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Romano Cifelli 2015
Romano Cifelli 2015
A
only every other bilayer (1, 7). Furthermore, lfred Wegener (1880–1930) was a lead- in contraction, which had been introduced
the results corroborate previous findings (8) ing explorer, geophysicist, and meteo- by Descartes and Leibnitz and expanded by
that the long-range and short-range CDWs rologist from Germany, and pioneer in James Dwight Dana and Eduard Suess.
do not simply convert into one another when the exploration of Greenland (1). His Wegener’s 1915 publication unleashed a
the temperature is varied, as one would ex- seminal volume of meteorology (2) is firestorm of debate. Among the few eminent
pect at a standard phase transition. Instead, universally considered a fundamental supporters were Émile Argand, an expert on
the short-range modulations persist under- manual for this discipline and was long a ref- Alpine geology, and the South African ge-
neath the long-range CDW. Yet, with identical erence text for students and specialists. We- ologist Alexander du Toit. The drift hypoth-
wave vectors in the crystallographic b direc- gener’s preeminent scientific legacy, however, esis was so iconoclastic that it earned vitriol,
tion, the two phases are unlikely to constitute is the continental drift hypothesis. He first ridicule, and scorn from specialists, whose
87 in the first English translation; see (3)]. and marginalia. At the top, Wegener writes “pull over the
1. S. Gerber et al., Science 350, 949 (2015).
2. J. M. Tranquada et al., Nature 375, 561 (1995). Using then-new geophysical concepts such as bridges!”—a reference to earlier suggestions of sunken
3. N. Doiron-Leyraud et al., Nature 447, 565 (2007). isostasy (that is, the dynamic equilibrium be- intercontinental bridges.
4. T. Wu et al., Nature 477, 191 (2011). tween Earth layers of differing densities) and
5. D. LeBoeuf et al., Nat. Phys. 9, 79 (2013).
6. G. Ghiringhelli et al., Science 337, 821 (2012). radiogenic heat, Wegener envisioned conti- ogists were quick to point to their own exper-
7. J. Chang et al., Nat. Phys. 8, 871 (2012). nents as huge plates made up of mainly light tise, some invoking the existence of sunken
8. T. Wu et al., Nat. Commun. 6, 6438 (2015). rock floating in denser, solid, but much more intercontinental bridges (5). The strongest at-
9. R. Comin, A. Damascelli, http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.03313
(2015).
tacks came from geophysicists, who could not
10. J. E. Hoffman et al., Science 295, 466 (2002). imagine what forces could move rigid crust.
1
11. C. Howald et al., Phys. Rev. B 67, 014533 (2003). Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Sapienza, Università di Among the most hostile and bitter opponents
12. B. Ramshaw et al., Science 348, 317 (2015). Roma, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy. 2Sam Noble Museum,
2401 Chautauqua Avenue, Norman, OK 73072, USA. were Sir Harold Jeffreys and Rollin T. Cham-
10.1126/science.aad3279 E-mail: marco.romano@uniroma1.it; rlc@ou.edu berlin (6). As a consequence, the theory was
Continental margins
Early Triassic (white lines)
PALEO-TETHYS
that Earth’s rotation is an inadequate source
Siberia for the colossal force needed to move plates.
OCEAN
The current view is that radiogenic heat
Europe North causes convection cells to develop in the
China asthenosphere (a ductile, upper part of the
North
America South mantle). This convection moves the overly-
PANTHALASSIC Turkey CIMMERIA
OCEAN PANGAEA China ing crust and uppermost mantle, which to-
Iran gether behave as a set of rigid plates. Viewed
Africa Tibet Indochina
South
Arabia in this way, continents are merely floating
America
Malaya passengers in a larger dynamic system (8).
GONDWANA
India Understanding is sufficiently refined that
Australia
Antarctica the future organization of continents can
TETHYS OCEAN be predicted. In about 250 million years the
continents will be reunited in a single mass,
Modern Earth North America a “Pangaea Proxima” (10) analogous to the
Pangaea first envisioned by Wegener (see
Siberia North
Europe
China
the second figure). The application of plate
NORTH tectonics theory extends well beyond Earth
Tibet South
ATLANTIC China itself, to include the possibility of active plate
Arabia India
OCEAN Africa tectonics on recently discovered extrasolar
super-Earths, potentially habitable planets
Published by AAAS
100 years of continental drift
Marco Romano and Richard L. Cifelli
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