Composite satelite image of Europe, North Africa, he Arabian Penin: sula (Image © by World: sat International, Inc. 2001. www:worldsat a. Allbasins and continents were fixed. During the past few decades, however, vast amounts of new data have dramatically changed our understanding of the nature and workings of our planet. Earth scientists now realize that the continents gradually migrate across the globe. Where landmasses split apart, new ocean basins are created between the diverging blocks. Meanwhile, older portions of the seafloor are carried back into the mantle in regions where trenches occur in the deep ocean floor. Because of these movements, blocks of continental crust eventually collide and form Earth's great mountain ranges (Figure 7.4). In short, a revolutionary new model of Earth’s tectonic’ processes has emerged. This profound reversal of scientific understanding has been appropriately described as a scientific revolution. The revolution began as a relatively straightforward proposal by Alfred | Wegener, called continental drift. After many years of heated debate, Wegener's hypothe- sis of drifting continents was rejected by the vast majority of the scientific community. The concept of a mobile Earth was particularly distasteful to North American geologists, per- haps because much of the supporting evidence had been gathered from the southern continents, with which most North American geologists were unfamiliar. During the 1950s and 1960s, new kinds of evidence began to rekindle interest in this nearly abandoned proposal. By 1968 these new developments led to the unfolding of a far more encompassing explanation, which incorporated aspects of continental drift and ‘seafloor spreading—a theory known as plate tectonics. In this chapter, we examine the events that led to this dramatic reversal of scientific opin- ion in an attempt to provide some insight into how science works. We also briefly trace the developments of the concept of continental drift, examine why it was first rejected, and consider the evidence that finally led to the acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics. \ century ago, most geologists believed that the geographic positions of the ocean “Tectonics refers tothe deformation of Earth’ crust and tlt the formation of trac tues uch 4s mount. FIGURE 7.1 Climbers camping ona shear rock face of a mountain known as K7 in Pakistan's Karakoram, apart ofthe Himalayas. These mountains formed as india colided with Eurasia. (Photo by Jimmy GhievNational Geographic/Getty)B, Wegener's Pangaea FIGURE 7.2. Reconstruction of Pangasa as tis thought to have appeared 200 millon years ‘age. A. Modern reconsttuation. B. Raconstruction done by Wegener in 1915. Continental Drift: An Idea Before Its Time ‘The idea that continents, particularly South America and Africa, fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle originated with improved world maps. However, little significance was given this idea until 1915, when Alfred Wegener, a German ‘meteorologist and geophysicist, published The Origin af Con- tinents and Oceans. In this book, Wegener set forth his radical hypothesis of continental drift" Wegener suggested that a supercontinent he called Pangaea (meaning “all land”) once existed (Figure 7.2). He further hypothesized that, about 200 million years ago, this supercontinent began breaking into smaller continents, which then “drifted” to their present positions (see Box 7.1). Wegener and others collected substantial evidence to sup- port these claims, The fitof South America and Africa, and the ‘geographic distribution of fossils, rock structures, and ancient climates, all seemed to support the idea that these now separate landmasses were once joined. Let us examine their evidence, Evidence: The Continental Jigsaw Puzzle Like a few others before him, Wegener first suspected that the continents might have been joined when he noticed the re- markable similarity between the coastlines on opposite sicles ‘Wegener’ ins were actully preceded by those of an American geet FB Tay- log who 1910 published a paper on continent dt Tao's paper provided ite supporting evidence for continental df which may have been the reason hat ha | evely smal npc ode seis Continental Drift: An idea Before itsTime 189 of the South Atlantic, However, his use of present-day shorelines to make a fit of the continents was challenged immediately by other Earth scientists, These opponents cor- rectly argued that shorelines are continually ‘modified by erosional processes, and even if continental displacement had taken place, a good fit today would be unlikely. Wegener appeared to be aware ofthis problem, and, in fact, his original jigsaw fit of the continents was crude. Scientists have determined that a much better approximation of the true outer boundary of the continents is the seaward ‘edge of the continental shelf, which lies sub- merged several hundred meters below sea level. In the early 1960s, scientists produced a map that attempted to fit the edges of the continental shelves at a depth of 900 meters (@.000 feet). The remarkable fit that was ob- tained is shown in Figure 7.3. The few places ‘where the continents overlap are regions where streams have deposited large quanti- ties of sediment, thus enlarging the conti- nental shelves. The overall fit was even better than researchers suspected it would be. FIGURE 7.3. Ths shows the best ft of South America and Arica along the continental slope ata depth of 500 fathoms (about 900 meters) The areas where continental blocks oveiap appear in brown, (After A.G. Smith. "Continental Dif,” in Understanang the Earth, eited190 CHAPTER 7 BOX 7.1.) UNDERSTANDING EARTH The Breakup of Pangaea Wegener used evidence from fossils, rock types, and ancient climates to create a jig- sw-puzale fit ofthe continents—thereby ‘creating his supercontinent of Pangaea. In a similar manner, but employing modem tools not available to Wegener, geologists hhave recreated the steps in the breakup of this supercontinent, an event that began nearly 200 millon years ago. From this ‘work, the dates when individual crustal Fragments separated from one an- other and their relative motions have been well established (Figure 7A). ‘An important consequence of the breakup of Pangaea was the creation ofa “new” ocean basin: the Atlantic. As you can see in part Bof Figure A, spliting ofthe st- percontinent did not occur simul- faneously along the margins of the ‘Allantic. The fist split developed between North America and Africa. Here, the continental crust was highly fractured, providing path- ways for huge quantities of fluid lavas to reach the surface. Today, these lavas are represented by ‘weathered igneous rocks found along the easter seaboard of the United States—primarily buried beneath the sedimentary rocks that form the continental shelf. Ra- diometric dating ofthese solidi- fied lavas indicates tha rifting began in various stages between 180 millon ancl 165 million years ago. This time span canbe used as the “birth date” for this section of the North Atlantic. ‘By 130 milion years ago, the South Atlantic began to open near the tip of what is now South “Afsca. As this zone of rifting mi: grated northward, it gredually ‘opened the South Atlantic com pave Figure 7.4, parts B and C). Continued breakup ofthe south- cenlandmas led to the separation ‘of Africa and Antarctica and sent India on a northward journey. By the early Cenozoi, about 50 mil- Plate Tactonie: A Scientific Theory Unfold lion years ago, Australia had separated from Antarctica, and the South Atlantic had ‘emenged as.a full-fledged ocean (Figure 7.A, part). ‘A modern map (Figure 7.4, part F) shows that India eventually collided with Asia, an event that began about 45 million. years ago and created the Himalayas as well as the Tibetan Highlands. About the same time, the separation of Greenland ‘A. 200 Millon Years {ate Triassic 20¥ion Years itatereriany from Burasia completed the breakup of the northern landmass. During the past 20 mil- lion years or so of Earth's history, Arabia rifted from Africa to form the Red Sea, and Baja California separated from Mexico to form the Gulf of California (Figure 7.4, part E). Meanwhile the Panama Arcjoined North America and South America to produce our globe's familiar, modezn appearance, FIGURE 7.A Several views ofthe breakup of Pangaea over a period of 200 millon years.Students Sometimes Ash... [fall the continents were joined during the time of Pangaea, ‘what did the rest of Earth look like? When all the continents were together, there must also have been fone huge ocean surrounding them. This ocean is called ‘Panthalassa (pan = all, thalassa = sea), About 200 million years ago the supercontinent of Pangaea began to split apart, and the ‘various continental masses we know today started to move to- ward their present geographic positions. Today, all that remains cof Panthalassa isthe Pacific Ocean, which has been decreasing in, size since the breakup of Pangaea. Evidence: Fossils Match Across the Seas Although the seed for Wegener's hypothesis came from the remarkable similarities of the continental margins on oppo- site sides of the Atlantic, he thought the idea of a mobile Earth ‘was improbable. Not until he learned that identical fossil or- ¢ganisms were known from rocks in both South America and Africa did he begin to seriously pursue this idea, Through a review of the literature, Wegener learned that most paleon- tologists (scientists who study the fossilized remains of organisms) were in agreement that some type of land con- nection was needed to explain the existence of identical fos- sils of Mesozoic life forms on widely separated landmasses. (ust as modern life forms native to North America are quite different from those of Africa, one would expect that during the Mesozoic era, organisms on widely separated continents ‘would be quite distinct) Mesosaurus To add credibility to his ar- ‘gument for the existence of a superconti- nent, Wegener cited documented cases of several fossil organisms that were found on different landmasses despite the unlikely possibility that their living forms could have ‘crossed the vast ocean presently separating these continents. The classic example is ‘Mesosaurus, an aquatic fish-catching reptile ‘whose fossil remains are found only in black shales of the Permian period (about 260 million years ago) in eastern South Amer- ica and southern Africa (Figure 7.4). If ‘Mesosaurus had been able to make the long journey across the vast South Atlantic (Ocean, its remains should be more widely distributed. As this is not the case, Wegener argued that South America and Africa must have been joined during that period of Earth, history. ‘How did scientists during Wegener's era explain the existence of identical fossil or- FIGURE7.4 Fo Continental Dit: An idea Before ts Time 191 ganisms in places separated by thousands of kilometers of open ocean? Transoceanic land bridges (isthmian links) were the most widely accepted explanations of such migrations (igure 7.5). We know, for example, that during the recent Ice Age, the lowering of sea level allowed animals to cross the narrow Bering Strait between Asia and North America, Was it possible that land bridges once connected Africa and South America but later subsided below sea level? Modern maps Of the seafloor substantiate Wegener's contention that land bridges of this magnitude had not existed. If they had, rem- nants would still lie below sea level. Present-Day Organisms Ina later edition of his book, We- gener also cited the distribution of present-day organisms as evidence to support the drifting of continents. For example, modern organisms with similar ancestries clearly had to evolve in isolation during the last few tens of millions of ‘years. Most obvious of these are the Australian marsupials (euch as kangaroos), which have a direct fossil link to the marsupial opossums found in the Americas (Figure 7.6). After the breakup of Pangaea, the Australian marsupials followed a different evolutionary path than related life forms in the ‘Americas. Evidence: Rock Types and Structures Match Anyone who has worked a picture puzzle knows that in ad- dition to the pieces fitting together, the picture must be con- tinuous as well. The “picture” that must match in the continental drift puzzle” is one of rock types and mountain belts found on the continents. Ifthe continents were once to- gether, the rocks found in a particular region on one conti- nent should closely match in age and type those found in ls of Mesosaurus have been found on both sides ofthe South Attantic and ‘owhere ele in the world, Fosall remains ofthis and other organisms onthe continents of Aftca and South America appear to lke these lancmasses during the late Paleozoic and early192 CHAPTER 7 Plate Tectonics: A Scientific Theory Unfoids TSTHRTAN ORE ee oR that indicated that near the end of the Pa- leozoic era (about 300 million years ago), ive sheets covered extensive areas of the Southern Hemisphere and India (Figure 7.8), Layers of glacally transported sed- iments of the same age were found in southern Africa and South America, as well as in India and Australia. Much of the land area containing evidence ofthis late Paleozoic glaciation presently lies within 30 degrees of the equator in sub- {an STEFPIG STONES tropical or tropical climates. Could Earth have gone through a pe- riod of sufficient cooling to have gener- ated extensive ice sheets in areas that are presently tropical? Wegener rejected this explanation because during the late Pale- ‘oz0ic, large tropical swamps existed in the Northern Hemisphere. These swamps, ‘with their lush vegetation, eventually be- came the major coal fields of the eastern United States, Europe, and Siberia FIGURE 7.5 These sketches by John Holden ilustate various explanations forthe aceurtence ‘of similar species on lancmasses that are presently separated by vast oceans, (Reprinted with permission of John Holden) adjacent positions on the adjoining continent. Wegener found evidence of 22-billion-year-old igneous rocks in Brazil that closely resembled similarly aged rocks in Africa, ‘Similar eviclence exists in the form of mountain belts that terminate at one coastline, only to reappear on landmasses across the ocean, For instance, the mountain belt that includes the Appalachians trends northeastward through the eastern United States and disappears off the coast of Newfoundland, Mountains of comparable age and structure are found in Greenland, the British Isles, and Scandinavia. When these landmasses are reassembled, as in Figure 7,7, the mountain chains form a nearly continuous belt ‘Wegener must have been convinced that the similarities in tock structure on both sides of the Atlantic linked these Jandmasses when he said, “It is just as if we were to refit the tom pieces of a newspaper by matching their edges and then check whether the lines of print run smoothly across. If they dlo, there is nothing left but to conclude that the pieces were in fact joined in this way.* Evidence: Ancient Climates Because Alfred Wegener was a meteorologist by profession, he was keenly interested in obtaining paleoclimatic (paleo = ancient, climatic = climate) data to support continental drift. His efforts were rewarded when he found evidence for ap- parently dramatic global climatic changes during the geo- logic past. In particular, he learned of ancient glacial deposits “Ale Woes, The Org of Continents nt Ons. Transat roms he Ah revised {German etn of 125 J. Blanan (London: Methuen 1965), Fossils from these coal fields indicate that the tree ferns that produced the coal deposits had large fronds, which are in- dicative of tropical settings. Further- more, unlike trees in colder climates, these trees lacked growth rings, a characteristic of tropical plants that grow in regions having minimal fluctuations in temperature. FIGURE 7.6 After the breakup of Pangaea, the Australian marsupials ‘evolved tfrently than their relatives in the Americas, (Photo by Martin Harvey/Peter Aznoid, Inc.)FIGURE 7.7 Matching mountain ranges across the North Atlantic. A. The Appalachian Mountains trend along the easter Tank of Noctn America and disappear off the coast of Newfoundland. Mountains ‘of comparable age and structure are found inthe British Isls and Scandinavia. B. When these land ‘masses are placed in their predet locations, these ancient mountain chains frm a nearly continuous bot. These folded mountain belts formed roughy 300 mien years ago asthe landmasses colided Chring the formation ofthe supercontinent Pangaea. Wegener suggested that a more plausible explanation for the late Paleozoic glaciation was provided by the supercon- tinent of Pangaea. In this configuration the southern conti- nents are joined together and located near the South Pole (Figure 788). This would account for the conditions necessary to generate extensive expanses of glacial ice over much of the Southern Hemisphere. At the same time, this geography ‘would place today’s northern landmasses nearer the equa- tor and account for their vast coal deposits. Wegener was 50 ‘convinced that his explanation was correct that he wrote, “This evidence is so compelling that by comparison all other criteria must take a back seat.” How does a glacier develop in hot, arid central Australia? How do land animals migrate across wide expanses of open Students Sometimes Ash... Someday will the continents come back together and form a single landmass? ‘Yes Its very likely that the continents will come back together, but not anytime soon. Since al ofthe continents are on the same planetary body, there is only so far a continent can travel before it collides with other continents. Recent research suggests that the continents may form a supercontinent about once every 500 million years oro, inceithas been about 200 million yeats since Pangaea broke up, we have only about 300 million years before the next supercontinent is completed. ‘Toe Great Debete 193, ‘water? As compelling as this ‘evidence may have been, 50 years passed before most of the scientific community ac- cepted the concept of conti- nental drift and the logical conclusions to which it led. The Great Debate ‘Wegener's proposal did not at- tract much open criticism until 1924, when his book was trans- lated into English. From this time on, until his death in 1930, his drift hypothesis encoun- tered a great deal of hostile crit- icism. To quote the respected ‘American geologist TC. Cham- berlin, “Wegener's hypothe- sis... takes considerable lib- erty with our globe, andi is less bound by restrictions or tied down by awkward, ugly facts than most of its rival theories. Its appeal seems to lie in the FIGURE 7.8 Paleoctimatic evidence for continental dif. A. Near the ‘and ofthe Paleozoic era (about 300 lion years age) ice sheets covered ‘extensive areas of the Souther Hemisphere and india, Acrows show th ‘rection of ee movement that can be infect glacial grooves in the bedrock. B. Shown are the contnents restored to thei former postion withthe South Pole located roughly between Antarctica and Africa, This ‘ortiguration accounts forthe candtions necessary to generate a vast ice sheet and also explains the dvectons of ce movement that raciatod away fom the South Pole.