h erefore
sh ow it h ere as th e figure on page 179. My ot h er regret concerns Haw aii.
Th e project i on Bob and I used suggested t h at t h e Haw ai i an Ridge w as
formed by a volcano t h at w as fi xed t o t h e Nort h Ameri can plat e, because
i t w as parallel t o t h e di rect i on of movement bet w een t h e t w o plates. Th i s
result w as i ncompreh ensi ble at t h e t i me, and furt h ermore confused t h e
w h ole t h eory, w h i ch w as const ruct ed i n t erms of relat i ve mot i ons
bet w een plat es, and explicitly reject ed t h e w h ole concept of absolut e
mot i ons. So I deci ded to say not h i ng.
Jason not i ced t h e same t h i ng, and proposed an explanat i on w h i ch h as
been widely accepted.
22
He argued t h at Hawaii was on top of a hot part
of th e mant le t h at is ri si ng toward th e surface, because its densi t y is low er
t h an t h at of t h e surroundi ng colder mant le. Such st ruct ures are called
c onvec tive p lumes. He proposed t h at t h ere are a number of such plumes
beneat h volcani c i slands such as I celand, R euni on, and t h e Society
islands, and t h at these plumes were all fixed to each other, and did not
move around li ke t h e plat es. Th e volcanic ridge t h at ext ends nort h w est
from Haw aii i s t h en produced as t h e Paci fi c plat e moves i n t h i s di rect i on
182 THE PLATE MODEL
over t h e plume. I h ave never li ked t h i s i dea, because I do not underst and
h ow t h e plumes can be fi xed t o each ot h er i f t h e w h ole mant le i s con-
vect i ng. If t h e w h ole mant le consi st s of movi ng flui d, h ow can anyt h i ng
be fi xed rigidly t o anyt h i ng else?
I h ave somet i mes been asked w h et h er t h e approach I used t o descri be
plate tectonics was modeled on the t h eory of the dynamics of rigid bod-
i es t h at led E uler t o h i s t h eorem. It w as not . It was, h ow ever, st rongly
i nfluenced by the t h eory of di slocat i ons, and especi ally by W. T. Read's
book on t h e subject , w h i ch showed h ow useful t h e i dea of a di slocat i on
was, even t h ough i t s beh avi or could not be calculat ed from t h e equat i ons
t h at cont rol t h e elect rons and nuclei i of w h i ch a solid consi st s.
23
I left Scripps at t h e end of Oct ober, and drove my old car w i t h all my
possessions across t h e count ry t o Lament , w h ere I stayed for t h ree
mont h s. I found everyone t h ere w orki ng on plat e t ect oni cs. I discovered
t h at Jason h ad t alked about h i s ideas at t h e AGU meet i ng i n t h e spri ng,
and t h ough t I sh ould t ry t o delay t h e Nature paper so t h at h e w ould h ave
pri ori t y in publication as well as in his discovery of the th eory. I was not
successful because Nature h ad already set t h e t ype. I am now glad t h at I
fai led, because our discoveries w ere i ndependent . I w as somew h at dis-
mayed by t h e number of people w orki ng on plat e t ect oni cs at Lament ,
because I h ave never li ked w orki ng qui ckly and i n compet i t i on w i t h ot h -
ers. Xavier Le Pi ch on h ad fi ni sh ed a global reconst ruct i on of plat e
mot i ons before h e ret urned t o France; Lynn Sykes, Bryan Isacks, and
Jack Oliver w ere w ri t i ng t h ei r monument al review of t h e i mpli cat i ons of
plat e t ect oni cs for seismology; and Ji m H ei rt zler and Walt er Pi t man w ere
systematically goi ng t h rough all t h e mari ne magnet i c dat a t o w ork out
th e h i st ory of th e ocean basi ns.
24
I found Lamont qui t e di fferent from Madingley: t h e people w ere
much more compet i t i ve and uni nt erest ed i n t h eoret i cal i deas and cal-
culat i ons. People w ere also secret i ve about w h at t h ey w ere doi ng. Wh at
w as clear, however, w as t h at t h e basic i deas of plat e t ect oni cs w orked very
w ell i n t h e oceans, but not on t h e cont i nent s, w h ere t h e deformat i on i s
w i dely di st ri but ed. So I deci ded t o ask Lynn Sykes and Pet er Molnar, w h o
w as t h en a graduat e st udent at Lamont , t o t each me h ow t o const ruct
fault -plane solut i ons for eart h quakes, and see i f I could modi fy plat e tec-
t oni cs to descri be cont i nent al as w ell as oceani c t ect oni cs. My colleagues,
st udent s, and I h ave si nce spent many years w orki ng on t h i s problem,
w h i ch i s much h arder t h an plat e t ect oni cs.
In the spri ng of 19681 moved again, to Pri ncet on, w here I at last came
t o know Jason w ell. Alt h ough I knew t h at si mult aneous discoveries h ad
occurred commonly i n many areas of sci ence, I w as ast oni sh ed t o dis-
Plate Tec tonic s 183
cover t h at h e and I h ad been w orki ng on t h e same problems i n t h e same
way for much of the previous year. As Menard poi nt s out, most of the dis-
coveri es t h at led t o plat e t ect oni cs w ere made i ndependent ly by t w o peo-
ple.
25
But I w as still amazed w h en t h e same t h i ng h appened t o me. And
it was not just t h at we had bot h t h ough t of plate tectonics. Jason had also
used t h e plat e model t o calculat e t h e h eat flow and t opograph y of ri dges,
and St auder's slip vect ors of eart h quakes t o det ermi ne t h e poles of rel-
ative mot i on betw een th e Pacific and Nort h American plates.
26
We h ad
bot h spent t h e previ ous year solving t h e same set of problems by t h e
same met h ods. Th i s discovery surpri sed me profoundly: I h ad not under-
stood t h at sci ent i fi c ent erpri ses reach a part i cular poi nt w h ere t h e next
st ep i s obvious t o t h ose w h o use a part i cular approach , and t h at i t i s a
mat t er of ch ance w h o w ill receive t h e credi t .
Th e last major t h eoret i cal problem i n plat e t ect oni cs concerned w h at
h appens w h ere t h ree plat es meet . Jason and I discussed t h i s problem at
Pri ncet on w i t h out get t i ng anyw h ere. Tanya At w at er, w h o w as still a grad-
uat e st udent at Scripps, came on a vi si t and joi ned i n, also w i t h out much
progress. Even t h ough t h e problem i s purely geomet ri c, w e found i t sur-
pri si ngly h ard t o solve. Th e solut i on came t o me long aft er t h ese con-
versat i ons, i n t h e aut umn of 1968 w h en I h ad ret urned t o Cambri dge.
Jason and I publi sh ed a t h eoret i cal paper, w h i ch bot h posed t h e prob-
lem (w h i ch di d not seem t o h ave w orri ed ot h er people) and solved i t ,
and Tanya w orked out i n det ai l t h e i mport ant geologi cal consequences
t h at t h e evolut i on of t h e t ri ple junct i ons h ave for t h e t ect oni cs of west-
ern Nort h Ameri ca.
27
W HA T is P L A T E T E C T O N I C S ?
For me the cent ral idea is the rigidity of plat e interiors. It is this propert y
t h at allows the surface mot i ons of the eart h to be described by so few para-
meters. Early versions of th e t h eory - cont i nent al dri ft , paleomagnet i c
reconstructions, and sea floor spreading - implicitly or explicitly used this
propert y, but did not recognize its i mport ance.
28
I myself do not describe
cont i nent al tectonics as plate tectonics, because cont i nent al deformat i on
occurs in wide zones w h ere the idea of rigidity is of limited use. Geologists
such as Joh n Dewey and Jack Bird recognized t h at the cont i nent al geolog-
ical record cont ai ns st ruct ures and stratigraphy produced by plate bound-
aries, and have sketched plate geometries t h at could generate the features
concerned. But they are unable to show t h at the motions involved w ere
those of rigid plates, and in many cases I suspect , but cannot yet prove, t h at
184 THE PLATE MO D E L
th ey w ere not. I believe t h at the type of distributed deformat i on t h at is now
occurring i n t h e eastern Medi t erranean i s a more accurate model for most
cont i nent al deformation t h an is the tectonics of rigid plates.
A number of lat er development s are oft en loosely descri bed as plat e
t ect oni cs, such as st udi es of forces t h at mai nt ai n plat e mot i ons. Loose
use of carefully defi ned t erms i s common among geologists, and leads
t o endless t ermi nologi cal confusi on and cont roversy of t h e most st eri le
ki nd. Plate t ect oni cs w as clearly defi ned as a ki nemat i c t h eory: one t h at
is concerned w ith geometry. It is not a dynamic theory: one t h at is con-
cerned w i t h t h e dri vi ng forces.
In my view, plat e t ect oni cs w as di scovered by th e group of paleomag-
net i st s w orki ng at Madi ngley i n t h e mid-1950s, i n a specially bui lt non-
magnet i c h ut t h at still exists, w h en t h ey sh ow ed t h at t h e relat i ve mot i on
of cont i nent s could be described by cont i nuous rigid rot at i ons. Wh at
Jason and I did w as to reduce th e i deas to a set of ph ysi cally reasonable
proposi t i ons t h at are suffi ci ent t o descri be all t h e earli er proposals t h at
h ad been show n t o w ork. Wh o i nvent ed t h e t erm p late tec tonic s itself i s
unclear. Several people tried t o coin a t erm, part ly (i t must be sai d) w i t h
t h e ai m of bei ng able t o say t h at t h ey di scovered t h e t h eory. None of
th ese proposals st uck. One of t h e earli est uses of t h e t erm t h at I know of
i n pri nt w as by Jason and myself i n our paper on t h e evolut i on of t ri ple
junct i ons i n 1969. But I cert ai nly w ould claim only t o h ave w ri t t en dow n
a term by w hich the t h eory w as by t h en widely know n.
It seems t o me unli kely t h at plat e t ect oni cs will requi re ch anges. It i s
a precisely formulat ed t h eory t h at provi des an accurat e descri pt i on of
th e large-scale t ect oni cs of th e eart h . Physical t h eori es of t h i s type are
w ith t i me i ncorporat ed i nt o larger and more complet e descri pt i ons of
processes involved. This process will requi re st udi es of ot h er t ect oni cally
active rocky planet s. Sadly, our solar system does not at present seem
li kely to be of much use.
R E FL E C T I O N S O N T HE P R O C E S S O F S C I E N T I FI C D I S C O V E R Y
Few active sci ent i st s take much i nt erest i n general models of sci ent i fi c
discoveries, and I am no except i on. However, li ke many ph ysi cal sci en-
tists, I know a bit about th e ideas of Franci s Bacon, Karl Popper, and
Th omas Kuh n, and i t i s perh aps of i nt erest t o t h ose w h o do st udy t h e h is-
tory and ph i losoph y of sci ence t o see w h et h er t h ose w h o h ave been
involved i n sci ent i fi c advances fi nd such models useful i n descri bi ng
t h ei r activities.
Plate Tec tonic s 185
Many historians of science have been concerned w ith th eories in
ph ysi cs and ch emi st ry. These are fundament ally di fferent from th ose i n
areas like astronomy and earth science, because experiments are not
only possible, but are an essent i al part of t h e development of any new
theory. In many parts of the earth sciences, i ncludi ng tectonics, experi-
ment s are impossible: not h i ng h uman beings can do can affect t h e
processes involved, and these cannot be scaled properly to conduct lab-
orat ory experi ment s. Th i s di fference affect s every aspect of t h e subject :
you w at ch w h at i s h appeni ng, but cannot isolate t h e process t h at i nt er-
ests you. T h ere i s always "noise": processes t h at are goi ng on w h i ch don' t
i nt erest you. Th i s i nabi li t y t o isolate a part i cular process also h as advan-
tages, because your observations cont ai n i nformat i on about processes
ot h er t h an t h e one t h at you i nt ended t o study. So you must always keep
an eye open for t h e unexpect ed.
Because cont rolled experi ment s are i mpossi ble i n so many areas,
h ypot h esi s t est i ng i n i t s st ri ct form i s not an activity fami li ar t o most eart h
scientists. I spend my t i me t ryi ng t o const ruct models t h at can descri be
w h at I and ot h ers have observed, usi ng ideas from mat h emat i cs and
ot h er ph ysi cal sci ences. I judge I h ave succeeded w h en I fi nd t h at my
model can account for some well-known observation t h at w as not under-
st ood, and w h i ch i t h ad not occurred t o me t o connect w i t h t h e obser-
vations t h at I was t ryi ng to model. For this test to be reliable, it is essen-
tial t h at I separat e all observat i ons t h at I come across i nt o four groups:
those t h at are simply w rong, those whose origin I underst and, those t h at
are so compli cat ed t h at I am never going t o know w h et h er or not I
underst and t h em, and t h ose t h at I am sure t h at I cannot underst and
usi ng our existing t h eori es. At any time t h ere i s usually general agree-
ment t h at a number of exi st i ng observat i ons fall i n my last group. For
i nst ance, at t h e present t i me, I t h i nk most eart h sci ent i st s w ould agree
t h at our t h eori es of convect i on i n t h e mant le are i n t h i s st at e, because
t h e seismological observations are best explai ned by w h ole mant le con-
vect i on, w h ereas t h e geoch emi cal observat i ons suggest t h at t h e upper
and low er mant le convect separately.
Anot h er problem i n t h i s group i s t h e format i on of t h e solar system.
Furt h ermore, I am sure t h at major new ideas will come from research i n
t h ese areas. Th e last group i s t h erefore t h e i mport ant one, and i t i s not
large; at any time few problems in it are tractable. In the eart h sciences,
and I t h i nk i n ast ronomy also, advances occur w h en someone realizes
t h at a major problem in th e last group h as become tractable, generally
because of an advance i n t ech nology t h at can be used t o make a new
observat i on. Th ere are many examples in both fields of such events. In
186 THE PLATE MO D E L
t h e case of plat e t ect oni cs, i t w as our abi li t y t o measure t h e magnet i za-
t i on of rocks, fi rst i n t h e laborat ory and t h en at sea w i t h a tow ed mag-
net omet er, and t o det ermi ne t h e mech ani sms of eart h quakes, t h at
rapi dly led t o t h e fi nal t h eory. Th e paleomagnet i c observat i ons di d not
h ave t h e i mpact t h at i n ret rospect t h ey sh ould h ave h ad, because almost
all eart h sci ent i st s t h ough t t h ey w ere i ncorrect , and so put t h em i nt o t h e
fi rst , rat h er t h an t h e last , of my groups. Wh y t h ey di d so remai ns for me
a puzzle, and also t h e most i nt erest i ng h i st ori cal quest i on t o be raised by
t h e discovery of plat e t ect oni cs.
29
I cert ai nly w ould not descri be Jason' s and my act i vi t i es i n 1967 as
h ypot h esi s t est i ng: as soon as I reali zed t h at eart h quakes and t h ei r mech -
ani sms w ere t h e di rect expressi on of plat e t ect oni cs, I knew I w as ri gh t !
Th e great and i mmedi at e success of t h e t h eory w as t h e result of every-
one else react i ng i n t h e same way.
30
Everyone knew about eart h quakes,
and no one knew h ow t h ey w ere produced (t h i s i s not qui t e t rue: most
beli eved eart h quakes result ed from slip on fault s, but no one under-
stood h ow t h e same fault could sli p i n t h e same di rect i on t i me aft er
t i me). So i n 1967 most people put eart h quakes i n my last group. Wh at
made plat e t ect oni cs so i mmedi at ely convi nci ng w as t h at i t w as pri nci -
pally desi gned t o account for sea floor spreadi ng, cont i nent al dri ft , and
magnet i c anomali es. Wi t h no furt h er i nput , i t also account ed for t h e dis-
t ri but i on of eart h quakes, w h i ch i n t h e oceans li e i n narrow bands on
plat e boundari es.
P L ATE TEC TONI C S AFTER 1968
Th e fi nal versi on of t h e t h eory w as rapi dly underst ood and accept ed by
eart h sci ent i st s everyw h ere. I n t h e Soviet Uni on, h ow ever, t h e new i deas
w ere resisted by a few elderly geologists who w ere h eads of t h ei r insti-
t ut es, pri nci pally I suspect because t h ese people found i t h ard t o t h i nk
i n t h e new way. In t h e w est most observat i ons from t errest ri al and mari ne
geology were quickly rei nt erpret ed in t erms of the new theory. But at
fi rst most of t h i s w ork w as not suffi ci ent ly carefully carri ed out for me t o
be able t o put t h e observat i ons i nt o one of my four cat egori es. Th e prob-
lem w as t h at plate t ect oni cs is a much more precise and rigid t h eory t h an
most of t h ose w i t h w h i ch geologi st s w ere fami li ar. To t est w h et h er i t
w orks requi res comput ers and a vari et y of programs: t o det ermi ne poles
of rot at i on, to reduce magnet i c observations to project ed profi les of
magnet i c anomali es, t o calculat e t h eoret i cal anomaly profi les from t h e
reversal t i mescale, t o plot fault -plane solut i ons of eart h quakes, and t o
Plate Tec tonic s 187
digitize and plot maps of reconst ruct i ons by carryi ng out rigid body rota-
t i ons. Of t h e mai n laborat ori es i nvolved i n mari ne geology and geo-
physics in early 1968, only Lamont w as in a position to test the new the-
ory properly. Several of t h e i mport ant programs h ad been w ri t t en by
Xavier Le Pi ch on, and ceased to be used at Lamont w h en he ret urned
to France. D uri ng 1968, t h ese problems slowly became clear, so Joh n
Sclater, w ho w as at the time at Scripps, and I decided to do a t h orough
job on t h e I ndi an O cean, t h e one ocean t h at w as largely bei ng neglect ed
by th ose w orki ng at Lamont.
My proper educat i on as an observat i onal sci ent i st now began. Joh n
and I w ent t o sea t o collect our ow n dat a. We negot i at ed w i t h everyone
else w h o h ad data from cruises. We di scovered t h at Project Magnet , a
U.S. mi li t ary program t h at h ad flow n magnet omet ers t o make maps of
t h e magnet i c fi eld, h ad flow n many profi les across t h e I ndi an O cean,
navi gat ed by someone maki ng star sigh ts from t h e cockpi t w i t h a sext ant ,
as mari ners do. We di gi t i zed all t h ese dat a, and reduced t h em t o t h e
format used by Lamont , usi ng a small comput er on w h i ch w e could get
free t i me at ni gh t (no one w ould give us a decent grant t o do t h i ngs prop-
erly, because nei t h er of us h ad facult y posi t i ons). But t h e programs ran
very slowly. It t ook several h ours to produce a reconst ruct i on of th e
plat es at an earli er geological peri od on t h e small comput er t h at w e
used, w h i ch w as the size and w ei gh t of a large American refrigerator.
Each plot requi red us t o pass a few t h ousand cards t h rough t h e card
reader, cont ai ni ng the locations of the coastlines. Even the mai n com-
put er, w h i ch served t h e w h ole campus of t h e Uni versi t y of Cali forni a at
San Diego, to w h i ch Scripps belongs, would have taken an h our or so for
each plot , and cost $300 an h our, w h i ch w e could not afford. I now carry
out such calculat i ons i n a few seconds on a not ebook comput er t h e size
of a small book, w h i ch i s more t h an 100 t i mes fast er t h an t h e mai n cam-
pus mach i ne w as i n 1967. However, t h e ori gi nal programs still w ork fi ne
on t h e not ebook, and I used t h em t o make one of t h e fi gures for t h i s
essay. We discovered a program for disadvantaged undergraduat es t h at
w ould pay t h em t h e mi ni mum w age i f w e could produce 25 cent s an
h our, and t rai ned t h em t o reduce and plot t h e observations. I w rot e t h e
necessary programs, some w hile I w as at sea. I also w rot e programs t h at
I t h ough t w ould be able t o recogni ze magnet i c anomali es aut omat i cally
(t h ey could not ), and spent mont h s deciding w h et h er I could recognize
i ndi vi dual anomali es on t h e profi les.
The end result of all of this w ork was a monument al paper t h at filled
one ent i re issue of t h e Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety,
and outlined the w hole of the plate tectonic history of the Indian Ocean,
188 THE PLATE MO D E L
and t h e new met h ods t h at w ere requi red t o carry out such an analysis.
31
Th e mai n result w as t h at t h e evolut i on could be accurat ely descri bed i n
t erms of plat e t ect oni cs. I w as very di sappoi nt ed. As far as I could see, w e
h ad done a great deal of w ork and h ad discovered not h i ng new. Th e
ent i re ent erpri se t h erefore belonged i n my second category. For t h i s rea-
son, I left mai nst ream mari ne geology and geophysics t o w ork on t h e
forces t h at mai nt ai n plat e mot i ons, and on cont i nent al deformat i on.
Lat er events, especially from ocean dri lli ng, h ave confi rmed my i ni t i al
react i on. Five years lat er in 1976, w h en I w as elect ed to th e Royal Soci-
ety, I w as bot h surpri sed and cross t o discover t h at I w as elect ed because
of my w ork on t h e I ndi an Ocean, and not because of plate t ect oni cs. Th e
commi t t ee involved consi st ed of fi eld geologists, and t h ey w ere
i mpressed by someone w h o could successfully w ork out t h e geological
h i st ory of an ent i re ocean basi n.
By 1969 th e present t h eory w as essent i ally complet e. Th e only i mpor-
t ant new i dea t h at h as been requi red i s t h at of propagat i ng ri dges, w h i ch
Di ck Hey of th e Uni versi t y of Hawaii suggested to explai n th e sh apes of
magnet i c anomali es i n t h e east ern Paci fi c.
32
Th e development of t h e
t h eory stopped very suddenly: in the 1960s cont i nent al dri ft became sea
floor spreadi ng, t h en plat e t ect oni cs, as t h e t h eory became more preci se
and as i t s scope i ncreased. T h en, equally qui ckly, t h e ch anges st opped:
t h e t h eory w as complet e and rapi dly became accept ed. Many of t h e par-
ticipants, i ncludi ng me, found it h ard to adjust to this sudden change.
Th e i deas, met h ods, and programs t h at t h ey h ad developed w i t h con-
si derable i nt ellect ual effort a few years earli er became part of t h e stan-
dard undergraduat e and graduat e courses. One of t h e fi rst courses on
plate tectonics, w hich I t augh t at Cambridge in 1970, di ffered little from
w h at i s now t augh t everyw h ere. Wh at took me by surpri se w as h ow
qui ckly t h e ideas became det ach ed from t h ei r ori gi nat ors as t h ey
became accept ed. Except for t h ose w h o w ere i nvolved, and for h istori-
ans of science, no one now knows or cares who was responsible for a par-
t i cular part of t h e th eory. It i s even h ard for modern undergraduat es t o
underst and t h at t h e w h ole t h eory i s so new and caused so much exi t e-
ment . They, qui t e reasonably, ask, "So, w h at di d people believe before
plate tectonics w as discovered?" This is a question t h at I fi nd unexpect -
edly di ffi cult t o answ er, because I cannot remove t h e underst andi ng t h at
people now h ave t o reconst ruct our state of i gnorance i n t h e early 1960s.
One young facult y member i n Ch i na knew Dan McKenzi e h ad been one
of the people involved in the discovery of plate tectonics, but was aston-
i sh ed t o meet me. He t h ough t i t h appened so long ago t h at all of t h ose
involved w ere dead.
Plate Tec tonic s 189
Th e effect of t h ese discoveries on th e careers of those involved w as
dramat i c, especially on those of th e younger people. Several of us h ad
onlyjust fi ni sh ed our Ph .D.s w h en w e w ere i nvi t ed t o give t h e major t alks
at national and i nt ernat i onal conferences, elected to the Royal Society
and t h e Nat i onal Academi es of t h e Uni t ed States and France, and given
major pri zes by geological and geophysical societies. I found t h i s all very
flat t eri ng, alt h ough I h ave always regarded my success as a pi ece of luck.
If my parent s h ad not deci ded so early t h at Hi t ler w as not goi ng t o w i n
the war, I w ould have been too young to have been involved. This worldly
success removed any concern I h ad about w h et h er I w ould be able t o
obt ai n an academi c job w h en I ceased t o be a post-doc. Wh at concerned
me much more w as w h et h er I w as goi ng t o be someone w h o h ad only
one good i dea, or w h et h er I w ould be able t o make progress w i t h some
of the h arder problems in the eart h sciences t h at w ere still not under-
st ood, especi ally t h e t ect oni cs of cont i nent s. My uneasi ness about t h i s
quest i on di d not evaporat e unt i l 1978, w h en I discovered h ow sedi men-
t ary basi ns formed, by st ret ch i ng w ide regi ons of t h e cont i nent s. Th i s
i dea i s t h e ant i t h esi s of plat e t ect oni cs, because t h e deformat i on i s dis-
t ri but ed over a w ide region, rat h er t h an occurri ng on a single plate
boundary. Th i s di fference i s probably w h y bot h I and everyone else w ere
so slow in underst andi ng w h at w as goi ng on. It w as also one of our fi rst
successes i n our effort s t o underst and cont i nent al deformat i on, w h i ch i s
a h arder problem t h an plat e t ect oni cs, and i s a less dramat i c st ory t h at
still cont i nues. Perh aps one day I will write an account of this effort ,
w h i ch i s so di fferent from t h e discovery of plat e t ect oni cs. But not h ere!
A C K N O WL E D G M E N T S
In t h e four years aft er I obt ai ned my Ph .D. i n November 1966, I w orked
at fi ve di fferent uni versi t i es (Cambri dge, Calt ech , Scripps, Lamont , and
Pri ncet on) for peri ods t h at never exceeded si x mont h s. T h rough out t h i s
t i me I h eld a research fellow sh i p at Ki ng' s College Cambri dge, and w ill
always be grat eful for its support. King's paid, housed, and fed me w h en
I w as i n Cambri dge, and provi ded a stable poi nt i n my peri pat et i c li fe.
At t h e begi nni ng of t h e peri od, I w as generously support ed by grant s
from t h e U.S. Ai r Force at Calt ech and Scripps, and lived i n comfort . But
toward t h e end t h ere w as less and less money. At one st age, Joh n Sclater
signed a purch ase order for 20 days of my services, in the same way as he
purch ased laborat ory suppli es. Th e money enabled me t o live at Scri pps
for four mont h s (ext remely frugally and i n fear of a knock on t h e door
190 THE PLATE MODEL
from t h e I mmi grat i on Servi ce!). I will always be grat eful t o t h e people,
pri nci pally Don Anderson at Calt ech , Walt er Munk at Scripps, and Harry
Hess at Pri ncet on, who gave me the opport uni t y to be involved in this
w ork at t h e begi nni ng of my sci ent i fi c career. Th e enli gh t ened generos-
i t y of t h ese people and of t h e organi zat i ons from w h i ch t h ei r support
came, especially t h e U.S. Ai r Force, t h e O ffi ce of Naval Research , and
t h e Nat i onal Science Foundat i on, made a deep i mpressi on on me, and
left me w i t h a last i ng admi rat i on for t h e Uni t ed States and i t s w ay of
doi ng science. Th is i s Eart h Sciences Cont ri but i on number 6240.
CH A PT E R 12
WH E N PLATES WE R E PAVI NG STONES
Robert L. Parker
- FOR ONE TIME ONLY, AT ITS INCEPTION, PLATE TECTONICS WAS
called t h e p aving-stone theory of tec tonic s, t h e name Dan McKenzi e and I
gave t o t h e organi zat i on of t h e eart h ' s surface i nt o a small number of
internally rigid bodies in relative motion. Wh en Dan and I w rot e th e fi rst
paper on plat e t ect oni cs, "The Nort h Paci fi c: An Example of Tectonics
on a Sphere," we w ere two unknow n new Ph.D.s, fresh out of graduate
sch ool.
1
My thesis h ad been on th e mat h emat i cal modeli ng of electrical
current s in geophysical systems, and Dan's was on the shape of the eart h ,
so w e w ere bot h begi nners in th e science of geology. But w e w ere fort u-
nate to be w orki ng as students in a depart ment at the cent er of a
w h i rlpool of i nt ellect ual activity t h at w as bri ngi ng about t h e fi rst t rue
underst andi ng of marine geology and its importance for global tecton-
ics. Th i s essay is a bri ef review of the sci ent i fi c and personal events lead-
ing up to t h at fi rst paper.
T H E VI E W F R O M CA MBR I D GE UN I VE R S I T Y , F A LL 1967
In the fall of 19671 w as a postdoctoral fellow at the I nst i t ut e of Geophysics
and Planetary Physics (IGPP), w h ich is part of the Scripps Institution of
Oceanograph y in th e Uni versi t y of California at San Diego (UCS D ). I h ad
graduated the year before from the Depart ment of Geodesy and Geo-
physics at Madi ngley Rise in th e Uni versi t y of Cambri dge in England.
Although I was w orking in the Uni t ed States, w hich was to become my
h ome, my perspective at t h e t i me w as t h at of a Cambri dge graduat e. Dur-
ing my three years as a research st udent I had not w orked on mari ne geol-
ogy or i ndeed anyt h i ng remot ely geological. But it w as impossible not to
be aware of the great events going on in the depart ment , w h ich seemed
191
192
THE PLATE MO D E L
Bob Parker w i t h bi cycle, at t h e Scri pps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y. (Ph ot o cour-
tesy of Bob Parker.)
t o be a focus of t remendous creative energy. Let me fi rst survey w h at I see
as t h e pri mary i nfluences t h at w ent i nt o t h at paper.
By t h e mi ddle of t h e 1960s everyone i n t h e depart ment at Cambri dge
h ad been convert ed t o a fi rm beli ef i n cont i nent al dri ft and t h e large-
scale h ori zont al mobi li t y of t h e crust . Th e h ead of t h e depart ment , w h o
w as also my research supervi sor, Si r Edw ard ("Teddy") Bullard, h ad long
been w h at h e t ermed "agnostic" on t h e subject , but h e now became an
ent h usi ast i c proponent and support er of research i nt o t h ese ideas. To
h i m t h ey w ere a confi rmat i on of h i s convi ct i on t h at t h e most urgent pri -
ori t y of t h e t i me i n t h e eart h sci ences w as t o correct our almost t ot al igno-
rance of mari ne geology. In cont rast , w e h ad frequent ly h eard t h e st ory
t h at t h e di rect or of t h e Lamont Geologi cal Observat ory (a depart ment
of Columbi a Uni versi t y), Mauri ce Ew i ng, h ad decreed t o h i s people t h at
no effort sh ould be spared i n an effort t o prove cont i nent al dri ft w rong
once and for all. T h erefore, i t comes as somet h i ng of a surpri se for me
t o learn from recent publi c remi ni scences of t h e Lamont t eam t h at at
t h e t i me almost everyone t h ere w as act ually engaged i n di scoveri ng plat e
t ect oni cs, w ith th e blessi ng of boss Ew i ng h i mself.
When Plates Were Paving Stones 193
Four years before our paving-stone paper, Fred Vi ne and D rum
Mat t h ew s h ad show n t h at t h e magnet i c st ri pes w h i ch h ad been measured
i n only a few places around t h e ocean ridges w ere beaut i fully explai ned
i n t erms of an i dea proposed by Pri ncet on' s Harry Hess t h at new crust
w as bei ng creat ed at t h e ridges, combi ned w i t h t h e discovery t h at t h e
geomagnetic field has been constantly reversing polarity, t h at is,
exch angi ng t h e positions of t h e nort h and sout h magnet i c poles.
2
Th e
confi rmat i on of th e global reversal of th e magnet i c fi eld by radi omet ri c
dat i ng w as also new at t h e t i me, alt h ough reversely magnet i zed rocks h ad
been know n for over 60 years. Fred Vi ne w as a fellow research st udent
and D rum Mat t h ew s w as a lect urer (I t h i nk) on t h e st aff at t h e Depart -
ment of Geodesy and Geoph ysics w h en t h ey h ad t h e ext raordi nary
insight to put these tw o ph enomena together.
3
Wh ile I w as a st udent t h ere, Tuzo Wi lson, vi si t i ng Cambri dge on a sab-
batical leave from Toronto duri ng 1964, made his seminal discovery: the
nat ure of t h e great offset s i n t h e magnet i c record on t h e sea floor. In t h e
east ern Paci fi c Ocean off t h e states of Wash i ngt on and Oregon, great li n-
ear gashes called f rac ture zones h ad been found i n t h e sea floor, several
t h ousands of miles i n lengt h . Magnet i c pat t erns on one side of a fract ure
zone also appeared on t h e ot h er side almost i dent i cal i n form, but dis-
placed by vast di st ances. Th e t radi t i onal geological explanat i on for such
an offset w as t h at the pat t erns had originally been formed together, but
h ad subsequent ly been separat ed by sli di ng one pi ece of t h e crust rela-
tive t o t h e ot h er along t h e li ne marked by t h e fract ure zone. Th ere w ere
many di ffi cult i es w i t h t h i s explanat i on. For example, now h ere else on
t h e eart h h ad such h uge h ori zont al offset s ever been seen. Moreover,
aft er a sh eari ng mot i on of t h i s ki nd, one w ould expect t o see evidence
of foldi ng or compressi on at t h e ends of t h e fault zone, yet t h ere w as
none. To solve this puzzle Wilson invented the idea of transf orm f aults.
4
clearly recall comi ng out of th e fi rst semi nar h e gave to us on th e sub-
ject and t h i nki ng I h ad w i t nessed somet h i ng profoundly i mport ant . I n
1965 Wilson publi sh ed h i s paper i n t h e journal Nature explai ni ng t rans-
form fault s and t h ei r relat i onsh i p t o t h e fract ure zones. Th e remarkable
resolut i on lay i n t h e totally unexpect ed fi ndi ng t h at t h e t w o sets of mag-
net i c pat t erns h ad never been ali gned, but h ad act ually been creat ed
separated by the large offset as we see t h em today. Transform fault s were
anot h er key i ngredi ent i n t h e pavi ng-st one t h eory.
Two years aft er this, in 1967, Lament's Lynn Sykes published an arti-
cle i n t h e Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h concerni ng eart h quake mech a-
ni sms on ocean ridge systems: th e mech ani sm gives th e di rect i on of
mot i on of t h e crust i n t h e i mmedi at e vi ci ni t y of t h e eart h quake.
5
Sykes
discovered t h at t h e mot i on on t h e offset t i ng ridges w as compat i ble only
194 THE PLATE MODEL
w i t h Wi lson's model. Th at model w as furt h er confi rmed by t h e absence
of eart h quakes on t h e fract ure zone t races, w h i ch w ere predi ct ed t o be
i nact i ve by t h e t ransform fault model, but w h i ch w ould be li nes of sli p i n
the i nt erpret at i on of classical geology. Sykes' w ork w as based largely on
a new ly est abli sh ed sei smi c net w ork, t h e w orldw i de st andard seismo-
graph net w ork (WWSSN) of t h e U.S. Coast and Geodet i c Survey - a set
of calibrated and nomi nally identical seismometers globally distributed
for t h e purpose of det ect i ng nuclear bomb tests. In ret rospect i t w as a
pi ece of remarkable good luck t h at t h e seismic records from t h i s net -
w ork w ere not i mmedi at ely classified, just as, in later years, enormous
amount s of mari ne magnet i c and gravi t y dat a collect ed by t h e U.S. Navy
w ere kept secret .
In 1965 at Cambridge Uni versi t y, Teddy Bullard, w ith Jim Everet t and
Alan Smi t h (bot h research st udent s at t h e t i me), h ad already fi t t h e con-
t i nent al shelves around t h e At lant i c, usi ng i nt ernally ri gi d bodi es, mov-
i ng t h e cont i nent s about t h ei r E uler poles of rot at i on, i n a purely geo-
met ri cal manner.
6
As Teddy w as fond of i llust rat i ng w i t h everyday object s
li ke books, Leonh ard E uler (t h e 18th -century Swiss mat h emat i ci an) h ad
proved t h at i t i s always possible t o move a rigid body from one posi t i on
t o any ot h er by means of a single rot at i on about an appropri at ely cho-
sen axis; w h en one imagines moving a cont i nent al plate from one place
t o anot h er on t h e eart h , t h e posi t i ons w h ere t h e axis i nt ersect t h e eart h ' s
surface are called Euler p oles. Th e cont i nent al reassembly project w as not
an at t empt t o run t i me backw ard and produce a cont i nuous h i st ory of
t h e relat i ve posi t i ons (somet h i ng t h at can be done t oday). It w as si mply
t o fi t t h e edges of t h e cont i nent al shelves t oget h er and t h erefore recon-
st ruct t h e anci ent prot ocont i nent of Gondw ana. Alt h ough Warren Carey
i n Tasmania and ot h ers h ad performed si mi lar reconst ruct i ons w i t h
model globes fi t t ed out w i t h plast i c caps, skept i ci sm remai ned deep
about t h e accuracy of t h e fi t s.
7
Bullard carri ed out a quant i t at i ve fi t usi ng bat h ymet ri c ch art s t o locat e
the cont i nent al shelves, w h ich he regarded as the proper edge of the
cont i nent al crust . Th e ast oni sh i ng mat ch of t h e shelves from opposi ng
sides of th e At lant i c Ocean convi nced most of th e unbeli evers of th e
fi deli t y of the reconst ruct i on. Logically, the validity of the reconst ruct i on
requi red only t h at t h e edges of t h e cont i nent al regi ons sh ould remai n
rigid t h rough out geological t i me and so mai nt ai n t h ei r present -day
sh apes. I n pri nci ple, t h e i nt eri ors w ould be free t o deform, alt h ough i t
i s unli kely anyone act ually t h ough t of such a ph ysi cally i mplausi ble st at e
of affai rs. So i nt erpret at i on of th e very precise fi t s t h at Bullard and h is
co-w orkers demonst rat ed regardi ng t h e land masses i n t h e geological
When Plates Were Paving Stones 195
past w as a t aci t accept ance of the existence of i nt ernally rigid plat es mov-
i ng around on t h e surface of a globe.
Given all these development s, it is h ard to believe in h i ndsi gh t t h at the
fi nal piece of the puzzle w asn' t obvious to everyone in the fi eld. Of course,
th e full geometrical consequences w ere eventually realized by tw o peo-
ple qui t e i ndependent ly, Dan McKenzie (also a st udent at Cambri dge,
and w i t h w h om I shared an offi ce) and Jason Morgan at Pri ncet on.
8
In
the mi nds of most people, I believe, the clear concent rat i on of activity on
the boundari es did not rule out i nt ernal deformat i ons of the large, seis-
mically inactive regions. Th ey t h ough t t h at t h e boundary regions w ere
places w h ere crust w as creat ed at ocean ridges or slid past ot h er crust at
t h e t ransform fault s (t h e nat ure of t h e t rench es w as cont roversi al), but
t h ese w ere not t h e only sites of major crustal deformat i on. I suppose t h e
ment al pi ct ure w as of a generally plastic region, w h ere compression or
sh ear could occur over large areas. But as I remarked earlier, unless the
i nt ernal deformat i ons preserved t h e boundary shapes i n a most unnat -
ural way, t h i s ment al pi ct ure is i ncompat i ble w ith th e very precise
observed mat ch of th e cont i nent al shelves surroundi ng th e At lant i c. Even
a 5 percent deformat i on of t h e plate boundary sh ape would h ave been
very noticeable.
A U T O B I O G R A P HI C A L M A T T E R S
I h ave already ment i oned t h at I h ad graduat ed w ith my Ph .D. i n geo-
physics from the Depart ment of Geodesy and Geophysics in 1966 and in
early 1967 I t ook up a postdoctoral fellow sh i p at IGPP. One of my
research projects was the calculation of electric current s flow ing in the
oceans due to elect romagnet i c i nduct i on caused by th e daily variation
of the earth 's magnetic fi eld. Surprisingly large amplitude signals had
been observed i n t h e t i me series recorded at magnet i c observatories sit-
uated on the coasts, and I believed this effect was due to electric currents
ci rculat i ng in the water. As part of my Ph .D. thesis I had solved the asso-
ciated di fferent i al equations in an extremely simple geometry - a th in
st ri p of conduct or - and Teddy Bullard h ad solved problem for a con-
ducting disk.
9
Now we worked together on the calculation in a more real-
istic model ocean, w i t h t h e know n vari at i ons of dept h and conduct i vi t y
and the proper shapes for the coasts to confi ne the electric current .
10
UCSD's comput er cent er provided a very pow erful comput er at t h e t i me,
a Cont rol Data Corporation (CDC) 3600, but the memory of 36,000
w ords w as too small to h old si mult aneously th e data requi red to defi ne
196 THE PLATE MODEL
all the w orld's oceans at the resolution I needed. So I had to break up
t h e oceans i nt o t h ree major basins: t h e Paci fi c, I ndi an, and At lant i c
Oceans. To mi ni mi ze scale di st ort i ons, I deci ded to represent each
region on i t s ow n i n a map cent ered i n t h e mi ddle of t h e ocean basi n.
For display purposes, and for creat i ng a fi ni t e-di fference grid (t h e lat t i ce
of poi nt s at w h i ch numeri cal values w ere t o be comput ed), I w rot e a pro-
gram for draw i ng maps t o run on t h e CDC 3600.
The program was originally named SUPERMAP, aft er Harold MacMil-
lan, pri me mi ni st er of Great Bri t ai n (1957-1964), know n i n t h e press as
SuperMac. SUPERMAP w as w ri t t en i n Fort ran-63 and recorded on
punch ed cards; t h e database compri sed a pri mi t i ve coast li ne of about
5,000 poi nt s, di gi t i zed by h and by an undergraduat e st udent as part of a
summer job from a large Mercat or project i on map provi ded t o me by
Bill Menard. Even today, most sci ent i st s w ri t e comput er programs for
th emselves i n t h e qui ckest way, w ith little t h ough t for mai nt enance or
general use. I h ave always believed i t i s more effi ci ent i n t h e long run t o
bui ld programs t h at can be used repeat edly and t h at are easily used and
upgraded. These days reusable code is h eralded as some ki nd of new dis-
covery, but i t w as obvious even t h en w h at advantages a more forw ard-
looki ng approach w ould bri ng. So, even t h ough I needed only one ki nd
of map project i on for my elect romagnet i c i nduct i on problem, I made
SUPERMAP a general-purpose program, runni ng under an easily used
command language. Wh en I w as w ri t i ng i t I h ad no i dea, of course, t h at
it w ould be soon pressed i nt o service by eart h sci ent i st s everyw h ere to
perform plat e t ect oni c reconst ruct i ons. In t h ose early days i t s only rival
w as a program w ri t t en by Xavi er Le Pi ch on w h i le h e w as at Lamont ; w ri t -
t en i n t h e t radi t i onal qui ck-and-di rt y mode, i t w as reput ed t o be t h e
source of much frust rat i on. In fact , t h e program SUPERMAP w as much
easier t o use i n 1967 t h an t h e present -day st andard i n t h e eart h sciences,
t h e Generi c Mappi ng Tool program (GMT ).
11
Th us SUPERMAP w as
ready for appli cat i on w h en plat e t ect oni cs came along; all i t needed w as
t h ree or four li nes t o i mplement t h e obli que Mercat or map project i on,
t o generat e one of t h e fi gures i n our Nature paper. Strangely, I h ave been
unable t o locate a si ngle li st i ng or card deck of SUPERMAP. I underst and
t h at part s of t h e code are still active and runni ng i n a few comput ers
around t h e w orld, but not at IGPP.
Wi t h out false modesty, I must make i t clear t h at Dan McKenzi e w as
t h e creat i ve force beh i nd t h e 1967 Nature paper. Dan spent t h e year or
so aft er get t i ng h i s Ph .D. at Cambri dge visiting various places i n t h e
Uni t ed States. He w as at Scripps for t h e summer and fall of 1967; h e w ent
on t o Lamont and Pri ncet on early i n 1968. Dan h ad been t h i nki ng about
When Plates Were Paving Stones 197
th e new, h i gh -quali t y WWSSN seismic data and w h at it could say about
tectonics. At the time most seismologists w ere w orking on getting the
di rect i ons of th e pri nci pal axes of stress from th e seismic signals, but
th ese proved t o be puzzli ngly i nconsi st ent and seemed t o vary qui t e
unsystematically, even in a small regi on. Th e use of eart h quake fi rst
mot i ons pi oneered by Sykes as a diagnostic for t ect oni cs w as a break-
t h rough . An earth quake breaks th e ground along a plane (t h e fault
plane), usually a zone of preexi st i ng w eakness. Th e i ni t i al ground
motion can be traced back to the site of the eart h quake from signals
picked up by on sei smomet ers around t h e w orld, and t h e ori ent at i on of
t h e fault plane (called t h e fault -plane solut i on) can t h en be i nferred.
As I ment i oned earlier, data h ad just become available from a well-
calibrated global seismic net w ork of long-period i nst rument s, the
WWSSN. Suddenly fault-plane solutions were reliable and could be found
for many more eart h quakes t h an before, as small as magni t ude 6 i n size.
Sykes' w ork at Lamont (w h ere Dan h ad been and w as going back t o
i n 1968) convi nced h i m t h at t h e fi rst mot i ons cont ai ned i mport ant
i nformat i on for t ect oni cs - h e st art ed t o look at t h e eart h quake mech a-
nisms in a systematic way, not just at the ocean ridges. Dan quickly real-
i zed t h at i t mi gh t be possible t o t reat t h e i nt eri or aseismic (i .e., seismi-
cally inactive) regions of the earth as rigid bodies. This meant t h at the
regi ons under consi derat i on became so large t h at pi ct ures based on a
flat -eart h model w ere no longer adequat e. Dan w asn' t sure h ow t h e
geomet ry of t h e plane veloci t y vect ors t h at h e w as used t o w ould t rans-
late i nt o a sph eri cal set t i ng. This i s w h ere I came i n: duri ng h i s visit t o
Scripps h e told me about th e problem, and I worked out for th e spher-
ical system h ow t o represent t h e i nst ant aneous velocities t h rough angu-
lar velocity vect ors and h ow those vectors w ere combi ned at th e points
w h ere t h ree plat es meet . Furt h ermore, as I h ave already descri bed, I h ad
on h and my comput er mappi ng program SUPERMAP, w h i ch w e i mme-
diately put t o w ork displaying t h e amazi ngly compelli ng results. It w as
my i dea t o use an obli que Mercat or map project i on, w h i ch made such a
dramatic graphical demonstration in the 1967 Nature paper.
C O MP UT E R S A N D T HE BI RT H O F P L A T E T E C T O N I C S
Nowadays most people will fi nd it h ard to appreciate how limited the
available comput ers w ere at t h e t i me. At IGPP w e h ad access t o t h e Uni -
versity CDC 3600 in the computer center; the computer had a large mag-
net i c core memory (36,000 48-bit w ords), 12 tape drives, a fast card
198 THE PLATE MODEL
reader and li ne pri nt er, and, most i mport ant , a CalComp plot t er for
graph i cal out put . I believe w e enjoyed one of th e best comput er facili-
ties at any i nst i t ut e doi ng research i n eart h sciences. Th e CalComp plot -
t er w as a si mple robust device t h at moved a ball-poi nt pen across t h e
paper i n t h e y di rect i on, w h i le t h e ort h ogonal x mot i on w as provided by
t h e rot at i on of an ei gh t -i nch di amet er alumi num drum; graph s w ere
draw n on long rolls of paper, ten i nch es w ide. I have let t ers from 1968
i n w h i ch Dan complai ned t o me t h at t h e Lamont comput er h ad t oo li t -
t le memory t o run SUPERMAP; lat er at Pri ncet on h e could successfully
run t h e program but t h e comput er h ad no plot t er at t ach ed t o i t , so h e
could not draw t h e result s. T h erefore Dan sent t h e speci fi cat i ons for
numerous t ect oni c cases h e w ant ed t o st udy t o me at IGPP t h rough t h e
mai l; I ran t h em on t h e CDC 3600 and sent t h e maps back.
It may be i nt erest i ng t o look at h ow comput ers h ad been used i n ot h er
part s of the early development of plat e t ect oni cs. Th ere w ere of course
no general-purpose mappi ng programs; t h at i s w h y I w rot e SUPERMAP.
Th e base maps i n t h e publi cat i ons w ere usually t raced labori ously from
atlases by st aff i llust rat ors or graduat e st udent s. Or t h ey w ere si mply h ap-
h azardly sket ch ed - t h i s i s obviously h ow Tuzo Wi lson's maps w ere made
for t h e most part . Wilson made no use of t h e new t ech nology at all; i n
fact h i s fi rst demonst rat i on of t ransform fault s w as w i t h models made of
paper bui lt by Sue Vi ne, Fred Vi ne' s w i fe.
Th e maps publi sh ed by Bullard, Everet t , and Smi t h w ere made by fi rst
comput i ng t h e i nt ersect i on poi nt s of select ed parallels and meri di ans on
t h e plat e aft er rot at i on, and pri nt i ng a li st of t h ese numbers; t h ey w ere
t h en plot t ed by h and ont o large sh eet s of paper and joi ned w i t h curved
li nes t o form an image of t h e di st ort ed lat i t ude-longi t ude gri d.
12
Th en
someone t ransferred t h e present -day coastline and cont i nent al sh elf
edge from a convent i onal map i n a more t radi t i onal project i on ont o t h e
curvi li near grid. No one t h ough t for a moment t h at a comput er plot t er
could do a fi ne enough job t o reach t h e st andards of sci ent i fi c illustra-
tion i n Philosop hic al Transac tions, t h e journal w h ere t h e cont i nent al fi t -
t i ng w ork w as publi sh ed. Th e Royal Society w as (and st i ll i s) very fussy
about di agrams, and w ould i nsi st on h avi ng t h ei r ow n i llust rat ors draw
all t h e let t eri ng and numerals on t h e di agrams. I n cont rast , t h e normal
CalComp plot t er product w as draw n w i t h a ball-point pen, and t h e one-
h undredt h -of-an-i nch resolut i on of t h e st epper mot or t h at drove t h e
drum left easily visible staircases i n li nes draw n diagonally. But t h e con-
t i nent al fi t of Bullard' s paper depended on some h eavy comput i ng t o
mi ni mi ze t h e mi sfi t bet w een t h e segments of t h e boundari es. In fact , i t
w as t h e very "ari t h met i cal" nat ure of t h e fi t t h at Teddy t h ough t mi gh t
When Plates Were Paving Stones 199
convince doubt ers, w ho saw, probably correctly, too much exercise of
art i st i c li cense i n t h e sket ch es and model cont i nent s t h at h ad been
offered earli er as proof.
Somew hat surpri si ngly perh aps, th e earli est analysis of th e magnet i c
st ri pes due t o sea floor spreadi ng depended solidly on t h e comput er
models of crustal magnet i zat i on, generat ed by a program i n aut ocode
w ri t t en by Fred Vi ne; like t h e cont i nent al-sh elf fi t t i ng programs, i t w as
run on t h e Cambri dge EDSAC II comput er i n t h e Mat h emat i cs Labora-
tory. Comput er code based on the very same equat i ons is still in use today
i n t h e analysis of mari ne magnet i c signals, w h i ch have been recorded i n
every ocean.
On t h e ot h er h and, I don' t know h ow much , i f at all, of t h e seismic
analysis of eart h quake mech ani sms w as comput er-ai ded. I suspect none
of i t : t h e seismic traces w ere recorded on ph ot ograph i c fi lm ch i ps and
t i mes of arri val of the seismic waves w ere est i mat ed by eye. The di rect i on
of t h e eart h quake' s fi rst mot i on at t h e source w as plot t ed on a stereo-
graph i c or equal-area grid mappi ng t h e focal h emi sph ere, an i magi nary
h emi sph ere cent ered on t h e eart h quake; a mast er net w as draw n accu-
rately once and t h en copied endlessly. However, I was not closely
involved w i t h th e process so I cannot be sure w h en th ese tedious proce-
dures and t h e fi ndi ng of t h e fault planes w ere aut omat ed.
C O N C L UDI N G R E MA R K S
Dan McKenzi e and I w ere bot h undergraduat es i n physics at Cambridge
University. We were the graduate students of anot h er physicist, Teddy
Bullard, w h o w as h i mself a st udent of Ernest R ut h erford. Among physi-
cists at least , t h e prevai li ng ph i losoph y at t h e t i me w as t h at t h e touch -
st one of a good t h eory w as t h at it sh ould make testable predi ct i ons. Sci-
ences t h at merely made observations and organized t h em were, in
R ut h erford' s unki nd w ords, "stamp collecting." To us th e abi li t y to make
quant i t at i ve predi ct i ons capable of veri fi cat i on, or of falsi fi cat i on, was
w h at made plat e t ect oni cs and t h e paving-stone model so appealing: one
could use the i nformat i on about the direction and magnitudes of the
relative mot i ons obt ai ned on t h e boundari es bet w een plates A and B and
bet w een plat es B and C t o predi ct w h at w ould be h appeni ng along t h e
A-C boundary, bot h qualitatively in t erms of t ect oni c processes and
quantitatively in terms of rates and directions of motion. We realized
ri gh t from t h e st art t h at t h e predi ct i ve pow er w as rest ri ct ed t o present -
day mot i ons, and t h at once one at t empt ed t o ext end i nst ant aneous
200 THE PLATE MO D E L
veloci t i es of t oday back i nt o t h e geologi cal past , ot h er fact ors cont rolled
t h e evolut i on of t h e boundary sh apes. I ni t i ally w e h oped some general
pri nci ple mi gh t be di scovered governi ng t h ese fact ors, but t h at goal h as
proved elusive; t h ere appears t o be no alt ernat i ve t o a pai nst aki ng empi r-
ical analysis of t h e geological record. Nonet h eless, plat e t ect oni cs suc-
ceeded i n provi di ng t h e framew ork for maki ng sense of t h e large-scale
processes governi ng t h e development of t h e eart h ' s crust .
Subsequent ly, I di d not make t h e furt h er development of paving-
st one t h eory a major part of my sci ent i fi c career. I di d some mi nor w ork
on ki nemat i cs of plat es; I h elped my Scripps colleagues deli neat e t h e
fi ne det ai ls of t h e mari ne magnet i c anomali es usi ng t h ei r near-bot t om
magnet omet er system.
13
Perh aps my only ot h er i mport ant cont ri but i on
w as as co-aut h or on t h e fi rst paper expli ci t ly st at i ng t h e square-root age
rule for sea floor dept h s.
14
I w as caugh t up i n anot h er revolut i on i n t h e
eart h sci ences goi ng on at about t h e same t i me: t h e creat i on of geo-
ph ysi cal i nverse th eory. In addi t i on t o t h e pi oneers of plat e t ect oni cs, t h e
t w o founders of modern i nverse t h eory, George Backus and Freeman
Gi lbert , w ere also sabbat i cal visitors i n Cambri dge duri ng t h e 1960s. I
w as ext remely fort unat e t o get t o know t h em personally, and t o become
t h ei r colleague i n due course. I nverse t h eory i s t h e set of mat h emat i cal
met h ods t h at allows one t o draw sound conclusi ons from a ph ysi cal
model i n t h e face of severely i ncomplet e and i naccurat e measurement s
- a common si t uat i on i n eart h sciences.
15
Here w as a subject i n w h i ch I
could i ndulge my personal fasci nat i on w i t h abst ract mat h emat i cs t o a
much great er ext ent t h an i n plat e t ect oni cs. It w as clear i n 1967 t h at an
enormous amount of w ork lay ah ead t o confi rm t h e model of plat e tec-
t oni cs, w ork t h at w ould i nvolve t h e synt h esi s of great quant i t i es of geo-
logical and geoph ysi cal i nformat i on. I knew my t alent s lay i n anot h er
di rect i on.
Th e t erm p aving-stone theory appears si x t i mes i n t h e fi rst Nature paper,
once i n t h e abst ract (w h i ch t h e Nature edi t ors w rot e). Everyw h ere else
(21 t i mes) w e refer t o t h e i nact i ve i nt eri or regi ons as "plates" i n a com-
plet ely modern and fami li ar way. I am not sure w h o fi rst used t h e t erm
p late, but i n any case our name for t h e new t ect oni c syst em, p aving-stone
theory, di d not recei ve popular favor. But even i f t h e met aph or of t h e
pavi ng st one fai led t o cat ch on, t h e concept i t descri bed h as proved t o
be much more durable.
C HA P T E R 13
MY C O N VE RS IO N T O PLAT E T E C T O N IC S
Xavier Le Pichon
1 HAPPENED TO BE WORKING AT THE LAMONT GEOLOGICAL LABORA-
t ory (now Lamont -D oh ert y E art h Observat ory) of Columbi a Uni versi t y
i n New York w h i le t h e plat e t ect oni c model w as elaborat ed, fi rst from
S ept ember 1959 to Sept ember 1960, before my mi li t ary service, and t h en
from February 1963 t o February 1968. Here, I present my views on t h e
plat e t ect oni c concept i on from t h e perspect i ve of someone w h o w as at
t h e key act i ng laborat ori es. Th is t est i mony does not pret end t o be an
exh aust i ve and i mpart i al h i st ory of t h e elaborat i on of t h e plat e t ect oni c
concept . I make ext ensi ve use of earli er papers t h at I h ave publi sh ed on
t h e subject .
1
Finally, I bri efly place t h ese views w i t h i n t h e cont ext of t h e
evolut i on of plat e t ect oni cs from an ocean-based model i n t h e 1970s t o
a space-based one today.
LAMONT: Fl XISTS VERSUS MOBILISTS
Th e revolut i on of i deas t h at led to plat e t ect oni cs, from 1955 to 1968,
w as great ly i nfluenced by t h e cont i nuous i nt eract i on among scientists of
t h ree laborat ori es, Lamont and Pri ncet on Uni versi t y i n t h e Uni t ed
St at es, and Cambri dge Uni versi t y i n E ngland. Each of th ese laborat ori es
w as domi nat ed by a st rong personali t y: Mauri ce Ew i ng at Lamont , H arry
Hess at Pri ncet on, and Edw ard ("Teddy") Bullard at Cambri dge.
Alt h ough of qui t e di fferent ori gi ns and i nt ellect ual capaci t i es, t h ey h ad
i n common a deep i nt erest i n t h e geology of t h e oceans. It w as Ri ch ard
Fi eld, a professor at Pri ncet on, w h o generat ed t h i s i nt erest i n Ew i ng,
Hess, and Bullard duri ng t h e 1930s.
Maurice Ew ing i nh eri t ed from Field a burni ng zeal for t h e explo-
rat i on of t h e oceans. Wi t h h i m, mari ne geology ent ered a new era. From
201
202 THE PLATE MO D E L
Xavi er Le Jfi ch on, on t h e Vema, m l966 or 1967. (Ph ot o court esy of Xavier
Le Pi ch on.)
t h e scat t ered approach based on di scont i nuous poi nt measurement s,
Ew i ng moved t o a global approach based on cont i nuous measurement s.
He w as t h e fi rst t o deli berat ely i nst all h i mself w i t h i n t h e oceani c w orld,
i nvent i ng ad h oc t h e tools h e needed t o obt ai n t h e maxi mum amount
of new data on every ki nd of subject . Alt h ough he was a th eoretician by
t rai ni ng, h e w as not comfort able w i t h speculat i on. He made a reli gi on
of dat a.
My Conversion to Plate Tec tonic s 203
Wh en I arri ved at Lamont i n 1959, w i t h a Fulbri gh t Fellow sh ip t o
st udy oceanograph y, "Doc," as Ew i ng w as know n by h i s st udent s, sent me
around t h e w orld on h i s t h ree-mast ed sch ooner, t h e research vessel
VEMA. "Oceanograph y h as t o be learned at sea," h e t old me. Hi s deep
i nt erest i n t h e explorat i on of vi rgi n t erri t ori es probably came from h i s
nort h ern Texas ori gi ns. He loved t o be w h ere nobody else was. Wh en I
t old h i m i n 1968 t h at I h ad deci ded t o go back t o France, h e asked me
h ow I could ret urn t o such an old count ry. "If I h ad t o st art a new li fe
today, I w ould go t o Aust rali a." Act ually, w h en h e di d move, h e w ent back
h ome to Texas. But , if Texas w as always close to h is h eart , th e ocean
remai ned t o t h e end h i s real Wild West. I believe t h at ri gh t up t o t h e t i me
of h i s deat h i n 1974, h e still di d not accept t h at plat e t ect oni cs h ad suc-
ceeded in reveali ng th e secret s of "his" ocean. In 1970, h e confi ded to
me t h at each t i me h i s sh i p came back, h e w as w ai t i ng for t h e new evi-
dence t h at w ould sh ow t h at t h e w h ole plat e t ect oni c model w as w rong:
t h e ocean could not be t h at si mple.
Th e big t h i ng at Lamont in 1959 w as th e discovery of th e ri ft valley
t h at runs along t h e crest s of mi d-ocean ridges. E art h quakes and volcani c
erupt i ons ch aract eri ze t h e w h ole lengt h of t h e ri ft . VEMA crui se 16, i n
w h i ch I w as goi ng t o part i ci pat e, w as supposed t o test t h e cont i nui t y of
t h e ri ft valley from t h e At lant i c Ocean t o t h e I ndi an Ocean. Ew i ng and
Bruce Heezen (one of h i s collaborat ors w h o lat er acqui red w orldw i de
fame t h rough t h e ph ysi ograph i c di agrams of t h e oceans h e made w i t h
h i s associ at e Mari e T h arp) h ad predi ct ed i n 1956 t h e cont i nui t y of t h e
ri ft valley t h rough t h e oceans along t h e mi d-ocean sei smi c belt .
2
Th i s
sei smi c belt h ad been descri bed i n 1954 by a French man from Stras-
bourg, Jean-Pi erre Rot h e.
3
We w ere going t o zi gzag for ni ne mont h s
above t h i s famous sei smi c li ne t o test t h e predi ct i on. As i t w as est i mat ed
t o be 37,500 mi les (60,000 ki lomet ers) long, t h e almost unknow n ri ft val-
ley suddenly became t h e most i mport ant st ruct ure on E art h . I t became
clear t h en t h at no model of t h e evolut i on of t h e eart h t h at i gnored t h e
ri ft could be consi dered vali d.
Th i s fundament al di scovery made by t h e Ew i ng t eam h ad follow ed
anot h er, of si mi lar magni t ude, made in 1955 by Ew i ng and Frank Press
at Lamont .
4
Seismological observations had actually established w h at
h ad been i nferred from gravity measurement s by geophysicists: t h e
upli ft of t h e crust -mant le i nt erface (called t h e Moh o aft er Yugoslav seis-
mologi st , Moh orovi ci c) to a dept h of about 3 to 6 mi les (5 to 10 kilo-
met ers) under t h e ocean floor. Under t h e cont i nent s, t h e Moh o lies at
a dept h of about 20 mi les (30 ki lomet ers). Th e oceani c crust is on aver-
age four t i mes less t h i ck t h an cont i nent al crust , and t h e great di fference
204 THE PLATE MO D E L
bet w een t h e cont i nent s and oceans pleaded for separat e ori gi ns and dis-
t i nct evolut i ons. Up t o t h at t i me, most seismologists argued on t h e basis
of the di fference of propagat i on of surface seismic waves across the
Paci fi c and t h e At lant i c t h at t h e Pacific Ocean w as t h e only t rue ocean,
w h ereas t h e At lant i c Ocean h ad an i nt ermedi at e-t ype crust . Ew i ng and
Press' discovery of a sh allow Moh o under t h e At lant i c eli mi nat ed t h e
concept of an i nt ermedi at e-t ype crust t h ere. It also laid to rest th e pos-
si bi li t y t h at t h e mi d-At lant i c ridge consi st ed of remnant s of cont i nent al
crust . From t h en on, t h e w h ole debat e about t h e dynami cs of t h e eart h
w ould be concerned, fi rst , w i t h t h e si gni fi cance of t h i s radi cal di fference
of st ruct ure bet w een oceans and cont i nent s and, second, w i t h t h e sig-
ni fi cance, w i t h i n t h e oceans, of t h e ri ft valley.
At Lamont , tw o sch ools of t h ough t prevai led. To Heezen, t h en a
young geologist w h o h ad just fi ni sh ed h i s th esis under Ew ing's di rect i on
on t h e morph ology of t h e nort h ern At lant i c Ocean, everyt h i ng could be
si mply explai ned if one accept ed th e i dea of rapi d E art h expansi on. War-
ren Carey of the Uni versi t y of Tasmania, at a symposium t h ere in 1956,
argued t h at oceans w ere geologically recent st ruct ures formed by expan-
sion from t h e ri ft .
5
This w as sea floor spreadi ng w i t h out subduct i on.
Heezen w as consequent ly consi dered a mobi li st . Mobilists w ere ei t h er
expansionists, follow ers of Carey, or dri ft ers, followers of Alfred Wegener.
But Mauri ce Ew i ng t h ough t t h at t h e idea of such a fast expansi on (a 75
percent i ncrease i n t h e eart h ' s radi us i n 100 mi lli on years) w as ph ysically
absurd. He remai ned a fi xi st ; h e preferred t o explai n t h e t ect oni c activ-
i t y of t h e ri ft by deep convect i on current s t h at di d not reach t h e surface
but w ere t h e cause of ext ensi on and volcani sm, w i t h out w h olesale
movement of t h e crust .
For Ew i ng, such speculat i ons w ere premat ure. Wh at di d t h ey bri ng t o
sci ence? New fact s w ere w i t h i n reach of our dredges, corers, cameras,
and magnetometers. With his younger brother, Joh n, he w as i nvent i ng
mari ne seismic reflect i on, a t ech ni que t h at w ould cont i nuously record
t h e t h i ckness of t h e sedi ment ary layers. Th is t ech ni que w as soon t o
reveal t h e very t h i n ocean sedi ment cover, and i t s total absence near t h e
ri ft . But Ew i ng could not st op Heezen from developi ng h i s i deas, and
ult i mat ely, confli ct bet w een t h e t w o men could not be avoided. Ew i ng
could not accept t h at one of h i s scientists w ould act i n a complet ely i nde-
pendent way, w i t h out any cont rol of t h e di rect or of t h e laborat ory. In
1967, i t w ould lead t o an open and pai nful spli t .
Duri ng this whole time, th e Lament team w as far from monolith ic,
cont rary t o w h at h as oft en been stated si nce. Th ere w ere t w o sch ools.
One, w h i ch w as more geologically i ncli ned and i ncluded t h e st udent s of
My Conversion to Plate Tec tonic s 205
H eezen, w as mobi li st and expansi oni st . Th e ot h er, w h i ch w as more geo-
ph ysically i ncli ned, and t o w h ich I belonged, w as fi xi st and believed i n
long-st andi ng ocean-cont i nent di st ri but i on. Alt h ough Lamont fact i on
leaders could h ardly w ork w i t h each ot h er, t h e younger sci ent i st s h ad
many vivid exch anges, especially w h en t h ey w ere at sea. Th e debat e w as
open and always stayed open.
P R I N C E T O N A N D T HE S E A FL O O R S P R E A D I N G HYP O T HE S I S
Walt er Sulli van, t h e sci ence ch roni cler of t h e New York Times, w rot e t h at
on March 26, 1957, Heezen present ed at Pri ncet on Uni versi t y a semi nar
about th e new ly discovered ri ft .
6
Harry Hess, ch ai rman of th e uni versi t y' s
Geology D epart ment , stood up t o comment . He said i n essence: 'You
h ave sh aken t h e foundat i ons of geology."
7
It i s clear t h at t h i s curi ous and
open-mi nded man, w h o w as always ready t o reconsi der h i s ow n h ypot h e-
ses (w h i ch h e apparent ly di d not w ant t o t ake t oo seri ously), absorbed a
great deal i n t h i s semi nar. Hess, t h rough a rat h er complex ch ai n of rea-
soni ng, h ad become convi nced t h at t h e oceani c crust i s not ch emi cally
di fferent i at ed from t h e mant le, but consists of serpent i ni t e, formed
from partially hydrated peridotite. In this way, the mantle would crop
out on t h e ocean floor. Hess h ad also become convi nced, follow i ng t h e
D ut ch geoph ysi ci st Veni ng Mei nesz, w i t h w h om h e h ad w orked on grav-
i t y measurement s i n t h e 1930s, t h at ocean t rench es w ere convergence
zones w h ere t h e floor of t h e oceans buckles under t h e adjacent conti-
nent s. Combi ni ng t h ese h ypot h eses w i t h t h e ri ft expansi on concept ,
Hess revived the i dea of convect i on current s as the dri vi ng force of con-
t i nent al dri ft , as proposed by Bri t i sh geologist Art h ur Holmes i n t h e
1920s.
8
Hess' conveyor belt w as movi ng ri gh t up t o t h e sea floor: t h e
upper mant le rose along t h e ri ft w h ere i t became h ydrat ed and moved
undeformed from t h e ri ft t o t h e t rench es, only t o plunge back i nt o t h e
deep eart h .
Th is h ypot h esi s takes i nt o account t h e radi cal di fference i n st ruct ure
bet w een oceani c and cont i nent al crust s. I t at t ri but es t h e small t h i ckness
of oceanic sediments to the yout h of the oceanic basins. The volcanic
and ext ensi onal t ect oni c act i vi t y at t h e ri ft i s explai ned by t h e di vergence
of th e tw o conveyor belt s - one movi ng east, one movi ng w est . Hess'
model w as basi cally correct , yet i t w as ori gi nally based on one false
h ypot h esi s: w e now know t h at t h e oceani c crust consi st s pri nci pally of
basalt and not serpent i ne. Th e mant le i s no more exposed on t h e ocean
floor t h an i t i s anyw h ere else on E art h .
206 THE PLATE MO D E L
Hess' model w as w i dely ci rculat ed as a cont ract report i n 1960 and
1961, i n many places, i ncludi ng at Lamont , alt h ough i t w as not pub-
li sh ed unt i l 1962. In bet w een, Robert Di et z proposed i t s now famous
t rade name of sea f loor sp reading.
9
Hess, w i t h h i s usual open-mi ndedness,
present ed h i s ideas as a w orki ng h ypot h esi s t h at sh ould not be t aken t oo
seriously, as "an essay in geopoetry."
10
His caution may also have been at
least part ly due t o t h e aggressiveness of t h e fi xi st sch ool i n t h e Uni t ed
States. Most of t h e seni or geophysicists w ould t h en sh oot at si gh t t h e few
mobi li st s t ryi ng t o present t h ei r ideas at t h e Ameri can Geoph ysical
Uni on (AGU) meet i ngs. Si x years and one det our t h rough Cambri dge
w ould be necessary t o est abli sh sea floor spreadi ng as t h e prevai li ng
model at Lamont as w ell as in th e rest of th e Uni t ed States.
C A M B R I D G E A N D T HE "VI N E A N D MA T T HE WS " T E S T
Paleomagnetism provided the decisive test. This test was proposed inde-
pendent ly i n 1963, i n Canada by Law rence Morley, and at Cambri dge by
Fred Vi ne. Bot h h ad good know ledge of t h e magnet i zat i on of rocks.
Morley h ad st udi ed paleomagnet i sm, and Vi ne h ad w orked w i t h paleo-
magnet i ci st s. At Cambri dge, Edw ard ("Teddy") Bullard w as w ell know n
for h i s i nt erest i n t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld and for paleomagnet i c inves-
t i gat i ons. Th e poi nt w as cruci al because, i n cont rast , t h ere w as no such
t radi t i on and li t t le i nt erest i n t h i s domai n at ei t h er Pri ncet on or La-
mont . Th e only person i nt erest ed i n paleomagnet i cs i n Lamont w as Nei l
Opdyke, a young post-doc w h o h ad been h i red by Ew i ng i n 1964 t o w ork
on t h e magnet ost rat i graph y of t h e core samples. Opdyke h as oft en
stated h ow isolated h e felt duri ng h is fi rst years at Lamont.
11
Yet by t h i s t i me, paleomagnet i ci st s no longer doubt ed t h e exi st ence
of reversals of polari t y of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld.
12
For Morley and
Vi ne, i f t h ere w as sea floor spreadi ng, t h e lavas t h at flow on t h e floor of
t h e ri ft valley must be magnet i zed i n t h e cont emporaneous magnet i c
fi eld, w h i ch i s alt ernat ely "positive" and "negat i ve." Lavas erupt i ng on
t h e sea floor t oday w ould acqui re a magnet i c polari t y consi st ent w i t h t h e
eart h ' s present magnet i c fi eld; at ot h er t i mes, i n t h e past , w h en t h e fi eld
w as reversed, th e polari t y of th e lava flow w ould go th e ot h er way. Th e
floor of t h e oceans must t h en consi st of magnet i zed st ri pes parallel t o
t h e ri ft and h avi ng alt ernat e polari t i es. Morley w ent furt h er t h an Vi ne,
as he rightly concluded t h at the resulting magnetic anomalies should be
symmet ri c w i t h respect t o t h e ri ft . One sh ould t h erefore be able t o use
t h em t o measure t h e rat e of sea floor spreadi ng.
My Conversion to Plate Tec tonic s 207
T h ere w as at t h e t i me no exi st i ng survey of t h e magnet i c pat t erns sur-
roundi ng a properly i dent i fi ed ocean ri dge crest . I n t h e Nort h At lant i c
Ocean, w h ere t h e Lamont t eams h ad most ly w orked, and i n t h e nort h -
ern I ndi an Ocean, w h ere Cambri dge' s Fred Vi ne and h i s i nst ruct or,
D rummond Mat t h ew s, w orked, t h e magnet i c pat t erns w ere h i gh ly i rreg-
ular. Nice li near pat t erns had been mapped by two Scripps Institution of
O ceanograph y geoph ysi ci st s, Art h ur Raff and Ronald Mason, duri ng a
magnet i c survey t h at w as st art ed i n 1956 off t h e U.S. w est coast, but no
ri ft w as know n t h ere.
13
Vi ne' s paper (publi sh ed w i t h Mat t h ew s as a co-
aut h or i n Nature in 1963), as w ell as Morley's paper (reject ed by Nature
and t h e Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h i n 1963, probably i n good part
because i t cont ai ned no new dat a) w ere complet ely i gnored.
14
I remem-
ber t h at Charles Drake at Lamont called my at t ent i on to Vine and
Mat t h ew s' paper but , t o my know ledge, t h e paper w as not seriously
debat ed among us. As stated by Vi ne, w h en t h e sea floor spreadi ng mag-
net i c anomaly concept w as proposed, few act ual observat i ons support ed
i t and, i n a way, t h i s concept creat ed more problems t h an i t solved. Th e
absence of support i ng observations at t h e t i me i s demonst rat ed by t h e
fact t h at nei t h er Vi ne, nor Mat t h ew s, nor Morley, nor anybody else con-
sidered any follow-up to these tw o papers duri ng the follow ing tw o years.
Once more, i t w as Harry Hess w h o w as t o open a new pass. I sh all not
descri be i n any detail t h i s det our t h rough Cambri dge, on w h i ch I h ave
no di rect i nformat i on and w h i ch i s described elsew h ere i n t h i s book.
15
But one sh ould not e t h at Hess h ad already played a major role i n t h e
elaborat i on of Vi ne' s ideas w h en h e present ed h i s ow n ideas at a most
remarkable Bri t i sh i nst i t ut i onal meet i ng, t h e annual i nt eruni versi t y
Geological Congress organized by the undergraduat e students, in Janu-
ary 1962. In January 1965, Hess came back to Cambri dge for a sabbati-
cal w i t h Tuzo Wi lson, a Canadi an geoph ysicist gi ft ed w i t h a st unni ng
vi t ali t y and ext raordi nary i nt ui t i on. Wi lson h ad been convert ed i n 1963
t o sea floor spreadi ng, t o w h i ch h e h ad i mmedi at ely proposed a corol-
lary, t h e "h ot spots" h ypot h esi s. Th e i dea came t o h i m w h i le flyi ng over
t h e Haw ai i an i slands: t h e Haw ai i an islands w ould h ave been formed by
a deep mant le h ot spot act i ng as a t orch on th e overlying dri ft i ng ocean
floor. As t h e ocean floor dri ft ed over t h e h ot spot , a ch ai n of volcani c
i slands w ould be creat ed.
Th e association of Hess, Wi lson, and Vi ne w as a prodi gi ous one, and
w h en t h e Tuzo Wilson "h urri cane" h ad di ssi pat ed, t h e essent i al not i ons
of plat es, plat e boundari es, and t ransform fault s (w h en t w o adjunct
plat es slip as t h ey move agai nst each ot h er at a ri dge crest ) w ere estab-
lished.
16
St art i ng from Hess' ideas and an i nt ui t i on of Vi ne on t h e
208 THE PLATE MO D E L
Atlantic equatorial fault s, Wilson established the rules of plane plate tec-
tonics.
17
T h en, on t h eoret i cal bases and follow i ng again a suggest i on by
Hess, Wilson i dent i fi ed t h e Juan de Fuca Rise, i n t h e Paci fi c Ocean w est
of Canada, and h ad Vi ne i dent i fy t h e magnet i c anomali es and t h e sea
floor spreadi ng rat e. Th e symmet ry of t h e anomali es w as rat h er good,
despite t h e modest rat e of sea floor spreadi ng, but t h e modeled rela-
t i onsh i p of t h e anomali es t o t h e ch ronology of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld
reversals was rat h er poor. This was not surprising, for it was later recog-
ni zed t h at t h e ch ronology available at t h e t i me w as i ncorrect . Yet , t h e
t i me h ad come t o t est t h e predi ct i ons.
I t i s somew h at surpri si ng t h at Bullard seems t o h ave made no cont ri -
but i on t o t h i s epi sode, for i n t h e precedi ng year h e h ad present ed a
paper at t h e Cont i nent al Dri ft Symposium i n London i n w h i ch h e
appli ed for t h e fi rst t i me t h e rules of mot i on for ri gi d sph eri cal caps on
a sph ere to the reconstruction of cont i nent s before the openi ng of the
At lant i c Ocean.
18
Before t h e Second World War, t h e French sci ent i st
Boris Ch oubert h ad made t h e fi rst fi t of t h e cont i nent s preci sely along
t h ei r cont i nent al margi ns. Lat er, Carey, w h ose w ork i nfluenced Bruce
Heezen, h ad t ri ed t o demonst rat e t h at such a fi t requi red usi ng a globe
w i t h a smaller radi us.
19
Th is symposi um h ad clearly revealed t h e di ffer-
ence bet w een t h e Bri t i sh sci ent i st s, w h o w ere now almost all mobi li st s
(essentially because of th e recent paleomagnetic result s), and th e Amer-
i can sci ent i st s, w h o w ere still mai nly on t h e fi xi st side.
20
R E T UR N T O L A MO N T : T E S T I N G T I ME
Wh at w ere w e doi ng at Lament duri ng t h i s t i me? We w ere explori ng t h e
world ocean, from ri ft t o t rench , from t h e At lant i c t o t h e Paci fi c t h rough
t h e I ndi an Ocean. Ew i ng kept t w o sh i ps at sea permanent ly. He believed
t h at t h e eart h could not be underst ood unless i t w as st udi ed globally,
usi ng every sci ent i fi c di sci pli ne. He w as const ant ly looki ng for new tech -
nologies w h i ch , more oft en t h an not , w ere i nt roduced for t h e fi rst t i me
as a st andard tool i n t h e ocean by Lament t eams: underw at er ph ot ogra-
phy, seismic refract i on, cont i nuous magnet i c and gravity recordi ng, con-
t i nuous seismic reflect i on, h eat flow apparat us on piston corers, neph -
elomet er (an i nst rument for measuri ng part i cles suspended i n seaw at er),
satellite navi gat i on, and more. Mani k Talw ani, a Lament gravity special-
ist, h ad organi zed an ent i rely comput eri zed data reduct i on and st ori ng
system, and Lamont w as t h e only laborat ory w i t h a complet e set of dat a
on t h e w orld ocean t h at could be rapi dly and easily ret ri eved. Furt h er-
My Conversion to Plate Tec tonic s 209
more, t h e Seismology D epart ment , under t h e leadersh i p of Jack Oliver,
used th e global sei smograph i c net w ork installed in 1962 by th e Uni t ed
States to i ni t i at e a systematic st udy of global seismology.
21
No ot h er labo-
rat ory h ad si mi lar pot ent i al t o test Hess' h ypoth esis, and t h e aut ocrat i c
direction of Maurice Ewing imposed a multidisciplinary approach to the
st udy of th e oceans t h at w as probably unequaled elsew h ere.
Wh en I came back from military service in 1963, Joh n Ewing, a mari ne
seismologist and t h e younger brot h er of Mauri ce, asked me t o i nt erpret
seismic refract i on data obtained prior to 1959. These data had not yet
been publi sh ed because no one knew h ow t o i nt erpret t h em. It w as
know n t h at t h e mi d-At lant i c ri dge w as i n isostatic equi li bri um: i t s eleva-
t i on h ad t o be compensat ed by a t h i ckeni ng of li gh t mat eri al beneat h i t .
One could expect t h at t h e crust , w h i ch i s li gh t er, w ould t h i cken over t h e
h eavi er mant le. But t h i s i s not so. Th e base of t h e crust , t h e Moh o, rises
as much as th e sea floor. Was Arch i medes' pri nci ple bei ng violated? Th is
w as th e begi nni ng of a st udy of th e st ruct ure of th e mi d-At lant i c ri dge
t h at I di d for my Ph .D. th esis i n collaborat i on w i t h several ot h er scien-
tists over t h e next t h ree years. Once w e recogni zed t h at t h e sei smi c
refract i on data w ere correct , w e concluded w i t h Mani k Talw ani i n 1964
t h at t h e isostatic compensat i on result ed from a modi fi cat i on of t h e man-
t le i mmedi at ely below t h e crust , w h i ch h ad t o be much li gh t er t h an
usual, w h ich meant t h at it w as probably significantly h otter.
22
We began a st udy of t h e magnet i c anomali es bei ng analyzed by Ji m
Heirtzler, who was in charge of the Magnetic Depart ment at Lamont .
23
At t h e ri dge axis, and t h e zone i mmedi at ely surroundi ng i t , w e found
large linear magnetic anomalies: zones of i nt ense magnetization caused
by volcani c i nt rusi on of rocks t h at w ere ei t h er h i gh ly magnet i c or h i gh ly
suscept i ble t o i nduced magnet i zat i on by t h e prevai li ng Eart h fi eld. On
t h e ot h er h and, t h e anomali es on t h e flanks of t h e ri dge w ere qui t e di f-
ferent . Th ey w ere larger but less i nt ense. Th i s proved t h at t h e flank
anomali es could not be di splaced axial anomali es moved lat erally by t h e
sea floor spreadi ng. Our comput at i ons show ed t h at t h e deepeni ng of t h e
sea floor w as not suffi ci ent t o explai n t h i s di fference. O nly much lat er
w as i t demonst rat ed t h at t h ese di fferences i n w avelengt h and ampli t ude
result ed from large vari at i ons i n t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld and from
ch anges i n t h e magnet i zat i on of t h e rocks.
Th e st udy of th e di st ri but i on of th e sedi ment s on th e ri dge, w h i ch I
made w i t h t h e t w o Ew i ng brot h ers, revealed large lat i t udi nal vari at i ons
and a remarkable contrast betw een th e ridge, w h i ch h ad no significant
cover, and t h e basins, w h i ch w ere fi lled w i t h a t h i ck and undi st urbed sed-
i ment cover.
24
This w as a ph enomenon qui t e di fferent from t h e regular
210 THE PLATE MODEL
t h i ckeni ng proport i onal to the age of the sea floor, as predicted by Hess.
We t h ough t t h at t h ese anomali es w ere not compat i ble w i t h t h e i dea of
st eady sea floor spreadi ng.
25
But t h e major st umbli ng block for us w as t h e presence of undeformed
sedi ment ary fi lli ng i n some oceani c t rench es w h ere Hess h ad proposed
t h at oceanic crust w as bei ng undert h rust . The si nki ng of the conveyor
belt below t h e cont i nent sh ould h ave accumulat ed deformed w at er-
sat urat ed oozes and muds w i t h i n t h e t rench es. Yet t h e only t ect oni c evi-
dence w as t h e presence on t h e oceani c side of t h e t rench es of fault s t h at
w ere obviously due t o di st ensi on and not t o compressi on.
26
In late 1964 or early 1965 I not i ced, at about the same t i me as, but
i ndependent ly from Tuzo Wilson and Fred Vi ne, t h e remarkable simi-
lari t y of t h e magnet i c anomali es above w h at i s now know n as t h e Juan de
Fuca Ridge, off w est ern Nort h Ameri ca, w ith t h e anomali es above t h e
Reykjanes Ri dge, sout h of I celand. I poi nt ed i t out t o Mani k Talw ani and
Jim Hei rt zler. It w as obvious t h at a port i on of active mi d-ocean ri dge crest
w as present t o t h e nort h of Mendoci no off w est ern Nort h Ameri ca. But
h ow could one explai n t h e remarkable si mi lari t y i n t h e magnet i c anom-
aly pat t ern over any port i on of mid-ocean ridge crest , in bot h th e
At lant i c and t h e Paci fi c? Aft er consi derable debat e, w e consi dered t h at
t oo many observat i ons remai ned unexplai ned by t h e sea floor spreadi ng
model, and our conclusi ons w ere publi sh ed i n Sc ienc e w i t h a fi xi st i nt er-
pret at i on.
27
Th i s appeared i n 1966. How ever, one of us i n t h e Lamont
mari ne geophysics group, Walter Pi t man, clearly expressed h i s dissent
w i t h our conclusi ons at t h e t i me. He t old me t h en: 'You are goi ng t oo
far; I w ould be afrai d t o publi sh such conclusi ons." Walt er w as t h e fi rst
of us t o h ave ent ered t h i s gray domai n w h ere w e knew our previ ous fi x-
i st i deas w ere not ri gh t , but w ere not yet sure t h at sea floor spreadi ng
could w ork.
Th e most i llumi nat i ng example of our di lemmas at t h e t i me i s t h e
i nt erpret at i on of t h e oceani c pat t ern of di st ri but i on of h eat flow . Wi t h
Lament ' s h eat flow speci ali st , Marcus Langset h , i n 1965, w e w ere t ryi ng
t o analyze and i nt erpret t h e numerous h eat flow measurement s h e h ad
made i n t h e At lant i c. In part i cular, I made t h e fi rst numeri cal comput a-
t i ons of t h e h eat flow pat t ern t h at sh ould be produced by Hess' sea floor
spreadi ng model. Wh i le t h e overall pat t ern of h eat flow di st ri but i on w as
consi st ent w i t h Hess' model, quant i t at i vely, t h e di sagreement w as obvi-
ous. Th e comput ed h eat flow w as t h ree t i mes larger t h an t h e measured
one. In contrast, deeper convection current s, those t h at could not reach
t h e sea floor (as proposed by E w i ng), w ould produce a h eat flow pat t ern
i n good agreement w i t h t h e measurement s. I w as convi nced t h en t h at
My Conversion to Plate Tec tonic s 211
w e h ad obt ai ned t h e quant i t at i ve demonst rat i on t h at t h e Hess model di d
not w ork. Th i s is th e conclusi on w e publi sh ed in 1966.
28
Sea floor
spreadi ng sh ould leave a clear h eat flow si gnat ure - but i t w as not pre-
sent . Our comput at i ons w ere correct , our measurement s w ere correct ,
but our conclusi on w as w rong.
29
It i s i nt erest i ng t o not e t h at Dan McKenzi e, a young sci ent i st from
Cambri dge w h o w as t h en w orki ng at Scripps and w h o w ould soon play a
si gni fi cant role i n t h e elaborat i on of t h e plat e t ect oni c model, made t h e
same comput at i ons one year later, argui ng t h at t h e h eat flow w as com-
pat i ble w i t h sea floor spreadi ng. To obt ai n t h e correct result s, h e ch ose
a t emperat ure i nsi de t h e mant le t h ree t i mes smaller - 550C i nst ead of
t h e 1500C t h at w e h ad ch osen. Th i s lat t er t emperat ure w as t h en and i s
still consi dered t o be much closer t o t h e act ual mant le t emperat ure. But
McKenzi e w as already convi nced of the validity of the sea floor spread-
i ng model, and h e preferred t o adjust t h e paramet ers rat h er t h an arri ve
at an obvious discrepancy.
30
At t h e t i me, w h et h er t h e fi xi st or t h e
mobi li st model w as adopt ed, a cert ai n number of observat i ons di d not
agree w i t h t h e predi ct i ons. Th e ch oi ce made w as h eavily i nfluenced by
t h e envi ronment , t h e w orki ng ph i losoph y, and t h e discipline i n w h i ch
one w orked.
T HE MA GI C P R O FI L E : C O N V E R S I O N T O S E A FL O O R S P R E A D I N G
As far as I w as concerned i n late 1965, t h e di ffi cult i es t h at result ed from
applying t h e sea floor spreadi ng model - t o t h e i nt erpret at i on of t h e
magnet i c anomali es and t h e di st ri but i on of sedi ment s, t h e apparent
i mpossi bi li t y of reconci li ng subduct i on w i t h t h e qui et sedi ment fi ll i n t h e
t rench es, and t h e three-times-too-small h eat flow t h rough t h e mid-ocean
ridges - led me t o adopt a convect i on model w i t h out sea floor spread-
i ng, i nspi red by t h e i deas t h at h ad just been publi sh ed by Felix Veni ng
Meinesz.
31
Convect i on w ould be confi ned t o t h e duct i le part of t h e man-
tle, below about 30 mi les (50 ki lomet ers). It w ould i nduce fusi on of
basalt t h at would in part come to the sea floor and in part create the shal-
low compensat i ng mass of th e ri dge. Th i s w as th e conclusi on of my t h e-
sis, w ri t t en in lat e 1965 and early 1966 and defended at th e Uni versi t y of
Strasbourg on Apri l 21, 1966.
On February 13, 1966, I left Lamont for Reci fe, Brazil, to part i ci pat e as
chief scientist in a South Atlantic cruise t h at would lead me to Buenos
Aires and t h en t o Cape Town. I t h en joi ned t h e facult y at Strasbourg,
w h ere I defended my thesis. It w as April 26 w h en I ret urned t o Lamont ,
212 THE PLATE MODEL
w h ere many of my colleagues w ere now "converted" to sea floor spread-
ing. Walter Pi t man showed me th e "magic" magnet i c anomaly profi le
obt ai ned over th e South Paci fi c ridge crest, th e Eltanin-19 profi le t h at h ad
been present ed by Ji m Hei rt zler at t h e Ameri can Geophysical Uni on
(AGU) meet i ng in Wash i ngt on, D.C., on Apri l 27.
32
My w ife still remem-
bers t h at on my w ay back from t h e laboratory, I asked h er t o get me a dri nk
and told h er: "The conclusions of my t h esi s are w rong: Hess is ri gh t ."
Th i s ext remely pai nful "conversion" experi ence h as been crucial i n
shaping my own vision of w h at science is about. Duri ng a period of 24
h ours, I h ad t h e i mpressi on t h at my w h ole w orld w as crumbli ng. I tried
desperat ely t o reject t h i s new evi dence, but i t h ad an ext raordi nary pre-
dictive pow er! Wh y t h en w as t h e h eat flow t h ree t i mes smaller t h an
expect ed for sea floor spreadi ng? Wh y w ere t h e magnet i c anomalies so
di fferent over th e flanks of th e ridge? Wh y w as th e sedi ment fill in th e
t rench es undi st urbed? I di d not know , but I w as progressively forced by
t h e convi nci ng pow er of t h e magnet i c anomaly profi les t o assume t h at i n
all t h ese unexplai ned observations, t h ere must h ave been h i dden para-
met ers t h at h ad not yet been t aken i nt o account . Since t h at t i me, I know
t h at good dat a and correct models do not guarant ee t h at your conclu-
si ons are defi ni t i ve: th e possibility of h i dden paramet ers is always present .
Th e present at i on of th e magic profi le at th e AGU st unned everybody.
Th e 600-mile (1,000 ki lomet ers)-long profi le revealed a perfect symmet ry
w ith respect to the axis of the mid-ocean ridge crest. Furt h ermore, it could
be i nt erpret ed simply and perfect ly w i t h t h e sea floor spreadi ng model,
usi ng t h e Eart h magnetic fi eld reversals ch ronology obt ai ned by t h e young
Lamont paleomagnet i c group (led by Nei l Opdyke) by measuri ng t h e
magnetic polari t y of oceanic sedi ment cores. In part i cular, th e magnet i c
anomaly profi le as well as the sedi ment cores revealed the presence of a
new magnet i c event t h at Ri ch ard Doell and Brent Dalrymple, at t h e U.S.
Geological Survey (US GS ), h adjust i ndependent ly i dent i fi ed. Th ey called
i t t h e Jaramillo event, a sh ort durat i on of normal magnet i c fi eld. Wi t h th is
new event, the correlations from one ridge crest to the oth er became evi-
dent . Suddenly, t h e balance of ph enomena explained or left unexplai ned
by th e sea floor spreadi ng hypothesis appeared positive, and acceptable
w i t h out serious reservation t o any sci ent i st fami li ar w i t h t h e w h ole pi ct ure.
The massive move toward mobilism was t h en inevitable.
I still cannot underst and h ow I missed seeing t h i s magic profi le before
my depart ure from Lamont . I h ave absolut ely no recollect i on of seei ng
i t , so much so t h at i n earli er ret rospect i ve papers I w rot e t h at I h ad left
Lamont i n January.
33
But a ch eck t h rough let t ers sent by my w i fe show ed
t h at I only left on February 13 as just i ndi cat ed. I guess t h at I w as so
My Conversion to Plate Tec tonic s 213
buri ed i n t h e w ri t i ng of my t h esi s and t h e preparat i on of t h e cruise t h at
I i gnored everyt h i ng else. Alt ernat i vely, I may h ave subconsciously
i gnored evi dence t h at clash ed so much w i t h t h e conclusi on of my t h esi s
- w h i ch I h ad t o defend t w o mont h s lat er and w h i ch I could not possi-
bly ch ange w i t h out delayi ng t h e defense. Th e profi le w as i n any case
w idely available by mid-February, as Jim H ei rt zler showed it to Fred Vi ne
w h en Vi ne visited Lament sh ort ly aft er h e joi ned Harry Hess at Pri nce-
t on. Vi ne i ncluded i t i n h i s magi st eri al synt h esi s publi sh ed i n t h e Decem-
ber 1966 issue of Science.
34
In t h at paper, he compared the magnetic sec-
t i ons over t w o port i ons of mid-ocean ridge i n t h e Paci fi c w i t h t h e
R eykjanes profi le i n t h e At lant i c.
Now w e h ad t h e key and t h e dat a w ere at our disposal. Immedi at ely,
under t h e leadersh i p of Ji m Hei rt zler, w e st art ed w orki ng, one sci ent i st
to each ocean. I got th e Indi an Ocean. Lynn Sykes, in Lamont ' s Seis-
mology D epart ment , h ad t est ed Wi lson's t ransform fault model usi ng
eart h quake fault plane mech ani sms and showed t h at i t w orked.
35
Jack
Oliver, w i t h h i s st udent Bryan Isacks, h ad demonst rat ed t h at t h e oceani c
li t h osph ere di d i ndeed dive i nt o t h e mant le along t h e t rench es.
36
I n
spite of th e skept i ci sm of its di rect or, Lamont h ad moved massively i nt o
t h e mobi li st part y. Ew i ng knew t h at h e could no longer cont ai n t h i s ris-
i ng t i de of sea floor spreadi ng: from t h en on, h e w ould w ai t si lent ly for
t h e evi dence t h at w ould demonst rat e t h e falseness of t h i s model.
It was duri ng a conference organized by NASA in New York on
November 11 and 12, 1966 t h at the vi ct ory of mobi li sm was clearly estab-
li sh ed. Teddy Bullard, w h o presi ded, could not fi nd a single sci ent i st t o
defend fi xi sm.
37
Vi ne, t h e Hei rt zler group, and Sykes present ed t h ei r lat-
est w ork. But i t w as duri ng t h e Apri l 1967 AGU meet i ng t h at , t o use Bob
Di et z' s ph rase, "the total and i nst ant aneous conversion of t h e Ameri can
communi t y t o cont i nent al dri ft " occurred. It i s t h ere, too, t h at a young
Pri ncet on sci ent i st , Jason Morgan, t ook t h e cri t i cal step toward t h e pres-
ent mobi li st t h eory by est abli sh i ng t h e bases of plat e t ect oni cs on a sph er-
ical eart h , and not on a flat-plane earth as had been done previously by
Tuzo Wilson. Morgan, soon t o be joi ned by Dan McKenzi e and Robert
Parker, sh ow ed t h e predi ct i ve pow er of ki nemat i c comput at i ons. Th e
mobi li st model h ad become quant i t at i ve.
38
A L L T O GE T HE R FO R T HE FI N A L C HO R US
I h ave ret ai ned a preci se memory of t h at morni ng of Apri l 19, 1967, at
t h e spri ng AGU meet i ng duri ng w h i ch Fred Vi ne and H. W. Menard,
214 THE PLATE MO D E L
from t h e Scripps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y, presi ded over a "sea floor
spreadi ng" special symposi um. Th e large amph i t h eat er w as full and
expect at i ons w ere very h i gh . "Sea floor spreadi ng" w as t h e subject of
most discussions: 70 abstracts on t h e topic h ad been submi t t ed t o t h i s
AGU meet i ng. At t h e end of t h e session, t h e program announced t h at
Jason Morgan w ould present a paper w h i ch , accordi ng t o i t s t i t le, con-
cerned t h e format i on of oceani c t rench es by viscous convect i on. Mani k
Talw ani and I w ere prepari ng t o li st en very at t ent i vely because w e h ad
h ad a vi gorous argument w ith Morgan on t h i s subject . Morgan assumed
for h i s model t h e absence of any long-t erm ri gi di t y even at t h e surface,
and w e consi dered t h i s assumpt i on i ncompat i ble w i t h t h e gravity dat a.
But t o our great surpri se, Morgan announced t h at h e w ould present a
di fferent paper, ent i t led "Rises, T rench es, Great Faults and Crust al
Blocks." Th us t h e t alk h e made di d not correspond t o t h e abst ract h e
h ad sent . He w as goi ng t o discuss t h e geomet ri c problems concerned
w i t h t h e relat i ve mot i ons of plat es (h e called t h em "blocks"), w h i ch h e
assumed t o be rigid away from t h e At lant i c ri ft . Wh at Tuzo Wi lson h ad
done quali t at i vely on a plane, Morgan w as now doi ng quant i t at i vely on
a sph ere, est abli sh i ng t h e pri nci ples of plat e ki nemat i cs. Morgan h as a
special gi ft for di sori ent i ng h i s li st eners. Th i s gi ft w as especi ally w ell dis-
played on t h at occasi on, and very few people, i f any, act ually pai d at t en-
t i on t o w h at h e said. As for Mani k Talwani and me, our di sput e w i t h Mor-
gan appeared t o be closed, si nce h e now assumed ri gi d blocks at t h e
surface. We could not underst and t h i s "about -face."
Morgan h ad w ri t t en an 11-page ext ended out li ne of h i s present at i on,
i ncludi ng t h e ni ne fi gures i llust rat i ng h i s t alk. Th i s sh ort paper w as sent
t o about t en people i mmedi at ely aft er t h e meet i ng. I w as among t h em.
Morgan does not remember all t h e addressees of h i s paper.
39
He w ri t es:
"I am qui t e sure I gave copies to Bill Menard (at Scri pps) and Tuzo Wil-
son (at Toronto) and, I am fai rly sure, to Lynn Sykes (at Lamont ), Carl
Bowin (and/or Joe Ph i li pps, at Woods H ole) and Fred Vi ne (at Pri nce-
t on). I mi gh t h ave sent one t o Jerry Van Andel (S cri pps) as I used mag-
net i c profi les from t h e Ci rce cruise." Morgan lost h i s ow n copy and none
of t h ose w h o received i t appears t o h ave made i t available t o t h e scien-
t i fi c communi t y. I t h ough t I h ad lost my copy t oo. Yet , duri ng an offi ce
move, I found i t and arranged for i t t o be publi sh ed i n Tec tonop hysic s i n
1991 w i t h Morgan' s permi ssi on. Th e exact subst ance of h is present at i on
at t h e AGU w as fi nally i n pri nt , nearly 25 years later.
40
According to Morgan, "this sh ort description of the mai n ideas in
plat e t ect oni cs w as w ri t t en t h e w eek before t h e AGU.
41
Th e last t w o
pages w ere w ri t t en and reproduced t h e ni gh t before t h e meet i ng." Th e
My Conversion to Plate Tec tonic s 215
extended outline has the same title as the paper later published in the
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h (/Gft ).
42
E i gh t of t h e ni ne fi gures w ould
lat er be i ncluded in th e JGR paper, as w ell as most of th e t ext . In part i c-
ular, t h e fi rst t w o paragraph s make up most of t h e subst ance of t h e
abst ract of the March 1968 paper. The publi sh ed versi on w as accept ed
i n revised form on November 30,1967, seven mont h s aft er t h e ext ended
out li ne h ad been ci rculat ed. Alt h ough i t i s more elaborat e, i t adds not h -
ing to the spherical plate tectonic model, as defi ned in the earlier April
1967 versi on.
43
On the basis of this document, it seems extraordinary t h at , in the hall
packed w i t h the best geophysicists and geologists in the Uni t ed States,
nobody got excited by or even i nt erest ed in the i mpli cat i ons of Morgan's
ideas. They w ere t oo new, t oo di fferent from anyt h i ng t h at h ad been done.
Even among those w h o received t h e ext ended out li ne and h ad t i me t o
digest the new concepts, I apparent ly w as the only one to have considered
i t suffi ci ent ly i mport ant t o drop everyt h i ng else and start w orki ng along
these new lines. As I have w ritten elsewhere, the source of my June 1968
paper w as Morgan's 1967 ext ended out li ne.
44
I decided i mmedi at ely to
test t h i s ki nemat i c approach , in spite of the skepticism of my colleagues,
w h o considered i t more i mport ant t o cont i nue t o deci ph er t h e magnet i c
anomalies. I h ad to elaborate a rat h er complex met h odology and a system
of comput er programs, w h ich kept me busy unt i l July. I could t h en veri fy
t h at each of t h e di fferent ri ft openi ngs beh aved accordi ng t o sph eri cal
geometry: plates (as they were later to be called) were indeed rigid, and
Morgan was ri gh t . Part of my w ork got i ncorporat ed in the 1968 paper by
Hei rt zler and colleagues on magnet i c anomalies and crustal mot i on.
45
I
fi rst ext ended Morgan's ki nemat i c analysis of th e Afri ca/Ameri ca accret-
i ng boundary t o t h e Ant arct i ca/Paci fi c, t h e Eurasi a/Ameri ca, and t h e
Afri ca/I ndi a (actually t h e Afri ca/Arabi a) accret i ng boundari es t o test h i s
concept . On Hei rt zler's suggestion, I used an obli que Mercator project i on
to test the geometry of opening of these accreting plate boundaries. I also
devised numeri cal search met h ods t o defi ne t h e magni t ude and di rect i on
of the plate mot i on as "Eulerian vectors" t h at is, as mot i ons around a
h ypot h et i cal pole of rot at i on. By the end of August 1967, t h i s fi rst part of
my w ork w as complet ed. At t h e t i me, nei t h er Morgan nor I knew t h at Dan
McKenzie and Robert Parker w ere w orki ng at Scripps on t h ei r "paving-
st one th eory," and Morgan h ad no know ledge ei t h er t h at I w as exploiting
his model.
Morgan h ad spent t h e mont h s of July and August at Woods Hole,
w h ere he fi ni sh ed the version of his paper t h at w as submitted to JGR on
August 30. Th i s versi on is close to th e revised publi sh ed paper alt h ough
216 THE PLATE MODEL
i t s di scussi on of t h e Afri ca-Ameri ca-Paci fi c-Ant arct i ca-Afri ca ci rcui t w as
not correct. It cont ai ned an error in th e det ermi nat i on of th e Pacific-
Ant arct i ca rot at i on vect or t h at I lat er poi nt ed out t o h i m. Morgan pre-
sent ed h i s paper at a semi nar i n Woods Hole i n August , and ret urned
t h ere duri ng Sept ember 7-8 to at t end a two-day conference. According
t o Morgan, t h ose at t endi ng t h e conference i ncluded Ken D effeyes from
Pri ncet on, Joh n Mudi e from Scri pps, myself, Walt er Pi t man, and possi-
bly H ei rt zler and qui t e a few ot h ers. I n a personal let t er t h at I h ave kept ,
I ment i oned t h at people i nvi t ed from Lamont w ere Mauri ce and Joh n
Ew i ng, Joe Worzel, Mani k Talw ani , Marcus Langset h , and me. Morgan
present ed h i s paper. I also present ed my ki nemat i c analysi s, i ncludi ng
t h e obli que Mercat or plot s. I t w as t h e fi rst t i me t h at Morgan h eard about
my w ork. From t h en on, w e freely exch anged dat a and document s. Th i s
h elped Morgan t o rew ork h i s Paci fi c-Ant arct i ca rot at i on vect or and t h e
correspondi ng Afri ca-Ameri ca-Paci fi c-Ant arct i ca-Afri ca ci rcui t . Th is w as
also a great h elp for me because at t h e t i me I w as at t empt i ng t o obt ai n
a w orld ki nemat i c model.
O nce I veri fi ed t h e ri gi di t y of plat es, as Morgan and McKenzi e h ad
done for t h e At lant i c and Paci fi c, I moved t o t h e next st age, w h i ch w as
t o combi ne t h e mot i ons of plat es t o obt ai n t h e fi rst predi ct i ve global
quant i t at i ve model. I found t h at a uni que solut i on could only be
obt ai ned by usi ng six plat es i nst ead of Morgan' s 12. I used Morgan' s
Ameri ca/Paci fi c E uleri an vect or t o ensure t h e closure of t h e model. Th i s
si x-plat e model account ed for most of t h e w orld sei smi ci t y, as Bryan
Isacks and h i s colleagues w ould lat er show.
46
Even now, i t i s di ffi cult for
me t o forget my ext raordi nary exci t ement t h e day I reali zed t h at my six-
plat e model w orked, and t h at i t could i ndeed account as a fi rst approx-
i mat i on for t h e broad geodynami c pat t ern. I remember comi ng h ome
early i n t h e morni ng for breakfast aft er a ni gh t at t h e comput er and
t elli ng my w i fe: "I h ave made th e discovery of th e cent ury." Well, I w as
young and my ent h usi asm carri ed me t oo far. But t h i s st at ement i s a good
i ndi cat i on of h ow w e felt duri ng t h ose days of frant i c di scoveri es.
Finally, I made the first ki nemat i c reconst ruct i on of the evolution of
t h e surface of t h e eart h based on magnet i c anomali es. To do t h i s, I h ad
t o fi t t h e magnet i c anomali es t h at h ad i dent i cal ages on bot h sides of t h e
ri ft in the same w ay as Bullard and his co-authors had done to fit the con-
t i nent al margi ns on bot h si des of t h e At lant i c.
47
Th is w as t h e begi nni ng
of a paleogeograph i c met h od, w h i ch h as proven t o be especi ally pow er-
ful. The fit of the anomalies w as done on the comput er and involved
combi ni ng rot at i ons t h at w ere no longer small but could reach several
t ens of degrees. Small rot at i ons can be t reat ed as vect ors, w h ereas t h i s i s
My Conversion to Plate Tec tonic s 217
not t rue of large ones, w h i ch must be t reat ed as mat ri ces. Not know i ng
t h at , i t t ook me some t i me t o discover t h e ori gi n of large di screpanci es
i n my early comput at i ons. Th e rules of sph eri cal geomet ry w ere poorly
know n at t h e t i me among geophysicists. Nei t h er Morgan nor McKenzi e,
accordi ng t o w h at t h ey bot h told me i n t h e fall of 1967, believed t h at
such an approach w as possible. Th ey apparent ly di d not h ave enough
confi dence i n plat e ri gi di t y. McKenzi e t old me t h en: "John Sclat er
w ant ed me t o do i t - but I di d not w ant to."
On D ecember 13, 1967, I w rot e to Morgan: "Th ank you for th e
McKenzi e-Parker paper. I am a li t t le bi t surpri sed t h at t h ey do not seem
t o know about your paper." T h us i t must h ave been i n early D ecember
t h at Morgan sent me a pre-pri nt of t h e McKenzi e and Parker paper t h at
h ad been recei ved at Nature, November 14, 1967, and w ould be pub-
li sh ed i n December.
48
Th i s i s h ow I di scovered t h at McKenzi e h ad been
w orki ng on t h e same subject . Th e relat i onsh i p bet w een my paper and
Morgan' s i s qui t e obvious, but bot h papers w ere w ri t t en complet ely i nde-
pendent ly of McKenzi e.
McKenzi e h ad arrived at Scri pps i n June 1967.
49
Allan Cox w rot e t h at
"in June, 1967" Dan got th e i dea of usi ng rigid-body rot at i ons to descri be
plat e mot i ons w h i le rereadi ng t h e paper by Bullard and co-w orkers on
fi t t i ng t h e cont i nent s t oget h er. Robert Parker h ad just complet ed a gen-
eral comput er program called SUPERMAP for plot t i ng w orldw i de geo-
physical data usi ng any conceivable project i on.
50
Parker i nt roduced the
i dea of usi ng a Mercat or project i on i n plat e tectonics."
51
As not ed above,
I i ndependent ly st art ed usi ng obli que Mercat or project i on i n lat e May/
early June 1967, and present ed t h e fi rst obli que Mercat or maps w i t h t h e
Eulerian pole of rot at i on as pole of project i on at the early September
Woods Hole meet i ng.
In a let t er w ri t t en to me on Oct ober 11, 1983, McKenzi e explai ned
t h e relat i onsh i p bet w een h i s paper and Morgan' s paper: "I w as at t h e
1967 AGU meet i ng and at t ended the session in w h ich Morgan spoke, up
unt i l t h e t i me h e di d so. But I h ad read t h e abst ract . . . and t h ough t I
w ould gain not h i ng from si t t i ng t h rough t h e talk and argument s and left
t o go elsew h ere. Th e paper generat ed li t t le general i nt erest , and I di d
not h ear about i t unt i l aft er Bob (Parker) and I h ad sent off our paper
t o Nature. Wh en I di d, I t ri ed t o delay publi cat i on, but t h e edi t or refused,
saying t h at t h e issue h ad been made up. ... I di d not know unt i l I read
your paper [a pre-pri nt of Le Pi ch on, 1984] t h at Jason [Morgan] h ad
sent you a prepri nt so early. The fi rst I knew of w h at he had done w as a
bri ef account from Joh n Mudi e w h en h e ret urned from Woods Hole i n
August . By t h i s t i me, Bob and I h ad already produced t h e Mercat or maps
218 THE PLATE MO D E L
of t h e sli p vect ors, and Joh n' s report act ed as an i ncent i ve t o get some-
t h i ng w ri t t en. I h ad t alked a great deal t o Bill Menard about plat e tec-
t oni cs and h ad convi nced h i m t h at i t w orked for t h e Paci fi c. JGR [ Jour-
nal of Geop hysic al Researc h] sent h i m Jason's paper t o referee and, I
suspect because of our conversat i ons, h e w as very cri t i cal of i t w h en h e
show ed i t t o me. I asked h i m w h at I sh ould do and h e said t o go ah ead
and publi sh , w h i ch w e di d as everyone know s. Wh en I came t o Lament
and Pri ncet on i n t h e aut umn of 1967 and discovered w h at h ad h ap-
pened I felt very embarrassed and i t w as t h en t h at I t ri ed t o h old t h e
Nature paper."
Th us, McKenzi e h eard about Morgan' s w ork from a bri ef report of t h e
early S ept ember Woods Hole meet i ng and t h en, presumably i mmedi -
at ely aft er, from Menard, w h o recei ved Morgan' s paper t o review, also i n
early September. It i s t h en t h at McKenzi e deci ded t o i mmedi at ely w ri t e
h i s sh ort Naturep ap er, probably feeli ng t h at h i s approach (usi ng t h e h or-
i zont al project i ons of t h e slip li nes of eart h quake fault -plane solut i ons
t o det ermi ne graph i cally t h e posi t i on of t h e pole of rot at i on w i t h obli que
Mercat or plot s), w h i ch h e h ad by t h en been w orki ng on for several
mont h s, w as suffi ci ent ly di fferent t o just i fy doi ng so.
52
I n h i s book The Oc ean of Truth, Menard confi rmed t h at h e received t h e
early ext ended out li ne.
53
He w rot e, "Jason Morgan sent me a prepri nt
of h is manuscri pt in its early draft , probably in th e lat e spri ng of 1967."
Menard must h ave h ad t h i s ext ended out li ne available t o h i m w h en h e
w rot e h i s 1966 book, as h e quot ed t h e fi rst sent ences of t h i s early pre-
pri nt . Menard added: "The manuscri pt cert ai nly ci rculat ed among my
st udent s, and w e discussed i t . Th e ori gi nal draft , how ever, w as di ffi cult
t o fat h om and i t di d not h ave t h e i mpact of t h e fi nal publi cat i on." Yet ,
as discussed earlier, t h e plat e t ect oni c concept s w ere clearly present ed
i n t h i s early draft , now publi sh ed, w h i ch w as not si gni fi cant ly di fferent
from t h e lat er 1968 versi on, i n spite of w h at Menard w rot e. Actually, i t i s
clear t h at t h e concept s w ere t oo new and appeared i rrelevant t o bot h
Menard and h i s st udent s. Menard, w h o h ad co-ch aired t h e AGU session
in w h i ch Jason Morgan present ed h is paper, w rot e in h is 1986 book: "I
not only di d not remember h eari ng Jason's famous t alk, I di dn' t remem-
ber presi di ng over th e session." Finally, Menard st at ed: "I believe I also
review ed t h e paper for an editor."
54
Th i s can only refer t o t h e August 30
versi on submi t t ed t o the Journal of Geologic al Researc h, w h i ch h e presum-
ably found upon h i s ret urn from t h e Nova expedi t i on somet i me aft er
Sept ember 12, accordi ng t o t h e i nformat i on h e gave i n h i s book. At t h e
t i me, as ment i oned by McKenzi e i n h i s let t er t o me, h e w as "very cri t i cal
of it."
My Conversion to Plate Tec tonic s 219
It i s ast oni sh i ng t h at McKenzi e tw ice so nearly missed t h e opport u-
ni t y t o learn about Morgan' s model. Th e fi rst occasion w as w h en h e left
t h e room just before Morgan' s t alk on Apri l 17. Th e second occasion
w as w h en Menard, w h o h ad received t h e ext ended out li ne of t h e April
17 communi cat i on i n lat e Apri l, fai led t o ment i on i t t o McKenzi e,
alt h ough t h ey "talked a great deal" t oget h er "about plat e t ect oni cs" and
alt h ough Morgan' s "manuscri pt h ad ci rculat ed among Menard' s ' st u-
dent s' " and h ad been "discussed" by t h em (quot e from t h e book of
Menard). But t h e approach follow ed by McKenzi e w as suffi ci ent ly di f-
ferent from t h e one follow ed by Morgan t h at i t lent credi bi li t y t o h i s
story.
55
To me, t h e most surpri si ng part of i t i s t h at McKenzi e confi ned h i m-
self t o di scussi ng t h e plat e ki nemat i cs of t h e Paci fi c-Ameri ca plat e
boundary based on eart h quake fault -plane solut i ons, and di d not con-
si der t h e ki nemat i cs of t h e At lant i c ri dge. In t h e equat ori al At lant i c,
good dat a on t ransform and eart h quake fault -plane solut i ons w ere avail-
able and th e openi ng of th e At lant i c Ocean is th e subject of th e fit of
Bullard' s paper, w h i ch gave t h e i ni t i al i nt ui t i on t o McKenzi e.
56
But h e
w rot e t o me i n 1988 "t h at t h e At lant i c dat a di d not cover a suffi ci ent
range of azi mut h s t o det ermi ne an accurat e pole. So I t h ough t (and st i ll
t h i nk) t h at t h e Nort h Paci fi c i s t h e best example t o use, and i t h as t h e
great advant age t h at t h e same pole produces bot h spreadi ng and con-
sumpt i on." I di d not agree at t h e t i me. I w rot e i n t h e let t er of December
13, 1967, to Morgan: "The mai n object i on I h ave to the w ork of McKen-
zi e and Parker i s t h at i t may be a dangerous assumpt i on t h at t h e cont i -
nent al system of east ern Eurasi a, Aleut i ans, and Nort h Ameri ca i s per-
fect ly ri gi d. If t h ere i s slow deformat i on of t h i s system, t h en you mi gh t
expect t h e result s t h ey get. It seems t o me t h at t h e spreadi ng floor evi-
dence suggests t h at t h e Nort h Paci fi c w as larger i n Cret aceous (more
t h an 65 million years ago) t h an it is now or t h at several thousand kilo-
met ers of (east-west) sh ort eni ng h ave occurred i n Asia since t h i s t i me. I
prefer t h e fi rst solut i on. Maybe t h e act ual pole i s somew h ere bet w een
McKenzi e' s posi t i on and yours."
I added in the same let t er: "I h ave a second version of my paper t yped
now. It h as been review ed w i t h i n Lamont . My problem is t h at it h as grown
out of proport i on. I will send you a copy w h en it is ready, probably before
Ch ri st mas. I am ret urni ng t o France before t h e Spri ng, so I am rat h er
anxi ous t o h ave i t cleared before I leave." By t h i s t i me, I h ad just decided
to go back to France and I was to leave in early February 1968. This would
h ave t h e consequence t h at I w ould be cut off from t h e Lamont data bank
and would not be able t o w ork on t h e development of plate t ect oni cs for
220 THE PLATE MO D E L
t h e next t w o years. I h ad just been offered an associate professorsh i p by
Frank Press at Massach uset t s I nst i t ut e of Tech nology (MI T ), w h i ch I h ad
seriously consi dered. How ever, I t h ough t t h at i f I stayed i n t h e States, I
h ad t o be w h ere t h e act i on was, and t h at w as clearly at Lamont . Mauri ce
Ew i ng knew about t h e MIT offer and w ant ed t o keep me; h e t ri ed t o push
me i nt o h eadi ng Bruce Heezen' s depart ment , w i t h w h om Ew i ng w as now
i n open confli ct . I acted as an i nt ermedi ary bet w een Ew i ng and Heezen,
w h o w as t orn apart by t h i s personal confli ct . Th i s experi ence w as so
pai nful t h at I t h i nk i t cont ri but ed t o my decision t o go back t o France,
w h i ch I announced to Ew i ng on December 11.
It i s i n t h i s cont ext t h at I h ad sh ow n my paper t o Mauri ce Ew i ng and
asked h i m w h et h er h e w ant ed t o be an aut h or, as w as usually t h e case i n
Lamont for papers based on dat a collect ed t h ere. He decli ned and told
me: "This i s your w ork; publi sh i t alone." He may h ave done t h i s because
h e w ant ed me so much t o stay at Lamont . Alt ernat i vely, h e may h ave
refused t o go agai nst h i s fi xi st ideas. In any case, t h i s i s h ow I became t h e
sole aut h or of t h e most i mport ant paper of my career, w h i ch w as very
unusual at Lamont at t h e t i me, especi ally for a young sci ent i st . I w ai t ed
t o submi t i t unt i l Morgan' s paper w as accept ed, i n order t o respect h i s
pri ori t y. Morgan' s paper w as delayed t h ree mont h s by Menard' s review
and could h ave been publi sh ed i n D ecember 1967 i nst ead of March
1968 if Menard h ad i mmedi at ely accept ed it, as Wi lson and Oli ver lat er
di d mi ne. It could also h ave been publi sh ed i n abbrevi at ed form i n June
or July, h ad Morgan deci ded t h en t o publi sh a cleaned-up versi on of h i s
ext ended out li ne. I h ad more luck t h an h e h ad. My revi ew ers, Wilson
and Oliver, recommended i mmedi at e accept ance of my paper. Th e t i t le
w ould be "Sea Floor Spreadi ng and Cont i nent al Dri ft ."
57
Th e successi on
of papers t h at est abli sh ed t h e plat e t ect oni c model t h en follow ed:
McKenzi e and Parker i n Nature, i n December 1967; Morgan i n the/G/?,
i n March 1968; and mi ne, also i n t h e/GR i nJune 1968. T h us, Pri ncet on
w i t h Jason Morgan, Cambri dge w i t h Dan McKenzi e (alt h ough t h e w ork
w as done at Scripps and McKenzi e i nsi st s t h at h e great ly benefi t ed from
t h e envi ronment t h ere), and Lamont w i t h my ow n cont ri but i on w ere
fi nally uni t ed i n t h e defi ni t i on of t h e plat e t ect oni c model.
Soon aft er, Isacks and co-aut h ors demonst rat ed i n t h ei r S ept ember
1968 paper, "Seismology and th e New Global Tect oni cs," t h at geoph ysi-
cal dat a w ere compat i ble w i t h my global plat e ki nemat i c model.
58
T h ei r
paper h ad a major i mpact on t h e geological communi t y. Nei t h er my
paper, nor any of t h e cri t i cal ones t h at follow ed, w ould h ave been possi-
ble w i t h out t h e availability of t h e Lamont sea floor spreadi ng data.
59
I
wish h ere t o acknow ledge t h e fi rm leadersh i p of Ji m H ei rt zler, w h o bull-
My Conversion to Plate Tec tonic s 221
dozed us i nt o produci ng t h i s i mpressi ve collect i on of publi sh ed w ork i n
a sh ort amount of t i me.
FR O M O C E A N - T O S P A C E -B A S E D P L A T E T E C T O N I C S
Wh en I reflect w ith h i ndsi gh t on w h at now h as become h i st ory, i t seems
clear t o me t h at t h e elaborat i on of plat e t ect oni cs w as most ly t h e w ork
of a few sci ent i st s i n cont i nuous i nt eract i on w i t h t h e privilege of rapi d
access t o cruci al dat a and ideas. I w i sh , however, t o h i gh li gh t t h e prodi -
gious i nt ui t i on of Harry Hess and Tuzo Wilson and t h e i mmense energy
of Mauri ce Ew ing. I also regret t h e oblivion i nt o w h i ch Warren Carey and
Bruce Heezen h ave fallen. I beli eve, furt h ermore, t h at not enough at t en-
t i on h as been pai d t o t h e pri vi leged relat i onsh i ps exi st i ng bet w een a few
key laborat ori es. In a sense, t h e h i st ory of t h e elaborat i on of plat e tec-
t oni cs can be read as a concert o for t h ree i nst rument s i n w h i ch Pri nce-
t on, Cambri dge, and Lament successively h eld t h e soloist role unt i l t h ey
joi ned t oget h er i n t h e fi nal ch orus.
60
Each of t h ese laborat ori es w as ch ar-
act eri zed by a grand "mult i di sci pli nari t y" and by a st rong uni t y under a
ch ari smat i c leader. Th ey h ad, moreover, t aken large i ni t i at i ves tow ard
bot h cont i nent al and oceani c research . Finally, t h ei r teams i ncluded sci-
ent i st s w h o di d not h esi t at e t o vent ure out si de t h e st ri ct frames of t h ei r
speci alt i es, t o ri sk t h e formulat i on of very general h ypot h eses t h at h ad
t o submi t t o t h e t est of fi eld observat i on, and t o prepare for event ual
modi fi cat i ons.
I h ave been oft en asked w h y t h e Lamont people h ad such a late con-
versi on t o sea floor spreadi ng and w hy, once t h ey w ere convert ed, t h ey
w ere such effi ci ent act ors i n t h e development of plat e t ect oni cs. In h i s
1983 let t er t h at I quot ed earli er, Dan McKenzi e w rot e: "Lamont t o me
h as always seemed a very valuable place t o t est new ideas. But t h e quan-
t i t y of dat a avai lable does not encourage t h ei r development . I t h i nk t h at
i t i s no acci dent t h at sea floor spreadi ng and plat e t ect oni cs w ere devel-
oped elsew h ere." On t h e basis of my experi ence, I t h i nk t h ere i s some
t rut h t o t h i s. I h ad devot ed my w h ole research t i me looki ng i n det ai l at
enormous amount s of dat a on all aspects of t h e mi d-At lant i c ri dge. Any
h ypot h esi s t h at w as ment i oned on i t s ori gi n i mmedi at ely evoked t ens of
observat i ons t h at w ould not fi t i t . Th i s i ndeed blocked any progress. I n
a sense, t rees w ere h i di ng t h e forest . On t h e ot h er h and, once t h e model
became obvious, it w as easy to unroll my data bank and to i nt erpret it in
t erms of t h i s new model. Th is rat h er si mpli st i c explanat i on cannot be
t h e only one. I h ave i nsi st ed earli er i n t h i s essay on t h e quasi-absence of
222 THE PLATE MODEL
serious aw areness of paleomagnet i c result s i n Lamont and on t h e preva-
lent fi xi st cult ure of t h e geoph ysi ci st s t h ere. I know t h at , as far as I am
concerned, t h ese w ere t w o very seri ous obstacles. Wh en I w as a Ph .D. stu-
dent at Lamont , my supervi sors never seri ously exposed me t o paleo-
magnet i cs and cont i nent al dri ft .
But w h y t h en w ere Scri pps people, w h o also h ad such a large dat a
bank, slow er t o jump on t h e bandw agon, especi ally i n view of t h e fact
t h at t h ere w as a seri ous paleomagnet i c cult ure on t h e w est coast ? I men-
t i oned earli er as i mport ant fact ors t h e i nt ensi ve exch anges bet w een t h e
di fferent depart ment s and t h e cult ure of "mult i di sci pli nari t y" i mposed
by Ew i ng. In addi t i on, one sh ould not underest i mat e t h e deci si ve advan-
tage of t h e comput eri zed dat a bank put t oget h er by Mani k Talw ani.
Finally, Lamont people h ad i nh eri t ed from E w i ng a t radi t i on of very
h ard w ork.
It i s not my role t o comment on t h e relat i ve i mport ance of my ow n
cont ri but i on i n t h i s concert o. All I can say i s t h at my papers, i n part i cu-
lar t h e "Sea Floor Spreadi ng and Cont i nent al D ri ft ," w ere i nt ensi vely
used by t h e sci ent i fi c communi t y i n t h e early years of plat e t ect oni cs. I
w as t h e most ci t ed solid eart h sci ent i st for t h e peri od, 1965-1978 and
one-quart er of t h e 2,500 ci t at i ons w ere assi gned t o t h i s paper.
61
Th i s
h i gh li gh t s t h e i mpact of t h e demonst rat i on t h at a global plat e ki nemat i c
model could i ndeed be used as a framew ork for plat e t ect oni c st udi es.
In 1973, at my laborat ory i n Brest, Jean Franch et eau, Jean Bonni n,
and I publi sh ed a book ent i t led Plate Tec tonic s, w h i ch w as t h e fi rst at t empt
t o present i n a coh erent fash i on t h e plat e t ect oni c model, from plat e
ki nemat i cs t o processes at plat e boundari es, i n book form.
62
Th i s ki nd
of w ork could be done w i t h out h avi ng access t o a large dat a bank! Our
book w as very w ell recei ved and w i dely used - probably because i t s logic
responded t o t h e needs of t h e sci ent i fi c communi t y at t h e t i me.
Th e book also i llust rat es t h e remarkable ch ange plat e t ect oni cs
brough t t o t h e fi eld of geodynami cs. Since t h e begi nni ng of t h e 20t h
cent ury, geoph ysics and geology h ad most ly t raveled separat e w ays. Wh at
li t t le i nt eract i on t h ere w as t ended t o be t ense, i f not ant agoni st i c. It i s
remarkable t h at t h e role of eart h quakes w as essent i ally i gnored i n tec-
t oni cs, and t h at mount ai n-bui ldi ng w as consi dered as a spasmodi c
process not di rect ly relat ed t o sei smi c activity. Plat e t ect oni cs reconci led
geoph ysics and geology and sh ow ed t h at eart h quakes w ere t h e di rect
expressi on of t h e cont i nuous t ect oni c act i vi t y at t h e surface of t h e eart h .
From t h en on, seismologists and tectonic geologists would have to w ork
t oget h er t o st udy geodynami c processes. But t h e great di ffi cult y of t h e
st udy of t h ese processes w as t h at plat e ki nemat i cs w as ocean-based. All
My Conversion to Plate Tec tonic s 223
t h e observat i ons t h at allow ed quant i t at i ve plat e ki nemat i c det ermi na-
t i ons, magnet i c anomali es, t ransform fault s, and fault -plane solut i ons at
plat e boundari es w ere obt ai ned i n t h e oceans. Cont i nent al t ect oni cs,
w h i ch could be observed and st udi ed i n det ai l, w as di ffi cult t o relate
di rect ly t o t h i s quant i t at i ve model. Plate t ect oni cs w as used more as a
h elp to bui ld a scenari o of th e genesis of mount ai n belts t h an as a quan-
titative model of eart h deformat i on.
Th e mut at i on from an ocean- t o a space-based plat e t ect oni cs
occurred in 1986, aft er fi ve years of space geodet i c measurement s
bet w een t h e West ford (Uni t ed St at es) and Onsala (Norw ay) very long
baseli ne i nt erferomet ry (VLBI) st at i ons. Th ese provi ded t h e fi rst space-
based di rect est i mat e of t h e present rat e of openi ng (0.8 i nch or 2 cen-
t i met ers/year) at t h e ri ft across t h e At lant i c Ocean. It w as soon follow ed
by t h e fi rst est i mat e of t h e rat e of sea floor sh ort eni ng bet w een Haw aii
and Tokyo (3 i nch es or 8 cent i met ers/year). A t urni ng poi nt i n my sci-
ent i fi c journey w as reach ed w h en I learned about t h i s lat t er measure-
ment . Of course, I w as t h ri lled to see my 1968 est i mat e of the amount of
subduct i on i n t h e Japan t rench confi rmed. But more i mport ant , I real-
i zed t h en t h at w e w ere ent eri ng a new era of plat e ki nemat i cs.
Th i s w as rapi dly confi rmed by i ncreasi ngly numerous measurement s
from VLBI t ech ni ques, but also sat elli t e laser rangi ng (SLR) t ech ni ques
and global posi t i oni ng systems (GPS ). Soon, i t w as est abli sh ed t h at t h e
lat est ocean-based plat e ki nemat i c model (obt ai ned w i t h velocities aver-
aged over 3.5 mi lli on years) w as in excellent agreement w i t h th e space-
based model, w h ere all measurement s w ere obt ai ned over a few years on
cont i nent al sites.
63
Mot i ons of plat es could be obt ai ned nearly i nst ant a-
neously. Moreover, t h ese mot i ons appli ed t o a si gni fi cant port i on of t h e
recent geological past. From t h en on, t h e act i on i n plat e t ect oni cs
moved back t o t h e cont i nent s, w h ere one could di rect ly measure not
only t h e i nst ant aneous mot i ons of plat es, but t h e deformat i ons over t h e
plat e boundari es, i ncludi ng some complex i nt racont i nent al deforma-
tion zones. Unt i l t h en, these h ad been considered gray areas for plate
t ect oni cs, si nce w e h ad no quant i t at i ve know ledge of th e ki nemat i cs of
t h ei r deformat i ons. In t h e same w ay t h at sei smology h ad been recon-
ci led t o t ect oni cs by t h e ocean-based plat e t ect oni c model, geodesy
became a new and essent i al part ner i n t h e space-based cont i nent al plat e
t ect oni c model. Today, t h e i nt egrat i ng pow er of plat e t ect oni cs i s becom-
i ng more and more evi dent as t ect oni cs moves from purely ki nemat i c
descri pt i ons t o dynami c modeli ng.
In 1990, Jason Morgan, Dan McKenzi e and I w ere aw arded t h e Japan
pri ze for our cont ri but i ons t o t h e plat e t ect oni c t h eory. Wh i le discussing
224 THE PLATE MODEL
t h i s t oget h er i n a h ot el i n Tokyo, I remember t h at Dan said: "Never more
i n our li fe w ill w e be able t o cont ri but e t o such a deci si ve and exci t i ng
discovery." Th i s, I t h ough t , w as t rue. We h ad been involved i n a mut a-
t i on of t h e w h ole of eart h sciences t h at occurred w i t h i n a very sh ort t i me,
and w e knew i t w h en w e lived i t . Th i s explai ned t h e ext raordi nary feel-
i ng t h at carri ed us t h rough t h ese fasci nat i ng years and t h e sense t h at
never more will w e live t h rough somet h i ng even remot ely si mi lar t o i t .
P ART v
FROM THE OC EANS
TO THE CONTI NENTS
Continental drif t was f irst p rop osed on the basis of geologic al evidenc e ac c u-
mulated f rom f ieldwork by geologists on the c ontinents. In c ontrast, p late tec -
tonic s was develop ed largely on the basis of evidenc e f rom the sea f loor, or earth-
quakes under it, c ollec ted mostly by geop hysic ists. When geologists realized
what was hap p ening, the most alert among them saw an op p ortunity f or a
radic al reinterp retation of geologic al history based on the new model of c rustal
mobility. Moreover, imp ortant geologic al f eatures that had never been f ully
understood - like Calif ornia's great San Andreas F ault - suddenly c ould be
exp lained, c learly and elegantly, by the new model. With every old under-
standing up f or grabs and new understandings emerging daily, one of the
20th c entury's greatest sc ientif ic revolutions hap p ened.
This page intentionally left blank
C HA P T E R 14
PLAT E T E C T O N IC S AN D GE O LO GY,
1965 T O T O DAY
John F. Dewey
AN ACCURATE PORTRAYAL OF THE EVENTS OF THE 1960s THAT LED
t o t h e est abli sh ment of t h e plat e t ect oni c paradi gm i s a h i t and mi ss affai r
based upon i mperfect personal memori es and recollect i ons. Equally, t h e
progressive development of the geological corollari es of plat e t ect oni cs
h as been compli cat ed. Th e publi sh ed h i st ori cal evi dence i s i n t h e li t er-
at ure but cannot const i t ut e t h e w h ole object i ve t rut h of w h o di d w h at
and said w h at , w h en, w h ere, and t o w h om. This brief essay const i t ut es
my personal recollect i ons of t h e events seen from a Cambri dge Uni ver-
sity, and Columbi a Uni versi t y' s Lamont -Doh ert y Geological Observat ory
perspect i ve, and some of my views on t h e st at e of relat ed geology from
th e 1960s unt i l today.
P L A T E T E C T O N I C S A N D GE O L O GY
My early career from my Ph .D. work t h rough lecturersh ips in Manches-
ter and Cambri dge from 1958 to 1964, in spi t e of li t t le fundi ng, w as a
w onderful peri od of basic geological research , most ly fi eld-based, i n Ire-
land and New foundland. Th ey w ere carefree days of exci t ement and
w onder i n t h e ' preparat ory days' t o plat e t ect oni cs. I w as concerned w i t h
t ryi ng t o fi nd out h ow and w h en t h e Low er Paleozoic Grampi an
Orogeny along t h e Laurent i an cont i nent al margi n w as formed. Th i s
orogeny const i t ut ed a mount ai n-bui ldi ng event t h at st ret ch ed from t h e
Bri t i sh Isles t h rough out t h e w est ern margi n of t h e nort h ern Appalach i -
ans, and has only just been resolved as an early to mid-Ordovician arc-
cont i nent al margi n colli si onal event t h at last ed from 472 t o 462 mi lli on
227
228 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
Joh n Dewey in the sout h ern uplands of Scotland, 1999. Ph oto courtesy of Joh n Dewey.
years ago. I t suggested t h at t h e E uropean cont i nent and t h e Nort h
Ameri can cont i nent w ere once joi ned. Such plat e t ect oni c concept s
w ere, of course, unknow n i n t h e lat e 1950s w h en I st art ed my Ph .D . map-
pi ng on t h e Ordovi ci an and Si luri an rocks (about 490 t o 400 mi lli on
years old) of t h e Sout h Mayo Trough i n w est ern I reland. Th ose w ere t h e
days i n w h i ch most graduat e st udent s i n geology w ere given an area t o
map, about w h i ch li t t le w as know n. Th e goal w as t o produce a det ai led
geological map of everyt h i ng from underlyi ng basement t o surfi ci al
deposi t s and t o follow any or all research leads t h at emerged from t h e
fi eldw ork. We di d not go i nt o t h e fi eld t o t est h ypot h eses; w e w ere t ryi ng
t o map t h e planet . We w ere concerned w i t h process and h i st ory but only
i nsofar as i t result ed from t h e fi eldw ork. T h i s w as not an i ncorrect
met h odology; i t w as appropri at e for t h e t i mes before w e h ad t h e plat e
t ect oni cs paradi gm.
I w as profoundly lucky not only i n h avi ng a marvelous Ph .D. area i n
Count y Mayo, I reland, but i n bei ng a graduat e st udent from 1958 t o 1960
at I mperi al College, London, w h ere t h e i nt ellect ual h uman resources
i ncluded Ian Carmi ch ael, Grah am Evans, Joh n Ramsay, Doug S h erman,
George Walker, and Janet Wat son, lect urers and professors, all of w h om
Plate Tec tonic s and Geology, 1965 to Today 229
generously and freely gave t h ei r valuable t i me t o h elpi ng not only t h ei r
ow n but all research st udent s. In addition to intensively detailed fi eld-
w ork, my st udent colleagues and I, i ncludi ng Tony Barber, Pet er Kassler,
Frank May, and Joh n Spri ng, spent h ours doi ng basic geological labora-
t ory w ork: peeri ng at t h i n sections (act ual slices of rock) under a mi cro-
scope, plot t i ng dozens of st ereograph i c project i ons w i t h st ruct ural data,
convert i ng fi eld slips i nt o t h e fi nal maps, and i n readi ng extensively i n
our area of geology.
1
Basically, I cont i nued in t h i s mode unt i l 1965,
because of a w arni ng I received from an exami ner of my Ph .D. disserta-
t i on. In my fi nal ch apt er, I at t empt ed a synth esis of British Ordovician
and Silurian paleogeograph y and paleot ect oni cs, suggesting t h at t h e
anci ent mount ai n belts seemed th e same on ei t h er side of th e Adantic.
This di d not go down w ell w ith my i nt ernal exami ner, w h o wagged h i s fi n-
ger, saying, "This ki nd of t h i ng gets geology a bad name," and "in any case
can only be done properly by very senior people w i t h lots of experi ence
and know ledge." I qui et ly h eld my t ongue and nodded abjectly.
For t h e next few years, as a young lect urer i n Manch est er from 1960
t o 1964, I mapped and st udi ed local Iri sh geology and st udi ed t h e pat -
t erns of ki nk bands, small angular folds i n foli at ed rocks. This seemed
t o ' w ork' because, i n 1964,1 w as appoi nt ed t o a lect urersh i p i n st ruct ural
geology at Cambri dge. Since t h at t i me, I h ave t h ough t a lot about h ow
sci ent i fi c fash i on ch anges and regi ment s many of us i nt o part i cular
ch annels. Professor L. J. Wills w as an ext remely di st i ngui sh ed and clever
geologi st of t h e peri od bet w een t h e w ars; could i t h ave been t h at h e w as
not elect ed t o t h e Royal Society because h e publi sh ed a paleogeograph i c
atlas of t h e Bri t i sh Isles, t h e fi rst synt h esi s of i t s type i n t h e Uni t ed King-
dom? It i s said t h at , duri ng t h e fi xi st era domi nat ed by Walt er Buch er of
Columbi a Uni versi t y, among ot h ers, one could not get a job i n a Nort h
Ameri can uni versi t y i f one embraced cont i nent al dri ft . Th e reverse i s
probably t rue now.
Th e most cri t i cal event in my geological li fe occurred in 1964. Art
Boucot of Oregon State Uni versi t y and S t uart McKerrow of Oxford Uni -
versi t y i nvi t ed me to Nova Scotia to h elp, w i t h Bill Fyson of Carlet on Uni -
versity, i n t h e det ai led mappi ng of a large area of Si luri an rocks nort h -
w est of Ant i goni sh . Marsh all Kay of Columbi a Uni versi t y, w h om I h ad
met earli er t h at year, h eard of my vi si t and i nvi t ed me t o spend a mont h
i n t h e fi eld w i t h h i m i n New foundland i mmedi at ely aft erw ard. Th e
Canadi an Mari t i mes i mmedi at ely broadened my geo-vision t o a scale
even larger t h an t h at from w h ich I h ad been w arned. In discussion w ith
Marsh all Kay, I reali zed t h at t h ere i s an ext raordi nary correspondence
bet w een t h e geology of w est ern I reland and t h at of New foundland. Th is
230 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
marked a sea ch ange for me: si nce t h en, I have doggedly st uck t o a
research course t h at combi nes i nt ensely det ai led fi eldw ork w i t h model
bui ldi ng, speculat i on, h ypot h esi s t est i ng, and extensive readi ng across
most of t h e eart h sci ences and regi onal t ect oni c synt h esi s, i n t h e fi rm
belief t h at w i t h out det ai led fi eld know ledge t h e rest i s useless. As Fran-
ci s Pet t i joh n remarked, "the t rut h resides i n t h e rocks," and "th ere i s
not h i ng as soberi ng as an out crop." These t rut h s are ext ant and even
more i mport ant t oday t h an t h ey w ere i n t h e 1950s.
In 1965, I w as profoundly i gnorant of development s t aki ng place from
th e w ork of th e great oceanograph i c laboratories of Lamont , Scripps, and
t h e Woods Hole Oceanograph i c I nst i t ut i on. Alt h ough I h ad read Fred
Vi ne and D rummond Mat t h ew s' 1963 paper on sea floor spreadi ng, li ke
many (perh aps most ) geologists at t h e t i me, t h e oceans w ere an irrele-
vant myst ery to me.
2
Alt h ough I w as dully aw are of the w ork of Harry Hess
and Bob Di et z, I w as i nfluenced by the fixism of Sir Harold Jeffreys. As an
undergraduat e I h ad h eard t h e persuasive mobi li st argument s of Art h ur
Holmes of D urh am University, and Lester Ki ng and Stanley Holli ngw ort h
of Uni versi t y College, London, but for some st range reason t h e mobi li st
argument s always seemed i rrelevant to my research and t h i nki ng.
3
Per-
h aps it w as because I w as embedded in th e cont i nent s.
Th ree event s fundament ally ch anged my geo-life. First, one early
aut umn morni ng i n 1964, I w as si t t i ng i n my room i n t h e Sedgwick
Museum i n Cambri dge t ryi ng t o fat h om t h e myst eri es of ki nk bands,
w h en Toront o's Tuzo Wi lson, on sabbatical leave, saunt ered i n clearly
burst i ng t o tell anyone w h o w ould li st en about h i s new ideas. He h ad dis-
covered t h at I w as t h e new lect urer i n st ruct ural geology and said,
"Dewey, I have just discovered a new class of fault ." "Rubbi sh ," I sai d, "w e
know about t h e geomet ry and ki nemat i cs of every ki nd of fault know n
t o manki nd." Tuzo gri nned and produced a si mple colored folded-paper
versi on of h i s now -famous ri dge/t ransform/ri dge model and proceeded
t o open and close, open and close i t w i t h t h at w onderful smile on h i s
face.
4
I w as t ransfi xed bot h by t h e reali zat i on t h at I w as seei ng somet h i ng
profoundly new and i mport ant and by t h e fact t h at I w as t alki ng t o a very
clever and ori gi nal man. This moment t ransformed my research li fe.
Alt h ough I w as embarked i rreversi bly upon synt h esi s, i t w as still part of
my i nt ellect ual baggage, as a classically t rai ned geologist, t h at one must
always first gat h er lots of dat a, t h en bui ld slowly upw ard tow ard models
(t h e i nduct i ve or Baconi an met h od). Th e concept t h at one could
develop a model and t h en t est and falsi fy i t (t h e deduct i ve or Popperi an
met h od) w as w h olly new and exci t i ng. Some eart h sci ent i st s h ave still not
grasped t h e basic concept of h ow t o do sci ence and still believe, mi st ak-
Plate Tec tonic s and Geology, 1965 to Today 231
enly, t h at , i f one gat h ers enough random dat a, t h e ' answ er' w ill spri ng,
mysteriously, from t h at data mass.
Second, in 1965, Marsh all Kay persuaded Columbi a ast ronomer Bob
Jastrow t o i nvi t e me t o t h e Goddard I nst i t ut e Conference on cont i nent al
dri ft at t h e Goddard I nst i t ut e i n New York, at w h i ch t h ere w ere spectac-
ular di sput es bet w een t h ose li ke Gordon MacDonald and Art Boucot on
t h e fi xi st side and Teddy Bullard of Cambri dge and ot h ers on t h e mobi li st
side. Marsh all Kay and I rat h er passively present ed a paper sh ow ing t h at ,
upon closure of th e Nort h At lant i c Ocean, th e det ai led zonal geology of
New foundland and I reland fi t spectacularly. Th i s could not possibly be
fort ui t ous, and it implied pre-Cenozoic cont i nui t y about 200 mi lli on
years before t h e development of Appalach i an/Caledoni an ch ai n.
5
Wh et h er by dri ft or oceani zat i on (t h e myst eri ous mafi c metasomatism or
t ransformat i on of cont i nent al i nt o oceani c crust ) seemed i rrelevant .
Th i rd, i mmedi at ely follow i ng t h e Goddard Conference, I spent a few
days at Lamont ch at t i ng w i t h Lynn Sykes, Walter Pi t man, and Bill Ryan.
Pi t man showed me t h e Eltanin-19 profi le and told me w h at i t meant for
quant i fyi ng rat es, di rect i ons, and t i mi ng of sea floor spreadi ng, and t h at
t h e oceans are all Mesozoi c/Cenozoi c, t h at i s, younger t h an about 160
mi lli on years. I w as mi ldly i mpressed and remarked, "Int erest i ng but
keep i t i n t h e oceans and don' t let i t ont o t h e cont i nent s." Pi t man w as
sli gh t ly scat h i ng and mut t ered darkly about t h e i gnorance and narrow -
mi ndedness of geologists.
Strangely, alt h ough my remark w as fooli sh in its i nt ent , sea floor spread-
i ng i s a solely oceanic ph enomenon. Th ere, t h e boundary conduct i on
layer is generat ed, cools, subsides, and is subduct ed as the mai n engi ne of
global h eat loss, in cont rast to the w eak, old, and largely non-geodegrad-
able cont i nent s.
6
Soon Lynn Sykes w ould publi sh his mast erpi ece on the
active segments of oceanic t ransform fault s in w h i ch h e showed t h at t h ei r
mot i ons support ed precisely the predi ct i ons of Tuzo Wilson's 1965 paper
t h at explai ned oceanic t ransform fault s: namely, t h at th e tw o sides of th e
fault w ere moving exactly as predi ct ed if th e ocean crust w ere spli t t i ng
apart along t h e mid-ocean ridges, and t h e t ransform fault s connect ed one
segment of a ridge to anot h er.
7
Sykes tested Wilson's idea by analyzing the
mot i ons on ei t h er side of the fault : w h i ch side w as being compressed,
w h i ch side w as under t ensi on? Lynn Sykes generously spent time explain-
ing it to me, w h i ch pri nci ple may be explained as follow s.
I h ave a si mple i magi nary experi ment t h at explai ns h ow det ai led/
compressional fi rst -mot i on solutions w ork, w h i ch both undergraduat e
and graduat e st udent s seem t o enjoy. I magi ne a fault , say t h e San
Andreas Fault , along w h i ch a segment i s ' st uck' and t h e surroundi ng
232 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
rocks are accumulat i ng an elastic sh ear st rai n. As t h e st rai n accumulat es
and just before t h e coeffi ci ent of sliding fri ct i on i s surpassed, and t h e
fault slips t o produce an eart h quake, let us set up t h e follow i ng hypo-
t h et i cal scenari o. Choose four w illing graduate st udent s and supply each
w i t h a bag of cement , a sh eet of plate glass, suffi ci ent bricks to bui ld a
small w all, and a large jar of pet roleum jelly. Let each st udent occupy a
quadrant of t h e fault t race i n relat i on t o t h e expect ed epi cent er, and let
each bui ld a wall bet w een a sh eet of plat e glass cement ed to th e subst rat e
and t h e expected epi cent er. Th en let each st udent st and on t h e sh eet of
plat e glass w i t h feet liberally lubri cat ed w i t h pet roleum jelly and place
h i s or h er h ands upon t h e wall and 'w ait for t h e eart h quake.' Wh en t h e
fault slips, t w o st udent s are smash ed i nt o t h e wall (compressi onal quad-
rant s) and t w o fall backw ard (di lat i onal quadrant s). Hence four quad-
rant s, t w o compressi onal and t w o di lat i onal, defi ne t w o planes, one par-
allel w i t h and one ort h ogonal t o t h e fault t h rough t h e epi cent er, and
give t h e sense of mot i on on t h e fault . (R at h er t h an use st udent s i n t h i s
abusive way, we use sei smomet ers.)
Tuzo Wilson's 1965 paper really was the begi nni ng of plat e t ect oni cs,
in w h i ch th e basic concept s of th e evolution of boundari es bet w een rigid
plates w ere h ammered out . Subsequently, Tuzo told me t h at , h ad h e
know n Euler' s t h eorem descri bi ng t h e relative mot i on of rigid bodi es on
a sph eri cal surface, h e w ould have nai led plat e t ect oni cs cold. Inst ead,
t h i s w as done t w o years lat er by Dan McKenzi e and Bob Parker, and Jason
Morgan at Pri ncet on, w i t h i mport ant addi t i onal cont ri but i ons by Xavier
Le Pi ch on, Bryan Isacks, Jack Oliver, and Lynn Sykes at Lament .
8
Th ere h ad been many earli er ' sni ffs' of some of th e element s of plat e
t ect oni cs, all generat ed by geologists w i t h great fi eld experi ence and
underst andi ng. Bert Q uennell, aft er many years of w orki ng on t h e geol-
ogy of t h e Middle East, far from h i s native New Zealand, reali zed t h at
th e Dead Sea Fault described a port i on of a small ci rcle about a pole in
nort h w est Afri ca, and t h at t h e Arabi an "block" h ad moved nort h and
rot at ed count erclockw i se w ith respect to an "African block."
9
Earlier,
Harry Wellman of Welli ngt on Uni versi t y, New Zealand, t h ough t t h at t h e
Alpi ne fault i n New Zealand w as a connect i ng "t ransform" bet w een
zones of sh ort eni ng i n t h e nort h and sout h islands.
10
However, alt h ough
all t h i s "mobilism" w as in th e background of geology si nce th e days and
ideas of Alfred Wegener, Alexander du Toit, Lester Ki ng, David Griggs,
and Art h ur Holmes, i t h ad no proper skeletal st ruct ure because t h e
oceans w ere largely unknow n unt i l t h e postw ar begi nni ngs of cruises
from t h e great oceanograph i c i nst i t ut i ons.
11
A profoundly i mport ant cont ri but i on t o t h e development of plat e tec-
Plate Tec tonic s and Geology, 1965 to Today 233
t oni cs w as t h at of George Plafker, a distinguish ed geologist w orki ng w i t h
the U.S. Geological Survey, follow i ng the 1964 Anch orage eart h quake.
Plafker mapped out , over a h uge region, those areas t h at h ad risen and
sunk duri ng t h e eart h quake show ing t h at t h ey w ere separat ed by a li ne
runni ng parallel w i t h , and about 160 miles (250 ki lomet ers) i nboard of,
th e oceanic t rench .
12
Th e first mot i on pat t ern of th e 20-mile (30 kilo-
meter)-deep earth quake indicated a choice betw een a steeply southeast
di ppi ng t h rust nodal plane and a gent ly nort h w est -di ppi ng t h rust nodal
plane, bot h pot ent i al fault planes; geophysicists h ad ch osen t h e former.
Plafker pointed out w ith simple, cold logic t h at it was impossible to have
a 650 mi le (1,000-kilometer) long st eep t h rust t h at di d not break t h e sur-
face somew h ere (bli nd t h rust ). He argued t h at t h e shallow t h rust plane
must be t h e correct ch oice and, moreover, project ed toward t h e oceanic
t rench , suggesting t h at t h e ocean floor slips beneat h Alaska, creat i ng t h e
zones of deep-focus eart h quakes described in the 1930s by K. Wadati,
and in the 1950s by Hugo Beni off. Such is the nat ure of si mple effect i ve
geologic argument . Years before, similar geomet ri c argument s by t h e
Austrian A. Amstutz, from regional structural geology, had led to the
development of t h e idea of li mi t ed cont i nent al subduct i on, w h ere one
piece of cont i nent al crust overrode anot h er i n mount ai n belts. Likewise
two Austrians, O. Ampferer and W. Hammer, had argued t h at the swal-
low ing of cont i nent al crust beneat h mount ai ns t akes place in Ver-
sc hluc kungzonen, or zones of swallowing.
13
Knowing of my developing interests in New foundland geology in partic-
ular and Appalachian geology in general, Ward Neale, professor of geology
and head of the depart ment at Memorial University in St. Joh n's New-
foundland, invited me to spend a field season in New foundland in 1967.
Luckily, I gained support for this from a Natural Envi ronment Research
Council (NERC) three-year research grant. I began work on the Burlington
Peninsula in New foundland, along the length of w hich runs a belt of highly
deformed mafi c rocks (rich in magnesium and i ron), w hich separate con-
tinental rocks from an ancient volcanic chain. We now know this zone to be
the line of the Ordovician Collision (ca. 470 million years ago) betw een the
anci ent North American cont i nent and a contemporaneous volcanic island
chain, or "island arc." However, at that early stage, I was unaw are of such
concepts and was in New foundland to begin a project t h at was to try to mea-
sure the amount of shortening across the Appalachians of New foundland,
a task th at we know now to be fruitless and pointless because the closure of
an ocean involves massive subduction unrecorded in the rock record. I
quickly saw the dead-end nat ure of my initial plans and switched my atten-
tion to mappi ng and trying to understand the varied rock groups.
234 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTI NENTS
In 1967, Marsh all Kay of Columbi a Uni versi t y organi zed a Conference
i n Gander, New foundland, w h i ch brough t t oget h er many Appalach i an
and Caledonian geologists. In spite of some superb geological discus-
sions about h ow t h e Appalach i ans mi gh t h ave once been cont i nuous
w i t h t h e Caledoni des pri or t o t h e openi ng of t h e Nort h At lant i c, t h ere
w as no ment i on of Tuzo Wi lson' s i dea t h at an old ocean mi gh t h ave
closed somew h ere along t h e Appalach i an/Caledoni an Orogen.
14
Th e
argument s from oceani c and seismic dat a t h at w ere leadi ng, i nexorably
and qui ckly, t o t h e development of plat e t ect oni cs si mply w ere not part
of th e i nt ellect ual equi pment of most geologists at th e t i me. We took th e
somew h at snobbi sh view t h at cont i nent al geological dat a for w h i ch one
sw eated w as superi or t o remot ely sensed oceani c dat a. Perh aps t h i s w as
a defensive count eract i on to th e physicists' prevailing view t h at only
ph ysi cs i s really sci ence, and t h e rest i s st amp collect i ng. Bot h are absurd
and ext reme posi t i ons. We all need each ot h er i n t h e eart h sci ences i f
progress is to be made.
In 1967, follow i ng a fi eld season i n New foundland and t h e Gander
Conference, I spent a w onderful sabbat i cal leave at Lamont . Lamont
professor Ch uck Drake h ad been i n Cambri dge on sabbat i cal leave dur-
ing the previous year and, know ing of my interests in synt h esi zi ng the
geology of t h e Appalach i an/Caledoni an ch ai n, h e i nvi t ed me t o Colum-
bi a Uni versi t y w h ere, h e h i nt ed, t ect oni c t h i ngs w ere h appeni ng fast and
I could avail myself of t h e opport uni t y t o broaden my educat i on. I w as
given an offi ce, a large Lamont -st yle li gh t table, and an i nexh aust i ble
supply of t raci ng li nen (my - h ow comput ers h ave ch anged and vastly
i mproved our draft i ng capaci t y) and w as encouraged t o assemble a car-
tographic synthesis of the Appalach i an/Caledoni an belt . I copied and
generali zed all t h e state geologic maps of New E ngland and t h e provi nce
maps of th e Canadi an Mari t i mes and t ransposed th e result s ont o a 10
foot long map from New York t o New foundland. I puzzled and marveled
at t h e zones of Ordovi ci an volcani cs, t h e ult ramafi c belt s, and t h e zones
of Ordovi ci an and Si luri an deformat i on. Li ke H arry Hess years before,
I reali zed t h at serpent i ni t es, volcani c zones of part i cular geoch emi st ry
and age, and deformat i on of various types and ages occur in zones, some
of w h i ch are cont i nuous or semi cont i nuous along t h e lengt h of t h e
mount ai n belt .
Wh i le I w as doi ng all t h i s, Xavi er Le Pi ch on, Bryan Isacks, Jack Oliver,
and Lynn Sykes at Lamont , and Jason Morgan at Pri ncet on w ere w ri t i ng
t h ei r profoundly i nci si ve papers on plat e t ect oni cs, each w i t h a clearly
di fferent slant and approach .
15
Eeri ly, I felt t h e rest rai ni ng i nfluence of
Walt er Buch er of Columbi a Uni versi t y t h rough my conversat i ons w ith
Plate Tec tonic s and Geology, 1965 to Today 235
Mauri ce Ew i ng, w h o w as i nfluenced, deeply, by Buch er, probably
because in those days geophysicists believed w h at geologists said. Ewing
gave h is approval to mobi li sm only w h en, in 1971, it w as all ' si gned,
sealed and deli vered.' It w as duri ng my t i me i n Lament i n 1967-1968
t h at I reali zed h ow very i mport ant Kei t h R uncorn' s paleomagnet i c w ork
was. Nei l Opdyke at Lamont cont ri but ed t o my geological educat i on by
sh ow i ng me h ow R uncorn h ad, years before, demonst rat ed t h at t h e
Nort h Ameri can and E uropean polar-w anderi ng curves mat ch preci sely
for a closed Nort h At lant i c.
16
I produced an i nt erpret at i ve t ect oni c map
of t h e Appalach i an/Caledoni an ch ai n t h at w as t o form t h e basis of most
of my w ork over t h e next few years.
My new geological education was complet ed. I came back to Cambridge
in 1968 full of myself, excited and "hot-to-trot" in global t ect oni cs and its
geologic expression, and to spread the gospel about the new w ay to do
geology. Not surprisingly, my evangelical zeal led to some resistance. Some
resulted from th e i nnat e conservatism of classically t rai ned geologists, but
some result ed from an ill-founded w orry t h at classical geology w as fi n-
ished. Robin Ni ch olson of Manch est er Uni versi t y said to me, aft er I h ad
given an ent h usi ast i c lect ure, "If you are ri gh t , we are all out of jobs." Not h -
i ng w as furt h er from t h e t rut h ; w e w ere just embarki ng on a qui t e extra-
ordi nary voyage of geological discovery from w h i ch we w ould never dis-
embark. I w rote a number of papers on the geology of openi ng and closing
oceans, especially for t h e Appalach i an/Caledoni an Orogen, some w i t h
Jack Bird of the State Uni versi t y of New York at Albany, w h ose geological
w ork in and underst andi ng of ext ernal zones of th e nort h ern Appalach i-
ans was, and is, unsurpassed. Jack Bird t augh t me t ect onost rat i graph y -
h ow to look at th e i nt ernal and ext ernal stratigraph y of a mount ai n belt
and draw regional conclusions about i t s t i mi ng and ki nemat i cs. More
recently, my Oxford colleague Maria Mange h as t augh t me t h at h eavy
minerals hold the key to underst andi ng the sources of sedi ment ary mate-
ri als and t h e pat t erns of upli ft and erosion i n mount ai n belts.
By early 1969, I was ready and eager to explai n the geology of the
Appalachian/Caledonian Orogen to anyone who would listen.
17
I had a
detailed geot ect oni c/t ect onost rat i graph i c map of t h e Orogen t h at , I
believed, w as only explicable in t erms of an ocean t h at opened in the late
Precambrian, 550 million years ago, and closed duri ng the late Silurian,
400 million years ago. I encount ered ast oni sh i ng resistance from the geo-
logical communi t y but h uge support from t h e geophysical communi t y, t h e
result of which being t h at my allegiance to and interest in geophysics
remai ns. I w as floundering around in a no-man's land bet w een geology
and geophysics in 1968-1969 w h en Teddy Bullard, follow i ng a semi nar
236 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
t h at I gave at Madingley Rise in Cambridge, took me out to di nner in Col-
lege and gave me some profoundly i mport ant advice about how to do sci-
ence, for w h i ch I am et ernally grat eful. It may be summari zed as follow s.
First, do somet h i ng rat h er t h an not h i ng. Second, have ideas and test
t h em. Th i rd, respect data but remember t h at 'dat a' are elusive and
observer-controlled. Fourt h , t h i nk big and do not let senior people dom-
i nat e you and tell you w h at t o do. I cannot emph asi ze t oo strongly w h at a
great man and scientist Teddy Bullard was. He cared deeply about science
and t rut h , and i nfluenced and encouraged a large number of young geo-
scientists at Cambridge, i ncludi ng myself, Jo Cann, and Dan McKenzi e.
In early 1969, I saw an advert i sement for t h e fi rst Penrose Conference
on Global Tect oni cs and Geology organi zed by Bill Di cki nson at t h e
A si lomar Conference Cent er on t h e Mont erey Peni nsula. D i cki nson h ad
seen t h e need for a conference t o pull t oget h er all t h e t h reads of t h e
rapidly developi ng ideas of plat e t ect oni cs and t h ei r role in th e t ect on-
i cs of t h e cont i nent s. I ph oned Bi ll from Albany, w h ere I w as w orki ng
w i t h Jack Bi rd on some Appalach i an/Caledoni an papers, and pleaded
t o at t end. He qui zzed me strongly, demandi ng t o know w h at i nt ellect ual
"geo-underst andi ng" I could bri ng t o t h e conference. I said t h at I w as an
admi rer of Joh n St ei nbeck's novels, especi ally Cannery Row and East of
Eden, t o est abli sh my Cali forni an credent i als, and t h at I believed t h at
I h ad a modest underst andi ng of bot h t h e Appalach i an/Caledoni an
(reasonably just i fi ed) and Alpi ne (part i ally unjust i fi ed) mount ai n belt
systems. Bill very ki ndly i nvi t ed me and I arri ved i n Mont erey ready t o
evangeli ze and learn. Th e part i ci pant slate w as i mpressi ve: MIT's Clark
Burch fi el, USC's Greg Davis, Ji m Gilluly, Steve Ori el, Gary E rnst , Bob
Coleman, Warren H ami lt on, and Clark Blake, all of t h e USGS, among
many ot h ers - all names t h at I knew from t h ei r publi cat i ons and repu-
t at i ons. Th ei r present at i ons w ere all superb, but w e w ere all blow n away
by one of Bi ll Menard' s graduat e st udent s from Scripps, a modest young
w oman named Tanya Atw ater. Sh e sh ow ed t h e geological w orld, for t h e
fi rst t i me, h ow quant i t at i ve relat i ve plat e mot i on could be t ranslat ed i nt o
geological predi ct i ons t h at could be tested agai nst th e know n geology of
w est ern Nort h Ameri ca. Th e result s w ere spectacular. Tanya showed qui-
etly, w i t h det ai l and preci si on, h ow t h e mi grat i on of t w o plat e t ri ple junc-
t i ons and th e grow th of th e San Andreas Fault explai ned th e t i mi ng of
cont i nent al margi n volcani sm i n w est ern Nort h Ameri ca.
18
For me, t h i s
w as th e end of an era of geot ect oni c speculat i on and th e begi nni ng of a
new w orld of pot ent i ally quant i t at i ve and testable geot ect oni c synt h esi s.
From 1969 to about 1972, the i mpact of the geological ideas st emmi ng
from plat e t ect oni cs w as mut ed by t h e ch aract eri st i c geological aversion
Plate Tec tonic s and Geology, 1965 to Today 237
t o bold, rat i onal solut i ons t o geological problems; small-scale complex-
i t y commonly ret ards and obscures our underst andi ng of larger-scale
si mpli ci t y. At t h e ot h er ext reme, t h e pri nci pal ch aract eri st i cs of a major
new paradi gm took its gri p on geology. A rei gn of t error prevailed for a
few years i n w h i ch bli nd accept ance w as accompani ed by t h e necessi t y
to explain everyt h i ng in t erms of plat e tectonics.
19
This w as a ph ase of
t h e oft en pri mi t i ve, shallow, and banal cast i ng of all geology i n a poorly
underst ood plat e t ect oni cs framew ork. Fort unat ely, t h i s ph ase w as sh ort -
lived and by 1973 geologists w ere t aki ng plat e t ect oni cs more seriously.
But t h e ' rei gn of t error' ph ase h as left a legacy of poorly const ruct ed and
badly underst ood regi onal t ect oni c synth eses.
D uri ng t h e early days of plat e t ect oni cs, t h e w ords p late tec tonic w ere
i nsert ed i n t h e t i t le of many papers for w h i ch plat e t ect oni cs i s i rrelevant
or, at best , of margi nal i mport ance. A part i cular t yranny w as t h e imposi-
t i on of ext ant plat e t ect oni c processes on anci ent rock systems. Th is w ent
w ay beyond th e rat i onal i nt erpret at i on of anci ent volcani c belts as for-
mer i sland arcs, ult ramat i c rocks, or remnant s of anci ent sea floor, and
t h i ck sequences of sedi ment ary rocks as anci ent ocean t rench es. Mod-
ern plat e t ect oni cs w as "sh oe-h orned" i nt o t h e Precambri an, even back
i nt o t h e Arch ean, t h e peri od at t h e st art of eart h h i st ory more t h an 2 bil-
li on years ago. Yet even a casual exami nat i on of Arch ean rocks i ndi cat es
qui t e clearly t h at t h e rocks are di fferent , and arranged i n di fferent ways,
t h an in later geological periods. The very early h i st ory of the earth is not
w ell explai ned by t h e ri gi d plat e model t h at w orks so well for most of t h e
rest of eart h h i st ory. Th e early eart h w as probably very h ot , and h eat loss
t h rough convect i on li kely t ook place at a much fast er rat e t h an today.
Some form of rapid mobilism, not of large rigid or semi-rigid plates but
rat h er more duct i le smaller blocks may h ave prevailed.
It i s also clear t h at t h e eart h h as experienced nei t h er a const ant t ect oni c
pat t ern nor one of simple uni di rect i onal evolution since Arch ean times.
First, there is clearly a global tectonic cycle t h at assembles continental
blocks and t h en disrupts t h em, so t h at episodes of collision, compression
and cont i nent al amalgamation alt ernat e complexly w i t h periods of conti-
nent al di srupt i on, breakup, and growth of th e ocean floor. D i fferent peri-
ods in earth history have been characterized by di fferent domi nant tec-
t oni c regimes. Th erefore, the study of global secular tectonic evolution
and comparat i ve t ect oni cs will be an i mport ant fi eld, w h i ch needs a new
generat i on of ult ra-fi ne field studies t h at address new questions.
By 1973, we realized t h at plate tectonics, although a bold, si mpli fyi ng
paradi gm, does not si mpli fy geology magically and overni gh t . Plate tec-
t oni cs i s not only a spect acularly successful and rat i onal framew ork, but
238 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CO NT I NE NT S
i t i s a concept t h at demands t h at geology i s as compli cat ed as w e know i t
t o be. Th e evolut i on of plat e boundary mosai cs w i t h st able and unst able
t ri ple junct i ons and plat e boundari es across w h i ch sli p di rect i ons must
ch ange w i t h t i me generat es geologi cal evolut i on of t h e great est com-
plexi t y.
20
Th e poor geologist st ruggles t o underst and t h i s ni gh t mare of
complexi t y and t ri es t o bui ld a synt h et i c pi ct ure. We are vi ct i ms of t h e
i nversi on problem: w e can generat e t h e evolut i on of credi ble compli -
cat ed plat e boundary mosai cs and make preci se predi ct i ons about t h e
geology t h at t h e evolut i on of such mosai cs sh ould creat e, but w e cannot
w ork uni quely t h e ot h er w ay around from t h e result t o t h e model. T h e
value of models i s, t h erefore, not t h at t h ey provi de solut i ons t o t h e real
w orld, but t h at t h ey give us i deas about h ow t o proceed.
D uri ng t h e fall quart er of 1998,1 w as pri vi leged t o give a graduat e tec-
t oni cs course at UC Davis. Aft er a few lect ures and semi nars, several grad-
uat e st udent s asked me w h at geology w as li ke before plat e t ect oni cs. I
said t h at t h ere w as no uni fyi ng t h eory and t h at w e w ere subject t o a ni gh t -
mare, necromant i c w orld of geosyncli nes and t ect ogenes as port rayed i n
Umbgrove' s books Symp hony of the Earth and Pulse of the Earth. I explai ned
t h at few geologists really beli eved i n t h ese concept s and t h at , conse-
quent ly, w e w ere t h row n back i nt o smaller-scale geology t o underst and
h i st ory and process. I furt h er explai ned t h at , as a result , much of t h e
modern sci ent i fi c background w as lai d dow n, w i t h out w h i ch li t t le mod-
ern process-ori ent ed progress could be made.
My own view of geology ch anged profoundly from 1969 to 1982. I gave
lect ures to th e New York Academy of Sci ences in 1970 and agai n in 1982.
Ch arlot t e Sch rei ber of Columbi a Uni versi t y remarked t h at , i n 1970, I
lect ured w i t h t h e convi ct i on t h at plat e t ect oni cs w as about t o explai n
w i t h relat i ve si mpli ci t y th e w h ole of geology; in 1982, I asseverat ed, pes-
si mi st i cally, t h at geology i s so complex t h at w e w i ll never explai n i t . My
present position is somewhere bet w een those tw o extremes. Plate tec-
t oni cs i s, i nh erent ly, a si mple, beaut i ful concept , but i t s smaller-scale
result s are bew i lderi ngly compli cat ed.
Perh aps t h e most pressi ng problem t h at remai ns i n t ect oni cs, and one
t h at w e scarcely underst and, i s t h e t ect oni c and st ruct ural evolut i on of
plat e boundary zones, part i cularly i n relat i on t o t opograph y. How exactly
do mount ai ns grow i n areas of crust al compressi on? Wh at cont rols t h e
rat e of deformat i on and upli ft ? A great ch allenge now i s t o use seismic
dat a, i ncludi ng dat a from scarcely det ect able eart h quakes, t o det ermi ne
t h e di st ri but i on of st rai n along plat e margi ns and relat e t h i s quant i t at i vely
to th e grow t h of t opograph y.
Th e 1970s saw a progressi ve general accept ance of plat e t ect oni cs as
Plate Tec tonic s and Geology, 1965 to Today 239
t h e best available model unt i l, by t h e end of t h at decade, i t became t h e
domi nant paradi gm. It w as used and mi sused pervasively, as t h e back-
ground basis of regi onal t ect oni c analysis. Th e problem was, and still is,
li nki ng cont i nent al plate boundary geology w ith relative plate move-
ment s, bot h quant i t at i vely and convincingly. At w at er' s model, li nki ng
t h e Mesozoi c/Cenozoi c plat e boundary of w est ern Nort h Ameri ca t o i t s
result ant geology, remai ns a uni que mast erpi ece, alt h ough si mi lar less
successful models h ave been bui lt for t h e Alpi ne system, t h e I ndi a/Asi a
collisional system, the Andes, and the Caribbean.
21
Duri ng the early to
mid-1970s, a subst ant i al amount of t h eoret i cal quant i t at i ve w ork w as
done on t h e evolut i on of plate boundari es, based on t h e t ri ple junct i on
analysis of McKenzi e and Morgan and th e evolut i on of plat e mosaics.
22
Th i s led t o a more rat i onal plat e t ect oni c framew ork for geology, but also
to a developing realization t h at plate tectonics not only can, but must ,
generat e geological pat t erns and h i st ori es of very great complexi t y for
w h i ch uni que plat e t ect oni c solut i ons are unli kely t o be ach i eved.
S O ME T HO UGHT S O N S C I E N T I FI C R E S E A R C H
Science is a st rangely addi ct i ve beast . I i ncli ne st rongly toward th e Pop-
peri an rat h er t h an t h e Baconi an view of progress i n research , for w h i ch
I h ave t o t h ank t h e Uni versi t y of Houst on' s Kevin Burke as for much else.
I believe t h at the h istory of plate tectonics supports Karl Popper's view
t h at science advances by refut i ng false i deas. Wh en I w as a young geolo-
gist, money w as scarce but one could follow one' s nose i n research rat h er
t h an bei ng told w h at t o do t o i mprove t h e "quali t y of li fe," engage i n
"w ealth creat i on," and be review ed and assessed to deat h by bureaucrat s.
The trust seems to have gone out of modern science; the basic t rust t h at
most scientists will w ork di li gent ly and i nt elli gent ly t o solve w h at t h ey
percei ve t o be t h e i mport ant and i nt erest i ng problems i n science seems
t o have vani sh ed. Scientists are generally paid poorly, but most of t h em
love research and w ork long h ours t o fi nd t h i ngs out .
23
Modern bureau-
cratic obsessions w ith money and accountability are destroying the trust
and t h e love of sci ence. Young sci ent i st s on t h e post doct oral t readmi ll
h ave li t t le or no career st ruct ure and li t t le i ncent i ve; t h e best keep going
for t h e exci t ement of discovery.
Wh en I w as a young geologist in Britain in the 1960s and a slightly older
geologist in the United States duri ng the 1970s, the fundi ng agencies
responded almost w h olly to proposals received. The position is now
reversed; t h emat i c designed science is geared to percept i ons of "social
240 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
benefi t "; buzz words such as "quali t y of li fe" and "wealth creat i on" domi-
nate. Wh en will politicians and our fundi ng masters realize t h at it is impos-
sible to predi ct w h at science is "i mport ant " and "useful" and w h at is not ?
Th e w ay to promot e th e best basic sci ence is to h ave th e fundi ng agencies
simply judge submi t t ed proposals for t h ei r sci ent i fi c excellence irrespec-
tive of t h ei r fi eld or topic. It is i nappropri at e and damaging to th e scien-
t i fi c effort for bureaucrat s, abet t ed by seni or scientists, t o solicit proposals
i n part i cular t h emat i c areas. Scientists, especially t h e young, sh ould follow
t h ei r i nt erest s and noses and not be di ct at ed t o and told w h at t o do.
Above all, w e must not li st en t o t h e pronouncement s of seni or sci en-
tists t h at affect t h e research lives of t h e young. Seni or fi gures are an
equal part of t h e research communi t y; t h ey may know more but t h ey are
not necessari ly any w i ser or fat i di cal. For example, i n t h e 1960s, t h ere
w as a subst ant i al t ensi on among seni or fi gures, such as Mauri ce Ew i ng
and Walt er Buch er, w h o w ere commi t t ed fi xi st s, and Harry Hess and Bob
Di et z, w h o w ere ent h usi ast i c mobi li st s. Walt er Buch er h ad a subst ant i al
i nfluence on t h e t h i nki ng of seni or research ers at Lamont . Ch uck D rake
told me t h at h e ri di culed mobi li sm i n h i s lect ures t o graduat e st udent s
and i n numerous conversat i ons w i t h colleagues i n Columbi a Uni versi t y.
In some cases h i s commi t ment t o an i mmobi le crust led t o i nt erpret a-
t i ons t h at w ere clearly absurd. D uri ng my several visits t o Lamont i n t h e
1960s, I felt t h e undercurrent of di sapproval and negat i ve background
agai nst w h i ch t h e more advent urous younger mobi li st s w ere w orki ng. I t
all came ri gh t i n t h e end, because clever and ori gi nal people like Lynn
Sykes and Walt er Pi t man w ere i rrepressi ble, and because a subst ant i al
component of t h e plat e t ect oni c revolut i on came from Jason Morgan at
Pri ncet on, w h ere Harry Hess w as a ch ampi on of mobi li sm, and from
Cambri dge, w h ere Teddy Bullard encouraged free t h i nki ng among t h e
young, especi ally Dan McKenzi e. I somet i mes w onder, however, w h at
mi gh t h ave h appened i f t h e seni or fi gures of t h e t i me h ad h ad t h e pow er
t o complet ely cont rol t h e fundi ng and research of younger w orkers. We
must bew are of fash i on i n sci ence, part i cularly w h en admi ni st ered by
domi nant senior fi gures and fundi ng agencies. It h as th e power to seri-
ously di st ort and decay our basic research effort .
It i s w ort h bri efly exami ni ng w h at I percei ve t o be a w orryi ng, i ncreas-
ingly degraded role for classic field-based geology in the eart h sciences.
I see t h e modern eart h sci ences as rat h er li ke a "puff-ball." Si nce t h e
advent of plat e t ect oni cs some 30 years ago, t h e eart h sci ences h ave
grown pri nci pally by the addition of branch es, stand-alone add-ons, and
layers, pri nci pally of geoph ysi cs and geoch emi st ry, commonly dri ven by
new i nst rument s and comput er-based numeri cal modeli ng. Th ese areas
Plate Tec tonic s and Geology, 1965 to Today 241
have come t o domi nat e t h e eart h sci ences i n i nfluence, i mport ance, and
fundi ng, t o t h e di mi ni sh ment and deni grat i on of classic fi eld-based geol-
ogy. Th us, li ke t h e puff-ball, t h ere i s a sh i ny, at t ract i ve sh ell t h at cont ai ns
a rot t i ng core of geology. We must redress t h i s gross i mbalance by giving
our st udent s a solid, basic, geological t rai ni ng and by comi ng back t o t h e
realization t h at the t rut h resides ult i mat ely in field geology. Rocks, fos-
sils, and mi nerals are i mmensely compli cat ed systems but , w i t h geo-
ph ysi cal and geoch emi cal data and t h e ideas t h at stem from t h em i n t h e
mi nds of clever people, t h ey are th e subst ance of our sci ence. A good
useful basic rule i s, i f you don' t map i t at t h e appropri at e scale, you w on' t
underst and i t . We must remember t h at comput ers do not h ave ideas;
ideas spri ng from our brai ns. Geologists especially must not be di mi n-
ished and subjugated by those w ho "wield" laboratory i nst rument s and
generat e numeri cal models.
Geology i s a di ffi cult , fi eld-based sci ence t h at t akes i mmense amount s
of t i me, pat i ence, and care. Th e obsession t h at only fully quant i fi ed
"solut i ons" are valid i s exceedi ngly fooli sh and dangerous. Most of t h e
biological sci ences are analogous t o geology and not quant i fi ed i n t h e
w ay t h at si mple geophysical and geoch emi cal models are. Th e not i on of
a fully numeri cal algorith m to describe the geology and evolution of a
large segment of t h e cont i nent al crust i s ri di culous and unat t ai nable.
Perh aps it is th is impossibility t h at has led to the fragment at i on of geol-
ogy i nt o small, process-oriented parcels in w h i ch a part i cular modern
observable process is st udi ed, described, and quant i fi ed as in the met h ods
of physics and chemistry. This, in t urn, has led to the idea t h at h istory is less
i mport ant and t h at w e only need to study process to underst and th e eart h .
The earth has a complicated history t h at integrates these process parcels
and cannot be underst ood even by know i ng everyt h i ng about all th e indi-
vidual parcels. The process parcels are essential tools but are not a substi-
t ut e for underst andi ng th e history of th e planet . In any case, th e modern
earth is th e result of a long evolution duri ng w h i ch qui t e di fferent processes
may have operat ed. Th e present is not (fully) th e key to th e past and th e
reverse is also true. In my view, it is essential to the fut ure of tectonics t h at
much more intelligently conceived, field-based geology is i nject ed i nt o our
t h i nki ng if we wish to avoid errors and oversi mpli fi cat i on.
C O N C L US I O N
I am near t h e end of my formal "employed" career and look back on t h e
w ay t h at geology h as ch anged t h rough out my research li fe. Wh en I w as
242 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
young, we t h ough t t h at geology was done by going into the field, mak-
i ng maps, and descri bi ng rocks, mi nerals, and fossils. Of course t h at w as
fi ne; w e di d not have a paradi gm and t h at w as all t h at w e could do. Plate
t ect oni cs came along, as a result of oceanograph i c research and seismic
st udi es, mai nly by geoph ysicists, and provi ded a w onderful new para-
di gm t h at geologists have explored for 30 years. Tragically, geology
seems t o h ave been, t o a large ext ent , subjugat ed and i gnored as t h e w ay
t h at w e fi nd out t h e t rut h about t h e eart h . We h ave become obsessed
w i t h model bui ldi ng and h ypot h esi s t est i ng i n t h e laborat ory and by
comput er. I am now h ere near t h e fi eld geologist t h at Joh n Ramsay of t h e
ETH Zuri ch i s, nor t h e physicists t h at Don Turcot t e and Dan McKenzi e
of Cambri dge are, nor t h e mat h emat i ci an t h at Bob Parker of Scripps i s,
but I h ave t h e ki nd of general know ledge and underst andi ng of t h e eart h
sci ences t h at i s becomi ng i ncreasi ngly rare. It i s possessed by people such
as Tanya At w at er, Kevin Burke, Clark Burch fi el, Bill Di cki nson, Warren
H ami lt on, and Eldri dge Moores. If w e fai l t o t rai n t h e new generat i ons
in geology, th e eart h sciences w ill decay to speculat i ve, shallow, model
bui ldi ng. Art h ur Holmes, David Griggs, Ji m Gilluly, Ph i l Ki ng, H arry
Hess, Bob Di et z, Bert Q uennell, Harry Wellman, Tuzo Wilson, Teddy
Bullard, George Plafker, Jason Morgan, Dan McKenzi e, Don Turcot t e,
Kevin Burke, Bob Stevens, Bill Di cki nson, Tanya At w at er, Eldri dge
Moores, Clark Burch fi el, Paul H offman, Gordon Lister, Joh n Myers,
Gees Van Staal, and Celal Sengor (among ot h ers) have generat ed great
ideas, read eclectically, respect ed dat a, communi cat ed w onderfully, and
h ad a deep i nfluence on my research career. Th ese people, and all my
Cambri dge, Albany, D urh am, and Oxford graduat e st udent s, have t augh t
me a great deal. I am profoundly grat eful t o t h em.
C HA P T E R 15
WHE N T HE PLATE TE C TO N IC RE VO LUT IO N
ME T WE S T E RN N O RT H AME RI C A
Tanya Atwater
I WAS I N H I GH S CH O O L I N 1Q 57 WH E N T H E R US S I ANS S UCCE S S F ULLY
launch ed t h e fi rst man-made sat elli t e, Sp utnik.
1
It i s h ard t o explai n t o
younger generat i ons just w h at a profound event t h at was. To us, i t w as
t ot ally ast oni sh i ng t h at w e h umble h umans could put an object i nt o
out er space. Unt i l t h en I h ad planned t o be an art i st , but I t h ough t ,
"Wow! If scientists can do t h at , t h ey can solve anyt h i ng (gh et t os, h unger,
st ri fe . . .)." So began my ch eckered st udi es i n sci ence.
Vari ous college recrui t ers came t h rough my h i gh school and I st art ed
aski ng quest i ons about sci ence. Wh en t h e recrui t er from t h e Cali forni a
I nst i t ut e of Tech nology came, h e told me st rai gh t out t h at Calt ech di dn' t
accept w omen because t h ey viewed us as a waste of t h ei r t i me - w e w ould
just get marri ed, qui t , and w aste our educat i ons. Th i s w as especi ally
i roni c si nce t h e rh et ori c at t h e t i me w as t h at no man w ould marry a
w oman w h o w as as smart and educat ed as h e was. Lucki ly I h ad my bril-
li ant bot ani st mom and my admi ri ng engi neer dad as role models. My
brot h er w as a senior at t h e Massach uset t s I nst i t ut e of Tech nology (MI T )
at t h e t i me, so I w ent t o visit h i m and various east ern schools. At Har-
vard, t h ey di dn' t accept w omen but t h ey proudly told me t h ey w ould
allow me t o do t h e w h ole Harvard sci ence curri culum i f I enrolled at
Radcli ffe. Meanw h i le, t h ey reject ed me at R adcli ffe because I h adn' t
st udi ed Greek or Lat i n. T h ank goodness for MIT, w h ere t h ey said, "Sure,
come along." Th ey h ad been accept i ng a spri nkli ng of w omen almost
si nce t h e i nst i t ut e' s i ncept i on.
2
In my juni or year at MIT, I w as i n my fi ft h major, elect ri cal engi neer-
i ng, w h en I accidentally took a physical geology course. I w as h ooked
i mmedi at ely. Wh en t h ey announced summer fi eld camp at t h e I ndi ana
243
244 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTI NENTS
Tanya At w at er, at sea w i t h Bill Menard (right) and Di ck Hey (lef t) , i n 1984. Th i s w as
t o be Menard' s last crui se. (Ph ot o court esy of Tanya At w at er.)
Uni versi t y camp i n Mont ana, I w as fi rst i n li ne. I loved fi eld camp: t h e
mandat e t o h i ke out every day and commune w i t h mount ai ns, discover
t h ei r secret s. I h ave always loved h i ki ng, landscapes, and maps, and
geomet ry w as my favori t e h i gh sch ool subject . Th e ent anglement of geo-
logic st ruct ures w i t h land surfaces present ed for me an i deal geomet ri c
mappi ng puzzle. I w as i n h eaven.
But I w as nervous, too. E veryt h i ng in geology w as so descriptive and
det ai led. Wh en i t came t i me t o discuss t h e larger forces, w e si mply drew
big arrows at th e edges of our maps: th e h ands of a capri ci ous god sh ort -
eni ng or ext endi ng our landscapes, willy-nilly. I really di dn' t w ant t o spend
my li fe addi ng descriptive observations t o t h e pi le, and anyw ay I w ouldn' t
be very good at i t , since I h ave a t erri ble memory for i solat ed fact s. Th e
plat e t ect oni c revolut i on came alongjust i n t i me t o rescue my geo-career.
3
Once I found geology, I h ad t o move w est. Th e rocks i n t h e east are
old, t i red, cooked, and spend most of t h ei r t i me covered w i t h green or
w h i t e st uff. Also, t h ree years i n Bost on h ad made me reali ze w h at an
i nsufferable Cali forni an I am. I t ransferred t o t h e Uni versi t y of Cali for-
ni a at Berkeley and fi ni sh ed my undergraduat e degree i n geophysics.
D uri ng t h e t i me t h at I w as st udyi ng at Berkeley, my si bli ngs h ad been
roami ng around Sout h Ameri ca h avi ng advent ures - w i t h out me. I
needed t o get t o Sout h Ameri ca. Ci nna Lomni t z, from t h e Uni versi t y of
Ch i le, w as a visitor at t h e Berkeley Seismology Lab and I asked h i m about
jobs i n Ch i le. He t ook a long look at my bare feet , beads, and flow ers -
t h i s w as Berkeley, 1965. He laugh ed, and sai d, ' You' d be good for t h em."
Ch i le w as a very formal place at t h e t i me. He gave me addresses and
recommendat i ons.
When the Plate Tec tonic Revolution Met Western North Americ a 245
T HE MYS T E R I E S O F T HE O C E A N I C R E A L M
A N D T HE I R R E V O L U T I O N A R Y S O L UT I O N
For t h e summer of 1965, w h i le I w ai t ed t o h ear from Ch i le, I appli ed for
and got an i nt ernsh i p at t h e Woods Hole O ceanograph i c I nst i t ut i on. I
w as draw n pri mari ly by t h e romance of t h e sea and sh i ps. I di dn' t know
enough t o reali ze t h at t h e mari ne sci ent i st s w ere about t o unleash a rev-
olut i on upon the geo-world. Wh en I saw a number of the Woods Hole
st aff prepari ng for an Upper Mant le Commi t t ee meet i ng i n Ot t aw a,
Canada, I asked my ment or, Bracket t Hersey, if I could go too. He sai d,
"Sure. Wh y not ?", and found me travel funds. Th e meet i ng w as concen-
t rat ed on t h e geoph ysi cs of t h e oceans and t h e vari ous myst eri es t h erei n.
Th e li st of sessions i ncluded all t h e ri gh t t h i ngs: mi d-ocean ri dges and
ri ft s, fract ure zones, t rench es and i sland arcs, magnet i c st ri pes. Th ey
knew w h at needed explaining, just not qui t e h ow t o do i t .
Most of t h e major players i n t h i s small fi eld w ere t h ere and I greatly
enjoyed meet i ng t h em and put t i ng t h ei r faces and t h ei r qui rki nesses t o
t h ei r names. Th e w h ole meet i ng w as exci t i ng, but t h e present at i on t h at
made t h e biggest i mpressi on on me w as t h e one about t ransform fault s by
J. Tuzo Wilson.
4
Tuzo w as a w onderful sh ow man w i t h a great t w i nkle in
h i s eye. Aft er h e h ad explai ned h i s idea, h e passed out paper di agrams
w ith two mid-ocean ridges connected by a transform fault. It said "cut
h ere," "fold h ere," "pull h ere." We all laugh ed, and I felt embarrassed
(ki ndergart en games at t h i s august sci ent i fi c meet i ng?). But I t ook t h e
paper back t o t h e privacy of my h ot el room and cut and folded and pulled;
wow: th e li gh t bulbs w ent on in my brai n. Th e si mple geomet ry of th e
t ransform fault s w i t h t h ei r fract ure zones h olds t h e key t o t h e geomet ry
of format i on of all the ocean basins - ri gh t t h ere in t h at li t t le pi ece of
paper. I've been h andi ng out versions of t h at diagram to st udent s ever
si nce, and urgi ng t h em, aft er t h ey stop laugh i ng, t o cut , fold, and pull.
Th e revolut i on caugh t up w i t h me again i n Santiago, Ch i le, i n 1966.
I w as w orki ng as a t ech ni ci an i n t h e Geoph ysics I nst i t ut e of t h e Uni ver-
si t y of Ch i le w h en I h eard about an i nt ernat i onal Ant arct i c meet i ng t o
be h eld t h ere. I di d my job readi ng seismograms i n t h e early morni ngs
and eveni ngs so t h at I could at t end t h e meet i ngs duri ng t h e day. One
morni ng session, I w as dozi ng t h rough a series of papers full of Lat i n
names of di at oms and forami ni fera (single-celled plankt oni c organi sms)
w h en t h ey announced an ext ra paper. Ji m H ei rt zler w as passing t h rough
from Lamont -D oh ert y Geological Observat ory on t h e w ay t o meet a sh i p
i n Valparaiso and h e w ant ed t o present some mari ne geoph ysi cal result s.
I n h i s t alk h e put up t h e Eltanin-19 magnet i c anomaly profi le - st i ll, t o
246 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
t h i s day, t h e clearest , most beaut i ful, and symmet ri cal profi le i n t h e
w orld - and w i t h i t made t h e case for sea floor spreadi ng.
5
It w as as i f a
bolt of li gh t ni ng h ad st ruck me. My h ai r stood on end.
My sisters still remember h ow crazy I w as at di nner t h at ni gh t . I w as
crazy-excited: t h i s w as t h at bi g-pi ct ure key I h ad been dreami ng of. And
I w as crazy-di sappoi nt ed too: t h ere w as a revolut i on goi ng on and I w as
mi ssi ng i t . I i mmedi at ely appli ed t o graduat e sch ool at t h e Scripps Inst i -
t ut e of Oceanograph y, but , i n t h e rush of yout h , I w as sure t h e excite-
ment w ould be fi ni sh ed by t h e t i me I could get t h ere, si x mont h s later.
In fact , I w as only a few w eeks lat e for t h e st art .
I arri ved at Scripps i n January 1967 t o fi nd t h e place i n chaos. Fred
Vi ne h ad been t h ere i n December 1966 and h ad present ed a collection
of magnet i c anomaly profi les from vari ous spreadi ng cent ers around t h e
globe (i ncludi ng Eltanin-19) .
6
This w as ext remely compelli ng evi dence
for sea floor spreadi ng i n all t h e oceans. Apparent ly t h e w h ole i nst i t u-
t i on at t ended t h e t alk, most of t h e sci ent i st s goi ng i n beli evi ng conti-
nent s w ere fi xed, all coi ni ng out believing t h ey moved. I n t h e fi rst meet -
i ng of my fi rst class, mari ne geology, Professor Bi ll Menard forgot t o t ell
us any of t h e usual class preli mi nari es. Inst ead h e just launch ed i nt o rap-
t ures about t h i s "w onderful new i dea," scri bbli ng all over t h e black-
board. I also t ook a "geosynclines" semi nar t h at spri ng; i n t h e arrogance
of yout h , w e smi rked our w ay t h rough all t h at li t erat ure w i t h i t s convo-
lut ed explanat i ons and elaborat e nami ng systems (t h ere w as a fancy
Lat i n name for every subvari ant w i t h i n t h e array of geosyncli nes). Now
w e reali zed t h ey w ere just descri bi ng anci ent cont i nent al margi ns i n
t h ei r vari ous t ect oni c si t uat i ons and combi nat i ons.
MY E DUC A T I O N I N P L A T E T E C T O N I C S
Since I arrived at Scripps i n mid-year, my i ni t i at i on i nt o graduat e sch ool
w as ad h oc. Th ey sent me t o t alk t o several research groups t o t ry t o fi nd
a project . My second i nt ervi ew w as w i t h Joh n Mudi e at t h e Deep Tow
group. Hi s group w as developi ng an i nst rument package t h at could be
towed very near t h e ocean floor i n order t o get a syst emat i c, h igh -reso-
lut i on look at vari ous deep-sea feat ures. He w as anxi ously looki ng for a
st udent t o w ork up t h e dat a t o be collected duri ng an upcomi ng crui se
t o t h e Gorda R i ft , offsh ore of nort h ernmost Cali forni a. It w ould be t h e
fi rst close-up look at a sea floor spreading center, and they w ere leaving
t h at spri ng, just a few mont h s h ence. I couldn' t believe my good luck. I
signed up i mmedi at ely and never looked back. I h eard much lat er t h at
When the Plate Tec tonic Revolution Met Western North Americ a 247
my little decision set off a long bat t le over w h at to do w ith "the girl" on
board t h e sh i p -w omen on sh ips are bad luck, don' t you know ? Th i s fi rst
bat t le w as fough t by Mudi e, w h o h ad t o const ant ly assert my need t o be
aboard and, i n especially bad moment s, my ri gh t t o be t h ere and t o sue
i f t h ey w ouldn' t let me go. Apparent ly t h ere w as si mi lar vi rulent dis-
course beh i nd t h e doors each t i me I w ent t o sea, alt h ough I remai ned
h appi ly i gnorant of i t all.
7
Th e result s of t h e crui se w ere w onderful, sh ow i ng t h at most new
basalt i c sea floor i s formed i n t h e narrow ri ft valley floor of t h e spread-
i ng cent er, and t h at t h e gi ant ri ft mount ai ns t h at flank t h e valley are bui lt
not by volcani sm but by upli ft of blocks along bi g normal fault s. I w rot e
up t h e preli mi nary result s t h at summer and fall, w i t h lots of h elp,
encouragement , and goadi ng from Mudi e, and i t w as publi sh ed as a lead
art i cle i n t h e journal Sc ienc e.
8
At t h e t i me, I h ad no i dea w h at an h onor
t h at was. I present ed t h i s w ork at t h e Ameri can Geoph ysi cal Uni on t h e
follow i ng spri ng, my fi rst professi onal t alk ever, t o a full h ouse t h at came
especially t o h ear me. (Wh en I h ear about t h e mi serable fi rst talks of
many of my colleagues, I cont i nually marvel at h ow spoiled I was.) Agai n,
Mudi e gave me lots of h elp and advice and i nsi st ed on several reh earsals,
so t h at t h e present at i on w ent very w ell.
Aft er t h e meet i ng, I h eard t h at some ot h er st udent s w ere going up t o
New York for a t our of Lament Geological Observat ory (now know n as
Lamont -D oh ert y E art h Observat ory). Curi ous, I joi ned t h em. I remem-
ber t w o t h i ngs from t h at tour. One i s t h at I w as i nvi si ble. In every lab w e
vi si t ed, t h ey i nt roduced all t h e young men and ski pped me, every t i me.
I guess our st udent gui de assumed I w as someone' s tag-along gi rlfri end
and t h erefore of no account . I i nt roduced myself and t ri ed t o establish
t h at I w as a sci ent i st , too, but my h i nt s fell on deaf ears. Th e ot h er t h i ng
I remember w as t h e map of eart h quake locat i ons t h at st udent Muaw ia
Barazangi , w orki ng w i t h Ji m D orman, h ad plot t ed ont o t ransparent
mylar sh eet s and h ad overlain on a h uge wall map. Th ere t h ey w ere: t h e
plat es of t h e w orld all out li ned by t h e eart h quakes. It w as st unni ng, awe-
some, so si mple and clear and full of det ai ls about t h e i ndi vi dual plates.
It w as oh-so-hard t o pull myself away from t h at map.
9
In t h ose fi rst years w e di dn' t speak about "plate t ect oni cs." Th e magic
ph rases w ere sea f loor sp reading and t h e Vine-Matthews hyp othesis. Subduc-
t i on w as a necessary adjunct concept , but one t h at w as much h arder t o
t est w i t h mari ne geoph ysi cal t ech ni ques. Observat i ons from t h e fi eld of
sei smology gave us mant le subduct i on zones and rigid plat es. Wh en t h e
paper by Bryan Isacks, Jack Oliver, and Lynn Sykes, "Seismology and t h e
New Global Tect oni cs," came out in 1968, w e st udent s all read it forw ard
248 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
and backw ard and argued about all i t s poi nt s.
10
It w as a semi nal paper
for me, fi lli ng i n many vital gaps i n my underst andi ng and soli di fyi ng my
commi t ment t o t h e w h ole scenari o. Th e ot h er paper t h at set me on t h e
ri gi d plat e road w as th e 1968 paper by Jason Morgan.
11
In t h i s paper,
Morgan laid out t h e mat h emat i cal basis for quant i fyi ng t h e displace-
ment s of plat es on a sph ere (t h ey are rot at i ons around "Euler poles")
and appli ed i t t o t h e several w ell-know n plat e boundari es.
MY E DUC A T I O N I N T HE DO I N G O F S C I E N C E
My graduate st udent years at Scripps were frenet i c. All the data ever col-
lect ed about t h e solid eart h w ere w ai t i ng t o be rei nt erpret ed. I got i n t h e
h abi t of droppi ng i n at Bill Menard' s lab.
12
It w as already know n t h at t h e
magnet i c anomali es i n t h e nort h east Paci fi c w ere except i onally clear, and
t h at t h ey w ere w ell li neat ed and offset across t h e fract ure zones, but no
one h ad compi led t h em for a look at t h e regi onal pat t ern.
13
Menard h ad
h i s draft sw oman, Isabel Taylor, t ransfer all t h e available magnet i c profi les
from t h ei r paper records t o t h ei r sh ip t racks on a bi g map. Sh e di d i t all
by h and - t h i s w as before comput er dat a processi ng became rout i ne. Th e
result w as spectacular. Th e magnet i c anomali es of th e nort h east Paci fi c
are especially easy to read and th e emergi ng pat t ern w as full of i nforma-
t i on about sea floor spreadi ng and t ransform fault i ng.
14
Every session
t h at w e h ad over t h e map w as full of discovery and exci t ement . Menard
and I began seeki ng each ot h er out fi rst t h i ng i n t h e morni ng t o sh are
our mi ddle-of-t h e-ni gh t t h ough t s. O ft en I couldn' t sleep at ni gh t , my
h ead w as so abuzz w i t h geo-possibilities and i mpli cat i ons. Apparent ly h e
w as h avi ng t h e same problem, because I oft en arrived i n t h e morni ng t o
find h is ideas scri bbled on my blackboard. "What about t h i s . . . ?"
15
In Bill Menard, I found a soul mat e, a fellow ent h usi ast for geometric
pat t erns and t h ei r i mpli cat i ons. He w as const ant ly cut t i ng up pieces of
paper and movi ng t h em around - "What if such and such h appened? How
w ould t h at play out i n t h e sea floor pat t erns?" He h ad a t h orough knowl-
edge of the oceanic data sets of the t i me; we w ould predi ct some geomet-
ri c relat i onsh i p w i t h our paper cut-outs and h e would t h en recall exam-
ples of th e same pat t erns from th e real w orld. Imagine my surprise w h en,
aft er a few w eeks of t h i s, h e present ed me w i t h a draft manuscri pt describ-
i ng our conversations. I w as just h avi ng fun, playi ng i nt ellect ual games,
and it w as actually serious science. Indeed, those playful sessions result ed
i n t h ree early papers i n prestigious journals, summari zi ng t h e magnetic
anomaly pat t erns i n t h e nort h east Pacific and generali zi ng t h em t o exam-
ine the effect s of ch anges in di rect i on of sea floor spreading.
16
When the Plate Tec tonic Revolution Met Western North Americ a 249
I learned many t h i ngs from Bill Menard, among t h em t h at a new
object or ph enomenon needs t o h ave a name i n order t o h old a place i n
t h e h uman mi nd. For example, some di rect i on ch anges cause t ransform
fault s t o pull apart along t h ei r lengt h s, allow i ng magmas t o seep up i nt o
t h e result i ng ri ft s. He dubbed t h i s ph enomenon leaky transf orm f aulting.
I w as amazed h ow oft en "leaky" t ransforms appeared i n t h e li t erat ure
t h ereaft er (alt h ough t h e usage w as not always w h at I w ould h ave ch o-
sen). I n anot h er example, I w orked w i t h fellow graduat e st udent Joh n
Grow on a paper about t h e oceani c plat e t h at once lay nort h of t h e
Paci fi c plat e and t h at w as ent i rely subduct ed nort h w ard beneat h Alaska
and t h e Aleut i an i sland arc. Walt er Pi t man and D enni s Hayes at Lament
h ad already poi nt ed out t h e evi dence for t h i s plat e, but t h ey h ad
descri bed i t and i t s nei gh bors as plat es I, II, I I I , and IV, not exactly names
t h at st i ck i n t h e mi nd.
17
Plat es I , III, and I V w ere, i n fact , t h e Paci fi c,
Nort h Ameri can, and Farallon plat es. We needed a name for plat e II, t h e
one t h at h ad been ent i rely subduct ed. We described our need t o D onna
Haw ki ns, w h o h ad done social w ork w i t h Nat i ve Ameri can peoples i n
Alaska, and sh e dug out h er di ct i onari es and came up w i t h a possible li st
of names and t h ei r defi ni t i ons. We ch ose "Kula," t h e At h abascan w ord
meani ng "all gone."
18
I still blush w h en I see our paper credi t ed (or
somet i mes di scredi t ed) w i t h t h e discovery of t h i s plate.
19
Menard w as responsi ble for nami ng many of t h e fract ure zones i n t h e
Nort h Pacific. He w as especially pleased w i t h th e fract ure zones off Mex-
ico, w h i ch h ad been named aft er Mexi can artists Orozco, Tamayo,
Siqueros, and Rivera. Follow ing h i s lead, I named new fract ure zones ri gh t
and left as t h ey emerged from our pat t erns, all unknow i ng t h at t h ere are
w ei gh t y rules and procedures concerni ng t h e offi ci al nami ng of geo-
graph i cal object s. Happily, h e h ad neglected to teach me about those.
Anot h er rule of Menard' s was: w h en draw i ng on napki ns duri ng a dis-
cussi on, each i ndi vi dual must h ave h er or h i s ow n penci l. Many a joi nt
conversat i on w as put on h old aft er t h e fi rst sent ence w h i le h e w ent t o
fet ch t h at second penci l. Our conversat i ons w ere so geomet ri c t h at t h e
person w i t h out a penci l w as rendered voiceless. I am oft en remi nded of
t h i s rule w h en a colleague or st udent , looki ng at somet h i ng I am draw -
i ng, st art s snat ch i ng at my penci l or madly poi nt i ng and fi nger-sket ch -
i ng: ah yes . . . t i me t o i mplement Menard' s mult i penci l rule.
T HE P O WE R O F T R I P L E J UN C T I O N S
Scri pps w as frequent ed by vi si t ors from all over t h e w orld and t h ey added
great ly t o t h e li veli ness and dept h of t h i s already exci t i ng place. Dan
250 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTI NENTS
McKenzi e w as t h ere duri ng t h e fall of 1967 and h e w as t h i nki ng h ard
about many aspect s of t h e new t h eori es. My advisor, Joh n Mudi e, h ad set
up a mont h ly beer part y at a local German dance h all t o get people
t oget h er for i nformal t alk. I especi ally remember one of t h ese sessions
duri ng w h i ch McKenzi e and Bob Parker arri ved, bubbli ng over about
some project t h ey w ere w orki ng on.
20
I couldn' t fi gure out w h at t h ey
w ere t alki ng about and could barely h ear t h em over t h e loud accordi on
musi c, but duri ng a lull I asked, rat h er t i mi dly, w h at t h e fuss w as about .
Dan took a napki n and sket ch ed out t h e San Andreas and Q ueen Ch ar-
lot t e Fault systems and t h e Aleut i an/Alaskan subduct i on zone. He
show ed me h ow all t h ese feat ures lay along t h e boundary bet w een t w o
large rigid plat es, t h e Paci fi c and Nort h Ameri can plat es. "Th at 's all very
w ell, but w h at about t h e Mendoci no fract ure zone? T h at doesn' t li ne
up," I complai ned, t ryi ng t o grab h i s penci l so I could add t h e offendi ng
feat ure t o h i s t i dy sket ch . (T h ey w ere act i ng so smug, I h oped I could
t ri p t h em up.) "Easy," said D an, and h e drew a t h i rd plat e, t h e Juan de
Fuca/Gorda plat e, meet i ng t h e ot h er t w o at t h e Mendoci no t ri ple junc-
t i on. T h ree plat es! Of course. So elegant , so si mple, and so pow erful. I
sat t h ere, agog, my brai n zoomi ng around i n all di rect i ons. Here i s w h at
I w rot e about t h i s moment a few years later.
It i s a w ondrous t h i ng t o have t h e random fact s i n one' s h ead suddenly
fall i nt o t h e slots of an orderly framew ork. It i s li ke an explosi on i nsi de.
T h at i s w h at h appened t o me t h at ni gh t and t h at i s w h at I oft en felt h ap-
pen t o me and t o ot h ers as I w as w orki ng out (and t alki ng out ) t h e geom-
et ry of t h e w est ern U.S. I t ook my ideas t o Joh n Crow ell [at t h e Uni versi t y
of Cali forni a at Santa Barbara] one Th anksgi vi ng day. I crept i n feeli ng
very self-consci ous and embarrassed t h at I w as t ryi ng t o t ell h i m about
land geology st art i ng from ocean geology, usi ng paper and scissors. He
w as very pat i ent w i t h my long bumbli ng, but near t h e end h e got t erri bly
exci t ed and I could feel t h e explosi on i n h i s h ead. He suddenly st opped
me and rush ed i nt o t h e ot h er room t o sh ow me a map of w h en and
w h ere h e h ad evi dence of act i vi t y on t h e San Andreas system. Th e pre-
di ct ed pat t ern w as all ri gh t t h ere. We just stood and st ared, st unned.
The best part of the plate business is t h at it has made us all start com-
muni cat i ng. People w h o squeeze rocks and people w h o i dent i fy deep ocean
nannofossi ls and people w h o map fault s i n Mont ana suddenly all care about
each ot h ers' w ork. I t h i nk I spend half my t i me just talking and li st eni ng t o
people from many fi elds, searching togeth er for h ow i t mi gh t all fi t togeth-
er. And w h en somet h i ng does fall i nt o place, t h ere is t h at ment al explosion
and t h e w ondrous exci t ement . I t h i nk t h e h uman brain must love order.
21
When the Plate Tec tonic Revolution Met Western North Americ a 251
Aft er t h at eveni ng i n t h e beer h all, I became a McKenzi e groupi e,
at t endi ng h i s semi nars, dogging h i m w i t h quest i ons, maki ng a bi g nui -
sance of myself, I'm sure. He w as h umorously generous and I learned a
lot : about t ect oni cs, about t h e sci ent i fi c approach , and about t ect oni c
passion and deli gh t .
Th e magnet i c anomaly pat t erns of t h e nort h east Paci fi c are di fferent
from those i n ot h er oceans i n t h at t h ey are almost ent i rely one-sided. Th e
east ern half of t h e expect ed symmet ri cal pat t ern w as embedded i n t h e
Farallon plat e and h as been subduct ed beneat h Nort h America, along
w i t h t h e spreadi ng cent er t h at separat ed i t from t h e Paci fi c plat e. Only
t h e w est ern h alf, t h e h alf t h at i s embedded i n t h e Paci fi c plat e, remai ns
for us t o observe. Th i s one-sided confi gurat i on w as a h i ndrance at fi rst ,
because t h e lack of symmet ry removed one of t h e most convi nci ng argu-
ment s for sea floor spreadi ng. However, once t h e concept of spreadi ng
w as demonst rat ed elsew here, t h e one-sidedness revealed a remarkable
relat i onsh i p. Th e Farallon plat e h ad been complet ely subduct ed i n t h e
exact regi ons now occupi ed by th e San Andreas Fault and its relatives, so
t h at t h e subduct i on of t h e Farallon plat e and i t s spreadi ng cent er h olds
t h e key t o t h e ori gi n of t h e San Andreas system. Dan McKenzi e and Jason
Morgan fi rst descri bed t h i s geomet ri c relat i onsh i p (and named t h e Far-
allon plat e) in t h ei r 1969 paper about triple junct i ons.
22
Th e relat i onsh i p just descri bed i s very useful for est abli sh i ng t h e tim-
ing of event s in w est ern Nort h Ameri ca. Since th e San Andreas Fault sys-
t em forms t h e boundary bet w een t h e Paci fi c and Nort h Ameri can plat es,
i t could not h ave ori gi nat ed unt i l th ose t w o plat es came i nt o cont act .
Th is cont act , i n t urn, could not h ave occurred unt i l aft er t h e complet e
subduct i on of t h e i nt erveni ng Farallon plat e. Th e offsh ore magnet i c
anomali es w ould const rai n w h en and w h ere t h at t ransi t i on occurred, i f
only w e could obt ai n reli able ages for t h e magnet i c reversals t h at caused
the anomalies. We could not take the next step unt i l w e had these dates.
M Y S T E R I E S O F T HE C O N T I N E N T A L R E A L M
I N T HE S A N A N D R E A S FA UL T S Y S T E M
Meanw h i le, I w as learni ng about t h e San Andreas Fault syst em. Th e mai n
fault h ad been recogni zed as a major t h rough goi ng st ruct ure ever since
the 1906 San Francisco eart h quake.
23
Mason Hi ll and Tom Dibblee sh arp-
ened our awe of th is feat ure in 1953, w h en th ey laid out evidence for at
least 300 miles (500 ki lomet ers) of cumulat i ve offset across the fault .
24
By
t h e t i me I began t o st udy i t i n t h e late 1960s, i t w as clear t h at t h e San
252 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
Andreas w as a profound break, and t h at i t w as almost surely a major
boundary i n t h e global plat e system. But t h e age of origin and rat e of off-
set w ere not know n. Hill and Dibblee's most convi nci ng evi dence for
large offset w as in the di splacement of late Cret aceous grani t es (80 mil-
li on years old) from t h e Teh ach api Mount ai ns i n sout h ern Cali forni a t o
Bodega Head or beyond along t h e nort h ern Cali forni a coast. Had t h e
fault been movi ng since t h e late Cretaceous? It seemed li kely at t h e t i me.
We w ere just reali zi ng, t h anks especially t o some papers by Warren Hami l-
ton of th e U.S. Geological Survey, t h at th e Sierra Nevadan grani t es w ere
formed in th e roots of volcanoes in subduct i on zones.
25
Th e Sierran mag-
mat i c system h ad been active duri ng much of t h e Mesozoic era, i mplyi ng
a major, long-lived subduct i on zone, but t h i s magmat i sm h ad suddenly
ceased in the lat e Cret aceous, about 75 mi lli on years ago. Th is seemed to
be just w h at w e w ere expect i ng: a cessation of t h e subduct i on plat e
boundary and i t s replacement by t h e San Andreas plat e boundary. Fur-
t h ermore, i f t h e fault h ad been movi ng st eadi ly since t h e late Cret aceous,
t h e offset rat e w ould h ave been less t h an one-t h i rd of an i nch per year:
qui t e slow. It all seemed to be comi ng t oget h er, or so w e t h ough t .
In 1967 Bill D i cki nson h ost ed a meet i ng at St anford to see if th e com-
muni t y could soli di fy t h e t i mi ng and di splacement rat e along t h e San
Andreas Fault .
26
Some of us st udent s at t ended t h i s meet i ng, si t t i ng up
h i gh i n t h e back of t h e bi g lect ure h all, w at ch i ng w i t h aw e as t h e grand
old men present ed t h ei r w ork. Di cki nson began t h e meet i ng by urgi ng
t h e speakers t o be w i ld, t o descri be any t ent at i ve geological correlat i ons
t h at mi gh t concei vably bear on t h e subject . T h at i nt roduct i on made a
bi g i mpressi on on me. Before t h at , I h ad t h ough t all publi c present at i on
of sci ence h ad t o be formal and fact ual and seri ous; no speculat i ons
allow ed. How fun to see t h at th e big guys h ad lots of w ild ideas, too.
Th i s august bunch of Cali forni an geologists lai d out lots of possible
correlat i ons - dat able rock bodi es or feat ures such as anci ent sh oreli nes
t h at occur on one side of t h e fault and t h at seem t o mat ch w i t h si mi lar
bodi es or feat ures t h at occur somew h ere on t h e ot h er side of t h e fault .
If t h e pai red object s st art ed out side-by-side and w ere lat er offset , t h ey
w ould h elp us w ork out t h e di splacement h i st ory. Th i s i s always a t ri cky
busi ness, si nce many di fferent rock bodies are qui t e si mi lar i n t h ei r ch ar-
act eri st i cs, and many feat ures, especi ally sh oreli nes, t end t o follow fault s,
rat h er t h an crossi ng t h em. Among t h e many t ent at i ve correlat i ons pre-
sent ed, t h e majori t y seemed t o favor t h e slow rat e descri bed above.
Not everyone agreed w i t h t h e Cret aceous ori gi n and slow rat e, how -
ever. A group from U.C. Berkeley, i n part i cular, h ad evi dence for a much
fast er rat e. Th ey present ed except i onally st rong evi dence for a correla-
When the Plate Tec tonic Revolution Met Western North Americ a 253
t i on bet w een t h e Neenach volcani c rocks i n t h e nort h w est ern Mojave
Desert (on t h e east side of t h e fault ) w i t h volcani c debris i n rocks at Pin-
nacles State Park, near Salinas (on t h e w est si de). This mat ch document s
an offset of about 200 mi les (320 ki lomet ers) somet i me aft er t h e volcano
erupt ed 23 mi lli on years ago. Th ey present ed t h i s and relat ed data i mply-
ing a rat e of several i nch es per year.
27
Th us, w e w ere left w ith tw o con-
fli ct i ng scenarios for t h e San Andreas - a young, fast -sli ppi ng fault or an
older, slow er-moving one. I sat t h ere ach i ng, know i ng t h at t h e offsh ore
magnet i c anomali es w ould bri ng an i ndependent voice t o t h i s problem,
if only t h ey could be reliably dat ed.
E st abli sh ment of t h e magnet i c reversal ages present ed a bi g ch allenge
(as does most geological age dat i ng). D uri ng th e 1950s and 1960s th e
paleomagnet i c communi t y h ad h oned t h e ages of t h e reversals t h at
occurred duri ng t h e last few mi lli on years.
28
Th ey di d t h i s usi ng isotopic
met h ods, dat i ng normally and reversely magnet i zed lava flow s on land.
These ages w ere th e ones used by Fred Vi ne in h is 1966 compi lat i on to
date t h e youngest magnet i c anomali es at each sea floor spreadi ng cen-
t er and t o establish recent spreadi ng rat es, a h ugely valuable cont ri bu-
t i on. However, for ages great er t h an a few mi lli on years, t h e dat i ng errors
w ere too large to di st i ngui sh one reversal event from anot h er. So t h ey
w ere useless. We really needed t h ose older ages.
T HE L A MO N T MI R A C L E - FI R S T S O L UT I O N S
FO R T HE WO R L D' S O C E A N S A N D T HE I R T I MI N G
Meanw h i le, on the global scale, the mari ne geophysical group at Lamont
was busy i nt erpret i ng the world. For many years their ships had been tra-
versing the global oceans under the somew h at dictatorial direction of Mau-
rice Ew ing, Lament 's founder and director. Everyw h ere these ships sailed,
w h at ever the immediate interests of the shipboard scientists, t h ey collected
a coh erent set of geophysical and geological data. As part of the rout i ne,
they measured magnetic field profiles, even th ough no one could make
sense of the resulting wiggly lines. It was a relatively easy measurement to
make, so t h ey made it. The ot h er major U.S. oceangoing research institu-
tions w ere much more democratic (anarch i c?), each scientist follow ing h is
own agenda and those of his close associates. Duri ng traverses bet w een
study sites, data collection was somew hat h aph azard. Wh en Fred Vine and
Drum Matthews finally supplied the key ideas for reading the magnetic
anomalies, the Lamont group w as in a uni que position to i nt erpret the
broad histories of most of the world's ocean basins. Th ey presented these
254 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
i nt erpret at i ons in a series of papers in the March 1968 issue of the Journal
of Geop hysic al Researc h^ My copy of t h i s issue is disgustingly grubby and tat-
tered from my const ant reference t o these papers duri ng t h e next decade.
The fi nal paper in the March 1968 series w as especially important.
30
The precedi ng papers had present ed oceanic h i st ori es in terms of mag-
net i c anomaly numbers, usi ng an i nformal numberi ng system t h at Walter
Pi t man h ad i nvent ed for t h e purposes of communi cat i on w i t h i n t h ei r
group. He assigned t h e cent ral anomaly t h e number 1 and, w orki ng out-
w ard, assigned 2 t h rough 32 to di st i nct bumps in th e rest of th e know n
pat t ern. We still use t h i s numberi ng system, sli gh dy modi fi ed, referri ng to
t h e numbers as "magnetic i soch ron numbers," or just "chrons." In t h at
fi nal paper, t h e Lamont group amassed and compared all t h ei r data con-
cerni ng t h e distances from t h e spreadi ng cent ers out t o t h e various mag-
net i c i soch rons. In a series of innovative compari son tests, t h ey concluded
t h at the South At lant i c w as the most likely of all the oceans to have spread
at a steady rate over the long t erm. (Of course, no one had any idea if t h at
w as even possi ble.) Th ey t h en made t h e leap and ext rapolat ed from t h e
South At lant i c spreadi ng rat e, know n for th e last 4 million years, out to 85
mi lli on years - a 20-fold ext rapolat i on. With t h i s audacious ext rapolat i on,
t h ey w ere able to assign t ent at i ve dates to magnet i c reversal ch rons 1-32.
Th e result i ng timescale became know n as t h e Hei rt zler scale, aft er t h e fi rst
aut h or, Jim Heirtzler. It h as t urned out to be surprisingly accurat e, good
to a few percent in most parts - one of those great strokes of geni us or luck
or bot h - but of course, at th e t i me, no one knew if t h ey w ere even close.
I ndeed, t h ere w as some evidence t h at t h e present spreadi ng rates w ere
only good back to about 10 million years (ch ron 5), and t h at t h ere may
have been a pause in spreadi ng of unknow n durat i on before t h at .
Meanw h i le, back at Scripps I was stewing over our sea floor isochron pat -
t erns, yearni ng for some reliable dates. The one-sided magnetic anomalies
nearest the Cali forni a coast w ere easily i dent i fi ed as ch rons 10-6. These
had been formed by the Pacific-Farallon spreading cent er and had to have
preceded the end of subduct i on and the start of the San Andreas plat e
boundary. In the Hei rt zler scale, the extrapolated ages for ch rons 10-6
w ere about 30 mi lli on to 20 mi lli on years, i mplyi ng a quite young San
Andreas. But w h at if t h ere h ad been a spreading h i at us before ch ron 5?
Th en ch rons 10-6 could h ave any older age - maybe even late Cretaceous,
seemingly mat ch i ng th e preponderance of evidence from th e land. Young?
Old? Young? Old? We needed di rect dates for th ese older isochrons.
At fi rst t h ough t , this problem doesn't seem so di ffi cult : just dredge
some rocks from t h e di fferent part s of t h e sea floor and dat e t h em.
Unfort unat ely, all t h e sea floor i s cont i nually bei ng buri ed i n a snow fall
When the Plate Tec tonic Revolution Met Western North Americ a 255
of debri s (mud and biological remai ns) so t h at all t h e older rocks are
buri ed under a mant le of younger sedi ment s. To get t h e basement rock
ages, w e w ould h ave t o dri ll t h rough t h i s overlyi ng sedi ment ary pi le.
T HE DE E P S E A DR I L L I N G M I R A C L E -
DI R E C T C O N F I R MA T I O N A T L A S T
Th e Deep Sea Dri lli ng project came on li ne at just t h e ri gh t t i me t o give
us the gi ft of age dat i ng t h at w e needed so badly. Various grand sch emes
t o dri ll t h rough t h e ent i re oceanic crust and i nt o t h e mant le h ad been
around since the Moh ole project of the 1950s. By the mid-1960s, t h ese
effort s h ad consoli dat ed i nt o th e more modest Deep Sea Dri lli ng project ,
w h ose aim w as to drill many h oles i nt o and t h rough th e sea floor sedi-
ment ary cover. Q uite by lucky ch ance, t h e dri lli ng sh i p, t h e Glomar Chal-
lenger, w as ready to begin its w ork just w h en th e communi t y w as especially
h ungry to use it. The sh i p set sail in the fall of 1968, and aft er some trials
set out for th e South At lant i c to test th e symmet ry of t h at ocean and to
ch eck t h e proposed const ancy of i t s spreadi ng rat e. I h ave h eard t h at many
of t h e scientists on t h at expedi t i on boarded t h e sh i p i n Dakar w i t h con-
siderable skepticism for th e w h ole idea of sea floor spreadi ng. Wh en t h ey
got off th e sh i p in Brazil, tw o mont h s later, t h ey w ere all avid, noisy believ-
ers. Th ey h ad drilled ni ne h oles along a li ne across t h e mid-Atlantic ridge
and w estw ard toward South America. By i dent i fyi ng th e fossils in th e bot-
tom-most sedi ment s, t h e sh ipboard scientists h ad been able t o det ermi ne
the ages at the base of the sedi ment ary piles in seven of the holes. As each
age w as det ermi ned, t h ey h ad plot t ed i t on a graph versus i t s distance from
t h e cent ral ri dge. Th e poi nt s formed a perfect st rai gh t li ne (w i t h i n t h e
errors of th e dat a). To everyone's surprise (i ncludi ng t h at of its aut h ors),
t h at out rageous Hei rt zler scale ext rapolat i on w as correct.
31
WR I T I N G UP T HE HI S T O R Y O F T HE S A N A N D R E A S
Wi t h th e vali dat i on of th e Heirtzler timescale, th e San Andreas h i st ory sud-
denly became tractable. I don' t recall h ow I fi rst h eard about t h e South
At lant i c dat i ng results, but i t di srupt ed my concent rat i on on my thesis
w ork. By summer 1969,1 h ad dropped all pret ense at th e sea floor w ork
and w as st ruggli ng along w i t h th e San Andreas plat e story. Th ere follow ed
t h e most i nt ense w ork peri od of my li fe. It w as almost like a t rance t h at I
w ould be i n for many days at a st ret ch , h ardly sleeping or eating.
256 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
Th is bri ngs up one i mport ant fact or i n t h i s story: t h e nat ure of fundi ng
in th e 1950s and 1960s. It w as much more general and flexi ble t h an th e
present grant system. Th rough out my graduate years I w as funded by t h e
U.S. Navy t h rough th e Mari ne Physical Laboratory. Offi ci ally, I w as work-
i ng up t h e Gorda Ridge Deep Tow surveys, but my major excursions i nt o
plat e t ect oni cs (ni ne st rai gh t mont h s for t h e San Andreas paper) w ere
accept ed, i ndeed encouraged, by my advisor, Joh n Mudi e, and by our Navy
funders. Th e Navy at t h e t i me t ended t o fund product i ve seagoing groups
and i ndi vi duals i n t h ei r sci ent i fi c endeavors, w i t h out bei ng t oo part i cular
about th e details. Th ei r view w as t h at any i nformat i on about th e oceans
w as useful to t h ei r mi ssi on, so w e had a lot of freedom to be product i ve,
w h erever our h eart s led us. In lat er years t h e Navy fundi ng became much
more restrictive, so t h at t h e pure research communi t y w as sh i ft ed t o t h e
Nat i onal Science Foundat i on. Fundi ng from t h e lat t er i s excellent i n many
respects, but since i t awards money for specific project s t h ere i s less flexi-
bi li t y for follow i ng up unant i ci pat ed avenues as t h ey appear.
Th at fall (1969) Warren H ami lt on came t o vi si t Scri pps from t h e U.S.
Geological Survey. He came t o learn about t h e revolut i on and t o present
a graduat e semi nar about cont i nent al t ect oni cs. I spent many h appy
h ours i n h i s offi ce, absorbi ng bits of h i s vast st ore of cont i nent al geo-
logical lore and sh ari ng w h at I h ad been learni ng about mari ne geo-
ph ysi cs. I w as still h ard at w ork h oni ng t h e San Andreas st ory and loved
t h e ch ance t o t ry out many of t h e pi eces on h i m. We h ad such fun sh ar-
i ng "mi nd candy" t h at I remember one mi ddle of t h e ni gh t , about 2 A.M.,
w h en I w oke up t o some ment al explosi on and just couldn' t w ai t t o t ry
i t out on h i m. I called h i m up and yakked away i nt o h i s sleepy ear. Wh en
h e fi nally managed t o get a groggy w ord i n, i t w as (w i t h pat i ent ly h umor-
ous undert ones), "Wh at t i me i s i t , anyw ay?" I t ook t h e h i nt and let h i m
h ang up - promi si ng t o repeat i t all fi rst t h i ng i n t h e morni ng.
32
Warren
i nfect ed me w i t h h i s passion for bi g-pi ct ure geology - a view of geology
t h at I h adn' t really encount ered much before.
Th at w i nt er, Bi ll D i cki nson organi zed anot h er of h i s speci alt y meet -
i ngs, t h i s one a Penrose Conference at Asilomar, Cali forni a. It w as pri-
mari ly a land geologists' meet i ng, but h e expressly i nvi t ed st udent s, so a
gang from Scri pps w ent . Th e meet i ng w as full of good i nformat i on about
t h e plat e t ect oni c i nt erpret at i ons of many geological ph enomena, and
i t soli di fi ed all t h ese for me. It w as also very empow eri ng because w e
oceanograph y st udent s found ourselves i n t h e role of t each ers - about
ocean floor feat ures, in particular, and about oceanic plate tectonics, in
general. I present ed my San Andreas st ory i n a badly craft ed talk -1 w ent
w ay over t i me - but w h en t h e moderat or deci ded t o cut me off, some-
When the Plate Tec tonic Revolution Met Western North Americ a 257
one in th e audi ence called out , "Aw, let h er go on. This is great st uff."
(Bless you, w h oever you w ere.)
Anot h er special memory from t h at meet i ng i s of a moment at t h e end
of my present at i on w h en someone asked w h et h er h e really h ad t o accept
such young dat es for magnet i c ch rons 10-6 and, t h us, a young age for
t h e San Andreas. I w as gropi ng i n my mi nd for a convi nci ng descri pt i on
of the South Atlantic drilling results w h en a voice called out from the
audi ence: "It 's t rue! It 's t rue! Believe it!" Th e speaker, Ken Hsu, rose up
and took over. He h ad been on t h at w onderful Deep Sea Dri lli ng expe-
dition and spoke w ith all the passion of the new ly convi nced. We all
enjoyed h i s exci t i ng and overw h elmi ng reci t at i on bot h of t h e result s and
of his own personal conversi on.
About t h at t i me, I ran i nt o Allan Cox from St anford Uni versi t y at
some meet i ng and told h i m t h at I w as w orki ng on t h e h i st ory of t h e San
Andreas Fault. I could see h i s eyes rolli ng up i n h i s h ead and h i s strug-
gle t o come up w i t h somet h i ng poli t e t o say t o t h i s starry-eyed, i mpudent
st udent . I asked h i m i f h e w ould read and cri t i que my manuscri pt . Hi s
non-enthusiasm w as palpable, but he graciously agreed. I sent it to him
a few w eeks lat er and i t came back w i t h bi g let t ers on t h e front : "PUBLISH
THIS IMMEDIATELY . . ." It w as th e i mpet us I needed. I w as elat ed but also
scared. This project w as my fi rst real solo w riting effort . I hit up every-
one I knew for reviews and got a lot of excellent advice, i ncludi ng some
ext remely h elpful suggestions from my fellow st udent s. Probably t h e
most useful of all w as th e reviews from Warren Hami lt on. He h ad a clear
underst andi ng of t h e i mport ance of brevi t y and clarity, and h e di dn' t
h esi t at e t o go aft er me about i t . My ori gi nal manuscri pt w as dense w i t h
"w hat i fs" and mi nor possible i mpli cat i ons, and so h e crossed out w h ole
pages of mi ne w i t h th e si mple remarks "FLUFF" and "STUFF." Of course h e
was also very excited and encouraging. The balance was perfect . It was
publi sh ed as th e lead art i cle in th e D ecember 1970 volume of th e Bul-
letin of the Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a.
33
Aft er the Penrose conference, and especially aft er the San Andreas
paper w as publi sh ed, speaki ng i nvi t at i ons poured i n from all over t h e
West. My synth esis w as just w h at many land geologists h ad been w ai t i ng
for. They h ad h eard noisy rumbli ngs from t h e oceangoi ng communi t y,
but i t h adn' t been clear h ow t h e revolut i on w ould affect cont i nent al
w ork. Th e San Andreas h i st ory i s qui t e unusual i n t h at t h e oceani c and
cont i nent al realms are so completely, i nt ri cat ely i nt ert angled. You really
can' t underst and one w i t h out t h e ot h er: t h e oceani c geophysical record
document s t h e demi se of t h e spreadi ng cent er w h i le t h e cont i nent al
geological record shows t h e development of t h e result i ng new plat e
258 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
boundary. Alt h ough I w as offi ci ally a mari ne geoph ysi ci st , my passion
st i ll h eld for t h e mount ai ns and landscapes of t h e cont i nent s. I h ad a
foot i n each camp and became a ki nd of t ranslat or, t elli ng each group
about t h e fi ndi ngs of t h e ot h er side. I suppose i t h ad somet h i ng t o do
w i t h bei ng female, too. I knew t h at a number of t h ose i n every audi ence
w ere t h ere t o see t h e freak. (I ndeed, many of t h e speaki ng i nvi t at i ons
w ere prefaced w i t h t h e rat i onale t h at t h ei r gi rl st udent s needed t o see a
real-live female sci ent i st .) I di dn' t mi nd. I knew t h at I h ad an i rresi st i ble
tale to tell and w as h appy to present it for anyone w ho would listen.
WO R K O N P L A T E C I R C UI T R E C O N S T R U C T I O N S
At th e t i me of my 1970 paper, I w as still mi ssi ng one i mport ant pi ece of
i nformat i on. I n order t o w ork out t h e det ai ls of t h e plat e i nt eract i ons, I
needed t o know t h e long-t erm h i st ory of Paci fi c-Nort h Ameri ca relative
mot i ons. We h ad evi dence t h at t h e Paci fi c plat e i s present ly movi ng par-
allel to the San Andreas Fault about 2 i nch es (6 cent i met ers) per year
past Nort h Ameri ca. However, w e couldn' t be sure h ow long t h at h ad
been t h e case, and a number of li nes of geologic evi dence suggested t h at
t h i s mot i on h ad been slow er i n t h e past . In t h e 1970 paper, I present ed
t w o "end member" models: one i n w h i ch t h e relative mot i on h ad been
steady and a second w ith no relat i ve mot i on before about 10 mi lli on
years ago. If w e w i sh ed t o fi nd out t h e act ual h i st ory of Paci fi c-Nort h
Ameri ca mot i on, w e needed t o make "plat e ci rcui t reconst ruct i ons"
around t h e w orld for a number of past t i mes.
Th e plat e ci rcui t t h at must be follow ed i n order t o calculat e a past
locat i on of t h e Paci fi c plat e w i t h respect t o Nort h Ameri ca i s one t h at
st eps from t h e Paci fi c plat e t o Ant arct i ca t o Afri ca t o Nort h Ameri ca,
crossi ng a spreadi ng cent er i n each st ep. For example, a reconst ruct i on
for 11 mi lli on years ago, the t i me of magnet i c ch ron 5, is based on the
follow ing steps. First, w e reconst ruct the Pacific plate to the Antarctic
plat e usi ng t h e ch ron 5 pat t erns i n t h e sea floor of t h e South Paci fi c.
Next , w e reconst ruct bot h , t oget h er, t o t h e Afri can plat e usi ng ch ron 5
pat t erns i n t h e sout h w est I ndi an Ocean, sout h of Afri ca.
34
Fi nally, w e
reconst ruct t h ose t h ree, all t oget h er, t o t h e Nort h Ameri can plat e usi ng
ch ron 5 pat t erns i n t h e cent ral-nort h At lant i c. If w e could do si mi lar
reconst ruct i ons for a number of di fferent ch rons, w e could w ork out t h e
approxi mat e t rack of t h e Paci fi c plat e past Nort h Ameri ca t h rough t i me.
Th is plat e ci rcui t (and every plat e ci rcui t t h at relat es Paci fi c ocean
plates to th e cont i nent s) uses th e step from Ant arct i ca to th e Pacific plate.
When the Plate Tec tonic Revolution Met Western North Americ a 259
This step i s made usi ng t h e spreadi ng pat t erns on t h e Paci fi c-Ant arct i c
ridge i n t h e South Paci fi c. In 1970, t h i s ocean w as qui t e poorly know n.
Geophysicist Pet er Molnar came from Lamont t o Scripps at about t h at
t i me on a post doct oral fellow sh i p. We set out , t oget h er w i t h Scripps map
maker Jacqueli ne Mammeri cx, t o quant i fy t h e plat e mot i ons across t h i s
spreadi ng center.
35
Usi ng t h e result s of t h at st udy, w e w ere able t o con-
st ruct a t rack of past Paci fi c locat i ons w i t h respect t o Nort h Ameri ca for
four poi nt s i n t i me. Th e uncert ai nt i es on t h e locat i ons of t h e poi nt s i n
th is fi rst t rack w ere qui t e large, but t h ey di d generally support a long-t erm
nort h w est dri ft of t h e Paci fi c past Nort h Ameri ca.
36
FI N I S HE D? ( R E A L L Y , J US T WA I T I N G)
In the late 1970s and 1980s, the plate tectonics "revolution" took an i nt er-
est i ng t urn. It became old-hat for t h e land geologists. Wh ole geological
meet i ngs w ere conduct ed w i t h h ardly a ment i on of plat e t ect oni cs.
Oceani c w ork cont i nued apace, deepeni ng and h oni ng t h e t h eory, but
on the continents, it seemed to have become irrelevant to most new work.
Th e early revelat i ons, of course, h ad given t h e communi t y a h uge leap
forw ard i n general underst andi ng of eart h processes, and t h ey defi ni t ely
set us free: i t w as suddenly not out rageous t o t h i nk about t erranes or
w hole cont i nent s traveling far distances across the globe. However, the
quant i t at i ve aspect s, so pow erful for predi ct i ng pat t erns i n t h e ocean
floors, di dn' t seem h elpful on t h e cont i nent s. I n w est ern Nort h Ameri ca,
for example, our mult i st ep ci rcui t reconst ruct i ons w ere generally t oo
crude to h elp w ith specific geologic problems. (A geologist standing on
a h i llsi de out crop i sn' t i mpressed by a predi ct i on t h at h as an uncert ai nt y
of h undreds of mi les.) At t h e t i me, I t h ough t maybe w e w ere done w i t h
cont i nent al global t ect oni cs. I ret urned t o my ocean floor st udi es w i t h
renewed vigor. It t urns out t h at , rat h er t h an being fi ni sh ed, w e h ad sim-
ply run t h rough t h e collect ed st ore of relevant i nformat i on and so h ad
t o w ai t a w h i le for i mprovement s i n concept s, t ech ni ques, and dat a sets.
M E A S U R I N G T HE P R E S E N T -D A Y DR I FT S
A N D D E F O R M A T I O N S O F T HE P L A T E S
Several technological advances ch anged the nat ure of plate tectonic
st udi es i n t h e 1980s and 1990s. One exci t i ng aspect h as been t h e devel-
opment and h oni ng of vari ous new syst ems for measuri ng t h e locat i ons
260 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
of poi nt s on t h e eart h ' s surface. D uri ng t h e mi d-20t h cent ury, great
progress h ad been made w i t h surveyi ng and laser rangi ng t ech ni ques for
ch aract eri zi ng local deformat i ons near and across select ed active fault s,
especi ally t h ose of th e San Andreas system. These h ad sh ow n us a com-
plex h i st ory of ongoi ng deformat i ons near t h e plat e boundari es, and
h ad given us some underst andi ng of h ow energy accumulat es near plat e
boundari es and t h en i s released duri ng eart h quakes. Th e real t est of
plat e mot i ons, however, requi red t h at w e measure t h e ongoi ng mot i ons
of t h e plat e i nt eri ors, far from any plat e boundary compli cat i ons.
Global scale measurement s of relative posi t i ons on t h e eart h ' s surface
became possible i n t h e lat t er decades of t h e 20t h cent ury t h rough t h e
"very long baseli ne i nt erferomet ry" program, or VLBI. By compari ng
and t i mi ng signals comi ng t o E art h from deep space radi o stars, scien-
tists i n t h i s project w ere able t o fi nd t h e locat i ons of t h ei r observat i on
poi nt s w i t h an accuracy of a few i nch es. In order t o measure t h e relat i ve
di splacement s of t h ese poi nt s t h rough t i me, t h ey h ad t o measure t h e
locat i ons, t h en w ai t years, t h en measure, t h en w ai t again. Th e results
w ere defi ni t ely w ort h t h e w ait. Repeat measurement s of locat i ons over
t h e decades h ave given us t h e w onderful (and reassuri ng) result t h at t h e
movement s of t h e rigid plat e i nt eri ors duri ng t h e past few decades h ave
been t h e same as t h e mot i ons over mi lli ons of years, t h at i s, mot i ons t h at
w e h ad deduced from t h e magnet i c anomali es!
An especially fun i nnovat i on h as been t h e development and democ-
rat i zat i on of th e global posi t i oni ng system, or GPS.
37
Th is is th e satellite
system (ori gi nally developed for mi li t ary navi gat i on) t h at now allows
any ci t i zen t o locat e h erself (or h er fancy car) on t h e eart h ' s surface. A
research er can place a marker, t h en, w i t h some pat i ence and di li gence,
can use GPS t o det ermi ne i t s posi t i on w i t h i n a few i nch es. Th e uncer-
t ai nt y i n t h ese measurement s i s about t h e same as t h e di splacement of
plat es i n a year, so t h at one only needs t o moni t or t h e locat i on of t h e
marker over a few year' s t i me span t o get a qui t e good est i mat e of i t s
ongoing movement.
38
Furt h ermore, th e equi pment for maki ng GPS
measurement s i s relatively i nexpensi ve so t h at many groups can make
local and regional measurement s. Th us, i t h as become feasi ble t o mea-
sure deformat i ons i n broad plat e boundary zones, bot h st eady mot i ons
and t h e t i me-dependent deformat i ons around eart h quakes and creep-
ing fault s. For example, a dense Japanese array of cont i nuous GPS sta-
t i ons i s already yi eldi ng w onderful images of t h e ongoi ng w arpi ngs of
t h e land over t h at major subduct i on zone.
39
Likew ise, t h e result s from
peri odi c measurement s across w est ern Nort h Ameri ca are full of new
det ai l about t h e w ay t h e plat e boundary deformat i on i s present ly part i -
When the Plate Tec tonic Revolution Met Western North Americ a 261
t i oned across t h e West .
40
1 fi nd myself eagerly aw ai t i ng each new data set
and its revelations.
ME A S U R I N G P A S T P L A T E DI S P L A C E ME N T S A N D D E F O R MA T I O N S
St udi es of past plat e mot i ons have also great ly benefi t ed from t ech no-
logical development s. Our pri mary dat a sets for reconst ruct i ng t h e his-
t ori es of plat e mot i ons are oceani c magnet i c anomali es and fract ure
zone t rends. Th ese h ave most ly been gat h ered aboard oceanograph i c
ships lumberi ng slowly across t h e surfaces of t h e w orld' s oceans. Wh en
I began going t o sea, our bi ggest problem w as fi guri ng out our posi t i on.
In t h e South Paci fi c and ot h er remot e regions, w e w ere proud i f w e could
locat e t h e sh i p w i t h i n a few mi les twice a day (by measuri ng t h e st ars at
sunri se and sunset , but even t h en only "i f t h e w eat h er be good").
41
Post-
crui se dat a processi ng oft en involved Herculean effort s t o adjust t h e nav-
i gat i on record so t h at t h e data sets w ere at least self-consi st ent , not t o
ment i on locat ed w ell on t h e eart h ' s surface.
42
Th e advent of sat elli t e nav-
i gat i on and, eventually, of GPS navi gat i on h as ch anged all t h i s. Wi t h t h i s
system w e can now rout i nely locat e t h e sh i p t o w i t h i n a few yards every
second. Wh en w e t ell our st udent s about t h e bad old days and our navi-
gat i onal labors, t h ey look at us as t h e poor, depri ved, pri mi t i ve anci ent s.
Tech nology h as also given us a w onderful gi ft of ocean t opograph i c
coverage w i t h t h e laser alt i met ry sat elli t es, Seasat, Geosat and ERS-1.
43
These sat elli t es measure t h e h ei gh t of t h e t op of t h e w at er i n t h e oceans
w i t h a preci si on of a few i nch es, someh ow averaging out all t h e waves and
tides. In t urn, vari at i ons i n t h e w at er surface h ei gh t sh ow us gravity vari-
at i ons caused by t h e t opograph y of t h e ocean floor. Li near fract ure
zones sh ow up as some of t h e most dramat i c feat ures on t h ese records
and maps, and t h i s i s a special boon for us, since our plat e t ect oni c
reconst ruct i ons of plat e mot i ons are based upon fract ure zone t rends.
Wh i le t h e sh i p-generat ed sonar records of th ese feat ures are more
det ai led and preci se t h an t h e sat elli t e alt i met ry records, t h ey are very
t edi ous t o collect. In a few years of observat i ons, t h e sat elli t es fi lled i n
t h e fract ure zones i n vast regions of t h e more remot e oceans, i ncludi ng
t h ose sout h ern oceans so cri t i cal for our reconst ruct i ons around Ant arc-
tica. Combi ni ng t h ese w i t h new, w ell-locat ed, magnet i c anomaly dat a, w e
are fi nally able t o make round-t h e-w orld ci rcui t solut i ons t h at h ave some
relevance for land geologic studies. For example, in a recent article
Joann Stock at Calt ech and I w ere able t o reconst ruct t h e Paci fi c plat e
t rack past Nort h Ameri ca w ith some locat i on uncert ai nt i es as small as a
262 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTI NENTS
few mi les. Th i s t rack, i n t urn, allowed us t o formulat e a qui t e preci se
"deformat i on budget " for w est ern Nort h Ameri ca. For example, w e pre-
di ct ed t h at t h e cont i nent must h ave st ret ch ed more t h an 150 mi les
(about 240 ki lomet ers) - t h at i s a lot of ext ensi on! - and must h ave been
sh eared parallel to th e coast as much as 540 mi les (860 ki lomet ers) since
about 20 mi lli on years ago.
44
Th ese budget est i mat es w ere made from
our ch ron 6 round-t h e-w orld oceani c reconst ruct i ons. If t h ey are cor-
rect , t h ey sh ould mat ch est i mat es made from summi ng t h e deforma-
t i ons observed across t h e land.
E S T I MA T I N G T HE MA G N I T U D E S O F P A S T L A N D D E F O R MA T I O N S
Land deformat i ons are much more di ffi cult t o quant i fy t h an t h ose i n t h e
oceans, because all land deformat i ons are superi mposed upon older fea-
t ures. We are spoiled i n t h e oceans, w h ere vi rt ually all of t h e deforma-
t i on i s accommodat ed by t h e creat i on or dest ruct i on of crust . Fort u-
nat ely, t h e lat e 20t h cent ury also saw great progress i n our abi li t y t o
quant i fy cont i nent al t ect oni c deformat i ons.
From t h e perspective of plat e t ect oni c h i st ory, a cruci al breakt h rough
h as been th e recogni t i on, acceptance, descri pt i on, and quant i fi cat i on of
large magni t ude ext ensi onal feat ures know n as core complexes, or low-
angle ext ensi onal det ach ment fault s. These deformat i on systems allow t h e
crust to ext end 100 to several 100 percent in a very sh ort t i me (perh aps
less t h an one mi lli on years).
45
Th ese events oft en bri ng t h e duct i le mid-
dle crust to the surface, laid bare or t h i nly strewn w i t h fallen-over "domi-
noes" of th e broken, bri t t le upper crust . Th e amount of ext ensi on repre-
sent ed by one of th ese feat ures can oft en be est i mat ed by reerect i ng th e
domi noes t o reassemble t h e original upper crust. Th e t i mi ng i s oft en
recorded i n t h e lavas t h at t end t o accompany t h e ext ensi onal events.
Th e Basin and Range Provi nce of i nt eri or w est ern Nort h Ameri ca
cont ai ns a large number of these ext ensi onal feat ures. Many of t h em
dat e from t h e Mi ocene and overlap t h e San Andreas deformat i ons i n
t i me and space. In t h e east-west corri dor near Las Vegas, Bri an Werni cke
and J. K. Snow of Calt ech w ere able t o add up all t h e ext ensi ons bet w een
t h e Colorado Plat eau and t h e Si erra Nevada t o est i mat e for t h e fi rst t i me
t h e very large Basin and Range ext ensi onal budget .
46
Wi t h t h i s pi ece, w e
can fi nally compare t h e oceani c and cont i nent al deformat i on est i mat es,
and t h ey agree. It took nearly 30 years, but the quantitative pow er of the
plat e t ect oni c t h eory i s fi nally becomi ng relevant on land.
47
When the Plate Tec tonic Revolution Met Western North Americ a 263
B ETTER AND B ETTER, S o FAR AT L EAS T
From t i me t o t i me, every sci ent i st must st ep back and reexami ne h er or
h i s assumpt i ons. I h ave oft en done t h i s i n my li fe, somet i mes of my ow n
volition and sometimes w h en under the barrage of some doubter. In
plate t ect oni cs w ork, our most basic assumpt i on i s t h at t h e aseismic i nt e-
ri ors of the plates are rigid, so t h at w e can deduce the mot i on of every
poi nt on each plat e using relatively few measurement s along t h e plat e
edges. It is a pret t y out rageous assumpt i on, especially given th e array of
non-rigid st ruct ures t h at present th emselves t o t h e st udent of cont i nen-
t al geology. We must suppose t h at all t h ese st ruct ures w ere formed w h en
each regi on lay near a plat e boundary - but t h i s supposi t i on oft en h as
no i ndependent confi rmat i on.
As th e years pass, I h ave regularly been pleased (and surpri sed, and
relieved, I admi t ) t o see t h e rigid plat e assumpt i on h oldi ng t rue and
bei ng reconfi rmed w i t h new t ech ni ques and data sets. Wi t h t h e passage
of t i me, most sci ent i fi c ideas are overt urned or are great ly modi fi ed. Sim-
ilarly, as t h e uncert ai nt i es i n our data sets get smaller and smaller, I fully
expect t h at w e w ill st art det ect i ng t h e non-ri gi di t y of t h e major plat es,
but t h i s h as yet t o h appen. So far, w i t h just a few small adjust ment s, t h e
assumpt i on cont i nues to w ork. As I tell my st udent s: "GoF dern! It must
be t rue!"
CH A PT E R 16
T H E CO MI NG O F PLATE T E CT O NI CS
T O T H E PACI FI C R I M
William R. Dickinson
JT T .ANGI NG T O D AY O N T H E WALL O F MY S T UD Y i s A D I N N E R PLAT E
purloi ned by colleagues from t h e Asilomar Conference Cent er i n Paci fi c
Grove, California. Neat ly inscribed i n i t s cent er, i n felt -t i p pen, are t h e
w ords "Hero of Plate Tectonics," and around the rim of the plate is w rit-
ten th e jocular mot t o, "In Subduct i on We Trust." This st range object is my
most treasured professional mement o, given to me by 95 fellow at t endees
at the close of a landmark 1969 Penrose Conference t h at I had convened
on behalf of the Geological Society of America (GSA) to consi der the
i mpli cat i ons of th e t h en-fresh concept s of plat e t ect oni cs for geologic
processes in mount ai n belts. Th e collaborative effort of all th e part i ci -
pants, each a volunt eer at t endee, w as w h at made t h e week-long confer-
ence so memorable, but I w as proud t o accept t h e h onorary "plate" for
h avi ng been t h e catalyst for t h e meet i ng. Th e w ord subduc tion of t h e mot t o
came i nt o play w i t h i t s present meani ng duri ng t h e course of t h e confer-
ence itself as the result of a magni fi cent eveni ng address by Di et ri ch
Roeder, t h en of Esso (E xxon) Product i on Research Company. Th e t erm
w as fort h w i t h adopt ed, by mut ual consent of t h e full company assembled,
to describe the leadi ng dow nw ard of eart h mat eri als by the descent of a
t ect oni c plate from t h e surface of t h e eart h back i nt o i t s i nt eri or.
Subduct i on w as just one, alt h ough t h e most arrest i ng, of t h e new w ords
added t o t h e geological vocabulary, or redefi ned i n some si gni fi cant way,
to accommodat e th e advent of plate t ect oni cs as a gui di ng i nt ellect ual
paradi gm for geosci ence. My ow n career as a geologist h ad begun a
decade before t h e Canadi an geophysicist Tuzo Wilson (Uni versi t y of
Toront o) anoi nt ed t h e concept of movi ng t ect oni c plat es as t h e cont rol-
li ng mech ani sm for driving cont i nent al dri ft and sea floor spreadi ng.
1
I n
264
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 265
Bill D i cki nson. (Ph ot o court esy of Bi ll D i cki nson.)
adapt i ng my ow n poi nt of view t o t h e perspect i ves t h at h e and ot h er pio-
neeri ng t h i nkers offered, I bui lt upon a background of personal know l-
edge acqui red pri nci pally i n t h e Ameri can West, w i t h an out look root ed
i n t h e ch allenges present ed by geologic relat i onsh i ps around t h e Paci fi c
ri m, t h e so-called ci rcum-Paci fi c belt of geologic parlance.
O V E R V I E W
In my yout h as a geosci ent i st , I w as a casual st abi li st , assumi ng t h at t h e
cont i nent s h ad mai nt ai ned t h ei r relat i ve posi t i ons on t h e globe t h rough -
out geologic t i me. T h at out moded st ance st emmed less from i nformed
266 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
conviction t h an from sh eer i gnorance of h ow much i nt ellect ual ground
could be gai ned w i t h a mobi li st out look embraci ng t h e not i ons of conti-
nent al dri ft and sea floor spreading. Condi t i oned part ly by t h e West Coast
locale for my sch ooli ng at St anford Uni versi t y (1948-1958), and part ly by
a visceral love of field geology in mount ai nous terrain, my natural focus
w as on th e mount ai n belts of th e cont i nent s. I t ended to assume nai vely
t h at erogenic (mount ai n-bui ldi ng) processes could cont i nue apace
w i t h i n t h e cont i nent s w i t h li t t le or no i nfluence from oceanic affai rs,
w h et h er or not t h e cont i nent al blocks dri ft ed about . Not bei ng part of
t h e oceanograph i c or geophysical communi t i es, from w h i ch t h e basic
st rut s of plat e t h eory sprang, I launch ed i nt o t h e grow ing sci ent i fi c fer-
ment several years aft er i t s i ni t i at i on. My li felong research i nt erest s i n
relat i ons bet w een t ect oni cs and sedi ment at i on ensured, however, t h at
plate tectonics w ould be a gui di ng passion for a number of years.
For a circum-Pacific geologist, the test of any t h eory is how well it elu-
cidates the confi gurat i on and geologic h i st ory of the arc-t rench systems
t h at adorn th e Paci fi c rim of th e globe. Th e arcs and th e t rench es are
paired geograph i c feat ures, t h e t rench es bei ng deep oceani c t rough s lying
close offsh ore from cont i nent al margins, or from associated island ch ai ns
t h at fri nge cont i nent al margi ns, and t h e arcs being parallel volcanic
ch ai ns st andi ng ei t h er on t h e edges of t h e cont i nent s or along t h e t rends
of th e island ch ai ns ("island arcs"). Th e cont i nent al arcs i nclude, among
ot h ers, th e volcanoes of th e h i gh Andes in South America, and th e island
arcs i nclude t h ose of th e Aleut i ans, Japan, th e Marianas, Tonga, and t h ei r
geologic cousins of the w est ern Pacific arena. Ot h er arcs of bot h ki nds
adorn t h e Indonesi an and Medi t erranean regi ons. My personal ent h usi -
asm for plate tectonics waxed ever st ronger as it became increasingly clear
t h at plate t ect oni cs could fost er a fresh analysis of arc-t rench systems lead-
ing to a deeper underst andi ng of t h ei r fundament al geodynamics.
To me, plat e t ect oni cs means not only t h e formal geomet ri c t h eory
for mot i ons of rigid plat es, but i ncludes corollary i mpli cat i ons for geo-
logic processes w i t h i n orogeni c belts and arc-t rench systems, w h ere
depart ures from plat e ri gi di t y are i nh erent duri ng t h ei r geologic evolu-
t i on. Formal plat e t h eory posits plat es t h at are i nt ernally undeformed
ri gh t t o cri sp plat e boundari es, t h e narrow est of w h i ch are t ransform
fault s w h ere t w o plat es slide past one anot h er by strike-slip parallel t o t h e
plat e edges. Wh ere t ransform fault s cross t ract s of cont i nent al crust ,
how ever, not only do broad arrays of parallel fault st rands form plat e-
boundary belt s of fi ni t e w i dt h , but forces t ransmi t t ed across a plat e
boundary can i nduce deformat i on of t h e cont i nent al crust far i nt o t h e
i nt eri ors of t h e i nt eract i ng plat es. Tanya At w at er, t h en a graduat e stu-
dent at t h e Scripps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y of t h e Uni versi t y of Cal-
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 267
i forni a (San D i ego), poi nt ed out t h i s aspect of plat e beh avi or for t h e San
Andreas Fault system of Cali forni a at the 1969 Asilomar Penrose Con-
ference.
2
Now a professor at t h e Uni versi t y of Cali forni a (Sant a Bar-
bara) , sh e undert ook h er early w ork almost at t h e out set of t h i nki ng
about cont i nent al geology i n plate tectonic t erms.
Arc-t rench systems, cont rolled by plat e i nt eract i ons w h ere one plat e
sli des beneat h anot h er, embody i nt ernal plat e deformat i on ext endi ng
i nt o t h e overri di ng plat es for h undreds of mi les away from t h e plat e
boundari es involved. Th e deformat i on may i n some cases involve
i nt raplat e ext ensi on, t o ri ft apart t h e arc st ruct ures, as fi rst perceived
clearly by Dan Kari g, now of Cornell Uni versi t y, w h o also aired h is views
at t h e 1969 Asi lomar Penrose Conference w h i le still a graduat e st udent
at Scripps.
3
In ot h er cases, t h e deformat i on may involve i nt raplat e con-
traction, to t h rust the flanks of arc mount ai n belts over the upper sur-
faces of cont i nent al blocks lying beh i nd t h e arcs, as t h e Andes overri de
t h e Amazoni an plat form of low land South Ameri ca on t h e ot h er side of
t h e mount ai ns from t h e t rench on t h ei r Paci fi c side. Th ese and ot h er
non-ri gi d aspects of plat e beh avi or are i ndeed only anci llary derivatives
of plat e t h eory, but serve as t h e cruci al spri ngboard for geodynami c
analysi s of orogenesi s, t h e bi rt h of mount ai n ranges.
BE FO RE P L A T E S
Pri or t o t h e advent of plate t ect oni cs, most st udent s of orogeni c belt s
lived by t h e precept s t h at Adolph Knopf, long a professor at Yale Uni -
versity, i nformally dubbed geosyndinorial theory i n semi nars given i n ret i re-
ment at Stanford duri ng the i nt erval 1955-1957 w hile I w as a graduate
st udent t h ere.
4
By i t s t enet s, rat h er mystical ent i t i es w e called geosync lines,
defi ned as li near belt s of subsi dence w h ere t h i ck sedi ment s accumulat e,
led i nexorably t o t h e equally mystical process w e called orogeny, w h ereby
mount ai ns w ere bui lt by deformat i on and upli ft of t h e geosynclinal sed-
i ment s. I absorbed t h e i nt ri caci es of geosyndinorial t h eory by learni ng
just w h i ch rocks andjust w h i ch st ruct ural feat ures of t h ose rocks gave rise
t o t h e not i ons by w h i ch w e swore. Wh en plat e t ect oni cs ent ered t h e pic-
t ure, i t w as not a severe ch allenge t o t ranspose basic i nformat i on, already
in h and, into th e stimulating new conceptual format .
On the sedi ment ary side of my sci ent i fi c li fe, I w as early inspired by the
monograph on geosynclines by Marsh all Kay of Columbia University.
5
Ch ester Longwell, also resi dent at Stanford in ret i rement from Yale duri ng
my t enure as a graduate st udent and juni or professor, loved to poke fun
w ith his dry wit at the rat h er esoteric Kay classification, referri ng to his mio-
268 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
geosynclines as "my" geosynclines and his eugeosynclines as "your" geo-
synclines. The miogeosynclines and eugeosynclines w ere envisioned as par-
allel paleogeographic component s of orthogeosynclines, the supposedly
"true" geosynclines from w h i ch mount ai n belts sprang. Th e jocular Long-
well usage seems less h umorous now t h at w e underst and the miogeosyn-
clines of Kay as the miogeoclines of Bob Di et z, long a research sci ent i st w i t h
the U.S. Navy Electronics Laboratory in San Diego.
6
His subtle ch ange in
nomenclat ure, from miogeosyn- to simply miogeo, w as meant to convey th e
t h ough t t h at t h e sedi ment ary strata i n question were not i ncli ned i nw ard,
as a syndine, from bot h sides of an i magi nary depositional t rough , but were
i ncli ned in only one di rect i on, seaward as a dine along an anci ent conti-
nent al margi n. Miogeoclines t h us h omegrow n on "my" cont i nent al mar-
gins are only later juxt aposed against "your" (forei gn) eugeosynclinal rock
masses composed of oceanic crustal element s accreted to cont i nent al mar-
gins by post-depositional plat e movements. Th rough these and ot h er
devices, one can rewrite Kay in plat e t ect oni c t erms, w i t h out ch angi ng
many of the observations he report ed, by simply transposing his geosyncli-
nal nomenclat ure i nt o a terminology of plat e relationships.
7
My ow n mi nd w as prepared for t h e revolut i onary new plat e vi si on of
geoscience by personal experi ences st udyi ng a vari et y of rock masses t h at
w ere di ffi cult t o fi t w i t h i n a stabilist w orld. Chief among t h ese w as t h e
i nt ernally di srupt ed Franci scan assemblage, locat ed along coastal Cali-
forni a, now i nt erpret ed as a subduct i on complex relat ed t o an anci ent
t rench , but t h en si mply myst eri ous. Anot h er w as a clust er of h uge peri -
dot i t e massi fs composed of rock t h ough t t o be ch aract eri st i c of t h e man-
t le of t h e eart h lyi ng below t h e crust , but now exposed at t h e surface
w h ere one can w alk around on t h em i n t h e Klamat h Mount ai ns of nort h -
w est ernmost Cali forni a and sout h w est ern Oregon. We regard t h e peri -
do t i t e bodi es now as slices of an oceani c plat e emplaced agai nst t h e edge
of th e cont i nent al block by subduct i on, but t h ey were t h en simply man-
t le rock curi ously out of place. Fi nally, t h ere w ere t h e volcanogeni c rocks
i n t h e Blue Mount ai ns of nort h east ern Oregon and t h e Si erra Nevada
foot h i lls of Cent ral Cali forni a t h at resemble modern oceani c i sland arcs,
yet are now st uck someh ow w i t h i n t h e cont i nent al block.
S HI FT I N G GR O UN D
The accustomed ground on which I stood began to tremble duri ng my fi rst
sabbatical year (1965) spent mappi ng geologic relat i onsh i ps in Fi ji as a
Guggenh ei m fellow. An ext ended visit to Australia and New Zealand, w h i le
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 269
the rainy season made serious fieldwork impossible in the islands, taugh t
me t h at most alert geoscientists "dow n-under" took th e breakup of th e
anci ent supercont i nent of Gondw analand as a given. Th ey could trace in
t h e fi eld t h e same rock masses, joi ned t oget h er before cont i nent al
breakup, from Australia t o ot h er sout h ern cont i nent s (Afri ca and Antarc-
tica), and to th e Indi an subcont i nent , w h i ch w as also born from Gond-
w analand. Once those i nt ercont i nent al correlations are accepted, conti-
nental dri ft is no longer speculation. Worki ng in Fiji taugh t me also th at
many of th e met amorph osed volcanic rocks in cont i nent al erogenic belts
are indistinguish able from rocks exposed today in the eroded roots of mod-
ern oceanic island arcs, w i t h a degree of similarity too close to be fort ui t ous.
Wi t h out cont i nent al dri ft and sea floor spreading, t h ere are no ready
means to position oceanic rocks against or w i t h i n cont i nent al blocks.
Even so, I remai ned for a t i me qui t e di ffi dent about t h e i mport of sea
floor spreadi ng and cont i nent al dri ft for my ow n research . Wh i le i n Fiji,
away from all li brari es, I missed t h e i ni t i al i mpact of Tuzo Wi lson' s 1965
paper, w h i ch i nt roduced t h e not i on of quasi-rigid plat es bounded by
coordi nat ed plat e boundari es t h at allow a globally i nt egrat ed pat t ern of
mot i ons affect i ng cont i nent al blocks and ocean basi ns alike.
8
Wi t h h i s
sch eme lat er i n mi nd, however, i t w as an exh i larat i ng experi ence t o con-
t emplat e on any model globe t h e i nt erlocki ng net w ork of mi d-ocean
spreadi ng ri dges, w h ere plat es are born from t h e i nt eri or of t h e eart h ,
and mount ai n belt s, w h ere plat es are consumed by subduct i on. At li t t le
more t h an a glance, i t w as clear t h at t h e marvelously coh erent dance of
t h e plat es mi gh t well explai n all t h e major geodynami c feat ures of t h e
eart h , w i t h not h i ng out of place and not h i ng left out . No paper I w rot e
before 1969 gave any h i nt of mobi li sm on th e scale envi si oned by plat e
t ect oni cs, but everyt h i ng I w rot e t h ereaft er w as cast i n t h at mold.
P E R S O N A L T R A N S I T I O N
Th e ch ange from st abi li st t o mobi li st t h i nki ng came qui ckly for me
bet w een mid-1967 and mid-1968 as the cumulat i ve result of a series of
conferences and semi nars t h at brush ed t h e cobwebs from my brai n. Fi rst ,
a parade of st i mulat i ng oral present at i ons at t h e 1967 annual meet i ng of
t h e Ameri can Geophysical Uni on (AGU) i n Wash i ngt on, B.C., late i n t h e
spri ng, codi fi ed t h e concept of sea floor spreadi ng i n a plat e guise.
Second, a special topical conference on the geologic h i st ory of the San
Andreas Fault system w as convened at St anford Uni versi t y on Sept ember
14-16, 1967, by Art h ur Grant z and me, on beh alf of the U.S. Geological
270 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
Survey (USGS) Nat i onal Cent er for E art h quake Research, and t h e Stan-
ford University School of Earth Sciences.
9
Its sessions removed any
remai ni ng doubt about th e reali t y of large cumulat i ve di splacement across
the San Andreas Fault by i ndi cat i ng the overw h elmi ng geologic evidence
for lateral offset of multiple rock masses by dramatic amounts, measured
in h undreds of mi les for th e older rocks offset . In th e aft ermat h of th e con-
clusive evidence for cross-fault movement aired at t h e conference, t h e sug-
gestion of Tuzo Wilson t h at the San Andreas Fault is a t ransform fault ,
li nked t o Paci fi c plate mot i on, became an attractive h ypoth esis supplant -
ing all more stabilist i nt erpret at i ons of San Andreas history.
10
Plate rea-
soning governed all my ow n subsequent w ork in several papers address-
ing various aspects of th e geometrically i nt ri cat e crustal deformat i on t h at
affect ed Cali forni a and adjacent states in response to evolution of the San
Andreas t ransform system along the coast.
Despi t e th e general success of th e plat e model for underst andi ng San
Andreas evolut i on, naggi ng di screpanci es bet w een plat e predi ct i ons and
fi eld det ermi nat i ons of fault di splacement t h rough geologic t i me w ere
not fully resolved t o my sat i sfact i on unt i l t h ree decades aft er t h e San
Andreas Conference. Reconci li at i on of the tw o i ndependent data sets
involved collaborative analysis w i t h Bri an Werni cke, a professor at t h e
Cali forni a I nst i t ut e of Tech nology, w h o w as still in knee pant s w h en plates
fi rst burst upon t h e sci ent i fi c scene. We w ere able t o bri ng t h eory and
observat i on i nt o congruence by close at t ent i on t o complex deformat i on
w i t h i n th e plat e edges lying to ei t h er side of th e San Andreas Fault.
11
T h i rd, a uni que semi nar at St anford, convened joi nt ly by Allan Cox
and me as an i nt erdepart ment al ent erpri se i nvolvi ng facult y and stu-
dent s i n geology and geophysics, confront ed t h e emergi ng i mpact of
plat e t ect oni cs on geosci ence. As t h e t erm p late tec tonic swas not yet com-
monplace, w e called our sh ow SPRIFT, an acronym deri ved from sea
floor spreadi ng (SPR) and cont i nent al dri ft (IFT). No part i ci pant sur-
vived t h e semi nar w i t h h i s or h er previous t h i nki ng i nt act and, i n keep-
i ng w i t h t h e mood of t h e t i me, i t w as never clear w h et h er facult y w ere
leadi ng st udent s or st udent s w ere leading faculty.
D uri ng t h at peri od, t h ere w as also an auxi li ary and qui t e i nformal
semi nar h eld once a w eek long i nt o t h e eveni ngs on t h e floor of my
Menlo Park apart ment just off th e Stanford campus. Students and I sat
cross-legged on t h e floor, much i n h armony w i t h t h e "h i ppi e" craze t h at
sw ept Cali forni a i n those days, and read aloud t o each ot h er, paragraph
by paragraph , some selected paper about sea floor spreading or conti-
nent al dri ft , w i t h ext ensi ve cri t i que and comment ary on each paragraph
and fi gure. Some di st i ngui sh ed ears mi gh t burn i f I could recall all our
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 271
conversations, but w e steeped ourselves t h orough ly in the ext ant lore on
spreadi ng and dri ft , garneri ng t h rough our effort s a valuable educat i on
i n dept h , w i t h no h olds barred.
Finally, st i mulat i ng corri dor discussions at t h e w eek-long I nt ernat i onal
Andesi t e Conference h eld in Bend, Oregon, in July 1968 convi nced me
t h at t h e generat i on of magmas feedi ng volcani sm along bot h island arcs
and cont i nent al arcs around t h e Paci fi c ri m i s relat ed t o t h e subduct i on
of oceani c plates at the nearby t rench es. The meet i ng w as arranged by
Hi sash i Kuno of th e Uni versi t y of Tokyo and Alexander McBi rney of th e
Uni versi t y of Oregon on beh alf, respectively, of th e I nt ernat i onal Upper
Mant le Commi t t ee and t h e Uni versi t y of Oregon Cent er for Volcanology,
w i t h logi st i cal support for t h e conference provided by t h e State of Ore-
gon D epart ment of Geology and Mi neral I ndust ri es, h eaded t h en by Hol-
li s Dole, an old professi onal fri end from t h e days of my Ph .D. research i n
Cent ral Oregon (1956-1957).
12
My paper for t h at meet i ng made no
ment i on of plat e t ect oni cs, but my paper scarcely a year lat er for t h e Sep-
t ember 1969 Andesi t e Symposium of the Volcani c Studies Group of the
Geological Society of London, alt h ough based on much th e same dat a,
w as couch ed expli ci t ly i n plat e t ect oni c terms.
13
Alt h ough my ch ange i n
ment al ori ent at i on appears abrupt i n ret rospect , at t h e time i t seemed a
seamless sh i ft i n emph asi s as expandi ng know ledge and i nsi gh t bui lt nat -
urally upon my past t rai ni ng and experi ence.
By t h en i t h ad become clear from fi eld st udi es t h at t h e assemblages
of i gneous rocks along bot h i sland arcs and cont i nent al arcs are not
rest ri ct ed t o erupt ed volcanic rocks. Also present are plut oni c rocks rep-
resent i ng t h e product s of magma bat ch es t h at are i nject ed i nt o t h e
crust al root s of t h e arcs beneat h t h e volcani c ch ai ns, t o be t rapped t h ere
w i t h i n subt erranean magma ch ambers w h ere t h ey soli di fy as grani t i c
bat h oli t h s and relat ed i nt rusi ons t h at are i n t i me exposed t o view by ero-
si on. Wi t h t h i s i nsi gh t i n mi nd i t became at t ract i ve, by degrees, t o speak
of arcs in general as magmat i c arcs, rat h er t h an si mply as volcani c arcs.
Th i s current ly st andard usage embraces bot h t h e volcani c and t h e asso-
ci at ed plut oni c component s of t h e assemblages of i gneous rocks present
w i t h i n ci rcum-Paci fi c arcs, w h et h er t h ey occur at t h e edges of cont i nen-
t al blocks or along fri ngi ng island ch ai ns.
I N FL UE N T I A L P A P E R S
Two sets of presci ent papers on circum-Pacific geology also encouraged
me to joi n th e mobilist bandw agon t h at w as begi nni ng to roll. One w as a
272 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
st ri ng of related papers by Japanese geoscientists correlat i ng geophysical
paramet ers w i t h geological feat ures and w i t h geoch emical data for vol-
canic rocks in the complex arc-trench systems of the w est ern Pacific
peri ph ery. I h ad sensed th e general flavor of Japanese t h i nki ng at th e
Tokyo Paci fi c Science Congress in 1966. Hisashi Kuno, Arata Sugimura,
and Yoshio Katsui had all argued t h at local variations in the compositions
of arc lavas correlate with depth s from individual volcanoes to the inclined
zones of eart h quake sei smi ci t y t h at slope deep i nt o t h e mande beneat h
magmat i c arcs from near-surface origins in th e vicinities of th e paired
t rench es offsh ore.
14
The i ncli ned seismic zones are styled Wadati-Benioff
zones, named i n compound fash i on i n recogni t i on of t h e Japanese and
Ameri can geoscientists w h o i ndependent ly established t h ei r existence
well before plat e t ect oni cs w as devised.
15
The zones of seismicity are now
t h ough t , however, to mark th e pat h s of oceanic plates descending i nt o th e
mant le beneat h arc-trench systems. Th e very occurrence of eart h quakes
at such great dept h s reflect s th e subduct i on of relatively cold and bri t t le
crustal rocks to subsurface levels, w h ere surroundi ng mant le rocks are too
hot and ductile to fract ure and generate earthquakes.
D uri ng h i s year (1966) at S t anford on sabbatical from t h e Geophysics
Division of t h e D epart ment of Sci ent i fi c and I ndust ri al Research
(DSIRO) in New Zealand, Trevor Hat h ert on and I tested th e reported
Japanese correlat i on of t h e composi t i on of arc lavas w i t h dept h t o t h e
i ncli ned Wadat i -Beni off zone of mant le sei smi ci t y. We found t h at t h e
most i nformat i ve vari at i on i n composi t i on lies i n t h e cont ent of t h e ele-
ment pot assi um (K) i n lavas from di fferent volcanoes, and developed a
global K-h correlat i on bet w een levels of pot assi um cont ent (K) and
dept h s (h) from active volcani c cones t o t h e i ncli ned sei smi c zones i n t h e
mant le di rect ly beneat h .
16
We di d not i ni t i ally percei ve t h at our K-h cor-
relation implies a relat i onsh i p of arc magmatism to plate descent, but
t h at connect i on became obvious i n h i ndsi gh t w i t h i n just a few years.
17
In any case, w i t h or w i t h out t h e plat e cont ext , looki ng t o t h e i ncli ned
seismic zone w i t h i n the mant le as the i mpet us for arc volcanism, as I did
i n 1968 w i t h t h e K-h correlat i on i n h and, ent ai led abandoni ng my ow n
t h ough t s of only si x years earli er on post ulat ed ori gi ns of arc magmas
from st ri ct ly crust al processes at much sh allow er depth s.
18
Th e paper from t h e Japanese sch ool most relevant for placi ng arc-
t rench syst ems as a w h ole i nt o a plat e t ect oni c framew ork w as t h e 1967
synt h esi s of geologic relat i onsh i ps i n Japan by Aki h o Mi yash i ro, t h en at
t h e Geological I nst i t ut e of t h e Uni versi t y of Tokyo, but lat er affi li at ed
w i t h th e State Uni versi t y of New York (SUNY) at Albany.
19
His key
t h ough t s w ere presaged i n t h umbnai l fash i on by Hi t osh i Takeuch i and
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 273
Seiya Uyeda of the Geoph ysi cal I nst i t ut e at the Uni versi t y of Tokyo in
1965.
20
Th e explosive i nsi gh t t h at t h e Japanese research ers offered w as a
sh rew d explanat i on for t h e so-called pai red met amorph i c belts of oro-
geni c systems. I n many locales around t h e Paci fi c ri m, sedi ment ary and
volcani c rocks are recryst alli zed ("met amorph osed") i n parallel but sep-
arat e belt s, each h undreds of mi les long, i nt o mi neral assemblages of t h e
same ages but reflect i ng di fferent condi t i ons of pressure i n relat i on t o
t emperat ure w i t h i n t h e eart h ' s crust . I n bot h Japan and Cali forni a, a belt
of met amorph i c rocks composed of "bluesch i st " mi nerals t h at form at
relat i vely low rat i os of t emperat ure t o pressure li es parallel t o a belt of
met amorph i c rocks composed of "greensch i st " mi nerals formed at rela-
t i vely h i gh rat i os of t emperat ure t o pressure. Th e connect i on of pai red
met amorph i c belt s t o plat e t ect oni cs w as codi fi ed by Mi yash i ro. He
argued cogent ly t h at t h e bluesch i st belt s i ndi cat i ve of low t empera-
t ure/pressure condi t i ons i n t h e crust formed w i t h i n subduct i on zones
associated w i t h anci ent t rench es, w h ere relat i vely cold surfi ci al rocks
w ere dragged t o unusual dept h s, and consequent ly subject ed t o h i gh
pressures beneat h a t h i ck rock overburden, by plat e descent t oo rapi d
t o allow t h em t o w arm up. Conversely, t h e greensch i st belt s i ndi cat i ve of
h i gh t emperat ure/pressure condi t i ons w ere i dent i fi ed as regi ons of
crust beneat h t h e volcani c ch ai ns of magmat i c arcs, w h ere h ot magmas
ri si ng from t h e vi ci ni t y of t h e i ncli ned sei smi c zone w i t h i n t h e mant le
h eat ed crust al rocks t o t emperat ures above t h ose expect ed from t h e nor-
mal t emperat ure gradi ent of crust unaffect ed by arc magmat i sm. Armed
w i t h t h ese i nsi gh t s, w e suddenly h ad t h e means t o i dent i fy t h e subduc-
t i on zones and magmat i c arcs of anci ent arc-t rench systems w h ose geo-
graph i c confi gurat i ons h ave long si nce been dest royed by t h e erosi on of
old erogeni c belts.
Tw o parallel concept s developed by Warren H ami lt on, a USGS re-
search geologist, also played a key role i n set t i ng t h e lessons of plat e tec-
t oni cs i nt o a ci rcum-Paci fi c framew ork. Fi rst w as h i s percept i on t h at vol-
cani c rocks of w h at w e used t o call eugeosyncli nal belt s come i n t w o
di st i nct brands, one t h e basalt i c sea floor lavas raft ed i nt o subduct i on
zones by plat e mot i on and t h e ot h er t h e more andesi t i c volcani c rocks
of magmat i c arcs.
21
D i st i ngui sh i ng composi t i onally bet w een t h e t w o
ki nds of volcani c assemblages provi ded an i ndependent means for
recogni t i on of anci ent magmat i c arcs apart from t h ei r pai red subduc-
t i on zones cont ai ni ng t h e t ect oni cally t ransport ed sea floor lavas. Sec-
ond w as h i s percept i on t h at t h e i nt rusi ve magmas of grani t i c bat h oli t h s
commonly are i nject ed i nt o t h e crust al roots of arc volcani c edi fi ces.
22
274 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTI NENTS
Th i s i nsi gh t folded t h e i mmense ci rcum-Paci fi c bat h oli t h s of t h e Amer-
icas, Japan, and t h e Paci fi c margi n of Eurasi a i nt o an i nt egrat ed pi ct ure
for deeply eroded magmat i c arcs around t h e Paci fi c ri m.
A S I L O M A R P E N R O S E
Th e paradi gm of plat e t ect oni cs w as cement ed i nt o place for me by pro-
ceedi ngs at the Asi lomar Penrose Conference of D ecember 15-20, 1969.
As plat e t ect oni cs w as not t h en a h ouseh old t erm, I gave t h e conference
the rat h er unw ieldy title "The Meani ng of the New Global Tectonics for
Magmat i sm, S edi ment at i on, and Met amorph i sm i n Orogeni c Belts."
Th e ph rase new global tec tonic s w as draw n from t h e paceset t i ng 1968
paper by Bryan Isacks, Jack Oliver, and Lynn Sykes of t h e Lamont -
Doh ert y Geological Observatory at Columbia University set t i ng obser-
vat i ons from global seismology i nt o a plat e framew ork (Isacks and Oliver
are now at Cornell Uni versi t y) ,
23
I w as especially recept i ve t o t h ei r ideas
because I h ad met Sykes, already a facult y member, and Isacks, t h en still
a graduate st udent , in 1965 w hile I was mappi ng geology in Fiji and th ey
w ere i nst alli ng research sei smomet ers t h ere for t h ei r most cri t i cal exper-
i ment s. Sykes w as i n at t endance at t h e Asi lomar Conference.
My conference proposal of January 25, 1969 spoke of "a compreh en-
sive th eory," developed "in recent mont h s," w h ich envisioned "a world-
w ide movement plan for large, semi-rigid plat es of crust and upper
mant le combi ned" w i t h "earlier ideas of cont i nent al dri ft , sea floor
spreadi ng, and t h e deep st ruct ure of i sland arcs i ncorporat ed w i t h i n t h e
theory." Th e proposal w ent on to poi nt out t h at "far-reach ing rei nt er-
pret at i ons of geologic h i st ory are possible w i t h t h e t h eory i n mi nd," and
furt h er, t h at "pot ent i al consequences are especi ally severe for t h e geol-
ogy of erogeni c belts," concludi ng t h at t h e t i me w as "part i cularly oppor-
t une" for a broad-based group of geoscientists to consider "the possible
i mpli cat i ons" of t h e t h en-fresh i nsi gh t s "on an i nformal basis." Th e lan-
guage of t h e proposal reveals t h e ext ent t o w h i ch plat e t ect oni cs h ad
already sei zed cent er stage, but also t h at i t s appli cat i ons t o t h e i nt erpre-
tation of geologic h i st ory w ere t h en still in a nascent state.
T h ere h ad been an earli er pi lot Penrose Conference i n Tucson, Ari-
zona, on so-called porph yry coppers, t h e t ypi cal copper deposi t s of Ch i le
and t h e Ameri can Sout h w est , but t h e Asi lomar Conference w as t h e fi rst
publicly announced Penrose Conference to w h i ch any geoscientist in
t h e w orld could seek i nvi t at i on. Th e group i n at t endance w as largely self-
select ed, apart from a few i nvi t ed speakers. O nly about 150 geosci ent i st s
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 275
saw fi t at t h e t i me t o apply, and nearly 100 w ere i nvi t ed. Among seni or
research ers, t h ey i ncluded legendary fi gures li ke Ji m Gi lluly (a special-
i st on orogeny) of t h e USGS, Marsh all Kay (t h e long-t i me ch ampi on of
geosyncli nes) from Columbi a Uni versi t y, and Joh n Rodgers (an expert
on t h e Appalach i an mount ai n belt ) of Yale Uni versi t y. I nci dent ally, Kay
h ad by t h en fully embraced t h e new mobi li st i c view of geology, w i t h all
t h at ch ange of vi ew poi nt i mpli ed for rei nt erpret at i on of geosyncli nes.
Juni or sci ent i st s i n at t endance i ncluded a number of graduat e st udent s
w h o h ave si nce made t h ei r ow n marks on global geosci ence. A few par-
t i ci pant s h ad t h e kernels of t h ei r mai n cont ri but i ons t o plat e t ect oni cs
already i n pri nt , i n press, or i n mi nd before t h e conference, but many
at t endees drew di rect i nspi rat i on from t h e sessions. In my ow n case, a
paper on plat e t ect oni c models for geosyncli nes w as concei ved duri ng
t h e meet i ng, and given orally on t h e last day i nst ead of my sch eduled
present at i on, w h i ch w as by t h en already out dat ed. In t h at paper, I
argued t h at all t h e t radi t i onal lore of geosyncli nes could be reconfi gured
t o fi t w i t h i n t h e sch eme of plat e t ect oni cs, and i n a sh ort er compani on
paper I argued likew ise for t h e orogeni es t h at bui ld mount ai n belt s.
24
An object i ve measure of the aggregate pow er of the group assembled
at Asi lomar i s t h e fact t h at one i n five w ere t h en, or are now, members of
th e Nat i onal Academy of Sciences, w i t h th e ratio likely to rise as th e w ork
of some of t h e younger part i ci pant s cont i nues t o mat ure. All duri ng t h e
conference, our di scussi ons cont i nued ni gh t and day at a furi ous t empo
t h at left us all exh aust ed by t h e end of t h e w eek. At i t s close, however, i t
w as clear t h at w e had the "cat by the tail," so to speak, in t erms of under-
st andi ng orogenesis, and I took speci al care to make my 1970 publi c
report s of th e conference as t h orough and forw ard-looki ng as possible.
25
Th e fi gure below i llust rat es di agrammat i cally h ow I came t o view t h e
geomet ry of arc-t rench systems in the w ake of Asilomar. The broader sci-
ent i fi c i nsi gh t s gai ned at t h e conference w ere di st i lled i nt o a 1971 sum-
mary paper on t h e role of plat e t ect oni cs i n geologic h i st ory.
26
Th e paper
w as subt i t led "new global t ect oni c t h eory leads to revised concept s of geo-
syncli nal deposi t i on and erogeni c deformat i on," and show ed h ow plat e
t ect oni cs provi des a more logical rat i onale for sali ent event s i n geologic
h i st ory t h an th e older "geosynclinorial" t h eori es h ad given us. It w as as if
w e h ad spent decades slowly cli mbi ng a h i gh h i ll t o at t ai n a vant age poi nt ,
and h ad w i t h a sudden burst of i nt ellect ual energy reach ed t h e summi t
from w h i ch t h e w h ole landscape w as at last laid out before us.
Th ere were several direct spin-offs from th e Asilomar Conference.
Th e fi rst w as a symposi um on plat e t ect oni cs arranged joi nt ly w i t h Ch uck
D rake of D art mout h College, and h eld on Apri l 28, 1971, at t h e annual
276 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
Transverse profi le (or "slice") t h rough a t ypi cal "arc-t rench " syst em, as I envi-
si oned i t i n 1970-1971. Th e profi le shows an oceani c plat e of "li t h osph ere"
composed of rigid crust and upper mant le descendi ng at an angle i nt o h ot t er
and soft er "ast h enosph ere," a w eak zone of part i ally molt en rocks deeper
w i t h i n t h e mant le, along an i ncli ned zone of sei smi c activity. A subduct i on zone
marks t h e locus of plat e descent from t h e surface, and a magmat i c arc forms
above i t as bodi es of molt en rock rise upw ard from t h e mant le i nt o t h e crust ,
generating surface upli ft and vulcanism.
meet i ng of t h e Nat i onal Academy of Sciences i n Wash i ngt on, D.C., t o
bri ng t h e burgeoni ng revolut i on i n geosci ence t o t h e at t ent i on of lead-
i ng sci ent i st s i n ot h er fi elds.
27
Th e nat ure of t h e venue for t h at session
st amped a cert ai n i mpri mat ur of i mport ance t o plat e ph enomena. As
th e convenor of th e Asi lomar Penrose Conference, I also arranged a sym-
posi um on plat e t ect oni cs in geologic h i st ory on November 1, 1971, at
t h e annual Geological Society of Ameri ca (GSA) meet i ng i n Wash i ng-
t on, D.C., t o bri ng cent ral i nsi gh t s developed at t h e conference t o t h e
at t ent i on of th e geoscience communi t y as a w h ole. Th e st i mulus of t h at
session encouraged t h e di ssemi nat i on of i nformat i on about plat e tec-
t oni cs to an ever-w i deni ng ci rcle of geoscientists. Several of the GSA sym-
posi um papers, i ncludi ng mi ne on evidence for past plat e t ect oni c
regi mes i n t h e rock record, w ere lat er publi sh ed i n a speci al summer
1972 issue of the Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e by i nvi t at i on of the edi t or,
Joh n Rodgers, w h o h ad been i n at t endance at Asilomar.
28
Sh ort ly t h ereaft er, I w as asked t o arrange t h e annual research sympo-
sium of th e Society of E conomi c Paleont ologi st s and Mi neralogi st s
under the title of "Tectonics and Sedimentation."
29
Oral presentations
w ere made on November 15, 1973, in Los Angeles at th e annual meet -
i ng of t h e Ameri can Associ at i on of Pet roleum Geologists (AAPG), w i t h
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 277
E arle McBri de (Uni versi t y of Texas, Aust i n) and me as session co-chairs.
Th e symposi um w as designed to h i gh li gh t th e si gni fi cance of plat e tec-
t oni cs for i nt erpret at i ons of sedi ment ary geology, especially i n t h e ser-
vice of pet roleum explorat i on, and h i gh li gh t ed my overview paper on
relat i ons bet w een plat e t ect oni cs and global pat t erns of sedi ment a-
t i on.
30
Memori es of t h e Asilomar Conference lat er i nduced Seiya Uyeda
of th e Uni versi t y of Tokyo to i nvi t e me for a mont h -long t our of lect ures
and fi eld t ri ps at seven leadi ng Japanese uni versi t i es i n 1976 under t h e
Ameri can Geoph ysical Uni on (AGU) auspices.
31
At t h e t i me Japanese
facult y and st udent s w ere able t o h ear di rect ly t h e i mpli cat i ons of plat e
t ect oni cs for orogeni c belt s i n t h e spi ri t of t h e t h i nki ng t h at h ad become
st andard by t h en for i nt erpret i ng geologic relat i onsh i ps i n Cali forni a.
C A L I F O R N I A A F F A I R S
For me personally, the ult i mat e t est of any t h eory of orogenesis is its suc-
cess or fai lure i n explai ni ng t h e geologic evolut i on of Cali forni a, a w on-
derland of orogeni c ph enomena. Th e drumbeat t h at set t h e pace for my
uncondi t i onal accept ance of plat e t ect oni cs w as th e grow ing body of sur-
pri si ng data and mi nd-w arpi ng concept s t h at emerged ri gh t at h ome i n
Cali forni a. Th e fi gure below i s a sket ch map deli neat i ng t h e key rock
bodi es t h at defi ne t h e overall framew ork and geot ect oni c pat t erns of
Cent ral Cali forni a.
Fi ft y years ago, t h e ruli ng not i ons of Cali forni a geology i ncluded t h e
concept of a paroxysmal Nevadan orogeny, or "revolut i on" as w e oft en
called i t , w h i ch allegedly occurred duri ng a geologically bri ef i nt erval of
lat e Jurassic t i me (ca. 150 mi lli on years ago). D uri ng t h at almost magi-
cal event , t h e vast grani t i c i nt rusi ons of t h e Sierra Nevada bat h oli t h w ere
supposedly emplaced, follow i ng w h i ch rapi d erosion of t h e bat h oli t h ,
and t h e met amorph osed "wallrocks" t h at confi ne i t , w as t h ough t t o have
produced volumi nous sedi ment t h at w as qui ckly deposi t ed w est of t h e
bat h oli t h t o form t h e extensive st rat a of t h e Franci scan assemblage
exposed t h rough out much of t h e Cali forni a coast ranges. Th e Francis-
can rocks of t h e coast ranges and t h e w est ern flank of t h e Sierra Nevada
w ere t h en gradually covered, so w e t h en surmi sed, by a t h i ck succession
of ent i rely younger sandst ones and sh ales formi ng t h e Great Valley
sequence, so-called because i t s pri nci pal exposures li e along t h e Great
Valley of Cali forni a (Sacrament o and S anjoaqui n valleys) bet w een t h e
Si erra Nevada and t h e coast ranges. We knew from t h e fossils i t cont ai ns
t h at deposi t i on of t h e Great Valley sequence spanned t ens of mi lli ons of
278 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
Geologic sket ch map of Cent ral Cali forni a (CM, Cape Mendoci no; PA, Poi nt
Arguello) sh ow i ng t h e geograph i c arrangement of t h ree great Mesozoic rock
assemblages (di scussed i n t h e t ext ) formed duri ng t h e approxi mat e i nt erval
from 150 to 50 mi lli on years ago. D eformed and displaced count erpart s of th e
t h ree assemblages w est of t h e San Andreas t ransform fault are not separat ely
deli neat ed for reasons of scale (h alf arrow s besi de fault s i ndi cat e t h e di rec-
t i ons of relative lat eral mot i on of blocks i n cont act along t h e fault s).
years, from latest Jurassi c t i me t h rough at least all of t h e Cret aceous
peri od, w h i ch di d not end unt i l about 65 mi lli on years ago. We t h ough t
of t h e Great Valley sequence as st rat a deposi t ed on a passive cont i nent al
sh elf, much li ke t h ose surroundi ng t h e At lant i c Ocean today. Th e
markedly uneven t empo of geologic event s w e t h en envi si oned, involv-
i ng a bri ef erogeni c "revolut i on" follow ed by a prolonged peri od of oro-
geni c qui et , t urned out t o be all w rong.
Modern geoch ronology h ad already di smant led t h e sch eme by 1960,
w ell before t h e onset of plat e reasoni ng, and cleaned t h e slate t o be
rew ri t t en. Pot assi um-argon (K-Ar) dat i ng, an isotopic met h od of det er-
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 279
mi ni ng t h e ages of rocks, h ad demonst rat ed t h at much of t h e Si erra
Nevada bat h oli t h i s Cret aceous i n age, and h as not h i ng di rect ly t o do
w i t h an older Jurassi c Nevadan orogeny.
32
Th ere h ad also been t h e rev-
elat i on t h at much of t h e Franci scan assemblage i s Cret aceous as w ell,
coveri ng t h e same general age span as t h e supposedly younger Great Val-
ley sequence.
33
Soon t h ereaft er, w e learned t h at t h e cont act bet w een
Franci scan and Great Valley st rat a i s a regi onal t h rust fault , along w h i ch
t h e Great Valley st rat a w ere carri ed above Franci scan st rat a of t h e same
general age by t ect oni c movement s.
34
Th e deposi t i onal cont act t h at w e
envisaged i n our mi nd' s eye bet w een supposedly older Franci scan and
younger Great Valley st rat a does not act ually exist anyw h ere on t h e
ground. About t h e t i me t h at t h e t h rust -fault ed nat ure of t h e cont act w as
fi rst appreci at ed, I w as mappi ng t h e cont act i n det ai l w i t h i n t h e Di ablo
Range, and w as able t o di scern clearly t h e mut ual fi eld relat i ons of Fran-
ci scan and Great Valley rocks, t h us confi rmi ng t h e i nt erpret at i on of a
regi onal t h rust fault by i ndependent observat i ons.
35
A band of alt ered mant le rock t ermed serp entinite separat es t h e Fran-
ci scan assemblage from t h e Great Valley sequence i n many places, and
w as at fi rst t h ough t t o h ave been i nject ed along t h e t h rust cont act
bet w een t h e t w o rock assemblages aft er t h ey h ad been placed i n cont act
by fault i ng, or perh aps duri ng fault di splacement of t h e t w o rock masses
adjacent t o one anot h er. Lat er, h ow ever, t h e serpent i ni t e w as i dent i fi ed
as part of a so-called oph i oli t e succession represent i ng oceani c crust and
mant le ("li t h osph ere") t h at deposi t i onally underli es t h e ocean w ard
flank of t h e Great Valley sequence.
36
Along t h e way, D i ck Ojakangas, now
a professor at t h e Uni versi t y of Mi nnesot a (D ulut h ) but t h en a St anford
advisee of mi ne, h ad sh ow n t h at most of t h e Great Valley sequence i s
composed of sedi ment deposi t ed on t h e deep sea floor by t urbi di t y cur-
rent s.
37
Th at mode of origin befi t s a succession deposi t i onally overlyi ng
an oceani c oph i oli t e successi on, but rules out t h e previ ous i nt erpret a-
t i on of sh elf deposi t s lai d dow n i n sh allow mari ne w at ers.
We w ere t h us confront ed, as plat e t ect oni cs loomed over t h e h ori zon,
w i t h a grand t ri ad of parallel Cret aceous t ect oni c element s (see sket ch
map above) Sierra Nevada bat h oli t h , Great Valley sequence, Francis-
can assemblage - composed of di sparat e rock masses spanni ng t h e same
overall age range. Such an arrangement of t ect oni c element s fi t no pre-
concei ved not i ons, w h i ch i s t o say no pre-plate not i ons, but w as readi ly
expli cable i n t h e cont ext of plat e t ect oni cs. In t h e rush of just a few years,
t h e Si erra Nevada bat h oli t h , encased i n greensch i st met amorph i c rocks,
w as i nt erpret ed as t h e eroded root s of a Cret aceous magmat i c arc. Th e
Franci scan assemblage, cont ai ni ng bluesch i st met amorph i c rocks made
280 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
from scraps of sea floor sedi ment i nt ermi ngled w i t h i gneous oceani c
crust and mant le, w as i nt erpret ed as t h e i nt ernally di srupt ed product of
a subduct i on zone at a pai red Cret aceous t rench , w h ere an oceani c plat e
h ad descended beneat h t h e Cali forni a cont i nent al margi n. We per-
ceived t h en t h at the Great Valley sequence w as deposited duri ng the
same t i me frame as t h e arc and t rench act i vi t y w i t h i n an i nt erveni ng
deep t rough , locat ed i n t h e "forearc" regi on bet w een t h e Sierra Nevada
magmat i c arc and t h e Franci scan subduct i on complex i n a posi t i on
fami li ar from t h e confi gurat i ons of modern arc-t rench systems. Regi onal
undert h rust i ng of t h e Franci scan subduct i on complex beneat h t h e
Great Valley forearc could t h en be view ed as th e record of plat e sub-
duct i on frozen i n geologic t i me. Only a few mont h s aft er t h e Asi lomar
Penrose Conference, a fi eld t ri p i n t h e spri ng of 1970 led by me and t h e
lat e Ben Page of St anford Uni versi t y t h rough coast al Cali forni a, i n con-
nect i on w i t h t h e annual meet i ng of t h e GSA Cordi lleran Section i n San
Franci sco, w i dely aired t h e sw eepi ng new i nt erpret at i ons.
38
A rapi d-fi re series of i nfluent i al papers codi fi ed t h e new pi ct ure. Fi rst
i n pri nt (1969) w as a sket ch by Warren H ami lt on sh ow i ng t h e "under-
flow " (subduct i on) of Pacific mant le beneat h Cret aceous Cali forni a i n a
paper t h at appeared t h e same mont h as t h e Asilomar Penrose Confer-
ence.
39
Hi s concept s w ere out runni ng available t ermi nology, and h i s
self-coi ned t erm underf low t o descri be t h e descent of an oceani c plat e
beneat h an arc-t rench system w as out moded as soon as th e t erm sub-
duc tion gai ned favor duri ng t h e conference proceedi ngs t o descri be t h e
same process. Next came t h e i dent i fi cat i on by Gary E rnst (Uni versi t y of
Cali forni a, Los Angeles), i n a 1970 paper i n press as t h e conference con-
vened, of t h e fault ed cont act bet w een t h e Franci scan assemblage and t h e
Great Valley sequence as th e crust al expressi on of a fossil Wadat i -Beni off
i ncli ned sei smi c zone.
40
My subsequent review paper of 1970 on arc-
t rench t ect oni cs w as largely put t oget h er before t h e conference but w as
complet ed w i t h i nsi gh t s from t h e conference fresh i n mi nd.
41
A key fi g-
ure depi ct ed t h e t ect oni c t ri ad of Sierra Nevada bat h oli t h , Great Valley
sequence, and Franci scan assemblage as li nked component s of t h e same
Cret aceous arc-t rench syst em. Th e follow i ng year (1971), Ken Hsu (Geo-
logical I nst i t ut e, Uni versi t y of Zuri ch ) li nked t h e format i on of Francis-
can melanges expli ci t ly t o t h e pervasive effect s of undert h rust i ng duri ng
subduct i on.
42
Hsu h ad h i mself resurrect ed t h e h oary descri pt i ve t erm
melange some years before t o denot e Franci scan rocks i nt ri cat ely dis-
rupt ed by closely spaced slip surfaces, but h ad t h en favored gravi t y land-
sli di ng on a gi ant scale as t h e mech ani sm t h at formed t h em. For h i m,
t h e concept of plat e subduct i on belat edly came t o t h e i nt erpret i ve res-
cue. D uri ng t h e subsequent development of current views on t h e plat e
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 281
Reconst ruct i on of key t ect oni c element s formi ng a Cret aceous arc-t rench sys-
tem in Cali forni a (t ransverse profi le). Th e Franci scan assemblage consists of
rocks formed under h i gh pressure (bluesch i st s) i n t h e subduct i on zone; th ese
rocks are now exposed i n t h e Cali forni a coast ranges. Th e Great Valley sequence
consists of sedi ment ary and volcani c rocks deposi t ed i n a basin formed bet w een
t h e subduct i on zone and a magmat i c arc formed along t h e edges of t h e Nort h
Ameri can cont i nent . These rocks are now exposed near t h e ci t y of Fresno. Th e
Sierra Nevada bat h oli t h represent s th e exposed root port i ons of th e magmat i c
arc. See Figure 16.2 for geograph ic relat i ons in map view. A "paleoseismic zone"
marks w h ere t h e upper surface of t h e subduct ed oceanic plat e w ould have lai n,
and w h ere deep-focus earth quakes w ould have occurred as the slab sank deeper
i nt o t h e mande. Th is zone can be i dent i fi ed i n h i ndsi gh t on t h e basis of t h e
ch emi cal composition of rocks in th e Sierra Nevada bat h oli t h ; numbers (1-4)
denot e positions of grani t i c belts of di fferent ages. Not e t h at t h e slopi ng t rend
of the paleoseismic zone points upward toward the t h rust contact between Fran-
ciscan and Great Valley rocks marki ng th e i nt ersect i on of th e subduct i on zone
w i t h t h e surface i n Cretaceous t i me. Th e "Moho" (Moh orovi ci c di scont i nui t y)
i s t h e cont act bet w een t h e crust (above) and t h e mant le (below ).
282 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTI NENTS
geomet ry of arc-t rench systems, my focus cent ered on t h e i nt egral place
of forearc basi ns, li ke t h at of th e Great Valley of Cali forni a, lyi ng w i t h i n
t h e elongate belt ("arc-t rench gap") bet w een arc and t rench .
43
O VE R L O O KE D A N T E C E DE N T S
I nt erpret i ve diagrams li nki ng subduct i on of an oceanic plat e t o t h e gen-
erat i on of arc magmat i sm, stem i n part , ei t h er consciously or subli mi -
nally, from largely forgot t en precursors t h at i nfluenced t h e out li nes of
t h e synthesis achieved i n a plate t ect oni c cont ext . Q uite well know n w as
the 1962 sch eme of Bob Coats (USGS Alaska Branch ) sh ow ing oceani c
crust al mat eri als dragged down along th e seismic zone above a descend-
ing slab of oceani c sea floor, aki n to a plate, w i t h volatile compounds such
as superh eat ed w at er bleedi ng upw ard off t h e descendi ng slab t o fost er
melt i ng i n t h e mant le bet w een t h e descendi ng slab and t h e volcani c
chain of the Aleutian island arc.
44
Alt h ough his ideas about the critical
role of subduct ed volatiles in generat i ng arc magmas received respect ful
at t ent i on and w idespread i nt erest , t h ey also met w i t h consi derable skep-
ticism because most geological mi nds w ere as yet unprepared t o accept
dramat i c mobi li t y of the ocean floor. Wi t h i n tw o decades, however, as
modi fi ed t o conform w i t h i mproved i nformat i on about subsurface con-
di t i ons beneat h magmat i c arcs, t h ey became a st andard part of mai n-
st ream i nt erpret at i ons of arc magmatism in a plat e t ect oni c cont ext .
45
Much less fami li ar was the even earlier 1955 di agram (next page) of
t h e German t ect oni ci st , Hans Stille, depi ct i ng an i ncli ned "megat h rust ,"
Pre-plate t ect oni cs (1962) sch eme of Coats for generat i on of Aleut i an arc mag-
mas (see t ext for di scussi on). Th e h alf arrows i ndi cat e i nferred relat i ve mot i on
across a post ulat ed "t h rust zone" carryi ng ocean floor t o great dept h .
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 283
delineated by th e Wadati-Benioff seismic zone, w i t h fusi on of undert h rust
crust al mat eri als t o produce arc magmas.
46
He t ermed this suggested
process p alingenesis by underthrusting t o cont rast i t w i t h t h e t h en-popular
concept of pali ngenesi s, or crust al melt i ng, in the depressed keels of "geo-
syncli nes." Just pri or to th e Second World War, it w as Stille w h o h ad devel-
oped in E urope th e very classi fi cat i on of miogeosynclines and eugeosyn-
cli nes t h at Marsh all Kay furt h er elaborat ed aft er t h e w ar on th is side of t h e
ocean. Few appreciate t h at the Stille, whose name is so closely linked w ith
geosyncli nal t h eory, h ad begun t o ch annel h i s ow n t h ough t s i nt o a more
mobi li st i c mode only t en years aft er t h e w ar w as over.
Most arc magmas are now t h ough t t o deri ve from melt s generat ed i n
t h e mant le w edge above t h e i ncli ned sei smi c zone, much as envi si oned
Pre-plat e t ect oni cs (1955) sch eme for generat i on of arc magmas by melt i ng along
i ncli ned sei smi c zone (belt of dash ed lines, w i t h crosses i ndi cat i ng i ndi vi dual
deep-seat ed sei smi c event s t h at generat e eart h quakes) i nt erpret ed as a "megath-
rust " (h alf arrow s denot e relat i ve block mot i ons). Block I i s a cont i nent al part of
t h e Paci fi c ri m and Block II i s a part of t h e Paci fi c Ocean basin. Th e let t er "f" i ndi -
cat es t h e "level of fusi on [melt i ng]" beneat h a volcani c arc. Black indicates a "cen-
t er of vulcani sm" (reservoi r of magma at dept h below t h e volcani c ch ai n). Posi-
t i on of subduct i on zone ("Mei nesz Zone") det ect ed t h en only from i t s anomalous
gravity field. From St i lle, 1955. Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Sp ec ial Pap er 62, p. 184
(reproduced w i t h permi ssi on of th e Geological Society of Ameri ca).
284 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
by Coats, rat h er t h an from di rect melt i ng of undert h rust sedi ment s as
envi si oned by Stille. Nevert h eless, debat es about t h e det ai led geoch em-
ical processes giving rise to arc magmas cont i nue today. Arc-t rench sys-
t ems are i mmensely large and complex ph enomena, w i t h much of t h e
geologic act i on w i t h i n t h em h i dden from view at great dept h . Many years
will doubt less pass yet before w e underst and t h em fully.
P HI L O S O P HI C A L A T T I T UDE S
D uri ng t h e plat e revolut i on, many invoked t h e religious analogy of "con-
version" to describe the change t h at took place in the mi nds of geosci-
ent i st s. Alt h ough apt i n some respects, I t h i nk t h e religious analogy
misses t h e mark. Devising and developi ng t h e plat e model requi red
i nnovat i on and vi si on, but i t w as not plucked by i magi nat i on from t h i n
ai r; it evolved as th e logical consequence of cruci al new observat i ons and
fresh analysis of out st andi ng problems i n t h e li gh t of th ose observat i ons.
We did not ch ange our w ay of t h i nki ng in response to some spi ri t ual
i nspi rat i on, or t h e aut h ori t y of some admi red guru, but because plat e
t ect oni cs provi ded far and away t h e best means t o underst and ot h erw i se
baffli ng geologic relat i onsh i ps.
In th e early going, pioneer t h i nkers w ere w orking against th e prevailing
intellectual grain and met w ith widespread skepticism from the geological
communi t y. Alt h ough t h e fresh ideas gained general credence w i t h i n just
a few years because of t h ei r i nh erent power, each new conceptual advance
w as treated w i t h initial suspicion unt i l people had a ch ance to become com-
fort able w ith it. Once convinced t h at plate tectonics w as a much bet t er view
of the geological world t h an any previously available, I spent many lecture
h ours in many venues, and spilled much i nk, h elpi ng to persuade geosci-
entists w ho were not yet quite "up to speed" t h at plate t h eory could improve
t h ei r approach to almost any problem th ey faced. For years I "dined out,"
as the saying goes, in the role of showing how plate tectonics impacted var-
ious fields of geoscience or various areas of the world.
Two qui t e scientific and non-religious lodestars guided my own reason-
ing as I eased my mi nd gradually along innovative tracks. One was the rec-
ommendat i on of Joh n Platt (Uni versi t y of Ch i cago), in a paper published
serendipitously just before th e plate revolution burst upon us, to use w h at
he termed "strong i nference" in scientific analysis.
47
Devise hypotheses
inductively, he counseled, test t h em deductively as rapidly as possible by
project i ng t h ei r implications in as far-rangi ng a way as possible, reject those
found w ant i ng, and move on immediately to alternative h ypoth eses not
precluded by available data. In ot h er words, in the cowboy maxi m of the
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 285
Old West, "never dally trying to flog a dying pony across a flooding stream."
Clinging to fai led concept s is only unnecessary delay. This perspective
encouraged me to abandon tired old pre-plate concepts, and to embrace
subst i t ut e plate concepts t h at bet t er satisfied the data available.
Th e ot h er perspect i ve goes much deeper and dat es from fart h er back,
t o a t i me w h en I w as a graduat e st udent explori ng t h e ph i losoph i cal
underpi nni ngs of sci ence in th e st acks of th e St anford library. In 1923,
t h e not ed German ph i losoph er E rnst Cassirer, i n h i s book Substanc e and
F unc tion, argued t h at anci ent Greek (act ually I oni an) sci ence proceeded
by i dent i fyi ng t h e supposedly i nnat e propert i es or "substance" of object s
t h at cont rol t h ei r beh avior, w h ereas modern sci ence seeks t o discover
t h e i nfluences t h at account for observed nat ural ph enomena as a "func-
t i on" of t h ose governi ng i nfluences, not as t h e result of any i nnat e prop-
ert i es.
48
He cont rast ed t h e "th ing-concepts" (subst ance) of t h e former
w ith the "relation-concepts" (funct i on) of the latter.
In t h at cont ext , geosynclines, and t h e orogenies t o w h i ch t h ey suppos-
edly gave rise, w ere very much "substance" concepts. Geosynclines sank
because t h at w as t h ei r nat ure (some w ag once remarked t h at t h eyjust "had
t h at si nki ng feeli ng"), and climactic orogeny w as foreordai ned because
t h at w as w h at geosynclines i nh erent ly fost ered. Th e sequent i al pat h from
geosyncline to orogeny supposedly defi ned a geotectonic cycle predet er-
mi ned by the i nh erent nat ure of geosynclines. Plate tectonics w rench ed
us fi rmly out of t h at ph i losoph i cal dead end, sh ow ing us t h at geosynclines
and orogenies, to th e ext ent th ose t erms have any meani ng at all, are com-
plex mani fest at i ons of plat e movements and associated plate evolution.
No one ever dismissed t h e alleged i nevi t abi li t y of a fi xed geot ect oni c
cycle more t rench ant ly t h an my Uni versi t y of Ari zona colleague, Pet er
Coney, anot h er vet eran of Asilomar. In a paper already i n press w h en t h e
conference convened, he wrote t h at "saying geosynclinal prisms [of
accumulat ed sedi ment ] lead t o mount ai n systems i s a li t t le li ke saying
t h at fenders lead t o aut omobi le accidents."
49
He h ad i n mi nd, of course,
t h e jost li ng t oget h er of cont i nent al blocks w h en subduct i on consumes
an ent i re ocean basi n, as h appened w h ere t h e I ndi an subcont i nent i nt er-
acted w i t h Eurasi a t o raise t h e Himalayas. Th e di versi t y of geosyncli nal
types and orogeni c processes i s a funct i on of di fferent styles and
sequences of plate interactions.
T HE Y E A R S S I N C E
It i s no exaggerat i on t o state t h at t h e advent of plat e t ect oni cs ch art ed a
li felong program of personal research , w i t h few devi at i ons i nt o any
286 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
avenues unrelat ed t o t h e marvelous dance of t h e plat es on t h e surface
of t h e globe. Once t h e si gni fi cance of ch angi ng plat e i nt eract i ons
t h rough geologic t i me w as percei ved for t h e evolut i on of Cali forni a, I
t ri ed i n mult i ple papers down t h rough t h e years t o di scern t h e i mpli ca-
t i ons of plat e t ect oni cs for ot h er part s of t h e Ameri can West.
50
Th e t rai l
i s t oo t ech ni cal and involved t o recount h ere, but plat e t ect oni cs proved
t h e key t o puzzle aft er puzzle buri ed i n t h e rock record of geologic his-
tory. My at t ent i on w as draw n also t o t h e ch angi ng pat t erns of plat e
mot i on t h at h ave i nfluenced t h e evolut i on of i sland arcs around ot h er
segment s of t h e Paci fi c peri ph ery, from Alaska dow n past Japan and
t h rough t h e complex Paci fi c i sland ch ai ns t o New Zealand.
51
Side
i nqui ri es involved w h at h appens t o subduct ed plat es w h en t h ey descend
i nt o t h e mant le, and h ow subduct i on affect s t h e subt erranean mi grat i on
of pet roleum.
52
Over t h e years, how ever, my st udent s and I focused especi ally on t h e
role of plat e t ect oni cs i n governi ng t h e ki nds of sandy det ri t us deri ved
from h i gh land sources i n di fferent plat e set t i ngs, and i n cont rolli ng
t h e evolut i on of sedi ment ary basins, t h ose regi ons w h ere subsi dence
allows t h e accumulat i on of t h i ck pri sms of sedi ment .
53
Alt h ough t h e cor-
relat i on of sandst one composi t i on w i t h paleogeograph i c pat t erns con-
t rolled by plat e t ect oni cs h as been a rew ardi ng avenue of research , t h e
results of t h e exercise are t oo embedded i n t h e speci ali st w oodw ork of
sedi ment ary pet rology t o discuss i n det ai l h ere. T h rough out our inves-
t i gat i ons, I tried always to evaluat e th e relat i onsh i ps of vari ous ki nds of
sedi ment ary accumulat i ons t o t h e t ect oni c evolut i on of associated oro-
genic belts.
54
I nqui ri es i nt o t h e ori gi ns of di fferent types of sand
expanded to i nclude t raci ng th e sources of vari ous classes of sand t em-
per i n preh i st ori c cerami cs of t h e Paci fi c islands. Th e i slands are locat ed
i n di fferent t ect oni c realms governed by pat t erns of plat e mot i on, and
t h e sands available t o anci ent pot t ers on di fferent i slands fai t h fully
reflect t h e vari ous plat e t ect oni c envi ronment s i n w h i ch t h e i sland pot-
ters lived and w orked.
55
My plat e t ect oni c classi fi cat i on of sedi ment ary basi ns w as developed
ori gi nally for a professi onal Ameri can Associ at i on of Pet roleum Geolo-
gists (AAPG) sh ort course, but w as lat er expanded and codi fi ed by Ray
Ingersoll (Uni versi t y of Cali forni a, Los Angeles), and event ually pro-
vided t h e framew ork for a compreh ensi ve volume on t h e t ect oni cs of
sedi ment ary basi ns edi t ed by h i m and Cath y Busby (Uni versi t y of Cali-
forni a, Santa Barbara) ,
56
Th e classi fi cat i on sch eme deli neat es di fferent
ki nds of sedi ment ary basins as a funct i on of plat e set t i ng, but a sh adow
of "t h i ng-concept s" st i ll at t ach es to th e result i ng catalogue of basin types.
The Coming of Plate Tec tonic s to the Pac if ic Rim 287
Th e next st ep in basin analysis is to move still furt h er i nt o th e realm of
"funct i on-concept s" by acknow ledgi ng t h at each sedi ment ary basi n is
uni que, w i t h a h i st ory t h at i s a funct i on of ch angi ng plat e settings and
sequences of plat e i nt eract i ons t h at di ffer i n det ai l t h rough time.
57
Reconst ruct i ng th e evolut i on of sedi ment ary basins affords special
i nsi gh t i nt o geologic h i st ory because underst andi ng pat t erns of subsi-
dence and subsequent upli ft affect i ng sedi ment ary basins provi des a
means t o moni t or t h e ch angi ng elevations of t h e eart h ' s surface over
geologic t i me. This i s superb leverage for est abli sh i ng t h e geodynamic
h i st ory of t h e eart h . Wi t h out a plat e framew ork for analysis, however, t h e
raw data used for basin analysis cannot be amalgamat ed i nt o an i nt e-
grated pi ct ure. Plate t ect oni cs proved t h e i ndi spensable tool for evalu-
at i ng sedi ment ary basins, and I w as i mmensely fort unat e t h at plat es
came along duri ng my li fet i me of st udyi ng basins. Those older or
younger cannot possibly i magi ne t h e exci t ement plat e t h eory evoked for
those of us w h o reach ed sci ent i fi c mat uri t y before t h e plat e revolut i on,
but w ere still young enough t o reori ent our h eads and our research pro-
grams tow ard t h e vistas opened up by plat e t ect oni cs. Moreover, w ork-
ing out th e new game w as sh eer fun every step of th e way.
C HAP TER 17
FROM P LATE TECTONI CS
TO CONTI NENTAL TECTONI CS
An Evolving Perspective of Important
Research, from a Graduate Student
to an Established Curmudgeon
Peter Molnar
1 WAS A LUCKY GUY, A GRADUATE STUDENT AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
from 1965 to 1970 and able to write a thesis consisting of three papers
on di fferent aspects of plate t ect oni cs, one each w i t h Bryan Isacks, Jack
Oliver, and Lynn Sykes. I nt roduced t o t h e forefront of t h e eart h sciences
as a st udent , h ow could I fai l? Wi t h an excess of ambi t i on and confi -
dence, and armed w i t h Jack's repeat ed proddi ng t o t h i nk bi g and t o pur-
sue "the next , most i mport ant problem," I dismissed plate t ect oni cs as
dead in 1970 and sough t a new di rect i on. The slow recogni t i on of fail-
ure ret urned me t o plat e t ect oni cs as a tool (plat e reconst ruct i ons), as a
ph i losoph i cal approach (t o look fi rst at a large scale), and as a bat t ery of
methods (mostly seismological in my case) for the study of the conti-
nent al t ect oni cs of Asia.
Luck struck again, w h en Paul Tapponni er i nt roduced me to th e Land-
sat i magery and analyzed those from Asia. If plate tectonics w ere a revo-
lut i on, and t h e French one t h e met aph or, a reign of t error i n t h e early
1970s made many geologists stop saying, "Plate t ect oni cs is fine, but it
doesn' t w ork in my area," to avoid the i nt ellect ual guillotine. In 1975, Paul
and I reach ed t w o conclusi ons t h at gained us some not ori et y: (1) t h e
deformat i on of Asia seemed to be domi nat ed by strike-slip fault i ng, w h i ch
suggested to us t h at I ndi a' s penet rat i on was absorbed by eastward extru-
sion of crust , and (2) Asia, and h ence cont i nent s in general, behaved like
288
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s
289
Peter Molnar,
Afghanistan
(Photo courtesy
of Peter Molnar.)
Peter Molnar, East Africa Rift Basin.
(Photo courtesy of Peter Molnar.)
290 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
a deformable medi um, not like one or a few rigid plat es, w h i ch rendered
plate t ect oni cs, at least in its strictest sense, a poor descri pt i on of conti-
nent al t ect oni cs. Ironically, Paul and I now each mi ni mi ze t h e signifi-
cance of one of those tw o i nferences: he the lat t er and I the former.
Our w ork mi gh t be seen as part of a metaphorical "Thermidorian
Reaction"; no w onder fi eld geologists h ad not discovered plat e t ect oni cs,
for di ffuse deformat i on and w idespread st rai n makes recogni zi ng rigid
plates w i t h i n cont i nent s di ffi cult . By th e late 1970s, plate t ect oni cs
seemed to have passed i nt o eart h science depart ment s as a synonym for
oph i oli t es and pai red met amorph i c belts, i nst ead of rigid plates and
angular velocities. In w h at may be seen as a count er-revolut i on, st ruct ural
geologists defi ned a new di sci pli ne, st ruct ure/t ect oni cs, w h i ch t o a large
ext ent disguised itself as h i st ori cal geology w i t h a new jargon. As struc-
t ure/t ect oni cs became the biggest section of the Geological Society of
Ameri ca (GSA), st udent s, w h en asked h ow much di splacement h ad
occurred on a t ransform fault , puzzled over pi erci ng points. So, w h at ,
aft er all, w ere t h e revolut i onary ch anges brough t by plat e t ect oni cs? It
seems to me t h at plate t ect oni cs accelerat ed a t ransi t i on in th e eart h sci-
ences from a 19th-century nat ural science t h at treated th e h istory of th e
eart h as an end in itself, to a 20t h -cent ury ph ysical science focusi ng on a
quant i t at i ve underst andi ng of t h e processes t h at h ave sh aped t h e eart h .
P L A T E T E C T O N I C S ( 1965-1975)
Ti mi ng, as i n a good joke, i s a vital part of luck, and my experi ence dur-
i ng t h e recogni t i on and development of plat e t ect oni cs i llust rat es w ell
t h e i mport ance of lucky t i mi ng. Havi ng st udi ed ph ysics at a college
(O berli n) w h ere t each ers w ere paid t o teach and t ook pri de i n doi ng i t
w ell, and w h ere st udent s st udi ed more t o learn t h an t o get good grades,
I w as bet t er prepared t h an most of my fellow st udent s w h en I ent ered
Columbi a Uni versi t y in 1965.1 w as also lucky to be too young to be i nt i m-
i dat ed by, let alone aware of, h ow li t t le I knew .
In 1965, opt i ons seemed li mi t ed for a physics major li ke me, ph ysically
fi t but i nept i n t h e laborat ory, i nsecure w i t h mat h emat i cs and quant um
mech ani cs, and i lli t erat e compared w i t h h i s fri ends. Get t i ng draft ed and
goi ng t o Vi et nam w as much less at t ract i ve t h an usi ng my t rai ni ng i n
ph ysics t o solve si mple problems i n t h e mount ai ns, w h i ch h ad beckoned
si nce my parent s i nt roduced me t o t h e Rockies w h en I w as only 9 years
old. Wh en I sough t advice, however, my ph ysics t each ers asked, "But,
w h at i s geoph ysics, anyh ow ?" t o w h i ch I responded, "I don' t know , but I
t h i nk i t i s applyi ng physics t o t h e eart h ."
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 291
Th e pow er-forw ard on t h e Oberli n facult y' s i nt ramural basket ball
t eam, Ji m Pow ell, w h o also t augh t me a semest er of geology w h i le I
sough t an end-run of ch emi st ry, advised me furt h er, but w i t h t h e admis-
sion t h at h e di d not know geophysics w ell. My fat h er, an experi ment al
ph ysi ci st / admi ni st rat or at Bell Labs, gave me t h e best advice, and on t h i s
rare occasi on, I t ook i t . Hi s part i ci pat i on on t h e Berkner panel on
nuclear t est i ng h ad given h i m t h e narrow view t h at geoph ysics w as li t t le
more t h an seismology and h ad i nt roduced h i m t o t w o out st andi ng
young seismologists: Frank Press, t h en at t h e Cali forni a I nst i t ut e of Tech-
nology (Calt ech ), and Jack Oliver, t h en at Columbi a. So I appli ed t o
bot h , h opi ng t o w ork w i t h one of t h em. T h en, Ji m Fisk, my fat h er' s boss
and a member of th e board of di rect ors at Massachusetts Inst i t ut e of
Tech nology (MI T ), leaked t o h i m t h at Frank Press w as movi ng t o MIT
t o become t h e depart ment h ead. Had my fat h er not been a devout athe-
i st , h e mi gh t h ave quot ed H uckleberry Fi nn, "I guess I ' ll go t o h ell,"
before breaki ng t h e rules of confi dent i ali t y h e lived by and t h en con-
fi di ng t o me w h y I sh ould go t o Columbi a. Alt h ough Calt ech , arguably,
h as mai nt ai ned t h e out st andi ng E art h Sciences D epart ment i n t h e
Uni t ed States si nce before plat e t ect oni cs, duri ng plat e t ect oni cs, and
subsequent ly, I consi der my fat h er' s breach of h i s et h i cs, t h e only exam-
ple in my experience, to have been anot h er lucky break for me. Despite
i t s pre-emi nence, Calt ech 's di rect cont ri but i ons t o plat e t ect oni cs li e
somew h ere bet w een modest and invisible.
Wh en I arrived at Columbi a, I w as also tired and in need of a rest, as
so many st udent s w h o h ave w orked h ard as undergraduat es experi ence
w h en t h ey start graduat e sch ool. Before Fred Vi ne and D rummond
Mat t h ew s and t h ei r h ypoth esis for h ow magnet i c anomali es over t h e
ocean floor formed w ere t aken seriously, and before many people real-
ized t h at one of Tuzo Wi lson's speculative ideas (t ransform fault i ng) w as
actually ri gh t , I audi t ed a course i n post i mpressi oni st pai nt i ng and
at t ended as many concert s and off-off-Broadw ay t h eat ri cal performances
as possible, w hile t aki ng w h at w as reput ed to be a full course load. Bore-
dom gave w ay to more courses in the spri ng of 1966, but it w as the fall
t h at opened the i nt ellect ual doors of the eart h sciences to me. If in 1965
Lynn Sykes had show n Tuzo to be right and if Walter Pi t man and Jim
Hei rt zler reali zed earli er t h at Vi ne and Mat t h ew s h ad t h e only sensible
explanat i on for t h e magnet i c anomali es measured by t h e research vessel
Eltanin w h i le crossing t h e South Paci fi c Rise, I mi gh t have missed t h e fun.
In t h e fall of 1966, h avi ng gleaned more from geophysics t h an I h ad
dreamed, a summer campi ng i n t h e mount ai ns of Alaska, I w as fi nally
ready to t ake my fi eld of seismology seriously. Fellow st udent Bob
Li ebermann h ad suggest ed t h at deep eart h quakes be t h e subject of t h e
292 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTI NENTS
fall semest er's t w o-credi t course, Seismology Semi nar, led by Jack Oli ver
and Bryan Isacks. Surely w h at w e di scussed w as i mport ant t o Jack and
Bryan' s recogni t i on of subduct i on of oceani c li t h osph ere, alt h ough
for me, unable t o recogni ze a si gni fi cant sci ent i fi c problem, t h e mere
discussion of sci ent i fi c quest i ons rat h er t h an h omew ork problems w as
most i mport ant .
1
One of Jack' s t ri cks w as t o get us t o discuss, among t h e
classics, some deci dedly i nferi or papers, w h ose sh ort comi ngs w e w ere t o
recogni ze before h e told us w h at w ould h appen i f w e h ad w ri t t en t h em.
Th e seismology group at Lament Geological Observat ory of Columbi a
Uni versi t y ran anot h er semi nar, every Monday ni gh t , w h i ch w as not for
credi t and not expressly for st udent s, alt h ough w e all learned qui ckly t h at
w e w ere expect ed t o know w h at w as discussed. One Monday t h at fall, Tom
Fi t ch , a fellow st udent , told me I sh ould st i ck around, because Ji m Hei rt -
zler w as going t o present evi dence support i ng "sea floor spreadi ng." Lost,
t ryi ng t o conjure a sensible image of t h e sea floor framed i n t h e met aph or
of an expandi ng w ai st li ne, I stayed and learned more t h an just w h at t h ose
w ords meant . It was, however, Sykes' demonst rat i on of t ransform fault i ng
usi ng seismicity and fault -plane solut i ons of eart h quakes, present ed at
t h e Monday ni gh t semi nar a few w eeks later, t h at made me realize t h at
cont i nent s dri ft ed and t h at somet h i ng exci t i ng w as h appeni ng.
Wh en Sykes h eard Wilson present h i s i dea of t ransform fault i ng, h e
dropped w h at h e w as doi ng t o t est t h e i dea; i t t ook me t h ree mont h s t o
reali ze t h at I h ad bet t er t h i ngs t o do t h an concent rat e on courses. Art
McGarr, an advanced st udent at Lament , assured me t h at second-year
graduat e st udent s could ch oose t h ei r ow n research problems. Aft er
anot h er mont h , duri ng w h i ch Jack Oliver told me dai ly t h at my perusal
of sei smograms (a seemi ngly ai mless search for somet h i ng i nt erest i ng)
w as t h e best w ay I could spend my t i me, I buri ed my tail bet w een my legs
and sough t advice from Lynn. He poi nt ed me t o a problem t h at even-
t ually led t o our det ermi ni ng t h e mot i ons of t h e Cari bbean and Cocos
plat es w i t h respect t o each ot h er and t o Nort h and Sout h Ameri ca, just
as Jack poi nt ed me t ow ard anot h er, t h e mappi ng of lat eral h et erogene-
i t y i n t h e mant le and h ence defi ni ng t h e lat eral ext ent of li t h osph eri c
plat es.
2
Suddenly I w as st udyi ng w h at I w ant ed, not w h at t each ers i n
classes expect ed, as my grades soon reflect ed. It w asn' t long before Jack
h ad t o rei n me i n by poi nt i ng out t h at I seemed t o be t h e ki nd w h o could
not fi ni sh anyt h i ng. I w as a bi t afrai d of h i m; aft er all h e w as 20 years
older t h an I, and t h erefore already i n h i s 40s.
Lynn organi zed a special one-day session at t h e Ameri can Geoph ysi-
cal Uni on' s (AGU) annual meet i ng in th e spri ng of 1967 to discuss all of
t h e recent development s t h at relat ed t o sea floor spreadi ng, t ransform
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 293
fault i ng, and undert h rust i ng of li t h osph ere at trenches. Perhaps no sin-
gle one-day session made t h e ongoi ng development s more obvious t o t h e
uni ni t i at ed t h an t h at one, and I felt a special advantage i n bei ng already
fami li ar w i t h some of w h at w as present ed. Experi ence h ad t augh t us st u-
dent s, h ow ever, t h at w h en t h e AGU' s morni ng sessions ended, fi ndi ng
affordable lunch could be h ard. To beat t h e crowds at t h e sandw ich
sh ops, many of us ski pped t h e last talk i n t h e morni ng. It w as t o be given
by someone who had w ri t t en a pair of papers i nt erpret i ng gravity over
t h e Puert o Rico region i n t erms of dynami c processes i n t h e mant le, and
t h ose papers h ad eli ci t ed a cri t i cal Let t er t o t h e E di t or t o t h e Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h from t h e bi g guns at Lament .
3
I h ad not h eard of t h e
aut h or and remember only by vague i nnuendo t h at h e di dn' t know w h at
h e w as doi ng. Several years lat er I read t h ese t w o gems by Pri ncet on' s
Jason Morgan, profound and w ell ah ead of t h ei r t i me.
4
By ski ppi ng out
to mi ni mi ze time in the queue at the sandwich sh op, I missed Jason's pre-
sent at i on of plat e t ect oni cs, w h i ch w as not di scussed i n h i s abst ract . My
i mpressi on i s t h at among t h ose w h o h eard h i s present at i on, only Xavier
Le Pi ch on grasped t h e si gni fi cance of w h at h e said.
In t h e summer of 1967, Jason's paper on plat e t ect oni cs arri ved at
Lament i n pre-pri nt form, and Lynn ci rculat ed i t t o all of us w h o mi gh t
be i nt erest ed. S uddenly t h e ji gsaw puzzle fi t t oget h er. By recogni zi ng t h e
rigid-body movement of li t h osph eri c plates (w h i ch he called "crustal
blocks"), Morgan gave us t h e mi ssi ng glue t h at uni t ed sea floor spread-
i ng, t ransform fault i ng, and subduct i on (a w ord not yet used for w h at
w as clearly occurri ng at i sland arcs) i nt o "plat e t ect oni cs" (more w ords
not used yet ) .
5
A t urni ng poi nt h ad obviously been reach ed, i f w h ere
next t o t urn w as less obvious t o me.
By the fall of 1967, Isacks, Oliver, and Sykes had st art ed meet i ng regu-
larly to prepare t h ei r encyclopedic summary, "Seismology and th e New
Global Tectonics."
6
Wi t h courses st i ll to take and ot h er obstacles to over-
come before I could pursue exci t i ng research full-t i me, I w as envious. Poor
Jack w ould have st i mulat i ng discussions w i t h Bryan and Lynn, and t h en I
w ould ent er h i s offi ce w ith t h e paper t h at h e and I w ere w ri t i ng. At Ober-
li n, except for a one-semester course i n physical geology, I never earned
bet t er t h an a C+ i n courses t h at requi red w ri t i ng essays or t erm papers:
English Composi t i on, English Li t erat ure, Religion, Modern Painting, Phi-
losophy, and European History. My non-sci ent i st fri ends called me a "mere
t ech ni ci an" and beli t t led my illiteracy at every opport uni t y. Wh en done
w i t h a page of w h at would be my fi rst major paper, Jack sometimes w ould
h and i t t o Judy Healy, h i s secretary and my Engli sh composi t i onal savior,
to ret ype, because th e edi t i ng h ad rearranged, if not replaced, most words.
294 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
By th e time t h i s paper and t h at w i t h Sykes w ere approach i ng submission,
w h at w as missing w as not the satisfaction of w ri t i ng clear expository prose;
t h at , like wisdom or h umi li t y today, seemed hopelessly out of reach. I
sough t somet h i ng more i mmedi at ely sat i sfyi ng - my ow n original idea.
For as long as I can remember, my fat h er, J. P. Molnar, h ad urged me
t o t h i nk for myself. He also t ri ed repeat edly t o i mpart some of h i s wis-
dom to me. Most of w h at st uck did not do so unt i l aft er h is deat h in 1973,
but w h en Bryan, Jack, or Lynn rei nforced h i s i nsi gh t , I t ook i t seriously.
Jack could not end a semi nar course (or a t h esi s defense) w i t h out ask-
ing somet h i ng like, "What is the next , most i mport ant problem to pur-
sue?" Th ose w ords t orment ed me for years, even w h en I t h ough t I could
answ er t h em. Perh aps, i f I h ad underst ood w h at made a problem "impor-
t ant ," I w ould h ave w asted less nervous energy. In any case, w h et h er artic-
ulat ed conci sely or merely pervadi ng an at mosph ere, t h e repeat ed ask-
i ng of such a quest i on must surely separat e i nst i t ut i ons t h at make
advances from t h ose t h at mop up loose ends beh i nd t h e forefront .
Good ideas at Lamont did not seem to be concepts t h at related fact s
and t h eori es, and t h erefore t h e ki nd t h at oft en i nst i ll possessiveness i n
myopi c egos; rat h er t h ey focused on topics w ort h pursui ng - like deep
eart h quake zones or t ransform fault i ng.
7
Jack once told me somet h i ng
li ke, "Yeah. Of course, I w ant st udent s w h o can solve problems, but more
i mport ant , I w ant st udent s w h o can ch oose good problems." Si mult ane-
ously, Lynn w as const ant ly suggest i ng t h at w e st udent s could fi nd ways t o
test ideas, such as w h at drove plate mot i on. This two-pronged attack, of
one urgi ng a seemi ngly bli nd grope tow ard a good problem and of t h e
ot h er urgi ng a more orderly analysi s of h ypot h eses follow ed by tests, kept
me alert t o "i mport ant problems," w h at ever those w ords meant . Jack' s
book, The Inc omp lete Guide to the Art of Disc overy, art i culat es h i s case more
clearly t h an I h ad underst ood and offers advice on h ow t o make such
ch oices.
8
Anyhow , w h en I got my fi rst good i dea, t o use fault -plane solu-
tions of i nt ermedi at e and deep-focus eart h quakes to st udy the "driving
mech ani sm of plat e t ect oni cs," I prompt ly learned t h at Bryan h ad
already been pursui ng t h i s. A ki nd man, h e allowed me t o sh are t h e st udy
w i t h h i m, and I t h i nk I di d cont ri but e t o i t , alt h ough not as much as h e
di d. Tw ent y-t w ent y h i ndsi gh t suggests t h at Jack and Lynn may h ave let
us sh are i t alone, i n part i n deference t o my palpable ambi t i on.
We show ed t h at fault -plane solut i ons of i nt ermedi at e and deep-focus
eart h quakes defi ned a simple pat t ern.
9
First, nei t h er of t h e possible fault
planes det ermi ned i n a fault -plane solut i on i s ori ent ed parallel t o t h e
i ncli ned, deep seismic zone at an i sland arc. Th e relatively planar zone of
seismicity, t h erefore, does not defi ne a mega-t h rust fault plungi ng i nt o
t h e mant le, as Calt ech ' s Hugo Beni off h ad cont ended.
10
I nst ead, t h e
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 295
approxi mat e ori ent at i ons of pri nci pal stresses causing the eart h quakes
i mply t h at t h e eart h quakes occur w i t h i n a st rong tabular body, t h e down-
going slab of li t h osph ere, and result from the stressing of t h at slab.
11
In
areas w h ere no deep eart h quakes occur (at dept h s greater t h an 200 miles
or 300 km), the down-going slabs are st ret ch ed, presumably by gravity act-
ing on th e excess mass w i t h i n t h em to pull th e slabs downward in much
t h e same w ay t h at a spri ng h ung from t h e cei li ng st ret ch es due t o i t s
w eigh t. Essent i ally all deep-focus eart h quakes, however, suggest t h at th e
slab encount ers resistance (as if the bot t om of the spri ng rested on the
floor). We assumed t h at resistance t o reflect increased st rengt h at a dept h
of 370 to 450 miles (600 to 700 ki lomet ers). In many areas, a gap in eart h -
quakes separates i nt ermedi at e-dept h seismicity from t h at below 200 miles
(300 ki lomet ers), w h i ch seems to mark a zone of low stress bet w een down-
dip extension above and down-dip compression below, alt h ough in some
Cart oons i llust rat i ng si mple i nt erpret at i ons of fault -plane solut i ons of eart h quakes
of i nt ermedi at e and deep-focus eart h quakes. Closed and open circles si gni fy eart h -
quakes w i t h dow n-dip T-axes and P-axes, respectively, (a) Wh ere no deep eart h -
quakes occur, T-axes are dow n-dip, because gravity act i ng on the excess mass of the
slab pulls t h e slab dow n, (b) Wh ere t h ere i s a gap i n seismicity at dept h s near 200
miles (300 ki lomet ers), T-axes again are down-dip at i nt ermedi at e dept h s (sh allow er
t h an 200 mi les (300 ki lomet ers), and P-axes are down-dip at great er dept h s, because
t h e slab encount ers resistance of some ki nd. Here, t h e gap i n sei smi ci t y marks a zone
w h ere stress is low. (c) Wh ere sei smi ci t y is cont i nuous to dept h s of 350 to 450 miles
(600 t o 700 ki lomet ers), P-axes are down-dip for bot h i nt ermedi at e and deep eart h -
quakes, because a rapi dly subduct i ng slab h as encount ered resistance at dept h , (d)
In some areas, a gap in seismicity mi gh t mark a gap in th e down-going slab. T-axes
are down-dip in th e shallow er part of th e slab, because gravity pulls th e slab dow n,
and P-axes are down-dip at great dept h because t h e slab encount ers resistance t h ere.
Isacks, B. and P. Molnar, Di st ri but i on of stresses in th e descendi ng li t h osph ere from
a global survey of focal-mech ani sm solut i ons of mant le eart h quakes, Rev. Geop hys.
Sp ac ePhys., 9, 103-174, 1971.
296 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
S ummary of fault -plane solut i ons of eart h quakes of i nt ermedi at e and deep-focus
earthquakes. Symbols as in Figure 1, w ith each symbol represent i ng an eart h quake
t h at w e st udi ed, and w i t h Xs sh ow i ng fault -plane solut i ons w i t h nei t h er dow n-dip P-
nor dow n-dip T-axes. A li ne t h rough symbols denot es t h e cross-sectional sh ape and
dept h range of the sei smi c zone. Isacks, B. and P. Molnar, Di st ri but i on of stresses in
the descending lithosphere from a global survey of focal-mech anism solutions of
mant le eart h quakes, Rev. Geop hys. Sp ac e Phys., 9, 103-174, 1971.
areas, t h e slab itself mi gh t be di scont i nuous. Th e fault -plane solut i ons,
thus, lent support to the idea th at gravity acting on the cold, dense mass
of th e down-going slab played a crucial role in driving plat e mot i on, and
also seemed t o suggest (perh aps i ncorrect ly) t h at t h e slab di d not pene-
t rat e deeper t h an approxi mat ely 450 miles (700 ki lomet ers).
By 1969, the fi rst of our papers was publish ed, and I felt proud of hav-
ing done good w ork. Aft er a present at i on of t h i s w ork in 1969, Seiya
Uyeda from t h e E art h quake Research I nst i t ut e of Tokyo Uni versi t y gave
me w h at h as impressed me as t h e h i gh est form of compli ment one can
pay a sci ent i st . He said, "I have to ch ange my ideas."
Workah oli sm may be h eredi t ary, but still young and unt rai ned i n t h e
art of w orki ng all t h e t i me, I needed a rest. In 1969, I t ook a seven-mont h
sabbatical t o Afri ca t o study eart h quakes and i nt racont i nent al ri ft i ng
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 297
t h ere, and I fai led, as I w ould t i me and agai n. Our result s di d not
enli gh t en t h e process of ri ft i ng. Th e Tuesday follow i ng a Monday ni gh t
sei smology semi nar i n w h i ch I descri bed my w ork i n Afri ca, Muaw i a
Barazangi , a fellow st udent at Lamont , asked me w i t h t h at i ngenuous
frankness t h at h as always endeared me t o h i m, "What h appened last
ni gh t ? Th at t alk w as no good." Alt h ough h e said not h i ng aft er my next
semi nar, w h en I discussed w h at mi gh t h ave become my t h esi s, h e could
h ave said t h e same. So, w i t h Jack' s h elp i n w ri t i ng a th ree-page preface,
I packaged repri nt s of t h ree papers publi sh ed t h e year before t oget h er
as a t h esi s, and i n D ecember 1970, I defended a pamph let w h ose bound
cover w as t h i cker t h an i t s pages. Alt h ough I felt smug know i ng t h ey
couldn' t fai l me w i t h a t h esi s consi st i ng of papers w i t h each of Isacks,
Oliver, and Sykes, somet h i ng w as mi ssi ng. In 1970, I passed from bei ng
a bri gh t young graduat e st udent t o just anot h er guy w i t h a Ph .D., a man-
i fest let -dow n, ampli fi ed by t h e concern t h at I could not i dent i fy "t h e
next , most i mport ant problem." Jack h ad asked duri ng my defense, as I
knew h e w ould, but my prepared answ er w as obviously unsat i sfact ory. I
dropped t h at topic a year later.
In t h e lat e 1960s, t h e unsolved problem discussed most oft en surely w as
"t h e dri vi ng mech ani sm of plate t ect oni cs." Th e force movi ng t h e plates
is obviously gravity. If plat e t ect oni cs was a part of t h ermal convect i on, as
most beli eved, t h e energy source must almost surely be radioactivity. No
one doubt ed t h at subduct ed oceani c li t h osph ere played a key role, for t h e
w ei gh t of the dow n-going slab w as clearly h uge by the st andards of likely
mass anomali es i n t h e eart h . Moreover, t h e dynami cs of flow i n a t h er-
mally convect i ng fluid must be expressed in t erms of a balance bet w een
gradi ent s i n stress and horizontal gradi ent s of t emperat ure. Th e large h or-
i zont al t emperat ure gradi ent s at subduct i on zones again poi nt ed t o t h e
down-going slab's role i n t h e "driving mech ani sm." Th e quest i on seemed
and still today seems t o me t o be not , "What drives plat e t ect oni cs?" but
"What processes and propert i es di ct at e t h e range of di mensi ons t h at
plates and the underlyi ng convection take?" In short, "How does mant le
convect i on w ork?" w h i ch comprises more t h an one well-posed quest i on.
In any case, from my poi nt of view in about 1970, the quest i on, "What is
th e dri vi ng mech ani sm of plat e t ect oni cs?" w as ei t h er already solved or
t oo di ffi cult for me t o pursue. I sough t a di rect i on t h at w ould ch allenge
me t o learn somet h i ng new, but t h at di d not exceed my abilities.
My fat h er h ad said repeat edly t h at ni ne out of t en sci ent i fi c experi -
ment s fai led; one h ad t o persevere t o get anyw h ere. I got a post-doc w i t h
Ji m Brune at t h e Scripps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y; Ji m i s one of t h ose
rare i ndi vi duals w h o always seemed t o fi nd a di fferent w ay t o look at a
298 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
problem. While reci t i ng convent i onal views t o Ji m, and fai li ng t o appre-
ciate h i s approach , I prompt ly learned t h at ni ne out t en ideas of w h at t o
pursue mi gh t lead t o publi sh able papers, but t h ey need not be i mport ant .
Jack never defi ned preci sely w h at "i mport ant " meant w h en appli ed t o t h e
next problem. Wh at I w as looki ng for, however, h ad gradually become
Lynn Sykes' experi ence w i t h t ransform fault i ng, a problem so i mport ant
t h at i t w ould cause me t o drop w h at I w as doi ng t o pursue i t w i t h vigor
(almost a love affai r w i t h a sci ent i fi c problem) .
12
Lynn di d not drop every-
t h i ng w h en h e fi rst read Tuzo Wi lson's paper on t ransform fault i ng; as h e
t old me, i t w as not unt i l h e h eard Wi lson, w h o w as renow ned for exci t i ng
t alks, present t h e idea i n a talk given mont h s aft er i t s publi cat i on.
13
Know -
i ng t h at I h ad t o be pat i ent di d not , however, prevent frust rat i on.
Jason Morgan came to Lamont to give a talk in the summer of 1971, to
present h is t h ough t s on "plumes" before h e published t h em.
14
We all w ent
to listen to w h at was a memorable seminar. He opened w ith, "Consider
plumes ri si ng from t h e core-mantle boundary."
15
Before ut t eri ng t h e next
sentence, of w h at may have been a reh earsed openi ng gambit, Xavier Le
Pichon blurt ed out loudly from th e front row, "Why?" Somewhat flust ered,
Jason said, "Well, (pause) Just consider it," but Xavier insisted t h at Jason
give a reason for considering w h at seemed so preposterous an idea at the
t i me. I sympath ized w ith Xavier and w as not i ncli ned to drop everyt h i ng to
pursue this idea. That inclination came a year later, however, w h en evidence
had mount ed to suggest first, t h at "hotspots" - isolated centers of volcan-
ism like Yellowstone or the islands of Hawaii or Iceland, w h i ch are the sur-
face mani fest at i ons of Jason's plumes - mi gh t defi ne a fixed reference
frame, and second, t h at localized anomalies in seismic wave propagation at
th e core mant le boundary mi gh t lie directly beneat h some hotspots.
I w as deli gh t ed t o h ave a problem t h at mi gh t allow me t o drop every-
t h i ng, but my effort s t o det ect anyt h i ng special at t h e core-mantle
boundary fai led. My fat h er w ould h ave been h appy, for I w as learni ng an
i mport ant lesson: "most experi ment s fai l." Later, Tanya At w at er and I,
t h en w orki ng at Scripps, concluded t h at t h e h ot spot s w ere not fi xed.
16
T h at conclusi on mi gh t not h ave been just i fi ed by t h e dat a i n 1973, but
i t st i ll st ands, i n my opi ni on, w i t h much bet t er dat a and a more ri gorous
t reat ment of uncert ai nt i es.
17
If Jason Morgan' s paper on plat e t ect oni cs
had seemed like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falli ng out of the sky and i nt o
place,
18
resolvi ng plumes and underst andi ng h ot spot s seemed li ke
assembli ng a ji gsaw puzzle of flui d pieces; t h ey could always be made t o
fi t , but t h ey di d not always h ang t oget h er.
More t h an once w h en I groped for a good problem and floundered,
Jack Oliver t old me, "The w orst t h i ng you can do w h en you can' t t h i nk
of anyt h i ng t o do i s t o do not h i ng." Aft er recurri ng fai lures t o i dent i fy a
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 299
problem t h at w ould make me drop everyt h i ng I w as doi ng t o pursue i t ,
I t ook Jack' s advice and ret urned t o w h at I knew h ow t o do, t o det ermi ne
fault -plane solut i ons of eart h quakes. By th e early 1970s, w e st udent s and
st aff at Lamont h ad st udi ed nearly all regi ons w h ere fault -plane solut i ons
of eart h quakes could resolve plat e mot i ons, but w h at h ad been i gnored
w ere t h e cont i nent s. Dan McKenzi e h ad recogni zed t h i s omi ssi on a cou-
ple of years earli er, and duri ng a vi si t to Lamont in 1968 h e began w ork-
i ng on t h e Medi t erranean regi on before ret urni ng t o Cambri dge, En-
gland, t o complet e t h i s study.
19
I ch ose Asia and prompt ly learned t h at
Tom Fi t ch , w h o h ad gone t o t h e Aust rali an Nat i onal Uni versi t y i n Can-
berra for a post-doc, and Franci s Wu, of t h e State Uni versi t y of New York
i n Bi ngh amt on, h ad also begun w ork on t h e same area. Wh en w e rec-
ogni zed t h i s, w e joi ned effort s.
My st udy of Asian t ect oni cs began as a back-burner project and
remai ned so w hile I w as at Scripps, still h opi ng to fi nd somet h i ng so i mpor-
t ant t h at I could drop everyt h i ng else. My grow ing self-doubts about fi nd-
i ng such a problem w ere st rengt h ened w h en Dan read our paper.
20
We
argued t h at , i n cont rast t o plate boundari es, t h e consi st ent paramet ers i n
Asia w ere th e approxi mat e ori ent at i ons of th e pri nci pal stresses act i ng in
the regions of the eart h quakes, or more precisely the axes of pri nci pal
st rai ns,
21
not t h e ori ent at i ons of t h e t w o perpendi cular planes, w h i ch h ad
been so useful in det ermi ni ng th e ori ent at i on of relative movement at
plat e boundari es. Havi ng used slip vectors to demonst rat e plat e tectonics,
McKenzi e asked how w e could regress to old ideas about stress, aft er plate
t ect oni cs h ad shown t h e slip vect or t o be t h e i mport ant paramet er.
22
One
always takes seriously w h at Dan says, and h e h ad valid poi nt s, w h i ch I will
not discuss h ere, but t h e data showed a regionally coh erent st rai n fi eld
(alt h ough w e fooli sh ly used t h e w ord stress, not strain) .
In 1972, Joh n Sclat er left Scripps and w ent t o MIT as a professor, i n a
st ep t o st rengt h en MIT's program i n w h at w e now call geodynami cs. As
at Scripps, excellent w ork h ad been done at MI T i n plat e t ect oni cs, but
as much by graduat e st udent s, such as Don Forsyt h , Norman Sleep, and
Sean Solomon, as by t h e st aff. Joh n persuaded Frank Press t h at i t needed
anot h er mari ne geoph ysi ci st , and t h e out st andi ng candi dat e w as Tanya
At w at er, my part ner at t h e t i me. I n effect , t h ey h ad t o h i re me too.
(Prot est at i ons t h at I h ad act ually been h i red on my ow n meri t w ere far
t oo emph at i c t o be beli eved.) Before goi ng t o MIT i n January 1974, I
w rot e t w o proposals t o t h e Nat i onal Science Foundat i on (NS F), one t o
st udy large eart h quakes i n Asia and t h e ot h er t o refi ne plat e recon-
st ruct i ons and develop a met h od for det ermi ni ng uncert ai nt i es. T h e
need t o est i mat e uncert ai nt i es w as beat en i nt o me unremi t t i ngly by my
fat h er, and t h en aft er a bri ef respi t e by Tanya, alt h ough sh e sh ould
300 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTI NENTS
not be h eld responsi ble for t h e fervor w i t h w h i ch I h ave carri ed t h i s flag.
Anyhow , nei t h er proposal addressed t h e next i mport ant problem, but I
reckoned t h at bot h w ould keep me busy for a long t i me, and t h ey di d.
T h en, Tanya and I w ent t o t h e Soviet Uni on for four mont h s.
I h ad deci ded, not alt oget h er i ncorrect ly as ot h ers sh ow ed, t h at eart h -
quake predi ct i on offered i mport ant problems: not only di d eart h quake
predi ct i on seem possi ble, but precursory processes also could be under-
st ood.
23
Th e Russi ans w ere at t h e forefront , h avi ng demonst rat ed t h at
t h e rat i o of t h e t w o waves radi at ed by eart h quakes and passi ng t h rough
t h e eart h , P and S waves, vari ed over t i me, but no one h ad exami ned
t h ei r dat a i n any dept h . My fat h er w ould h ave been proud agai n, because
t h i s experi ment fai led, too. I could not fi nd t h e ch ange i n t h e rat i o of P
and S wave speeds t h at t h e Soviet seismologists h ad report ed, t h at made
t h ei r w ork t h e cent er of at t ent i on i n eart h quake predi ct i on, and t h at w as
subsequent ly found by ot h ers i n t h e Uni t ed States.
24
D uri ng peri ods
most ly lost st ruggli ng w i t h and w ai t i ng for t h e Soviet bureaucracy, I res-
urrect ed enough of my college Russian t o read about t h e major eart h -
quakes and geology of Soviet Asia and Mongoli a and made a few li felong
fri ends w h o sympat h i zed w i t h my frust rat i on. Sh ort ly aft er arri vi ng at
MIT i n January 1974, I abandoned almost complet ely eart h quake pre-
di ct i on as a di rect i on, w i t h no subsequent regret s.
Satellite Imagery and Large- Scale Asian Tectonics
Th e i nt ersect i on of t i mi ng and luck greet ed me again sh ort ly aft er st art -
i ng at MIT. A special st udent from France, t rai ned i n st ruct ural geology
but w i t h t h e sound quant i t at i ve background t ypi cal of French st udent s,
h ad come t o MIT t o learn rock mech ani cs from Bill Brace. Already 26
years old, Paul T apponni er planned t o spend one year at MIT and ret urn
t o France t o begi n h i s ow n laborat ory w ork, based on w h at h e learned
from Brace. Ant i ci pat i ng an i nt erest i n eart h quake predi ct i on, I h ad
asked t h at my offi ce be on t h e same floor as Brace's. In t h e follow i ng
w eeks, t h e dai ly ebb and flow bet w een courses and research brough t
Paul and me t oget h er, at fi rst w i t h no t h ough t s of collaborat i ng. Paul' s
unusual i nt ellect w as soon obvious, and Brace and I t h ough t i t w ould be
unfort unat e i f h e left MIT aft er only one year. We discussed h ow t o make
i t obvious t o Paul t h at staying at MIT for a Ph .D. w ould be i n h i s best
i nt erest , and Bill said unh esi t at i ngly, "We sh ould fi nd h i m good research
problems." He set Paul going on a careful st udy of bri t t le cracks i n rocks,
and I asked h i m i f h e w ould be i nt erest ed i n looki ng at t h e sat elli t e
i magery of Asia. Th e i dea w as less ori gi nal t h an i t mi gh t seem, because
I h ad never h eard of t h e E art h Resources Tech nology Satellite (ERTS)
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 301
i magery, as th e Landsat i magery w as originally called, before Paul
sh ow ed me some imagery from Iceland.
By Sept ember 1974, Paul had assembled mosaics of images and rec-
ogni zed the prevalence of large strike-slip fault s in eastern Tibet. By late
January 1975, w e had a coh erent i nt erpret at i on of his analysis of the satel-
lite imagery and my Indi a-Eurasi a plat e reconst ruct i ons, fault -plane solu-
t i ons of eart h quakes, and readi ng of the Soviet geological li t erat ure.
25
(He t h en ret urned t o France, h avi ng ch osen not t o pursue an MIT Ph .D.,
not live li ke a st udent for several more years, and not t o pay for a large
fract i on of t h e parki ng t i cket s issued t h at year i n Bost on.) Wh en w e pre-
sent ed t h i s w ork at MIT i n January 1975, I could feel Frank Press' relief
t h at t h e h i ri ng of Tanya Atw ater's part ner mi gh t not have been a mistake
aft er all. More i mport ant , I realized not only t h at Jack h ad been ri gh t
about doi ng somet h i ng w h en you couldn' t t h i nk of anyt h i ng t o do, but
also t h at sat i sfact i on di d not requi re droppi ng everyt h i ng else.
Freed (bri efly) of self-doubts, my defi ni t i on of i mport ant problems
evolved to become those t h at ch ange the direction th at science follows, and
t h erefore th e w ay scientists perceive t h ei r fi elds. A paper could
be i mport ant if it merely addressed an i mport ant problem, w i t h out solving
it. In 1973, Cambridge's (and Scripps' part -t i me) Teddy Bullard described
to me how his study of gravity anomalies across the East Afri can Ri ft demon-
strated how geophysical met h ods could attack a geologic problem, like the
dynamics of rifting.
26
He w as not troubled t h at h is conclusion, t h at ri ft i ng
result ed from h ori zont al sh ort eni ng of crust , w as nonsense.
Paul and I sh ow ed t h at t h e deformat i on fi eld over much of Asia bore
a coh erency t h at i mpli ed, i n a loose sense at least, t h at all of t h i s defor-
mat i on w as part of t h e same large-scale ph enomenon, t h e collision and
subsequent penet rat i on of I ndi a i nt o t h e rest of Eurasi a.
27
A domi nant
feat ure of t h i s deformat i on fi eld w as strike-slip fault i ng, i n part ri gh t -lat -
eral on nort h w est -sout h east planes, but more si gni fi cant ly left -lat eral on
east-west planes (see fi gure on next page), from w h i ch w e i nferred t h at
a subst ant i al fract i on of I ndi a' s penet rat i on w as absorbed by ext rusi on
of Eurasi an crust east w ard out of I ndi a' s nort h w ard pat h . Moreover,
active deformat i on seemed t o occur by slip on so many fault s, t h at i t w as
bet t er descri bed as cont i nuous deformat i on t h an by t h e relative move-
ment of plat es or blocks. Paul h ad been t aki ng courses at MIT i n plas-
t i ci t y and deformat i on processi ng from mech ani cal engi neers and mate-
ri als sci ent i st s and recogni zed i mmedi at ely t h e analogy bet w een fault i ng
i n Asia and slip-lines i n a deformi ng plast i c solid.
28
In sh ort , alt h ough
plat e t ect oni cs provided boundary condi t i ons on deformat i on i n Asia,
t h e rules of plat e t ect oni cs provi ded li t t le h elp i n underst andi ng, or even
descri bi ng, cont i nent al deformat i on.
302 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
Map of east ern Asia sh ow i ng large-scale st ruct ure i nferred from mapped geology, t h e
i nt erpret at i on of Landsat imagery, publi sh ed st udi es of surface fault i ng associated
w i t h great eart h quakes, and fault -plane solut i ons of more moderat e eart h quakes.
Not e t h e prevalence of large strike-slip fault s, ri gh t -lat eral on fault s t rendi ng NW t o
NNW-SSE and left -lat eral on fault s t rendi ng E-W. Tapponi er, P. and P. Molnar, Act i ve
fault i ng and t ect oni cs of Ch i na,J Geop hys. Res., 82, 2905-2930, 1977.
Plate Tectonics and Continental Tectonics
Plat e t ect oni cs h ad an enormous effect on t h e eart h sci ences, even
t h ough only a small fract i on of t h e fi eld act ually w orked w i t h t h e rele-
vant dat a (magnet i c anomali es and sei smi ci t y sensu lato]. It i s my ow n
beli ef, h ow ever, t h at i t s mai n effect i n t h e 1960s and 1970s w as merely t o
persuade eart h sci ent i st s t h at cont i nent al dri ft h ad occurred, and not t o
ch ange h ow most of t h em carri ed out t h ei r sci ence i n an i mmedi at e and
profound way. To paraph rase t h e speech -w ri t er of a famous Ameri can
presi dent , t oo many geologists seemed t o ask, "What can plat e t ect oni cs
do for my pat ch of ground?" i nst ead of "What can my di sci pli ne do t o
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 303
enli gh t en our underst andi ng of t ect oni cs?" Count er-examples of w h at
w ere lacki ng do exist. For i nst ance, geologic st udi es of oph i oli t es, slices
of oceani c crust and upper mant le t h rust ont o cont i nent s, h elped bri ng
underst andi ng of h ow t h e ocean floor forms.
29
Later, geologic st udi es of
low-angle normal fault i ng, fault s t h at are nearly h ori zont al, provi ded
i nsi gh t s i nt o h ow t h e eart h ' s crust ext ends i n regi ons li ke t h e Basin and
Range Provi nce of t h e w est ern Uni t ed States or t h e Aegean.
In t h e 1970s, h ow ever, a revi si oni st program developed t o rei nt erpret
t h e geologic h i st ory of regi ons i n t erms of lei t mot i fs ("plat e-t ect oni cs
corollari es"). "Plate t ect oni cs models" t h at assembled t h e appropri at e
lei t mot i fs for di fferent regi ons w ere publi sh ed frequent ly for many
years. Th e except i on t h at proves t h e rule t h at such st udi es w ere merely
revi si oni st i s Tanya At w at er' s mast erpi ece t h at sh ow ed h ow plat e t ect on-
i cs could be used t o place quant i t at i ve const rai nt s on t h e h i st ory of west-
ern Nort h Ameri ca.
30
As an example of h ow t o use plat e t ect oni cs t o gain
underst andi ng of geological processes on land, h er paper w ent unsur-
passed unt i l sh e revised i t almost 20 years later.
32
I nsofar as plat e t ect oni cs can be seen as a revolut i on, its w ide accep-
t ance also brough t w h at mi gh t be called a rei gn of t error. Those w h o qui -
etly esch ew ed descri pt i ons of t h e geologic h i st ory i n t erms of plat e t ec-
t oni cs corollari es w ere t reat ed as out of dat e; t h ose more out spoken w ere
publi cly ri di culed. Wi t h belat ed embarrassment , I remember t reat i ng
w i t h some di sdai n an emi nent geologist, Roye R ut land, w h o h ad w orked
i n t h e Andes and lat er became t h e di rect or of t h e Bureau of Mi neral
Resources i n Aust rali a. At t h e t i me, h e seemed t o know but not appre-
ciate t h at t h e Andes formed at an ocean-cont i nent convergent plat e
boundary. Only w i t h years of h i ndsi gh t di d I reali ze t h at h e w as t ryi ng t o
go beyond such si mple classi fi cat i ons t o underst and t h e processes t h at
h ad bui lt t h e Andes. We all oft en h eard, "Plate t ect oni cs i s fi ne, but i t
does not w ork i n my area," but only slowly di d w e reali ze t h at mari ne
geologists, not cont i nent al geologists, w ere t h e only geologists w h o not
only could, but sh ould, see plat e t ect oni cs i n t h ei r dat a.
Unli ke t h e beh eadi ng of Robespi erre i n 1794 and t h e T h ermi dorean
React i on t h at clai med an end t o t h e Rei gn of Terror i n France, t h e sw ing
back t o t reat i ng cont i nent al t ect oni cs as somet h i ng di fferent from plat e
t ect oni cs w as slow, at least from th e poi nt of view of a yout h 32 years old.
Moreover, for me i t began w i t h t h e fi ercest of opposi t i on. Paul and I h ad
sent pre-pri nt s out t o many people, i ncludi ng Dan McKenzi e at Cam-
bri dge Uni versi t y. Already a fri end for several years, h e seemed gen-
ui nely pleased t h at I h ad done somet h i ng good, w h en h e visited me i n
1975. Yet , w h i le w alki ng from my apart ment i n Bost on t o MIT, as w e
reach ed t h e end of t h e Longfellow Bri dge on t h e Cambri dge side of t h e
304 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
Ch arles River, Dan said w i t h an affi rmat i ve nod i n reference t o Paul' s and
my w ork, "But i t i s still plat e t ect oni cs." He h ad i nsi st ed t h at t h e active
t ect oni cs of t h e Medi t erranean region could be descri bed w ell w i t h plat e
t ect oni cs.
32
For at least t h e next t h ree years, Dan argued w i t h me t h at
w h at Paul and I w ere saying about cont i nuous deformat i on could not be
ri gh t , because of a bunch of problems, some of w h i ch h e h i mself lat er
solved. Th e follow i ng year, 1976, h e t ook advant age of an i nvi t at i on to
w ri t e a paper, "Can plat e t ect oni cs descri be cont i nent al deformat i on?"
33
He seemed t o argue Paul' s and my case w ell, but concluded, 'Yes, but
not i n detail." I magi ne my surpri se i n 1980, w h en a vi si t i ng Ch i nese sci-
ent i st said over lunch i n Cambri dge, Uni t ed Ki ngdom, "How can w e
underst and t h e plat e t ect oni cs of Ch i na?" and Dan repli ed, 'You h ave t o
underst and t h at Pet er and I do not believe t h at plat e t ect oni cs w orks i n
cont i nent s." Alt h ough i t w as not long before w e again h ad plent y t o dis-
agree about , i t seemed li ke a ch apt er w as fi nally closed.
But , no. Alt h ough no cause-and-effect appli es, Dan and Paul rarely
agreed, and Paul and I gradually di verged i n our views, w i t h each of us
abandoni ng one of t h e t w o mai n i nferences of our i ni t i al collaborative
w ork. Paul no longer believes t h at Asia, or any large cont i nent al regi on,
i s best t reat ed as a cont i nuum; for h i m t h i ck crust blurs plat e t ect oni cs
i n t h e uppermost mant le below.
34
Unt i l 1989, I sh ared h i s beli ef t h at
rapi d eastw ard ext rusi on of Ch i na occurs, but no longer. My collabora-
t i on w i t h Ph i li p E ngland of Oxford Uni versi t y begi nni ng i n 1988, over-
pri nt ed on lat ent i mages art i culat ed by Pet er Cobbold and Ph i li ppe Davy
of t h e Uni versi t e de R ennes bot h orally and i n a paper t h at I h ad
reviewed and prompt ly forgot , made me reali ze t h at Sout h Ch i na mi gh t
move only slowly (less t h an 1/2 i nch or 10 mm/yr) eastw ard w i t h respect
t o t h e rest of Eurasia.
35
To some ext ent , t h e same quest i ons t h at Paul and
I addressed i n t h e mid-1970s remai n unresolved, and i f our papers w ere
"i mport ant ," i t cannot be because w e, li ke Bullard and ri ft i ng, h ad solved
an i mport ant problem.
C O N T I N E N T A L T E C T O N I C S S I N C E T HE MI D -1970S
In t h e early 1970s Scri pps' Bill Menard told me t h at one key t o maki ng
progress i n sci ence i s t o ch oose a subject about w h i ch li t t le h ad been
w ri t t en. Such a ch oi ce w ould obvi at e t h e sch olarly et h i c t h at requi res
one to read a pile of li t erat ure to get on top of the fi eld. If not h i ng had
been w ri t t en, you could just w ri t e all t h e papers i n t h e subject and aut o-
mat i cally keep on top.
36
St udyi ng cont i nent al t ect oni cs w as not so easy;
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 305
t h e li t erat ure w as vast even before plat e t ect oni cs w as recogni zed. For-
tunately, by the mid-1970s, however, most of it ei t h er was irrelevant or
h ad been assi mi lat ed i nt o t h e boi lerplat e of common know ledge. Wh at
seemed w eakly developed w ere a focus on dynami c processes responsi -
ble for t h e t ect oni cs t h at w e could observe and t ech ni ques for at t acki ng
t h ese processes. Plat e t ect oni cs i mpart ed t h e i mpet us for t h e former and
offered tools for t h e latter. (Readers sh ould be w arned also t h at t h e li t -
erat ure on cont i nent al t ect oni cs h as grow n enormously si nce t h e mi d-
1970s, and t h e review given h ere, from my perspect i ve, suffers from bot h
biases and my i nabi li t y t o keep up.)
Th e beaut y of plat e t ect oni cs lies, i n large part , i n t h e si mpli ci t y w i t h
w h i ch t h e ki nemat i cs can be descri bed - as rigid plates. Th e relat i ve
movement s of vast areas can be speci fi ed usi ng est i mat es of relat i ve
velocities at only a few poi nt s along t h e plat e boundari es. I nsofar as con-
t i nent al t ect oni cs i s best descri bed by cont i nuous deformat i on, t h at sim-
pli ci t y is lost. To descri be complet ely th e spatially varyi ng deformat i on,
or veloci t y fi eld, w i t h i n cont i nent s requi res t h e speci fi cat i on of defor-
mat i on or veloci t y at many more poi nt s, plus more complex rules t h an
t h ose of rigid-body mot i on. To appreci at e t h e di ffi cult y h ere, consi der
t h e di fference bet w een a boat movi ng t h rough t h e ocean and t h e
mot i on of t h e ocean itself. If w e know h ow t h e front of t h e boat moves
over t h e sea floor, w e know qui t e w ell h ow t h e rest of t h e boat moves, as
w e do w i t h one li t h osph eri c plat e movi ng w i t h respect t o anot h er. If w e
know h ow t h e w at er i n one part of t h e ocean moves w i t h respect t o t h e
sea floor, however, w e must exploi t a relatively compli cat ed t h eory t o pre-
di ct h ow adjacent w at er masses move; t h i s di ffi cult y also plagues descri p-
t i ons of deformi ng cont i nent al regi ons. Dan McKenzi e argued repeat -
edly in th e lat e 1960s and early 1970s t h at plat e t ect oni cs w as easy to
accept because t h e ki nemat i cs could be t reat ed separat ely from t h e
dynami cs. For oceanograph ers or met eorologi st s, separat i ng t h e ci rcu-
lat i on of w at er or ai r from t h e dynami c processes governi ng t h at ci rcu-
lat i on i s impossible, except i n t h e si mplest of si t uat i ons or t h e broadest
of generali zat i ons. To a large ext ent , alt h ough many t ect oni c geologists
mi gh t not reali ze i t , t h e "Holy Grail" of cont i nent al t ect oni cs h as become
underst andi ng i t s governi ng dynami c processes.
Cont i nent al and oceani c li t h osph ere di ffer most obviously i n t h e
t h i ckness of (low -densi t y) crust at op each : only 4 t o 5 mi les (6 t o 7 kilo-
met ers) beneat h oceans, compared w i t h 20 t o 25 mi les (35 t o 40 kilo-
met ers) of cont i nent al crust. Alt h ough widely cited as the reason for con-
t i nent al t ect oni cs bei ng so di fferent from plat e t ect oni cs, t h e buoyancy
of cont i nent al crust may be overrat ed. I ndeed, t h e negat i ve buoyancy of
306 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
oceani c li t h osph ere i s more t h an adequat e t o carry i t s t h i n layer of crust
i nt o t h e ast h enosph ere once i t h as been subduct ed t o a dept h of approx-
i mat ely 60 mi les (100 ki lomet ers), but t h i ck cont i nent al crust buoys con-
t i nent al li t h osph ere up. Even t h e coldest mant le li t h osph ere cannot
drag w ith it 20 miles (35 ki lomet ers) of crust i nt o the ast h enosph ere,
alt h ough i f t h e upper crust could be scraped off t h e t op of t h e li t h os-
ph ere, t h e mant le part mi gh t carry low er crust i nt o t h e ast h enosph ere.
37
Bei ng i nconsi st ent w i t h plat e t ect oni cs dogma, subduct i on of cont i nen-
t al crust h ad been di smi ssed as i mpossi ble by many, unt i l Ch ri st i an
Ch opi n of Ecole Normale S uperi eure i n Paris found (by looki ng i n h i s
mi croscope, not w i t h soph i st i cat ed i nst rument s) t h e mi neral coesite
among w h at h ad seemed li ke garden-vari et y crust al rock i n t h e Alps.
38
Wi t h coesite, a mi neral t h at forms by very h i gh -pressure met amorph i sm
of quart z, Ch opi n sh ow ed t h at pieces of cont i nent al crust h ad been car-
ri ed to a dept h of approxi mat ely 60 mi les (100 ki lomet ers). Th e ques-
t i on of h ow cont i nent al crust could be subduct ed prompt ly i nspi red t h e
next quest i on, h ow does such crust ret urn t o t h e surface?
Brace- Goetze Strength Profile
In my opi ni on, t h e most si gni fi cant st udy pavi ng t h e w ay t o underst and-
i ng h ow cont i nent al li t h osph ere and oceani c li t h osph ere deform di ffer-
ent ly grew from laborat ory measurement s of h ow rocks and mi nerals
deform.
39
At relat i vely low t emperat ures, slip occurs on di scont i nui t i es
(fault s) w h en fri ct i on i s overcome, and t h erefore usually duri ng eart h -
quakes.
40
Such resi st ance i ncreases as confi ni ng pressure (dept h i n t h e
eart h ) i ncreases.
41
Wh en t emperat ures are h i gh enough , h ow ever, crys-
t als deform by t h e movement of di slocat i ons w i t h i n t h em, and st rengt h
(or vi scosi t y) of t h e cryst als, and h ence t h e rock, decreases w i t h i ncreas-
i ng t emperat ure. By t h e mid-1970s, measurement s of t h e t emperat ure
dependence of st rengt h (or more preci sely, of t h e dependence of t h e
rat e of st rai ni ng i n t h e cryst al on t h e stress appli ed t o i t ) of olivine and
quart z h ad sh ow n t h at quart z deforms much more readi ly t h an olivine
at t h e same t emperat ure.
42
Worki ng among sci ent i st s at MIT (such as
Bill Brace, Ji m Byerlee, and David Koh lst edt ) w h o st udi ed t h umb-t o-fm-
gernail-sized speci mens but also posed quest i ons on a larger scale, Ch ri s
Goet ze recogni zed t h at t h ese di fferent t emperat ure dependenci es of
st rengt h i mpli ed t h at a w eak, quart z-ri ch low er crust underli es t h e
st ronger, bri t t le upper crust and overlies a st rong, olivine-rich upper-
most mant le.
43
Th i s profi le h as oft en been li kened t o a "jelly-sandw ich "
(or jam-sandw i ch i n Bri t ai n), w i t h t h e at t endant images of t h e slices of
bread sli di ng w i t h respect t o one anot h er and even w i t h jelly bei ng
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 307
squeezed out bet w een t h e t w o st ronger bread layers. Wh ere t h e crust i s
t h i n, as i n oceani c regi ons, t h e jelly layer i s absent , and t h e st rong, cold
oli vi ne of t h e mant le makes plat es st rong enough t o behave rigidly.
Beneat h cont i nent s, however, t h e crust i s w eak at t h e same dept h s w h ere
t h e mant le beneat h oceans i s st rongest .
Goet ze, w ho di ed of a brai n t umor in 1977 at the age of only 38 years,
h ad t augh t t h ree classes of st udent s at MIT t h i s key t o underst andi ng w h y
cont i nent al and oceani c li t h osph ere beh aved so di fferent ly. Goet ze's
si mple profi le called at t ent i on t o t w o aspects of t h e li t h osph ere t h at
affect h ow w e underst and cont i nent al deformat i on at t w o very di fferent
scales. On a large scale, deformat i on w i t h i n t h e mant le sh ould occur as
i f i t w ere a viscous flui d. On a relat i vely small scale, t h e upper crust mi gh t
deform di fferent ly from, and even i ndependent ly of, t h e upper mant le.
The rigid-body movement of plates of li t h osph ere t h at mai nt ai n t h ei r
i nt egri t y as t h ey move over a w eak ast h enosph ere remi nds many of us of
sh eets of ice float i ng on a lake. Th e Brace-Goetze st rengt h profi le for con-
t i nent al li t h osph ere, for w h i ch t h e st rongest part resides i n t h e mant le but
w h ere deformat i on can occur by plastic flow , suggests a qui t e di fferent
h omely analogy: crumbs of bread overlying w arm but t er, w h i ch i n t urn
overlies viscous h oney. On a small scale, th e crumbs at th e top can move
past one anot h er as small particles, but on a larger scale t h ei r relative
movement will be dictated by the flow of the honey below, if decoupled
somew h at by t h e but t er beneat h t h em. (Perh aps more poi gnant , i f polit-
ically less correct , is Rick Sibson's quot e, copied from a stall in th e lava-
tory at t h e Mayfai r station i n t h e London Underground: "The upper crust
i s just a bunch of crumbs sticking t oget h er.")
44
Th e w idespread deforma-
tion of cont i nent s can be visualized as relative movement s of weak bod-
ies, crumbs of upper crust , carried by a st ronger, deformi ng subst rat um.
The conversion of Goetze's simple image into underst andi ng, replete
w i t h quant i t at i ve predi ct i ons and tests, requi red a breakt h rough t h at , as
usual, came w i t h a si mple approxi mat i on. Wh at plat e t ect oni cs t augh t us
w as not t o w allow i n t h e complexi t y of t h e eart h , but t o reduce complex
i nt eract i ons t o si mple processes t h at could be underst ood, bef ore t h ey
w ere all modeled t oget h er i n det ai l. Descri bi ng t h e spatially varyi ng
veloci t y fi eld w i t h i n cont i nent s requi res know i ng not only t h e veloci t y at
many more points, but also more complex rules t h an are needed to
descri be rigid-body mot i on. Moreover, cont i nent al crust , and presum-
ably t h e ent i re cont i nent al li t h osph ere, can t h i cken or t h i n w h en com-
pressed h ori zont ally. Crust t h i cker t h an normal stores excess pot ent i al
energy, and t h erefore crust al t h i ckeni ng, w h i ch requi res w ork t o be
done agai nst gravity, resists convergence bet w een crust al blocks. Corre-
spondi ngly, t h e underst andi ng of cont i nent al deformat i on, i n t h e sense
308 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
of bei ng able t o predi ct t h at deformat i on from basi c pri nci ples, becomes
an i nt egral part of t h e descri pt i on of t h e ki nemat i cs.
Th e breakt h rough in underst andi ng of large-sc ale deformat i on of con-
t i nent s came w i t h t h e recogni t i on t h at a t h i n viscous sh eet provi des a
si mple model for cont i nent al li t h osph ere.
45
Only t h e vert i cal average of
t h e sh eet ' s st rengt h , and by analogy t h e li t h osph ere' s, need be consid-
ered. A t h i n viscous sh eet deforms as an ext remely viscous flui d (t h e
li t h osph ere i s perh aps a sext i lli on t i mes more viscous t h an h oney), w i t h
bot h viscosity and gravity resi st i ng deformat i on. Numeri cal experi ment s
quant i fy h ow di fferent proport i ons of viscous resi st ance and gravi t y act-
i ng si mult aneously affect t h e di st ri but i on and style of deformat i on on a
scale t h at is large compared bot h to th e t h i ckness of th e sh eet and to
di mensi ons of crustal blocks separat ed by fault s.
Th e more i mport ant of t h e t w o (di mensi onless) free paramet ers dic-
t at i ng t h e spatial di st ri but i on of deformat i on of such a sh eet w as offi -
ci ally dubbed t h e Argand numberby E ngland and McKenzi e i n deference
t o an early gi ant i n large-scale t ect oni cs,
46
E mi le Argand, but many of us
pri vat ely called i t t h e "feta-brie" number. Th e Argand number scales t h e
relative i mport ance of gravity and st rengt h (bot h bri t t le and duct i le) i n
resi st i ng deformat i on. A large Argand number, correspondi ng t o crust
beh avi ng li ke ri pe bri e (or, for more Norman tastes, camembert ch eese)
si gni fi es a w eak li t h osph ere, for w h i ch gravity resists deformat i on most .
Conversely, w ith a small Argand number, t h e crust beh aves more like fet a
ch eese and h ence resists deformat i on w i t h li t t le crust al t h i ckeni ng or
t h i nni ng and forms rigid blocks. Oceanic li t h osph ere i s much more li ke
fet a t h an bri e. Th i ckened cont i nent al crust , h ow ever, needs st rong sur-
roundi ngs, analogous t o t h e box t h at cont ai ns ri pe camembert , w i t h
i mposed stress t o keep i t from flow i ng apart . Such w i despread st ret ch -
i ng and t h i nni ng occurs t oday i n Tibet and t h e Basin and Range
Province of t h e w est ern Uni t ed States.
Wh ereas t h e t h i n viscous sh eet , li ke ri pe bri e, provi des a useful ana-
log for deformat i on of large regi ons, such as east ern Asia or th e w est ern
Uni t ed States, most geologists must w ork at a smaller scale. As Cam-
bri dge' s James Jackson and Oxford' s Ph i li p E ngland oft en sai d, t h e area
t h at a graduat e st udent maps for a Ph .D. t h esi s i s no larger t h an t h at
affect ed by an eart h quake w i t h a magni t ude of only 5.5 or so. (More such
eart h quakes occur each year t h an do st udent s earn Ph .D. t h eses i n fi eld
geology!) At such a scale, a w eak low er crust allows t h e upper crust and
t h e upper mant le t o deform somew h at di fferent ly from one anot h er,
and i n some regions almost i ndependent ly.
A w eak low er crust provides i nsi gh t i nt o a number of ph enomena pre-
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 309
viously consi dered puzzli ng, i f not w ort h y of much spilled bile. For
i nst ance, i n regi ons of w i despread h ori zont al ext ensi on, such as t h e
Basi n and Range Provi nce of t h e w est ern Uni t ed States or t h e Aegean
Sea, i nact i ve normal fault s mapped at t h e eart h ' s surface di p at gent le
angles of only a few degrees and separat e deeper rock met amorph osed
at h i gh t emperat ure from (i n some cases) sedi ment ary rock t h at h as
undergone no met amorph i sm and i s barely consoli dat ed i nt o rock.
47
James Jackson and Ni cky Wh i t e, how ever, showed t h at fault i ng associ-
at ed w i t h moderat e-si ze eart h quakes (magni t ude bet w een 5.5 and 7) i n
such set t i ngs occurs only on steeply di ppi ng fault s, rai si ng t h e quest i on
of h ow slip occurred t o produce t h e gent ly di ppi ng i nact i ve fault s.
48
Flow
i n t h e low er crust , below t h e layer w h ere eart h quakes occur, provi des t h e
obvious solut i on. Many, if not most , of w h at are mapped as gent ly dip-
pi ng, i nact i ve fault s at t h e surface may mark isolated surfaces t h at
evolved from bei ng st eeply di ppi ng, active fault s t o gent ly di ppi ng, inac-
t i ve ones. Alt h ough t h ey current ly separate met amorph i c rock t h at
underw ent prolonged, ext ensi ve deformat i on i n t h e low er crust , bri t t le
deformat i on, only i n a last gasp, juxt aposed t h at rock agai nst t h e
unmet amorph osed surface rocks. In many cases, subsequent flow or
deformat i on i n t h e low er crust of t h e regi on rot at ed t h e mat eri al on
bot h sides of t h e fault , and t h e fault surface itself maki ng t h e fault nearly
h ori zont al. (I ci t e no one h ere for expli ci t ly st at i ng w h at t h e last t h ree
sent ences say, because my i mpressi on i s t h at nearly everyone w h o h as
w ri t t en on t h i s subject now sh ares t h i s i mage, but i nt erest ed readers
mi gh t consult Block and Royden, Buck, H ami lt on, Jackson and McKen-
zi e, Kruse et al., Spencer, and Werni cke and Axen.)
49
On a somew h at larger scale, a w eak low er crust beneat h east ern Cali-
forni a and Nevada seems t o separat e very di fferent styles of deformat i on.
Crust al ext ensi on i n t h e Deat h Valley region h as t h i nned t h e upper crust
and creat ed a net w ork of deep valleys, th e surface of one of w h i ch lies
about 250 feet (80 met ers) below sea level. To th e w est , th e Sierra Nevada
defi nes a relatively high range (at least by Californian st andards). The
crust beneat h t h e range, however, i s not as t h i ck as w e mi gh t expect from
isostasy.
50
I nst ead, as the Uni versi t y of Colorado's Craig Jones and col-
leagues h ave sh ow n, as t h e crust beneat h t h e Deat h Valley regi on h as
t h i nned, t h e correspondi ng t h i nni ng of t h e mant le li t h osph ere appar-
ent ly occurred i n t h e adjacent regi on beneat h t h e Sierra Nevada, rat h er
t h an di rect ly below t h e area of crust al t h i nni ng.
51
Th e i nt rusi on of h ot ,
low -densi t y ast h enosph ere i nt o t h e space w h ere colder, denser mant le
li t h osph ere once lay buoys up t h e Sierra Nevada.
I h ave ment i oned aspects of cont i nent al t ect oni cs not only t h at h ave
310 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
evolved si nce plat e t ect oni cs but also t h at ei t h er addressed processes
or provi ded tools to at t ack t h em. Most of us in t h i s fi eld, however,
spend our t i me search i ng for dat a t o test ideas. As w e are now many, our
papers h ave made t h i s fi eld mat ure, at least as far as Bill Menard w ould
use t h e w ord. I suspect t h at i f able t o rest art again as an eart h sci ent i st , h e
w ould fi nd t h e volume of li t erat ure for t h i s subject t oo daunt i ng t o meri t
h i s at t ent i on. Conversely, w e h ave learned a great deal i n t h e past 25 years.
Most tests of ideas for h ow cont i nent s deform h ave t aken one of tw o
approach es: quant i fi cat i on of ki nemat i cs of deformat i on, and i magi ng of
t h e present -day deep st ruct ure of mount ai n belts. I t urn at t ent i on t o t h em.
Kinematics of Deformation
Long ago Isaac New t on est abli sh ed a precedent for exploi t i ng ki nemat i c
observat i ons t o const rai n dynami c processes. Th e apocryph al st ory of h i s
flash of bri lli ance w h en h e not i ced an apple falli ng mi gh t suggest as
much . Less know n, h ow ever, i s h i s role i n di scoveri ng Kepler' s t h ree laws
of orbi t al mot i on of planet s and sat elli t es. Kepler h i mself h ad put fort h
several "laws," most of w h i ch w e w ould t oday consi der New Age fant asy;
i t t ook New t on t o ext ract Kepler' s bri lli ant i nsi gh t from h i s ot h erw i se
muddled t h i nki ng.
52
Post-plate t ect oni cs cont i nent al t ect oni cs h as also
reli ed h eavi ly on advances i n measuri ng t h e ki nemat i cs of cont i nent al
deformat i on.
At a small conference i n 1976, I t ri ed t o call at t ent i on t o an elegant
cross-sect i on of th e Canadi an Rocki es, some 100 mi les (160 ki lomet ers)
long and ri ch ly det ai led, by compli ment i ng i t as a "beaut i ful sket ch ."
Bert Bally, t h en at Sh ell Oil, now at Rice Uni versi t y, and st i ll a fri end,
boomed out i n an annoyed t one of voice t h at w h at I h ad di srespect ed as
a "sket ch " w as i n fact "h i gh -quali t y dat a." Bally, i ndeed, h ad h ad access
t o excellent seismic reflect i on profi li ng across t h e Rocki es, but w h at h i s
w ork really sh ow ed w as h ow t o make a cross-section t h at w as accurat e.
53
Alt h ough such met h ods w ere used i n t h e oi l i ndust ry, subsequent devel-
opment s, part i cularly by Joh n Suppe at Pri ncet on, h ave t ransformed t h e
process from one i n w h i ch each geologi st could sket ch a di fferent cross-
sect i on from t h e same dat a t o one i n w h i ch nearly all geologists draw t h e
same one given t h e same geological dat a.
54
Wi t h balanced cross-sections,
t ot al amount s of sh ort eni ng across (at least some) mount ai n ranges can
be measured.
Concurrent ly, met h ods for quant i fyi ng rat es of active deformat i on
h ave grow n steadily. In t h e mid-1960s, t h e rat e of slip on t h e San Andreas
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 311
Fault w as, at best, poorly know n. Today, slip rates for vi rt ually all major
fault s h ave been measured by one means or anot h er (alt h ough not
always w i t h agreement w h en more t h an one met h od h as been used).
One boon to t h i s ent erpri se h as been th e grow th of Q uat ernary geology,
once an esoteric fi eld of study, but now a mai nst ream di sci pli ne. Most
geologists at one time or anot h er t ook a course i n fi eld geology, w h ere
t h ey mapped an area 5 to 10 square miles or more in di mensi on. Today,
Kerry Sieh, one of t h e leaders i n Q uat ernary fault i ng, h as no qualms
about t aki ng h i s Calt ech st udent s i nt o t h e fi eld t o map a region t h e size
of a basketball court , w h ere th e uni ni t i at ed, as w ell as th e cyni cal, w ould
describe most of th e rock t h at h is st udent s exami ne as just layers of di rt .
Th e combi nat i on of applyi ng classical geological t ech ni ques to uncon-
solidated sedi ment i n small areas w i t h t h e development of t ech ni ques
for dat i ng t h at sedi ment h as enabled geologists t o det ermi ne rat es of slip
on fault s, rates of recurrence of major eart h quakes, and grow t h of folds.
In one of h is early st udi es, Kerry's only fossil w as a bot t le, alt h ough h e
relied heavily on radi ocarbon dates.
55
In th e 19th cent ury much of w h at w e call geoph ysics w as geodesy, or
i n more mundane t erms, surveying. Th e geodesist's task w as t o measure
t h e sh ape of t h e eart h , w i t h t h e underlyi ng h ope t h at t h e sh ape w ould
not ch ange, for t h at w ould requi re redoi ng t h e w ork. Geodesy di d not
di e i n t h e early 20t h cent ury, w h en many eart h sci ent i st s w ere unw i lli ng
t o beli eve t h at t h e eart h ch anged sh ape and w h en t ech ni ques ch anged
little.Th e 21st cent ury, however, is w i t nessi ng a renai ssance in geodesy
because of t h e development of new t ech ni ques i n t h e past 30 years: laser
rangi ng t o measure di st ances bet w een bench marks, Very Long Baseline
I nt erferomet ry (VLBI) and Global Posi t i oni ng System (GPS) t o mea-
sure longer distances, i ncludi ng i nt ercont i nent al distances, and radar
i nt erferomet ry t o map st rai n at t h e surface. Measurement s w i t h t h ese
t ech ni ques h ave det ermi ned t h e slip rat es on fault s li ke t h e San
Andreas, demonst rat ed agreement of rat es of plat e mot i on averaged
over t h e past 2 mi lli on years w i t h t h ose est i mat ed geodet i cally for only
t en years; and mapped t h e complet e deformat i on fi eld associated w i t h
eart h quakes, not just t h e slip along t h e surface rupt ure. It i s easy t o
i magi ne t h at i n a few years, follow i ng t h e w eat h er forecast , a geodesist
will appear on television in front of a map of Cali forni a in order to sum-
mari ze t h e w eek' s st rai n for t h e i nt erest ed publi c: "We h ave a h ad a bi t
of st rai n accumulat i on along th e San Andreas Fault east of Los Angeles,
w h i ch raises the probability of an earthquake of magnitude 6.5in this
regi on t o n percent duri ng t h e next si x mont h s, but t h at pat ch of st rai n
312 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
accumulat i on w e described last w eek just nort h of Los Angeles has
relaxed, and th e risk of an eart h quake t h ere h as di mi ni sh ed to m percent ."
Except for radar i nt erferomet ry, bot h geological and geodet i c mea-
surement s of deformat i on can be made only at poi nt s, and i nt erpolat i ng
bet w een such locali t i es need not be st rai gh t forw ard, but i n a paper over-
looked for many years by nearly everyone except a couple of ot h er New
Zealanders, Joh n H ai nes, at w h at i s now called t h e I nst i t ut e for Geolog-
ical and Nuclear Sci ences, solved t h i s problem.
56
Wh en h e and Bill Holt ,
of t h e State Uni versi t y of New York i n St ony Brook, generali zed t h e solu-
t i on t o i nclude measurement s of di fferent ki nds, t h ey put t h e det ermi -
nat i on of t h e complet e st rai n-rat e fi eld of a large area, such as east ern
Asia, w i t h i n reach .
57
Th e essent i al const rai nt , obvious for more t h an a
cent ury (at least , w h en appli ed i n ot h er cont ext s), i s t h at st rai n w i t h i n
adjoi ni ng regions must be compat i ble i n t h e sense t h at i f one sums t h e
deformat i on along any li ne connect i ng t w o poi nt s, one obt ai ns t h e same
relat i ve di splacement of t h e endpoi nt s ("Sai nt -Venant ' s compat i bi li t y,"
t o t h e afi ci onados). For example, i f measurable slip occurs on a fault and
t h at fault dies i n a region of foldi ng, st rai ni ng w i t h i n t h e folds must
accommodat e t h e slip. Even i f w e cannot measure t h e rat es of deforma-
t i on everyw h ere, by know i ng t h e rat es i n many areas, w e can i nfer i t i n
ot h ers.
58
Th e ult i mat e goal of det ermi ni ng t h e st rai n-rat e fi eld of large regi ons
i s t o underst and t h e dynami c processes. In my opi ni on, t h i s goal i s w i t h i n
reach , but st i ll not yet at t ai ned.
59
I roni cally, one of geoph ysi cs' venera-
ble t ech ni ques, paleomagnet i sm, h as provi ded a ki nemat i c clue t o t h e
underlyi ng dynami cs of cont i nent al deformat i on. Th e uncert ai nt i es of
several degrees i n paleomagnet i c measurement s, i f small enough t o
allow defi ni t i ve tests of cont i nent al dri ft , are t oo large t o provi de useful
bounds on i nt racont i nent al deformat i on across most mount ai n belt s.
Paleomagnet i sm, however, can const rai n rot at i ons about vert i cal axes,
and such rot at i ons of mat eri al w i t h deformi ng cont i nent al regi ons can
be very large, i n some cases great er t h an 90 degrees.
60
Moreover, t h e
amount of rot at i on depends on h ow i t i s i mpart ed. Consi der t w o si t ua-
t i ons: (1) a block rubs agai nst i t s nei gh bors, w h i ch slide past one anot h er
so t h at t h e block beh aves li ke a ball beari ng bet w een t h e adjacent blocks,
and (2) a block float s i n a flui d layer undergoi ng sh ear (li ke a tw ig caugh t
in an eddy in a st ream). Th e rat e of rot at i on of th e first is tw ice t h at of
t h e second, i f all ot h er aspects of t h e ki nemat i cs are t h e same.
61
Alt h ough data may not yet be defi ni t i ve, th ey seem to favor the latter
mech ani sm for i mpart i ng rot at i ons, as i f crust al blocks are carri ed by
cont i nuously deformi ng subst rat um.
62
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 313
Imaging Subsurface Structure
Most of us t h i nk t h at t h e engi ne t h at dri ves cont i nent al t ect oni cs lies i n
t h e mant le. I nferences about t h e mech ani cs of t h at engi ne can be made
and h ypot h eses t est ed usi ng observat i ons of t h e surface, such as relat i ve
movement among plat es or t h e ki nemat i cs of deformat i on i n cont i nent s.
Yet , i t i s a rare aut o mech ani c w h o w ould not look under t h e h ood of a
car t o learn w h y i t s engi ne beh aved t h e w ay i t di d, and most eart h sci-
ent i st s feel t h e same about t h e eart h ' s geodynami c engi ne.
Th e engi ne runs by generat i ng lat eral densi t y di fferences so t h at grav-
i t y can move t h em around w i t h respect t o one anot h er, carryi ng ot h er,
arguably more i nt erest i ng, bi t s of crust and mant le along. Geoph ysi cs
h as a long t radi t i on of measuri ng t h e st rengt h of gravi t at i onal accelera-
t i on - gravi t y for sh ort - and t h en i nferri ng a densi t y st ruct ure from t h e
measurement s. Because an i nfi ni t e number of plausi ble, but very di ffer-
ent , densi t y st ruct ures can fi t t h e same dat a exactly, such an approach i s
doomed t o fai lure. Th i s fact h as i n no w ay made measurement s of grav-
i t y useless, but rat h er i t forces research ers t o pose more i nt erest i ng ques-
t i ons t h an "What i s t h e st ruct ure?" - a quest i on perh aps of i nt erest t o
geoph ysi cal st amp collect ors, but only rarely asked, at least w i t h out qual-
i fi cat i on, at t h e forefront of sci ence.
Were t h e eart h an inviscid flui d, lat eral vari at i ons i n densi t y could not
exi st , for h eavy blobs w ould si nk st rai gh t dow n unt i l t h ey reach ed a level
w h ere t h e densi t y w as t h e same. Some mech ani cal process must support
h et erogenei t i es. Th e st rengt h of mat eri al can support densi t y h et ero-
genei t i es, as th e walls of a bui ldi ng support its roof. One example is th e
flexure of t h e li t h osph ere due t o loads, li ke mount ai n ranges, placed
at op i t . A long t radi t i on of usi ng gravity t o const rai n propert i es of an
effect i vely elast i c li t h osph ere preceded t h e recogni t i on of plat e t ect on-
ics by decades, but has been developed furt h er as data became more
complet e. In addi t i on, t h e flow of a viscous subst ance requi res stress t o
mai nt ai n flow , and t h at same stress fi eld will support lat eral vari at i ons i n
densi t y. Th e eart h ' s gravi t y fi eld provi des a major const rai nt on convec-
t i on i n t h e mant le, part i cularly i n oceani c regi ons w h ere lat eral h et ero-
genei t y of t h e crust i s small. Beneat h cont i nent s, h ow ever, t h e gravity
fi eld is blurred by h et erogenei t y result i ng from bi lli ons of years of evo-
lut i on and support ed by st rengt h of t h e li t h osph ere. To my know ledge,
gravi t y h as placed no t i gh t const rai nt on t h e dynami c processes of moun-
tain-building since confi rmi ng t h at to a good approximation the crust is
i n i sost at i c equi li bri um. D ependi ng upon one' s poi nt of view, t h at
demonst rat i on occurred i n t h e fi rst t h i rd of t h e 20t h cent ury, or w as
314 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
already clear i n t h e mi d 19th cent ury w h en t h e arch deacon of Calcutta,
Joh n Henry Prat t , showed w ith 45 pages of t edi ous calculat i on t h at mass
must be missing beneat h Tibet, and George Airy, th e Ast ronomer Royal
in Greenw i ch , England, i nfuri at ed Prat t by sh ow ing, in four pages of sim-
ple argument , t h at such a state w as requi red by th e low st rengt h of rock.
63
Most t ech ni ques for i magi ng t h e eart h ' s i nt eri or are seismological,
but usi ng t h ese images to i nfer variations in densi t y is risky because seis-
mic wave speeds and densi t y are not uni quely relat ed. For such images
to be useful, again th e ri gh t quest i on must be asked.
In th e early 1970s, Jack Oliver and colleagues launch ed a major pro-
gram t o study t h e eart h ' s mi ddle and lower crust using seismic reflect i on
t ech ni ques, w h i ch h ad been developed i n t h e oi l i ndust ry t o st udy lay-
ered, but somet i mes deformed, sedi ment ary rock. Th e success of t h i s
program, w h i ch resolved cont roversi es about dips and dept h of fault s i n
t h e Rocky Mount ai ns and Appalach i ans,
64
st i mulat ed similar programs
abroad. One part i cularly successful program w as t h e Bri t i sh I nst i t ut i ons
Reflect i on Profi li ng Syndicate (BI RPS), w h i ch took advant age of th e
ocean surroundi ng Bri t ai n t o sh oot and record from a h omogeneous
surface of const ant elevat i on. BIRPS's data are renow ned for bei ng espe-
cially clear.
Data used to address quest i ons at th e forefront of science, however,
are only rarely clear (i f t h e data w ere clear, t h e quest i on w ould be
answ ered and w ould i nst ant ly move back from t h e forefront .) Geoffrey
Ki ng's 12-year-old daugh t er Sophia h i gh li gh t ed t h i s di ffi cult y, w h en sh e
visited h er fat h er' s offi ce at t h e Bullard Labs of Cambri dge Uni versi t y,
w h ere a large display of BIRPS data h ad been h ung on th e walls in th e
semi nar room. Transparent mylar sh eet s w ere h ung i n front of t h e seis-
mi c dat a, and li nes w ere draw n w i t h colored magi c-markers t o show t h e
i nferred h ori zons bet w een layers and t h e i nferred fault s offset t i ng t h em.
Aft er a t our around t h e room, Sophia ret urned t o h er fat h er t o
announce, "Daddy, i t 's lucky t h ey've draw n t h e fault s. Ot h erw i se you' d
never be able to see w h ere t h ey are."
It i s my opi ni on t h at t h e most i mport ant result t h at data of t h i s ki nd
have shown us i s not t h e presence of some feat ure, but rat h er t h e
absence of one. Profi les t h at obtain reflect ed waves from t h e Moh o, t h e
boundary bet w een crust and mant le beneat h cont i nent s, show, w i t h only
one except i on t o my know ledge, t h at t h e Moh o i s not cut by fault s. This
cont i nui t y of th e Moh o w i t h out fault s cut t i ng it may be seen as a test of
t h e h ypoth esis t h at t h e mant le deforms by cont i nuous deformat i on, not
by fault i ng as occurs at plate boundari es in oceanic regions.
Th e most popular t ech ni que for i magi ng t h e upper mande i s seismic
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 315
t omograph y, w h i ch w as pi oneered by th e Uni versi t y of Sout h ern Cali-
forni a' s Kei i t i Aid, w h i le at MIT, Anders Ch ri st offersson of t h e Uni versi t y
of Uppsala, Sw eden, and Eyst ei n Husebye of th e Norw egi an Seismic
Array, but named lat er for t h e procedure used for CAT scans of t h e brai n
i n t h e medi cal professi on.
65
Wi t h elegant color plot s, t h i s t ech ni que h as
evolved t o assume i mperi ali st i c t endenci es i n seismology and at t ract ed
many of i t s best and bri gh t est young people. Th e lunar program di d t h e
same i n t h e 1960s, by at t ract i ng many of t h e lumi nari es of t h e eart h sci-
ences at t h e t i me t o st udy a t ect oni cally dead moon, allow ing ot h ers t o
di scover plat e t ect oni cs on t h e t ect oni cally active eart h . In my opi ni on,
sei smi c t omograph y h as h i red seismic reflect i on profi li ng' s tailor, and
now dons si mi lar new clot h es. Of course, by no means i s all t omograph y
devoid of cont ent , but t o my know ledge, i t h as not solved an i mport ant
problem si nce Rensselaer Polyt ech ni c I nst i t ut e' s Steve Roecker, w h en a
graduat e st udent at MIT, showed t h at low-speed mat eri al (presumably
crust ) underli es (and presumably w as subduct ed beneat h ) t h e H i ndu
Kush (mount ai ns) in Afgh ani st an to a dept h of at least 60 mi les (100 kilo-
met ers) ,
66
(He di d t h i s before Ch opi n found coesite i n t h e Alps and con-
fi rmed subduct i on t o such a dept h .)
67
I n my opi ni on, seismology's most promi si ng t ech ni ques for st udyi ng
dynami c processes occurri ng w i t h i n t h e eart h will exploi t t h e ani sot ropi c
propert i es of deformed mat eri al i n t h e mant le, as revealed by t h e di f-
ference i n speeds of seismic waves propagat i ng i n di fferent di rect i ons. P
and S waves passi ng t h rough olivine crystals di ffer by more t h an 10 per-
cent , dependi ng upon t h e ori ent at i on of t h e olivine cryst al t h rough
w h i ch t h e waves propagat e. Because olivine also deforms ani sot ropi cally,
w i t h one set of cryst allograph i c axes bei ng much w eaker t h an t h e oth -
ers, t h e deformat i on of olivine crystals i n mant le rock causes t h em t o
align w i t h one anot h er i n such a w ay t h at measurement s of sei smi c
ani sot ropy can be used t o i nfer fi ni t e st rai n w i t h i n t h e mant le.
Th e exi st ence of seismic ani sot ropy h as been know n for a long t i me.
Harry Hess, w h o described sea floor spreadi ng before most w ere w i lli ng
to consi der it, w as one of th e fi rst to demonst rat e its exi st ence in th e
eart h .
68
From my perspect i ve, how ever, ani sot ropy li ngered somew h ere
bet w een bei ng a nui sance and an i nt erest i ng, but useless, curi osi t y unt i l
the lat e 1980s, w h en papers by Paul Silver of the Carnegie I nst i t ut e of
Wash i ngt on and Wi nst on Ch an of Teledyne Geot ech , and by Lev Vi nni k
of the I nst i t ut e of Physics of the Eart h in Moscow and his French col-
leagues, convinced me bot h t h at it could be measured easily and t h at
i t could address i mport ant sci ent i fi c questions.
69
(Many ot h ers w ere
convinced of bot h aspects long before I w as.) In t erms of underst andi ng
316 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
cont i nent al tectonics, t h e large magni t ude of ani sot ropy w i t h consi st ent
ori ent at i ons of the fast er of the tw o quasi-S waves nearly parallel to strikes
of major strike-slip fault s, recorded at st at i ons as far as 125 miles (200 kilo-
met ers) from t h e fault s, suggests (t o many, but not t o everyone) t h at t h e
li t h osph ere deforms over a broad zone i nst ead of bei ng cut by a fault
t h rough i t s ent i re t h i ckness.
70
Agai n, t h e i dea t h at t h e li t h osph ere
deforms as a cont i nuous medi um passes a test.
Summary
Th e Ch i nese commonly look back on t h e Tang dynast y (sevent h t o t ent h
cent uri es) as t h e pi nnacle of Ch i nese civilization. Th ey also divide i t i nt o
four peri ods, Early, Hi gh , Mi ddle, and Lat e, w i t h an obvious rapi d rise
and slow decli ne. I see cont i nent al t ect oni cs developi ng i n a si mi lar fash -
i on; follow i ng a barbari an peri od i n w h i ch st udent s h ad t o st udy geo-
syncli nes and si mi lar w oolly t h i nki ng, t h e Early peri od began i n t h e
1970s. Many of t h e major unansw ered quest i ons w ere posed. Tech ni ques
previously not used to address geologic quest i ons could be borrow ed
and appli ed, w i t h out (yet ) t h e need for much development . O ur fi eld
still suffered from t h e division i nt o subdi sci pli nes, li ke geophysics, geo-
ch emi st ry, st ruct ural geology, st rat i graph y, and so on, w h ose members
rarely collaborat ed or showed i nt erest i n t h e quest i ons of ot h er subdis-
ciplines. To be t rai ned as a geophysicist but to w ork on geologic prob-
lems w as an opport uni t y exploi t ed by only a few and encouraged only
rarely. A switch toward a more quant i t at i ve st udy of problems w as i n
progress, but t h e w ord geosync line w as still oft en h eard and presumably
t augh t .
Th e High poi nt in th e study of cont i nent al t ect oni cs came in th e late
1970s and early 1980s. The t h i n, viscous sh eet ent ered geodynamics of
cont i nent al regions. Joh n Suppe showed h ow to balance cross-sections
w i t h simple rules.
71
New seismological t ech ni ques for st udyi ng eart h -
quakes, developed a few years before, w ere put to use.
72
Most good
research universities developed programs i n Q uat ernary fault i ng and
eart h quake geology. Sedimentary basins became a topic of quant i t at i ve
analysis. For me, t h ere w as a st i mulat i ng i nt eract i on w i t h geologists,
increasingly w i t h Clark Burch fi el and a group of out st andi ng st udent s
w orki ng w i t h h im at MIT. More i mport ant , th e t rai ni ng of st udent s in th e
eart h sciences began to focus on st udyi ng processes occurri ng in th e eart h ,
not only such th at basic mathematics, physics, and chemistry became
an integral part of th e curri culum, but also w ith th e result t h at geophysi-
cists and geoch emi st s learned t h e basics of geology. Many depart ment s
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 317
renamed th emselves Depart ment s of Eart h Sciences to eli mi nat e th e dis-
t i nct i ons bet w een subdi sci pli nes. Wh en I w as a st udent i n t h e late 1960s,
the prevai li ng view w as t h at it w as easier to teach physicists geology t h an
geologists physics and mat h emat i cs. In the summer of 1996, Dan McKen-
zi e told me t h at for h i m times h ad ch anged; i t h ad become easier t o t each
geologists mat h and physics t h an t h e opposite.
Si nce t h e early 1990s, w h at mi gh t be called t h e Mi ddle peri od of con-
t i nent al t ect oni cs seems t o h ave begun. New t ech ni ques and new
approach es h ave been developed steadily, and elegant w ork h as been
done, but i t seems t o me t h at problems solved h ave been less si gni fi cant
t h an t h ose i n t h e earli er peri ods. More careful analysi s w i t h more soph is-
t i cat ed met h ods must be brough t t o bear on problems i n order t o ni b-
ble away smaller pi eces of t h em. Some may see t h i s as cyni ci sm, but it
seems t o me t h at many of t h e same old controversies domi nat e research
programs. For i nst ance, t o w h at ext ent do t h e rules of plat e t ect oni cs
apply t o cont i nent al deformat i on? Few of us h ave ch anged our mi nds
about such issues over t h e past t en years. Many of us just keep desi gni ng
st udi es t o prove t h at w h at w e said t en or 20 years ago i s ri gh t ; few st ud-
i es cause us t o ch ange our mi nds about fundament al processes. Wh at I
h ave w ri t t en h ere i llust rat es t h i s; I cont i nue t o defend w h at I t h ough t t en
years ago. Reader, bew are! Th e examples t h at I h ave select ed i llust rat e
w h at I t h i nk, not w h at t h e many w h o di sagree w i t h me t h i nk. Perh aps,
cont i nent al t ect oni cs w i ll never ent er a Late stage analogous t o t h e Late
Tang period; some of these controversies will be resolved, but w h en
remai ns t o be seen.
L E S S O N S FR O M P L A T E T E C T O N I C S A N D I T S A F T E R M A T H
Th e recogni t i on of plat e t ect oni cs and t h e subsequent development of
cont i nent al t ect oni cs i llust rat e some pat t erns i n t h e development of sci-
ence t h at seem w ort h not i ng.
The Importance of a Fresh Point of View
All t h ree of my advisors in graduat e school, Bryan Isacks, Jack Oliver, and
Lynn Sykes, ch anged t h e di rect i on of t h ei r research t o make t h ei r contri-
but i ons to plate t ect oni cs. Wh en th ey began t h ei r st udy of deep-focus
earthquakes in the Fiji-Tonga region in 1964, Isacks had just fi ni sh ed a
t h esi s i n h i gh -frequency i nst rument at i on, Oliver w as an established expert
in surface-w ave seismology, and Sykes h ad recent ly w ri t t en a th esis on
318 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
short-period surface waves. Pursui ng th e same problems for too long can
cap an open mi nd.
Many of th e key scientists of plate t ect oni cs, not just my advisors,
ch anged di rect i ons again sh ort ly aft er plat e t ect oni cs w as recogni zed.
Sykes remains a full-t i me seismologist, but his research has focused on
eart h quake predi ct i on and t h e di scri mi nat i on of underground nuclear
explosions from earthquakes. Oliver launch ed the Consortium for Con-
t i nent al Reflect i on Profi li ng (COCORP) t o use t ech ni ques developed by
the oil i ndust ry to probe the lower crust. Isacks has become a geomor-
ph ologi st . Similarly, Dan McKenzi e h as ch anged several t i mes, and for
15 years h is mai n focus h as been i gneous petrology. Much of Jason Mor-
gan's research sh i ft ed t o mant le plumes. Walt er Pi t man dropped mag-
net i c anomali es i n t h e early 1970s t o pursue sea level ch anges and, more
recent ly, t h e geological evidence for a great flood responsi ble for t h e leg-
end of Noah ' s flood. Joh n Sclater vi rt ually abandoned h eat flow and
t urned h i s at t ent i on t o t h e development of cont i nent al margi ns.
Communication at the Forefront
I not ed fi ve event s t h at set me forw ard i n t h e di rect i on of plate tecton-
ics: a semi nar course on deep-focus eart h quakes, tw o Monday Ni gh t Seis-
mology Seminars at Lament by Jim Heirtzler and by Lynn Sykes, an
Ameri can Geophysical Uni on meet i ng i n 1967, and t h e arrival of Jason
Morgan's pre-print. The AGU meet i ng w as the only truly public affai r,
and w h at makes i t not able i n my experi ence i s not w h at I learned, but
w h at I missed (Morgan's presentation of plate t ect oni cs). It seems to me
t h at t h e least blocked ch annels for communi cat i on at t h e forefront of
sci ence i gnore t h e publi c plat form. By t h e t i me i mport ant development s
reach t h e major sci ent i fi c meet i ngs, t h ei r offspri ng are w ell beyond t h e
w omb. By t h e t i me t h e fundi ng agencies can respond t o t h em, such
development s are somew h ere bet w een mat uri t y and senility. Fundi ng
agenci es sh ould focus less on support i ng t opi cs percei ved as exci t i ng
and more on fi ndi ng ways t o allow i ndi vi dual sci ent i st s t o creat e new ,
exci t i ng topics.
The i mport ant development s in the early 1960s involved a small num-
ber of people w h o communi cat ed di rect ly w i t h each ot h er. Wh i le a stu-
dent at Cambridge, Fred Vine benefi t ed i mmensely from a semi nar by
H arry Hess and subsequent i nt eract i ons.
73
Hess' now w idely cited paper,
however, had no impact; by the time people read it, t h ey already knew
its essence.
74
Vi ne seemed to give di rect i on to Bullard, Mat t h ew s, and
Wilson, whose open mi nds w ere receptive, but Vine and Mat t h ew s'
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 319
paper seemed t o h ave li t t le i mmedi at e effect , except perh aps on Tuzo
Wi lson.
75
By t h e t i me Walt er Pi t man and Ji m H ei rt zler h ad recogni zed
t h e si gni fi cance of t h at paper, Vi ne h ad already complet ed h i s synth esis,
i n w h i ch h e not only t i ed t oget h er magnet i c anomali es from vi rt ually all
oceans, but also correct ed t h e omi ssi on of t h ejarami llo event from h i s
earli er w ork.
76
Vi ne learned of t h ejarami llo event from Brent Dalrym-
ple before i t w as publi sh ed, an event w h ose si gni fi cance h i st ori an Bill
Glen recount ed clearly and i nsi gh t fully.
77
Moreover, Vi ne moved t o
Pri ncet on i n 1965, and t h ough h e claims no credi t , surely h e i nfluenced
Jason Morgan, h i s offi ce-mat e at t h at t i me.
78
The Earth Sciences as a Modern, Quantitative Physical Science
Th e beaut y of plat e t ect oni cs radi at ed from t h e ease w i t h w h i ch i t could
be tested quantitatively. The simple description of rigid-body mot i on on
a sph ere allow ed plat e t ect oni cs t o exploi t magnet i c anomali es, ori ent a-
t i ons of fract ure zones, and fault plane solut i ons of eart h quakes i n some
areas t o make predi ct i ons of t h ose i n ot h ers. At fi rst , such data con-
fi rmed predi ct i ons, and t h erefore plate tectonics passed these tests.
Th en w i t h refi nement s, systematic errors i n t h e dat a, due for i nst ance t o
i nt er-arc spreadi ng or si mply t o deformat i on w i t h island arcs, di d not
refut e plat e t ect oni cs, but allowed furt h er underst andi ng of processes
w i t h i n the Eart h , such as the part i t i oni ng of slip i nt o t h rust and strike
slip at i sland arcs.
79
Alt h ough t h e t est i ng of h ypot h eses occurred i n t h e
eart h sci ences before plat e t ect oni cs, t h e development of quant i t at i ve
analysis grew rapi dly aft erw ard.
80
Continental dri ft , in its strictest sense, seems to have had little i mpact
on the eart h sciences before plate t ect oni cs. "Most geologists could pro-
ceed w ith t h ei r research i nt erest s w i t h out much concern over w h et h er
dri ft t h eory w as ri gh t or wrong."
81
My i mpressi on is t h at th e i nt erpret at i on
of most geological observations would have been unaffect ed by confir-
mat i on of cont i nent al drift.
82
Oreskes h as argued qui t e persuasively t h at
geologists in Nort h America reject ed cont i nent al dri ft in part because geo-
physicists t h ere said it w as impossible.
83
Her evidence for the opi ni ons of
geophysicists is quite convincing, but it seems to me t h at her explanation
as a w h ole i mpli ci t ly requi res believing somet h i ng I do not : t h at geologists
lacked ei t h er i nsi gh t or th e ability to t h i nk critically. No good sci ent i st
accepts uncri t i cally an argument t h at h e or sh e does not underst and, but
t h at is critical to his or her research. Thus, if geologists rejected conti-
nent al dri ft because ot h ers told t h em i t w as nonsense, t h en ei t h er i t w as
not i mport ant t o t h ei r research or t h ey w ere not good scientists.
320 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
Unli ke cont i nent al dri ft , plate tectonics, largely t h rough its quant i t a-
tive i mpli cat i ons, affect ed most subdi sci pli nes of t h e eart h sci ences. It
seems to me t h at whereas cont i nent al dri ft offered few solutions to ques-
t i ons asked by sedi ment ologi st s and st rat i graph ers, t h ey now can under-
st and many of t h ei r observat i ons i n t erms of subsi dence i nduced by a
cooli ng li t h osph eri c plat e or by flexure of an effect i vely elast i c plat e.
Th i s analysis can be carri ed furt h er t o est i mat e mat urat i on of organi c
mat eri al and t h e pot ent i al for pet roleum product i on, because of t h e sim-
ple ph ysi cal underst andi ng provi ded by, among ot h er processes, a cool-
ing li t h osph ere. "Basin analysis" was legitimately born w ith traditional
geology and geoph ysics already marri ed.
Similarly, cont i nent al dri ft offered li t t le i nsi gh t i nt o t h e processes by
w h i ch i gneous rock forms, especially si nce t h e vast majori t y of i gneous
rock forms at mid-ocean ridges; most of t h e rest forms at subduct i on
zones, anot h er regi on largely i gnored i n cont i nent al dri ft . S ubsequent
t o t h e discovery of plat e t ect oni cs, petrologists recogni zed t h at not only
the th ickness of oceanic crust, but also the composition of magmat i c
rock could be underst ood. Essent i al t o plat e t ect oni cs, sea floor spread-
i ng calls for h ot rock i n t h e ast h enosph ere t o rise beneat h mi d-ocean
ri dges, but t o cool only sli gh t ly as i t decompresses, for t h e same reason
t h at ai r becomes cooler at h i gh er elevat i on. As pressure decreases, rock
can melt at low er t emperat ures, just as w at er at h i gh alt i t ude boils at a
low er t emperat ure t h an at sea level. T h us, as h ot rock rises beneat h a
mid-ocean ridge, alth ough it cools slightly, it melts w h en it reach es suf-
fi ci ent ly low pressure w i t h out an addi t i onal source of h eat . Cont i nent al
dri ft provi ded no clue t h at such processes occur beneat h mid-ocean
ridges and creat e most of t h e i gneous rock on t h e planet .
Measurement s of t h e eart h ' s gravi t y fi eld provi ded one source of data
used t o argue agai nst cont i nent al dri ft .
84
At t h e t i me, such analyses
t reat ed t h e eart h as st at i c. As no dynami cs w ere consi dered i n most t reat -
ment s of cont i nent al dri ft , except perh aps th ose at t empt i ng t o refut e t h e
i dea, t h e scope of problems addressed w i t h gravi t y anomali es remai ned
limited. With plate tectonics, however, the analysis of the eart h 's gravity
fi eld ceased t o be an exerci se i n ch oosi ng one among an i nfi ni t y of non-
uni que and very di fferent st ruct ures, and became formali zed i nt o pro-
cedures for const rai ni ng processes, such as convect i ve flow w i t h i n t h e
mant le, w h i ch affect densi t y w i t h i n t h e eart h .
85
Even profound i nsi gh t s i nt o mount ai n-bui ldi ng lay fallow . Emi le
Argand i n Neuch at el, Sw i t zerland, recogni zed t h at much of Asian defor-
mat i on could be ascribed to India's penetration i nt o the rest of Eurasia,
and on a smaller scale h e recogni zed large folds i n cryst alli ne basement ,
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 321
but h i s analysis w as quali t at i ve and h i s ideas not easi ly tested.
86
As pro-
found as i t was, t h i s w ork w ent largely i gnored by Nort h Ameri cans for
decades; I learned of i t only aft er I h ad redi scovered i n my ow n dat a much
of w h at h e h ad descri bed. Wi t h balanced cross-sections, how ever, struc-
t ural geologists began t o quant i fy amount s of deformat i on i n mount ai n
belts. Similarly, Q uat ernary geologists appropri at ed t ech ni ques tradi-
t i onally used t o look at vast, anci ent sedi ment ary deposits and appli ed
t h em to t h i n layers of h i st ori cal sedi ment to place const rai nt s on rat es of
deformat i on and even eart h quake recurrence. Geosyncli nes, sket ch es
draw n w i t h out even a scale and based on quali t at i ve descri pt i on, gave w ay
t o cross-sections draw n w i t h out vert i cal exaggerat i on.
Th e common t h eme of t h ese post -plat e t ect oni c st udi es h as been
quant i t at i ve analysi s w i t h t h e goal of underst andi ng. Here "underst and-
i ng" i mpli es t h e abi li t y t o predi ct from basic pri nci ples, and "quant i t a-
tive" i ncludes t h e concept of uncert ai nt y. (Much numeri cal modeli ng
and sei smi c t omograph y remai ns quali t at i ve.) Alt h ough few of t h e t ech -
ni ques or measurement s w ere i nvent ed aft er plat e t ect oni cs w as recog-
ni zed, and many eart h sci ent i st s h ad t aken a quant i t at i ve approach t o
t h e eart h , plat e t ect oni cs accelerat ed t h e t ransformat i on of t h e eart h sci-
ences from a focus on descri pt i ve classi fi cat i on of ph enomena t o under-
st andi ng processes quant i t at i vely.
87
I n an effort t o i nspi re eart h sci ent i st s, Tuzo Wi lson, i n w h at now seems
almost clai rvoyant , predi ct ed t h at th e days of geology as pri mari ly a his-
t ori cal sci ence w ere numbered and a new era w as daw ni ng.
88
E art h sci-
ent i st s w ould st udy processes by t ryi ng t o develop ph ysi cal laws t h at make
t est able predi ct i ons. How Wi lson could see t h i s w h en h e di d baffles me,
for much time elapsed betw een th e recognition of plate tectonics and
t h e permeat i on of quant i t at i ve h ypot h esi zi ng and t est i ng i nt o t h e vari -
ous subdi sci pli nes of t h e eart h sci ences.
Alt h ough comput ers h ave opened new di mensi ons for experi ment al
science, all too oft en, numeri cal modeling seems more to be numeri cal
mast urbat i on, t h e ejaculat i on of color plot s summari zi ng si mulat i ons of
compli cat ed, "reali st i c" models, perh aps best li kened t o geoph ysi cal
Barbie-dolls. My fat h er t augh t me t h at "t h e most beaut i ful si gh t t o an
experi ment al scientist is a straigh t line of data points," for data t h at fit a
st rai gh t li ne vi rt ually assure a si mple underst andi ng. Alt h ough t h e com-
put er h as creat ed a new laborat ory for experi ment at i on i n all fi elds, only
rarely does numeri cal modeli ng follow t h e t radi t i on of G. I. Taylor, t h e
emi nent flui d dynamicist at Cambridge University, whose goal w as scal-
i ng laws: st rai gh t li nes of measured dat a poi nt s plot t ed versus quant i t i es
cont rolled i n experi ment s and scaled t o reveal si mple relat i onsh i ps.
322 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
Somet i mes, I t h i nk t h at Wilson will t urn out t o be w rong, but for t h e
w rong reason.
Plate Tectonics as Revolution, or as the Trigger for Rapid Evolution?
Th e h i st ory of cont i nent al dri ft , as an i dea, makes good copy for h i st o-
ri ans w i t h a journali st i c bent , and for a publi c bot h sensi t i ve t o "revolu-
tions" and sympathetic to underdogs. Le Grand captured this perspec-
tive: "The folk-t ale of D ri ft i s t h e st uff of myt h and legend i n w h i ch
Ci nderella, aft er years of abuse from h er vain step-sisters, i s visited by h er
Fairy Geophysicist, is t ouch ed by the Magnetic Wand, goes to the Ball
and marri es t h e Prince."
89
No drama i s lost by a Greenland w i nt er mar-
t yri ng dri ft ' s long-belittled ch ampi on, Alfred Wegener.
More i mport ant , many w h o espouse t h e view t h at a revolut i on i n t h e
eart h sci ences occurred concurrent ly w i t h t h e recogni t i on of plat e tec-
t oni cs argue t h at t h e revolut i onary ch ange w as t h e accept ance of cont i -
nent al dri ft ; few seem t o see plat e t ect oni cs as li t t le more t h an a versi on
of cont i nent al dri ft .
90
Glen w rot e of t h e "emergent , more complet e th e-
ory, renamed plat e tectonics."
91
In w h at I consi der t o be t h e most i nsi gh t -
ful h i st ori cal analysis of ch anges i n t h e eart h sci ences brough t on by
plat e t ect oni cs, Le Grand repeat edly refers t o t h e "plate t ect oni cs ver-
sion of Dri ft ," as w ell as the earli er "seafloor-spreadi ng versi on of D ri ft "
and ot h er versi ons.
92
Wilson w rot e t h at "[t ]h e accept ance of cont i nen-
t al dri ft h as t ransformed t h e eart h sciences . . . i nt o a uni fi ed sci ence,"
alt h ough h e h ad recogni zed t h at more t h an just cont i nent al dri ft w as at
stake.
93
Menard obviously saw plat e t ect oni cs as more t h an cont i nent al
dri ft , but t h e subject of h i s book ends i n 1968 and looks backw ard more
t h an forw ard in h is assessment of th e i mpact .
94
Too many observers saw
t h e "revolut i on" as merely a demonst rat i on t h at cont i nent s h ad dri ft ed.
It seems t o me, as I h ave t ri ed t o argue h ere, t h at plat e t ect oni cs brough t
a profound ch ange i n t h e w ay t h e majori t y of eart h sci ent i st s view ed or
approach ed t h e t opi c of t h ei r study. (To be fai r t o Homer Le Grand, h e
recogni zed t h at plat e t ect oni cs marked a ch ange i n h ow t h e eart h sci-
ences w ere carri ed out .)
Accordi ng t o h i st ori an of science Th omas Kuh n, sci ent i fi c revolut i ons
sh are feat ures t h at ch aract eri ze political revolutions.
95
Alt h ough no t w o
poli t i cal revolut i ons are ali ke, one can argue t h at t h ei r di fferences are
small compared w ith t h ei r si mi lari t i es.
96
Among t h e parallels bet w een
cont i nent al dri ft and th e French Revolution, one mi gh t call th e paleo-
magnet i c w ork of th e 1950s an emergi ng peri od of enli gh t enment t h at
prepared t h e mi nds of eart h sci ent i st s, w i t h out mot i vat i ng most of t h em
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 323
t o pursue cont i nent al ri ft . Th e "Bastille" fell i n t h e early 1960s, largely
w ith developments in mari ne geophysics, but it was Vi ne's verification of
t h e Vi ne-Mat t h ew s h ypot h esi s and Sykes' demonst rat i on of Wi lson' s
t ransform fault i ng, by requi ri ng bot h cont i nent al dri ft and Hess' sea
floor spreadi ng, t h at summari ly beh eaded fi xi st ideas (i n w h i ch posi t i ons
of cont i nent s w ere assumed forever fi xed) of t h e "est abli sh ment ."
97
His-
t ori cal geology, t h e subject pursued by most eart h sci ent i st s, w as rew ri t -
t en, as papers present i ng "plat e t ect oni cs models" of t h e geologic h i st ory
of vari ous pat ch es at t ract ed h undreds of repri nt request s. A "reign of t er-
ror" follow ed, for t h ose w h o di d not accept plat e t ect oni cs w ere ri di culed
as old-fash i oned and out -of-dat e. Wh at w as found w ant i ng i n such "mod-
els," how ever, rarely i ncluded an appreci at i on for t h e feat ures of plat e
t ect oni cs t h at di st i ngui sh ed i t from cont i nent al dri ft . Alt h ough no Robe-
spi erre lost h i s h ead i n a T h ermi dorean React i on t h at rest ored modera-
t i on t o t h e eart h sci ences, i t became clear t h at those "old-fash i oned" geol-
ogists nei t h er could, nor sh ould, see cont i nent al dri ft , let alone plat e
t ect oni cs, i n t h ei r data. Similarly, no geological Napoleon proclai med an
end t o revolut i on and t h en uni t ed eart h scientists by giving t h em an alt er-
nat i ve si mi le t o nat i onali sm. Nevert h eless, t h e rise of st ruct ure/t ect oni cs
as a domi nant di sci pli ne i n geology mi gh t be seen as count er-revolu-
t i onary. Despi t e numerous except i ons (t w o of w h i ch are ment i oned
above), st ruct ure / t ect oni cs h as focused as much on h i st ori cal geology,
albei t couch ed i n a new jargon, as on di scoveri ng new pri nci ples or bri ng-
i ng underst andi ng t o processes not easily st udi ed w i t h older t ech ni ques.
Only i n t h e 1990s di d t h e st ruct ure/t ect oni cs sect i on of t h e Nat i onal Sci-
ence Foundat i on begi n fundi ng active t ect oni cs, t h e branch most con-
cerned w i t h underst andi ng t h e pri nci ples. Finally, and gradually, a new
approach t o t h e st udy of t h e eart h i s emergi ng.
Naomi Oreskes h as expressed a di fferent view of bot h h ypot h esi s test-
i ng and quant i fi cat i on i n t h e eart h sciences.
98
Sh e sees bot h as i n place
w h en plat e t ect oni cs w as recogni zed, and sh e consi ders t h e recogni t i on
of plat e t ect oni cs more as t h e result of h ypot h esi s t est i ng and quant i fi -
cat i on t h an as a st i mulus for t h ei r grow t h and development . Perh aps sh e
i s ri gh t , alt h ough i f so a revolut i onary si mi le for t h ose eart h sci ent i st s
mot i vat ed by h ypot h esi s t est i ng and t h e need t o quant i fy mi gh t be t h e
Bolsh evi ks in Russia in 1917. As a clear minority among Russian revolu-
t i onary groups, t h e Bolsh eviks named t h emselves usi ng a w ord t h at
meant majority and t h en t ook over t h e count ry. Naomi and I do agree
t h at the eart h sciences have become more quantitative since the 1950s,
and t h at quant i t at i ve approach es are more common now t h an before.
Th ese parallels w i t h t h e French Revolut i on pose t h e quest i on: w h o
324 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
benefi t ed from t h e "plat e t ect oni cs revolut i on"? "For most ordi nary
French subject s, . . . [t h e French Revolut i on] h ad made t h ei r lives i nfi -
ni t ely more precarious."
99
Benefi ci ari es i ncluded t h e ow ners of land, t h e
bourgeoi si e, and t h e soldiers, but not t h ose w h ose economi c pli gh t
requi red t h e great est ch ange.
100
"Fat cats got fat t er. ... By cont rast , t h e
rural poor gai ned very li t t le from t h e Revolution."
101
If t h e demonst ra-
t i on of cont i nent al dri ft w as a revolut i on, t h en, similarly, t radi t i onal fi eld
geologists gai ned li t t le, for cont i nent al dri ft offered li t t le i nsi gh t i nt o t h e
solutions to t h ei r problems.
One mi gh t ask, w h y do eart h sci ent i st s t out plat e t ect oni cs as a revo-
lut i on t h at uni fi ed t h ei r sci ence? First, plat e t ect oni cs i s beaut i fully sim-
ple, and most sci ent i st s t reat si mpli ci t y as a prerequi si t e of sci ent i fi c pro-
fundi t y. Alt h ough no sci ent i fi c, or epi st emologi cal, law guarant ees t h at
simple ideas approach t rut h more closely t h an compli cat ed ones, sim-
pli ci t y i s an expedi ent , for more people will underst and and t h erefore
take i nt erest i n a si mple i dea t h an one compreh ensi ble only t o few. Sec-
ond, i t seems t o me t h at accept i ng plat e t ect oni cs may h ave been a low
h urdle for most sci ent i st s. No cat h arsi s w as requi red, or w as experi-
enced, by many eart h sci ent i st s, because t h e i mmedi at e i mpact on t h ei r
w ork was sli gh t . For i nst ance, "in 1978, leaders of the Mi ni st ry of Geol-
ogy of t h e USSR i nst ruct ed all fi eld geologists t o i nt erpret t h e result s of
t h ei r 1:25,000 scale survey [i.e., t h ei r geologic maps] exclusively i n t erms
of plate tectonics. Almost none of the fi eld geologists was able to do th is,"
not because none underst ood plat e t ect oni cs, but because t h e sizes of
regi ons mapped could not reveal plat e t ect oni cs.
102
At t h e same t i me,
however, lat eral mobi li t y of t h e crust i mpli ed by cont i nent al dri ft and
plat e t ect oni cs gave mount ai n belts and ot h er large-scale feat ures a
framew ork i nt o w h i ch more det ai led st udi es could be fi t t ed, w h i ch surely
uni t ed eart h sci ent i st s w orki ng at all scales. As t h e local fans t ake pri de
i n a w i nni ng h ome t eam, so perh aps many eart h sci ent i st s saw plat e tec-
t oni cs as a vi ct ory for t h ei r t eam.
If plate tectonics was "revolutionary," how was it so? The significance
of "revolut i on" i n h i st ory i s obscured i n part by h i st ori ans' t radi t i onal
predi lect i on for consi deri ng w ars and bat t les, slaugh t ers and assassina-
t i ons, and poli t i cal carni vals t o be t h e gri st for t h ei r mi lls, i nst ead of spir-
i t ual, i nt ellect ual, and t ech nologi cal development s t h at really have
alt ered t h e general h uman condi t i on. Likewise, i n part , t h e "plate tec-
t oni cs revolut i on" is obscured by th e fai lure of many h i st ori ans of sci ence
t o look beyond t h e Ci nderella st ory of cont i nent al dri ft . Wi nst on
Ch urch i ll concluded a book on The Age of Revolution by not i ng t h at "t h e
pri nci ples w h i ch h ad i nspi red [France i n h er revolut i on] lived on ... t o
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 325
play a not able part i n ch angi ng t h e sh ape of government i n every Euro-
pean count ry."
103
Similarly, as Wilson so precoci ously recogni zed, plat e
t ect oni cs spurred (or vali dat ed) a quant i t at i ve approach t o t h e eart h sci-
ences.
104
If, i n general, "h i st ory sooner or lat er t akes back h er gifts," sh e
seems in t h i s case to h ave passed t h em on to a new generat i on of geo-
logical benefi ci ari es.
105
Plat e t ect oni cs w as a revolut i on less because i t
gui llot i ned exi st i ng fi xi st ideas, and more because i t affect ed t h e w ay
eart h sci ent i st s approach t h e st udy of t h e eart h . It s i mpact h as been bot h
more gradual and more subt le t h an most active scientists realized at t h e
t i me. Perh aps, it is too soon even now to see th e i mpact , Sch ama w rote:
"Asked w h at h e t h ough t w as t h e si gni fi cance of t h e French Revolut i on,
t h e Ch i nese Premi er Zh ou En-lai i s report ed t o h ave answ ered, 'It i s t oo
soon to tell.'"
106
Looki ng back on th e past 30 years, some of th e t ech ni ques t h at h ave
led t o quant i t at i ve underst andi ng of processes i n t h e eart h sciences w ere
i n place i n t h e 1960s, but many h ave been developed subsequent ly and
at a steady rat e duri ng those 30 years. For i nst ance, w i t h S t anford' s Nor-
man Sleep's analysis of the subsidence of the Atlantic margin (carried out
w h i le a graduat e st udent at MI T ), much of t h e formali sm w as i n place t o
st udy t h ermally i nduced subsi dence of sedi ment ary basins, but nearly 10
years elapsed before t h i s approach became w i dely exploited.
107
Th e
recogni t i on t h at t h e t h i ckness of oceanic crust result ed from a very sim-
ple ph enomenon apparent ly w as not publi sh ed unt i l 1988.
108
Alt h ough
Bally const ruct ed balanced cross-sections before plat e t ect oni cs w as pro-
posed, t h ei r h eyday w aited anot h er 15 to 20 years.
109
Q uant i t at i ve met h -
ods in met amorph i c pet rology developed largely in the 1970s and 1980s.
In my fi eld of cont i nent al t ect oni cs, t h e most cont roversi al t opi c 25 years
ago w as framed by, "Can plate t ect oni cs descri be cont i nent al t ect oni cs?"
and remai ns unresolved in th e mi nds of many. My i mpressi on is t h at seis-
mi c ani sot ropy, a topic t h at h as blossomed i n t h e past t en years, but i s
h ardly new, will resolve t h i s quest i on.
Revolution was a popular concept in the late 1960s. Presidents Joh n
Kennedy and Lyndon Joh nson led us Ameri cans i nt o a w ar w e di d not
w ant t o fi gh t . Anti-Soviet propaganda w as t oo veh ement t o be beli eved,
at least by i deali st s. Wh o could not be revolt ed by t h e recurri ng i njust i ces
t o Afri can-Ameri cans and ot h er mi nori t i es? Alt h ough h i ndsi gh t now
clearly exposes previ ously lat ent images of t h e fundament al roles played
by est abli sh ed gi ant s i n t h e eart h sci ences before t h e 1960s, many of t h e
foundi ng fat h ers, and t h e mot h er, of plat e t ect oni cs w ere young, less
t h an 35 years old, w h en t h ey w rot e t h ei r w idely cited papers. To many of
t h e yout h i n t h e 1960s, revolut i on seemed li ke a plausi ble solut i on t o t h e
326 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CO NT I NE NT S
w orld's ills. Wh en Kuh n w rot e a book about sci ent i fi c revolut i ons, and
ot h ers deemed plat e t ect oni cs an example, i t felt good t o be part of one,
especi ally a nonvi olent revolut i on.
110
Harvard' s ph ysi ci st /h i st ori an of sci ence Gerald Holt on h as sh ow n
h ow non-sci ent i fi c beli efs st rongly i nfluence t h e approach sci ent i st s h ave
t aken i n di fferent eras, and revolut i on w as a t h eme t h at pervaded
t h ough t i n t h e 1960s.
111
Yet , aft er t h e recogni t i on of plat e t ect oni cs,
most eart h sci ent i st s ret urned t o w h at t h ey knew w ell. Y ounger sci ent i st s,
for t h e most part bet t er t rai ned i n basi c sci ences and mat h emat i cs t h an
t h ei r ment ors, began t o push t h ei r ow n subdi sci pli nes forw ard w i t h ri gor
i nspi red by plate t ect oni cs. Meanw h i le, h ow ever, t h e mood of t h e coun-
t ry sh i ft ed t o t h e almi gh t y dollar, Ameri cans elect ed Ronald Reagan w i t h
ent h usi asm, and poli t i cal revolut i ons w ere associ at ed w i t h t h ei r vi llai ns,
not h eroes. No w onder cont emporary di scussi ons of "t h e revolut i on"
employ t h e past t ense. Nevert h eless, young sci ent i st s sh ould reali ze t h at
not only do t h e ideals of t h e French Revolut i on remai n unat t ai ned, but
so do those of the plate tectonics revolution.
The Future
One oft en h ears nost algi c di scussi ons of w h at an exci t i ng t i me t h e plat e
t ect oni cs era was. Today's sci ent i fi c problems (cli mat e ch ange, land-
scape evolut i on, mant le dynami cs, et c.) are no less exci t i ng t h an t h ose
25 t o 30 years ago w ere. Wh at made t h at t i me exci t i ng and t h e present
less so i s not t h e nat ure of t h e sci ent i fi c quest i ons, but t h e number and
nat ure of obstacles t h at now li e i n front of young sci ent i st s compared
w i t h t h e unfet t ered days of plat e t ect oni cs. Obviously, di ffi cult i es of
obt ai ni ng fundi ng engender recurri ng discouragement, compared w ith
w h at seemed li ke unli mi t ed freedom i n t h e 1960s. We st udent s at La-
mont w ere encouraged t o w ri t e proposals t o NSF, not t o fund our
research , but as part of our educat i on; i gnorance of t h e source of money
t h at pai d us w as bliss. At Columbi a, at t h e begi nni ng of every semest er I
w as requi red t o fi ll out a form t h at descri bed my t h esi s t opi c and i t s
progress, but no one seemed t o not i ce t h at for t en consecut i ve semes-
t ers I w rot e "Not know n at present " on every li ne except t h e one con-
t ai ni ng my name. Freedom t o pursue w h at w e w ant ed seemed t o ch ar-
act eri ze t h e li fe of st udent s, post-docs, and anyone eager t o sei ze i t . I w as
a t h i rd-year graduat e st udent before I learned w h at "t enure" meant . Sci-
ence w as fun; t h at w as enough .
Have t h e pressures t o ach i eve "success," and t o feel good about i t , sup-
plant ed t h e pleasure of doi ng sci ent i fi c research ? Has t h e corporat e
F rom Plate Tec tonic s to Continental Tec tonic s 327
ment ali t y t aken over sci ence? By "reengi neeri ng" (si c) st udent s i nt o
cli ent s, graduates into product s, and imaginative research i nt o oblivion,
h ave uni versi t i es made fundi ng more i mport ant t h an creat i vi t y? (A "cre-
at i ve solut i on" i n t h e banki ng w orld i s one so i ll concei ved t h at bankers
laugh at i t .) Y oung sci ent i st s are oft en encouraged t o w ork on project s
t h at are fun, only i f funded; t h e correlat i on bet w een quali t y of w ork and
level of fundi ng i s i mmeasurably small. Wh at about t h e t enure syst em,
once desi gned t o prot ect academi cs from t h e McCart h yi sm and poli t i cal
correct ness of t h e 1950s, but now t h e last , h i gh est h urdle i n an exh aust -
i ng race? "Tenure" i mpedes t h e development of young sci ent i st s less
because i t mai nt ai ns depart ment s full of dead wood blocki ng t h e pat h s
of a more i magi nat i ve yout h , and more because i t forces young sci ent i st s
t o jump t h rough a sequence of narrow ly defi ned h oops, w h i ch , i n t urn,
keep t h em ch anneled i n research di rect i ons t h at are t h ough t t o gain
t h em suffi ci ent fame and fundi ng for promot i on, w i t h out regard for t h e
pleasure of pursui ng w h at appeals t o t h em. By t h e t i me such sci ent i st s
can relax w i t h a job for li fe, t h ey may h ave become so narrow i n bot h
scope and self-confi dence t h at most of t h e fi eld, and i t s exci t ement , lies
out si de t h ei r perspect i ve, w h i ch now consi st s of a close-up view of t h e
w alls of t h e rut i nt o w h i ch t h ey h ave dug t h emselves.
I urge young sci ent i st s t o assert t h emselves and t o say t o t h ei r depart -
ment h eads w h at MIT' s Joh n E dmond di d, "Leave me alone, Frank. I
know w h at I am doi ng."
112
Even i n t h e unli kely case t h at your depart -
ment h ead h as more vision t h an Frank Press, i f you t h i nk you know w h at
you are doi ng, do i t . I f you w ant vi si on, avoid t h e rut s. D on' t rew ri t e your
Ph .D . t h esi s. D on' t pursue w h at ot h ers w ant you t o do, unless you really
w ant t o. Fail, for i f you don' t fai l somet i mes, probably you are just pol-
i sh i ng t h e t errest ri al monopole. D on' t be afrai d t o be w rong i n w h at you
t h i nk (alt h ough make sure your data are sound). D on' t be afrai d t o
flounder at t h e forefront , at least for a w h i le; i t t oo t each es a lesson. Ask,
"What i s t h e next , most i mport ant problem?" Ch ange di rect i ons t o fi nd
i t , but "w h en you can' t t h i nk of anyt h i ng t o do, don' t do not h i ng." Fai l
agai n, but most i mport ant , fi nd a problem t h at t urns you on. T h en,
repeat t h e process, unless you really do w ant t o get old fast .
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S A N D D I S C L A I M E R S
Most of t h i s essay was w ri t t en w h i le I was a visiting fellow of the Cooper-
at i ve I nst i t ut e for Research i n E nvi ronment al Sci ence at t h e Uni versi t y
of Colorado; support from t h em w as essent i al i n allow i ng me t i me t o
328 FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
w ri t e on a subject t h at no fundi ng agency w ould support . I t h ank R. Bil-
h am, R. and T. J. Fi t ch , H. Hodder, S. Neust adt l, and especially N.
Oreskes, for readi ng t h e manuscri pt and t ryi ng t o save me from myself.
T h ree di sclai mers. First, my fat h er w as not my only, nor my more i nflu-
ent i al, parent . Wi t h out encouragement from my mot h er, Margaret Mol-
nar, i n those few activities t h at I could act ually do bet t er t h an my fat h er
(e.g., sport s), I mi gh t not h ave recogni zed t h e ext ent of h i s i nsi gh t . Sec-
ond, t h i s essay is not a st udy in h i st ory of sci ence. I am w ell aw are of Heil-
bron' s admoni t i ons to scientists to take t h ei r research of h i st ory as seri-
ously as t h ei r sci ent i fi c research .
113
As request ed by t h e edi t ors, I si mply
offer my personal views (dubbed "unexpurgat ed" by one edi t or). Th i rd,
I h ave been aggressive w i t h some general subdi sci pli nes of th e eart h sci-
ences, for i nst ance, numeri cal modeli ng and st ruct ure/t ect oni cs. Do
not t ake t h ese personally, as at t acks on i ndi vi duals, but as opi ni ons about
popular t rends. "Some of my best fri ends" are modelers and st ruct ural
geologists w h o st udy t ect oni cs, alt h ough perh aps for t h ose w h o know t h e
joke of the 1960s the double ent endre applies.
EPI LOGU E:
C O N T IN E N T S RE ALLY Do MO VE
Alf red Wegener died on the Greenland ic e c ap trying to f ind p roof of c onti-
nental drif t. By p roof he meant observations of the c ontinents ac tually mov-
ing today. The geologic al arguments f or drif t were all indirec t: they were sur-
p rising f ac ts that c ould be exp lained if the c ontinents had moved, but they were
not ac tual observations of moving c ontinents.
Ironic ally, p late tec tonic s was ac c ep ted without the evidenc e that Wegener
sought. The geop hysic al data of p late tec tonic s - heat f low, seismic ity, p aleo-
magnetism were in their own ways also indirec t. They were observations of
p henomena that f ollowed f rom c rustal motions or p erhap s help ed drive them,
but they were not ac tual observations of the motions themselves. It took another
dec ade bef ore suc h observations c ould be made through the develop ment of
satellite-based global p ositioning systems. However, bec ause of their military
ap p lic ations, many of the data c ollec ted by these satellites remained c lassif ied
until the 1990s. F inally, almost a c entury af ter Alf red Wegener f irst suggested
it and 30 years af ter earth sc ientists ac c ep ted it, we now have direc t evidenc e
that the earth really does move.
This page intentionally left blank
C HA P T E R 18
PLATE T E CT O NI CS I A MAR T I AN VI E W
David T. Sandwell
WH E N WE T E A CH PLA T E T E CT O N I CS T O Y O UN G A D ULT S WI T H
li t t le or no t rai ni ng i n t h e ph ysical sciences, w e tell t h e "story," but w e do
not have enough t i me to cover th e i mport ant details. Th e story is really
qui t e i ncredi ble: rigid crustal slabs sli di ng t h ousands of miles across th e
mant le of th e eart h at rates t h at are too slow to be observed w i t h out th e
aid of soph isticated i nst rument s; sea floor spreadi ng ridges w i t h submari ne
h ot springs under t h ousands of feet of ocean w ater; deep ocean t rench es
w h ere t h e oceanic plat es of t h e eart h literally fall i nt o t h e mant le; neat
ort h ogonal ri dge / t ransform pat t erns, and a magnet i c fi eld t h at reverses at
just t h e ri gh t rate t o be recorded by cooling lavas at t h e spreadi ng ri dges.
1
Th e only part of t h e system t h at can be seen w i t h t h e naked eye i s t h e
cont i nent s, w h i ch i n fact don' t part i ci pat e i n plat e recycli ng and usually
Dave Sandw ell, up close and personal w i t h the ocean. (Ph ot o courtesy of Dave Sandwell.)
331
332 CONTINENTS REALLY DO MOVE
have a long and messy geological history. Wh i le plate tectonics describes
th e mot i ons of th e eart h ' s crust , w e go furt h er to clai m t h at it is th e opti-
mal mech ani sm for t h e eart h t o shed excess radi ogeni c h eat produced i n
t h e mant le. Di ffusi on of h eat across a t h i ck li t h osph ere i s less effi ci ent
t h an allowing the oceanic li t h osph ere to radiate h eat as it glides across
t h e sli ppery ast h enosph ere and t h en cools t h e mant le duri ng subduct i on.
I encourage my st udent s not t o believe any of t h i s w i t h out doi ng a lot
more readi ng. Th ere are always a few reli gi ous st udent s w h o believe lit-
erally in th e Bible; t h ey quest i on all of t h ese ideas, especi ally t h ose
relat ed t o t h e age of t h e eart h . As a professor, I cannot claim t h at t h e
st ory i s t rue just because i t i s i n all t h e t ext books. I ndeed, h ow do I know
t h e st ory i s t rue? Wh at are t h e essent i al and object i ve confi rmat i ons of
plat e t ect oni cs, and h ow do w e convey t h ese t o our st udent s? Does t h e
eart h really beh ave as descri bed by t h e t h eory, or i s t h e t h eoryjust a qual-
itative descri pt i on of t h e eart h used for i nst ruct i onal purposes?
One of t h e major di ffi cult i es i n confi rmi ng t h e t h eory i s t h at most of
t h e evi dence for plat e t ect oni cs i s covered by 2.5 mi les (4 ki lomet ers) of
ocean w at er.
2
Th e part s of th e cont i nent s above sea level cont ai n a long
and ri ch h i st ory of mult i ple episodes of colli si on, dri ft i ng, and ri ft i ng.
Still, one needs a t rai ned geologi st w h o believes i n plat e t ect oni c t h eory
t o properly i nt erpret t h e cont i nent al geologic record. Th e cont i nent s
offer our only means t o ext end t h e t ect oni cs of t h e eart h more t h an
about 200 mi lli on years i nt o t h e past, because most of t h e old sea floor
h as been subduct ed. However, dat a from t h e oceans provide t h e pri mary
confi rmat i on of t h e t h eory.
Many t ext books, as w ell as t h i s ant h ology of essays, are packed w i t h
st rong evi dence for t h e t h eory. Today plat e t ect oni cs i s nearly uni versally
accept ed by eart h sci ent i st s. However, t h ere i s always a danger t h at a pre-
vai li ng t h eory w ill t ai nt observations i n a w ay t o furt h er confi rm t h e th e-
ory - ri gh t or w rong. Take, for example, t h e const ruct i on of bat h ymet -
ri c ch art s (ocean floor t opograph y) of t h e sout h ern ocean, w h ere t h e
densi t y of sh i p soundi ngs i s sparse. A reasonable mapmaker w ould t ake
t h e available data and t h e know n locat i ons of t h e ridges and fract ure
zones nearby t o fi ll i n t h e blanks.
3
If a sh i p crossed a fract ure zone i n t w o
locat i ons separat ed by a great di st ance, t h en one could ext rapolat e t h e
fract ure zone along a t rend predi ct ed by plat e t ect oni c th eory. Th i s
approach of fi lli ng unknow n areas usi ng a guess based on t h e current
underst andi ng of th e eart h is common to many aspects of geology, and
geologists generally mark these areas using dashed lines. The danger of
t h i s model-based ext rapolat i on i s t h at i t can lead t o a t oo clean and t oo
si mple pi ct ure of reali t y. Similarly, t o promot e learni ng, most t ext books
Plate Tec tonic es: A Martian View 333
Topograph y of t h e eart h reveals t h e sea floor spreadi ng ridge system at a dept h of
about 7500 feet (2,500 met ers). D eep ocean t rench es are t h e sites w h ere t h e cool
and dense plat es si nk i nt o t h e eart h .
provi de an ant i sept i c view of plat e t ect oni cs by select i ng examples t h at
rei nforce t h e t h eory.
4
Is t h e eart h really t h at si mple? Wh en I w as a st udent of plat e t ect on-
i cs i n t h e lat e 1970s, I t h ough t t h e w h ole t h eory, alt h ough basically cor-
rect , w as oversi mpli fi ed. Modern tools h ave suppli ed a w ealt h of new
i nformat i on about t h e eart h and, t o my surpri se, t h e plat es of t h e eart h
beh ave exact ly as descri bed i n t h e early t ext books.
5
For example, t h ey
are almost perfect ly ri gi d, t h e t ransform fault s follow t h e predi ct i ons of
E uler' s t h eorem, and t h e subduct ed plat es penet rat e deep i nt o t h e man-
t le. I ndeed, much of t h e ori gi nal evidence for t h e t h eory w as collect ed
i n areas of t ect oni c complexi t y, and i f one exami nes t h e bulk of t h e
ocean basi ns, an amazi ngly si mple pi ct ure emerges.
6
In t h i s essay, I ' ll descri be a few of t h e i mport ant confi rmat i ons of plat e
t ect oni c t h eory provi ded by sat elli t es and sh ips. These tools w ere largely
developed t o support t h e Cold War effort ,
7
and many are labeled geodetic
si nce t h ey are used t o make preci se measurement s of t h e size and sh ape
of the eart h and the spatial variations in the pull of gravity. The tools of
sat elli t e geodesy are needed for all aspects of global w arfare; preci se
sat elli t e t racki ng and gravi t y fi eld development are needed for preci si on
334 CONTINENTS REALLY DO MOVE
sat elli t e survei llance as w ell as for t arget i ng balli st i c mi ssi les; t h e global
posi t i oni ng system i s used i n all aspect s of modern w arfare; radar alt i me-
t ry i s used for ai mi ng submari ne-launch ed balli st i c missiles as w ell as for
i nert i al navi gat i on w h en submerged.
8
Th e global seismic net w orks w ere developed, pri mari ly, t o moni t or
underground nuclear tests. Mari ne magnet omet ers w ere developed, pri-
mari ly, for det ect i on of submari nes. Mult i beam sea floor mappi ng sys-
t ems w ere developed, pri mari ly, for surveyi ng cri t i cal and operat i onal
areas of t h e nort h ern oceans.
9
Yet despi t e t h ese ut i li t ari an ori gi ns t h ey
h ave proved fabulously useful for basic sci ence.
E X P L O R I N G T HE E A R T H FR O M M A R S
I ' ll begin by clai mi ng t h at t h e reason plat e t ect oni cs t ook so long t o
become an accept ed t h eory i s because t h e eart h w as explored backw ard.
Det ai led geologic st ruct ures on t h e cont i nent s w ere i nvest i gat ed before
t h e ent i re planet w as properly observed, maki ng i t di ffi cult t o develop a
planet ary-scale model. Th e most effi ci ent w ay t o explore a planet i s t o
st art w i t h planet ary-scale observat i ons and t h en desi gn small-scale obser-
vat i onal programs t o t est grand h ypot h eses. I ndeed, t h i s i s t h e current
NASA st rat egy for explori ng Mars.
To i llust rat e t h i s poi nt , let ' s come up w i t h an eart h explorat i on plan
t h at w ould lead t o t h e development and confi rmat i on of plat e t ect oni c
t h eory. Suppose t h at h umans evolved on Mars rat h er t h an on E art h . Th e
leaders of our great nat i on deci ded t h at E art h may cont ai n li fe or at least
maybe a good place t o live. Moreover, t elescope observat i ons of t h e land
areas of E art h reveal large-scale pat t erns suggestive of some type of
global stress fi eld. Th e NASA admi ni st rat or gat h ers h er best engi neers
and sci ent i st s t o develop an explorat i on plan. Wh at i s t h e best observa-
t i on strategy, and at w h at poi nt w i ll t h e h ypot h esi s of plat e t ect oni cs
become st rong enough t o pursue more defi ni t i ve experi ment s t h at w i ll
lead t o confi rmat i on? Th e explorat i on plan i s desi gned as a seri es of
h ypot h et i cal mi ssi ons; and I ' ll h i gh li gh t t h e ult i mat e cont ri but i on of
each type of observat i on t ow ard t h e underst andi ng and confi rmat i on of
plat e t ect oni c t h eory. At t h e end of t h e essay, I ' ll rank t h e observat i ons
i n order of i mport ance. Of course, my fi eld of research w ill come out
on t op.
Mission 1 is a polar orbiting satellite t h at w ill take optical and near-
i nfrared ph ot ograph s of E art h at 300 feet (100 met er) resolut i on. A mag-
net omet er i s used t o measure t h e ext ernal magnet i c fi eld, and D oppler
Plate Tec tonic es: A Martian View 335
t racki ng of t h e spacecraft provi des a global measure of t h e gravity fi eld.
A radio recei ver moni t ors frequency of t h e sat elli t e t elemet ry and com-
pares t h i s w i t h t h e know n carri er frequency on t h e sat elli t e; a Doppler
sh i ft provides an estimate of t h e veloci t y of t h e spacecraft relat i ve t o t h e
receiver. Th ousands of D oppler observat i ons can be used to establish th e
precise orbi t of t h e spacecraft and t h e gravity fi eld pert urbat i ons of t h e
planet . Th e sat elli t e opt i cal i magery reveals t h e mount ai ns, river ch an-
nels, and ice-covered areas i n great det ai l. Th e vari et y of st ruct ures and
morph ology i s overw h elmi ng, and t h e sci ent i st s ret i re t o t h ei r labs t o t ry
to digest th e enormous supply of dat a. Th i s w ill t ake at least five years,
and i n t h e end t h e opt i cal dat a are not useful for di scoveri ng plate tec-
t oni cs. However, t h ey do reveal somet h i ng i mport ant . Th e arcuat e island
ch ai ns, fi rst observed t h rough t h e Mars-based t elescopes, are large vol-
cani c st ruct ures w i t h cent ral caldera. Many sh ow evi dence for young lava
flow s and a few are actively spew ing lava today. E art h is volcani cally act i ve;
i n fact , much more active t h an Mars. A second major di scovery i s a
promi nent magnet i c fi eld w i t h nort h and sout h poles approxi mat ely
aligned w i t h t h e spin axis of E art h . A t h i rd major discovery comes from
t h e t racki ng of t h e spacecraft orbi t t h at reveals t h at t h e core of E art h i s
qui t e dense and probably made of i ron just like Mars.
10
None of t h ese
measurement s i s unusual for a t errest ri al planet (Mercury, Venus, E art h ,
E art h ' s moon, and Mars) so t h ey don' t provi de any h i nt t h at E art h h as
global t ect oni cs.
Scientists are frust rat ed si nce t h e ocean covers t w o-t h i rds of Eart h ' s
surface. A group of sci ent i st s and engi neers h old a conference t o
develop an approach t o explore t h e ocean. How deep i s i t ? Wh at does
t h e bot t om look li ke? Wh y do t h e coast li nes of some of t h e cont i nent s
seem t o fi t t oget h er? Th ei r recommended plan will be i mplement ed i n
t h e t h i rd mi ssi on, si nce t h e second mission i s ready t o launch .
Mission 2 is focused on measurement s of land, i ce, and ocean topog-
raph y usi ng a radar alt i met er. Th ere i s also i nst rument at i on for remot ely
examining the ch emistry of the rocks, as well as a passive microwave
radi omet er t o probe t h e t emperat ures of t h e at mosph ere and ocean sur-
face. Th e radar alt i met er reveals li near t opograph i c feat ures on t h e land,
w h i ch correlat e w i t h t h e opt i cal i magery from Mission 1. More i mpor-
t ant , t h e radar data reveal broad vari at i ons i n t h e h ei gh t of t h e ocean
surface above and below an ideal elli psoi dal sh ape. Wh at causes these
bumps and di ps i n t h e ocean surface? To a fi rst approxi mat i on, E art h
h as t h e sh ape of an elli pse, w h ere t h e equat ori al radi us i s about 12 mi les
(20 ki lomet ers) great er t h an t h e polar radi us. Over timescales of mil-
lions of years, E art h can be t h ough t of as a rot at i ng fluid ball w h ere th e
336 CONTINENTS REALLY DO MOVE
equat ori al bulge reflect s cent ri fugal force due t o rot at i on. Consi der a
supert anker full of oi l st eami ng from t h e nort h pole t o t h e equat or. Dur-
i ng i t s voyage i t w ill move some 12 mi les fart h er from t h e planet ' s cen-
ter. However, si nce w at er seeks i t s ow n level, t h e supert anker does not
h ave t o do any w ork t o go uph i ll. Th e act ual ocean surface (t h e geoi d)
does not follow t h e ellipsoidal sh ape exactly and can bulge out w ard or
i nw ard by up t o 300 feet (100 met ers). For example, t h e low est poi nt i n
t h e geoid lies just sout h of I ndi a w h i le t h e h i gh est poi nt i s just nort h of
Aust rali a. These global-scale vari at i ons i n geoid h ei gh t reflect t h e vari a-
t i ons i n mass i nsi de E art h and are expect ed. Alt h ough t h i s radar h as only
a 4-inch preci si on, i t shows some promi nent lows offsh ore of t h e arcu-
at e island ch ai ns. These are domi nant feat ures of t h e geoi d, but w h at are
t h ey? Based on t h ese i ni t i al fi ndi ngs of ocean h ei gh t , an i mproved radar
alt i met er i s planned for t h e t h i rd mi ssi on.
Mission 3 carri es a second radar alt i met er, an i mproved camera, and
a magnet omet er. Aft er about a year and a h alf of collect i ng alt i met er pro-
fi les, i t becomes clear t h at vari at i ons i n t h e h ei gh t of t h e ocean surface
reflect feat ures on t h e bot t om of t h e ocean. Research ers present some
color-coded maps at sci ent i fi c meet i ngs t h at provi de di rect evi dence for
t h e coast li ne mat ch across t h e At lant i c Ocean.
11
I n t h e equat ori al
At lant i c, li near anomali es ext end across t h e ocean basi n and seem t o
connect poi nt s on Afri ca and Sout h Ameri ca. Moreover, t h e cent er of
t h e ocean cont ai ns gravity ridges and t rough s t h at are exact ly perpen-
di cular t o t h e fract ure zones. Th is planet h as some clear and organi zed
surface st ruct ures, and t h e sci ent i st s are now w orki ng day and ni gh t t o
digest t h ese dat a and formulat e h ypot h eses. Many puzzles will remai n
unt i l i nst rument s are sent t o t h e surface of t h e planet .
Mission 4 carri es sei smomet ers t h at are deployed by parach ut e t o t h e
surface of t h e cont i nent s at si x locat i ons. (A si mi lar but much larger set
of sei smomet ers w as used to locate sh allow crust al quakes on Mars.)
Moreover, t h e travel t i mes and sh apes of t h e recorded waves w ere used
t o i nfer t h e i nt ernal st ruct ure of Mars i n great det ai l. Th e mi ssi on plan
i s t o moni t or E art h i n t h e same fash i on. T h ere w ere t w o i mport ant dis-
coveri es derived from t h e pat t erns of eart h quake locat i ons. Fi rst , t h e
eart h quakes are not randomly di st ri but ed over t h e planet but are con-
cent rat ed along di scret e zones at t h e ri dges i n t h e cent er of t h e oceans
and also beneat h t h e i sland arcs.
12
Th e bi ggest surpri se i s t h at some of
t h e eart h quakes occur up t o 450 mi les (720 ki lomet ers) beneat h t h e
planet 's surface.
13
This w as completely unexpect ed. Eart h quakes sh ould
occur only i n bri t t le mat eri al, and si nce E art h i s larger t h an Mars, i t w as
expect ed t h at i t s i nt eri or sh ould be h ot t er, and grow duct i le at a sh al-
Plate Tec tonic es: A Martian View 337
Topography of t h e ocean surface derived from Geosat (U.S. Navy) and ERS-1 (E uropean
Space Agency) satellite alt i met er measurement s. Fract ure zone traces clearly record t h e
openi ng of t h e At lant i c ocean basi n. E art h quakes mark t h e plate boundaries.
(Sandw ell, D. T., and W. H. F. S mi t h , 1997. Mari ne gravity anomaly from Geosat and
ERS-1 satellite alt i met ry. Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 102: 10,039-10,054, reproduced
w i t h permi ssi on of t h e Ameri can Geophysical Uni on.)
low er dept h - about 30 mi les (50 ki lomet ers). Th e reason t h at eart h -
quakes can occur at dept h s great er t h an t h i s i s st i ll not complet ely
underst ood.
14
A t h i rd major observat i on i s t h at sh allow eart h quakes
occur preci sely on t h e mi d-At lant i c ri dge and vi rt ually no eart h quakes
occur off t h e ri dge.
At t h i s poi nt , all of t h e element s of plat e t ect oni cs are apparent : t h e
alt i met er dat a reveal t h e openi ng of t h e At lant i c Ocean as w ell as t h e
deep ocean t rench es; t h e sei smi c dat a reveal t h e active plat e boundari es;
and t h e deep eart h quakes prove t h at cold slabs plunge i nt o t h e mant le.
Th e evi dence t h at i s still mi ssi ng i s t h e rat e of t h e t ect oni c act i vi t y and
di rect measurement s of t h e movi ng plat es.
Mission 5 deploys a robot survey sh i p t o carry out t w o i mport ant
experi ment s. S ci ent i st s select a survey site at t h e Paci fi c-Ant arct i c ri dge
just nort h of t h e Eltanin fract ure zone i n t h e South Paci fi c Ocean,
because t h i s i s t h e si mplest st ruct ure apparent i n t h e radar alt i met er
measurement s.
15
T h e basi c sh i pboard i nst rument s are sonar t o measure
338 CONTINENTS REALLY DO MOVE
Locations of shallow (black less t h an 50 miles [70 kilometers] deep), i nt ermedi at e
(medi um gray betw een 50-200 miles [70 and 300 ki lomet ers] deep), and deep (li gh t
gray deeper t h an 200 miles [300 ki lomet ers] deep). Shallow earthquakes occur on the
sea floor spreadi ng. (Engdah l, Van der hilst, and Buland, 1998. Bulletin of Seismologic al
Soc iety of Americ a 88:722-743. Reproduced with permission of the Seismological Soci-
ety of Ameri ca).
dept h , devices to sample th e propert i es and ch emi st ry of th e ocean, and
a magnet omet er t o measure small variations i n t h e magnet i c fi eld. Th e
mappi ng of t h e magnet i c fi eld on t h e previous missions at sat elli t e alti-
t ude did not reveal any unusual crustal anomali es, so th e role of th e ship-
board magnet omet er i s unclear. Not e t h at t h e lack of a crust al signal at
t h e alt i t ude of an orbi t i ng sat elli t e i s purely a geomet ri c smoot h i ng effect
t h at can only be overcome by movi ng closer to th e surface of th e eart h .
Tw o sh i pboard experi ment s are proposed. E xperi ment number 1 i s a
survey of th e spreadi ng ridge axis as i dent i fi ed in bot h th e pri or altime-
t er measurement s and t h e eart h quake locations. Scientists fi nd a narrow
axial ri dge 750 to 500 feet (250 to 500 met ers) tall t h at is superi mposed
on a broad rise w h ere th e average dept h is 1.5 miles (2,500 met ers).
16
Th e second experi ment i s a t rackli ne perpendi cular t o t h e ridge axis.
The sonar readings show a symmet ri c deepeni ng of the ri dge axis as a
funct i on of di st ance from t h e axial h i gh . Th e survey i s ext ended far on
Plate Tec tonic es: A Martian View 339
D ept h sect i on of eart h quakes at t h e Ruri le Trench provi des an i mage of t h e sub-
duct i ng slab t h at confi rms deep subduct i on of t h e li t h osph ere at ocean t rench es.
(Figure from Beni off, H., 1954. Orogenesis and deep crust al st ruct ure: Addi t i onal
evi dence from seismology. Bulletin of the Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a 65: 385-400.
R eproduced w i t h permi ssi on of t h e Geological Society of Ameri ca).
ei t h er side of t h e ridge t o exami ne t h i s symmet ri c dept h observat i on.
Today, w e underst and t h i s observation as t h e si gnat ure of t h e t h ermal
cont ract i on of t h e oceani c plat es as t h ey slide away from t h e spreadi ng
ri dges.
17
Th i s cooli ng of t h e oceani c plat e (t h e li t h osph ere) i s t h e pri-
mary mech ani sm for E art h t o sh ed i t s excess radi ogeni c h eat , so t h e sym-
met ri c deepeni ng of the sea floor as it ages is the planet 's pri mary geo-
dynami c and t ect oni c si gnat ure.
T h e most surpri si ng result comes from t h e magnet omet er, w h i ch
sh ow s a square-w ave pat t ern of magnet i c h i gh s and lows. A more com-
plet e survey reveals t h at t h ese magnet i c anomali es form long st ri pes par-
allel t o t h e ri dge axis, but , most i mport ant , t h e st ri pes have spacings t h at
are symmet ri c on ei t h er side of th e ri dge axis. Th is observat i on of sym-
met ri c mari ne magnet i c anomali es not only provi des di rect evi dence for
symmet ri c sea floor spreadi ng, but also proves t h at t h e global magnet i c
340 CO NT I NE NT S REALLY DO MOVE
fi eld of E art h reverses polari t y on a t i mescale t h at i s perfect ly recorded
i n t h e cooli ng lava at t h e sea floor spreadi ng ridges.
S OME REL EV ANT AS P EC TS OF THE REAL S TORY
From t h i s poi nt on, i t i s i mpossi ble t o predi ct w h en t h e grand h ypot h e-
si s of plat e t ect oni cs w ill be proposed. Moreover, t h e proposi t i on must
be forceful enough t o prompt furt h er confi rmat i on. At t h i s poi nt , I ' ll
abandon t h e h ypot h et i cal explorat i on of E art h . T h ere are t h ree issues
w ort h furt h er di scussi on. First, for t h e record, I ' ll provi de a bri ef h i st ory
of sat elli t e alt i met ry and t h e event s leadi ng t o t h e declassi fi cat i on of
Geosat radar alt i met er measurement s. Th en I ' ll di scuss t h e t w o remai n-
i ng i mport ant observat i ons of plat e t ect oni cs: paleomagnet i c i nt ensi t y
vari at i ons i n sequences of lava flow s, and di rect measurement of present -
day plat e mot i on.
T HE HI S T O R Y O F S A T E L L I T E A L T I M E T R Y
Th e ori gi nal alt i met ers (as i n t h ose aboard NASA's SkyLab and D efense
Mappi ng Agency's GEOS-3) w ere launch ed t o measure global-scale geoid
h ei gh t vari at i ons, but w h at t h ey di scovered w ere much smaller-scale
geoid h ei gh t vari at i ons: 5 to 30 mi les (8 to 50 ki lomet ers) h ori zont ally
and 1 t o 4 i nch es (2 t o 10 cent i met er) vertically. Th e smaller-scale bumps
and di ps i n t h e ocean surface reflect t h e gravi t at i onal at t ract i ons of st ruc-
t ures on t h e ocean floor (spreadi ng ri dges, fract ure zones, t rench es, and
volcanoes). Wh en t h e GEOS-3 result s w ere fi rst publi sh ed, i t w as obvious
t h at radar alt i met ry w as t h e opt i mal tool for global mappi ng of t h e sea
floor.
18
Sh ip soundi ngs w ere t oo sparse t o provi de a global perspect i ve.
Wh at w as needed w as an i mproved alt i met er t o achieve a one-i nch (2-
cent i met er) range preci si on w i t h dense t rack coverage. Th e Seasat
alt i met er launch ed i n 1978 ach i eved t h e range preci si on, but fai led aft er
only t h ree mont h s i n orbi t .
Usi ng dat a from t h e Seasat alt i met er (NASA Jet Propulsi on Labora-
t ory) , Wi lli am Haxby and ot h ers at Lamont -D oh ert y Geological Obser-
vat ory compi led t h e fi rst complet ely object i ve map of t h e ocean basi ns
i n 1983.
19
Unli ke ot h er maps of t h e ocean, w h ere sci ent i st s deci de w h ere
t o collect dat a, h ow t o eli mi nat e bad dat a, and h ow t o fi ll i n t h e blank
areas, Haxby's map w as based on a uni form coverage of t h e oceans and
t h e dat a w ere all t reat ed equally by a si ngle comput er algori t h m. Most
Plate Tec tonic es: A Martian View 341
i mport ant , anot h er sci ent i st usi ng t h e same dat a and t h e same algori t h m
could obt ai n exact ly t h e same answ er. Th i s fi rst map h ad only moderat e
det ai l due t o t h e sh ort t h ree-mont h li fet i me of t h e Seasat alt i met er. Nev-
ert h eless, t h i s map, plus si mi lar maps prepared i n our lab (Nat i onal Geo-
det i c Survey), convi nced me t h at plat e t ect oni cs w as a fai r and accurat e
description of Eart h . In addition to confi rmi ng plate tectonic t h eory,
t h ese maps revealed many i mport ant geological st ruct ures and gui ded
seagoi ng expedi t i ons for t h e next 15 years.
It t ook unt i l July 1995 before bet t er alt i met er coverage became avail-
able from t h e ERS-1 sat elli t e alt i met er (E uropean Space Agency) and t h e
Geosat alt i met er. Th e Geosat sat elli t e, bui lt by t h e Joh ns H opki ns Uni ver-
si t y's Appli ed Physics Laborat ory (JHUAPL) and launch ed i n 1985 by t h e
U.S. Navy, collected high-precision sea surface h ei gh t measurement s in
a non-repeat orbi t for a year and a h alf and cont i nued i n a repeat i ng,
unclassi fi ed mode for anot h er t h ree years.
20
Th ese data w ere processed
and arch i ved i n t w o locat i ons, t h e Naval Oceanograph i c O ffi ce (NO O ),
St enni s Space Cent er, Mi ssi ssi ppi , and t h e JHUAPL, Maryland. Th e Navy
used t h e Geosat-derived gravi t y fi eld i nformat i on t o i mprove t h e accuracy
of sea-launch ed balli st i c missiles for t h e Trident submari ne program.
21
Th e research activities i n t h e classified NOO lab are not yet declassi fi ed.
Th e mai n act i vi t y at t h e JHUAPL and t h e Nat i onal Geodet i c Survey
(NGS ) (i ncludi ng w ork by Bruce Douglas, Robert Ch eney, Dave Port er,
Dave McAdoo, Laury Mi ller, Russel Agreen, and David Sandw ell) w as t o
ext ract unclassi fi ed alt i met er product s from t h e Geosat data usi ng a faci l-
i t y at JHUAPL. David McAdoo (NGS) and I (NGS, now at t h e Scri pps
I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y) di d not h ave access t o t h e classi fi ed dat a,
only t h e unclassi fi ed product s. Th e fi rst unclassi fi ed oceanograph i c dat a
w ere select ed t o follow t h e old Seasat t rack li nes so t h at no si gni fi cant
new gravity i nformat i on w ould be revealed.
Underst andi ng th e ext reme sci ent i fi c value of these Geosat data,
Bruce Douglas, Karen Marks, Dave McAdoo (all of NGS ), Bernard Mi n-
st er (S cri pps), Walt er H. F. Smi t h (Scri pps and NGS ), many ot h ers, and
I sent several request s t o t h e O ceanograph er of t h e Navy aski ng for
release of subset s of dat a. Th e declassi fi cat i on of Geosat dat a came
i n t h ree i nst allment s. Fi rst , i n 1987, t h e Navy agreed not t o classi fy
t h e Geosat alt i met er dat a i n Ant arct i c w at ers sout h of 60S lat i t ude. Sec-
ond, at the request of the Nat i onal Research Counci l Commi t t ee on
Geodesy (Mi nst er, McAdoo, Sandw ell, and ot h ers), Rear Admi ral Ch es-
brough , t h e O ceanograph er of t h e Navy, agreed t o declassi fy all dat a
sout h of 30S lat i t ude on June 10, 1992.
22
Finally, at t h e request of t h e
Medea Commi t t ee as w ell as from t h e Ameri can Geoph ysi cal Uni on,
342 CONTINENTS REALLY DO MOVE
Admi ral Boorda, t h e Ch ief of Naval Operat i ons, aut h ori zed declas-
sification of all Geosat data, on July 19, 1995.
23
The most relevant aspect
of t h i s fi nal declassi fi cat i on w as t h at t h e ERS-1 alt i met er h ad just com-
plet ed a one-year mappi ng mi ssi on t h at basi cally dupli cat ed t h e still clas-
sified Geosat data, so t h ere w as no longer a reason to keep the Geosat data
classified.
On a relat ed mat t er, t h e Medea Commi t t ee assessed t h e sci ent i fi c uti-
ity of all types of geophysical data collected by the U.S. Navy.
24
The
report states:
Duri ng the past 30 years, the Navy's ocean surveys have systematically col-
lect ed bat h ymet ry, gravity, magnet i cs, and sali ni t y/t emperat ure dat a on a
global basis. In part i cular t h ese surveys encompass almost all of th e
Nort h ern H emi sph ere. All t oget h er more t h an 100 ship-years of dat a
acqui si t i ons have been devoted t o t h i s effort , maki ng t h i s t h e most com-
preh ensi ve surveyi ng act i vi t y ever undert aken. I t i s h i gh ly unli kely t h at
such an effort w i ll be repeat ed, and i t i s cert ai n t h at civilian envi ron-
ment al sci ent i fi c resources could not aspi re t o an ocean survey program
of t h i s magni t ude duri ng t h e next 20 years.
Wh i le t h e Geosat alt i met er dat a and t h e Arct i c sea i ce t h i ckness dat a w ere
declassi fi ed in 1995, the remai ni ng 100-ship years of bat h ymet ry, gravity,
and magnet i cs dat a remai n classified and discussions of possible declas-
si fi cat i on h ave not cont i nued. Th e mai n barri er t o declassi fyi ng t h e sh i p
dat a i s t h at t h e uneven t rack coverage w ould reveal w h i ch zones are of
i nt erest t o t h e Navy. In cont rast , t h e alt i met er mappi ng of t h e ocean i s
uni form and unbi ased.
MA GN E T I C R E V E R S A L S A N D DI R E C T
ME A S U R E ME N T O F P L A T E MO T I O N
Accordi ng t o t h e t ext books and h i st ori cal account s, magnet i c reversals
at sea, coupled w i t h dat ed magnet i c polari t i es of lava flow s on t h e con-
t i nent s w orldw i de, provi ded t h e t urni ng poi nt i n t h e real st ory of plat e
t ect oni c accept ance. However, i n t h e scenario just out li ned, t h e mag-
net i c evi dence i s not absolut ely necessary. I ndeed, t h e abi li t y t o observe
magnet i c reversals from a magnet omet er tow ed beh i nd a sh i p reli es on
some rat h er i ncredi ble coi nci dences relat ed t o reversal rat e, spreadi ng
rat e, ocean dept h , and E art h t emperat ures.
I n t h e case of mari ne magnet i c anomali es, four scales must mat ch .
Plate Tec tonic es: A Martian View 343
Fi rst , t h e t emperat ure at w h i ch cooli ng lava fi rst records t h e di rect i on of
t h e global magnet i c fi eld must li e bet w een t h e h ot t emperat ure of t h e
mant le and t h e cold t emperat ure of t h e sea floor. This may not seem t h at
remarkable unt i l one consi ders t h at t h e surface t emperat ure of our sis-
t er planet Venus i s t oo h i gh for t h i s t o occur. Most of t h i s magnet i c fi eld
i s recorded i n t h e upper mi le or t w o of t h e oceani c crust . If t h e t h i ck-
ness of t h i s layer w ere too great , t h en as th e plat e cooled as it moved off
t h e spreadi ng ri dge axis, t h e positive and negat i ve reversals w ould be jux-
t aposed i n di ppi ng layers; t h i s superposi t i on w ould smear t h e pat t ern
observed by a sh i p. On E art h , t h e t emperat ures are just ri gh t for creat -
ing a t h i n magnetized layer.
Th e second scale i s relat ed t o ocean dept h . Consi der recordi ng t h e
magnet i c fi eld along a t rack perpendi cular t o t h e ri dge axis. If t h e mag-
net omet er is towed close to th e bot t om of th e ocean, just above th e mag-
net i zed layer, t h en t h e square-w ave reversal pat t ern will be sh arp and
clear. However, most magnet omet er measurement s are made at t h e sur-
face of the ocean, w h i ch is on average 2.5 miles above the magnet i zed
layer. At t h i s di st ance, t h e reversal pat t ern becomes at t enuat ed and
smoot h . Th e result i s t h at anomali es h avi ng a spaci ng of about 2P t i mes
t h e ocean dept h will h ave t h e st rongest signal. As just not ed, t h e crustal
anomali es are i nvi si ble at t h e alt i t ude of an orbi t i ng sat elli t e because of
t h e geometric smoot h i ng effect w ith distance.
Th e t h i rd and fourt h scales t h at must mat ch are t h e reversal rat e and
t h e sea floor spreadi ng rat e. Half-spreadi ng rat es on E art h vary from 6
to 50 mi les (10 to 80 ki lomet ers) per mi lli on years. Th is suggests t h at for
t h e magnet i c anomali es t o be most vi si ble on t h e ocean surface, t h e
reversal rat e sh ould be bet w een 2.5 and 0.3 mi lli on years. It i s astonish -
ing t h at t h i s is th e typical reversal rat e observed in sequences of lava flow s
on land. Wh i le most ocean basi ns di splay clear reversal pat t erns, t h ere
w as a peri od bet w een 85 and 120 mi lli on years ago w h en th e magnet i c
fi eld polari t y of t h e eart h remai ned positive for a long t i me, so t h e ocean
surface anomaly i s t oo far from t h e reversal boundari es t o provi de tim-
i ng i nformat i on. Th i s peri od of t i me i s called t h e Cret aceous Q uiet Zone
and i t i nt roduces a large uncert ai nt y i n t h e Cret aceous reconst ruct i on
of t h e plat e mot i ons. Th i s lucky convergence of lengt h and timescales
makes i t very unli kely t h at magnet i c anomali es, due t o crust al spreadi ng,
will ever be observed on anot h er planet . Th i s i s t h e mai n reason t h at I
do not beli eve t h e recent publi cat i on t h at i nt erpret s t h e Mart i an fi eld as
anci ent spreadi ng anomali es - one cannot be t h i s lucky twice.
25
Th e fi nal h urdle t o be overcome relat ed t o t h e confi rmat i on of plat e
t ect oni cs i s t h e di rect measurement of plat e mot i on usi ng space-geo-
344 CONTINENTS REALLY DO MOVE
det i c met h ods. Because at mosph eri c refract i on reduces t h e speed of
li gh t i n unpredi ct able ways, and because plat e mot i ons need t o be mea-
sured bet w een poi nt s on opposi t e sides of E art h , one must use space
object s as stable reference poi nt s. Th e t ypi cal rat e of separat i on bet w een
cont i nent s due t o plat e t ect oni cs i s t i ny- only 4 i nch es (10 cent i met ers)
per decade - so a variety of met h ods needs to be deployed to double
ch eck t h e result s.
26
Very long baseli ne i nt erferomet ry (VLBI) uses coor-
di nat ed radio-telescope observat i ons t o record mi crow ave emi ssi ons
from quasi-stellar object s (quasars). Preci sely t i med tape recordi ngs
from t w o or more VLBI ant ennas are brough t t oget h er and correlat ed
i n a comput er t o det ermi ne t h e t i me delay of si gnal from t h e quasar.
Because t h e VLBI ant ennas are movi ng on separat e plat es, t h i s t i me
delay will change over a period of many years. For example, several years
of VLBI measurement s bet w een Hayst ack, Massach uset t s, and Onsala,
Sw eden, recorded a plat e mot i on of 0.7 i nch (1.7 cent i met ers per year),
w h i ch agrees remarkably w ell w ith t h e rat e det ermi ned from mari ne
magnet i c anomali es.
27
Similarly, spacecraft can be si mult aneously
t racked by a net w ork of lasers (sat elli t e laser rangi ng - SLR) or a net w ork
of ant ennas (global posi t i oni ng system - GPS) t o est abli sh t h e relative
mot i ons of the plates. The out come of two decades of th ese space geo-
det i c measurement s i s, t h at t o fi rst order, t h e present -day plat e mot i ons
agree w i t h a 2-million year average. Th ere are small di fferences relat ed
t o deformat i on of t h e i nt eri ors of t h e cont i nent al plates, but t aken as a
w h ole t h ese measurement s confi rm plat e t ect oni c t h eory.
In conclusi on, t h e act ual pat h t o di scovery and confi rmat i on of plat e
t ect oni cs w as slow and pai nful because many of t h e Cold War tools w ere
not yet available. Th e cont i nent al dri ft t h eory of th e 1920s w as based on
t h e fi t of t h e cont i nent al sh oreli nes, mat ch i ng fossi ls and st rat i graph i es
on di spersed cont i nent s, and glacial deposi t s on cont i nent s t h at are now
at low latitudes w h ere t h ere is no ice. But t h ere w as no direc t evidence
t h at cont i nent s act ually moved. I ndeed, Alfred Wegener di ed on t h e i ce
cap of Greenland t ryi ng t o collect such evi dence. Fort y years lat er, pale-
omagnet i c evi dence and mappi ng of sea floor anomali es convi nced
most eart h sci ent i st s t h at t h e sea floor w as movi ng, w h i le eart h quake
sei smology deli neat ed t h e sh allow plat e boundari es and deep subduct -
ing slabs. Di rect proof of movi ng cont i nent s, however, aw aited space-age
tools.
28
Th e pat h t o discovery and confi rmat i on of plat e t ect oni cs w ould h ave
been smoot h er i f w e only h ad t h e advant age of explori ng E art h from
anot h er nearby planet . Nevert h eless, t h e out come w ould be t h e same.
Today, t h e most i mport ant observat i ons relat ed t o plat e t ect oni cs are
Plate Tec tonic es: A Martian View 345
provided by space geodesy, seismology, sh ip surveys, and geological
i nvest i gat i ons. I w ould rank t h em as follow s:
1. radar alt i met er measurement s of mari ne gravity, fit of the cont i nent s
2. space geodet i c measurement s of plat e mot i on
3. sh allow eart h quakes t o defi ne plat e boundari es
4. deep eart h quakes to prove t h at slabs penet rat e i nt o the deep mant le
5. magnet i c reversals at sea to provide plate speed
6. mi d-ocean ri dge axis t opograph y and symmet ri c deepeni ng about
t h e ri dge
7. dat i ng of reversals on land
8. fossi l evi dence
9. glaci al st ri at i ons
10. mat ch i ng of rock t ypes on conjugat e cont i nent al margi ns
You see: t h i s i s exact ly t h e reverse of t h e order i n w h i ch t h i ngs actu-
ally occurred.
This page intentionally left blank
N O T E S
PRE FAC E
1. Le Goff, Jacques, 1992. History and Memory, t ranslat ed by Steven Randall
and Eli zabet h Claman. New York: Columbia Uni versi t y Press. I si mpli fy; more
precisely, h e w ri t es, "t h e di sci pli ne of h i st ory . . . ent ers i nt o t h e great di alect i -
cal process of memory and forget t i ng experi enced by i ndi vi duals and societies.
Th e h i st ori an must be t h ere t o render an account of t h ese memori es and of
w h at i s forgot t en, t o t ransform t h em i nt o somet h i ng t h at can be conceived, t o
make t h em know able" (pp. xi -xi i ). Le Goff not es t h at t h e earli est h i st ori ans
w ere w itnesses; over t i me a sh i ft i n focus from oral recollect i on t o post h oc
exami nat i on of document s creat ed a sch i sm bet w een h i st ory as t est i mony and
h i st ory as analysis, t h e lat t er expandi ng t h e t i mescale of h i st ory at t h e expense
of its i mmedi acy. Wi t h t h i s analyt i cal expansi on came th e emergence of "histo-
ry-as-problem," t h e resurgent clai ms of memory t o superi or aut h ent i ci t y and
represent at i veness, and t h e count erclai ms of h i st ori ans t o great er object i vi t y
and perspect i ve.
2. Th e not able except i on w as t h e Soviet Uni on, w h ere sci ent i st s cont i nued
t o adh ere t o a t ect oni c mode emph asi zi ng vert i cal t ect oni cs for anot h er decade
or so. Moreover, w h i le accept ance among Nort h Ameri can and European
research ers w orki ng on t ect oni cs w as very rapi d, i t t ook some t i me for t h e new
ideas to be di ssemi nat ed. One colleague, w h o graduat ed from Calt ech in 1972,
said t h at h e does not remember h avi ng been t augh t anyt h i ng about plat e tec-
tonics. Th en h e came t o t h e Scripps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y as a graduat e
st udent i n t h e fall of 1972, w h ere "i t w as a di fferent w orld."
3. Dani el Offer, Marjori e Kat z, Kennet h How ard, and Emi ly S. Bennet t , 2000.
Th e alt eri ng of report ed experi ences, Journal of the A meric an Ac ademy of Child and
Adolesc ent Psyc hiatry 39(6): 735-742. In a si mi lar vei n, poli t i cal scientist Gregory
B. Markus exami ned th e stability of political beli efs and people's memori es of
t h em. Over a ni ne-year peri od, h e found t h at i ndi vi duals' recollect i ons of t h ei r
earli er opi ni ons w ere h i gh ly unreli able, w i t h most people report i ng t h ei r beli efs
as far more stable t h an t h ey act ually w ere. Moreover, among those w h o believed
t h ei r views h ad ch anged, t h ey w ere oft en i ncorrect about t h e nat ure of t h at
ch ange and willingly offered plausible but erroneous explanat i ons. For exam-
ple, t h ey mi gh t at t ri but e t h ei r sh i ft i ng beli efs t o overall social pat t erns w h en i n
fact t h ei r personal sh i ft s di d not reflect t h ese social t rends, or t h ey invoked sim-
ple rules of t h umb, such as "people become more conservative as t h ey get
348 NOTES
older," w h et h er or not t h ei r ow n beliefs di d i n fact become more conservative
(Markus, Gregory B., 1986. Stability and ch ange in poli t i cal at t i t udes: Observed,
recalled, and 'explai ned,' Politic al Behavior 8:21-44).
Studies have also showed t h at w ri t i ng about our beli efs can ch ange t h em,
oft en w i t h out our know i ng i t (Bem, D. J., and K. H. McConnell, 1970. Testing
th e self-percept i on explanat i on of di ssonance ph enomena: On th e sali ence of
premani pulat i on at t i t udes, Journal of Personality and Soc ial Psyc hology 14: 2331).
If so, t h en scientists w h o w rite popular account s of t h ei r w ork may be unreli able
witnesses (caveat empt or!). On t h e ot h er h and, t h ere i s some evidence t h at t h e
more sali ent t h e events i n quest i on t o t h e person descri bi ng t h em, t h e more
likely he or she is to have an accurat e memory of t h em (Marcus, 1986, p. 41).
While psychologists and psychiatrists have focused on the instability of mem-
ory as h eld by i ndi vi dual consciousness, h i st ori ans, ant h ropologi st s, and sociol-
ogists have emph asi zed t h at i ndi vi dual memori es are greatly affect ed by t h e
social dynamics surroundi ng t h e i ndi vi dual, i ncludi ng cult ural pract i ces t h at
create, rei nforce, and alt er memory; see, for example, Connert on, Paul, 1989.
How Soc ieties Remember. New York: Cambridge Uni versi t y Press; Nora, Pi erre,
1992. Realms of Memory: The Construc tion of the Historic al Past. New York: Columbi a
Uni versi t y Press; Halbw ach s, Mauri ce, 1992. On Collec tive Memory, edited and
translated by Lewis Coser. Chicago: Uni versi t y of Chicago Press; Prager, Jeffrey,
1998. Presenting the Past: Psyc hoanalysis and the Soc iology of Misremembering.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni versi t y Press. Pni na Abir-Am and Clark Elli ot
not e t h at memory i n science i s typically commemorat i on, w i t h i t s i mpli cat i ons
of loyalty, grat i t ude, and appreci at i on, and t h erefore oft en part i cularly one-
sided. Yet, as t h ey not e, th e ways in w h i ch sci ent i st s commemorat e can be h igh -
ly i nformat i ve of th e values and beli efs of t h ei r communi t i es (Abir-Am, Pni na,
and Clark Elliot, eds., 1999. Commemorat i ve practices in sci ence, Osiris 14).
Nat ural scientists have emph asi zed memory as a complex cognitive process
subject t o alt erat i on and i mpai rment , most obviously i n t h e various forms of
amnesi a and dement i a but also i n more moderat e and usual forms of memory
loss and di st ort i on. R ecent research h as refut ed t h e idea of memory as an
unvarni sh ed record of t h e past , and replaced i t w ith a not i on of a complex
process of know ledge creat i on and renew al; memory ret ri eval is now viewed
less as a process of know ledge recapt ure t h an as a process of know ledge recre-
at i on. This dynami c view of memory seems reconci li able w i t h t h e sociological
perspect i ve t h at argues for t h e role of social processes i n t h e creat i on (and
recreat i on) of memory: t h e social cont ext of memory ret ri eval may affect (or
even det ermi ne) t h e forms i n w h i ch t h e memory i s rest ored (and re-st ored).
For an excellent i nt roduct i on to t h i s li t erat ure, see Sch acter, Dani el L., 1996.
Searc hing for Memory: The Brain, the Mind, and the Past. New York: Basic; see also
Schacter, Dani el L., ed., 1995. Memory Distortion: How Mind, Brains, and Soc ieties
Rec onstruc t the Past. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
4. A number of sci ent i st s, h i st ori ans, and ph i losoph ers have w ri t t en about
t h e sci ent i fi c development s from cont i nent al dri ft t o plat e t ect oni cs, among
Notes 349
t h em th e edi t ors of t h i s volume: Le Grand, Homer, 1988. Drif ting Continents
and Shif ting Theories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; and Oreskes,
Naomi , 1999. The Rejec tion of Continental Drif t: Theory and Method in Americ an
Earth Sc ienc e. New York: Oxford Uni versi t y Press. O t h er relevant w orks i nclude
Allegre, Claude, 1988. The Behavior of the Earth. Cambri dge, Mass.: Harvard
Uni versi t y Press; Frankel, H enry 1987. Th e cont i nent al dri ft debat e. In
Resolution of Sc ientif ic Controversies: Case Studies in the Resolution and Closure of
Disp utes in Sc ienc e and Tec hnology, H. T. E ngelh ardt , Jr., and A. L. Caplan, eds.
Cambri dge: Cambri dge Uni versi t y Press, pp. 203-248; Glen, Wi lli am, 1982. The
Road to Jaramillo: Critic al Years of the Revolution in Earth Sc ienc e. S t anford, Calif.:
St anford Uni versi t y Press; Laudan, Rach el, 1980. Th e met h od of mult i ple w ork-
ing hypotheses and the discovery of plate tectonic theory. In Sc ientif ic Disc overy:
Case Studies, Boston Studies in the Philosop hy of Sc ienc e 60. D ordrech t : Rei del,
pp. 331-343; Laudan, Rach el, and Larry Laudan, 1989. D omi nance and t h e
di suni t y of met h od: Solving t h e problem of i nnovat i on and consensus,
Philosop hy of Sc ienc e 56(2): 221237; Le Pi ch on, Xavier, Jean Franch et eau and
Jean Bonni n, 1973. Plate Tec tonic s. Amst erdam: Elsevier Sci ent i fi c; Marvi n,
Ursula B., 1973. Continental Drif t: The Evolution of a Conc ep t. Wash i ngt on, D.C.:
S mi t h soni an I nst i t ut i on; Menard, H. W., 1986. The Oc ean of Truth: A Personal
History of Global Tec tonic s. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press; Stew art, Joh n
A. 1990. Drif ting Continents and Colliding Paradigms. Bloomi ngt on: I ndi ana
University Press; Wood, Robert Muir, 1985. The Dark Side of the Earth. London:
Allen and Unw i n. Th e best compendi um of bench mark sci ent i fi c papers relat-
ed to plat e t ect oni cs is Cox, Allan, 1973. Plate Tec tonic s and Geomagnetic Reversals.
San Franci sco: W. H. Freeman. On t h e li fe and w ork of Alfred Wegener, t h e
ori gi nat or of cont i nent al dri ft t h eory, see Greene, Mot t T, fort h comi ng. Alf red
Wegener and the Origins of Modern Earth Sc ienc e. Balt i more: Joh ns Hopki ns
Uni versi t y Press.
5. Brush , St eph en G., 1974. Sh ould th e h i st ory of sci ence be rat ed X? Sc ienc e
183: 1164-1172.
6. R ei ch enbach , Hans, 1938. Exp erienc e and Predic tion: An Analysis of the
F oundations and Struc ture of Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, see
especi ally pp. 316.
7. E xcept somet i mes, as one of my colleagues not es, th e st upi di t y of t h ei r
opponent s.
8. Th ere is a large li t erat ure on h ow th e rh et ori c of det ach ment serves to
creat e an aura, or perh aps even t o i nst i ll an act ual st ance, of object i vi t y. Th e
classic st at ement on sci ent i fi c di si nt erest edness is Mert on, Robert K., 1942. Th e
normat i ve st ruct ure of sci ence. R epri nt ed i n The Soc iology of Sc ienc e, Norman W.
Storer, ed. Chicago: Uni versi t y of Ch icago Press, 1973, pp. 267-278. For recent
w ork on object i vi t y in sci ence, see Port er, T. M., 1992. Th e account i ng ideal in
science, Soc ial Studies of 'Sc ienc e 22: 633-652, and i dem, 1992. Objectivity as stan-
dardi zat i on: Th e rh et ori c of i mpersonali t y of measurement , statistics, and cost-
benefi t analysi s, Annals of Sc holarship 9: 19-61; Dast on, Lorrai ne, 1992.
350 NOTES
Object i vi t y and t h e escape from perspective, Soc ial Studies of Sc ienc e 22: 597618;
D ast on, Lorrai ne, and Pet er Gali son, 1992. T h e i mage of object i vi t y,
Rep resentations 40: 81-128; and Dear, Pet er, 1992. From t rut h to di si nt erest ed-
ness in th e sevent eent h cent ury, Soc ial Studies of Sc ienc e 22: 619-631.
9. O ffer et al., 2000, not e 2.
10. Of 17 essayists in t h i s volume, all but tw o h ad major or pri mary affi li a-
t i ons w i t h one or more of t h ese four i nst i t ut i ons. T h e Woods H ole
Oceanograph i c I nst i t ut i on (WH O I ), Calt ech , Imperi al College, London, and
t h e U.S. Geological Survey also fi gure, but t o a much lesser degree. On t h e
quest i on of w h at makes sci ent i fi c research i nst i t ut i ons product i ve, see
Holli ngsw ort h , J. Rogers, and Ellen Jane Holli ngsw ort h , 2000. Major discover-
i es and bi omedi cal research organi zat i ons: Perspect i ves on i nt erdi sci pli nari t y,
nurt uri ng leadersh i p, and i nt egrat ed st ruct ure and cult ures. I n Prac tising
Interdisc ip linarity, Pet er Wei ngart and Ni co Stehr, eds. Toront o: Uni versi t y of
T oront o Press, pp. 215-244; and H olli ngsw ort h , J. R ogers, E llen
Holli ngsw ort h , and Jerald Hage, eds., i n press. F ostering Sc ientif ic Creativity:
Institutions, Organizations, and Major Disc overies. Cambri dge: Cambri dge
Uni versi t y Press.
11. It also h elps t o explai n w h y i t h as proved di ffi cult for w omen and mi nori -
ties t o gain a st ronger presence i n sci ence, even once t h ey are w elcome: t h e
odds of maki ng i t t o one of t h ese few i nst i t ut i ons w i t h out i nformed advice are
not great .
12. Nor does t h i s i nclude i ndi vi duals w h o i n ret rospect deserve more credi t
for t h ei r w ork t h an t h ey have generally recei ved. One example i s R. R. Coats,
w h o in 1962 publi sh ed a paper connect i ng subduct i on of th e ocean crust , deep
focus eart h quakes, and island-arc vulcani sm. (Coats, R. R., 1962. Magma type
and crust al st ruct ure i n t h e Aleut i an Arc. In The Crust of the Pac if ic Basin, Gordon
A. MacDonald and Hisashi Kuno, eds. Geop hysic al Monograp h 6. Wash i ngt on,
D.C.: Ameri can Geophysical Uni on, pp. 92-109.) Wh ile Coats' remarkable
cross-sections t h rough t h e crust and upper mant le of a generali zed i sland arc
w ere republi sh ed in Allan Cox's 1973 compendi um of bench mark papers (Cox,
1973, not e 3), Cox di d not repri nt t h e paper itself and Coats' w ork remai ns lit-
tle know n and rarely ci t ed. Th ere are also nat i onali st i c issues in th e assi gnment
of credi t : Ameri can st udent s are oft en t augh t about th e w ork of Cox and co-
w orkers on t h e est abli sh ment of geomagnet i c reversals, but may not know about
t h e comparable w ork done i n Aust rali a by Ian McDougall and D. H. Tarli ng (cf.
Cox, Allan, Ri ch ard R. Doell, and G. Brent Dalrymple, 1963. Geomagnet i c
polarity epochs and Pleistocene geoch ronomet ry, Nature 198: 1049-1051, and
McDougall, I an, and Don H. Tarling, 1963. Dat i ng of polari t y zones in th e
Haw aiian Islands, Nature 200: 54-56.) Finally, if we w ere to add t h ose sci ent i st s
w ho cont ri but ed to serious discussion of cont i nent al dri ft before the 1950s, w e
sh ould have t o add at least t h e names of Ot t o Ampferer, Emi le Argand, Warren
Carey, Reginald Daly, Alexander du Toit, Art h ur Holmes, David Griggs, Joh n
Joly, Ph i li p Keunen, Felix Veni ng Mei nesz, and, of course, Alfred Wegener.
Notes 351
13. Pri ce, D erek De Solla, 1963. Little Sc ienc e, Big Sc ienc e. New York: Columbi a
Uni versi t y Press.
14. On U.S. mi li t ary fundi ng of sci ence and i t s effect on t h e size, subject ,
and st yle of sci ent i fi c research , see D enni s, M. A., 1991. A ch ange of state: The
poli t i cal cult ures of t ech ni cal pract i ce at t h e MIT I nst rument at i on Laborat ory
and t h e Joh ns H opki ns Uni versi t y, Ph .D . di ssert at i on, Joh ns H opki ns
Uni versi t y; i dem, 1994. Our fi rst li ne of defense: Tw o uni versi t y laborat ori es i n
the post w ar Ameri can st at e, Ms 85: 427-455; Forman, Paul, 1987. Beh i nd quan-
t um elect roni cs: Nat i onal securi t y as basis for ph ysi cal research i n t h e Uni t ed
States, 1940-1960, Historic al Studies in the Physic al and Biologic al Sc ienc es 18:
149-229; Forman, Paul, and Jose S anch ez-R on, 1996. National Military
Establishments and the Advanc ement of Sc ienc e and Tec hnology. Dordrech t : Kluw er
Academi c; Gali son, Pet er, and Bruce Hevly, eds., 1992. Big Sc ienc e: The Growth of
Large-sc ale Researc h. S t anford, Calif.: S t anford Uni versi t y Press; Kevles, Dani el J.,
1990. Cold w ar and h ot ph ysics: Science, securi t y, and t h e Ameri can st at e,
Historic al Studies in the Physic al and Biologic al Sc ienc es 20: 239-264; Leslie, S. W.,
1993. The Cold War and Americ an Sc ienc e: The Military-Industrial-Ac ademic Comp lex
at MIT and Stanf ord. New York: Columbi a Uni versi t y Press; and Mendelsoh n, E.,
M. R. Smi t h , and P. Wei ngart , eds., 1988. Sc ienc e, Tec hnology, and the Military.
Dordrech t : Kluw er Academi c.
15. On t h e di versi t y of t h eoret i cal opi ni ons i n t h e eart h sci ences i n t h e 19th
cent ury, see Greene, Mot t T, 1982. Geology in the Nineteenth Century: Changing
Views of a Changing World. It h aca: Cornell Uni versi t y Press; for t h e persi st ence
of t h i s t h eoret i cal di versi t y i nt o th e 20t h cent ury, see Le Grand, 1988, not e 3,
and Oreskes, 1999, not e 3.
16. Hodgson, J. H., 1957. Nat ure of fault i ng in large eart h quakes, Geologic al
Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 68: 611-644; see also Hodgson, J. H. and W. Mi lne,
1951. D i rect i on of fault i ng i n cert ai n eart h quakes of t h e Nort h Paci fi c,
Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 41: 221-242; Hodgson, J. H. and R. S.
Storey, 1953. Tables ext endi ng Byerly's fault -plane t ech ni que to eart h quakes of
any focal dept h , Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 43: 49-61; Hodgson, J. H.,
andj. I. Cock, 1956. D i rect i on of fault i ng i n t h e deep focus Spanish eart h quake
of March 29, 1954, Tellus 8: 321-328; Hodgson, J. H., and W. M. Adams, 1958.
A st udy of i nconsi st ent observat i ons i n t h e fault -plane project , Seismologic al
Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 48: 17-31; Hodgson, J. H., and A. E. St evens, 1964.
Sei smi ci t y and eart h quake mech ani sm. In Researc h in Geop hysic s 2, H. Odish aw ,
ed. Cambri dge, Mass.: MIT, pp. 27-50.
17. In t h ei r 1964 review article, Hodgson and Stevens acknowledge bot h the
analytical and i nst rument al di ffi cult i es: "Because of high background noise, w eak
fi rst mot i on, and, sometimes, reversed galvanometer wires, about 15% of report-
ing stations usually provide i ncorrect data. The selection of the correct solution is
normally somet h i ng of an art ; as an art of course it is sci ent i fi cally suspect." In dis-
cussing stereographic project i ons of fault -plane solutions, w h i ch generat e two pos-
sible solutions for the ori ent at i on of the fault plane, th ey cont i nue: "The diagrams
352 NOTES
w h ich we have been looking at have come to be called 'fault-plane solutions.' They
suffer from tw o limitations: first t h at they do not tell us w h ich plane represents the
fault , second t h at a substantial body of seismologists are of the opinion t h at they
do not represent the fault at all." (Hodson and Stevens, 1964, note 14, first quote
on p. 33, second on p. 35.) Aft er more t h an a decade of w ork in this area, Hodgson
came to admi t th at the results obtained were fundament ally ambiguous.
Despite these acknowledged ambiguities, many scientists have told me t h at
"everyone" in the 1950s and early 1960s believed t h at Hodgson had shown t h at
deep-focus eart h quakes w ere strike-slip. For example, in t h ei r 1963 review article
on ocean t rench es, Robert Fisher and Harry Hess wrote: "Hodgson (1957) stud-
ied the first mot i on of large deep focus earthquakes. . . . [F]rom these he
deduced t h at th e movement causing th e earthquakes occurred on nearly vertical
planes. This type of analysis results in defi ni ng two planes at right angles to each
other. Wh i ch is the real fault plane is i ndet ermi nat e. In eith er case, Benioff's pos-
tulated 40-45 t h rust motion is ruled out" (Fisher, R. L., and H. H. Hess, 1963.
Trenches. In The Sea, vol. 3 The Earth Beneath the Sea, M. N. Hill, ed. New York:
Wiley, pp. 411-433, on p. 432). No doubt Hess was eager to accept Hodgson's
result because it permi t t ed him to retain his tectogene concept , w h ich he had
first proposed in the 1930s, but Hess was not alone; in the absence of ot h er evi-
dence on fault -plane solutions, most people accepted the strike-slip model. Why
BeniofFs evidence was not t aken more seriously is not clear; perh aps it is because
Benioff himself was ambiguous. His now-classic 1954 w ork clearly outlined the
moderately di ppi ng zones of deep-focus eart h quakes beneat h ocean trench es,
w h i ch now bear h is name, but h e did not i nt erpret t h em as subducting ocean
crust . Rath er, he saw t h em as defi ni ng the margins of cont i nent al blocks, w h i ch
w ere moving dow nw ard en masse, effectively formi ng an inverted graben
(Beni off, Hugo, 1954. Orogenesis and deep crustal structure: Additional evi-
dence from seismology, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 65: 385400).
In 1964, a New Zealand seismologist, R. D. Adams, reali zed w h at w as w rong
w i t h Hodgson's analysis (and th e answ er is banal): h is conclusi ons w ere an arti-
fact of h i s plot t i ng t ech ni que, w h i ch made poi nt s from di st ant sources appear
to lie on steeply di ppi ng planes. Adams explained:
"When t h e number of observations i s li mi t ed t h ere h as been a t endency t o
i nfer a quandrant al di st ri but i on, alt h ough various ot h er pat t erns w ould fi t
equally w ell, i f not bet t er. . . . One of t h e nodal planes of t h e quadrant al solu-
tion i s usually assumed t o be a fault plane, and i t h as become common t o refer
to first-motion investigations as "fault-plane" studies.
In many first-motion studies most of th e available readings are from P phas-
es at large distances, and from PKP phases, for bot h of w h i ch t h e ray pat h s
leave th e focus downwards at a very steep angle. For shallow eart h quakes all
waves recorded as PKP ph ases are cont ai ned w i t h i n less t h an 3% of the total
solid angle surroundi ng t h e focus. Th e "extended di st ance" project i on gener-
ally used by Nort h Ameri can w orkers to display t h ei r analyses is such t h at th e
area represent i ng t h ese di st ant phases is greatly exaggerat ed. This increases
t h e probabi li t y t h at t h ei r nodal li nes w ill be draw n t h rough th is area, and
Notes 353
h ence favors solut i ons w i t h st eeply di ppi ng nodal planes. On t h e fault h ypot h -
esis [t h at i s, t h at one of t h e nodal planes i s act ually t h e fault plane] t h i s i mpli es
t h at t h e fault s are t ranscurrent . Th us t h e fact t h at most fi rst -mot i on analyses
h ave been i nt erpret ed as i ndi cat i ng t ranscurrent fault s could be due t o t h e
meth od used to display the results." (Adams, R. D., 1963. Source characteristics
of some deep New Zealand eart h quakes, New Zealand Journal of Geology and
Geop hysic s 6(2): 209-220, quot e on pp. 216-217)
18. Bill Menard, D i et z' s close colleague at Scri pps, vigorously deni ed t h i s.
See Menard, 1986, not e 4, ch ap. 13.
19. Dietz , Robert S., 1961. Cont i nent and ocean basin evolution by the spread-
ing of the sea floor, Nature 190: 854-857; i dem, 1962. Ocean-basin evolution by sea
floor spreading. In The Crust of the Pac if ic Basin, Gordon A. MacDonald and Hisashi
Kuno, eds. Geop hysic al Monograp h 6. Washington, B.C.: American Geophysical
Uni on, pp. 11-12; and Hess, Harry H., 1962. History of the ocean basins. In
Petrologic Studies: A Volume to Honor A.F . Buddington, A. E. J. Engel, H. L.James, and
B. F. Leonard, eds. Denver: Geological Society of America, pp. 599-620.
Allan Cox conspi cuously omi t t ed Di et z's 1961 Nature art i cle in his compendi -
um of bench mark papers, presumably because h e believed t h at Di et z h ad stolen
t h e idea from Hess. Yet t h e t w o versions of sea floor spreadi ng w ere not i dent i -
cal. Hess interpreted the ocean crust as a hydration rind on exposed mantle; in
h i s model, t h ere w as effect i vely no oceani c crust (w h i ch , ironically, i s w h at Alfred
Wegener t h ough t ). In cont rast , Dietz (1961) argued for an ocean floor generat -
ed by submari ne basalt erupt i ons. One mi gh t conclude t h at bot h Hess and Di et z
stole th e idea of sea floor spreadi ng from Art h ur Holmes, an accusation t h at w as
lodged in 1968 by geologist Art h ur Meyerh off (see Meyerh off, A. A., 1968. Art h ur
Holmes: Ori gi nat or of t h e spreadi ng ocean floor h ypot h esi s, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 65636565; Di et z, Robert S., 1968. Reply to comment by
A.A. Meyerh off, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 6567; and Hess, H. H., 1968.
Reply to comment by A.A. Meyerh off, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 6569). My
ow n view i s t h at scientists oft en h ear about t h i ngs w i t h out know i ng w h ere t h ey
ori gi nat ed, and oft en read articles but forget t h ey have read t h em. Th is i s con-
sistent w ith research in cognitive science on "i mpli ci t memory" - t h i ngs w e
remember w i t h out reali zi ng t h at w e are rememberi ng, and t h erefore t h i nk w e
t h ough t of ourselves (Schacter, 1996, not e 2) - or w h at sociologist Robert
Merton called c ryp tomesia. On the other h and, sometimes scientists steal ideas.
20. McKenzi e, D. P., and R. L. Parker, 1967. Th e Nort h Paci fi c: An example
of t ect oni cs on a sph ere, Nature 216: 1276-1280, on p. 1276.
21. Morgan, W.Jason, 1968. Rises, t rench es, great fault s, and crust al blocks,
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 1959-1982.
22. Le Pi ch on, t h i s volume.
23. Bullard, Sir Edw ard, J. E. E veret t , and A. Gi lbert S mi t h , 1965. Th e fit of
t h e cont i nent s around t h e At lant i c. In A Symp osium on Continental Drif t, P. M. S.
Blacket t , Sir Edw ard Bullard, and S. K. R uncorn, eds. London: Royal Society,
pp. 41-51; see also McKenzi e, D. P. 1987. Edw ard Cri sp Bullard 1907-1980,
Biograp hic al Memoirs of F ellows of the Royal Soc iety 33: 67-98.
354 NOTES
24. Backus, George E., 1964. Magnet i c anomali es over oceani c ri dges, Nature
201: 591-592. Backus lat er w rot e an NSF proposal t o pursue t h e i dea, but i t w as
reject ed, and li ke Robert Parker h e moved on t o w ork on geoph ysi cal i nverse
t h eory. Jason Morgan says h e w as unfami li ar w i t h Backus' s paper, h avi ng moved
i nt o geophysics from ph ysics, and only found out about i t many years later,
w h en Backus gave h i m a repri nt (W. Jason Morgan, pers. comm., March 7,
2001.) Dan McKenzi e knew about Backus' s paper, but at t h e t i me di d not fi nd
i t convi nci ng. It i s i mport ant t o reali ze t h at w h i le w e speak of magnet i c st ri pes
as i f t h ey w ere somet h i ng you could see - visually - by looki ng at t h e sea floor,
t h i s i s not at all t h e case. Magnet i c anomali es are geoph ysical signals, measured
by i nst rument s, w h i ch requi re consi derable dat a processi ng t o convert i nt o
somet h i ng t h at can be draw n on a pi ece of paper and rendered vi si ble. Backus'
argument involved t ryi ng t o deci ph er t h e pow er spect ra of magnet i c anomali es
as a funct i on of t h e di st ance from t h e rot at i on pole. McKenzi e recalls: "I di d
not fi nd w h at h e di d at all convi nci ng, and t h e cent ral i dea, of usi ng E uler' s
t h eorem, w as already common know ledge at Madi ngley at t h e t i me because of
Teddy's fi t s. Th i s i s w h y George's w ork di d not make a deeper i mpressi on."
McKenzi e not es t h at lat er at t empt s t o use soph i st i cat ed signal processi ng t o
underst and t h e pat t ern of magnet i c anomali es h as not really pai d off
(McKenzi e, pers. comm., July 15, 2001, and pers. comm. July 18, 2001).
25. Wi lson, J. Tuzo, 1965. A new class of fault s and t h ei r beari ng on cont i -
nent al dri ft , Nature 207: 343-347. See Vi ne, t h i s volume, for discussion of
Wi lson' s visits to Cambri dge.
26. Wi lson, 1965, not e 21, p. 343. In a recent ly publi sh ed t ext book, Geoffrey
Davies credi t s Wilson for bei ng t h e fi rst t o i nt roduce t h e t erm p late t o descri be
crust al segment s, and t h e fi rst t o "see plat es i n si mple and complet e form"
(Davies, Geoffrey, 1999. Dynamic Earth: Plates, Plumes, and Mantle Convec tion.
Cambri dge: Cambri dge Uni versi t y Press, p. 42). Davies i s probably ri gh t ,
alt h ough t h e t erm p late h ad a h i st ory of usage i n geodesy, perh aps deri ved from
engi neeri ng, t o descri be regi ons t h at w ere respondi ng uni formly t o i sost at i c
load, as i n t h e "Gulf of Mexico plat e" described by Felix Veni ng Mei nesz and
Frederi ck E. Wri gh t in the 1930s; see Oreskes, 1999, not e 3, p. 241.
27. McKenzi e, 1967, not e 18, p. 1277; and Morgan, 1968, not e 19, p. 1959.
28. Le Pi ch on, t h i s volume.
29. Coode, A. M., 1965. A not e on oceani c t ranscurrent fault s, Canadian
Journal of Earth Sc ienc e 2: 400-401, ref. ci t . Le Pi ch on et al., 1973, not e 4; Menard,
1986, not e 4, pp. 238 and 242-243; and Davies, 1999, not e 26.
C HAPT E R 1
1. Th e earli est commonly ci t ed example is Abrah am Ort eli us, a D ut ch car-
t ograph er (R omm, J. 1994. A new forerunner for cont i nent al dri ft , Nature 367:
207; see also Carozzi , A. V., 1969. A propos de 1'origine de la t h eori es des
derives cont i nent ales: Franci s Bacon (1620), Francoi s Placet (1668), A. von
Notes 355
H umboldt (1801), et A. Sni der [1858], Comp tes Rendus et Seanc es de la Soc iete des
Physiques et de la Histoire Naturelk, n.s., 4(3): 171-179). Th e fi rst developed sci-
ent i fi c t h eori es of cont i nent al spli t t i ng, and perh aps dri ft i ng, dat e from t h e
19th cent ury. Th ey can be rough ly cat egori zed i nt o t w o types. One group, led
by Bri t i sh geoph ysi ci st s George Darw i n and Osmond Fi sh er and Ameri can geo-
desi st Wi lli am Bowie, viewed cont i nent al breakup as a uni que event of early
eart h h i st ory, w h i ch creat ed t h e morph ology of t h e cont i nent s and oceans for
the remai nder of geological t i me (D arw i n, G. H., 1879. The precessi on of a vis-
cous sph eroi d and t h e remot e h i st ory of t h e E art h , Philosop hic al Transac tions of
the Royal Soc iety 170: 447-538; Fish er, O smond, 1881. Physic s of the Earth's Crust.
London: Macmi llan; Bow i e, Wi lli am, 1935. Th e ori gi n of cont i nent s and
oceans, Sc ientif ic Monthly 41: 444-449). Anot h er group, led by Frank Taylor,
How ard Baker, and, more famously, Alfred Wegener, view ed cont i nent al dri ft
as a cont i nuous feat ure of eart h h i st ory (Taylor, F. B., 1910. Beari ng of the
Tert i ary mount ai n belt on t h e ori gi n of t h e E art h ' s plan, Geologic al Soc iety of
Americ a Bulletin 21: 179-226; Baker, How ard B., 1914. The ori gi n of cont i nen-
t al forms, Annual Rep ort of the Mic higan Ac ademy of Sc ienc es, 99-103; Wegener,
Alfred L., 1912. Di e E nt st eh ung der Kont i nent e, Geologisc he Rundsc hau 3:
276-292; i dem, The Origin of Continents and Oc eans, 3rd edi t i on t ranslat ed i nt o
E ngli sh byJ. G. A. Skerl. London: Met h uen). Somew h ere i n bet w een t h ese t w o
camps w as t h e Ameri can geologist Joseph Barrell, w h o believed t h at basalt
i nt rusi on creat ed ocean basi ns by fragment at i on of t h e cont i nent s, effect i vely
dri vi ng t h em apart . Barrell used t h e same paleont ologi cal evi dence as Wegener
t o place t h e openi ng of t h e current Nort h At lant i c i n t h e early Tert i ary peri od,
and coi ned t h e t erm asthenosp here t o refer t o a w eak zone, beneat h t h e eart h ' s
surface layer, i n w h i ch i sost at i c compensat i on w ould occur and from w h i ch
basalt i c magmas w ould arise (Barrell, Joseph , 1927. On cont i nent al fragmen-
t at i on and t h e geologic beari ng of t h e Moon' s surface feat ures, Americ an
Journal of Sc ienc e 213: 283-314).
2. Suess, E duard, 1904-1924. The F ac e of the Earth, t ranslat ed by H ert h a B.
C. Sollas. O xford: Clarendon; see also Levi t on, Alan, and Mi ch ele Aldri ch ,
1991. Th e ori gi n of t h e not i on of Gondw analand: Th e I ndi an Geologi cal
Survey, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Abstrac ts with Programs 23(5): A 47. On t h e
early recogni t i on of faunal h omologi es, see Marvi n, Ursula B., 1973.
Continental Drif t: The Evolution of a Conc ep t. Wash i ngt on, D.C.: S mi t h soni an
I nst i t ut i on.
3. D ana, James D., 1846. On th e volcanoes of th e moon, Americ an Journal of
Sc ienc e 52 (2nd series, vol. 2): 335-355; i dem, 1847. On th e ori gi n of cont i nent s,
Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e 53 (2nd series, vol. 3): 94100; i dem, 1847. Geological
result s of t h e E art h ' s cont ract i on i n consequence of cooling, Americ an Journal of
Sc ienc e 53 (2nd seri es, vol. 3): 176-188; i dem, 1847. Origin of the grand out li ne
feat ures of th e E art h , Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e 53 (2nd series, vol. 3): 381-398;
i dem, 1873. On the ori gi n of mount ai ns, Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e 105 (3nd
series, vol. 5): 347-350; i dem, 1873. On some result s of the E art h ' s cont ract i on
356 NOTES
from cooling, i ncludi ng a discussion of t h e origin of mount ai ns, and t h e nat ure
of the E art h ' s i nt eri or, Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e 105 (3nd series, vol. 5):
423-443.
4. Hall, James, Jr., 1859. Paleontology, v. III, Geologic al Survey of New York.
Albany: Van Bent h uysen; i dem, 1882. Cont ri but i ons to th e geological h i st ory of
t h e Nort h Ameri can Cont i nent s, Proc eedings of the Americ an Assoc iation f or the
Advanc ement of Sc ienc e 31: 29-71 (presi dent i al address of 1857).
5. Markh am, Clement s R., 1878. A Memoir on the Indian Surveys. 2nd ed.
London: W. H. Allen, repri nt ed Amst erdam: Meri di an, 1969.
6. Wh i le t h e t erm earth sc ienc e w as not common i n t h e early 20t h cent ury,
t h ere w as a group of sci ences - geology, geodesy, geophysics, met eorology, and
oceanograph y - t h at w ere commonly underst ood as h avi ng sh ared i nt erest s,
and frequent ly involved t h e same i ndi vi duals. In t h i s sense, met eorology w as a
branch of eart h sci ence, and Wegener w as an eart h sci ent i st . (On t h e h i st ory of
sci ent i fi c met eorology, see Flemi ng, James R., 1990. Meteorology in Americ a,
1800-1870. Balt i more: Joh ns Hopki ns Uni versi t y Press; and i dem, ed., 2001.
Weathering the Storm: Sverre Petterssen, the D-Day F orec ast and the Rise of Modern
Meteorology. Bost on, Mass.: Ameri can Meteorological Society; and Fri edman,
Robert Marc, 1989. Ap p rop riating the Weather: Vilhelm Bjerknes and the Construc tion
of a Modern Meteorology. I t h aca, N.Y.: Cornell Uni versi t y Press.)
On the ot h er h and, of all the eart h sciences, geology was the oldest and most
i nst i t ut i onally well-established, and Wegener was not a geologist. Th erefore, some
questioned his ability to i nt erpret geological evidence (Oreskes, Naomi , 1999. The
Rejec tion of Continental Drif t: Theory and Method in Americ an Earth Sc ienc e. New York:
Oxford University Press, ch. 5). An early example of this mind-set comes from the
pen of German Leopold von Buch , who, in 1846, described the speculations of a
young Engli sh man: "The spirited [young man], w i t h all his remarkable vivacity of
mi nd, is for me no Geologist. . . . [He] could never make a tolerable geological
map." The man in question? Charles Darw i n (von Buch to Roderick Murch i son,
April 20, 1846, cited in Laudan, Rachel, 1987. F rom Mineralogy to Geology: The
F oundations of a Sc ienc e 1650-1830. Chicago: Uni versi t y of Chicago Press).
7. Daly, Reginald A., 1926. Our Mobile Earth. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons.
8.Joly,Joh n, 1925. The Surf ac e-History of the Earth. Oxford: Clarendon.
9. Holmes, Art h ur, 1925. Radi oact i vi t y and t h e eart h ' s t h ermal history,
Geologic al Magazine 62: 404-528 and 529-544; i dem, 1926. Cont ri but i on to the
t h eory of magmat i c cycles, Geologic al Magazine 63: 306-329; i dem, 1928.
Radi oact i vi t y and cont i nent al dri ft , Geologic al Magazine 65: 236-238; i dem,
1929. A review of th e cont i nent al dri ft h ypot h esi s, Mining Magazine 40:
205-209, 286-288, and 340-347; i dem, 1929. Radioactivity and eart h move-
ment s, Transac tions of the Geologic al Soc iety of Glasgow 18: 559-606; i dem, 1933.
Th e t h ermal h i st ory of t h e E art h , Journal of the Washington Ac ademy of Sc ienc e 23:
169-195; and i dem, 1944. Princ ip les of Physic al Geology. London: T. Nelson and
Sons, fi rst Ameri can edi t i on 1945, New York: Ronald, repri nt ed 1965.
Notes 357
10. Meredi t h , Margaret , 2002. A noble commerce: Ameri can i nt erpret at i ons
of fossi l bones in a t rans-At lant i c cont ext ," Ph .D. di ssert at i on, Uni versi t y of
Cali forni a, San Diego.
11. On the met h odologi cal commi t ment s of eart h sci ent i st s in relat i on to
th e dri ft debat e, see Le Grand, H. E., 1996. Steady as a rock: Met h odology and
movi ng cont i nent s. In The Politic s and Rhetoric of Sc ientif ic Method: Historic al
Studies, J. Sch ust er and R. Yeo, eds. D ordrech t : Reidel, pp. 97-138; and
Oreskes, Naomi , 1999. The Rejec tion of Continental Drif t: Theory and Method in
Americ an Earth Sc ienc e. New York: Oxford Uni versi t y Press, pp. 123-156.
12. McKenzi e, D. P., 1987. Edw ard Crisp Bullard, 1907-1980, Biograp hic al
Memoirs of F ellows of the Royal Soc iety 33: 67-98.
13. Veni ng Meinesz, Felix, J. H. F. Umbrove, and P. H. Kuenen, 1934. Gravity
Exp editions at Sea, 1923-1932. Vol. 2. Delft : Net h erlands Geodetic Commi ssi on;
see also i dem, 1929. Gravity expedi t i ons of the U.S. Navy, Nature 123: 473-475;
and i dem, 1952. Convec tion Currents in the Earth and the Origins of Continents I.
Paper read at Koni nklyke Nederlandse Akademi sch e van Wet ensch appen,
Amst erdam.
14. Hess, H. H., 1933. I nt erpret at i on of geological and geoph ysical observa-
t i ons (w i t h fi gures). In The Navy-Princ eton Gravity Exp edition in the West Indies,
R. M. Fi eld, ed. Wash i ngt on, D.C.: U.S. Government Pri nt i ng O ffi ce, pp. 27-54;
see also Hess, H. H., 1932. I nt erpret at i on of gravi t y anomali es and soundi ng
profi les obt ai ned i n t h e West Indi es by t h e I nt ernat i onal Expedi t i on t o t h e
West Indi es in 1932, Transac tions of the Americ an Geop hysic al Union 13: 26-33;
i dem, 1937. Geological i nt erpret at i on of data collected on crui se of U.S.S.
Barrac uda i n t h e West Indi es - preli mi nary report , Transac tions of the Americ an
Geop hysic al Union 18: 69-77; i dem, 1938. Gravi t y anomali es and i sland arc st ruc-
t ure w i t h part i cular reference t o t h e West I ndi es, Proc eedings of the Americ an
Philosop hic al Soc iety 79(1): 71-96. See also Allw ardt , Alan O., 1990. The roles of
Art h ur Holmes and Harry Hess i n t h e development of modern global t ect on-
ics, Ph .D . di ssert at i on, Uni versi t y of Cali forni a, Santa Cruz.
15. Kuenen, Ph i li p H., 1936. Th e negat i ve isostatic anomali es in th e East
I ndi es (w i t h experi ment s), Leidsc he Geologisc he Mededeelingen 8(2): 327-351;
Griggs, D. T, 1938. Convect i on current s and mount ai n bui ldi ng (abst ract ),
Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 49: 1884; i dem, 1939. A t h eory of mount ai n
bui ldi ng, Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e 237(9): 611-650; see also Griggs, D. T,
1974. Present at i on of the Art h ur L. Day award to David T. Griggs: Response by
David Griggs, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 85: 13421343.
16. Griggs, 1939, not e 15, p. 647.
17. I bi d., p. 612.
18. Hess, H. H., undat ed manuscri pt , ci rca 1939. R ecent advances in the
i nt erpret at i on of gravity anomali es and island-arc st ruct ures, Advanc ed Rep ort of
the Commission on Continental and Oc eanic Struc ture, pp. 46-48; Papers of Harry
H. Hess, Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Arch ives.
19. Ew i ng, Mauri ce, and J. Lamar Worzel, 1945. Long range sound transmis-
358 NOTES
sum, Cont ract Nobs-2083, R eport No. 9 (Woods Hole, Mass.: Th e Woods Hole
Oceanograph i c I nst i t ut i on), declassi fi ed March 12, 1946; see also Weir, Gary,
1993. F orged in War: The Naval-Industrial Comp lex and Americ an Submarine
Construc tion 1940-1961. Wash i ngt on, D.C.: U.S. Government Pri nt i ng O ffi ce.
20. Hess, H. H., 1946. D row ned anci ent i slands of th e Paci fi c Basi n, Americ an
Journal of Sc ienc e 244: 772-791.
21. On the h i st ory of O NR , see O ffi ce of Naval Research , 1987. F orty Years of
Exc ellenc e in Sup p ort of Naval Sc ienc e: 40th Anniversary, 1946-1986. Arli ngt on, Va.:
O ffi ce of Naval Research , D epart ment of t h e Navy, and Sapolsky, Harvey M.,
1990. Sc ienc e and the Navy: The History of the Of f ic e of Naval Researc h. Pri ncet on:
Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press.
22. Munk, Walter, 1967. Dedic ation. In Top ic s in Nonlinear Dynamic s: A Tribute
to Sir Edward Buttlard, Si ebejorna, ed. New York: Ameri can I nst i t ut e of Ph ysics,
pp. v-viii; and also McKenzi e, 1987, not e 12.
23. Blacket t , P. M. S., 1949. F ear, War, and the Bomb: Military and Politic al
Consequenc es of Atomic Energy. New York: Wh i t t lesey House.
24. Blacket t , P. M. S., 1947. The magnet i c fi eld of massive rot at i ng bodi es,
Nature 159: 658-666; i dem, 1952. A negat i ve experi ment relat i ng to magnet i sm
and t h e eart h ' s rot at i on, Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety A245: 309-370; see also
Le Grand, H. E., 1988. Drif ting Continents and Shif ting Theories. Cambri dge:
Cambri dge Uni versi t y Press, pp. 142-143, and Nye, Mary Jo, 1999. T empt at i ons
of t h eory, st rat egi es of evi dence: P. M. S. Blacket t and the E art h ' s magnet i sm,
1947-1952, British Journal for the History of Sc ienc e 32: 69-92.
25. Elsasser, W. M., 1946. Induct i on effect s in t errest ri al magnet i sm, Part I,
Reviews in Physic s 69: 106; idem, 1946. I nduct i on effect s in terrestrial magnet i sm,
Part II, Reviews in Physic s 70: 202; idem, 1947. Induct i on effect s in terrestrial mag-
net i sm, Part III, Reviews in Physic s 72: 821; Bullard, E. C., 1949. The magnet i c fi eld
w i t h i n the eart h , Proc eedings of the Royal Soc iety A197: 433-453; i dem, 1955. The sta-
bi li t y of a h omopolar dynamo, Proc eedings of the Cambridge Philosop hic al Soc iety 51:
744760; and Bullard, E. C., and H. Gellman, 1954. Homogeneous dynamos and
terrestrial magnet i sm, Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety A247: 213-278.
26. Le Grand, H. E., 1994. Ch oppi ng and ch angi ng at th e DTM 1946-1958:
Merle Tuve, rock magnet i sm, and i sot ope dat i ng. In The Earth, the Heavens, and
the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Gregory Good, ed. Wash i ngt on, D.C.:
Ameri can Geophysical Uni on, History of Geop hysic s 5: 173-184.
27. Creer, K, M., E. Irvi ng, and S. K. R uncorn, 1954. The direction of the geo-
magnet i c fi eld i n remot e epochs i n Great Bri t ai n, Journal of Geomagnetism and
Geoelec tric ity 6: 163-168; Clegg, J. A., M. Almond, and P. H. S. Stubbs, 1954. The
remanent magnet i sm of some sedi ment ary rocks in Britain, Philosop hic al Magazine
45 (series 7): 583-598; idem, 1954. Some recent st udi es of the pre-history of the
eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld, Journal of Geomagnetism and Geoelec tric ity 6: 194199.
28. Clegg, J. A., E. R. D eut sch , and D. H. Gri ffi t h s, 1956. Rock magnet i sm i n
I ndi a, Philosop hic al Magazine 1 (seri es 8): 419-431; Blacket t , P. M. S., 1956.
Lec tures on Roc k Magnetism. Jerusalem: Wei zmann Sci ence, and i dem, 1961.
Compari son of anci ent cli mat es w i t h t h e anci ent lat i t udes deduced from rock
Notes 359
magnet i c measurement s, Proc eedings of the Royal Soc iety A263: 130; Irvi ng, E.
1956. Paleomagnet i c and paleocli mat ologi cal aspects of polar w anderi ng,
Geof isic a p ura e Ap p lic ata 33: 23-41; i dem, 1958. Rock magnet i sm: A new
approach t o t h e problem of polar w anderi ng and cont i nent al dri ft . I n
Continental Drif t: A Symp osium, S. W. Carey, ed. Hobart: University of Tasmania,
pp. 24-61; R uncorn, S. K., 1959. Rock magnet i sm, Sc ienc e 129: 1002-1011.
29. Bullard, E. C., A. E. Maxw ell, and Roger Revelle, 1956. Heat flow
t h rough the deep sea floor, Advanc es in Geop hysic s 3: 153-181.
30. Hess, H. H., 1962. Hi st ory of ocean basi ns. In Petrologic Studies: A Volume
in Honor of A. E Buddington, A. E. J. E ngel, H. L.James, and B. F. Leonard, eds.
Denver: Th e Geological Soci et y of Ameri ca, pp. 599-620.
31. Allw ardt , 1990, not e 14.
32. For the st alemat e comment , seej. H. Taylor, 1965. Di scussi on of Bullard,
Si r Edw ard, J. E. E veret t , and A. Gi lbert S mi t h , Th e fi t of t h e cont i nent s around
t h e At lant i c, Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety A258, A Symp osium on
Continental Drif t, P. M. S. Blacket t , Sir Edw ard Bullard, and S. K. R uncorn, eds.
London: Royal Society, pp. 52-58, on p. 52.
33. Brunh es, B., 1906. Rec herc hes sur la direc tion d'aimentation des roc hes vol-
c aniques (1), Journale Physique 4e sen 5: 705-724; Mercant on, P. L., 1926.
Inversion de 1'inclinaison magnetique terrestre aux ages geologique,Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 31: 187-190; and i dem, 1926. Magnet i sme t errest re -
Ai ment at i on de basaltes groenlandai s, Comp tes Rendus de I'Ac ademie des Sc ienc es
(Pari s), 182: 859-860; see also Glen, Wi lli am, 1982, The Road to Jaramillo:
Critic al Years of the Revolution in Earth Sc ienc e. S t anford, Calif.: St anford
Uni versi t y Press.
34. Mat uyama, M., 1929. On the di rect i on of magnet i zat i on of basalt in
Japan, Tyosen and Manch uri a, Proc eedings of the Jap anese Ac ademy 5: 203-205; see
di scussi on in Cox, Allan, 1973. Plate Tec tonic s and Geomagnetic Reversals. San
Franci sco: W. H. Freeman, pp. 138-139.
35. Hospers, J., 1951. R emanent magnet i sm of rocks and the h i st ory of the
geomagnet i c fi eld, Nature 168: 1111-1112; i dem, 1953. Reversals of the mai n
magnet i c fi eld, Koninklyke Nederlandse Akademisc he van Wetensc hap p en 56 (seri es
B): 467-477; i dem, 1954. Magnet i c correlat i on i n volcani c di st ri ct s, Geologic al
Magazine 91: 352-360; see also Frankel, Henry, 1987. Jan Hospers and the rise
of paleomagnet i sm, EOS 68 (24): 156-160.
36. Cox, Allan, R. R. Doell, and G. B. D alrymple, 1963. Geomagnet i c polari-
ty epoch s and Pleistocene geoch ronomet ry, Nature 198: 1049-1051; i dem, 1963.
Geomagnetic polari t y epochs: Sierra Nevada II, Sc ienc e 142: 382-385; i dem,
1964. Geomagnet i c polari t y epoch s, Sc ienc e 143: 351-352; and i dem, 1965.
Reversals of the eart h ' s magnet i c field, Sc ienc e 144: 1537-1543; Tarli ng, D. H.,
1962. Tentative correlat i on of Samoan and Haw ai i an Islands usi ng "reversals" of
magnet i zat i on, Nature 196: 882-883; McDougall, I., and D. H. Tarli ng, 1963.
Dat i ng of polari t y zones in the Haw aiian Islands, NatureZOO: 54-56; i dem, 1964.
Dat i ng geomagnet i c polari t y zones, Nature 202: 171-172. For a summary of th e
early geomagnet i c ch ronologi es, see Cox, 1973, not e 35, on p. 145.
360 NOTES
37. Hei rt zler, J. R., and Xavier Le Pi ch on, 1965. Crustal st ruct ure of the mid-
ocean ridges, 3. Magnet i c anomalies over the mid-Atlantic ridge, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 70: 4013-4033; Hei rt zler, J. R., Xavier Le Pi ch on, andj. G.
Baron, 1966. Magnetic anomalies over the Reykjanes ridge, Deep Sea Researc h 13:
427-443; Pi t man, W. C., III, and J . R Hei rt zler, 1966. Magnet i c anomali es over the
Pacific-Antarctic ridge, Sc ienc e 154: 1164-1171; Herron, E. M. and J. R. Hei rt zler,
1967. Sea-floor spreadi ng near the Galapagos, Sc ienc e 158: 775580; Hei rt zler, J.
R., 1968. Evidence for ocean floor spreading across the ocean basins. In The
History of the Earth's Crust, R. A. Ph inney, ed. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y
Press, pp. 90-100; Pi t man, W. C., III, E. M. Herron, and J. R. Hei rt zler, 1968.
Magnet i c anomalies i n t h e Pacific and sea floor spreadi ng, Journal of Geop hysic al
Researc h 73: 2069-2085; Hei rt zler, J. R., G. O. Di ckson, E. M. Herron, W. C.
Pi t man I I I , and Xavier Le Pi ch on, 1968. Mari ne magnet i c anomali es, geomag-
net i c fi eld reversals, and mot i ons of t h e ocean floor and cont i nent s, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 2119-2136; see also Vi ne, F. J. 1966. Spreading of the
ocean floor: New evidence, Sc ienc e 145: 1405-1415, and i dem, 1968. Magnet i c
anomalies associated w ith mid-ocean ridges. In Ph inney, 1968, pp. 73-89.
38. Pi t man, t h i s volume.
39. Opdyke, N. D., B. P. Glass, J. D. Hays, and J. H. Foster, 1966.
Paleomagnet i c st udy of Ant arct i c deep-sea cores, Sc ienc e 154: 349-357; Opdyke,
N. D., and B. P., Glass, 1969. Th e paleomagnet i sm of sedi ment cores from th e
I ndi an Ocean, Deep Sea Researc h 16: 249-261.
40. Wi lson, J. T, 1965. Evi dence from ocean i slands suggest i ng movement i n
the eart h . In Blacket t et al., 1965, not e 33, pp. 145-167.
41. I bi d, on pp. 163 and 165.
42. See Vi ne, t h i s volume.
43. Wilson, J. T. 1965. A new class of fault s and t h ei r bearing on cont i nent al
dri ft , Nature 207: 343-347; see also Wilson, J. T, 1965. Transform fault s, oceanic
ridges and magnet i c anomalies southwest of Vancouver Island, Sc ienc e 150:
482-485.
44. Oliver J., and B. Isacks, 1967. Deep eart h quakes zones, anomalous st ruc-
t ures i n t h e upper mant le, and t h e li t h osph ere, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h
72: 4259-4275.
45. Sykes, L. R., 1968. Seismological evi dence for t ransform fault s, sea-floor
spreadi ng, and cont i nent al dri ft . In Ph i nney, 1968, not e 37, pp. 120-150;
Isacks, B., L. R. Sykes, and J. Oliver, 1968. Seismology and th e new global tec-
t oni cs, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 5855-5899.
46. McKenzi e, D. P., and R. L. Parker, 1967. The Nort h Paci fi c: An example
of t ect oni cs on a sph ere, Nature 216: 1276-1280; Morgan, W. Jason, 1968. Rises,
t rench es, great fault s, and crust al blocks, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73:
1959-1982.
47. Le Pi ch on, Xavier, 1968. Sea floor spreadi ng and cont i nent al dri ft ,
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 3661-3697. The geodet i c measurement s of
plat e mot i ons came much lat er; see Ch apt er 13, especi ally not es 27 and 28.
Notes 361
48. See Dewey, At w at er, D i cki nson, and Molnar, t h i s volume.
CH APT E R 2
1. Alldredge, L. R., and F. Keller, 1949. Preli mi nary report on magnet i c
anomali es bet w een Adak, Alaska and Kw ajalei n, Marsh all Islands, Transac tions
of the Americ an Geop hysic al Union 30: 494500.
2. H eezen, B. C., M. Ew i ng, and E. T. Miller, 1953. Trans-Atlantic profi le of
t ot al magnet i c fi eld and t opograph y, Dakar to Barbados, Deep Sea Researc h 1: 25.
3. Mason, R. G., 1958. A magnet i c survey off the w est coast of the Uni t ed
States bet w een lat i t udes 32 and 36 N, longi t udes 121 and 128 W, Geop hysic al
Journal 1: 320-329.
4. Mason, R. G., and A. D. R aff, 1961. Magnet i c survey off the w est coast of
Nort h Ameri ca 32 N lat i t ude t o 42 N lat i t ude, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a
Bulletin 72: 1259-1266; R aff, A. D., and R. G. Mason, 1961. Magnet i c survey off
t h e w est coast of Nort h Ameri ca 40 N lat i t ude t o 52 N lat i t ude, Geologic al
Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 72: 1267-1270.
5. Mason, R. G., and Mart i n Vi t ousek, 1959. Some geomagnet i c ph enome-
na associated w i t h nuclear explosi ons, Nature 185: 52-54.
6. Vacqui er, V., A. D. R aff, and R. E. Warren, 1961. Hori zont al di splacement s
on t h e floor of t h e Paci fi c Ocean, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 72:
1251-1258.
7. Vacqui er, V., 1965. T ranscurrent fault i ng in th e ocean floor, Philosop hic al
Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety A258: 77-81; Menard, H. W., 1960. The East
Paci fi c Rise, Sc ienc e 132: 1737-1746.
8. Wilson, J. T, 1965. A new class of fault s and t h ei r beari ng on cont i nen-
tal dri ft , Nature 207: 343-347.
9. Hess, H. H., 1962. Hi st ory of ocean basins. In Petrologic Studies. A. E. J.
E ngel, H. L.James, and B. F. Leonard, eds. Denver: The Geological Soci et y of
Ameri ca, pp. 599-620; Di et z, R. S., 1961. Cont i nent and ocean basi n evolut i on
by spreadi ng of the seafloor, Nature 190: 854-857.
10. Sykes, L. R., 1967. Mech ani sm of eart h quakes and nat ure of fault i ng on
t h e mi d-oceani c ridges, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72: 21312153.
11. Vi ne, F. J., and D. H. Mat t h ew s, 1963. Magnet i c anomali es over ocean
ridges, Nature 99: 947-999.
12. Cox, A., R. R. Doell, and G. B. Dalrymple, 1963. Geomagnet i c polari t y
epoch s and Plei st ocene geoch ronomet ry, Nature 198: 1049-1051.
13. Wi lson, J. T, 1965. Transform fault s, ocean ridges and magnet i c anom-
alies sout h w est of Vancouver Island, Sc ienc e 150: 482-485; Vi ne, F. J., andj. T.
Wi lson, 1965. Magnet i c anomali es over a young ocean ridge off Vancouver
I sland, Sc ienc e 150: 485-489.
14. Hei rt zler,J. R., X. Le Pi ch on, and J. G. Baron, 1966. Magnet i c anomali es
over the R eykjanes Ridge, Deep -sea Researc h 13: 427-443.
15. Vi ne, F. J., 1968. Magnet i c anomali es associated w i t h mid-ocean ridges.
362 NOTES
In The History of the Earth's Crust, R. A. Ph i nney, ed. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on
Uni versi t y Press, pp. 7379.
16. Pi t man, W. C., and J. R Hei rt zler, 1966. Magnet i c anomali es over the
Paci fi c-Ant arct i c ridge, Sc ienc e 154: 1164-1171.
17. Bullard, E. C., 1964. Cont i nent al dri ft , Quarterly Journal of the Geologic al
Soc iety (London) 120: 1-33.
18. Blacket t , P. M. S., J. A. Clegg, and P. H. S. Stubbs, 1960. An analysis of
rock magnet i c data, Proc eedings of the Royal Soc iety (London) A256: 291-322.
C HAPT E R 3
1. Vi ne, F. J., and D. H. Mat t h ew s, 1963. Magnet i c anomali es over oceani c
ridges, Nature 199: 947-949.
2. Hess, H. H., 1962. Hi st ory of ocean basi ns. In Petrologic Studies: A Volume
to Honor A. F . Buddington, A. E. J. Engel, H. L. James, and B. F. Leonard, eds.
Denver: The Geological Society of Ameri ca, pp. 599-620.
3. Wilson, J. T, 1965. Transform fault s, oceanic ri dges, and magnet i c anom-
alies sout h w est of Vancouver Island, Sc ienc e 150: 482-485; Doell, R. R., and G.
B. Dalrymple, 1966. Geomagnet i c polari t y epoch s: A new polari t y event and th e
age of the Brunh es-Mat uyama boundary, Sc ienc e 152:1060-1061.
4. Pi t man, W. C., and J. R. Hei rt zler, 1966. Magnet i c anomali es over the
Paci fi c Ant arct i c Ri dge, Sc ienc e 154: 1164-1171; Hei rt zler, J. R., X. Le Pi ch on,
and J. G. Baron, 1966. Magnet i c anomali es over th e Reykjanes Ri dge, Deep -Sea
Researc h 13: 427-443.
5. Hei rt zler, J. R., 1968. Evi dence for ocean floor spreadi ng across the
oceans. In History of the Earth's Crust, R. A. Ph i nney, ed. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on
Uni versi t y Press, pp. 90-100; Vi ne, F. J., 1968. Magnet i c anomali es associated
w i t h mi d-ocean ri dges. In History of the Earth's Crust, R. A. Ph i nney, ed.
Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press, pp. 7389.
6. Pi t man and Hei rt zler, 1966, not e 4; Vi ne, F. J., 1966. Spreadi ng of the
ocean floor: New evi dence, Sc ienc e 154: 1405-1415.
7. Bullard, E. C., A. E. Maxw ell, and R. Revelle, 1956. Heat flow t h rough
the deep sea floor, Advanc es in Geop hysic s 3: 153-181; Hi ll, M. N., 1959. A ship-
borne nuclear-spi n magnet omet er, Deep -Sea Researc h 5: 309-311.
8. Hess, 1962, not e 2; Di et z, R. S., 1961. Cont i nent and ocean basin evolu-
t i on by spreadi ng of the sea floor, Nature 190: 854-857.
9. Hess, H. H., 1946. Drow ned anci ent islands of th e Paci fi c Basin, Americ an
Journal of Sc ienc e 244: 772-791.
10. Vi ne, F. J., 1977. The cont i nent al dri ft debat e, Nature 266: 19-22.
11. Mason, R. G., 1958. A magnet i c survey off the w est coast of the Uni t ed
States: 32-36 N lat i t ude, 121-128 W longi t ude, Geop hysic al Journal 1:
320-329; Mason, R. G., and A. D. R aff, 1961. Magnet i c survey off the w est coast
of Nort h Ameri ca, 32 N lat i t ude t o 42 N lat i t ude, Bulletin of the Geologic al
Soc iety of Americ a 72: 1259-1265; R aff, A. D., and R. G. Mason, 1961. Magnet i c
Notes 363
survey off t h e w est coast of Nort h Ameri ca, 40 N lat i t ude t o 52 N lat i t ude,
Bulletin of the Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a 72: 1267-1270.
12. Mi ller, E. T., and M. Ew i ng, 1956. Geomagnet i c measurement s in the
Gulf of Mexi co and in the vi ci ni t y of Caryn Peak, Geop hysic s 21: 406-432.
13. Gi rdler, R. W., and G. Peter, 1960. An example of the i mport ance of nat -
ural remanent magnet i sat i on i n t h e i nt erpret at i on of magnet i c anomali es,
Geop hysic al Prosp ec ting 8: 474-483.
14. R uncorn, S. K., ed., 1962. Continental Drif t. New York, Academi c.
15. Laugh t on, A. S., M. N. H i ll, and T. D. Allan, 1960. Geophysical investi-
gat i on of a seamount 150 mi les nort h of Madei ra, Deep -Sea Researc h 7: 117-141;
Mat t h ew s, D. H., 1961. Lavas from an abyssal h i ll on t h e floor of t h e Nort h
At lant i c Ocean, Nature 190: 158-159.
16. Rai t t , R. W., R. L. Fish er, and R. G. Mason, 1955. Tonga t rench . In Crust
of the Earth, A. Poldervaart , ed. Geological Society of Ameri ca Special Paper 62:
237-254; Mason, 1958, not e 11.
17. Hei land, C. A., 1940. Geop hysic al Exp loration. Englew ood Cli ffs, N.J.:
Prent i ce Hall.
18. Mat t h ew s, D. H., E J. Vi ne, and J. R. Cann, 1965. Geology of an area of
t h e Carlsberg Ridge, I ndi an Ocean, Bulletin of the Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a 76:
675-682; Cann, J. R., and F. J. Vi ne, 1966. An area on the crest of the Carlsberg
Ri dge: Pet rology and magnet i c survey, Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal
Soc iety A259: 198-217.
19. Kunarat nam, K., 1963. Appli cat i ons of di gi t al elect roni c comput ers to
gravity and magnet i c i nt erpret at i on. Ph .D. thesis, Uni versi t y of London.
20. Mason, 1958; Mason and R aff, 1961; Raff and Mason, 1961, not e 11.
21. E mi li ani , C., ed., 1981. Th e oceani c li t h osph ere. In The Sea, vol. 7. New
York: Wiley. (Th e let t er submi t t ed to Natureby L. W. Morley in February 1963
is reproduced in Appendi x I, pp. 1717-1719.)
22. Vacqui er, V, 1965. T ranscurrent fault i ng i n t h e ocean floor. In Symp osium
on Continental Drif t, P. M. S. Blacket t , E. C. Bullard, and S. K. R uncorn, eds.
Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety A258: 77-81.
23. Talwani, M., 1964. A review of mari ne geophysics, Marine Geology 2: 29-80.
24. Pet er, G., and H. B. St ew art , 1965. Ocean surveys: The systematic
approach , Nature 206: 1017-1018; Hei rt zler, J. R., and X. Le Pi ch on, 1965.
Crust al st ruct ure of the mi d-ocean ri dges 3: Magnet i c anomali es over the Mid-
At lant i c Ri dge, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 70: 4013-4034.
25. Hess, H. H., 1964. Seismic ani sot ropy of th e uppermost mant le under
the oceans, Nature 203: 629-631; Backus, G. E., 1964. Magnet i c anomali es over
oceani c ri dges, Nature 201: 591-592.
26. Wi lson, J. T, 1965. A new class of fault s and t h ei r beari ng upon conti-
nent al dri ft , Nature 207: 343-347.
27. Raff and Mason, 1961, not e 11.
28. Menard, H. W., 1986. The Oc ean of Truth. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y
Press.
364 NOTES
29. Cox, A., R. R. Doell, and G. B. Dalrymple, 1964. Reversals of the eart h ' s
magnet i c fi eld, Sc ienc e 144: 1537-1543.
30. Wi lson, 1965, not e 3; Vi ne, F. J., and J. T. Wi lson, 1965. Magnet i c anom-
alies over a young oceani c ridge off Vancouver Island, Sc ienc e 150: 485489.
31. Opdyke, N. D., B. P. Glass, J. D. Hays, and J. H. Foster, 1966.
Paleomagnet i c Study of Ant arct i c Deep-Sea Cores, Sc ienc e 154, 349347.
32. Hei rt zler, Le Pi ch on, and Baron, 1966, not e 4.
33. Pi t man and Hei rt zler, 1966, not e 4; Vi ne, 1966, not e 6.
34. Sykes, L. R., 1967. Mech ani sm of eart h quakes and nat ure of fault i ng on
th e mid-ocean ridges, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72: 2131-2153.
C HAPT E R 4
1. Mason, R. G., and A. D. Raff, 1961. Magnet i c survey off the w est coast of
Nort h Ameri ca, 40N lat i t ude t o 52N lat i t ude, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a
Bulletin 72: 1267-1270.
2. The old magnet i c balance type of magnet omet er for measuri ng anomalies
in the st rengt h of the geomagnetic fi eld w as impossible to use in a moving vehi-
cle. The ai rborne magnet omet er, bei ng elect roni c, is insensitive to accelerations
of the veh i cle in w h i ch it is carried. It could t h erefore be used as a towed instru-
ment beh i nd an ai rcraft or sh ip as long as the towline w as long enough to escape
th e effect of magnetic i nt erference caused by th e sh i p or ai rcraft .
3. S edi ment ary rocks and i gneous rocks achieve remanent magnet i zat i on
under t h e i nfluence of t h e eart h ' s fi eld i n di fferent ways. Th e mi neral i n sedi-
ment ary rocks t h at gives t h em t h e abi li t y t o ret ai n remanence or permanent
magnet i sm i s most oft en h emat i t e (Fe
2
O
3
). As t h e part i cles set t le out from t ur-
bi d w at er under qui et condi t i ons, each fi ne grai n of h emat i t e beh aves li ke a
small compass needle and aligns itself i n t h e di rect i on of t h e eart h ' s fi eld.
Wh en i t set t les and becomes compact ed w i t h t h e ot h er non-ferromagnet i c
mi nerals, t h e w h ole rock t akes on t h e di rect i on of t h e prevai li ng geomagnet i c
fi eld and ret ai ns t h i s magnet i zat i on i ndefi ni t ely, unless i t i s remagnet i zed by
bei ng h eat ed t o h i gh t emperat ure and cooli ng or by bei ng subject ed t o a large
magnet i c fi eld.
4. Igneous rocks receive t h ei r magnet i zat i ons i n t h e di rect i on of t h e eart h ' s
fi eld w h en cooled below t h e Curi e poi nt of t h e mi neral magnet i t e, w h i ch i s
582C. Magnet i t e (Fe
3
O
4
) i s by far t h e most common ferromagnet i c mi neral i n
i gneous rocks. It w as t h e ph ysi ci st h usband of Mme. Curi e, Pi erre, w h o discov-
ered t h at w h en a ferromagnet i c mat eri al i s h eat ed t o a cert ai n h igh t empera-
t ure (now called t h e Curi e poi nt ), i t t ot ally loses i t s remanence. Conversely,
w h en i t i s cooled from a t emperat ure above t h e Curi e poi nt , i t ach i eves a very
h ard or stable remanence i n t h e di rect i on of t h e eart h ' s fi eld. Th i s i s called
thermoremanenc e. Physicists have found t h at ferromagnet i c crystals of i ron or
i ron oxide are divided i nt o ferromagnet i c ' domai ns' and w h en h eat ed t h ey lose
t h e domai n st ruct ure. Generally, h emat i t e i n sedi ment ary rocks ret ai ns i t s
Notes 365
remanence bet t er t h an magnet i t e i n i gneous rocks, largely because of t h e fi ne-
ness of t h e grai ns. H emat i t e also h as a h i gh er Curi e poi nt t h an magnet i t e
(680C). Th at is w hy sedi ment ary rocks are much more stable paleomagneti-
cally t h an i gneous rocks. However, t h e st rengt h of t h ei r magnet i zat i on i s much
w eaker. Th ey requi re a much more sensi t i ve remanent magnet omet er t h an do
most i gneous rocks.
5. Grah am, J. W., 1949. The st abi li t y and si gni fi cance of magnet i sm in sedi-
ment ary roc ks, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 54: 131-167.
6. Joh nson, R. A., 1938. The li mi t i ng sensi t i vi t y of an A-C met h od for mea-
suri ng small magnet i c moment s, Review of Sc ientif ic Instruments 9: 263-266.
7. Wegener, A., 1912. Di e E nt st eh ung der Kont i nent e, Petermanns
Mitteilungen 58: 185-195, 253-56, 305-08.
8. Ferromagnetic materials have two kinds of magnetization: i nduced and
remanent (or permanent ). T h e common bar magnet h as remanent magnet -
i sm, w h i ch i t ret ai ns unless demagnet i zed. An ordi nary pi ece of i ron h as very
li t t le remanent magnet i zat i on, but i t i s st rongly at t ract ed t o a permanent mag-
net , and w h en i t does so, i t h as magnet i sm i nduced due t o t h e fi eld of t h e per-
manent magnet , giving it th e ability to at t ract anot h er piece of i ron. Wh en th e
permanent magnet i s released, t h e i nduced magnet i sm i n t h e ot h er t w o pieces
i s lost and t h ey i mmedi at ely fall apart . So i t i s i n t h e case of rocks: t h ey all con-
t ai n bot h remanent and permanent magnet i zat i ons. Th e di rect i on of t h e per-
manent magnet i zat i on i s ach ieved w h en t h e rock i s consoli dat ed and i s t h e
di rect i on of the eart h 's field prevailing at the time. The induced magnetism is
always i n t h e di rect i on of t h e p resent eart h ' s fi eld. Th e fi eld t h at creat es t h e
anomaly as measured above t h e surface of t h e eart h i s a combi nat i on of bot h
ki nds of magnet i zat i on. All t h eori es developed for i nt erpret i ng magnet i c
anomali es assume t h at all t h e magnet i zat i on i s i nduced and i s t h erefore i n t h e
direction of the p resent eart h ' s field. Wh en the effect of a negatively polarized
rock i s observed from t h e surface, t h e remanent magnet i zat i on must be
st ronger t h an t h e i nduced magnet i zat i on or i t cannot be observed from t h e
surface. Th i s i s w h at h appened i n t h e zebra maps. Th e i nverse remanence w as
much st ronger t h an t h e i nduced. T h at i s w h y most sci ent i st s w ere not able t o
i nt erpret t h e zebra pat t ern at fi rst .
9. A H elmh olt z coil (named aft er i t s i nvent or), consists of t w o equal coils
of w i re connect ed i n series. Th e t w o coils are fast ened parallel t o each ot h er
and spaced apart at a di st ance rough ly equal t o t h ei r di amet ers. Wh en an elec-
t ri c current i s sent t h rough t h e w i re, i t sets up a magnet i c fi eld at t h e cent er
and betw een the tw o coils t h at is very spatially uni form in st rengt h and direc-
t i on over qui t e a large volume. If a paleomagnet i c sample i s placed at t h e cen-
t er of such a coil and a st rong alt ernat i ng current i s passed t h rough t h e coils,
t h e result i ng st rong magnet i c fi eld at t h e cent er will demagnet i ze t h e sample.
For paleomagnet i c purposes, t h e i nt ensi t y of t h e current i s adjust ed t o w ash
out the soft component of magnetization, leaving only the hard paleomagnet-
i c component .
366 NOTES
10. Duboi s, P. M., 1957. Compari son of palaeomagnet i c result s for selected
rocks of Great Bri t ai n and Nort h Ameri ca, Advanc es in Physic s 6: 177.
11. Th e "polar-w anderi ng school" refers to t h ose sci ent i st s w h o beli eved t h at
th e age of a rock could be det ermi ned by calculat i ng th e location of th e nort h
magnet i c pole from a rock sample's di rect i on of magnet i zat i on and compari ng
th is pole posi t i on w i t h an est abli sh ed polar-w anderi ng curve as t h e pole mi grat -
ed t h rough out geological history.
12. Ei narsson, Tr., and T. Sigugeirsson, 1955. Rock magnet i sm in I celand,
Nature 197: 892.
13. Hess, H. H., 1965. Mid-ocean ri dges and t ect oni cs of the sea floor. In
Submarine Geology and Geop hysic s, W. F. Wh i t t ardand and R. Bradshaw, eds.
London: But t erw ort h , pp. 317-332; D i et z, R. S., 1961. Cont i nent and ocean
basin evolution by spreading of the sea floor, Nature 190: 854-857.
14. Wegener, A., 1912, not e 7.
15. Refer to note 2.
16. Hess, H. H., 1965. Mid-ocean ri dges and t ect oni cs of the sea floor. In
Wh i t t ardand and Bradsh aw , eds. 1965, not e 13, London: But t erw ort h , pp.
317-320.
17. D i et z, R. S., 1961, not e 13.
18. Kvalues refer to th e magnet i c suscept i bi li t y of a sample.
19. Vi ne, F. J., and D. H. Mat t h ew s, 1963. Magnet i c anomali es over ocean
ridges, Nature 99: 947.
C HAPT E R 5
1. Blackett, P. M. S., E. Bullard, and S. K. Runcorn, eds. 1965. A symposium
on cont i nent al dri ft , Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety (London)
A258: 323.
2. Hess, H. H., 1962. Hi st ory of ocean basins. In Petrologic Studies: A Volume
in Honor of A.F . Buddington, A. E. J. Engle, ed. Denver: The Geological Society
of Ameri ca, pp. 599-620; D i et z, R. S., 1961. Cont i nent and ocean basin evolu-
t i on by spreading of the sea floor, Nature 190: 854-857.
3. Holmes, A., 1945. Princ ip les of Physic al Geology. New York: Ronald.
4. Di et z, 1961, not e 2; Wi lson, J. T, 1963. Hypot h esi s of the eart h ' s behav-
ior, Nature 198: 925-929.
5. Vi ne, F. J., and D. H. Mat t h ew s, 1963. Magnet i c anomali es over oceani c
ridges, Nature 199: 947-949.
6. Vi ne, F. J., and J. T. Wi lson, 1965. Magnet i c anomali es over a young
oceani c ridge off Vancouver Island, Sc ienc e 150: 485-489.
7. Cox, A., R. R. Doell, and G. B. D alrymple, 1963. Geomagnet i c polari t y
epochs and Pleistocene geochronology, Nature 198: 1049-1051; Cox, A., R. R.
Doell, and G. B. Dalrymple, 1964. Reversals of the eart h ' s magnet i c field,
Sc ienc e 144: 1537-1543; Doell, R. R., and G. B. Dalrymple, 1966. Geomagnetic
Notes 367
polari t y epoch s: A new polari t y event and t h e age of t h e Brunh es-Mat uyama
boundary, Sc ienc e 152: 1060-1061.
8. Vi ne and Wi lson, 1965, not e 6.
9. R aff, A. D., and R. G. Mason, 1961. Magnet i c survey off the west coast of
Nort h Ameri ca, 40N lat i t ude t o 52N lat i t ude, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a
Bulletin 72: 1267-1270; Mason, R. G., and A. D. Raff, 1961. Magnet i c survey off
t h e w est coast of Nort h Ameri ca, 32N lat i t ude t o 42N lat i t ude, Geologic al
Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 72: 1259-1265.
10. Vi ne and Wi lson, 1965, not e 6.
11. Vi ne and Mat t h ew s, 1963, not e 5.
12. Cox et al., 1963, 1964, 1966, not e 7.
13. Pi t man, W. C., and J. R. Hei rt zler, 1966. Magnet i c anomali es over the
Paci fi c-Ant arct i c ridge, Sc ienc e 154: 1164-1171.
14. Cox, Doell, and Dalrymple, 1963, not e 7; Cox, Doell, and Dalrymple,
1964, not e 7; Doell and Dalrymple, 1966, not e 7.
15. Opdyke, N. D., B. P. Glass, J. D. Hays, and J. H. Foster, 1966.
Paleomagnet i c st udy of Ant arct i c deep sea cores, Sc ienc e 154: 349-357.
16. Opdyke, N. D., 1972. Paleomagnet i sm of deep sea cores, Reviews of
Geop hysic s and Sp ac e Physic s 10: 213-249.
17. Opdyke, N. D., 1972, not e 16.
18. Sykes, L. R., 1967. Mech ani sm of eart h quakes and nat ure of fault i ng on
the mi d-oceani c ridges, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72: 2131-2153.
19. Isacks, B., J. Oliver, and L. R. Sykes, 1968. Seismology and the new glob-
al t ect oni cs, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 5855-5899; Editor's note: see also
Oliver, t h i s volume.
20. Vi ne, F. J., 1966. Spreadi ng of the ocean floor: New evidence, Sc ienc e 154:
1405-1415.
21. Hei rt zler, J. R., G. O. Dickson, E. M. Herron, W. C. Pi t man, and X. Le
Pi ch on, 1968. Mari ne magnetic anomalies, geomagnetic field reversals and
motions of the ocean floor and cont i nent s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73:
2119-2136.
22. Morgan, W. J., 1968. Rises, t rench es, great fault s and crust al blocks,
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72: 1959-1982.
CH APT E R 6
1. Mat uyama, M., 1929. On the di rect i on of magnet i zat i on of basalts in
Japan, Tyosen and Manch uri a, Proc eedings of the Imp erial Ac ademy (Japan) 5:
203-205; Mercant on, P. L., 1926. Inversi on de I ' i ncli naci on magnet i que ter-
rest re aux ages geologiques, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 31: 187-190.
2. Roch e, A., 1951. Sur les i nversi on de I ' ai ment at i on remanent e des
roch es d' Auvergne, Comp tes Rendus de I'Ac ademie des Sc ienc es (Pari s) 236:
107-109.
368 NOTES
3. Nagat a, J., 1952. Reverse t h ermo-remanent magnet i sm, Nature 169: 704.
4. Hospers, J., 1951. R emanent magnet i zat i on of rocks and th e h i st ory of
the geomagnet i c field, Nature 168: 1111-1112; Hospers, J., 1953-1954.
Reversals of t h e mai n geomagnet i c fi eld I, II and I I I , Koninklyke Nederlandse
Akademisc he van Wetensc hap p en B., 56: 467-476 and 477-491, and 57: 112-121.
5. I rvi ng, E., and S. K. R uncorn, 1957. Analysis of the paleomagnet i sm of
t h e Torri doni an Sandst one Series of Nort h w est Scot land I, Philosop hic al
Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety A250: 83-99.
6. Nagat a, 1952, not e 3.
7. Uyeda, S., 1958. T h ermoremanent magnet i sm as a medi um of palaeo-
magnet i sm w i t h special reference t o reverse t h ermoremanent magnet i sm,
Jap anese Journal of Geop hysic s 2: 1-123.
8. Uyeda, pers. com., 1998.
9. Balsley, J. R. and A. F. Buddi ngt on, 1954. Correlat i on of reverse rema-
nent magnet i sm and negat i ve anomali es w i t h cert ai n mi nerals, Journal of
Geomagnetism and Geoelec tric ity 6: 176-181; Balsley, J. R. and A. F. Buddi ngt on,
1958. I ron-t i t ani um oxide mi nerals, rocks and aeromagnet i c anomali es of th e
Adi rondack area, New York, Ec onomic Geology 53: 777-805.
10. Opdyke, N. D., and S. K. Runcorn, 1956. New evidence for reversal of the
geomagnetic field near the Plio-Pleistocene boundary, Sc ienc e 123: 1126-1127.
11. Mason, R. G. and A. D. R aff, 1961. A magnet i c survey off the w est coast
of Nort h Ameri ca 32N lat i t ude t o 42N lat i t ude, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a
Bulletin 72: 1259-1265.
12. Editor's note: i t i s now recogni zed as a t ransform fault on w h at w as origi-
nally t h e mi d-Paci fi c ri dge, alt h ough now located w ell t o t h e east of t h e mi ddle
of the Pacific basin.
13. Kh ramov, A. N, 1958. Paleomagnet i sm and st rat i graph i c correlat i on,
Gostop Tec hizdat Leningrad: 218.
14. Hess, H. H., 1962. Hi st ory of ocean basins. In Petrologic Studies: A Volume
in Honor of A.F . Buddington, A. E. J. Engel, H. L.James, and B. F. Leonard, eds.
Denver: The Geological Society of Ameri ca, pp. 599-620; D i et z, R. S., 1961.
Cont i nent and ocean basi n evolut i on by spreadi ng of t h e sea floor, Nature 190:
854-857.
15. Vi ne, F. J., and D. H. Mat t h ew s, 1963. Magnet i c anomali es over oceani c
ridges, Nature 199: 947-949; Editor's note: see also Vine, F. J., and J. T. Wilson,
1965. Magnet i c anomali es over a young ocean ri dge off Vancouver I sland,
Sc ienc e 150: 485-489; and Vi ne, t h i s volume.
16. Editor's note: see Morley, t h i s volume.
17. Cox, A., and R. R. Doell, 1960. Review of paleomagnet i sm, Geologic al
Soc iety of Americ a 71: 645-768; Cox, A., R. R. Doell, and G. B. D alrymple, 1963.
Geomagnet i c polari t y epoch s and Plei st ocene geoch ronology, Nature 198:
1049-1051; Cox, A., R. R. Doell, and G. B. Dalrymple, 1963. Radiometric dat-
ing of geomagnet i c field reversals, Sc ienc e 140: 1021-1023; Doell, R. R., and
G. B. Dalrymple, 1966. Geomagnet i c polari t y epoch s: A new polari t y event and
Notes 369
t h e age of t h e Brunh es-Mat uyama boundary, Sc ienc e 152: 854857; McD ougall,
I., and D. H. Tarli ng, 1963. D at i ng of reversals of t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi elds,
Nature 198: 1012-1013.
18. Harrison, C. G. A., and B. M. Funnell, 1964. Relationship of palaeomag-
net i c reversals and mi cropalaeont ology i n t w o lat e Cenozoi c cores from t h e
Paci fi c ocean, Nature 204: 566.
19. Wensi nk, H., 1964. Paleomagnet i c st rat i graph y of younger basalts and
i nt ercalat ed Pli o-Plei st ocene t i lli t es i n Iceland, Geologisc he Rundsc hau 54:
364-384.
20. Foster, J. H., 1966. A paleomagnet i c spi nner magnet omet er usi ng a fux-
gat e gradi omet er, Earth and Planetary Sc ienc e Letters 1: 463-466.
21. Heirtzler, J. R., X. Le Pi ch on, andj. G. Baron, 1966. Magnetic anomalies
over the R eykjanes Ri dge, Deep Sea Researc h 13: 427-443.
22. Ade-Hall, J. M., 1964. Th e magnet i c propert i es of some submari ne
oceani c lavas, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety 9: 85-92.
23. Editor's note: see Pi t man, t h i s volume.
24. Editor's note: t h e proceedi ngs of t h i s meet i ng, along w i t h many comment s
from t h e audi ence, w as publi sh ed by Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press i n 1968, The
History of the Earth's Crust, edi t ed by Robert Ph i nney; for h i s versi on of events,
see MacD onald, t h i s volume.
C HA P T E R 7
1. Munk, W. H., and G. J. F. MacD onald, 1960. The Rotation of the Earth.
Cambri dge: Cambri dge Uni versi t y Press.
2. Darw i n, G., 1887. On the i nfluence of geological ch ange on the Eart h ' s
axis of rot at i on, Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety 167: 271.
3. Daly, R. A., 1926. Our Mobile Earth. New York: Scri bner.
4. Editor's note: see di scussi on in ch. 1.
S .Jeffreys, H., 1959. The Earth. 4t h ed. Cambri dge: Cambri dge Uni versi t y
Press.
6. Jeffreys, H., 1939. The Theory of Probability. Oxford: Clarendon.
7. Bi rch , F., 1952. Elast i ci t y and const i t ut i on of t h e eart h ' s i nt eri or, Journal
of Geop hysic al Researc h 57: 227-286.
8. H arry Hess w as a longt i me (19341969) professor of geology at
Pri ncet on. Hi s i nt erest s ranged from mi neralogy t o t h e st ruct ure of t h e ocean
basins. His w art i me dut i es in th e early 1940s provided Hess w i t h th e opport uni -
t y t o use h i s sh i p' s ech o sounder t o collect ocean floor profi les across t h e Nort h
Paci fi c Ocean. Usi ng t h ese unplanned-for profi les, Hess discovered flat -t opped
submari ne volcanoes, w h i ch h e labeled guyots aft er t h e name of t h e Pri ncet on
geology bui ldi ng and fi rst geology professor. Hess' rediscovery of drow ned
ocean structures earlier described by Charles Darw in was the first of his several
major cont ri but i ons t o geology. Robert Di et z, li ke Hess, h ad broad i nt erest s and
w orked on t h e nat ure and origins of t h e moon' s surface feat ures, as w ell as on
370 NOTES
met eori t es and t h e crat ers t h ey left w h en t h ey st ruck t h e eart h and t h e moon.
Hi s oceanograph i c w ork w as extensive; h e supervised t h e oceanograph i c
research on Admiral Richard Byrd's fi nal Antarctic expedition (1941-1947).
Togeth er Hess and Di et z are generally credi t ed w i t h t h e i dea of sea floor spread-
i ng.
9. MacDonald, G. J., 1963. The deep st ruct ure of cont i nent s, Reviews of
Geop hysic s 1: 587-665; MacD onald, G. J., 1964. The deep st ruct ure of cont i -
nent s, Sc ienc e 143: 921-929.
10. The t h eory of isostasy is based on the fi ndi ngs of two Ameri can geodesists
w orking for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in the early 20th century, Joh n
Hayford and William Bowie. See Hayford, J. R, 1909. The F igure of the Earth and
Isostasy f rom Measurements in the United States. Wash i ngt on, D.C.: U.S. Government
Pri nt i ng Offi ce; Hayford, J. R, and William Bowie, 1912. Th e effect of topogra-
ph y and isostatic compensat i on upon th e i nt ensi t y of gravity, U.S. Coast and
Geodetic Survey Public ation 10: Geodesy. Wash i ngt on, D.C.: U.S. Government
Pri nt i ng O ffi ce. Ror a historical discussion of t h ei r w ork and i t s i mpact on t h e
debate over cont i nent al dri ft , see Oreskes, Naomi , 1999. The Rejec tion of
Continental Drif t: Theory and Method in Americ an Earth Sc ienc e. New York: Oxford
University Press, pp. 39-48.
11. Editor's note: t h i s requi rement h olds only i f h eat flow i s ent i rely (or almost
ent i rely) vert i cal. Given a mech ani sm for di st ri but i ng h eat lat erally, t h i s
requi rement i s w eakened or obvi at ed. Similarly, i sost at i c balance can be part ly
mai nt ai ned by di st ri but i ng stresses laterally.
12. Jeffreys, H., 1959, not e 5.
13. Munk, W. H., and G. J. R MacDonald, 1960. Cont i nent ali t y and the grav-
itational field of the earth , Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 65: 2169-2172.
14. Revelle, R., and A. R. Maxw ell, 1952. H eat flow t h rough t h e floor of t h e
east ern Nort h Paci fi c Ocean, Nature 170: 199-200; Bullard, R. C., 1954. Th e
flow of h eat t h rough t h e floor of t h e At lant i c Ocean, Proc eedings of the Royal
Soc iety (London) A222: 408-429.
15. Lee, W. H. K., and G. J. R MacD onald, 1963. The global vari at i on of t er-
rest ri al h eat Row, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 68: 6481-6492.
16. Jeffreys, H., 1939. The times of P, S, and SKS, Monthly Notic es of the Royal
Astronomic al Soc iety, Geop hysic s Sup p lement 4: 498-533; Gut enberg, B., and
C. Ri ch t er, 1935. On seismic waves (second paper), Gerlands Beitrage Geop hysik
45: 280-360; Gut enberg, B., and C. R Ri ch t er, 1936. On sei smi c w aves (t h i rd
paper), Gerlands Beitrage Geop hysik 47: 73-131.
17. Pekeri s, C. L., Z. Alt erman, and H. Jarosch , 1952. Compari son of theo-
ret i cal w i t h observed values of t h e peri ods of t h e free osci llat i ons of t h e eart h ,
Proc eedings of the National Ac ademy of Sc ienc es, U.S. 47: 91-98; MacDonald, G.J. R,
and N. R Ness, 1961. A st udy of t h e free oscillations of t h e eart h , Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 66: 1865-1911.
18. Gut enberg, B., and C. R Ri ch t er, 1954. Seismic ity of the Earth and Assoc iated
Phenomena. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press; Gut enberg, B., and C. R
Notes 371
Ri ch t er, 1956a. Magni t ude and energy of eart h quakes, Annales Geop hysic ae 9:
1-15; Gut enberg, B., and C. F. Ri ch t er, 1956. E art h quake magni t ude, i nt ensi t y,
energy and accelerat i on (second paper), Bulletin of the Seismologic al Soc iety of
Americ a 46: 105-145.
19. MacDonald, G. J., 1963. The deep st ruct ure of cont i nent s, Reviews of
Geop hysic s 1: 587665.
20. Munk and MacDonald, 1960, not e 1.
21. Jeffreys, H., 1959, not e 5.
22. Jeffreys, H., 1959, not e 5.
23. Menard, H. W., 1986, The Oc ean of Truth. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y
Press, p. 227.
24. Worzel, J. L., 1965. Di scussi on, Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety
258: 167.
25. Ph i nney, R. A., ed., 1968. The History of the Earth's Crust. Pri ncet on:
Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press.
26. Gold, T., 1999. The Deep Hot Biosp here. New York: Springer-Verlag.
27. Muller, R. A., and G. J. MacDonald, 1997. Glacial cycles and ast ronomi -
cal forci ng, Sc ienc e 277: 215-218; i dem, 2000. Ic e Ages and Astronomic al Causes.
Ch i ch est er, U.K.: Springer-Praxis.
28. Cox, Allan, ed., 1973. Plate Tec tonic s and Geomagnetic Reversals. San
Francisco: W. H. Freeman, p. 3.
29. Fisch er, K. M., and R. D. van der Hi lst , 1999. E nh anced: A seismic look
under cont i nent s, Sc ienc e 285: 1365-1366.
C HAPT E R 8
1. Revelle, R. R., and A. E. Maxw ell, 1952. H eat flow t h rough the floor of
the east ern Nort h Paci fi c Ocean, Nature 170: 199-200.
2. Bullard, E. C., 1952. Discussion of a paper by R. R. Revelle and A. E.
Maxw ell. Heat flow t h rough t h e floor of t h e east ern Nort h Pacific Ocean,
Nature 170: 200.
3. Sclater, J. G., 1966. H eat flux t h rough th e ocean floor, Ph .D. th esis,
Cambri dge Uni versi t y, 124.
4. Von H erzen, R. P., 1960. Paci fi c Ocean h eat flow measurement s, t h ei r
i nt erpret at i on and geophysical i mpli cat i ons, Ph.D. thesis, UCLA, 119.
5. Von Herzen, R., 1959. Heat -flow values from th e South -Eastern Paci fi c,
Nature, 183: 882-883; Von H erzen, R. P., and S. Uyeda, 1963. Heat flow t h rough
th e east ern Paci fi c Ocean floor, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 68: 4219-4250;
Vacqui er, V, and R. P. Von H erzen, 1964. Evi dence for connect i on bet w een
h eat flow and t h e mid-Adantic ri dge magnet i c anomaly, Journal of Geop hysic al
Researc h 69: 1093-1101; Von Herzen, R. P., and V. Vacqui er, 1966. Heat flow and
magnet i c profi les on t h e Mi d-Indi an Ocean Ri dge, Transac tions of the Royal
Soc iety A259: 262-270.
6. Maxw ell, A. E., R. P. Von Herzen, K. J. Hsu, J. E. Andrew s, T. Saito, S. F.
372 NOTES
Percival, E. D. Milow, and R. E. Boyce, 1970. Deep-sea drilling in the South
At lant i c, Sc ienc e 168: 1047-1059.
7. Williams, D. L., R. P. Von H erzen, J. G. Sclater, and R. N. Anderson, 1974.
The Galapagos spreading cent er: Lith osph eric cooling and h ydroth ermal cir-
culat i on, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety 38: 609-626.
8. D et ri ck, R. S., R. P. Von H erzen, S. T. Crough , D. E pp, and U. Feh n,
1981. Heat flow on th e Haw ai i an swell and li t h osph eri c reh eat i ng, Nature 292:
142-143; Von H erzen, R. P., M. J. Cordery, R. S. Det ri ck, and C. Fang, 1989.
Heat flow and th e t h ermal origin of h ot spot swells: Th e Haw ai i an swell revisit-
ed, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 94: 13783-13799.
9. Hess, H. H., 1962. Hi st ory of ocean basi ns. In Petrologic Studies: A Volume
in Honor of A.F . Buddington. A. E. J. Engel, H. L.James, and B. F. Leonard, eds.,
Denver: The Geological Society of Ameri ca, pp. 599-620.
10. Editor's note: see McKenzi e, t h i s volume.
11. Bullard, E. C., A. E. Maxw ell, and R. Revelle, 1956. Heat flow t h rough
the deep sea floor, Advanc es in Geop hysic s 3: 153-181.
12. Von H erzen, 1959, not e 5; Bullard, Maxw ell and Revelle, 1956; not e 11.
13. Nason, R. D., and W. H. Lee, 1962. Preli mi nary h eat flow profi le across
the At lant i c, Nature 196: 975.
14. Von Herzen and Uyeda, 1963, not e 5.
15. Von H erzen, R. P., 1963. Geot h ermal h eat flow in the Gulfs of Cali forni a
and Aden, Sc ienc e 140: 1207-1208.
16. Von Herzen, 1960, note 4.
17. Menard, H. W., 1964. Marine Geology of thePac if ic . New York: McGraw -Hi ll,
p. 271.
18. Hess, 1962, not e 9; Hess' sources i nclude Menard, 1958, not e 18;
Bullard, Maxw ell, and Revelle, 1956, not e 11; Von H erzen, 1959, not e 5;
H eezen, B. C., 1960. The ri ft in the ocean floor, Sc ientif ic Americ an 203: 98-110;
R uncorn, S. K, 1959. Rock magnet i sm, Sc ienc e 129: 1002-1011; Irvi ng, E., 1959.
Paleomagnet i c pole posi t i ons, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety
2: 51-77.
19. H eezen, 1960, not e 18.
20. Vacqui er and Von H erzen, 1964, not e 5.
21. Von Herzen and Vacquier, 1966, note 5.
22. Sclater, J. G., 1966. Heat flow in th e nort h w est I ndi an Ocean and Red
Sea, Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety A259: 271-278.
23. Vi ne, F. J., and D. H. Mat t h ew s, 1963. Magnet i c anomali es over oceani c
ri dges, Nature 199: 947-949; Editor's note: w h i ch McKenzi e, Le Pi ch on, Pi t man,
and Hei rt zler, respectively, di d.
24. Laugh t on, A. S., 1966. The Gulf of Aden, Philosop hic al Transac tion of the
Royal Soc iety (London) A259: 150-171; Sclater, 1966, not e 22; Von H erzen and
Vacquier, 1966, note 5.
25. Hei rt zler, J. R., X. Le Pi ch on, and J. G. Baron, 1966. Magnet i c anomali es
over the R eykjanes Ridge, Deep -Sea Researc h 13: 427-443.
Notes 373
26. Popper, K. R., 1963. Conjec tures and Ref utations. London: Rout ledge.
27. Hei rt zler, J. R., G. O. Di ckson, E. M. H erron, W. C. Pi t man III, and X. Le
Pi ch on, 1968. Mari ne magnet i c anomali es, geomagnet i c reversals, and mot i ons
of the ocean floor and cont i nent s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 2119-2136.
28. McKenzi e, D. P., and R. L. Parker, 1967. The Nort h Paci fi c: An example
of tectonics on a sphere, Nature 216: 1276-1280.
29. McKenzi e, D. P., and D. L. Sclater, 1971. The evolut i on of the I ndi an
Ocean since t h e Late Cret aceous, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al
Soc iety 25: 437-528.
30. Sclater, J. G., and J. Franch et eau, 1970. The i mpli cat i ons of t errest ri al
h eat flow observat i ons on current t ect oni c and geoch emi cal models of t h e
crust and upper mant le of th e earth , Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al
Soc iety 20: 509-537; Sclater, J. G., R. N. Anderson, and M. L. Bell, 1971. The ele-
vation of ridges and t h e evolut i on of t h e cent ral east ern Paci fi c, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 76: 7888-7915.
31. Hess, 1962, not e 9; Wilson, J. T, 1965. A new class of fault s and t h ei r
beari ng on cont i nent al dri ft , Nature 207: 343-347.
32. Kuh n, T. S., 1962. The Struc ture of Sc ientif ic Revolutions. Chicago:
Uni versi t y of Ch i cago Press.
33. Oreskes, N., 1999. The Rejec tion of Continental Drif t: Theory and Method in
Americ an Earth Sc ienc es. New York: Oxford Uni versi t y Press.
34. Wi lson, 1965, not e 31.
35. Sykes, L. R., 1967. Mech ani sm of eart h quakes and nat ure of fault i ng on
the mid-oceanic ridges,, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72: 2131-2153; McKenzie
and Parker, 1967, not e 28; Morgan, W.J., 1968. Rises, t rench es, great fault s, and
crust al blocks, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 1959-1982; Isacks, B., J. Oliver,
and L. R. Sykes, 1968. Seismology and th e new global t ect oni cs, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 5855-5899.
36. Le Pi ch on, X., 1968. Sea floor spreadi ng and cont i nent al drif t, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 3661-3697.
37. Bullard, Maxw ell, and Revelle, 1956, not e 11; Von Herzen and Uyeda,
1963, not e 5.
38. Von H erzen, 1960 not e 4.
39. Von Herzen and Uyeda, 1963, not e 5.
40. Von Herzen and Uyeda, 1963, not e 5.
41. Sclater, 1966, note 3.
42. Hess, 1962, not e 9.
43. Hess, 1962, not e 9; Wi lson, 1965, not e 31.
44. Langset h , M. G., X. Le Pi ch on, and M. Ew i ng, 1966. Crust al st ruct ure of
t h e mid-ocean ri dges, 5, Heat flow t h rough t h e At lant i c Ocean floor and con-
vect i on current s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 71: 5321-5355; Editor's note: see
Le Pich on, this volume.
45. McKenzi e, D. P., 1967. Some remarks on h eat flow and gravity anomali es,
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72: 62616273.
374 NOTES
46. Vogt , P. R., and N. A. Ost enso, 1967. Steady st at e crust al spreadi ng,
Nature 215: 810-817; Langset h , Le Pi ch on, and Ew ing, 1966, not e 44.
47. McKenzi e and Parker, 1967, not e 28; Morgan, 1968, not e 35; Isacks,
Oliver, and Sykes, 1968, not e 35; Le Pi ch on, 1968, not e 36.
48. Sleep, N. H., 1969. Heat flow , gravity, and sea-floor spreadi ng, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 74: 542-549; Sclater, Anderson, and Bell, 1971, not e 30;
Sclater and Franch et eau, 1970, not e 30.
49. Lister, C. R. B., 1972. On the t h ermal balance of a mid-ocean ri dge,
Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Soc iety 26: 515-535.
50. Sclater, J. G, J. Crow e, and R. N. Anderson, 1976. On th e reli abi li t y of
oceanic h eat flow averages, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 81: 2997-3006.
51. Wi lli ams, Von H erzen, Sclater, and Anderson, 1974, not e 7.
52. Hess, 1962, not e 9.
53. R uncorn, 1959, not e 18; Irving, 1959, not e 18.
54. Jeffreys, H., 1929. The Earth. 2nd ed. Cambri dge: Cambri dge Uni versi t y
Press.
55. Girdler, R. W., and G. Pet er, 1960. An example of the i mport ance of nat -
ural remanent magnet i zat i ons i n t h e i nt erpret at i on of magnet i c anomali es,
Geop hysic al Prosp ec ting 8: 474-483.
56. Hess, 1962, not e 9.
57. Hess, 1962, not e 9.
58. Cox, A., R. R. Doell, and G. B. D alrymple, 1963. Geomagnet i c polari t y
epoch s and Plei st ocene geoch ronomet ry, Nature 198: 1049-1051; McDougall,
I., and D. H. Tarli ng, 1963. D at i ng of polari t y zones i n t h e Haw ai i an Islands,
Nature 200: 54-56.
59. Vi ne and Mat t h ew s, 1963, not e 23.
60. Lear, J., 1967. Canada's unappreci at ed role as a sci ent i fi c i nnovat or,
Saturday Review, Sept ember 2: 4550.
61. Hess, 1962, not e 9; Wilson, 1965, not e 31.
62. Langset h , Le Pi ch on, and E w i ng, 1966, not e 44.
63. McKenzi e, 1967, not e 45.
C HAPT E R 9
1. Byerly, P., 1928. The nat ure of the first mot i on in the Ch ilean eart h quake
of November 11, 1922, Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e 16: 232-236.
2. Bolt , B. A., 1960. Th e revision of eart h quake epi cent ers, focal dept h s,
and ori gi n-t i mes usi ng a high-speed comput er, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal
Astronomic al Soc iety 3: 433-440.
3. Editor's note: t h e publi sh ed paper used a deep eart h quake i n t h e Celebes
Sea.
4. Fli nn, E. A., 1960. Local eart h quake locat i on w i t h an elect roni c com-
put er, Bulletin of the Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a 50: 467-470; Brazee, R. J., and
R. Gunst , 1960. Hypocent er locat i on of eart h quakes by comput er met h ods,
Notes 375
Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 71: 2051; Nordqui st , J. M., 1962. A speci al
purpose program for eart h quake locat i on w i t h an elect roni c comput er, Bulletin
of the Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a 54: 431-437; E ngdah l, E. R., and R. Gunst ,
1966. Use of a h i gh speed comput er for t h e preli mi nary det ermi nat i on of
eart h quake h ypocent ers, Bulletin of the Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a 56:
325-336.
5. Sykes, L. R., 1963. Sei smi ci t y of the S out h Paci fi c Ocean, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 68: 5999-6006; Sykes, L. R., 1966. The sei smi ci t y and deep
st ruct ure of i sland arc s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 71: 2981-3006.
6. Editor's note: t h ere i s some confusi on about t ermi nology. Early w orkers
referred t o t h e "w orldw ide net w ork of st andard sei smograph st at i ons," but over
t i me, t h e acronym WWSSN became w i dely used, i nt erpret ed as st andi ng for t h e
"w orld w ide st andard sei smograph net w ork." See, for example, Oliver, Jack,
and Leonard Murph y, 1971. WWNSS: Seismology's global net w ork of observi ng
st at i ons, Sc ienc e 174: 254261; vs. Presgrave, Bruce, Russell Needh am, and Joh n
Mi nsch , 1985. Sei smograph st at i ons codes and coordi nat es, U.S. Geologic al
Survey Op en F ile Rep ort 85714, Nat i onal E art h quake I nformat i on Cent er. Th e
cruci al poi nt i s t h at t h e st at i ons used st andardi zed i nst rument at i on, faci li t at i ng
global dat a i nt egrat i on.
7. Bolt , 1960, not e 2.
8. Hodgson, J. H., ed., 1959. The Mec hanic s of F aulting, with Sp ec ial Ref erenc es
to the F ault-Plane Work. Ot t aw a, Dominion Observatory Public ation 20; St auder, W.,
1964. A compari son of mult i ple solut i ons of focal mech ani sms, Bulletin of the
Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a 54: 927-937.
9. Ri t sema, A. R., 1964. Some reli able fault plane solut i ons. Pure and
Ap p lied Geop hysic s 59: 58-74; St auder, W., 1964. A compari son of mult i ple solu-
t i ons of focal mech ani sms, Bulletin of the Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a 54:
927-937.
10. Sykes, L. E, and M. Landi sman, 1964. Th e sei smi ci t y of East Afri ca, th e
Gulf of Aden, and t h e Arabi an and Red Seas, Bulletin of the Seismologic al Soc iety
of Americ a 54: 1927-1940; Sykes, L. R., 1967. Mech ani sm of eart h quakes and
nat ure of fault i ng on t h e mi d-oceani c ridges, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72:
2131-2153.
11. Editor's note: see, for example, Barazangi , M., and J. Dorman, 1969. World
sei smi ci t y maps comput ed from ESSA Coast and Geodetic Survey, E pi cent er
Dat a, 1961-1967, Bulletin of the Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a 59: 369-380; and
At w at er, t h i s volume, for a discussion of h ow i mport ant t h i s w ork was.
12. Byerly, 1928, not e 1.
13. Ri ch t er, C. E, 1958. Elementary Seismology. San Franci sco: W. H. Freeman.
14. Beni off, H., 1954. Orogenesi s and deep crust al st ruct ure: Addi t i onal evi-
dence from seismology, Bulletin of the Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a 65: 385-440.
15. Bullen, K. E., 1947. An Introduc tion to the Theory of Seismology. Cambri dge:
Cambri dge Uni versi t y Press.
16. Sykes, 1967, not e 10.
376 NOTES
17. Joh nson, L. E., and E. Gi lbert , 1972. Inversi on and i nferences for tele-
sei smi c ray dat a. In Method in Comp utational Physic s, B. A. Bolt , ed. (12). New
York: Academi c Press, pp. 231-266.
18. Bolt, B. A., 1973. A proposal for the global calibration of group earth-
quake locat i ons, Geop hysic al Journal of 'the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety 33: 249-256.
19. Bri lli nger, D., A. Udi as, and B. A. Bolt , 1980. A probabi li t y model for
regi onal focal mech ani sm solut i ons, Bulletin of the Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a
70: 149-170.
20. Bolt , B. A., 1976. Nuc lear Exp losions and Earthquakes: The Parted Veil. New
York: W. H. Freeman.
21. Vi ne, F. J., 1966. S preadi ng of the ocean floor: New evi dence, Sc ienc e 154:
1405-1415.
22. Isacks, B., J. Oliver, and L. R. Sykes, 1968. Seismology and the new glob-
al t ect oni cs, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 5855-5900.
C HAPT E R 10
1. Menard, H., 1986. The Oc ean of Truth. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y
Press; Allegre, C., 1988. The Behavior of the Earth. Cambri dge, Mass.: Harvard
Uni versi t y Press; Le Grand, H. E., 1988. Drif ting Continents and Shif ting Theories.
Cambridge: Cambridge Uni versi t y Press; Stewart, J., 1990. Drif ting Continents
and Colliding Paradigms. Bloomi ngt on: I ndi ana Uni versi t y Press; Oreskes, N.,
1999. The Rejec tion of Continental Drif t: Theory and Method in Americ an Earth
Sc ienc e. Oxford: Oxford Uni versi t y Press.
2. Oliver, J., 1991. The Inc omp lete Guide to the Art of Disc overy. New York:
Columbi a Uni versi t y Press; Oliver, J., 1996. Shoc ks and Roc ks; Seismology in the
Plate Tec tonic s Revolution. Hi st ory of Geophysics 6, Ameri can Geoph ysical
Uni on.
3. Editor's note: see also Bolt, t h i s volume.
4. For example: Wi lli am, Glen, 1982. The Road to f aramillo: Critic al Years in
the Plate Tec tonic s Revolution. S t anford, Calif.: St anford Uni versi t y Press.
5. Sykes, L. R., 1966. Mech ani sm of eart h quakes and nat ure of fault i ng on
the mi d-oceani c ri dges, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 71: 2981.
6. Coats, R. R., 1962. Magma type and crust al st ruct ure in the Aleut i an arc.
In Crust of the Pac if ic Basin, G. A. MacD onald and H. Kuno, eds. Ameri can
Geoph ysical Uni on Geoph ysi cal Monograph 6, Wash i ngt on, B.C., pp. 92-109.
7. Oliver, J., and B. Isacks, 1967. Deep eart h quake zones, anomalous st ruc-
tures i n t h e upper mant le, and t h e lith osph ere, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h
72: 4259.
8. Editor's note: t h ese t erms w ere fi rst i nt roduced in 1918 by Ameri can geo-
desi st Joseph Barrell in th e cont ext of isostasy; see Barrell, J., 1927. On conti-
nent al fragment at i on, and t h e geologic beari ng of t h e moon's surfi ci al fea-
t ures, Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e 213: 283-314.
9. Editor's note: and by Dan McKenzi e and Robert Parker at t h e Scri pps
I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y; see t h ei r essays i n t h i s volume.
Notes 377
10. Isacks, B., J. Oliver, and L. Sykes, 1968. Seismology and the new global
t ect oni cs, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 5855-5899.
11. St auder, W., 1968. Mech ani sm of the Rat Island eart h quake sequence of
February 4, 1965, w i t h relat i on t o i sland arcs and sea-floor spreadi ng, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 3847-3858; St auder, W., 1968. Tensi onal ch aract er of
eart h quake foci beneat h t h e Aleut i an Trench w i t h relat i on t o sea-floor spread-
i ng, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 76937701.
12. McKenzi e, D. P., and R. L. Parker, 1967. The Nort h Paci fi c: An example
of t ect oni cs on a sph ere, Nature 216: 1276-1280.
13. Molnar, P., and J. Oliver, 1969. Lat eral vari at i on in at t enuat i on in th e
upper mant le and di scont i nui t i es i n t h e li t h osph ere, Journal of Geop hysic al
Researc h 74: 2648-2682.
14. Editor's note: on Ameri can geologists' beli ef i n i nduct i ve sci ence earli er i n
the 20t h cent ury, see Oreskes, 1999, not e 1, pp. 123-156.
15. Romm, J., 1994. A new forerunner for cont i nent al dri ft , Nature 367: 207.
On the early history of the idea t h at cont i nent s were once connect ed, see Carozzi,
A., 1970. New historical data on the origin of the t h eory of cont i nent al dri ft ,
Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 81: 283-285; and Carozzi, A. V., 1969. A propos
de 1'origine de la theories des derives continentales: Francis Bacon (1620),
Francois Placet (1668), A. Von Humboldt (1801), and A. Snider (1858), Comp tes
Rendus et Seanc es de la Soc iete des Physique et de la Histoire Naturelk n.s. 4:171179.
16. Oreskes, 1999, and Le Grand, 1988, not e 1.
C HAPT E R 11
1. Cox, A., 1973. Plate Tec tonic s and Geomagnetic Reversals. San Franci sco:
W. H. Freeman.
2. Menard, H.W., 1986. The Oc ean of Truth. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y
Press.
3. Kuh n, T. S. 1970. The Struc ture of Sc ientif ic Revolutions. Chicago: Uni versi t y
of Ch icago Press.
4. Fai rbrot h er, N., 1954. Children in the House. London: H ogart h ;
Fai rbrot h er, N., 1954. An English Year. New York: Knopf; Fai rbrot h er, N., 1960.
The Cheerf ul Day. London: H ogart h and New York: Knopf.
5. Bullard, E. C. 1957. Gerald Ponsonby Lenox-Conyngh am 1866-1956.
Biograp hic al Memoirs of the F ellows of the Royal Soc iety 3: 129-140. Bullard, E. C.
1967. Mauri ce Nevi lle Hi ll 1919-1966. Biograp hic al Memoirs of the F ellows of the
Royal Soc iety 13:193-203. McKenzi e, D., 1987. Edw ard Cri sp Bullard 1907-1980.
Biograp hic al Memoirs of the F ellows of the Royal Soc iety 33, 67-98.
6. McKenzi e, D. P. 1977. Plat e t ect oni cs and its relat i onsh i p to the evolut i on
of i deas in the geological sci ences, Daedalus 106: 97-124.
7. Vi ne, F. J., and D. H. Mat t h ew s, 1963. Magnet i c anomali es over ocean
ri dges, Nature 199: 947-949. Bullard, E. C., J. E. E veret t , and S mi t h , A. C. 1965.
Th e fi t of t h e cont i nent s around t h e At lant i c, Philosop hic al Transac tions of the
Royal Soc iety A258: 41-51.
378 NOTES
8. Wi lli ams, C. A., and D. McKenzi e, 1971. Th e evolut i on of th e nort h east
At lant i c, Nature232: 168-173.
9. Wi lson, J. T, 1965. A new class of fault s and t h ei r beari ng on cont i nent al
dri ft , Nature207: 343-347. Vi ne, F. J. andj. T. Wi lson, 1965. Magnet i c anomali es
of a young oceani c ri dge off Vancouver I sland, Sc ienc e 150: 485-489.
10. Ph i nney, R. A., ed.,1968. The History of the Earth's CrustA Symp osium.
Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press.
11. Vi ne, F. J., 1968. Magnet i c anomali es associated w i t h mi d-ocean ri dges.
In The History of the Earth's Crust, R. A. Ph i nney, ed. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on
Uni versi t y Press, pp. 73-89. Sykes, L. R., 1968. Seismological evi dence for t rans-
form fault s, sea-floor spreadi ng, and cont i nent al dri ft . I n The History of the
Earth's Crust, R. A. Ph i nney, ed. Pri nct eon: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press, pp.
120-150.
12. McKenzi e, D. P., 1967. Some remarks on h eat flow and gravi t y anomali es,
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72: 6261-6273.
13. Langset h , M. G., X. Le Pi ch on, and M. Ew i ng, 1966. Crust al st ruct ure of
mid-ocean ridges, 5, H eat flow t h rough t h e At lant i c Ocean floor and convec-
t i on current s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h, 71: 5321-5355.
14. Bat ch elor, G. K. and R. Hi de. 1988. Adri an E dmund Gi ll 1937-1986,
Biograp hic al Memoirs of the F ellows of the Royal Soc iety 34: 221-258.
15. Menard, 1986, not e 2.
16. Kuh n, 1970, not e 3.
17. Bullard, Everet t , and S mi t h , 1965, not e 7.
18. McKenzi e, D. P., 1968. The i nfluence of the boundary condi t i ons and
rot at i on on convect i on i n t h e E art h ' s mant le, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal
Astronomic al Soc iety 15: 457-500.
19. McKenzi e, D. P., and R. L. Parker, 1967. The nort h Paci fi c: An example
of t ect oni cs on a sph ere, Nature 2l6: 1276-1280.
20. Morgan, J. W., 1968. Rises, t rench es, great fault s, and crust al blocks,
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 1959-1982.
21. Menard, 1986, not e 2.
22. Morgan, J. W., 1971. Convect i on plumes i n t h e low er mant le, Nature 230:
42-43.
23. Read, W. T, 1953. Disloc ations in Crystals. New York: McGraw -Hi ll.
24. Le Pi ch on, X., 1968. Sea floor spreadi ng and cont i nent al drif i, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 3661-3697; Isacks, B., J. Oliver, and L. R. Sykes, 1968.
Seismology and t h e new global t ect oni cs, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73:
5855-5899; Hei rt zler, J. R., G. O. Di ckson, E. M. H erron, W. C. Pi t man I I I , and
X. Le Pi ch on, 1968. Mari ne magnet i c anomali es, geomagnet i c fi eld reversals,
and mot i ons of t h e ocean floor and cont i nent s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h
73: 2119-2136. Pi t man, W. C., III, E. M. H erron, and J. R. H ei rt zler, 1968.
Magnet i c anomali es i n t h e Paci fi c and sea floor spreadi ng, Journal of Geop hysic al
Researc h 73: 2069-2085.
25. Menard, 1986, not e 2.
Notes 379
26. Morgan, J.W., 1975. Heat F low and Vertic al Movements of the Crust. In
Petroleum and Global Tec tonic s, A. G. Fi sch er and S. Judson, eds. Pri ncet on:
Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press, pp 23-43.
27. McKenzi e, D. P., and W. J. Morgan, 1969. E volut i on of t ri ple junct i ons,
Nature 224: 125-133. Atw ater, T., 1970. I mpli cat i ons of plat e t ect oni cs for the
Cenozoi c t ect oni c evolut i on of w est ern Nort h Ameri ca, Bulletin of the Geologic al
Soc iety of Americ a 81: 3513-3536.
28. Bullard, E veret t , and S mi t h , 1965, not e 7.
29. McKenzi e, 1977, not e 6.
30. Isacks, Oli ver, and Sykes, 1968, not e 24.
31. McKenzi e, D., and J. G. Sclater, 1971. The evolut i on of the I ndi an Ocean
si nce t h e lat e Cret aceous, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety 25:
437-528.
32. Hey, R. N., 1977. A new class of pseudofault s and t h ei r beari ng on plat e
tectonics: A propagat i ng ri ft model, Earth and Planetary Sc ienc e Letters 37: 321-325.
C HA P T E R 12
1. McKenzi e, D. P., and R. L. Parker, 1967. The Nort h Paci fi c: An example
of t ect oni cs on a sph ere, Nature 216: 1276-1280.
2. Vi ne, F. J., and D. H. Mat t h ew s, 1963. Magnet i c anomali es over oceani c
ri dges, Nature 199: 947-949; Hess, H. H., 1962. Hi st ory of ocean basi ns. In Petro-
logic Studies: A Volume in Honor of A.F . Buddington, A. E. J. Engel, H. L.James, and
B. F. Leonard, eds. D enver: The Geological Society of Ameri ca, pp. 599-620.
3. The st at e of know ledge on the subject at the end of the 1960s is luci dly
summari zed in Teddy Bullard' s 1967 Bakeri an lect ure: 1968. Reversals of the
eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld, Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety A263: 481-524.
4. Wi lson, J. T, 1965. A new class of fault s and t h ei r beari ng on cont i nent al
dri ft , Nature 207: 343-344.
5. Sykes, L. R., 1967. Mech ani sm of eart h quakes and th e nat ure of fault i ng
on th e mi d-oceani c ridges, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72: 2131-2153.
6. Bullard, E. C., J. E. Everet t , and A. G. Smith , 1965. The fit of the cont i nent s
around the At lant i c, Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety A258: 41-51.
7. Carey saw th e t ect oni c act i vi t y of th e eart h as a by-product of a general
expansi on of t h e eart h t h rough geologic t i me, a process for w h i ch t h ere w as no
plausi ble ph ysi cal explanat i on. See Carey, S. W., 1976. The Exp anding Earth. New
York: Elsevi er S ci ent i fi c.
8. Morgan, W. J., 1968. Rises, t rench es, great fault s, and crust al blocks, Jour-
nal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 1959-1982.
9. Parker, R. L., 1968. E lect romagnet i c i nduct i on i n a t h i n st ri p, Geop hysic al
Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety 14: 1968.
10. Bullard, E. C., and R. L. Parker, 1970. Elect romagnet i c i nduct i on i n t h e
oceans. In The Sea, Ideas and Observations on Progress in the Study of the Seas. New
York: Wi ley-I nt ersci ence, Part 1: 695-730.
380 NOTES
11. GMT is a pow erful map draw i ng and data di splay program t h at w as w ri t -
t en by Paul Wessel and Walt er Smi t h w h i le t h ey w ere graduat e st udent s at
Lamont . GMT h as become i ndi spensable t o modern geophysics, but i t i s
accessed t h rough a di st ressi ngly Byzant i ne command st ruct ure, modeled aft er
t h e Uni x command li ne. See t h e w ebsite h t t p://w w w .soest .h aw ai i .edu/gmt /.
12. Bullard, Everett, and Smi t h , 1965, not e 6.
13. McKenzi e, D. P., and R. L. Parker, 1974. Plat e t ect oni cs in ' omega' space,
Earth and Planetary Sc ienc e Letters^: 285-293; Kli t gord, K. D., S. P. Huest i sJ. D.
Mudi e, and R. L. Parker, 1975. An analysis of near-bot t om magnet i c anomali es:
Sea-floor spreadi ng and t h e magnet i zed layer, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal
Astronomic al Soc iety 43: 387-424.
14. Parker, R. L., and D. W. Oldenburg, 1973. T h ermal model of ocean
ri dges, Nature: Physic al Sc ienc e 242: 137-139.
15. Parker, R. L., 1994. Geop hysic al Inverse Theory. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on
Uni versi t y Press, p. 386.
C HAPT E R 13
1. Le Pi ch on, X., 1984. La nai ssance de la t ect oni que des plaques, La
Rec herc he 153: 414-422; Le Pich on, X., 1986. The bi rt h of plat e t ect oni cs, Lam-
ont Year Book, 53-61; Le Pi ch on, X., 1991. I nt roduct i on to the publi cat i on of the
ext ended out li ne of Jason Morgan' s Apri l 17, 1967 Ameri can Geophysical
Uni on Paper on "Rises, Trench es, Great Fault s, and Crust al Blocks," Tec tono-
p hysic s 187: 1-22.
2. Ew i ng, M., and B. C. Heezen, 1956. Some problems of Ant arct i c subma-
ri ne geology, Americ an Geop hysic al Union, Geop hysic al Monograp h 1: 75-81.
3. Rot h e, J. P., 1954. La zone sei smi que medi ane I ndo-At lant i que, Proc eed-
ings of the Royal Soc iety A222: 387-397. Editor's note: the association of eart h quakes
w i t h t h e mi d-At lant i c ri dge w as earli er recogni zed by H eck, N. H., 1938. Th e
role of eart h quakes and t h e sei smi c met h od i n submari ne biology, Proc eedings of
the Americ an Philosop hic al Soc iety 79 (1): 97-108.
4. Ew i ng, M., and F. Press, 1955. Geophysical cont rast s bet w een cont i nent s
and ocean basins, Geologic al Soc iety Americ a Sp ec ial Pap er 62: 1.
5. Carey, S. W., 1958. A t ect oni c approach to cont i nent al dri ft . In Continen-
tal Drif t, A Symp osium, S. W. Carey, ed. Hobart: Uni versi t y of Tasmani a, pp.
177-355.
6. Sulli van, W., 1974. Continents in Motion, the New Earth Debate. New York:
McGraw -Hill.
7. Sulli van, 1974, not e 6.
8. Holmes, Art h ur, 1925. Radi oact i vi t y and the E art h ' s t h ermal h i st ory, Geo-
logic al Magazine 62: 504-544. Editor's note: it is oft en stated t h at Hess ori gi nat ed
t h e i dea of t h e ocean floor as "a ki nd of endless t raveli ng belt " but i n fact t h i s
preci se ph rase w as used by Art h ur Holmes i n h i s 1945 t ext (Holmes, Art h ur,
1945. Princ ip les of Physic al Geology. New York: Ronald, pp. 507-508). Wh at Hess
Notes 381
did w as to revive an idea t h at Ameri can geologists h ad largely i gnored, and of
w h i ch Ameri can geoph ysicists w ere largely i gnorant .
9. Hess. H. H., 1962. Hi st ory of the ocean basins. In Petrologic Studies, Bud-
di ngt on Memori al Volume. A. E. J. Engel, H. L.James, and B. F. Leonard, eds.
D enver: The Geological Society of Ameri ca, pp. 599-620; Di et z, R. S., 1962. Con-
t i nent and ocean evolut i on by spreadi ng of the sea-floor, Nature 190: 854-857.
10. Editor's note: h i st ori an Alan Allw ardt support s t h i s i dea, argui ng t h at Hess
present ed his t h eory as "geopoetry" in order to deflect possible criticism. Hess
knew h ow badly Wegener h ad fared w i t h nearly t h e same idea and sough t t o mi n-
i mi ze negative react i ons by present i ng his case di ffi dent ly. See Allw ardt, A. S.,
1990. The role of Art h ur Holmes and Harry Hess in the development of modern
global tectonics, Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz.
11. Editor's note: See Opdyke, t h i s volume.
12. Paleomagnet i ci ans knew t h at t h e magnet i c poles h ad sw i t ch ed t h ei r
polari t y several t i mes i n t h e last few mi lli on years: Wh at i s magnet i c nort h w as
t h en sout h .
13. Th e ri ft along w h i ch these anomali es w ere formed h ad si nce disap-
peared w i t h i n t h e oceani c t rench t h at h ad existed i n earli er geological t i mes
along t h e Nort h Ameri can w est ern margi n.
14. Vi ne, F. J., and D. H. Mat t h ew s, 1963. Magnet i c anomali es over oceani c
ri dges, Nature 199: 947-949; Morley, L. W., and A. Laroch elle, 1964.
Paleomagnet i sm as a means of dat i ng geological event s, Royal Soc iety of Canada
Sp ec ial Public ation 9: 40-51.
15. See Glen, W., 1982. The Road to Jaramillo, Critic al Years of the Revolution in
Earth Sc ienc e. S t anford, Calif.: S t anford Uni versi t y Press.
16. Editor's note: t ransform fault s form along ridge crests w h ere t h e ri dge i s
fract ured perpendi cular t o i t s axis. Wh i le t h e domi nant mot i on of t h e plat es on
ei t h er side of t h e ridge i s ext ensi onal - t h e plat es are bei ng pulled apart -
along t h ese fract ure zones t h e t w o plat es slip past each ot h er, side by side.
17. Wi lson, J. T, 1965. A new class of fault s and t h ei r beari ng on cont i nen-
tal dri ft , Nature 207: 343-347.
18. Bullard, E. C., J. E. E veret t , and A. G. Smi t h , 1965. The fit of the cont i -
nent s around t h e At lant i c. In A Symp osium on Continental Drif t, P. M. S. Blacket t ,
E. C. Bullard, and S. K. R uncorn, eds. Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal
Soc iety A258: 41-51.
19. Carey, 1958, not e 5.
20. Editor's note: see Vi ne, and Morley, t h i s volume, for somew h at di fferent
views.
21. Editor's note: see Oliver and Parker, t h i s volume.
22. Le Pi ch on, X., R. H out z, C. Drake, and J. Nafe, 1965. Crustal st ruct ure
of the mid-ocean ri dges, 1, Seismic refract i on measurement s, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 70(2): 319-339; Talwani, M., X. Le Pich on, and M. Ewing,
1965. Crust al st ruct ure of th e mi d-ocean ridges, 2, Comput ed model from grav-
ity and sei smi c refract i on data, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 70: 341-352.
382 NOTES
23. H ei rt zler, J. R. and X. Le Pi ch on, 1965. Crust al st ruct ure of the mi d-
ocean ri dges, 3, Magnet i c anomali es over t h e mi d-At lant i c ri dge, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 70: 4013-4033.
24. Ew i ng, M., X. Le Pi ch on, and J. E w i ng, 1966. Crust al st ruct ure of t h e
mid-ocean ridges, 4, Sediment di st ri but i on in the South Atlantic Ocean and
t h e Cenozoi c h i st ory of t h e mi d-At lant i c ridge, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h
71: 1611-1636.
25. I t w as necessary t o w ai t for t h e JOI DES deep sci ent i fi c dri lli ng h oles,
st art ed i n 1968, t o discover t h e major role of t h e very large vari at i ons, i n t i me
and in space, of th e dept h of di ssolut i on of calcareous sedi ment s. This is
because t h e di ssolut i on of carbonat es i ncreases very rapi dly below a cert ai n
dept h , beyond w h i ch only t h e famous abyssal red clays are deposi t ed. If t h e
dept h of di ssolut i on ch anges rapi dly t h rough t i me and space, t h e t h i ckness of
sedi ment ary cover may vary lat erally i n a very complex way.
26. It w as only i n 1970 t h at t h e solut i on t o t h i s di ffi cult mech ani cal problem
began t o appear w i t h t h e combi ned use of h i gh -resolut i on, h i gh -penet rat i on
commerci al seismic reflect i on and dri lli ng t ech ni ques.
27. Talw ani , M., X. Le Pi ch on, and J. R. H ei rt zler, 1966. East Paci fi c Rise:
Th e magnet i c pat t ern and th e fract ure zones, Sc ienc e 150: 1108-1115.
28. Langseth, M., X. Le Pi ch on, and M. Ew ing, 1966. Crustal st ruct ure of the
mid-ocean ridges, 5, Heat flow t h rough t h e At lant i c Ocean floor and convec-
t i on current s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 71: 5321-5355.
29. It w as only aft er 1969 t h at t h e reason for th is di screpancy w as found: t h e
measured h eat flow w as t h e conduct i ve h eat flow . I t i gnored t h e h eat t rans-
port ed by h ydrot h ermal ci rculat i on, w h i ch si nce t h en h as been sh ow n t o be so
i mport ant .
30. McKenzi e, D. P., 1967. Some remarks on h eat -flow and gravi t y anomali es,
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72: 62616273; Editor's note: see McKenzi e, t h i s
volume.
31. Veni ng Mei nesz, F. A., 1965. Ori gi n of the crust al st ruct ure of the mi d-
ocean ridges, Koninklyke Nederlandse Akademisc he van Wetensc hap p en, Ser. 68:
114-116.
32. Pi t man, W. C., Ill, and J. R. H ei rt zler, 1966. Magnet i c anomali es over th e
Paci fi c-Ant arct i c Ridge, Sc ienc e 154: 1164-1171.
33. Le Pi ch on, 1984, 1986, 1991, not e 1.
34. Vi ne,J. E, 1966. Spreadi ng of th e ocean floor: New evi dence, Sc ienc e 154:
1405-1415.
35. Sykes, L. R., 1967. Mech ani sm of eart h quakes and nat ure of fault i ng on
t h e mi d-oceani c ri dges, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72: 21312153.
36. Oliver, J., and B. Isacks, 1967. Deep eart h quake zones, anomalous st ruc-
t ures i n t h e upper mant le, and t h e li t h osph ere, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h
72: 4259-4275.
37. Editor's note: see MacD onald, t h i s volume.
Notes 383
38. Editor's note: see McKenzi e, D. P., and R. L. Parker, 1967. The Nort h
Paci fi c: An example of t ect oni cs on a sph ere, Nature 216: 1276-1280; Morgan,
W.J., 1968. Rises, t rench es, great fault s and crust al bloc ks, Journal of Geop hysic al
Researc h 73: 1959-1982.
39. Personal let t er from Jason Morgan to me, July 1987.
40. Le Pi ch on, 1991, not e 1.
41. Personal let t er from Jason Morgan t o me, July 1987.
42. Morgan, 1968, not e 38.
43. Editor's note: Le Pi ch on det ai ls t h e ch ronology i n order t o est abli sh t h at
alt h ough Morgan' s cri t i cal paper on plat e t ect oni cs w as publi sh ed i n 1968 -
aft er McKenzi e and Parker (1967) - h e h ad already present ed h i s i deas t o t h e
sci ent i fi c communi t y in th e spri ng of 1967.
44. Le Pi ch on, 1991, not e 1.
45. Hei rt zler, J. R., G. D. D i ckson, E. M. H erron, W. C. Pi t man, I I I , and X.
Le Pi ch on, 1968. Mari ne magnet i c anomali es, geomagnet i c fi eld reversals, and
mot i ons of t h e ocean floor and cont i nent s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73:
2119-2136.
46. Isacks, B., J. Oliver, and L. R. Sykes, 1968. Seismology and the new glob-
al tec tonic s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 5855-5899.
47. Bullard, Everet t , and S mi t h , 1965, not e 18.
48. McKenzi e and Parker, 1967, not e 38.
49. Menard, H. W., 1986. The Oc ean of Truth: A Personal History of Global
Tec tonic s. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press.
50. Cox, A., 1973. Plate Tec tonic s and Geomagnetic Reversals. San Francisco:
W. H. Freeman; Bullard, Everet t , and S mi t h , 1965, not e 18.
51. Editor's note: see Parker, t h i s volume.
52. McKenzi e and Parker, 1967, not e 38.
53. Menard, 1986, not e 49.
54. Menard, 1986, not e 49.
55. Editor's note: Si mi lar i deas h ad earli er and i ndependent ly been proposed
by Backus, George E., 1964. Magnet i c anomali es over oceani c ridges, Nature
201: 591-592.
56. H eezen, B. C., and M. Th arp, 1965. Tect oni c fabri c of At lant i c and
I ndi an oceans and cont i nent al dri ft . In Symp osium on Continental Drif t, P. M. S.
Blacket t , E. C. Bullard, and S. K. R uncorn, eds. Philosop hic al Transac tions of the
Royal Soc iety A258: 90-108; Sykes, 1967, not e 35; Bullard, Everet t , and S mi t h ,
1965, not e 18.
57. H eezen and Th arp, 1965, not e 56.
58. Isacks, Oliver, and Sykes, 1968, not e 46.
59. Hei rt zler et al., 1968, not e 45; Pi t man, W. C., III, E. M. H erron, and J. R.
Hei rt zler, 1968. Magnet i c anomali es i n t h e Paci fi c and seafloor spreadi ng,
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 2069-2085; Di ckson, G. O., W. C. Pi t man, I I I ,
and J. R. Hei rt zler, 1968. Magnet i c anomali es i n t h e Sout h At lant i c and ocean
384 NOTES
floor spreadi ng, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 2087-2100; Le Pi ch on, X.,
andj. R. Hei rt zler, 1968. Magnet i c anomali es i n t h e I ndi an Ocean and seafloor
sp reading, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h, 76: 2101-2117.
60. Editor's note: Le Pi ch on dow nplays t h e role of t h e Scri pps I nst i t ut i on
of O ceanograph y: for alt ernat i ve view s, see At w at er, Mason, Morley, McKenzi e,
Parker, and Sclat er, t h i s volume. Morley emph asi zes t h e i mport ance of t h e
Mason and Raff paleomagnet i c dat a i n get t i ng t h e "w h ole t h i ng" st art ed;
McKenzi e and At w at er credi t t h e general i nt ellect ual envi ronment at
Scri pps.
61. Garfi eld, E., 1981. Th e 1,000 cont emporary sci ent i st s most -ci t ed
1965-1978, Part I, Th e basic li st and i nt roduct i on, Current Contents 41: 5-14.
62. Le Pi ch on, X., J. Franch et eau, and J. Bonni n, 1973. Plate Tec tonic s.
Amst erdam: Elsevier.
63. De Mets, C., R. G. Gordon, D. F. Argus, S. S t ei n, et al., 1990. Current
plat e mot i ons, Geop hysic al Journal International 101: 425-478.
C HAPT E R 14
1. St ereograph i c project i ons are a means t o plot t h ree-di mensi onal st ruc-
t ures, such as beddi ng planes and fault surfaces, on a t w o-di mensi onal pi ece of
paper. Th i s enables geologists t o see pat t erns t h at mi gh t ot h erw i se be mi ssed.
2. Vi ne, F. J., and D. H. Mat t h ew s, 1963. Magnet i c anomali es over oceani c
ri dges, Nature 199: 947-949.
3. Hess, H. H., 1955. The oceani c crust , Journal of Marine Researc h 73:
423-439; Hess, H. H., 1962. Hi st ory of ocean basi ns. In Petrologic studies. A. E. J.
E ngel, H. L. James and B. F. Leonard, eds. Denver: Th e Geologi cal Soci et y of
Ameri ca, pp. 599-620; D i et z, R. S., 1961. Cont i nent and ocean basi n evolut i on
by spreadi ng of the sea-floor, Nature 190: 854-857.
4. Wi lson, J. T, 1965. A new class of fault s and t h ei r beari ng on cont i nent al
dri ft . Nature 207: 343-347.
5. Dewey, J. F., and G. M. Kay, 1968. Appalach i an and Caledoni an evi dence
for dri ft i n t h e Nort h At lant i c. I n The History of the Earth's Crust. R. A. Ph i nney,
ed. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press, pp. 161-167.
6. Editor's note: convect i ve h eat t ransfer does break t h rough t h e cont i nent s
t o form ri ft s, w h i ch may ult i mat ely grow i nt o new ocean basi ns. Dew ey' s poi nt ,
h ow ever, i s correct : once sea floor spreadi ng begi ns, i t i s no longer a cont i nent ;
i t i s a new ocean basi n.
7. Sykes, L. R., 1967. Mech ani sm of eart h quakes and t h e nat ure of fault i ng
on th e mi d-ocean ridges, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 72: 2131-2153.
8. McKenzi e, D. P., and R. L. Parker, 1967. Th e Nort h Paci fi c: An example
of t ect oni cs on a sph ere, Nature 216: 1276-1280; Morgan, W. J., 1968. Rises,
t rench es, great fault s and crust al blocks, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73:
1959-1982; Le Pi ch on, X., 1968. Sea-floor spreadi ng and cont i nent al dri ft ,/0w -
Notes 385
nal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 3661-3697; Isacks, B., J. Oliver, and L. R. Sykes,
1968. Seismology and th e new global t ect oni cs, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73:
5855-5899.
9. Q uennell, A. M., 1958. Th e st ruct ural and geomorph i c evolut i on of th e
Dead Sea ri ft , Quarterly Journal of the Geologic al Soc iety of London 114: 1-24.
10. Wellman, H. W., 1955. New Zealand Q uat ernary t ect oni cs, Geologisc he
Rundsc hau 43: 248-257.
11. Griggs, D. T., 1947. A t h eory of mount ai n bui ldi ng, Americ an Journal of
Sc ienc e 237: 611-650; Holmes, A., 1944. Princ ip les of Physic al Geology. London:
Th omas Nelson.
12. Plafker, G., 1965. Tect oni c deformat i on associated w i t h the 1964 Alaska
eart h quake, Sc ienc e 146: 1675-1687.
13. Ampferer, O., and W. Hammer, 1911. Geologi sch er Q uersch ni t t durch ,
di e Ost alpen von Allgau zum Gardasee, Aust ri a, Geol. Bundesanst. Jarhrt. 61:
531-710; Amst ut z, A., 1955. S t ruct ures alpi nes, subduct i ons successives dans
L'Ossola, Comp tes Rendus de I'Ac ademie des Sc ienc es de Paris Ser. D., 241: 967-969.
14. Wi lson, J. T, 1966. Did th e At lant i c close and t h en re-open? Nature 211:
676-681.
15. Le Pi ch on, 1968, not e 8; Isacks, Oliver, and Sykes, 1968, not e 8; Morgan,
1968, not e 8.
16. Editor's note: see Opdyke, t h i s volume.
17. Dewey, J. R, 1969. Evolut i on of th e Appalach i an/Caledoni an Orogen,
Nature 222: 124-129.
18. At w at er, T., 1970. I mpli cat i ons of plat e t ect oni cs for the Cenozoi c tec-
t oni c evolut i on of w est ern Nort h Ameri ca, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin
81: 3515-3536.
19. Editor's note: Pet er Molnar makes a si mi lar poi nt , t h i s volume.
20. Dewey, J. R, 1975. Fi ni t e plat e evolut i on: Some i mpli cat i ons for t h e
evolut i on of rock masses and plat e margi ns, Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e A275:
260-284.
21. At w at er, 1970, not e 18; S mi t h , A. G., 1971. Alpi ne deformat i on and the
oceani c areas of t h e Teth ys, Medi t erranean and At lant i c. Geologic al Soc iety of
Americ a Bulletin 82: 2039-2070; Dew ey, J. R, W. C. Pi t man, W. B. R Ryan, and
J. Bonni n, 1973. Plat e t ect oni cs and t h e evolut i on of t h e Alpi ne syst em,
Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 84: 3137-3180; Dewey, J. R, S. C. Cande, and
W. C. Pi t man, 1989. Tect oni c evolut i on of th e I ndi a-Rurasi a convergent zone,
Ec logae Geologic ae Helvetiae 82: 717-734; Dewey, J. R, and S. H. Lamb, 1992.
Active t ect oni cs of t h e Andes, Tec tonop hysic s 205: 79-95; Pi ndell, J. L., andj. R
Dewey, 1982. Permo-Triassic reconst ruct i on of West ern Pangea and the evolu-
t i on of the Gulf of Mexi co/Cari bbean regi on, Tec tonic s 1: 179-211.
22. McKenzi e, D. P., and W. J. Morgan, 1969. E volut i on of t ri ple junct i on,
Nature 224: 125-133; Dewey, 1975, note 20.
23. Editor's note: sci ent i st s are less poorly paid now adays t h an i n t h e early and
386 NOTES
mi d-20t h cent ury, and h ave overall much more reli able and abundant fundi ng.
Perh aps t h e i ncrease i n oversi gh t t h at Dew ey lament s i s a consequence of hav-
i ng more: more money bri ngs more mi cromanagement .
C HAPT E R 15
1. In general, I h ave a very poor memory. I request forgi veness in advance
for events t h at I mi sremember and from colleagues I may h ave mi srepresent ed
or sli gh t ed.
2. Wh en I later asked one of my MIT professors why th ey bot h ered w ith
us w omen, he said it was because a woman w i t h an MIT education would
raise great ch i ldren (read "sons"). I di dn' t even bli nk. I guess I was used to it by t h en.
3. Ten years later I spent some geological fi eld time in the Caucasus Mount ai ns
w i t h t h ree Georgian geologists, i ncludi ng a young w oman, Manana Lordkipanze.
Comparing notes, we found t h at she had had exactly the same experience, Soviet-
style. She, too, was about to give up geology w h en she w ent to an i nt ernat i onal meet-
ing in Moscow, heard about plate tectonics, and found her calling.
4. His present at i on covered the mat eri al in Wi lson, J. Tuzo, 1965. A new class
of fault s and t h ei r beari ng on cont i nent al dri ft , Nature 207: 343-347.
5. Pi t man, W. C., III, and J. R. Hei rt zler, 1966. Magnet i c anomali es over the
Paci fi c-Ant arct i c Ridge, Sc ienc e 154:11641166. A few years ago I spent a fall sab-
bat i cal at Lamont . I took some t i me sort i ng t h rough t h ei r volumi nous dat a sets
t o plot out magnet i c anomaly profi les from all t h e w orld' s spreadi ng cent ers. I
w as looki ng for good t each i ng examples t o sh ow t h e effect s of lat i t ude and
spreadi ng rat e, but w h i le I w as at i t I conduct ed a magnet i c anomaly "beaut y con-
t est ." Aft er all t h ese decades of sh i ps collect i ng new dat a, t h at old Eltanin-19
crossi ng st i ll w on fi rst pri ze. I t s h i gh lat i t ude, medi um fast spreadi ng rat e, and
lack of noi sy seamount s make i t w onderfully clear and symmet ri c and excep-
t i onally easy to read.
6. Vi ne, F. J., 1966. Spreadi ng of the ocean floor; new evi dence, Sc ienc e 154:
1405-1415.
7. Actually, t h ey must have been glad t h ey h ad me aft er t h e second year.
About t h en Uncle Sam ran out of cannon fodder for t h e Vi et nam War and can-
celled most graduat e st udent deferment s. Many of t h e young men i n my grad-
uat e class qui t and joi ned t h e Coast Guard as a preferable alt ernat i ve t o bei ng
draft ed. Some years lat er, Allan Cox asked me i f I felt gui lt y about not bei ng eli-
gible for t h e draft w h i le all my male peers w ere h avi ng such a h ard t i me w i t h i t .
"Guilty?" I said, sh ocked. "No way! Lucky? Yes, but not guilty." This w as not my
w ar; not a w ar t h at my generat i on could believe i n.
8. At w at er, Tanya M., and Joh n D. Mudi e, 1968. Block fault i ng on th e Gorda
Rise, Sc ienc e 159: 729-731.
9. Barazangi , M., and J. D orman, 1969. World sei smi ci t y map compi led from
ESSA Coast and Geodet i c Survey epi cent er dat a, 1961-1967, Seismologic al Soc iety
of Americ a Bulletin 59: 369-380.
Notes 387
10. Isacks, B., J. Oliver, and L. R. Sykes, 1968. Seismology and the new glob-
al t ect oni cs, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 58555899.
11. Morgan, W. J., 1968. Rises, t rench es, great fault s, and crust al blocks,
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 1959-1982.
12. H. W. Menard began h is sci ent i fi c career at th e Naval Elect roni cs
Laborat ory, and w as appoi nt ed professor of geology at Scri pps' I nst i t ut e of
Mari ne Resources i n 1955, w h ere h e speci ali zed i n t h e t opograph y of t h e
Paci fi c sea floor.
13. Vacqui er, Vi ct or, Art h ur D. R aff, and Robert E. Warren, 1961. Hori zont al
di splacement s i n t h e floor of t h e nort h east ern Paci fi c Ocean, Geologic al Soc iety
of Americ a Bulletin 72: 1251-1258; Mason, Ronald G., and Art h ur D. Raff, 1961.
Magnet i c survey off t h e west coast of Nort h Ameri ca, 32N. lat i t ude t o 42N.
lat i t ude, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 72: 1259-1265; Raff, Art h ur D., and
Ronald G. Mason, 1961. Magnet i c survey off th e w est coast of Nort h Ameri ca,
40N. lat i t ude t o 52N. lat i t ude, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 72:
1267-1270; Pet er, George, 1966. Magnet i c anomali es and fract ure pat t ern i n
th e nort h east Paci fi c Oc ean, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 71: 5365-5374.
14. These anomali es w ould h ave given th e Eltanin-\9 profi le some seri ous
compet i t i on i n t h e "beaut y cont est " i f only t h ei r symmet ri cal h alves h ad not
been subduct ed under Nort h Ameri ca.
15. Long aft er I left Scripps, w h enever Menard and I found each ot h er at a
meet i ng, w e w ould make a lunch date just for t h e pleasure of spendi ng a cou-
ple of h ours scri bbli ng on napki ns, sh ari ng our lat est "mi nd candy." On my last
vi si t w i t h h i m, sh ort ly before h e di ed, I w as pleased t o see h i s blackboard fi lled
w i t h h i s lat est ideas - possible correlat i ons h e w as planni ng t o t rack dow n.
16. Menard, H. W., and Tanya At w at er, 1968. Ch anges in di rect i on of sea
floor spreadi ng, Nature 219: 463-467; Menard, H. W., and Tanya Atw ater, 1969.
Ori gi n of fract ure zone t opograph y, Nature 222: 1037-1040; At w at er, Tanya,
and H. W. Menard, 1970. Magnet i c li neat i ons i n t h e nort h east Paci fi c, Earth
and Planetary Sc ienc e Letters 7: 445-450.
17. Pi t man, Walt er C., III, and D enni s E. Hayes, 1968. Sea-floor spreadi ng in
the Gulf of Alaska, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 6571-6580.
18. Grow, Joh n A., and Tanya At w at er, 1970. Mid-Tertiary t ect oni c t ransi t i on
in th e Aleut i an arc, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 81: 3715-3721.
19. In 1968 Peter Lonsdale gave a talk "Kula Plate not kula," in w h i ch he iden-
t i fi ed a pat ch of the Pacific plate w h ich he believed had started out as a piece of
the Kula plate and still is not "all gone." Lonsdale, Peter, and Debbie Smith , 1968.
Kula Plate not kula, Eos, Transac tions of the Americ an Geop hysic al Union 67(44): 1199.
20. Publi sh ed a few mont h s lat er in McKenzi e, D. P., and R. L. Parker, 1967.
Th e nort h Paci fi c: An example of t ect oni cs on a sph ere, NatureZlf r. 1276-1280.
21. Cox, Allan, 1973. Plate Tec tonic s and Geomagnetic Reversals. San Francisco:
W. H. Freeman.
22. McKenzi e, D. P., and W. J. Morgan, 1969. Evolut i on of t ri ple junct i ons,
Nature 224: 125-133.
388 NOTES
23. Law son, Andrew Cowper, ed, 1908. Th e Cali forni a eart h quake of Apri l
18, 1906. Rep ort of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission. Carnegi e
I nst i t ut i on of Wash i ngt on Publi cat i on 87.
24. Hi ll, Mason Low ell, and Th omas Wilson Di bblee, Jr., 1953. San Andreas,
Garlock, and Bi g Pi ne fault s, Cali forni a; A st udy of t h e ch aract er, h i st ory, and
t ect oni c si gni fi cance of t h ei r di splacement s, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin
64: 443-458.
25. For example, H ami lt on, Warren, 1969. Mesozoi c Cali forni a and t h e
underflow of Paci fi c mant le, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 80: 2409-2429.
26. Di cki nson, William R., and Art h ur Grantz, 1967. Indicated cumulative off-
sets along the San Andreas Fault in the California coast ranges. In Proc eedings of
Conf erenc e on Geologic Problems of San Andreas F ault System. William R. Dickinson and
Art h ur Grantz, eds. Stanford University Publications. Geologic al Sc ienc es 11:117-120.
27. H uffman, O. F, 1972. Lat eral di splacement of upper Mi ocene rocks and
t h e neogene h i st ory of offset along t h e San Andreas Fault i n Cent ral Cali forni a,
Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 83: 2913-2946; Mat t h ew s, V., 1976.
Correlat i on of Pi nnacles and Neenach volcani c format i ons and t h ei r beari ng
on San Andreas Fault problems, Bulletin of the Americ an Assoc iation of Petroleum
Geologists 60: 2128-2141.
28. As summari zed in Cox, Allan, et al., 1968. R adi omet ri c time-scale for
geomagnet i c reversals, Quarterly Journal of the Geologic al Soc iety of London 124:
53-66.
29. Pi t man, W. C., III, E. M. H erron, and J. R. Hei rt zler, 1968. Magnet i c
anomali es i n t h e Paci fi c and sea floor spreadi ng, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h
73: 2069-2085; Di ckson, G. O., W. C. Pi t man III, and J. R. Hei rt zler, 1968.
Magnet i c anomali es i n t h e sout h At lant i c and ocean floor spreadi ng, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 2087-2100; Le Pi ch on, X., and J. R. Hei rt zler, 1968.
Magnet i c anomali es i n t h e I ndi an Ocean and sea-floor spreadi ng, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 2101-2117.
30. Hei rt zler, J. R., G. O. Di ckson, E. M. H erron, W. C. Pi t man I I I , and X. Le
Pi ch on, 1968. Mari ne magnet i c anomali es, geomagnet i c fi eld reversals, and
mot i ons of t h e ocean floor and cont i nent s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73:
2119-2136.
31. Maxw ell, A. E., R. P. Von H erzen, K. Ji ngh w a H su,J. E. Andrew s, T. Saito,
S. F. Perci val, Jr., E. D. Milow, and R. E. Boyce, 1970. Deep sea dri lli ng in the
sout h At lant i c, Sc ienc e 168: 1047-1059.
32. I have been surpri sed t o discover h ow di fferent ly vari ous colleagues feel
about new discoveries. A colleague once told me t h at h e loves t o keep a new
i dea t o h i mself for a w h i le, savori ng t h e feeli ng t h at h e may be t h e only one i n
t h e w orld w i t h t h at part i cular concept . I n cont rast , w h en somet h i ng daw ns for
me, I can' t w ai t t o t ell someone. It i s as i f i t doesn' t exist unt i l I say i t out loud.
33. At w at er, Tanya, 1970. I mpli cat i ons of plat e t ect oni cs for th e Cenozoi c
t ect oni c evolut i on of w est ern Nort h Ameri ca, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a
Bulletin 81: 3513-3535.
Notes 389
34. Act ually, t h i s ocean w as t oo poorly know n w h en w e made t h e fi rst ci rcui t
calculations so we had to i nsert yet anot h er step, t h rough Aust rali a/Indi a, to
get from Ant arct i ca t o Afri ca.
35. Molnar, Peter, Tanya Atwater, Jacqueline Mammerickx, and Stuart M.
S mi t h , 1975. Magnet i c anomali es, bat h ymet ry and t h e t ect oni c evolut i on of t h e
South Pacific since th e late Cretaceous, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal
Astronomic al Soc iety 40: 383-420.
36. Atw ater, Tanya, and Peter Molnar, 1973. Relative motion of the Pacific
and Nort h Ameri can plat es deduced from sea-floor spreadi ng i n t h e At lant i c,
I ndi an, and South Paci fi c oceans. In Conf erenc e on Tec tonic Problems of the San
Andreas F ault System, Proc eedings. St anford Uni versi t y Publi cat i ons. Geologic al
Sc ienc es 13: 136-148.
37. For i nformat i on about GPS, visit th e Uni versi t y NAVSTAR Consort i um,
1998, UNAVCO broch ure, w w w .unavco.ucar.edu/communi t y/broch ure/.
38. I fi nd i t qui t e w onderful t h at a system developed t o t rack mi ssi les and
ot h er fast-moving man-made objects is equally useful for moni t ori ng the slow,
st at ely dri ft of t h e plat es.
39. Sagiya, T, S. Miyazaki, and T. Tada, 2000. Cont i nuous GPS array and pre-
sent-day crust al deformat i on of Japan. PAGEOPH157: 2303-2322.
40. Th atch er, Wayne, G. R. Foulger, B. R. Juli an, J. Svarc, E. Q uilty, and
G. W. Baw den, 1999. Present-day deformat i on across the Basin and Range
Province, Western Uni t ed States, Sc ienc e 283: 1714-1718.
41. Th ere i s a w onderful refrai n i n an old folk song i n w h i ch all sorts of out -
rageous things are being planned . . . "that is, if the w eath er be good."
42. Editor's note: for a di scussi on of t h i s problem w i t h respect t o locat i ng t h e
oceanic t rench es see Shor, E. N. 1978. Sc rip p s Institution of Oc eanograp hy: Probing
the Oc eans 1936-1976. San Di ego: Tofua, pp. 288-289.
43. Smi t h , Walter H. E, and David T. Sandwell, 1997. Global sea floor topog-
raph y from sat elli t e alt i met ry and sh i p dept h soundi ngs, Sc ienc e 277:
1956-1962; Sandwell, David T, and Walter H. F. Smith, 1997. Mari ne gravity
anomaly from Geosat and ERS 1 sat elli t e alt i met ry, Journal of Geop hysic al
Researc h, B, Solid Earth and Planets 102: 10,039-10,054.
44. At w at er, T, and J. M. St ock, 1998. Paci fi c-Nort h Ameri ca plat e t ect oni cs
of the Neogene south w estern Uni t ed States: An updat e, International Geologic al
Review 40: 375-402. (R epri nt ed, 1998, in Integrated Earth and Environmental
Evolution of the Southwestern United States: The Clarenc e A. Hall, Jr., Volume. W. G.
E rnst , and C. A. Nelson, eds. Columbi a, MD: Bellw et h er, pp. 393-420.)
45. For example, see Gans, P. B., et al., 2001. Rapid Eocene extension in the
Robi nson di st ri ct , Wh i t e Pi ne Co., Nevada: Const rai nt s from 40Ar/39Ar dat -
i ng, Geology 29: 475-478.
46. Werni cke, B. P., and J. K. Snow, 1998. Cenozoi c t ect oni sm in the cent ral
Basin and Range: Motion of the Sierran-Great Valley block, International
Geologic al Review 40: 403-410. (R epri nt ed, 1998, in Integrated Earth and
Environmental Evolution of the Southwestern United States: The Clarenc e A. Hall, Jr.,
390 NOTES
Volume. W. G. E rnst and C. A. Nelson, eds., Columbi a, MD: Bellw et h er, pp.
111-118.)
47. To see t h i s quant i t at i ve deformat i on i n act i on, visit my w eb si t e:
w w w .geol.ucsb.edu/~at w at er/ and dow nload my ani mat i ons. Enjoy.
C HAPT E R 16
1. Wi lson, J. Tuzo, 1965. A new class of fault s and t h ei r beari ng on cont i -
nent al dri ft , Nature 207: 343-347.
2. At w at er, Tanya, 1970. I mpli cat i ons of plat e t ect oni cs for th e Cenozoic tec-
tonic evolution of w estern Nort h America, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 81:
3513-3536.
3. Karig, Dani el E., 1971. Origin and development of margi nal seas in the
w est ern Pac if ic , Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 76: 2542-2561.
4. Knopf, Adolph , 1960. Analysis of some recent geosyncli nal t h eory, Amer-
ic an Journal of Sc ienc e (Bradley Volume) A258: 126-136.
5. Kay, Marsh all, 1951. North Americ an Geosync lines. New York: Geological
Society of Ameri ca.
6. D i et z, Robert S., and Joh n C. H olden, 1966. Mi ogeocli nes in space and
time, Journal of Geology 74: 566-583.
7. Dewey, Joh n E, and Joh n M. Bi rd, 1970. Plate t ect oni cs and geosyncli nes,
Tec tonop hysic s 10: 625-638.
8. Wi lson, 1965, not e 1.
9. Dickinson, William R., and Art h ur Grantz, eds., 1968. Proc eedings of Con-
f erenc e on Geologic Problems of San Andreas F ault System (S t anford Uni versi t y Publi-
cat i ons in the Geological Sciences, vol. 11). St anford: School of Eart h Sciences,
St anford Uni versi t y.
10. Wilson, J. Tuzo, 1965. Transform fault s, oceani c ridges, and magnet i c
anomali es sout h w est of Vancouver Island, Sc ienc e 150: 482-485; Di cki nson,
Wi lli am R., Darrel S. Cow an, and R i ch ard A. Sch w ei ckert , 1972. Test of new
global t ect oni cs [di scussi on], Americ an Assoc iation of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin
56: 375-384.
11. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., and Bri an P. Werni cke, 1997. Reconci li at i on of
San Andreas slip di screpancy by a combi nat i on of i nt eri or basin and range
ext ensi on and t ransrot at i on near the coast, Geology 25: 663-665.
12. Th e I nt ernat i onal Upper Mant le Commi t t ee w as an arm of t h e
International Upper Mantle project, a program of research on the solid earth
sponsored by the Int ernat i onal Council of Scientific Uni ons (ICSU) and operated
under the aegis of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG)
and the International Uni on of Geological Sciences (I UGS).
13. Di cki nson, William R., 1969. Evolution of calc-alkaline rocks in the geo-
syncli nal system of Cali forni a and Oregon. In Proc eedings of the Andesite
Conf erenc e, Alexander R. McBirney, ed. Port land: Oregon D epart ment of
Geology and Mi neral I ndust ri es Bullet i n 65, pp. 151-156; i dem, 1970.
Notes 391
R elat i ons of andesi t i c volcani c ch ai ns and grani t i c bat h oli t h belts t o t h e deep
st ruct ures of orogeni c arcs, Geologic al Soc iety of London Proc eedings 1662: 27-30.
14. Kuno, Hisashi, 1959. Origin of Cenozoi c volcani c provi nces of Japan and
surroundi ng areas, Bulletin Volc anologique (Ser. II) 20: 37-76; Sugi mura, Arat a,
1960. Zonal arrangement of some geophysical and petrological feat ures in
Japan and i t s environs, Journal of the F ac ulty of Sc ienc e, University of Tokyo (Sec. II)
12(2): 133-153; Kat sui , Yosh io, 1961. Pet roch emi st ry of the quat ernary rocks of
Hokkai do and surroundi ng areas, Journal of the F ac ulty of Sc ienc e, University of
Hokkaido (Ser. 4) 11: 1-58.
15. Froh li ch , Cli ff, 1987. Kiyoo Wadat i and early research on deep focus
eart h quakes: I nt roduct i on t o speci al sect i on on deep and i nt ermedi at e focus
earthquakes, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 92 (B13): 13,777-13,788.
16. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., and Trevor H at h ert on, 1967. Andesi t i c volcani sm
and seismicity around the Pacific, Sc ienc e 157(3790): 801-803.
17. Di cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1975. Potash -depth (K-h) relat i ons in cont i nent al
margi n and i nt ra-oceani c magmat i c arcs, Geology 3: 53-56.
18. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1968. Ci rcum-Paci fi c andesi t e types, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 2261-2269; i dem, 1962. Pet rogenet i c si gni fi cance of
geosyncli nal andesi t i c volcani sm along th e Paci fi c margi n of Nort h America,
Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 73: 1241-1256.
19. Miyashiro, Akih o, 1967. Orogeny, regional met amorph i sm, and magma-
tism i n t h e Japanese Islands, Meddeklser f ra Dansk Geologisk F orening 17(4):
390-446.
20. Takeuch i , Hi t osh i , and Seiya Uyeda, 1965. A possi bi li t y of present -day
regi onal met amorph i sm, Tec tonop hysic s 2: 59-68.
21. H ami lt on, Warren, 1966. Origin of the volcani c rocks of eugeosyncli nes
and i sland arcs. In Continental Margins and Island Arc s, W. H. Poole, ed. Ottaw a:
Geological Survey of Canada Special Paper 66-15, pp. 348-356.
22. H ami lt on, Warren, 1969. Th e volcani c cent ral Andes - A modern model
for t h e Cret aceous bat h oli t h s and t ect oni cs of w est ern Nort h Ameri ca. In
Proc eedings of the Andesite Conf erenc e, Alexander R. McBi rney, ed. Port land:
Oregon D epart ment of Geology and Mi neral I ndust ri es Bullet i n 65, pp.
175-184.
23. Isacks, B. L., J. Oliver, and L. R. Sykes, 1968. Seismology and the new
global tec tonic s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 5855-5899.
24. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1971. Plat e t ect oni c models of geosynclines, Earth
and Planetary Sc ienc e Letters 10: 165-174; i dem, 1971. Plat e t ect oni c models for
orogeny at cont i nent al margi ns, Nature 232: 41-42.
25. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1970. Th e new global t ect oni cs, Geotimes 15(4):
18-22; i dem, 1970. Global t ect oni cs, Sc ienc e 168: 1250-1259.
26. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1971. Plat e t ect oni cs i n geologic h i st ory, Sc ienc e
174: 107-113.
27. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1998. A revolut i on i n our t i me, Geotimes 43(11):
21-25.
392 NOTES
28. Di cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1972. Evi dence for plat e-t ect oni c regi mes i n
the rock record, Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e 272: 551-576; i dem, 1972.
Symposium: Plat e t ect oni cs [preface], Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e 272: 549-550.
29. Di cki nson, William R., 1974. Preface. In Tec tonic s and Sedimentation, W. R.
D i cki nson, ed. Tulsa: Society of E conomi c Paleont ologi st s and Mi neralogi st s
Special Publication 22, pp. iii-iv.
30. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1974. Plat e t ect oni cs and sedi ment at i on. In
Tec tonic s and Sedimentation, W. R. Di cki nson, ed. Tulsa: Society of Economi c
Paleont ologi st s and Mi neralogi st s Special Publi cat i on 22, pp. 1-27.
31. Dickinson, William R., 1977. Subduction tectonics in Japan, Americ an
Geop hysic al Union Transac tions (EOS) 58(10): 948-952.
32. Curtis, G. H., J. F. Evernden, and J. Lipson, 1958. Age Determination of
Some Granitic Roc ks in Calif ornia by the Potassium-Argon Method. San Franci sco:
California Division of Mines Special Report 54.
33. I rw i n, Wi lli am P., 1957. Franci scan group in coast ranges and its equiva-
lents in Sacramento Valley, Cali forni a, Americ an Assoc iation of Petroleum Geologists
Bulletin 41(10): 2284-2297.
34. Bailey, Edgar H., William P. Irw i n, and David L.Jones, 1964. F ranc isc an
and Related Roc ks, and their Signif ic anc e in the Geology of Western Calif ornia. San
Franciso: California Division of Mi nes and Geology Bulletin 183.
35. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1965. Folded t h rust cont act bet w een Franci scan
rocks and Panoch e group in the Diablo Range of Central California [abstract],
Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Sp ec ial Pap er 82: 248-249; i dem, 1966. Table moun-
tain serpent i ni t e extrusion in California coast ranges, Geologic al Soc iety of
Americ a Bulletin 77: 451-472.
36. Bailey, Edgar H., M. Clark Blake, Jr., and David L.Jones, 1970. On-land
Mesozoi c oceani c crust i n t h e Cali forni a coast ranges, U.S. Geologic al Survey
Prof essional Pap er 700-C: C70-C81.
37. Ojakangas, Ri ch ard W, 1964. Ph .D. dissertation, St anford Uni versi t y;
Ojakangas, Richard W, Petrology and sedimentation of the Cretac eous Sac ramento Valley
sequenc e, Cac he Creek, Calif ornia, 1968. Cret aceous sedi ment at i on, Sacramento
Valley, California, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 79: 973-1008.
38. Di cki nson Wi lli am R., and Benjami n M. Page, 1970. Central Calif ornia
Coast Ranges. St anford, Calif.: Cordilleran Section, Geological Society of
Ameri ca Annual Meet i ng Field Trip No. 1.
39. Hamilton, Warren, 1969. Mesozoic California and the underflow of
Paci fi c mant le, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 80: 2409-2430.
40. Ernst, W. Gary, 1970. Tectonic cont act betw een the Franciscan melange
and t h e Great Valley sequence - Crust al expressi on of a lat e Mesozoi c Beni off
zone, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 75: 886-901.
41. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1970. Relat i ons of andesi t es, grani t es, and deriv-
ative sandstones to arc-trench tectonics, Reviews of Geop hysic s and Sp ac e Physic s 8:
813-862.
42. Hsu, K. Jingh w a, 1971. Franciscan melanges as a model for eugeosyncli-
Notes 393
nal sedi ment at i on and undert h rust i ng t ect oni cs, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h
76: 1162-1170.
43. Di cki nson, William R., 1995. Forearc basins. In Tec tonic s of Sedimentary
Basins, C. J. Busby and R. V. I ngersoll, eds. Cambri dge: Blackw ell, pp. 221-261.
44. Coats, Robert R., 1962. Magma type and crustal st ruct ure in the Aleut i an arc.
In The Crust of the Pac if ic Basin, G. A. MacDonald and H. Kuno, eds. Washington,
D.C.: Ameri can Geophysical Uni on Geophysical Monograph 6, pp. 92-109.
45. Anderson, Roger N., S t eph en E. DeLong, and W. M. Sch w arz, 1980.
D eh ydrat i on, ast h enosph eri c convect i on and sei smi ci t y i n subduct i on zones,
Journal of Geology 88: 445-451.
46. St i lle, Hans, 1955. R ecent deformat i ons of t h e eart h ' s crust i n t h e li gh t
of t h ose of earli er epoch s. In Crust of the Earth, Arie Poldervaart , ed. New York:
Geologi cal Soci et y of Ameri ca Special Paper 62, pp. 171-191.
47. Plat t , Joh n R., 1964. St rong i nference, Sc ienc e 146: 347-353.
48. Cassirer, E rnst , 1923. Substanc e and F unc tion. Ch icago: Open Court , 1923.
49. Coney, Pet er J., 1970. Geot ect oni c cycle and t h e new global t ect oni cs,
Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 81: 739-748.
50. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1981. Plat e t ect oni cs and t h e cont i nent al margi n
of Cali forni a. In The Geotec tonic Develop ment of Calif ornia. W. G. Ernst , ed.
E nglew ood Cli ffs: Prent i ce-Hall, pp. 1-28.
51. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1973. R econst ruct i on of past arc-t rench syst ems
from pet rot ect oni c assemblages i n i sland arcs of t h e w est ern Paci fi c. I n The
Western Pac if ic : Island Arc s, Marginal Seas, and Geoc hemistry, P. J. Coleman, ed.
New York: Crane Russak, pp. 569-601; i dem, 1978. Plate t ect oni c evolut i on of
t h e Nort h Paci fi c Rim, Journal of the Physic s of the Earth 26(S upplement ): S1-S19.
52. Di cki nson, William R. and William C. Lut h , 1971. A model for plate tec-
t oni c evolut i on of mant le layers, Sc ienc e 174: 400-404; i dem, 1974. S ubduct i on
and oi l mi grat i on, Geology 2: 421-424.
53. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., and Ch ri st oph er A. S uczek, 1979. Plat e t ect oni cs
and sandst one composi t i on, Americ an Assoc iation of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin
63: 2164-2182; D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., and R enzo Valloni , 1980. Plat e set t i ngs
and provenance of sands i n modern ocean basins, Geology 8: 82-86; D i cki nson,
William R., 1982. Compositions of sandstones in circum-Pacific subduct i on
complexes and fore-arc basi ns, Americ an Assoc iation of Petroleum Geologists
Bulletin 66: 121-137; D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1985. I nt erpret i ng provenance
relat i ons from det ri t al modes of sandst ones. In Provenanc e of Arenites, G. G.
Zuffa, ed. NATO ASI Seri es. Dordrech t : R ei del, pp. 333-361.
54. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1977. Tect ono-st rat i graph i c evolut i on of subduc-
t i on-cont rolled sedi ment ary assemblages. In Island Arc s, Deep -Sea Trenc hes, and
Bac k-Arc Basins, M. Talwani and W. C. Pi t man III, eds. Wash i ngt on, D.C.:
Ameri can Geopysi cal Uni on Mauri ce Ew i ng Series 1, pp. 33-40; i dem, 1980.
Plat e t ect oni cs and key pet rologi c associ at i ons. In The Continental Crust and its
Mineral Dep osits, D. W. Strangw ay, ed. Wat erloo: Geological Associ at i on of
Canada Speci al Paper 20, pp. 341-360; i dem, 1988. Provenance and sedi ment
394 NOTES
dispersal in relation to paleotectonics and paleogeography of sedi ment ary
basi ns. In New Persp ec tives in Basin Analysis, K. L. Klei nspeh n and C. Paola, eds.
New York: Spri nger-Verlag, pp. 3-25; i dem, 1992. Cordi lleran sedi ment ary
assemblages. In The Cordilleran Orogen: Conterminous U.S., B. C. Burch fi el, P. W.
Li pman, and M. L. Zoback, eds. The Geology of North Americ a, vol. G-3, Boulder:
The Geological Society of Ameri ca, pp. 539-551.
55. Di cki nson, Wi lli am R., and Ri ch ard Sh ut ler, Jr., 1971. Temper sands in
preh i st ori c pot t ery of the Paci fi c Islands, Arc haeology in Oc eania 6(3): 191-203;
Di cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1998. Pet rograph i c t emper provi nces of preh i st ori c pot-
t ery in Oceania, Rec ords of the Australian Museum 50: 263-276; Di cki nson,
Wi lli am R., and Ri ch ard Sh ut ler, Jr., 2000. I mpli cat i ons of pet rograph i c t emper
analysis for O ceani an p rehistory, Journal of World Prehistory 14(3): 203-266.
56. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R. 1976. Plate Tec tonic Evolution of Sedimentary Basins.
Tulsa: Ameri can Associ at i on of Pet roleum Geologists Cont i nui ng E ducat i on
Course Not e Series 1; Ingersoll, Raymond V., 1988. Tect oni cs of sedi ment ary
basi ns, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 100: 1704-1719; Ingersoll, Raymond
V., and Cathy J. Busby, 1995. Tectonics of sedi ment ary basins. In Tec tonic s of
Sedimentary Basins, C. J. Busby and R. V. I ngersoll, eds. Cambri dge: Blackw ell,
pp. 1-51.
57. D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., 1993. Basin geodynami cs, Basin Researc h 5:
195-196.
C HAPT E R 17
1. Oliver, J., and B. Isacks, 1967. Deep eart h quake zones, anomalous st ruc-
t ures i n t h e upper mant le, and t h e li t h osph ere,/0Mraa/ of Geop hysic al Researc h 72:
4259-4275.
2. Molnar, P., and L. R. Sykes, 1969. Tect oni cs of the Cari bbean and Mi ddle
Ameri ca regi ons from focal mech ani sms and sei smi ci t y, Geologic Soc iety of Amer-
ic a Bulletin 80: 1639-1684; Molnar, P., and J. Oliver, 1969. Lat eral vari at i ons of
at t enuat i on i n t h e upper mant le and discontinuities i n t h e li t h osph ere,/0Mrw a/
of Geop hysic al Researc h 74: 2648-2682.
3. Talwani, M., X. Le Pi ch on, M. Ew i ng, G. H. Sutton, and J. L. Worzel, 1966.
Comment s on paper by W. Jason Morgan, "Gravity anomali es and convect i on
current s. 2. Th e Puert o Rico Trench and t h e Mi d-At lant i c Rise," Journal of Geo-
p hysic al Researc h 71: 3602-3606.
4. Morgan, W. J., 1965. Gravity anomali es and convect i on current s. 1. A
sph ere and a cyli nder si nki ng beneat h t h e surface of a viscous flui d, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 70: 6175-6187; Morgan, W. J., 1965. Gravi t y anomali es and
convection current s. 2. The Puert o Rico Trench and the Mid-Atlantic Ri se,Jow r-
nal of Geop hysic al Researc h 70: 6189-6204.
5. Morgan, W. J., 1968. Rises, t rench es, great fault s, and crust al blocks, Jour-
nal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 1959-1982.
Notes 395
6. Isacks, B., J. Oliver, and L. R. Sykes, 1968. Seismology and the new global
tec tonic s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 73: 5855-5899.
7. Oliver and Isacks, 1967, not e 1; Sykes, L. R., 1967. Mechanism of earth-
quakes and t h e nat ure of fault i ng on t h e mi d-ocean ridges, Journal of Geop hysi-
c al Researc h 72:2131-2153.
8. Oliver, J. E., 1993. The Inc omp lete Guide to the Art of Disc overy. New York:
Columbi a Uni versi t y Press.
9. Isacks, B. and P. Molnar, 1969. Mant le eart h quake mech ani sms and the
si nki ng of the li t h osph ere. Nature, 223:1121-1124. Isacks, B. and P. Molnar, 1971.
Di st ri but i on of stresses i n t h e descendi ng li t h osph ere from a global survey of
focal-mech ani sm solut i ons of mant le eart h quakes. Rev. Geop hys. Sp ac e Phys.,
9:103-174.
10. Beni off, H., 1954. Orogenesis and deep crustal st ruct ure: Addi t i onal evi-
dence from seismology, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 65: 385-400.
11. In addi t i on to th e ori ent at i ons of th e tw o planes, t h ree ot h er paramet ers
are also est i mat ed from a fault -plane solut i on of an eart h quake: the P- and T-
axes, w h i ch bisect th e tw o planes, give th e approxi mat e ori ent at i ons of maxi-
mum and mi ni mum principal compressive stresses; the B-axis, defi ned by the
i nt ersect i on of th e tw o planes, is approxi mat ely parallel to th e i nt ermedi at e
pri nci pal stress.
12. Sykes, 1967, not e 7.
13. Wi lson, J. T., 1965. A new class of fault s and t h ei r beari ng on cont i nen-
tal dri ft , Nature, 207: 343-347.
14. Morgan, W. J.,1971. Convect i on plumes in the low er mant le, Nature 230:
42-43.
15. Below th e mant le, a layer of rock some 2,700 ki lomoet ers t h i ck, lies th e
li qui d "core" of t h e eart h , w h i ch consi st s largely of i ron and w hose movement s
generat e t h e eart h ' s magnet i c fi eld.
16. Molnar, P., and T. Atwater, 1973. Relative motion of hotspots in the man-
t le, Nature 246: 288-291.
17. For example, Cande, S. C., C. A. Raymond, J. Stock, and W. F. Haxby,
1995. Geophysics of t h e Pi t man fract ure zone and t h e Pacific-Antarctic plat e
mot i ons duri ng the Cenozoic, Sc ienc e 270: 947-953.
18. Morgan, 1968, not e 5.
19. McKenzi e, D. P., 1970. Plat e t ect oni cs of the Medi t erranean regi on,
Nature 226: 239-243; McKenzi e, D. P., 1972. Act i ve t ect oni cs of t h e
Medi t erranean system, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety 30:
109-172.
20. Molnar, P., T. J. Fi t ch , and F. T. Wu, 1973. Fault plane solut i ons of shal-
low eart h quakes and cont emporary t ect oni cs of Asia, Earth and Planetary Sc ienc e
LetterslQ: 101-112.
21. Kostrov, V. V.,1974. Seismic moment , and energy of eart h quakes, and the
396 NOTES
21. Kostrov, V. V.,1974. Seismic moment , and energy of eart h quakes, and th e
sei smi c flow of rock (in R ussi an), Izvestiya F iziki Zemlyi, Akademiya Nauk USSR 1:
23-44.
22. McKenzie, D., and R. L. Parker, 1967. The Nort h Pacific: An example of
t ect oni cs on a sph ere, Nature 216: 12761280. Th e slip vect or i s t h e ori ent at i on
(not st ri ct ly a vect or) of relat i ve movement of one side of a fault relat i ve t o t h e
ot h ers. For eart h quakes at plat e boundari es, t h e slip vect or i s parallel t o t h e
di rect i on t h at one plat e moves w i t h respect t o t h e ot h er.
23. For example, Aggarw al, Y. P., L. R. Sykes, J. Armbrust er, and M. L. Sbar,
1973. Premoni t ory ch anges i n sei smi c veloci t i es and predi ct i on of eart h quakes,
Nature 241: 101-106; Nur, A., 1972. Di lat ancy, pore flui ds, and premoni t ory
variations in t
s
/ t
p
travel times, Bulletin of the Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a 62:
1217-1223; Sch olz, C. H., L. R. Sykes, and Y. P. Aggarw al, 1973. E art h quake pre-
di ct i on: A ph ysi cal basis, Sc ienc e 181: 803-810.
24. Aggarwal et al, 1973, not e 23; Wh itcomb, J. H., J. D. Garmany, and D. L.
Anderson, 1973. E art h quake predi ct i on: Vari at i on of sei smi c veloci t i es before
the San Fernando eart h quake, Sc ienc e 180: 632-641.
25. Molnar P., and P. Tapponni er, 1975. Cenozoi c t ect oni cs of Asia: E ffect s
of a cont i nent al colli si on, Sc ienc e 189: 419-426.
26. Bullard, E. C., 1936. Gravity measurement s in East Afri ca, Philosop hic al
Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety A235: 445-531.
27. Molnar and Tapponier, 1975, not e 25.
28. Tapponnier, P., and P. Molnar, 1976. Slip-line fi eld t h eory and large-scale
cont i nent al t ect oni cs, Nature 264: 319-324.
29. For example, Dewey, J. E, and J. M. Bi rd, 1971. Origin and emplacement
of th e oph i oli t e suite: Appalach i an oph i oli t es in New foundland, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 76: 3179-3206.
30. Atw ater, T., 1970. I mpli cat i ons of plat e t ect oni cs for the Cenozoi c evolu-
t i on of w est ern Nort h Ameri ca, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 81:
3513-3536.
31. Atwater, T, 1989. Plate tectonic history of the nort h east Paci fi c and west-
ern Nort h Ameri ca. In The Geology of North Americ a, vol. N, The Eastern Pac if ic
Oc ean and Hawaii, E. L. Wi nt erer, D. M. Hussong, and R. W. Decker, eds.
Boulder, Colo.: The Geological Society of America, pp. 21-72.
32. McKenzi e, 1970, not e 19; McKenzi e, 1972, not e 19.
33. McKenzi e, D., 1977. Can plat e t ect oni cs descri be cont i nent al deforma-
t i on? In International Symp osium on the Struc tural Geology of the Mediterranean
Basins: Sp lit, (Yugoslavia) , 25-29 Oc tober 1976, B. Bi ju-Duval and L. Mont adert ,
eds. Paris: E di t i ons Tech ni p, pp. 189-196.
34. For example, Avouac, J.-P., and P. Tapponni er, 1993. Ki nemat i c model of
act i ve deformat i on in Cent ral Asia, Geop hysic al Researc h Letters 20: 895-898;
Leloup, P. H., R. Lacassin, P. Tapponnier, U. Scharer, Zh ong Dalai, Liu
Xi aoh an, Zh ang Li angsh ang, Ji Sh aoch eng, and Ph an Trong T ri nh , 1995. Th e
Ai lao Shan-Red River sh ear zone (Y unnan, Ch i na), Tert i ary t ransform bound-
Notes 397
ary of I ndoch i na. Tec tonop hysic s 251: 3-84; Mat t e, Ph ., P. T apponni er,
N. Arnaud, L. Bourjot , J. P. Avouac, Ph . Vi dal, Li u Q ing, Pan Y ush eng, and
Wang Yi , 1996. Tect oni cs of w est ern Ti bet , from t h e Tarim t o t h e I ndus, Earth
and Planetary Sc ienc e Letters 142: 311-330; Meyer, B., P. Tapponni er, L. Bourjot ,
F. Met evi er, Y. Gaudemer, G. Pelt zer, Guo S h unmi n, and Ch en Zh i t ai , 1998.
Crust al t h i ckeni ng i n Gansu-Q i ngh ai , li t h osph eri c mant le subduct i on, and
obli que st ri ke-sli p cont rolled grow t h of t h e Tibet plat eau, Geop hysic s Journal
International 135: 1-47; Tapponni er, P., R. Lacassin, P. H. Leloup, U. Scharer,
Zh ong Dalai , Wu Hai w ei , Li u Xi aoh an, Ji Sh aoch eng, Zh ang Li ansh ang, and
Zh ongji ayou, 1990. Th e Ailao S h an/R ed River met amorph i c belt : Tert i ary left -
lat eral sh ear bet w een I ndoch i na and Sout h Ch i na, Nature 343: 431-437;
Tapponni er, P., B. Meyer, J. P. Avouac, G. Peltzer, Y. Gaudemer, Guo Sh unmi n,
Xi ang H ongfa, Yi n Kelun, Ch en Zh i t ai , Cai S h uah ua, and Dai Huagang, 1990.
Act i ve t h rust i ng and foldi ng i n t h e Q ilian Sh an, and decoupli ng bet w een
upper crust and mant le i n nort h east ern Ti bet , Earth and Planetary Sc ienc e Letters
97: 382-403; Wi t t li nger, G., P. Tapponni er, G. Poupi net , Ji ang Mei , Shi Dani an,
G. H erquel, and F. Masson, 1998. Tomograph i c evidence for locali zed lithos-
ph eri c sh ear along th e Alt yn Tagh Fault . Sc ienc e 282: 74-76.
35. Cobbold, P. R., and P. Davy, 1988. I ndent at i on t ect oni cs in nat ure and
experi ment . 2. Cent ral Asia, Bulletin of the Geologic al Institute of Up p sala 14:
143-162; E ngland, P., and P. Molnar, 1990. Ri gh t -lat eral sh ear and rot at i on as
t h e explanat i on for strike-slip fault i ng i n east ern Tibet, Nature 344: 140-142.
36. Menard claimed t h at he became the expert of the mari ne geology of the
Pacific Ocean basin w h en one day he w ent downstairs at Scripps, looked at all of
the echo-sounding records, and an h our later had seen all of the data. He and his
colleagues t h en wrote most of the li t erat ure on t h i s subject over the next 15 years.
37. For example, Molnar, P., and D. Gray, 1979. Subduct i on of cont i nent al
li t h osph ere: Some const rai nt s and uncert ai nt i es, Geology 7: 58-62.
38. Ch opi n, C., 1984. Coesite and pure pyrope in h i gh -grade bluesch i st s of
t h e w est ern Alps: A fi rst record and some consequences, Contributions to
Mineralogy and Petrology 86: 107-118.
39. For example, Brace, W. F., and D. L. Koh lst edt , 1980. Li mi t s on li t h o-
sph eri c stress i mposed by laborat ory experi ment s, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h
85: 6248-6252.
40. Brace, W. F., and J. D. Byerlee, 1966. Stick-slip as a mech ani sm for earth -
quakes, Sc ienc e 153: 990-992; Brace, W. F., and J. D. Byerlee, 1970. Cali forni a
eart h quakes: Why only sh allow focus? Sc ienc e 168: 1573-1576.
41. Byerlee, J. D., 1978. Friction in rocks, Pure and Ap p lied Geop hysic s 116:
615-626.
42. Goet ze, C., 1978. The mech ani sms of creep in olivine, Philosop hic al
Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety A288: 99-119; Koh lst edt , D. L., and
C. Goetze, 1974. Low-stress h i gh -t emperat ure creep in olivine single crystals,
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 79: 2045-2051.
43. Brace and Koh lst edt , 1980, not e 39.
398 NOTES
44. It h elps t o know t h at t h e Mayfai r st at i on serves a nei gh borh ood t h at w as
once very posh , but no longer i s.
45. Bi rd, P., and K Pi per, 1980. Plane st ress fi ni t e element models of tec-
tonic flow in sout h ern California, Physic s of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 21:
58-175; E ngland, P., and D. McKenzi e, 1982. A t h i n vi scous sh eet model for
cont i nent al deformat i on, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety 70:
295-321; E ngland, P., and D. McKenzi e, 1983. Correct i on to: A t h i n viscous
sh eet model for cont i nent al deformat i on, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal
Astronomic al Soc iety 73: 523-532; H ouseman, G. A., and P. C. E ngland, 1986.
Fi ni t e st rai n calculat i ons of cont i nent al deformat i on, 1, Met h ods and general
result s for convergent zones, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 91: 3651-3663.
46. England and McKenzi e, 1982, not e 45.
47. For example, Anderson, R. E., 1971. Th i n-ski nned di st ensi on in Tert i ary
rocks of sout h east ern Nevada, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 82: 43-58;
Davis, G. A., J. L. Anderson, E. G. Frost, and T. J. Sh ackleford, 1980.
Myloni t i zat i on and det ach ment fault i ng i n t h e Wh i pple-Buckski n-Raw h i de
Mount ai ns t errai n, sout h east ern Cali forni a and w est ern Ari zona, Cordilleran
Metamorp hic Comp lexes, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Memoirs 153: 79-130.
48. Jackson, J. A., and N. J. Wh i t e, 1989. Normal fault i ng i n t h e upper crust :
Observat i ons from regi ons of act i ve ext ensi on, Journal of Struc tural Geology 11:
15-36.
49. Block, L., and L. H. Royden, 1990. Core complex geomet ri es and regi on-
al scale flow in the lower crust, Tec tonic s 9: 557-567; Buck, W. R., 1988. Flexural
rot at i on of normal fault s, Tec tonic s 7: 959-974; H ami lt on, W. B., 1988.
D et ach ment fault i ng i n t h e Deat h Valley regi on, Cali forni a and Nevada. In
Geologic and Hydrologic Investigations of a Potential Nuc lear Waste Disp osal Site at
Yuc c a Mountain, Southern Nevada, M. D. Carr and J. C. Y ount , eds. U.S.
Geological Survey Bullet i n 1790: 51-85; Jackson, J., and D. McKenzi e, 1983. The
geomet ri cal evolut i on of normal fault systems, Journal of Struc tural Geology 5:
471-482; Kruse, S., M. McNut t , J. Ph i pps-Morgan, L. Royden, and B. Werni cke,
1991. Li t h osph eri c ext ensi on near Lake Mead, Nevada: A model for duct i le flow
in th e low er c rust, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 96: 4435-4456; Spencer, J. E.,
1984. Th e role of t ect oni c denudat i on in th e w arpi ng and upli ft of low -angle
normal fault s, Geology 12: 95-98; Wernicke, B. P., and G. J. Axen, 1988. On the
role of isostasy in the evolut i on of normal fault systems, Geology 16: 848-851.
50. Isostasy is Arch i medes' pri nci ple appli ed to th e eart h . As occurs w i t h ice-
bergs, th e mass above sea level is compensat ed by li gh t er mat eri al at dept h . For
i cebergs, most of t h e i ce lies below sea level, and i n many mount ai n ranges
compensat i on occurs by t h i ck crust underlyi ng t h e h i gh t errai n.
51. Jones, C. H., 1987. Is ext ensi on in D eat h Valley accommodat ed by t h i n-
ni ng of t h e mant le li t h osph ere beneat h t h e Sierra Nevada, Cali forni a? Tec tonic s
6: 449-473; Jones, C. H., and R. A. Ph i nney, 1998. Seismic st ruct ure of the
li t h osph ere from t elesei smi c convert ed arrivals observed at small arrays i n t h e
sout h ern Si erra Nevada and vi ci ni t y, Cali forni a, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h
Notes 399
103: 10,865-10,090; Jones, C. H., H. Kanamori , and S.W. Roecker, 1994.
Mi ssi ng root s and mande "drips": Regi onal P
n
and teleseismic arri val t i mes i n
th e sout h ern Sierra Nevada and vicinity, Cali forni a, Journal of Geop hysic al
Researc h 99: 4567-4601.
52. Koestler, A., 1959. The Sleep walkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of
the Universe. London: Pengui n. Koest ler expressed t h i s so w ell t h at I feel t h e
debt t o quot e h i m. On page 399, h e ment i oned "t h e Fi ft h book of Harmonic e
Mundi, w h i ch cont ai ns, almost h i dden among t h e luxuri ant grow th of fant asy,
Kepler' s Th i rd Law of planet ary mot i on." Th en on page 401, h e w rot e, "Not
t h e least ach i evement of New t on w as t o spot t h e T h ree Laws i n Kepler' s w ri t -
i ngs, h i dden away as t h ey w ere li ke forget -me-not s i n a t ropi cal flow erbed."
53. Bally, A. W., P. L. Gordy, and G. A. Stew art, 1966. S t ruct ure, seismic dat a,
and orogeni c evolut i ons of sout h ern Canadi an Rocky Mount ai ns, Bulletin of
Canadian Petroleum Geology 14: 337-381.
54. For example, D ah lst rom, C. D. A., 1970. St ruct ural geology in th e east-
ern margi n of t h e Canadi an Rocky Mount ai ns, Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum
Geology 84: 1407-1422; Suppe, J., 1983. Geomet ry and ki nemat i cs of fault -bend
foldi ng, Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e 90: 648721; Suppe, J., 1985. Princ ip les of
Struc tural Geology Englew ood Cli ffs, N.J.: Prent i ce-Hall; Suppe, J., and D. A.
Medw edeff, 1990. Geomet ry and ki nemat i cs of fault -propagat i on foldi ng,
Ec logae geologic ae Helvetiae83(3) : 409-454. Numerous Russian geoph ysicists told
me a joke popular i n t h e Soviet Uni on i n t h e 1970s: i f you h ave n geologists,
you w ill get n + 1 geological i nt erpret at i ons.
55. Si eh , K, 1978. Preh i st ori c large eart h quakes produced by th e San
Andreas fault at Pallet t Creek, Cali forni a, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 83:
3907-3939.
56. H ai nes, A. J., 1982. Calculat i ng veloci t y fi elds across plat e boundari es
from observed sh ear rat es, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety 68:
203-209; Walcot t , R. I., 1984. Th e ki nemat i cs of th e plat e boundary zone
t h rough New Zealand: A compari son of sh ort - and long-t erm deformat i ons,
Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety 79: 613-633; Bibby, H. M., A. J.
Hai nes, and R. I. Walcot t , 1986. Geodet i c st rai n and t h e present day plat e
boundary t h rough New Zealand. In Rec ent Crustal Movements of the Pac if ic Region,
The Royal Soc iety of New Zealand Bulletin 24, W. I. Reilly and B. E. H art ford, eds.
pp. 427-438.
57. Hai nes, A. J., and W. E. Holt , 1993. A procedure for obt ai ni ng th e com-
plet e h ori zont al mot i ons w i t h i n zones of di st ri but ed deformat i on from t h e
i nversi on of st rai n rat e dat a, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 98: 12,057-12,082;
H olt , W. E., J. F. Ni, T. C. Wallace, and A. J. Hai nes, 1991. The active t ect oni cs
of t h e east ern Hi malayan synt axi s and surroundi ng regi ons, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 96: 14,595-14,632.
58. For example, E ngland, P., and P. Molnar, 1997. The fi eld of crust al veloc-
i t y i n Asia calculat ed from Q uat ernary rates of slip on fault s. Geop hysic al Journal
International 130: 551-582; Holt, W. E., N. Chamot-Rooke, X. Le Pich on, A. J.
400 NOTES
Hai nes, B. Sh en-Tu, and J. Ren, 2000. Veloci t y fi eld i n Asia i nferred from
Q uaternary fault slip rates and global positioning system observations, Journal
of Geop hysic al Researc h 105: 19,185-19,209.
59. E ngland, P., and P. Molnar, 1997. Active deformat i on of Asia: From
kinematics to dynamics, Sc ienc e 278: 647-650.
60. For example, Bazh enov, M. L., and V. S. Burt man, 1981. Format i on of
t h e Pami r-Punjab syntaxis: I mpli cat i ons from paleomagnet i c i nvest i gat i ons of
Lower Cretaceous and Paleogene rocks of the Pamirs. In Contemp orary Sc ientif ic
Researc hes in Himalaya, A. K. Si nh a, Bi sh en Singh Mah endra Pal Sing, eds.
Deh ra D un, I ndi a, pp. 71-81; Beck, M. E., 1976. D i scordant paleomagnet i c
pole positions as evidence of regional shear in the western cordillera of Nort h
Ameri ca, Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e 276: 674-648; Luyendyk, B. P., M. J.
Kamerli ng, and R. R. Terres, 1980. Geomet ri c model for Neogene crust al rota-
tions in sout h ern California. Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 91: 211-217;
Walcot t , R. L, D. A. Ch ri st offel, and T. C. Mumme, 1981. Bendi ng w i t h i n th e
axial t ect oni c belt of New Zealand i n t h e last 9 Myr from paleomagnet i c dat a,
Earth and Planetary Sc ienc e Letters 52: 427-434.
61. McKenzi e, D., and J. Jackson, 1983. The relat i onsh i p bet w een st rai n
rat es, crustal t h i ckeni ng, paleomagnet i sm, fi ni t e st rai n and fault movement s
w ith in a deformi ng zone, Earth and Planetary Sc ienc e Letters 65: 182-202.
62. McKenzi e, D., and J.Jackson, 1986. A block model of di st ri but ed defor-
mat i on by fault i ng, Journal of the Geologic al Soc iety London 143: 349-353.
63. Prat t , J. H., 1855. On the attraction of the Himalaya mount ai ns, and of
elevat ed regi ons beyond t h em, upon t h e plumb-li ne i n Indi a, Philosop hic al
Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety 145: 53-100; Airy, G. B., 1855. On the comput a-
tion of the effect of the attraction of mountain-masses, as disturbing the appar-
ent ast ronomi cal lat i t ude of st at i ons of geodet i c surveys, Philosop hic al
Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety 145: 101-104.
64. Smithson, S. B., J. A. Brewer, S. Kaufman, J. E. Oliver, and C. A. Hurich ,
1979. S t ruct ure of t h e Larami de Wi nd River upli ft , Wyomi ng, from COCORP
deep reflect i on dat a and from gravity, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 84:
5955-5972; Cook, F. A., D. Albaugh, L. Brow n, S. Kaufman, J. Oliver, and
R. Hat ch er, Jr., 1979. T h i n-ski nned t ect oni cs in th e cryst alli ne sout h ern
Appalach i ans: COCORP seismic reflect i on profi li ng of t h e Blue Ridge and
Pi edmont , Geology 7: 563-567.
65. AM., K, A. Ch ri st offersson, and E. S. Husebye, 1977. D et ermi nat i on of
t h e t h ree-di mensi onal sei smi c st ruct ure of t h e li t h osph ere, Journal of
Geop hysic al Researc h 82: 277-296.
66. Roecker, S. W., 1982. Veloci t y st ruct ure of the Pami r-Hi ndu Rush region:
Possible evi dence for subduct ed crust , Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 87:
945-959.
67. Ch opi n, 1984, not e 38.
68. Hess, H. H., 1962a. Hi st ory of the ocean basi ns. In Petrologic Studies: A
Volume in Honor of A.F . Buddington, A. E. J. Engel, H. L. James, and B. F.
Notes 401
Leonard, eds. Denver: The Geological Society of Ameri ca, pp. 599-620; Hess,
H. H., 1962b. Seismic ani sot ropy of th e uppermost mant le under oceans,
Nature 203: 629-631.
69. Silver, P. G., and W. W. Ch an, 1991. Shear-wave spi t t i ng and subcont i -
nental mant le deformation, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 96: 16,429-16,454;
Vi nni k, L. P., V. Farra, and B. Romanow i cz, 1989. Azi mut h al ani sot ropy in the
eart h from observations of SKS at Geoscope and NARS broadband st at i ons,
Bulletin of the Seismologic al Soc iety of Americ a 79: 1542-1558.
70. Savage, M. K., 1999. Sei smi c ani sot ropy and mant le deformat i on: Wh at
have w e learnt from sh ear wave spli t t i ng, Reviews of Geop hysic s 27: 64-106; Silver,
P. G., 1996. Seismic ani sot ropy beneat h the cont i nent s: Probi ng the dept h s of
geology, Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sc ienc es 24: 385-432.
71. Suppe, 1983, not e 54.
72. Langst on, C. A., and D. V. Helmberger, 1975. A procedure for modeli ng
shallow di slocat i on sources, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety 42:
117-130; Jackson, J. A. and T. J. Fi t ch , 1981. Basement fault i ng and the focal
dept h s of t h e larger eart h quakes i n t h e Zagros Mount ai ns (I ran), Geop hysic al
Journal of the Royal Astronomic al Soc iety 64: 561-586.
73. Vine, F. J., 1977. The case of the mi dw i fe Fred or the confessions of a con-
fi rmed drifter (abstract), Eos, Transac tions of the Americ an Geop hysic al Union 58: 366.
74. Hess,1962b, not e 68.
75. Vi ne, F. J., and D. H. Mat t h ew s, 1963. Magnet i c anomali es over oceanic
ridges, Nature 199: 947-949.
76. Pi t man, W. C., Ill, and J. R. Heirtzler, 1966. Magnetic anomalies over the
Pacific-Antarctic ridge, Sc ienc e 154: 1164-1171; Glen, W., 1982. The Road to
Jaramillo: Critic al Years of the Revolution in Earth Sc ienc es. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, pp. 336-337: Vine, F. J., 1966. Spreading of the ocean floor: New
evidence, Sc ienc e 154: 1405-1415; Vine, F. J., and J. T. Wilson, 1965. Magnetic
anomalies over a young ocean ridge off Vancouver Island, Sc ienc e 150: 485-489.
77. Glen, 1982, not e 76.
78. Vi ne, 1977, not e 73.
79. For example, Fi t ch , T. J.,1972. Plate convergence, t ranscurrent fault s,
and i nt ernal deformat i on adjacent t o sout h east Asia and t h e w est ern Paci fi c,
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 77: 4432-4460; McCaffrey, R., 1992. Oblique plat e
convergence, slip vectors, and forearc deformat i on, Journal of Geop hysic al
Researc h 97: 8905-8915.
80. For example, Le Grand, H. E., 1988. Drif ting Continents and Shif ting
Theories. Cambridge: Cambri dge Uni versi t y Press.
81. Stew art, J. A., 1990. Drif ting Continents and Colliding Paradigms, Persp ec tives
on the Geosc ienc e Revolution. Bloomi ngt on: I ndi ana Uni versi t y Press, p. 141.
82. LHboutry, L., 1998. The bi rt h and development of the concept of glacio-
isostasy, and its modelli ng up to 1974, GeoResearc h F orum 3-4: 1-16.
83. Oreskes, N., 1999. The Rejec tion of Continental Drif t: Theory and Method in
Americ an Earth Sc ienc e. New York: Oxford Uni versi t y Press.
402 NOTES
84. Oreskes, 1999, not e 83.
85. For example, Hager, B. H., 1984. Subducted slabs of li t h osph ere and the
geoid: Constraints on mant le rh eology and Row, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 89:
6003-6015; Parsons, B., and S. Daly, 1983. The relat i onsh i p bet w een surface
topography, gravity anomalies, and t emperat ure st ruct ure of convection, Journal
of Geop hysic al Researc h 88: 1129-1144; Rich ards, M. A., and B. H. Hager, 1984.
Geoid anomalies in a dynamic earth, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 89: 5987-6002.
86. Argand, E.,1924. La Tec tonique de VAsie, 13th International Geologic al
Congress, Rep orts of Sessions 13(1): 171-372.
87. Oreskes, 1999, not e 83; Le Grand, 1988, not e 80; Molnar, P., 1988.
Cont i nent al t ect oni cs in the aft ermat h of plat e t ect oni cs, Nature 335: 131-137.
88. Wi lson, J. T, 1968. Revolut i on in eart h sci ence, Geotimes December:
10-16.
89. Le Grand, 1988, not e 80, p. 2.
90. For example, Glen, W., 1975. Continental Drif t and Plate Tec tonic s.
Columbus: Ch arles E. Merrill; H allam, A., 1973. A Revolution in the Earth
Sc ienc es, F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s. London: Oxford Uni versi t y
Press; Le Grand, 1988, not e 80; Marvi n, U. B., 1973. Continental Drif t: The
Evolution of a Conc ep t. Wash i ngt on, D.C.: Smi t h soni an I nst i t ut i on.
91. Glen, 1975, not e 90, p. 186.
92. Le Grand, 1988, not e 80.
93. Wi lson, J. T, 1976. Preface to Continents Adrif t and Continents Aground:
Readings f rom Sc ientif ic Americ an. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman; Wilson, 1968,
not e 88.
94. Menard, H. W, 1986. The Oc ean of Truth, A Personal History of Global Tec -
tonic s. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press.
95. Kuh n, T. S., 1996. The Struc ture of Sc ientif ic Revolutions. 3rd ed. Chicago:
Uni versi t y of Ch icago Press, pp. 92-94.
96. Bri nt on, C., 1965. The Anatomy of Revolution. New York: Vintage.
97. Vi ne, 1966, not e 76; Sykes, 1967, not e 7; Wilson, 1965, not e 13; Hess, 1962,
not e 68.
98. Oreskes, 1999, not e 83.
99. Doyle, W., 1989. The Oxf ord History of the F renc h Revolution. Oxford: Oxford
Uni versi t y Press, pp. 405-406.
100. Doyle, 1989, not e 99, pp. 407-413.
101. Sch ama, S., 1989. Citizen: A Chronic le of the F renc h Revolution New York:
Knopf, pp. 854-855.
102. Udi nt sev, G. B., 1995. The development of plat e t ect oni cs in Russia: An
h i st ori cal view, Terra Nova 7: 603606.
103. Ch urch i ll, W. S., 1957. The Age of Revolution. New York: Dodd, Mead,
p. 383.
104. Wilson, 1968, not e 88.
105. Braudel, F., 1975. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the
Age of Philip II. vol. 1. London: Font ana Press, p. 147.
Notes 403
106. Sch ama, 1989, not e 101, p. xi i i .
107. S leep, N. H., 1971. T h ermal effect s of th e format i on of At lant i c conti-
nent al margi n by cont i nent al break up, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal
Astronomic al Soc iety 24: 325-350.
108. McKenzi e, D., and M. J. Bi ckle, 1988. The volume and composi t i on of
melt generat ed by ext ensi on of t h e li t h osph ere,/cmrna/ of Petrology 29: 625-679.
109. Bally et al., 1966, not e 53.
110. Kuh n, 1996, not e 95.
111. H olt on, G., 1973. Thematic Origins of Sc ientif ic Thought, Kep ler to Einstein.
Cambri dge, Mass.: Harvard Uni versi t y Press.
112. Press, Frank, 1976. Personal communi cat i on; Frank Press w as th e h ead
of t h e D epart ment of E art h and Planet ary Sci ences at MIT and h ad h i red Joh n
E dmond a few years earli er.
113. H ei lbron, J. L., 1998. Bew are sci ent i st s w ri t i ng h i st ory, "The At om in
t h e Hi st ory of H uman T h ough t " (book revi ew ), Nature 395: 339-340.
C HAPT E R 18
1. Ki ous, W. J., and R. I. Ti lli ng, 1997. This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate
Tec tonic s. Wash i ngt on, B.C.: U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Government Pri nt i ng
O ffi ce, h t t p://pubs.usgs.gov/publi cat i ons/t ext /dynami c.h t ml
2. S mi t h , W. H. F., and D. T. Sandw ell, 1997. Global sea floor t opograph y
from sat elli t e alt i met ry and sh i p dept h soundi ngs, Sc ienc e 27'7: 1956-1961.
3. Mammeri ckx, J., S. M. Smi t h , I. L. Taylor, and T. E. Ch ase, 1975. Top ogra-
p hy of the South Pac if ic . Lajolla, Calif.: I nst i t ut e of Mari ne Resources, Uni versi t y
of Cali forni a at San Diego.
4. Turcot t e, D. L., and G. S ch ubert , 1982. Geodynamic s: Ap p lic ations of Con-
tinuum Physic s to Geologic al Problems. New York: Wiley; Press, E, and R. Siever,
1994. Understanding Earth. San Franci sco: W. H. Freeman.
5. Cox, A., 1973. Plate Tec tonic s and Geomagnetic Reversals. San Franci sco:
W
7
. H. Freeman.
6. R aff, A. D., and R. G. Mason, 1961. Magnet i c survey off the w est coast of
Nort h Ameri ca, 40N lat i t ude t o 50N lat i t ude, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bul-
letin 72: 1267-1270; Vi ne, F. J., 1966. S preadi ng of the ocean floor: New evi-
dence, Sc ienc e 154: 1405-1415; Hei rt zler, J. R., G. O. Di ckson, E. M. H erron, W.
C. Pi t man and X. Le Pi ch on, 1968. Mari ne magnet i c anomali es, geomagnet i c
fi eld reversals, and mot i ons of t h e ocean floor and cont i nent s, Journal of Geo-
p hysic al Researc h 73: 2119-2136; At w at er, T, and J. Severi ngh aus, 1989. Tec tonic
Map of the Northeast Pac if ic Oc ean. Boulder, Colo.: Geological Society of Ameri ca;
Cande, S. C., J. L. LaBrecque, R. L. Larson, W. C. Pi t man, X. Golovch enko, and
W. F. Haxby, 1989. Magnetic Lineations of the World's Oc ean Basins. Tulsa, Okla.:
Ameri can Association of Petroleum Geologists.
7. Foster, J. S., and L. D. Welch , 2000. Th e evolving bat t lefi eld, Physic s Today
D ecember: 31-35.
404 NOTES
8. Cloud, J., 2000. Crossi ng th e Olent angy River: Th e fi gure of th e E art h and
Mi li t ary-Indust ri al-Academi c Complex, 19471972. Studies in the History and Phi-
losop hy of Modern Physic s 31: 371-404; Day, D. A., J. M. Logsdon, and B. Lat ell,
1998. Eye in the Sky: The Story of the CORONA Sp y Satellites. Wash i ngt on, D.C.:
S mi t h soni an; Ch esbrough , G. L., 1991. Let t er from Oceanograph er of th e Navy
t o David Sandw ell acknow ledgi ng t h e request for declassi fi cat i on and not i ng t h e
reasons for classi fi cat i on of Geosat alt i met er dat a, December 23.
9. MEDEA, 1995. Sc ientif ic Utility of Naval Environmental Data. McClean, Va.:
MEDEA O ffi ce.
10. Kaula, W. M., 1963. D et ermi nat i on of the E art h ' s gravi t at i onal fi eld,
Reviews of Geop hysic s 1:507-551.
11. Haxby, W. F. 1987. Gravity F ield of the World's Oc eans. Boulder, Colo.:
Nat i onal Geoph ysi cal Dat a Cent er, NOAA.
12. Barazangi , M., and J. D orman, 1969. World sei smi ci t y map compi led
from ESSA Coast and Geodet i c Survey epi cent er dat a, 1961-1977, Seismologic al
Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin 59: 369-380; E ngdah l, E. R., R. van der Hi lst and
R. Buland, 1998. Global t elesei smi c eart h quake relocat i on w i t h i mproved trav-
el t i mes and procedures for dept h det ermi nat i on, Bulletin of the Seismologic al
Soc iety of Americ a 88: 722-743.
13. Wadati, K., 1928. Shallow and deep earth quakes, Geop hysic al Magazine 1:
162-202; Beni off, H., 1954. Orogenesis and deep crustal st ruct ure: Additional evi-
dence from seismology, Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a Bulletin Sp ec ial Pap er 62: 61-75.
14. Kirby, S. H., S. St ei n, E. A. Okal, and D. C. Rubi e, 1996. Met ast able man-
t le ph ase t ransformat i ons and deep eart h quakes i n subduct i ng oceani c lith os-
ph ere, Reviews of Geop hysic s 34: 261-306. These eart h quakes occur i n t h e t ran-
si t i on zone 200 to 450 mi les (300 to 720 ki lomet ers) deep of rapi dly i ncreasi ng
seismic veloci t y t h at also corresponds t o ph ase t ransi t i ons i n t h e mant le. In par-
t i cular, t h e olivine t o spi nel mi neral ph ase t ransformat i on i s associated w i t h a
si gni fi cant volume decrease. As a relat i vely cold subduct i ng slab falls t h rough
t h i s ph ase t ransi t i on dept h , t h e ph ase t ransformat i on i s delayed i n a t ri angular
w edge bet w een t h e st i ll cold i nt eri or of t h e slab and t h e out er edges of t h e slab.
Th i s di fference i n cont ract i on result s i n a large stress. Wh y th is stress i s reli eved
i n sudden event s - eart h quakes - i s not w ell underst ood.
15. Pi t man, W. C., and J. R. Hei rt zler, 1966. Magnet i c anomali es over the
Paci fi c-Ant arct i c ri dge, Sc ienc e 154: 1164-1171.
16. Menard, H. W., 1986. The Oc ean of Truth. Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y
Press.
17. Parsons, B., and J. G. Sclater, 1977. An analysis of the vari at i on of ocean
floor bat h ymet ry and h eat flow w i t h age, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 82:
803-827.
18. Brace, K. L., 1977. Preliminary Oc ean-Area Geoid f rom GEOS-III Satellite
Radar Altimetry. St . Loui s, Mo.: D efense Mappi ng Agency.
19. Tapley, B. D., G. H. Born, and M. E. Parke, 1982. The SEASAT alt i met er
dat a and its accuracy assessment , Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 87: 3179-3188.
Notes 405
20. Apel, J., 1987. The Navy Geosat Mission. Laurel, Md.: Joh ns Hopki ns
Appli ed Ph ysics Laboratory.
21. Ch esbrough , 1991, not e 8.
22. Mi nst er, J. B., D. Sandwell and D. McAdoo, 1991. Sc ientif ic Rationale for
Dec lassif ic ation of Geosat Altimeter Data, unpubli sh ed w h i t e paper; Ch esbrough ,
G. L., 1992. Let t er from Oceanograph er of the Navy to David Sandwell
acknow ledgi ng the declassi fi cat i on of all Geosat dat a sout h of 30 sout h lati-
t ude, June 10.
23. Medea, 1995, not e 9.
24. Medea, 1995, not e 9.
26. Connerney, J. E. P., M. H. Acuna, P. J. Wasilewski, N. F. Ness, H. Reme,
C. Mazelle, D. Vi gnes, R. P. Li n, D. L. Mi t ch ell and P. A. Clout i er, 1999.
Magnet i c li neat i ons in th e anci ent crust of Mars, Sc ienc e 284: 794-798.
26. Jordan, T. H., and J. B. Mi nst er, 1988. Beyond plat e t ect oni cs: Looki ng
at plat e deformat i on w i t h space geodesy. In The Imp ac t of VLBI on Astrop hysic s
and Geop hysic s: Proc eedings of the 129th Symp osium of the International Astronomic al
Union held in Cambridge, M. J. Ried and J. M. Moran, eds. Boston: Kluw er
Academi c, pp. 341-350.
27. H erri ng, T. A., 1.1. Sh api ro, T. A. Clark, C. Ma, J. W. Ryan, B. R. Sch upler,
C. A. Kni gh t , G. Landqui st , D. B. Sh affer, N. R. Vandenberg, B. E. Corey, H. F.
Hi nt eregger, A. E. E. Rogers, J. C. Webber, A. R. Wh i t ney, G. Elgered, B. O.
R onnang, and J. L. Davis, 1986. Geodesy by radi o i nt erferomet ry: Evi dence for
cont emporary plat e mot i on, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 91: 8341-8347.
28. Clark, T. A. et al. (21 aut h ors), 1985. Preci si on geodesy usi ng the
Mark III Very-Long-Baseline I nt erferomet er System, JEF F . Transac tions on
Geosc ienc e and Remote Sensing GE23: 438-449 give a conci se summary of the
use of VLBI to measure crust al mot i ons from 1966 onw ards; Oreskes
(1999) summari zes earli er (fai led) at t empt s t o do t h e same usi ng radi o
waves. O t h er relevant papers on t h e geodetic det ermi nat i on of plat e
mot i ons i nclude S h api ro, I rw i n I . and Curt i s A. Kni gh t , 1970.
Geoph ysi cal Appli cat i ons of Long-Baseli ne I nt erferomet ry, i n L.
Mansi nh a et al., Earthquake Disp lac ement F ields and the Rotation of the Earth,
D ordrech t : D. R ei del, pp. 284-301; S h api ro, I. L, 1978. Pri nci ples of Very-
Long Baseli ne I nt erferomet ry, Proc eedings of the 9
th
GEOP Conf erenc e: An
International Symp osium on the Ap p lic ations of Geodesy to Geodynamic s, Oh i o
State Uni versi t y, Oct ober 2-5, 1978; Ch ri st odouli di s et al. (6 aut h ors), 1985.
Observed t ect oni c plat e mot i ons and deformat i ons from satellite laser
rangi ng, Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h 90: 9249-9263; Coates, R. J. and
H erbert Frey, Gi lbert D. Mead, and Joh n M. Bosw ort h , 1985. Space-Age
Geodesy: The NASA Crust al Dynami cs Project , 1985. IEEE Transac tions on
Geosc ienc e and Remote SensingGE23: 360-367; D eegan,Joh nJ., 1985. Satellite
Laser Ranging: Current Status and Fut ure Prospects IEEE Transac tions on
Geosc ienc e and Remote Sensing GE23: 398-413; Carter, W. E. and D. S.
Robert son, 1986. Studying th e E art h by Very-Long-Baseline I nt erferomet ry,
406 NOTES
Sc ientif ic Americ an 254 (11): 46-54; Cart er, W. E., D. S. Robert son, T. E. Pyle,
andj. Di amant e, 1986. Th e appli cat i on of geodet i c radio i nt erferomet ri c
surveyi ng t o t h e moni t ori ng of sea level, Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal
Astronomic al Soc iety 87: 3-13. As the dat es of t h ese papers i ndi cat e, the fi rst
expressions of i nt erest i n t h i s ki nd of w ork date t o t h e 1970s, but t h e suc-
cessful geodetic measurement of plat e mot i ons di d not occur unt i l t h e mi d
1980s. For a recent review of th e poli t i cal cont ext of support for at t empt s
t o measure i nt ercont i nent al di st ances, see Warner, Deborah Jean, 2000.
From Tallahassee t o T i mbukt u: Cold w ar effort s t o measure i nt er-cont i -
nent al di st ances, Historic al Studies in the Physic al and Biologic al Sc ienc es 30:
393-416.
Editor's Note: Some readers w ere di sappoi nt ed t h at w e di d not delve more
deeply i nt o t h e geodetic confi rmat i on of plat e mot i ons. This i s an i nt erest -
ing pi ece of h i st ory of sci ence, w ell w ort h y of at t ent i on. However, as David
Sandw ell's epi logue explai ns and t h e references cited i n not es 27 and 28
make clear, t h i s w ork w as done w ell aft er plat e t ect oni cs w as accept ed. By
t h e early 1970s, t h e plat e t ect oni cs revolut i on w as essentially complet e; i t
w as already th e subject of h i st ory (Hallam, Ant h ony, 1973. A Revolution in
Earth Sc ienc es: F rom Continental Drif t to Plate Tec tonic s, Oxford: Clarendon
Press). Th e accurat e geodet i c measurement of plat e mot i ons came i n t h e
mi d 1980s, more t h an a decade later. Because t h e purpose of t h i s book w as
t o provide personal account s of t h e development and accept ance of plat e
t ect oni cs, t h e geodet i c w ork w as outside our scope. Moreover, t h ere i s an
i nt erest i ng ph i losoph i cal poi nt t o be made h ere: di rect evi dence of plat e
mot i on w as not requi red t o convi nce eart h scientists of i t s t rut h . Event s con-
t radi ct ed w h at many sci ent i st s i n t h e 1920s predi ct ed, and many philoso-
ph ers of sci ence w ould h ave assumed. Proof in science is not always w h at
w e expect i t t o be, and rarely w h at w e w ant i t t o be.
F UR T H E R R E A D I N G
Allegre, Claude, 1988. The Behavior of the Earth. Cambri dge, Mass.: Harvard
Uni versi t y Press.
Blacket t , P. M. S., Sir Edw ard Bullard, and S. K. R uncorn, 1965. A
Symp osium on Continental Drif t, Philosop hic al Transac tions of the Royal Soc iety
A258. London: The Royal Society.
Cox, Allan, 1973. Plate Tec tonic s and Geomagnetic Reversals. San Franci sco: W.
H. Freeman.
Davi es, Geoffrey F., 1999. Dynamic Earth: Plates, Plumes and Mantle
Convec tion. Cambridge: Cambri dge Uni versi t y Press.
Frankel, Henry, 1987. Th e cont i nent al dri ft debat e. In Resolution of Sc ientif ic
Controversies: Case Studies in the Resolution and Closure of Disp utes in Sc ienc e
and Tec hnology, H. T. E ngelh ardt , Jr., and A. L. Caplan, eds. Cambri dge:
Cambridge University Press, pp. 203-248.
Glen, Wi lli am, 1982. The Road tojaramillo: Critic al Years of the Revolution in
Earth Sc ienc e. St anford, Calif.: St anford Uni versi t y Press.
Greene, Mot t T, 1982. Geology in the Nineteenth Century: Changing Views of a
Changing World. It h aca: Cornell Uni versi t y Press.
Laudan, Rach el, 1980. Th e met h od of mult i ple w orki ng h ypot h eses and
t h e discovery of plate t ect oni c t h eory. In Sc ientif ic Disc overy: Case Studies,
Boston Studies in the Philosop hy of Sc ienc e 60. D ordrech t : Rei del, pp.
331-343.
Le Grand, H. E., 1988. Drif ting Continents and Shif ting Theories. Cambri dge:
Cambri dge Uni versi t y Press: Cambri dge.
Le Pi ch on, Xavier, Jean Franch et eau, and Jean Bonni n, 1973. Plate
Tec tonic s. Amst erdam: Elsevier Sci ent i fi c.
Marvi n, Ursula B., 1973. Continental Drif t: The Evolution of a Conc ep t.
Wash i ngt on, D.C.: Smi t h soni an I nst i t ut i on Press.
Menard, H. W., 1986. The Oc ean of Truth: A Personal History of Global Tec tonic s
Pri ncet on: Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press.
Oreskes, Naomi , 1999. The Rejec tion of Continental Drif t: Theory and Method in
Americ an Earth Sc ienc e. New York: Oxford Uni versi t y Press.
Ph i nney, R. A. ed., 1968. The History of the Earth's Crust. Pri ncet on:
Pri ncet on Uni versi t y Press.
St ew art , J. A., 1990. Drif ting Continents and Colliding Paradigms: Persp ec tives on
the Geosc ienc e Revolution. Bloomi ngt on: I ndi ana Uni versi t y Press.
St rah ler, Art h ur N., 1998. Plate Tec tonic s. Cambri dge, Mass.: Geobooks.
Wegener, Alfred, 1929. The Origin of Continents and Oc eans, t ranslat ed from
t h e 4t h rev. German ed. by Joh n Bi ram. New York: Dover.
407
This page intentionally left blank
ABO UT T H E CO NT R I BUT O R S
Tanya Atwater recei ved h er Ph .D. from th e Scripps I nst i t ut i on of
Oceanograph y i n 1972, and t augh t at MI T before joi ni ng t h e facult y at
t h e Uni versi t y of Cali forni a, Sant a Barbara. Her research i n t ect oni cs h as
t aken h er t o t h e bot t oms of t h e oceans and t h e tops of mount ai ns on
many cont i nent s. Sh e i s especi ally w ell know n for h er w ork on t h e plat e
t ect oni c h i st ory of w est ern Nort h Ameri ca and t h e ori gi ns of t h e San
Andreas Fault system. At Santa Barbara, sh e t each es geology and tec-
t oni cs at all levels, and i s deeply involved i n w orki ng w i t h t h e medi a,
museums, and K-12 t each ers t o bri ng E art h aw areness t o all. Sh e i s t h e
w i nner of t h e New comb Pri ze of t h e Ameri can Association for t h e
Advancement of Sci ence, and w as elect ed in 1997 to th e U.S. Nat i onal
Academy of Sciences.
Bruce Bolt is Professor of Seismology, E meri t us, at th e Uni versi t y of Cal-
i forni a, Berkeley, w h ere h e w as D i rect or of t h e Sei smograph i c St at i ons
from 1963 to 1993. Bolt began h is sci ent i fi c career as an appli ed mat h e-
mat i ci an, and moved i nt o seismology w h i le on sabbat i cal leave at t h e
Lamont Geological Observat ory, w h ere h e developed a comput er pro-
gram for locat i ng t h e sources of eart h quakes t h at w as used w orldw i de
for many years. He i s t h e aut h or of numerous sci ent i fi c art i cles and
books, i ncludi ng "Eart h quakes" (W. H. Freeman, New York 1999), and
consult s i nt ernat i onally eart h quake h azards.
John Dewey is Professor of Geology at the Uni versi t y of Cali forni a, Davis,
h avi ng previ ously t augh t at Manch est er, Cambri dge, D urh am, and
O xford Uni versi t i es i n t h e Uni t ed Ki ngdom, and t h e State Uni versi t y of
New York, Albany, i n t h e Uni t ed States. He h as publi sh ed over 140 sci-
ent i fi c papers, and i s a Fellow of t h e Royal Society, t h e U.S. Nat i onal
Academy of Sci ence, and t h e E uropean Academy of Sciences. Hi s
research h as been pri nci pally focused on t ect oni cs and st ruct ural geol-
ogy, from t h e h and sample t o t h e cont i nent al scale. Hi s ph i losoph y i s
t h at "t h e t rut h resi des i n t h e rocks," and t h at li t t le can be ach ieved i n t h e
eart h sci ences w i t h out a good geological map.
Bill Dickinson is E meri t us Professor of Geosciences at the University
of Ari zona. Aft er 33 years on t h e facult i es of St anford and Ari zona,
h e ret i red i n 1991 t o pursue geologic research full t i me. Hi s fi eld and
410 ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
pet rograph i c research focuses on sedi ment ary basi ns, sandst ones, and
geoarch aeology i n a t ect oni c cont ext , w i t h t i me divided over t h e years
bet w een w est ern Nort h Ameri ca and i slands of t h e t ropi cal Paci fi c
Ocean. Hi s recent cont ri but i ons i nclude analyses of t h e t ect oni c evolu-
t i on of Mexi co, and t h e h i st ory of sea level ch ange i n t h e Paci fi c duri ng
t h e very recent geological past.
Xavier Le Pichon is t i t ular of the "Ch ai re de Geodynami que" at the Col-
lege de France in Paris. In 1968, w h i le t ermi nat i ng a five-year st ay in th e
Lament Geological Observatory, h e publi sh ed t h e fi rst global quant i t a-
tive model of plat e mot i on, sh ow ing t h at i t could explain most of t h e
w orld' s seismicity. In 1973, aft er h i s ret urn t o France, h e publi sh ed, w i t h
Jean Franch et eau and Jean Bonni n, t h e fi rst book on plat e t ect oni cs. He
w as one of the i ni t i at ors of the submersi ble explorat i on of mi d-ocean
ridges and t rench es, and i n recent years h as used geodet i c dat a as a new
tool for plat e t ect oni c analysis of geodynami c problems.
Gordon MacDonald ret i red in 2001 as Di rect or of the I nt ernat i onal
I nst i t ut e for System Analysis (IIASA), an i nt ernat i onal organi zat i on
devot ed to th e st udy of major cont emporary social issues. His 50-year
career i n geology and geoph ysics began w i t h st udi es on met amorph i c
t errai ns i n New E ngland follow ed by analysis of t h e st abi li t y at h i gh tem-
perat ure and pressure of mi nerals, employi ng di rect laborat ory synthe-
si s and t h ermodynami c analysis. Subsequent ly h i s i nt erest sh i ft ed t o pol-
icy relat ed issues. In th e early 1970s, h e served on th e Wh i t e House
Counci l on E nvi ornment al Q uality. In t h i s position Professor MacDon-
ald played a major role i n set t i ng t h e legislative, admi ni st rat i ve, and reg-
ulat ory framew ork for h ow t h e Uni t ed States deals w i t h envi ronment al
issues. In recent years, MacDonald cont i nues h i s w ork on bot h t h e
t ech ni cal and poli cy issues of cli mat e ch ange.
Ron Mason h as been associated w i t h I mperi al College, London, for most
of h i s w orki ng li fe, and i s current ly a seni or fellow i n t h e D epart ment of
E art h Science and E ngi neeri ng. He h as been a research geoph ysi ci st at
t h e Scripps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y, and at t h e I nst i t ut e of Geo-
ph ysi cs of th e Uni versi t y of Haw aii. His research h as focused on vari ous
aspects of E art h ' s magnet i c fi eld and i t s relat i on t o recent crust al move-
ment .
Dan McKenzie is a Royal Society Research Professor in th e D epart ment
of E art h Sci ences at Cambri dge Uni versi t y, England. He fi rst became
About the Contributors 411
i nt erest ed i n geology as a sch oolboy readi ng Ch arles Lyell's Princ ip les of
Geology. How ever, as an undergraduat e at Cambri dge Uni versi t y, h e
found t h e undergraduat e courses i n geology di sappoi nt i ng, and so t ook
a degree i n ph ysi cs. He t h en became a graduat e st udent of Si r Edw ard
Bullard, w h ose old offi ce h e now occupi es, and w rot e a Ph .D. on t h e
sh ape of t h e E art h . He w orked on plat e t ect oni cs for si x years aft er
recei vi ng h i s Ph .D. i n 1966, and h as si nce w orked i n many areas of t h e
eart h sci ences. At present h i s pri nci pal i nt erest s are i n geoch emi st ry and
petrology, and i n planet ary geology.
Peter Molnar is a h alf-t i me Professor in th e D epart ment of Geological
Sci ences and a fellow of t h e Cooperat i ve I nst i t ut e for Research i n Envi-
ronment al Sci ence (CI R E S ) at t h e Uni versi t y of Colorado i n Boulder.
Follow i ng a Ph .D. i n sei smology from Columbi a Uni versi t y, h e h eld post -
doct oral posi t i ons t h ere (at Lamont -Doh ert y Geological Observat ory)
and at t h e I nst i t ut e of Geoph ysics and Planet ary Physics, Scripps Inst i -
t ut i on of Oceanograph y. He t h en spent four mont h s i n t h e Soviet Uni on
st udyi ng, among ot h er subject s, Soviet met h ods of eart h quake predi c-
t i on. In 1974 he began a 27-year associ at i on w i t h MIT, culmi nat i ng in 15
years of freedom as a Seni or Research Associate w h en t each i ng
exh aust ed h i m. He current ly i s t ryi ng t o renew h i mself by learni ng
met eorology and oceanograph y t o st udy cli mat e ch ange. He enjoys walk-
i ng i n t h e mount ai ns and let t i ng t h ei r beaut y fuel h i s subconsci ous.
Lawrence Morley, a ph ysi cs and geology major from th e Uni versi t y of
Toront o, w orked w i t h Fai rch i ld Aeri al Surveys and t h e Gulf Research
and D evelopment Company t o pi oneer t h e commerci al appli cat i on of
ai rborne magnet omet ry i n oi l and mi neral explorat i on. In 1953, h e
founded th e Geophysics Division of th e Geologic Survey of Canada,
w h i ch over t h e next 30 years managed t h e det ai led aeromagnet i c survey
of all of Canada and its cont i nent al shelves. In 1971, h e promot ed th e
est abli sh ment of t h e Canada Cent re for Remot e Sensi ng, and served as
i t s di rect or for t en years. Aft er leavi ng government service i n 1982, h e
joi ned t h e ph ysi cs depart ment i n Toront o, and became t h e fi rst di rect or
of t h e I nst i t ut e for Space and Terrestrial Science, a uni versi t y-government -
i ndust ry consort i um.
Jack Oliver, current ly Professor E meri t us at Cornell Uni versi t y and t h e
1998 reci pi ent of the Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of Amer-
i ca, i s know n i n t h e w orld of eart h science for a vari et y of act i vi t i es,
ach i evement s, and discoveries, most ly i n t h e fi elds of seismology,
412 ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
t ect oni cs, and eart h explorat i on. He w as a foundi ng member of Colum-
bi a's Lamont -D oh ert y E art h Observat ory, i ni t i at ed i n 1949, and pio-
neered t h e i nst allat i on of sei smograph s at a vari et y of locat i onsi n deep
mi nes, on t h e sea floor, on t h e moon. Th e dat a generat ed played a key
role i n t h e development of plat e t ect oni cs by demonst rat i ng t h e exis-
t ence of dow n-going crust al slabs i n subduct i on zones along cont i nent al
margi ns and oceani c i sland arcs. Since t h e 1970s, Oli ver h as focused h i s
effort s on COCORPConsort i um for Cont i nent al R eflect i on Profi l-
i nga research project t o use sei smi c reflect i on profi li ng t o underst and
t h e deep cont i nent al crust .
Neil Opdyke recei ved h i s Ph .D. from t h e Uni versi t y of D urh am, Uni t ed
Ki ngdom, i n 1958, and h i s D.Sc. from t h e Uni versi t y of New castle-on-
Tyne in 1982. From 1963 to 1981, he w as a research associ at e at the
Lamont -D oh ert y Geological Observat ory at Columbi a Uni versi t y, and
t h en Professor of Geology at t h e Uni versi t y of Flori da from 1981 t o t h e
present . He is th e aut h or of over 150 sci ent i fi c papers, and a member of
many di st i ngui sh ed sci ent i fi c soci et i es, i ncludi ng t h e U.S. Nat i onal
Academy of Sci ences and t h e Ameri can Academy of Arts and Sci ences.
He h olds t h e Flemi ng Medal of t h e Ameri can Geoph ysi cal Uni on, t h e
Woolard Aw ard of t h e Geological Society of Ameri ca, and t h e St i llw ell
Aw ard of the Geological Society of Aust rali a.
Robert Parker is a Professor of Geoph ysics at the I nst i t ut e of Geoph ysi cs
and Planet ary Ph ysi cs i n Scripps I nst i t ut i on of O ceanograph y at t h e Uni -
versi t y of Cali forni a, San Di ego, w h ere h e h as been si nce 1969. Parker' s
pri mary professi onal i nt erest i s mat h emat i cal geoph ysi cs, concent rat i ng
on i nverse t h eory, w h i ch aims t o develop t ech ni ques enabli ng geoph ysi-
cists t o draw conclusi ons from i ncomplet e and i naccurat e observat i ons
(Geop hysic alInverse Theory, Pri ncet on, 1994). He also st udi es t h e E art h ' s
magnet i c fi eld, part i cularly w i t h a view t o underst andi ng i t s vari at i on i n
space and t i me. He i s an ent h usi ast i c recreat i onal cyclist, h avi ng ri dden
more t h an 5,000 mi les for each of th e last 10 years. Parker is a Fellow of
t h e Royal Society and t h e Ameri can Geoph ysi cal Uni on, and i n 1998 w as
aw arded t h e Gold Medal of t h e Royal Ast ronomi cal Society.
Walter Pitman recei ved h i s Ph .D . from Columbi a Uni versi t y i n 1967. Hi s
research h as been i n plat e t ect oni cs, sequence st rat i graph y, and global
sea level ch ange, and h e i s current ly doi ng research on Arct i c cli mat o-
logy. He w as elect ed to th e U.S. Nat i onal Academy of Sciences in 2000.
About the Contributors 413
David Sandwell is a Professor of Geoph ysi cs at the Scripps I nst i t ut i on of
Oceanograph y, Uni versi t y of Cali forni a, San Diego. The focus of his
research i s on t h e use of spaceborne radar t o measure t h e ph ysi cal prop-
ert i es of E art h and Venus. He pi oneered t h e use of radar alt i met ry for
reveali ng t h e t opograph y and crust al st ruct ure of t h e deep oceans and
h as used t h ese dat a to guide seagoi ng i nvest i gat i ons. He w as an investi-
gator on t h e Magellan radar mappi ng of Venus and proposed t h at arcu-
at e t rench es on Venus w ere once active subduct i on zones. Alt h ough h e
serves on a number of commi t t ees t o gui de t h e development of E art h
observations, he w ould prefer to stay at Scripps to w ork w i t h st udent s, do
research , and go surfi ng.
Bet w een Cambridge Uni versi t y, w h ere h e complet ed h i s Ph .D. i n 1965,
and t h e Scri pps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y, w h ere h e h elped run t h e
mari ne h eat flow research program from 1965 to 1972, John Sclater met
most of t h e major fi gures i n plat e t ect oni cs. In 1972, h e joi ned t h e fac-
ult y at t h e Massach uset t s I nst i t ut e of Tech nology, spendi ng summers at
Woods Hole. He left t h ere for t h e Uni versi t y of Texas, Aust i n, i n 1983,
and ret urned to Scripps in 1991. As a seagoi ng sci ent i st , h e especially
remembers sh ari ng a cabi n w i t h Fred Vi ne on t h e RRSDisc overy, i n 1963,
sailing w ith Bill Menard on the R/V Horizon in 1967, and t aki ng Dan
McKenzi e t o sea i n 1968 on t h e R/V Argo.
Fred Vine is a Professori al Fellow and a former D ean of the School of
E nvi ronment al Sciences at t h e Uni versi t y of East Anglia, Norw i ch , Eng-
land. Havi ng st art ed h i s career i n mari ne geoph ysi cs, i n 1968 h e began
long-t erm and det ai led st udi es of t h e st ruct ure and ph ysi cal propert i es
of t h e Troodos mount ai ns oph i oli t e, i n S out h ern Cyprus, an anci ent
slice of th e ocean floor. Th e magnet i zat i on of rocks and th e nat ure of
t h e E art h ' s magnet i c fi eld h ave been common t h emes i n much of h i s
ot h er research , and h e h as also been i nvolved w i t h measuri ng t h e elec-
trical conductivity of cont i nent al rocks under simulated crustal condi-
t i ons. Toget h er w i t h Ph i l Kearey, of Bri st ol Uni versi t y, h e i s current ly
w orki ng on t h e t h i rd edi t i on of Global Tec tonic s (Blackw ell, 1990, 1996).
ABO UT T HE E DIT O RS
Naomi Oreskesis Associate Professor in th e D epart ment of Hi st ory and
Program in Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego,
and i s affi li at ed w i t h t h e I nst i t ut e of Geoph ysics and Planet ary Physics
(IGPP) at the Scripps Inst i t ut i on of Oceanography. Having started her
career as a fi eld geologist i n Aust rali a, h er research now focuses on h ow
sci ent i st s ch oose t h ei r research topics, h ow t h ey deci de w h at met h ods
will provi de good answ ers, and h ow t h ey recogni ze a good answ er w h en
t h ey see it. A 1994 reci pi ent of th e NSF Young Invest i gat or Aw ard, sh e
h as served as a consult ant t o t h e U.S. E nvi ronment al Prot ect i on Agency
and t h e U.S. Nuclear Waste Tech ni cal Review Board on t h e vali dat i on of
comput er models. Sh e i s t h e aut h or of The Rejec tion of Continental Drif t:
Theory and Method in Americ an Earth Sc ienc e (O xford Uni versi t y Press,
1999).
Homer Le Grand complet ed degrees in history, ch emi st ry, and h i st ory
of sci ence in th e Uni t ed States before movi ng to Aust rali a in 1975. He is
current ly Dean of Arts at Monash University in Melbourne, and teaches
in th e Facult y of Arts and th e Facult y of Science. He began research i ng
and w ri t i ng in the history of the eart h sciences in 1980. Since complet-
i ng Drif ting Continents and Shif ting Theories (Cambri dge Uni versi t y Press,
1988), he has focused on the development of, and argument s over, the
t errane concept i n t ect oni cs. He i s current ly collaborat i ng w i t h h i st ori an
Bill Glen on a project ent i t led Plate Tec tonic s Goes Ashore: Arguing Ac c reted
Terranes.
414
INDEX
Abi r-Am, Pni na, 348n. 3
Adams, R. D., 352n. 17
Ade-HallJi m, 104
aeromagnet i c survey of the Uni t ed States, 98
Agreen, Russel, 341
Airy, George Bi ddell, 11, 314
Aki, Kei i t i , 315
Aleut i an t rench , 59, 180
Allw ardt , Alan, 381n. 10
alt i met ry sat elli t es, 261
Ameri can Association of Pet roleum Geolo-
gists (AAPG),276, 286
Ameri can Geoph ysi cal Uni on (AGU), xxi ,
178, 206, 212, 213-214, 247, 269, 277,
292-293, 318, 341
Americ an Journal of Sc ienc e, 276
Ampferer, O., 233, 350n. 12
Amst ut z, A., 233
Anderson, Roger, 137, 141
Appalach i an/Caledoni an Orogon, 234, 235
Appalach i an mount ai ns, 5, 6, 234
arc magmat i sm, 272, 273, 282, 283-284
arc-t rench syst ems, 267, 272, 273, 280, 282
Argand, E mi le, 308, 320-321
Argand number, 308
Asi lomar Penrose Conference, 256-257, 264,
267, 274-277, 280
ast h enosph ere, 160-161, 355n. 1
At w at er, Tanya, xiii, xv, xxiv, 236, 298, 299,
300,303
early background, 243-246
educat i on in the doi ng of science, 248-249
educat i on i n plat e t ect oni cs, 246-248
Aust rali an Nat i onal Uni versi t y (ANU), 22,
100
Backus, George, xxi-xxii, xxiii, 59, 200,
354n.24
Bacon, Franci s, 184
Baker, How ard, 355n. 1
Bally, A. W., 325
Baly, Bert , 310
Balsleyji m, 75,98
Barazangi , Muaw i a, 161, 247, 296-297
Barber, Tony, 229
Barrell, Joseph , 355n. 1, 376n. 8
basaltic layer, 65, 247
basi n analysis, 320
bat h ymet ry, 17, 23, 63, 90
Bayes, Th omas, 113
Bell, Mi ller Lee, 137, 141
Belsh ejoh n, 102
Beni off, Hugo, 153, 158, 233, 294, 352n. 17
Bernard Price I nst i t ut e, 97
Bi rch , Franci s, 112, 113-114
Bi rdjack, 183, 235, 236
Blacket t , P. M. S., xv, xvii, 18-20, 45, 51, 66,
89,142
Blake, Clark, 236
bluesch i st belt s, 273
Bolt , Bruce A., xvi, xviii, xix, 158, 161
w ork on seismological algori t h ms,
148-154
Bonni n,Jean, 222
Boorda, Admi ral, 342
Boucot , Art, 231
Bowie, Wi lli am, 6, 11, 13, 355n. 1, 370n. 10
Bow in, Carl, 214
Brace, Bill, 300, 306
Brace-Goetze st rengt h profi le, 306-310
Bri dgeman, Percy W., 113-114
Bri t i sh I nst i t ut i ons Reflect i on Profi li ng
Syndicate (BI R PS ),314
Broecker, Walter, 103
Brucksh aw J. M.,55, 97
Bruneji m, 297
Brunh es, B., 21
Brunh es epoch , 22
Brunh es-Mut uyama boundary, 104, 195
Brush , Steven, xi i
Buch er, Walter, 229, 234, 240
Buddi ngh t on, Art h ur, 75, 98
Bullard, Sir Edw ard ("Teddy"), xv, xxi ,
xxii-xxiii, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 45, 50, 53,
57, 66, 107,119,139,146, 172-176, 192,
201, 213, 219, 235-236, 240, 301, 318
and bat h ymet ri c ch art s, 194-195
and "Bullard's Law," 139
and Cont i nent al D ri ft Symposium
(Ch i cago), 208
debat es w i t h Gordon MacDonald, 124
and h eat flow measurement , 128, 131
Bullen, K. E., 148, 153, 157
Bulletin of the Geologic al Soc iety of Americ a, 100,
257
Burch fi el, Clark, 236, 242, 316
416 I ND E X
Burke, Kevi n, 239, 242
Busby, Cath y, 286
Byerleejim, 306
Byerly, Perry, 153, 158
Byrd, R i ch ard, 370n. 8
Cali forni a geology, 277-282
Calt ech , 291, 347n. 2, 350n. 10
Seismological Laborat ory, 176, 177
Cambri dge Uni versi t y, xiv, 18, 19
Afri can Ameri cans at , xv
duri ng the fall of 1967, 191-195
and t h e "Vine and Mat t h ew s" t est ,
206-208
w omen at, xv
"Can Plate Tectonics Descri be Cont i nent al
D eformat i on?" (McKenzi e), 304
Canada Cent re for Remot e Sensing, 84
Canadi an Sh i eld, 70, 71, 72, 73
Cannjo, 236
Carey, S. Warren, 23, 204, 208, 221, 379n. 7
Carey, Wi lli am, 350n. 12
Carmichael, Ian, 228-229
Carnegi e I nst i t ut i on (Wash i ngt on, D .C.), 19,
97
Cassieer, Ernst , 285
Ch amalaun, Francoi s, 22
Ch amberli n, T. C., 10
Ch an, Wi nst on, 315
Ch eney, Robert , 341
Ch esbrough , Rear Admi ral, 341
Ch opi n, Ch ri st i an, 306, 315
Ch oubert , Boris, 208
"ch rons." See "magnetic i soch ron numbers"
Ch urch i ll, Wi nst on, 324-325
ci rcum-Paci fi c geology, 266, 271-274
Clegg, Joh n, 95
Coats, Robert , 160, 282, 284, 350n. 12
Cobbold, Pet er, 304
Coleman, Bob, 236
Columbi a River, 60
comput ers, 56
Coney, Peter, 285
Consort i um for Cont i nent al Reflect i on
Profi li ng (CO CO R P), 165, 318
"Cont i nent and Ocean Basin Evolution by
Spreadi ng of th e Sea Floor" (D i et z), xx
cont i nent al arcs, 266, 271
cont i nent al dri ft , 3, 20, 51, 79, 101, 102, 111,
124, 225, 266, 319, 320, 344
as alt ernat i ve to cont ract i on t h eory, 6-10
Ameri can ani mosi t y to, 10-12
reject i on of, 10-12
seismic evi dence, 120-121
cont i nent al t ect oni cs, 223, 266
cont i nent s
deep st ruct ure of, 116-118
first t h eori es of spli t t i ng, 355n. 1
surface h eat flow s, 117-118
cont ract i on theory, 45
convect i on. See mant le convect i on
convect i ve plumes, 181-182
Coode, A. M., xxiii
Coperni cus, xv
Cox, Allan, xv, xxi i i , 21-22, 61, 91, 99-100,
107, 142, 144, 169, 257, 270, 350n. 12
omi ssi on of D i et z' s Nature art i cle i n h i s
compendi um, 353n. 19
Creer, Ken, 97, 173
Cret aceous peri od, 252, 278-279
Cret aceous Q uiet Zone, 343
Crow elljoh n, 250
crust al mobi li t y, 106-107
crypt omesi a, 353n. 19
Curi e, Pi erre, 19, 364n. 4
Curi e poi nt , 19, 364n. 4
Da Vi nci , Leonardo, 4
D alrymple, Brent , xxi i i , 22, 61, 93, 100, 212,
319
Daly, Regi nald A., 8-9, 111-114, 350n. 12
Dana, James Dw i gh t , 5
Darw in, Charles, xv, xvi, 172, 369n. 8
Darw i n, George, 111, 355n. 1
dat a, xviixviii
classified, 18
Davies, Geoffrey, xxi i i , 354n. 26
Davis, Greg, 236
Davy, Ph ilippe, 304
Dead Sea Fault , 232
Deep Sea D ri lli ng project , 255
D effeyes, Ken, 216
deformat i on
in Asia, 301
ki nemat i cs of, 310-313
large-scale, 308
quant i fyi ng rat es of, 310-312
styles of, 309
D epart ment s of E art h Sci ences, 317
Dewey, Joh n E, xxiv, 183
on sci ent i fi c research , 239-241
w ork on plat e t ect oni cs and geology,
227-239
Di bblee, Tom, 251-252
D i cki nson, Wi lli am R., xxiv, 236, 252, 256
background, 265-267
i nfluent i al papers and, 271-274
personal t ransi t i on, 268-271
before plat es, 267-268
Di ckson, Geof, 93
D i et z, R obert , xv, xi x, xx, xxi i i , 21, 39, 51,
79, 89, 90, 94, 101, 206, 213, 230, 240,
268
compari son w i t h Hess's w ork, 353n. 19
synopsi s of w ork, 369-370n. 8
Doell, R i ch ard, xxiii, 22, 61, 93, 99-100, 142,
212
Dole, Holli s, 271
D omi ni on Gulf Company, 71
Donn, Bill, 102
INDEX 417
D orman, James, 150, 159, 161, 247
Douglas, Bruce, 341
D rake, Ch uck, 234, 240, 275
du Toit, Alexander, 12, 350n. 12
Duboi s, Ph i lli p, 76
dynamo t h eory, 19
E art h
and deformat i on, 114-115
gravity of, 118
major layers of, 9, 114, 395n. 15
and nat ural gas, 126
shape of, 335-336
variations in geoid h ei gh t , 336
Earth, The (Jeffreys), 113
eart h sci ence, 356n. 6
eart h sci ences, 240-241, 356n. 6
E art h quake Research Institute of Tokyo
Uni versi t y, 132
E art h R esources Tech nology Sat elli t e
(E R T S ). See Landsat i magery
eart h quakes, xviii, 233
deep-focus, xviii-xix, 26, 295, 336-337,
404n.14
and plat e boundari es, 148-151
and seismology, 155-156, 161, 176. See
also Lamont Geologi cal Observat ory,
sei smology at
and sli p vect ors, 218, 396n. 22
strike-slip, 93
East Paci fi c Ri se, 25, 39
E dmondjoh n, 327
E i narsen, Tn, 77, 81
Ei nst ei n, Albert , xv
E lli ot , Clark, 348n. 3
Eltanin. See oceanograph i c expedi t i ons,
Elantin
Eltanin-19 magnet i c profi le, 63, 93, 94, 105,
196, 231,245-246, 386n. 5
"Elast i ci t y and t h e Const i t ut i on of t h e
E art h ' s I nt eri or" (Bi rch ), 114
Emperor event , 105
E ngland, Ph i li p, 304, 308
E rnst , Gary, 236, 280
ERS-1, 261,341
eugeosynclinal belts, 273
E uler, Leonh ard, xx
E uler poles, 194,248
E uler' s t h eorem, xx-xxiii, 232, 354n. 24
"Euleri an vectors," 215, 216
E uropean Space Agency, 341
E vans, Grah am, 228-229
E verest , Si r George, 6
Everet t , Ji m, 194
E vernden,Jack, 100
evolut i on, D arw i n' s t h eory of, 5
E w i ng,Joh n, 216
Ew ing, Mauri ce, xvii, 13, 16-17, 18, 23,
101-102, 105, 141, 145, 147, 192,
201-204, 234, 253
expandi ng eart h h ypot h esi s, 23, 379n. 7
Farallon plat e, 251
fault -plane solut i ons, xi x, 219, 294-296,
395n.11
fault s
low-angle normal, 303
st ri ke-sli p, xi x, 301
t h rust , xi x
t ransform, xxii-xxiii, 23, 25, 39, 45, 84,
159, 193, 195, 381n. 16
Fennoscandi an rebound, 8
Feynman, Ri ch ard, 178
fi eld mappi ng, 6
fi ni t e st rengt h , 114-115, 121-123
evi dence agai nst , 122-123
first mot i on st udi es, xi x, 352-353n. 17
Fisher, Osmond, 355n. 1
Fi sh er, R obert , 129, 137, 146, 352n. 17
Fi skji m, 291
Fi t ch , Tom, 292, 299
fluid viscosity, 114
Forsyt h , D on, 299
fossi ls, 3, 45
Foster, Joh n, 92, 103, 104
fract ure zone names, 249
Franch et eaujean, 137, 141, 222
Franciscan assemblage, 268, 277, 278,
279-280
Frankli n, Benjami n, 11
Cast, Paul, 107
Gei ki e, Arch i bald, 172
Generic Mappi ng Tool (GMT) program,
196, 380n. 11
Glass, Bi lly, 104
geoch ronology, 278-279
geodesy, 6-7, 311
geodet i c measurement s, 223
and sat elli t es, 333-334
geodynami cs, 222-223
Geological Society of America (GSA), 264,
276, 290
Geological Society of Cambri dge, 52
Geological Survey of Canada (GS C), xx, 76,
84
geology, 240-241, 356n. 6. See also ci rcum-
Paci fi c geology; plat e t ect oni cs, and
geology
historical, 12
geomagnet i c Nort h Pole, 74
geomagnet i sm, 18-19
Geop hysic al Journal of the Royal Astronomic al
Soc iety, 187-188
GEOS-3, 340
declassi fi cat i on of dat a, 341-342
Geosat, 261
geosynclines, 5, 238, 246, 275, 316, 321
and Kay classi fi cat i ons, 267-68
Gi lbert , Freeman, 200
418 INDEX
Gill, Adrian, 176
Gi lluly, Ji m, 236, 242, 275
Gi rdler, Ron, 54, 142, 143
Glen, Bi ll, 319, 322
Global Posi t i oni ng System (GPS ), 223,
260-261,311,344
Glomar Challenger, 255
Goddard Inst i t ut e for Space Studies, 107
and "Hi st ory of t h e E art h ' s Crust "
meet i ng, 124-125
Goetze, Chris, 306, 307
Gold, T h omas, 125
Gondw analand, 3, 5, 102
Gorda Ridge, 41, 43
D eep Tow surveys of, 246, 256
Gough , I an, 97, 99
Grah am, Joh n, 19, 73, 76, 97
and skepticism about fi eld reversals, 98
Grant z, Art h ur, 269-270
gravi met ry, 13
gravity anomalies, 13-14, 122
Great Tri gnomet ri cal Survey of I ndi a, 6
Great Valley sequence, 277-282
Greek (I oni an) sci ence, 285
"greensch i st " mi nerals, 273
Griggs, Davi d, 15, 16, 242
Grow, Joh n, 249
Gulf of Aden, 136
Gut enberg, Beno, 15, 120, 158
Guyot , Arnold, 17
"guyots," 17, 81,369n. 8
Gulf Research and D evelopment Corpora-
t i on, 70
H aarmann, E ri ch , 14
Hai nes, Joh n, 312
Hales, Ant on, 97
Hall, James, 5
H ami lt on, Warren, 236, 252, 256, 257
Hammer, W., 233
Harrison, Chris, 102, 142
H at h ert on, Trevor, 272
Haw ai i an Ri dge, 181
Haw ki ns, D onna, 249
Haxby, Wi lli am, 340-341
Hayes, D enni s, 249
H ayford.Joh n, 6, 11, 13, 370n. 10
Hays, James, 104, 106
Healyjudy, 293
h eat , radi ogeni c, 7, 9, 10
h eat flow , 119-120, 135, 176, 210-211, 382n.
29. See also Bullard, Si r E dw ard, and
h eat flow measurement
early measurement s of, 131-133, 136
H eezen, Bruce, xv, 23, 104, 203-204, 208,
220,221
Hei rt zler, James, xv, 23, 41, 47, 62, 93, 102,
103, 105, 182, 209-210, 213, 220-221,
245, 291, 292, 318, 319
Heirtzler scale, 254
H elmh olt z coi l, 365n. 9
h emat i t e, 364n. 3, 364-365n. 4
H erron, E llen, 93
Hersey, Bracket t , 245
Hess, Harry, xiv, xv, xvii, xix, xxiii, 13, 14, 18,
23, 39, 46, 51, 66, 115, 125, 137-138,
143, 193, 201, 207-208, 213, 221, 240,
315,318,352n.17
compari son w i t h Di et z' s w ork, 353n. 19
"essay in geopoetry," 20-21, 381n. 10
and "guyots," 17
on the rat e of plat e mot i ons, 15-16
and ri ft expansi on concept , 205
and sea floor spreadi ng h ypot h esi s,
133-135, 140-141, 144-145, 146,
158-159, 206
synopsis of w ork, 369n. 8
Hi ll, Mason, 251-252
Hi ll, Mauri ce, 50, 57-58, 66, 136, 146,
172-173
History of the Earth's Crust, The (Ph i nney), 152
"History of the Ocean Basins" (H ess), xx, 51
Hodgson, J. H., xi x, 153, 158
ambi gui t y of st udi es, 351353n. 17
Holli ngsw ort h , Stanley, 230
Holmes, Art h ur, xxiii, 9-10, 19-20, 79, 90,
205,230, 350n. 12, 353n.19
on th e ocean floor as "a ki nd of endless
t raveli ng belt ," 380n. 8
Holt, Bill, 312
H onda, H., 158
Hospersjan, xxi i i , 19, 21, 97, 173
Hsu, Ken, 257
Huysebye, E yst ei n, 315
"HypotHESSes" (Vi ne), 52
Imperi al College, London, 19, 350n. 10
"I mpermanence of t h e Ocean Floor" (H ess),
51
Inc omp lete Guide to the Art of Disc overy, The
(O li ver), 155,294
Ingersoll, Ray, 286
I nst i t ut e for Geological and Nuclear
Sciences, 312
I nst i t ut e of Geoph ysi cs and Planet ary Physics
(I GPP), 59, 191,197
I nt ernat i onal Counci l of Sci ent i fi c Uni ons
(I CS U),390n. 12
I nt ernat i onal Geoph ysi cal Year (IGY)
project , 36-38, 49
I nt ernat i onal Seismological Summary (I S S ),
151
I nt ernat i onal Uni on of Geodesy and
Geoph ysi cs (I UGG), 390n. 12
I nt ernat i onal Uni on of Geological Sciences
(I UGS ),390n. 12
I nt ernat i onal Upper Mant le Commi t t ee,
390n.12
I ND E X 419
I nt er-Uni versi t y Geological Congress, 51
I rvi ng, Edw ard (T ed), xvii, 19, 20, 89, 97, 99,
100, 142, 146, 173
Isacks, Bryan, xv, 26, 93, 138-139, 141, 156,
159, 161, 182, 213, 216, 232, 234, 274,
288, 291, 293, 294, 317
"i sland arc(s)," 233, 266, 271, 272
isostasy, 6, 7-8, 11, 117, 370n. 10
as Arch i medes' pri nci ple appli ed t o E art h ,
398n.50
Jackson, James, 308, 309
Jaeger, Joh n, 100
Jarami llo event , 46, 61-62, 91, 92, 104, 212,
319
Jastrow , Robert , 107, 230
Java T rench , 13
Jefferson, Th omas, 11
Jeffreys, Sir H arold, 9, 112-113, 117, 120,
122, 143, 148
Joh ns H opki ns Uni versi t y Applied Physics
Laborat ory (JH UAPL), 341
JOIDES dri lli ng h oles, 382n. 25
Jolyjoh n, 9, 350n. 12
Jones, Crai g, 309
Journal of Geop hysic al Researc h, xxi, 83, 84,
161, 193,207, 215, 218, 254, 293
Juan de Fuca Ri dge, xxi i i , 41, 43, 59-61, 208,
210,250
and magnet i c fi eld anomali es, 46-47
Karig, D an, 267
Kassler, Peter, 229
Kat sui , Yosh i o, 272
Kay, Marsh all, 229-231, 267-268, 275, 283
Keeli ng, Davi d, 124
Kepler' s laws of orbi t al mot i on, 310
Keunen, Ph i li p, 350n. 12
Kh ramov,A. N., 100
Ki ng, Geoffrey, 314
Ki ng, Lester, 230
Ki ng, Ph i l, 242
Ki ng, Soph i a, 314
Knopf, Adolph , 267
Koestler, A., 399n. 52
Koh lst edt , Davi d, 306
Kuenen, Ph i li p, 15, 16
Kuh n, Th omas, 184, 322, 326
Kula plat e, 387n. 19
Kunarat nam, K., 55-56
Kuno, Hisashi, 271,272
Lament Geological Observat ory (lat er
Lamont -D oh ert y Geological Observa-
t ory), xiv, xvi i , 17, 22, 23, 33, 47, 62, 88,
145, 158, 169, 178, 187, 192, 208-211,
230,234,253-255, 292, 294
Afri can Ameri cans at , xv
core collect i on, 92-93
fixists versus mobilists, 201-205
sei smology at, 156-162, 209-210
w omen at, xv
Landsat i magery, 288, 300-301
Langset h , Marcus, 139, 141, 145, 210, 216
Laroch elle, Andre, 77
laser rangi ng, 311
Laugh t on, Tony, 53, 136
lava flow s, 97, 99, 253
and magnet i c polari t y, 106, 206
Le Goff, Jacques, xi, 347n. 1
Le Grand, H omer E., 322
Le Pi ch on, Xavi er, xi i i , xxi, xxi i i , 23, 93,
103-104, 139, 141, 145, 176, 182, 187,
196, 232, 234, 293, 298, 384n. 60
"conversi on" t o sea floor spreadi ng,
211-213
Lee, Wi lli e, 119, 131
Leh mann, I nge, 114
Lenox-Conyngh am, Sir Gerald, 18, 172-173
Li ebermann, Bob, 291
Li mi t ed Test Ban Treaty, xviii
Lister, Cli ve, 129, 139, 141-142
Lister, Gordon, 242
li t h osph ere, 160-161, 279
cont i nent al, 305-306, 307, 308
oceani c, 305-306, 307, 308
Lomni t z, Ci nna, 244
Longw ell, Ch est er, 267-268
Lonsdale, Pet er, 387n. 19
Lordki panze, Manana, 386n. 3
Low er Paleozoi c Grampi an Orogeny,
227-228
Lyell, Sir Ch arles, 11-12
MacD onald, Gordon J., xi i i , 107, 123-124,
231
and w eat h er modi fi cat i on, 124
w ork on cont i nent al st ruct ure, 111-125
MacDougall, I an, 100, 101
Madingley Rise, 129, 131, 137, 139, 172-174,
175-176, 191
"Magnet i c Anomali es Over Oceani c Ridges"
(Vi ne and Mat t h ew s), 58, 84
magnet i c fi eld anomali es, 54, 57, 59, 80,
88-89, 93, 97, 175, 216-217, 248, 251,
253. See a&ojuan de Fuca Ridge, and
magnet i c fi eld anomali es; remnant
magnet i sm, and fi eld reversals
and t h e i nduced component , 74
"magnetic isochron numbers," 254, 257
magnet i c li neat i ons, 58
magnet i c "stripes." See "zebra pat t ern"
magnet omet ry, xviii, 17
ai rborne magnet omet er, 364n. 2
Askani a magnet omet er, 70
astatic magnet omet er, 18
fluxat e magnet omet er, 32-33
Lament and, 33
420 I ND E X
magnet omet ry (c ontinued)
magnet i c balance magnet omet er, 364n. 2
prot on-precessi on magnet omet er, 32-33
Scripps and, 33-34
spi nner magnetometer, 92, 103
Mammeri cx, Jacqueli ne, 259
mant le convect i on, 122, 123
Marge, Mari a, 235
Marine Geology of the Pac if ic (Menard), 133
mari ne geoph ysi cs, 53
Marks, Karen, 341
Markus, Gregory B., 347-348n. 3
Mason, Ronald, xvi, xvi i , xviii, 22-23, 56, 60,
68, 71, 78-79, 81, 82, 91, 100, 207, 237
and th e zebra pat t ern, 31-45
Matthew s, Drummond, xv, xix, xx, 22-23, 46,
52, 55, 57-58, 64, 66, 115, 144, 193,
207, 230, 253, 318. fe a/so
Vi neMat t h ew s h ypot h esi s
and "me too" sci ence, 178
Mat uyama, Mot onari , 21
Matuyama epoch, 22
Maxw ell, Art h ur, 20, 119, 128, 131, 139
May, Frank, 229
McAdoo, Dave, 341
McBi rney, Alexander, 271
McBri de, Earle, 277
McDougall, Ian, xxi i i , 21-22, 350n. 12
McE lh i nny, Mi ke, 99
McGarr, Art , 292
McKenzi e, Dani el P., xiv, xviii, xi x, xx-xxii,
xxii-xxiii, 23, 27, 131, 137, 138-139,
141, 145,188, 195, 196-197, 199, 211,
215, 217-220, 223-224, 231, 236, 237,
299,303-304, 305, 308, 318, 354n.24
early background, 171-172
1966-1968 w ork, 176, 178, 180-183,
249-250
"Meaning of the new Global Tectonics for
Magmat i sm, Sedi ment at i on, and Met a-
morph i sm i n Orogeni c Belts, Th e" con-
ference, 274
Medea Commi t t ee, 341, 342
memory
and history, 347n. 1
"i mpli ci t ," 353n. 19
of poli t i cal beli efs, 347-348n. 3
process of, 348n. 3
and sali ent events, 348n. 3
and social dynami cs, 348n. 3
Menard, W. H. (Bi ll), xv, 25, 34, 60, 123, 137,
146, 181, 183, 196, 236, 246, 248-249,
304, 310, 322, 397n. 36
Mendoci no Fault , 36, 38, 43, 250
Mercant on, P. L., 21
Mert on, Robert, 353n. 19
met eorology, 356n. 6
Meyerh off, Art h ur, 353n. 19
mid-ocean ri dges, 77-78
mi d-Ordovi ci an arc-cont i nent al margi n
colli si onal event , 227-228
Mi lankovi t ch t h eory of the ice ages, 126
Mi ller, Laury, 341
mineralogical self-reversal, 106
Mi nst er, Bernard, 341
Mi ocene peri od, 104, 106
mi ogeocli nes, 268
MIT, 299
Mi yash i ro, Aki h o, 272-273
mobi le li t h osph ere model, 160
mobi li sm, 232, 240. See also Lament Geologi-
cal Observatory, and fi xi st s versus
mobilists
Moh o, t h e, 203-204, 209, 314
Moh ole project, 255
MolnarJ. P., 290-291, 294, 297, 299
Molnar, Pet er, xviii, xxiv, 162, 182, 259
w ork in plat e t ect oni cs, 1965-1975,
290-300
Moores, Eldri dge, 242
Morgan, Jason, xix, xxi, xxii-xxiii, 26, 93,
138-139, 141, 180-184, 186,213,
214-220, 223-224, 231, 293, 298, 318,
319, 354n.24
ch ronology of cri t i cal paper, 248, 383n. 43
Morley, Law rence W., xiv, xvi, xvi i i , xi x, xx,
xxi i i , 22, 68, 101, 115, 143, 206-208
and ai rborne magnet omet ry, 70-71
early di sci pli nary t rai ni ng, 68-70
Nature art i cle, 80-83
post graduat e t h esi s w ork, 71-74
Mudi ejoh n, 180-181, 216, 246-247, 250,
256
Muller, R i ch ard, 126
mult i ple w orki ng h ypot h eses, 10-11
Munk, Walter, 111
Murray Fault , 36, 38
Myers, Joh n, 242
Nagat a, T, 97
Nason, Bob, 131
Nat i onal Geodet i c Survey (NGS ), 341
Nat i onal Science Foundat i on (NS F ), 256,
299, 322
Nature, xx, xxi, xxi i , 57, 58, 80, 101, 131, 181,
182, 193, 196, 200, 207, 217, 218
Naval Oceanograph i c O ffi ce (NO O ), 341
Naval Ordnance Laborat ory (NO L), 32
Neel, L., 98
"New Class of Fault s and t h ei r Beari ng on
Cont i nent al D ri ft , A" (Wi lson), xxi i
"New Evi dence for Reversal of Geomagnet i c
Field near t h e Pli o-Plei st ocene Bound-
ary" (Opdyke and R uncorn), 97
Newal, Hugh , 172
New t on, Isaac, xv, 310
Ni ch olson, Robi n, 235
Ni nkovi t ch , D., 104
I ND E X 421
"Nort h Paci fi c: An E xample of Tect oni cs on
a Sph ere, Th e" (Parker and McKenzi e),
191
object i vi t y, and t h e rh et ori c of det ach ment ,
349-350n. 8
ocean floor spreadi ng. See sea floor
spreadi ng
Oc ean of Truth, The (Menard), 218
oceani c crust , 205, 210, 279
oceanograph i c expedi t i ons, xvi-xvii,
17-18
Argo, 129-130
Barrac uda, 13
Cap ric orn, 33, 131
Disc overy, 130
Disc overy II, 136
Eltanin-19, 86-94
Lusiad, 136
Pioneer, 34-39
Risep ac , 131-132
VEMA, 203
Venna, 103, 137
O ffer, Dani el, xi v
Ojakangas, D i ck, 279
Oliver, Jack, xvi, xviii, xi x, 26, 93, 209, 213,
220, 232, 234, 274, 288, 291, 293, 294,
297, 298, 301, 314, 317, 318
and seismology, 155-166
Opdyke, Nei l D., xxi i i , xxiv, 23, 62, 142, 212,
235
meet i ng S. K. R uncorn for fi rst t i me, 99
w ork on plat e t ect oni cs, 95, 97-107
oph i oli t es, 303
Ordovi ci an colli si on, 233
Oreskes, Naomi , 319, 322
Oriel, Steve, 236
orogeny, 5, 267, 274-275, 320
Nevadan, 277
O rt eli us, Abrah am, 354n. 1
Our Mobile Earth (D aly), 111
Our Wandering Continents (du Toi l), 12
Paci fi c Plat e, 249, 250, 251, 258-259,
261-262
Paci fi c-Ant arct i c Ridge, 88-89, 90-91
Page, Ben,280
paleomagnet i c met h od, 51-52, 216-217
paleomagnet i sm, 72, 75-76, 97, 99-100, 206,
312
and sedi ment cores, 92
pali ngenesi s, 283
Pangea, 3
Parker, Robert L., xiv, xix, xxxxi , xxii-xxiii,
27, 138-139, 141, 181, 215, 232, 354n.
24
background, 195-197
and SUPERMAP comput er program,
195-196, 199, 217
Pauli ng, Li nus, 75
Pay du Dome, 95
permanence th eory, 5
permanent magnet i sm, and ferromagnet i c
mat eri als, 365n. 8
Permo-Carboni ferous glaci at i on, 102
Peter, George, 54, 143
Ph i lli ps, Joe, 214
Ph i lli ps, Max, 70
Philosop hic al Transac tions, 198
Ph i nney, Robert , 152
ph ysi cal oceanograph y, 17
Pi oneer Fault , 36, 38
Pi rner, Max, 98
Pi t man, Walter, xvi, 23, 47, 63, 104, 182, 210,
216,231,249,291,318,319
on board th e Eltanin-19, 86-94
on board the Eltanin-20, 104
Plafker, George, 233, 242
plat e, h i st ory of t erm, 354n. 26
plat e ci rcui t reconst ruct i ons, 258-259
plat e t ect oni cs, xi, 3-4, 26, 85, 115, 125,
126-127, 161, 169-171, 183-184,
275-276, 319, 320
ant ecedent s to, 282-284
and comput ers, 197-199
and cont i nent al t ect oni cs, 302-306
dri vi ng mech ani sm of, 297
estimating magnitudes of past deforma-
t i ons, 262
and geology, 227-239
as global t h eory, xvi
ki nemat i cs of, 305
measuri ng past di splacement s and defor-
mat i ons, 261-262
measuri ng present -day dri ft s and deforma-
t i ons, 259-260
and Mercat or project i on, 217-218
aft er 1968, 186-189
from ocean- to space-based plate t ect on-
ics, 221-224
i mport ant observations concerni ng, 345
pavi ng st one t h eory, 191, 200
and plat e boundary zones, 238-239
"plate-tectonics corollaries," 303
"plat e t ect oni cs models," 303
and t h e Precambri an, 237
and sat elli t e imagery, 300-301
and sedi ment ary basins, 5, 286-287
Plate Tec tonic s (Le Pi ch on, Franch et aeau, and
Bouni n),222
Plei st ocene peri od, 100
lavas of, 103
paleocli mat ology of, 101-102
polar w anderi ng curves, 20, 74, 76, 111, 122
"polar-wandering school," 366n. 11
Popper, Karl, 184, 239
porph yry coppers, 274
Port er, Dave, 341
422 INDEX
potassium-argon (K-Ar) dat i ng met h od, 22,
91,92,100,278-279
Powell, Ji m, 290
Prat t , Joh n, 6, 11,284,314
Press, Frank, 158, 203-204, 220, 291, 299,
301, 327
Princeton University, xiv
Afri can Ameri cans at , xv
and t h e sea floor spreadi ng h ypot h esi s,
205-206
w omen at , xv
Princ ip les of Physic al Geology (H olmes), 90
Project Magnet , 32
Pulse of the Earth (Umbgrove), 238
pyroxenes, 5, 52
quasars, 344
Q uat ernary geology, 311
Q ueen Ch arlot t e Fault , 250
Q ueen Ch arlot t e Islands, 59
Q uennell, Bert , 232, 242
Raff, Art h ur, xvi i , xvi i i , 22-23, 35, 38, 56, 60,
68, 78-79, 81, 82, 91, 100, 207
Raitt, Russ, 32, 128
Ramsey, Joh n, 228-229
Read, H. H., 19
Read, W. T., 182
R ei ch enbach , Hans, xi i
remanent magnet i sm, 19, 20, 5455. See also
paleomagnet i sm; rock magnet i sm
and ferromagnet i c mat eri als, 365n. 8
and field reversals, 21-22, 41, 46, 75-77
and i gneous rocks, 364-365n. 4
and sedi ment ary rocks, 364n. 3
research fundi ng, xvi
Revelle, Roger, xvii, 20, 32-33, 34, 119, 128,
131
"Reversals of the Main Geomagnetic Field," 97
R eykjanes Ridge, xxi i i , 41, 45, 47, 63, 136,
210,213
R i ch t er, Ch arles, 15, 120, 158
"Rises, T rench es, Great Faults, and Crust al
Blocks" (Morgan), 214
Ri t sema, A. R., 151
Roch e, A., 95
rock magnetism, 72, 73, 76, 103
and t h e "Haruna di ct at e," 98
R odgersjoh n, 275
Roecker, Steve, 315
Roeder, D i et ri ch , 264
Rotation of the Earth, The (MacD onald and
Munk), 111, 116
R ot h e, E., 158
R ot h e, Jean-Pi erre, 203
Royal Society (London), xxi
R uncorn, S. K. (Kei t h ), xiv, xv, xvii, xxiv,
19-20, 45, 74, 75, 76, 83, 89, 95, 98-99,
142,146, 235
and t h e paleomagnet i c laborat ory, 97
Russia
and eart h quake predi ct i on, 300
paleomagnet i c research in, 100
R ut h erford, E rnest , 18, 199
R ut land, Roye, 303
Ryan, Bill, 231
Sai nt -Venant ' s compat i bi li t y, 312
San Andreas Fault , 25, 59, 225, 231-232,
236, 251-253, 267, 269-270, 311. See
also plat e ci rcui t reconst ruct i ons
deformat i ons, 262
h i st ory of, 255-258
Sandw ell, David T., and a Mart i an view of
plate tectonics, 331-345
sat elli t e laser rangi ng (S LR ), 223, 344
Sch rei ber, Ch arlot t e, 238
S ch uch ert , Ch arles, 12
Sc ienc e, 60, 63, 99, 213, 247
sci ent i fi c discovery, 162-166
observat i onal approach , 137-139
process of, 144-145, 184-186
sci ent i fi c met h od, 11
scientific papers, xii-xiii
sci ent i fi c research , 239-241
Sclater, Joh n G., xiv, xvi, xvi i i , 187, 217, 299,
318
w ork on h eat flow , 128-145
Scri pps I nst i t ut i on of Oceanograph y, xiv,
xvii, 17, 22, 31, 51, 60, 89, 102, 128, 129,
169,191,214,230,246
Afri can Ameri cans at , xv
and t h e I nt ernat i onal Geoph ysi cal Year
(IGY) project , 36-38
role in plat e t ect oni cs, 384n. 60
w omen at , xv
sea floor spreading, xvii, 21, 39, 41, 79,
89-90, 101, 320, 322. SeealsoHess,
Harry, and sea floor spreadi ng h ypot h e-
sis; Wi lson, Tuzo J., and sea floor
spreadi ng
and th e h eat flow communi t y, 135-136,
139-141
Holmes' proposal for, xxi i i
h ypot h esi s of, 133, 135-136
and the paleomagnetists, 142-144
"Sea Floor S preadi ng and Cont i nent al D ri ft "
(LePi ch on),220, 222
Seasat, 261, 340
sei smi c ani sot ropy, 315
sei smi c t omograph y, 315
seismology, xvi i i , 17, 120-121, 148, 204, 315
refract i on seismology, 13
"Seismology and t h e New Global Tect oni cs"
(Isacks), 162, 220, 247, 274, 293
Senegor, Celal, 242
serpent i ni t e rock, 279
S h erman, D oug, 228-229
INDEX 423
Sibson, Rick, 307
Sieh, Kerry, 311
Sierra Nevada bat h oli t h , 277, 279, 280
Si gurgei rsson, T., 77
Silver, Paul, 315
simultaneous discovery, xix-xxiii
Shoc ks and Roc ks (O li ver), 155
sh ort gravity cores, 102
SkyLab, 340
Sleep, Norman, 141, 299, 325
S mi t h , Alan, 194
S mi t h , Walter, 341, 380n. 11
Snow J. K., 262
SOFAR, 17
Solomon, Sean, 299
SOSUS, 17
Soviet Uni on
adh erence to vertical tectonics, 347n. 2
geological maps of, 324
sph eri cal h armoni cs, 118-119
SPRIFT, 270
Spring, Joh n, 229
Sp utnik, 243
St auder, Wi lli am, 180, 183
S t rai t of Juan de Fuca, 59-60
Stauder, W., 151
St enni s Space Cent er, 341
st ereograph i c project i ons, 384n. 1
Stevens, A. E., 351-352n. 17
Stevens, Bob, 242
Stille, Hans, 282-283, 284
St ock, Joann, 261
subduct i on, 155-156, 247, 264, 280, 306
Substanc e and F untion (Cassi rer), 285
subsurface st ruct ure, i magi ng of, 313-317
Suess, E duard, 3, 4-5
Sugi mura, Arat a, 272
Suppejoh n, 310, 316
surveyi ng. See geodesy
Swiss Alps, 6
Sykes, Lynn, xv, 25-26, 39, 93, 138-139, 156,
159, 161, 182, 193-194, 197, 231, 232,
234, 274, 288, 291, 292, 293, 294, 298,
317, 318, 322
Symp hony of the Earth (Umbgrove), 238
syncline, 268
Takeuch i , H i t osh i , 272-273
Talwani, Mani k, 58, 103, 208-210, 214, 216
Tapponnier, Paul, 288, 300-301, 303-304
Tarli ng, D on, xxi i i , 22, 100, 101, 350n. 12
Taylor, Frank, 355n. 1
Taylor, G. I., 321
Taylor, Isabel, 248
t ect ogenes, xi x, 14-15, 238
"Tectonics and S edi ment at i on" conference,
276-277
teleseism hypocenters, 148
Th arp, Mari e, xv, 23
Th elli er, E., 95, 98
Theory of Probability, The (Jeffreys), 113
t h ermomagnet i sm, 99
Tonga-Fiji project , 160-161
Torri doni an Old Red Sandst ones, 74
Torridonian sediments, 97
t ri ple junct i ons, 249-251
Turcot t e, Don, 242
Tuve, Merle, 97
underflow , 280
uni formi t ari ani sm, 11-12
Uni versi t y of Cali forni a, Berkeley, 21-22
University of California Institute of Geo-
ph ysi cs, 31-32
urani um-lead (U-Pb) dat i ng met h od, 22
U.S. Coast and Geodet i c Survey, 6, 34
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 22, 32, 61,
100, 212, 269-270, 350n.10
U.S. Naval Elect roni cs Laborat ory, 51, 89
U.S. Navy, and submari ne det ect i on,
xvii-xviii, 15-17
U.S. Navy Hydrograph i c O ffi ce, 34
U.S. O ffi ce of Naval Research (O NR ), xvi,
17, 32, 50, 103
Uyeda, Dick, 131-132
Uyeda, Seiya, 98, 131-132, 139-140, 273,
277,296
Vacquier, Victor, xvii, 38, 39, 58, 129,
135-136, 137, 142
Van Andel, Jerry, 214
Van Staal, Gees, 242
Varian Associates, 34
Veni ng Mei nesz, Feli x, 13-14, 205, 211,
350n. 12, 354n. 26
Verh oogen, Joh n, 21-22, 97, 99-100
Very Long Baseline I nt erferomet ry (VLBI),
223,260,311,344
Vi ne, Frederi ck J., xv, xviii, xi x, xx, xxiii, xxiv,
22-23, 25, 43, 45-46, 84, 89, 91, 94, 101,
115, 136, 144, 193, 199, 206-208, 210,
213, 214, 253, 318. See also
Vi ne-Mat t h ew s h ypot h esi s
early i nt erest i n cont i nent al dri ft and geo-
physics, 49
undergraduat e at Cambri dge, 49-53
vi si t to Lamont Geological Observatory,
105
Vine-Matthews hypothesis, 23, 40-41, 43, 45,
57, 58-59, 89, 90, 103, 159, 230, 291
background to, 53-58
i ndependent confi rmat i on of, 62-64
poor reception of, 5859
Vi ne' s veri fi cat i on of, 323
Vine-Matth ew s-Morley h ypot h esi s (VMM),
65
Vi nni k, Lev, 315
Vi t ousek, Mart i n, 38
424 INDEX
volcani sm, 271
Von Herzen, Dick, 128-131, 132-133,
135-136, 139-140, 146
Wadat i , K., 158, 233
Wadat i -Beni off zones, 272, 283
Walker, George, 228-229
Wallace, Alfred Russell, xvi
Watkins, Norman, 106
Wat son, Janet , 228-229
Wegener, Alfred, 3-4, 7, 11, 94, 117, 204,
322, 350n. 12, 355n. 1, 356n. 6. See also
cont i nent al dri ft
deat h of, 344
Wellman, Harry, 232, 242
Wensi nk, Hans, 102-103
Werni cke, Bri an, 262, 270
Wessel, Paul, 380n. 11
Wh i t e, Ni cky, 309
Williams, Carol, 175
Wi lli ams, Dave, 141-142
Willis, Bailey, 12
Wi lls, L.J., 229
Wi lson, J. Tuzo, xv, xxii-xxiii, 23, 25, 39, 41,
45, 59-60, 68, 75, 84, 90, 91, 94, 125,
136, 137-138, 175-178, 199, 210, 214,
220, 221, 231, 245, 269-270, 291, 297,
319, 321, 322, 325. See also fault s,
t ransform
and "hot spots" t h eory, 207-208
and ri dge/t ransform/ri dge model, 230
and sea floor spreadi ng, 141, 144-145, 146
Wi lson, R. L., 81, 106
Woods Hole Oceanograph i c I nst i t ut i on, 17,
230, 350n. 10
w orld w i de st andard seismograph
(WWSSN), xi x, 25, 150-152, 158, 194,
197, 375n. 6
WorzelJ. Lamar ("Joe"), 16-17, 124, 216
Wri gh t , Frederi ck E., 354n. 26
Wu, Franci s, 299
Yamaska Mount ai n, 77
zebra map. See "zebra pat t ern"
"zebra pat t ern," xviii, 22-23, 80, 84-85, 199.
See also Mason, R onald, and t h e zebra
pat t ern; Morley, Law rence
Mason's w ork on, 3145
reject i on of, 83-84
Zh ou En-lai , 325