Timeline of the development of tectonophysics (before 1954)

"Timeline of the development of tectonophysics" redirects here. For remaining timeline, see Timeline of the development of tectonophysics (after 1952).

The evolution of tectonophysics is closely linked to the history of the continental drift and plate tectonics hypotheses. The continental drift/ Airy-Heiskanen isostasy hypothesis had many flaws and scarce data. The fixist/ Pratt-Hayford isostasy, the contracting Earth and the expanding Earth concepts had many flaws as well.

The idea of continents with a permanent location, the geosyncline theory, the Pratt-Hayford isostasy, the extrapolation of the age of the Earth by Lord Kelvin as a black body cooling down, the contracting Earth, the Earth as a solid and crystalline body, is one school of thought. A lithosphere creeping over the asthenosphere is a logical consequence of an Earth with internal heat by radioactivity decay, the Airy-Heiskanen isostasy, thrust faults and Niskanen's mantle viscosity determinations.

Introduction

In 1858, Snider-Pellegrini made these two maps. They depict his interpretation of how the American and African continents may once have fit together before subsequently becoming separated.
Airy model of isostasy: 1. thickness of the crust under mountains, 2. lower mountains, 3. thickness of normal continental crust, 4. thickness of oceanic crust, 5. sealevel, 6. pieces of the Earth's crust, 7. asthenosphere.

First there was the Creationism (Martin Luther), and the age of the Earth was 6000 years. There were stacks of calcareous rocks of maritime origin above sea level, and up and down motions were allowed (geosyncline hypothesis, James Hall and James D. Dana). Later on, the thrust fault concept appeared, and a contracting Earth (Eduard Suess, James D. Dana, Albert Heim) was its driving force. In 1862, the physicist William Thomson (who later became Lord Kelvin) calculated the age of Earth (as a cooling black body) at between 20 million and 400 million years. In 1895, John Perry produced an age of Earth estimate of 2 to 3 billion years old using a model of a convective mantle and thin crust.[1] Finally, Arthur Holmes published The Age of the Earth, an Introduction to Geological Ideas in 1927, in which he presented a range of 1.6 to 3.0 billion years.

Wegener had data for assuming that the relative positions of the continents change over time. It was a mistake to state the continents "plowed" through the sea, although it isn't sure that this fixist quote is true in the original in German. He was an outsider with a doctorate in astronomy attacking an established theory between 'geophysicists'. The geophysicists were right to state that the Earth is solid, and the mantle is elastic (for seismic waves) and inhomogeneous, and the ocean floor would not allow the movement of the continents. But excluding one alternative, substantiates the opposite alternative: passive continents and an active seafloor spreading and subduction, with accretion belts on the edges of the continents. The velocity of the sliding continents, was allowed in the uncertainty of the fixed continent model and seafloor subduction and upwelling with phase change allows for inhomogeneity.

The problem too, was the specialisation. Arthur Holmes and Alfred Rittmann saw it right (Rittmann 1939). Only an outsider can have the overview, only an outsider sees the forest, not only the trees (Hellman 1998b, p. 145). But A. Wegener did not have the specialisation to correctly weight the quality of the geophysical data and the paleontologic data, and its conclusions. Wegener's main interest was meteorology, and he wanted to join the Denmark-Greenland expedition scheduled for mid 1912. So he hurried up to present his Continental Drift hypothesis.[2]

Mainly Charles Lyell, Harold Jeffreys, James D. Dana, Charles Schuchert, Chester Longwell, and the conflict with the Axis powers slowed down the acceptance of continental drifting (Rodney 2012).

Controversy

Triassic, Ladinian stage (230 Ma).
Distribution of modern-day Glossopteris fossils (#1: South America, #2: Africa, #3: Madagascar, #4: Indian subcontinent, #5: Antarctica, #6: Australia).
Mineralogy igneous rocks.
A diagram of folds, indicating an anticline and a syncline.

See also

Further reading

References

Notes

  1. England, Philip C.; Molnar, Peter; Richter, Frank M. (2007). "Kelvin, Perry and the Age of the Earth". American Scientist 95 (4): 342–349. doi:10.1511/2007.66.3755.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Flügel, Helmut W. (December 1980). "Wegener-Ampferer-Schwinner: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Geologie in Österreich" [Wegener-Ampferer-Schwinner: A Contribution to the History of the Geology in Austria] (PDF). Mitt. österr. Geol. Ges. (in German) 73.
  3. Ortelius 1596.
  4. 1 2 Romm 1994.
  5. Bacon 1620.
  6. Keary & Vine 1990.
  7. 1 2 Schmeling, Harro (2004). "Geodynamik" (PDF) (in German). University of Frankfurt.
  8. Snider-Pellegrini 1858.
  9. Brusatte 2004, p. 3.
  10. Kious & Tilling 1996.
  11. "The History of Continental Drift - Before Wegener".
  12. Boswell, James (1793). "On the Theory of the Earth - Letter to Abbé Jean-Louis Giraud Soulavie, 22 September 1782". The Scots magazine (Sands, Brymer, Murray and Cochran) 55: 432–433.
  13. s:en:Franklin to Abbé Jean-Louis Giraud Soulavie
  14. Born, A. (1923). Isostasie und Schweremessung. Berlin.
  15. "Historical geology". Geopark Sadona.
  16. "Geo-Life: Von der Glarner Doppelfalte zur Glarner Ueberschiebung". geo-life.ch.
  17. Wegener 1929, Wegener 1929/1966
  18. Coxworthy 1848/1924
  19. Pickering 1907
  20. "The Wrath of Science". NASA - Earth Observatory.
  21. "NYC Regional Geology: Mesozoic Basins". USGS.
  22. Benson W. N. (1951). 152–155 "Patrick Marshall" Check |url= value (help). Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 79.
  23. 1 2 Longwell, Chester R. "Some Physical Tests of the Displacement Hypothesis" (PDF). We cannot disregard entirely the suggestion that continental masses have suffered some horizontal movement, because evidence for such movement is becoming ever more apparent in the structure of the Alps and of the Asiatic mountain systems.
  24. Krainer, Karl; Hauser, Christoph (2007). "Otto Ampferer (1875-1947): Pioneer in Geology, Mountain Climber, Collector and Draftsman" (PDF). Geo. Alp: Sonderband 1: 91–100.
  25. Gansser, Augusto (1973). "Orogene Entwicklung in den Anden, im Himalaja und den Alpen: ein Vergleich". Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae (Lausanne) 66: 23–40.
  26. Honda, Hirochiki (1998). "Kiyoo Wadati and the path to the discovery of the intermediate-deep earthquake zone" (pdf). Episodes 24 (2): 118123. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  27. Dalrymple, G. Brent (2001). "The age of the Earth in the twentieth century: a problem (mostly) solved". Special Publications, Geological Society of London 190 (1): 205–221. Bibcode:2001GSLSP.190..205D. doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.2001.190.01.14.
  28. Eichenberger, Ursula (5 September 2008). "Augusto Gansser, Vermesser der Welt". Das Magazin.
  29. Scheidegger 1953.

Cited books

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    • Kearey, Philip; Klepeis, Keith A.; Vine, Frederik J. (2009). Global tectonics (3 ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. p. 482. ISBN 978-1-4051-0777-8. 
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Cited articles

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