Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics (from the Late Latin: tectonicus, from the

Ancient Greek: τεκτονικός, lit. 'pertaining to building')[1]
is a scientific theory describing the large-scale motion of
seven large plates and the movements of a larger number
of smaller plates of Earth's lithosphere, since tectonic
processes began on Earth between 3.3[2] and 3.5 billion
years ago. The model builds on the concept of
continental drift, an idea developed during the first
decades of the 20th century. The geoscientific
community accepted plate-tectonic theory after seafloor
spreading was validated in the late 1950s and early
1960s. The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in
the second half of the 20th century.
The lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of a
planet (the crust and upper mantle), is broken into
tectonic plates. The Earth's lithosphere is composed of
seven or eight major plates (depending on how they are
defined) and many minor plates. Where the plates meet,
their relative motion determines the type of boundary:
convergent, divergent, or transform. Earthquakes,
volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench
formation occur along these plate boundaries (or faults).
The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from
zero to 100 mm annually.[3]

Tectonic plates are composed of oceanic lithosphere and

thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own
kind of crust. Along convergent boundaries, subduction,
or one plate moving under another, carries the lower one Diagram of the internal layering of Earth showing
down into the mantle; the material lost is roughly the lithosphere above the asthenosphere (not to
balanced by the formation of new (oceanic) crust along scale)
divergent margins by seafloor spreading. In this way, the
total surface of the lithosphere remains the same. This
prediction of plate tectonics is also referred to as the conveyor belt principle. Earlier theories, since disproven,
proposed gradual shrinking (contraction) or gradual expansion of the globe.[4]

Tectonic plates are able to move because the Earth's lithosphere has greater mechanical strength than the
underlying asthenosphere. Lateral density variations in the mantle result in convection; that is, the slow
creeping motion of Earth's solid mantle. Plate movement is thought to be driven by a combination of the
motion of the seafloor away from spreading ridges due to variations in topography (the ridge is a topographic
high) and density changes in the crust (density increases as newly formed crust cools and moves away from
the ridge). At subduction zones the relatively cold, dense oceanic crust is "pulled" or sinks down into the
mantle over the downward convecting limb of a mantle cell.[5] Another explanation lies in the different forces
generated by tidal forces of the Sun and Moon. The relative importance of each of these factors and their
relationship to each other is unclear, and still the subject of much debate.
Contents
Key principles
Types of plate boundaries
Driving forces of plate motion
Driving forces related to mantle dynamics
Driving forces related to gravity
Driving forces related to Earth rotation
Relative significance of each driving force mechanism
Development of the theory
Summary
Continental drift
Floating continents, paleomagnetism, and seismicity zones
Mid-oceanic ridge spreading and convection
Magnetic striping
Definition and refining of the theory
Plate Tectonics Revolution
Implications for biogeography
Plate reconstruction
Defining plate boundaries
Past plate motions
Formation and break-up of continents
Current plates
Other celestial bodies (planets, moons)
Venus
Mars
Icy satellites
Exoplanets
See also
References
Citations
Sources
External links

Key principles
The outer layers of the Earth are divided into the lithosphere and asthenosphere. The division is based on
differences in mechanical properties and in the method for the transfer of heat. The lithosphere is cooler and
more rigid, while the asthenosphere is hotter and flows more easily. In terms of heat transfer, the lithosphere
loses heat by conduction, whereas the asthenosphere also transfers heat by convection and has a nearly
adiabatic temperature gradient. This division should not be confused with the chemical subdivision of these
same layers into the mantle (comprising both the asthenosphere and the mantle portion of the lithosphere) and
the crust: a given piece of mantle may be part of the lithosphere or the asthenosphere at different times
depending on its temperature and pressure.
The key principle of plate tectonics is that the lithosphere exists as separate and distinct tectonic plates, which
ride on the fluid-like (visco-elastic solid) asthenosphere. Plate motions range up to a typical 10–40 mm/year
(Mid-Atlantic Ridge; about as fast as fingernails grow), to about 160 mm/year (Nazca Plate; about as fast as
hair grows).[6] The driving mechanism behind this movement is described below.

Tectonic lithosphere plates consist of lithospheric mantle overlain by one or two types of crustal material:
oceanic crust (in older texts called sima from silicon and magnesium) and continental crust (sial from silicon
and aluminium). Average oceanic lithosphere is typically 100 km (60 mi) thick;[7] its thickness is a function of
its age: as time passes, it conductively cools and subjacent cooling mantle is added to its base. Because it is
formed at mid-ocean ridges and spreads outwards, its thickness is therefore a function of its distance from the
mid-ocean ridge where it was formed. For a typical distance that oceanic lithosphere must travel before being
subducted, the thickness varies from about 6 km (4 mi) thick at mid-ocean ridges to greater than 100 km
(62 mi) at subduction zones; for shorter or longer distances, the subduction zone (and therefore also the mean)
thickness becomes smaller or larger, respectively.[8] Continental lithosphere is typically about 200 km thick,
though this varies considerably between basins, mountain ranges, and stable cratonic interiors of continents.

The location where two plates meet is called a plate boundary. Plate boundaries are commonly associated with
geological events such as earthquakes and the creation of topographic features such as mountains, volcanoes,
mid-ocean ridges, and oceanic trenches. The majority of the world's active volcanoes occur along plate
boundaries, with the Pacific Plate's Ring of Fire being the most active and widely known today. These
boundaries are discussed in further detail below. Some volcanoes occur in the interiors of plates, and these
have been variously attributed to internal plate deformation[9] and to mantle plumes.

As explained above, tectonic plates may include continental crust or oceanic crust, and most plates contain
both. For example, the African Plate includes the continent and parts of the floor of the Atlantic and Indian
Oceans. The distinction between oceanic crust and continental crust is based on their modes of formation.
Oceanic crust is formed at sea-floor spreading centers, and continental crust is formed through arc volcanism
and accretion of terranes through tectonic processes, though some of these terranes may contain ophiolite
sequences, which are pieces of oceanic crust considered to be part of the continent when they exit the standard
cycle of formation and spreading centers and subduction beneath continents. Oceanic crust is also denser than
continental crust owing to their different compositions. Oceanic crust is denser because it has less silicon and
more heavier elements ("mafic") than continental crust ("felsic").[10] As a result of this density stratification,
oceanic crust generally lies below sea level (for example most of the Pacific Plate), while continental crust
buoyantly projects above sea level (see the page isostasy for explanation of this principle).

Types of plate boundaries

Three types of plate boundaries exist,[11] with a fourth, mixed type, characterized by the way the plates move
relative to each other. They are associated with different types of surface phenomena. The different types of
plate boundaries are:[12][13]

1. Divergent boundaries (Constructive) occur where two

plates slide apart from each other. At zones of ocean-
to-ocean rifting, divergent boundaries form by seafloor
spreading, allowing for the formation of new ocean
basin. As the ocean plate splits, the ridge forms at the
spreading center, the ocean basin expands, and
finally, the plate area increases causing many small
volcanoes and/or shallow earthquakes. At zones of
continent-to-continent rifting, divergent boundaries
may cause new ocean basin to form as the continent Divergent boundary
splits, spreads, the central rift collapses, and ocean
 fills the basin. Active zones of mid-ocean ridges (e.g.,
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise), and
continent-to-continent rifting (such as Africa's East
African Rift and Valley and the Red Sea), are
examples of divergent boundaries.
2. Convergent boundaries (Destructive) (or active
margins) occur where two plates slide toward each
other to form either a subduction zone (one plate
moving underneath the other) or a continental
collision. At zones of ocean-to-continent subduction Convergent boundary
(e.g. the Andes mountain range in South America, and
the Cascade Mountains in Western United States), the
dense oceanic lithosphere plunges beneath the less
dense continent. Earthquakes trace the path of the
downward-moving plate as it descends into
asthenosphere, a trench forms, and as the subducted
plate is heated it releases volatiles, mostly water from
hydrous minerals, into the surrounding mantle. The
addition of water lowers the melting point of the mantle
material above the subducting slab, causing it to melt.
The magma that results typically leads to Transform boundary
volcanism.[14] At zones of ocean-to-ocean subduction
(e.g. Aleutian islands, Mariana Islands, and the
Japanese island arc), older, cooler, denser crust slips beneath less dense crust. This motion
causes earthquakes and a deep trench to form in an arc shape. The upper mantle of the
subducted plate then heats and magma rises to form curving chains of volcanic islands. Deep
marine trenches are typically associated with subduction zones, and the basins that develop
along the active boundary are often called "foreland basins". Closure of ocean basins can
occur at continent-to-continent boundaries (e.g., Himalayas and Alps): collision between
masses of granitic continental lithosphere; neither mass is subducted; plate edges are
compressed, folded, uplifted.
3. Transform boundaries (Conservative) occur where two lithospheric plates slide, or perhaps
more accurately, grind past each other along transform faults, where plates are neither created
nor destroyed. The relative motion of the two plates is either sinistral (left side toward the
observer) or dextral (right side toward the observer). Transform faults occur across a spreading
center. Strong earthquakes can occur along a fault. The San Andreas Fault in California is an
example of a transform boundary exhibiting dextral motion.
4. Plate boundary zones occur where the effects of the interactions are unclear, and the
boundaries, usually occurring along a broad belt, are not well defined and may show various
types of movements in different episodes.

Driving forces of plate motion

It has generally been accepted that tectonic plates are able to move because of the relative density of oceanic
lithosphere and the relative weakness of the asthenosphere. Dissipation of heat from the mantle is
acknowledged to be the original source of the energy required to drive plate tectonics through convection or
large scale upwelling and doming. The current view, though still a matter of some debate, asserts that as a
consequence, a powerful source of plate motion is generated due to the excess density of the oceanic
lithosphere sinking in subduction zones. When the new crust forms at mid-ocean ridges, this oceanic
lithosphere is initially less dense than the underlying asthenosphere, but it becomes denser with age as it
conductively cools and thickens. The greater density of old lithosphere relative to the underlying
asthenosphere allows it to sink into the deep mantle at subduction zones, providing most of the driving force
for plate movement. The weakness of the asthenosphere allows the tectonic plates to move easily towards a
subduction zone.[15] Although subduction is thought to
be the strongest force driving plate motions, it cannot be
the only force since there are plates such as the North
American Plate which are moving, yet are nowhere
being subducted. The same is true for the enormous
Eurasian Plate. The sources of plate motion are a matter
of intensive research and discussion among scientists.
One of the main points is that the kinematic pattern of
the movement itself should be separated clearly from
the possible geodynamic mechanism that is invoked as
the driving force of the observed movement, as some
patterns may be explained by more than one
mechanism.[16] In short, the driving forces advocated at Plate motion based on Global Positioning System
the moment can be divided into three categories based (GPS) satellite data from NASA JPL (http://sidesho
on the relationship to the movement: mantle dynamics w.jpl.nasa.gov/mbh/series.html). Each red dot is a
related, gravity related (main driving force accepted measuring point and vectors show direction and
nowadays), and earth rotation related. magnitude of motion.

Driving forces related to mantle dynamics

For much of the last quarter century, the leading theory of the driving force behind tectonic plate motions
envisaged large scale convection currents in the upper mantle, which can be transmitted through the
asthenosphere. This theory was launched by Arthur Holmes and some forerunners in the 1930s[17] and was
immediately recognized as the solution for the acceptance of the theory as originally discussed in the papers of
Alfred Wegener in the early years of the century. However, despite its acceptance, it was long debated in the
scientific community because the leading theory still envisaged a static Earth without moving continents up
until the major breakthroughs of the early sixties.

Two- and three-dimensional imaging of Earth's interior (seismic tomography) shows a varying lateral density
distribution throughout the mantle. Such density variations can be material (from rock chemistry), mineral
(from variations in mineral structures), or thermal (through thermal expansion and contraction from heat
energy). The manifestation of this varying lateral density is mantle convection from buoyancy forces.[18]

How mantle convection directly and indirectly relates to plate motion is a matter of ongoing study and
discussion in geodynamics. Somehow, this energy must be transferred to the lithosphere for tectonic plates to
move. There are essentially two main types of forces that are thought to influence plate motion: friction and
gravity.

Basal drag (friction): Plate motion driven by friction between the convection currents in the
asthenosphere and the more rigid overlying lithosphere.
Slab suction (gravity): Plate motion driven by local convection currents that exert a downward
pull on plates in subduction zones at ocean trenches. Slab suction may occur in a geodynamic
setting where basal tractions continue to act on the plate as it dives into the mantle (although
perhaps to a greater extent acting on both the under and upper side of the slab).

Lately, the convection theory has been much debated, as modern techniques based on 3D seismic tomography
still fail to recognize these predicted large scale convection cells. Alternative views have been proposed.

Plume tectonics
In the theory of plume tectonics followed by numerous researchers during the 1990s, a modified concept of
mantle convection currents is used. It asserts that super plumes rise from the deeper mantle and are the drivers
or substitutes of the major convection cells. These ideas find their roots in the early 1930s in the works of
Beloussov and van Bemmelen, which were initially opposed to plate tectonics and placed the mechanism in a
fixistic frame of verticalistic movements. Van Bemmelen later on modulated on the concept in his "Undulation
Models" and used it as the driving force for horizontal movements, invoking gravitational forces away from
the regional crustal doming.[19][20] The theories find resonance in the modern theories which envisage hot
spots or mantle plumes which remain fixed and are overridden by oceanic and continental lithosphere plates
over time and leave their traces in the geological record (though these phenomena are not invoked as real
driving mechanisms, but rather as modulators). The mechanism is still advocated to explain the break-up of
supercontinents during specific geological epochs.[21] It has followers [22] [23] amongst the scientists involved
in the theory of Earth expansion [24]

Surge tectonics

Another theory is that the mantle flows neither in cells nor large plumes but rather as a series of channels just
below the Earth's crust, which then provide basal friction to the lithosphere. This theory, called "surge
tectonics", was popularized during the 1980s and 1990s.[25] Recent research, based on three-dimensional
computer modeling, suggests that plate geometry is governed by a feedback between mantle convection
patterns and the strength of the lithosphere.[26]

Driving forces related to gravity

Forces related to gravity are invoked as secondary phenomena within the framework of a more general driving
mechanism such as the various forms of mantle dynamics described above. In moderns views, gravity is
invoked as the major driving force, through slab pull along subduction zones.

Gravitational sliding away from a spreading ridge: According to many authors, plate motion is driven by the
higher elevation of plates at ocean ridges.[27] As oceanic lithosphere is formed at spreading ridges from hot
mantle material, it gradually cools and thickens with age (and thus adds distance from the ridge). Cool oceanic
lithosphere is significantly denser than the hot mantle material from which it is derived and so with increasing
thickness it gradually subsides into the mantle to compensate the greater load. The result is a slight lateral
incline with increased distance from the ridge axis.

This force is regarded as a secondary force and is often referred to as "ridge push". This is a misnomer as
nothing is "pushing" horizontally and tensional features are dominant along ridges. It is more accurate to refer
to this mechanism as gravitational sliding as variable topography across the totality of the plate can vary
considerably and the topography of spreading ridges is only the most prominent feature. Other mechanisms
generating this gravitational secondary force include flexural bulging of the lithosphere before it dives
underneath an adjacent plate which produces a clear topographical feature that can offset, or at least affect, the
influence of topographical ocean ridges, and mantle plumes and hot spots, which are postulated to impinge on
the underside of tectonic plates.

Slab-pull: Current scientific opinion is that the asthenosphere is insufficiently competent or rigid to directly
cause motion by friction along the base of the lithosphere. Slab pull is therefore most widely thought to be the
greatest force acting on the plates. In this current understanding, plate motion is mostly driven by the weight of
cold, dense plates sinking into the mantle at trenches.[28] Recent models indicate that trench suction plays an
important role as well. However, the fact that the North American Plate is nowhere being subducted, although
it is in motion, presents a problem. The same holds for the African, Eurasian, and Antarctic plates.
Gravitational sliding away from mantle doming: According to older theories, one of the driving mechanisms of
the plates is the existence of large scale asthenosphere/mantle domes which cause the gravitational sliding of
lithosphere plates away from them (see the paragraph on Mantle Mechanisms). This gravitational sliding
represents a secondary phenomenon of this basically vertically oriented mechanism. It finds its roots in the
Undation Model of van Bemmelen. This can act on various scales, from the small scale of one island arc up to
the larger scale of an entire ocean basin.[29]

Driving forces related to Earth rotation

Alfred Wegener, being a meteorologist, had proposed tidal forces and centrifugal forces as the main driving
mechanisms behind continental drift; however, these forces were considered far too small to cause continental
motion as the concept was of continents plowing through oceanic crust.[30] Therefore, Wegener later changed
his position and asserted that convection currents are the main driving force of plate tectonics in the last edition
of his book in 1929.

However, in the plate tectonics context (accepted since the seafloor spreading proposals of Heezen, Hess,
Dietz, Morley, Vine, and Matthews (see below) during the early 1960s), the oceanic crust is suggested to be in
motion with the continents which caused the proposals related to Earth rotation to be reconsidered. In more
recent literature, these driving forces are:

1. Tidal drag due to the gravitational force the Moon (and the Sun) exerts on the crust of the
Earth[31]
2. Global deformation of the geoid due to small displacements of the rotational pole with respect
to the Earth's crust
3. Other smaller deformation effects of the crust due to wobbles and spin movements of the Earth
rotation on a smaller time scale

Forces that are small and generally negligible are:

1. The Coriolis force[32][33]

2. The centrifugal force, which is treated as a slight modification of gravity[32][33]:249

For these mechanisms to be overall valid, systematic relationships should exist all over the globe between the
orientation and kinematics of deformation and the geographical latitudinal and longitudinal grid of the Earth
itself. Ironically, these systematic relations studies in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half
of the twentieth century underline exactly the opposite: that the plates had not moved in time, that the
deformation grid was fixed with respect to the Earth equator and axis, and that gravitational driving forces
were generally acting vertically and caused only local horizontal movements (the so-called pre-plate tectonic,
"fixist theories"). Later studies (discussed below on this page), therefore, invoked many of the relationships
recognized during this pre-plate tectonics period to support their theories (see the anticipations and reviews in
the work of van Dijk and collaborators).[34]

Of the many forces discussed in this paragraph, tidal force is still highly debated and defended as a possible
principal driving force of plate tectonics. The other forces are only used in global geodynamic models not
using plate tectonics concepts (therefore beyond the discussions treated in this section) or proposed as minor
modulations within the overall plate tectonics model.

In 1973, George W. Moore[35] of the USGS and R. C. Bostrom[36] presented evidence for a general westward
drift of the Earth's lithosphere with respect to the mantle. He concluded that tidal forces (the tidal lag or
"friction") caused by the Earth's rotation and the forces acting upon it by the Moon are a driving force for plate
tectonics. As the Earth spins eastward beneath the moon, the moon's gravity ever so slightly pulls the Earth's
surface layer back westward, just as proposed by Alfred Wegener (see above). In a more recent 2006
study,[37] scientists reviewed and advocated these earlier proposed ideas. It has also been suggested recently in
Lovett (2006) that this observation may also explain why Venus and Mars have no plate tectonics, as Venus
has no moon and Mars' moons are too small to have significant tidal effects on the planet. In a recent paper,[38]
it was suggested that, on the other hand, it can easily be observed that many plates are moving north and
eastward, and that the dominantly westward motion of the Pacific Ocean basins derives simply from the
eastward bias of the Pacific spreading center (which is not a predicted manifestation of such lunar forces). In
the same paper the authors admit, however, that relative to the lower mantle, there is a slight westward
component in the motions of all the plates. They demonstrated though that the westward drift, seen only for the
past 30 Ma, is attributed to the increased dominance of the steadily growing and accelerating Pacific plate. The
debate is still open.

Relative significance of each driving force mechanism

The vector of a plate's motion is a function of all the forces acting on the plate; however, therein lies the
problem regarding the degree to which each process contributes to the overall motion of each tectonic plate.

The diversity of geodynamic settings and the properties of each plate result from the impact of the various
processes actively driving each individual plate. One method of dealing with this problem is to consider the
relative rate at which each plate is moving as well as the evidence related to the significance of each process to
the overall driving force on the plate.

One of the most significant correlations discovered to date is that lithospheric plates attached to downgoing
(subducting) plates move much faster than plates not attached to subducting plates. The Pacific plate, for
instance, is essentially surrounded by zones of subduction (the so-called Ring of Fire) and moves much faster
than the plates of the Atlantic basin, which are attached (perhaps one could say 'welded') to adjacent continents
instead of subducting plates. It is thus thought that forces associated with the downgoing plate (slab pull and
slab suction) are the driving forces which determine the motion of plates, except for those plates which are not
being subducted.[28] This view however has been contradicted by a recent study which found that the actual
motions of the Pacific Plate and other plates associated with the East Pacific Rise do not correlate mainly with
either slab pull or slab push, but rather with a mantle convection upwelling whose horizontal spreading along
the bases of the various plates drives them along via viscosity-related traction forces.[39] The driving forces of
plate motion continue to be active subjects of on-going research within geophysics and tectonophysics.

Development of the theory

Summary

Around the start of the twentieth century, various theorists unsuccessfully attempted to explain the many
geographical, geological, and biological continuities between continents. In 1912 the meteorologist Alfred
Wegener described what he called continental drift, an idea that culminated fifty years later in the modern
theory of plate tectonics.[40].

Wegener expanded his theory in his 1915 book The Origin of Continents and Oceans[41]. Starting from the
idea (also expressed by his forerunners) that the present continents once formed a single land mass (later called
Pangea), Wegener suggested that these separated and drifted apart, likening them to "icebergs" of low density
granite floating on a sea of denser basalt.[42] Supporting evidence for the idea came from the dove-tailing
outlines of South America's east coast and Africa's west coast, and from the matching of the rock formations
along these edges. Confirmation of their previous contiguous nature also came from the fossil plants
Glossopteris and Gangamopteris, and the therapsid or mammal-like reptile Lystrosaurus, all widely distributed
over South America, Africa, Antarctica, India, and
Australia. The evidence for such an erstwhile joining of
these continents was patent to field geologists working
in the southern hemisphere. The South African Alex du
Toit put together a mass of such information in his 1937
publication Our Wandering Continents, and went
further than Wegener in recognising the strong links
between the Gondwana fragments.

Wegener's work was initially not widely accepted, in

part due to a lack of detailed evidence. The Earth might
have a solid crust and mantle and a liquid core, but Detailed map showing the tectonic plates with their
there seemed to be no way that portions of the crust movement vectors.
could move around. Distinguished scientists, such as
Harold Jeffreys and Charles Schuchert, were outspoken
critics of continental drift.

Despite much opposition, the view of continental drift gained support and a lively debate started between
"drifters" or "mobilists" (proponents of the theory) and "fixists" (opponents). During the 1920s, 1930s and
1940s, the former reached important milestones proposing that convection currents might have driven the plate
movements, and that spreading may have occurred below the sea within the oceanic crust. Concepts close to
the elements now incorporated in plate tectonics were proposed by geophysicists and geologists (both fixists
and mobilists) like Vening-Meinesz, Holmes, and Umbgrove.

One of the first pieces of geophysical evidence that was used to support the movement of lithospheric plates
came from paleomagnetism. This is based on the fact that rocks of different ages show a variable magnetic
field direction, evidenced by studies since the mid–nineteenth century. The magnetic north and south poles
reverse through time, and, especially important in paleotectonic studies, the relative position of the magnetic
north pole varies through time. Initially, during the first half of the twentieth century, the latter phenomenon
was explained by introducing what was called "polar wander" (see apparent polar wander) (i.e., it was
assumed that the north pole location had been shifting through time). An alternative explanation, though, was
that the continents had moved (shifted and rotated) relative to the north pole, and each continent, in fact, shows
its own "polar wander path". During the late 1950s it was successfully shown on two occasions that these data
could show the validity of continental drift: by Keith Runcorn in a paper in 1956,[43] and by Warren Carey in
a symposium held in March 1956.[44]

The second piece of evidence in support of continental drift came during the late 1950s and early 60s from
data on the bathymetry of the deep ocean floors and the nature of the oceanic crust such as magnetic properties
and, more generally, with the development of marine geology[45] which gave evidence for the association of
seafloor spreading along the mid-oceanic ridges and magnetic field reversals, published between 1959 and
1963 by Heezen, Dietz, Hess, Mason, Vine & Matthews, and Morley.[46]

Simultaneous advances in early seismic imaging techniques in and around Wadati–Benioff zones along the
trenches bounding many continental margins, together with many other geophysical (e.g. gravimetric) and
geological observations, showed how the oceanic crust could disappear into the mantle, providing the
mechanism to balance the extension of the ocean basins with shortening along its margins.

All this evidence, both from the ocean floor and from the continental margins, made it clear around 1965 that
continental drift was feasible and the theory of plate tectonics, which was defined in a series of papers between
1965 and 1967, was born, with all its extraordinary explanatory and predictive power. The theory
revolutionized the Earth sciences, explaining a diverse range of geological phenomena and their implications
in other studies such as paleogeography and paleobiology.
Continental drift

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, geologists assumed that the Earth's major features were fixed, and that
most geologic features such as basin development and mountain ranges could be explained by vertical crustal
movement, described in what is called the geosynclinal theory. Generally, this was placed in the context of a
contracting planet Earth due to heat loss in the course of a relatively short geological time.

It was observed as early as 1596 that the opposite coasts of the

Atlantic Ocean—or, more precisely, the edges of the continental
shelves—have similar shapes and seem to have once fitted
together.[47]

Since that time many theories were proposed to explain this apparent
complementarity, but the assumption of a solid Earth made these
various proposals difficult to accept.[48]

The discovery of radioactivity and its associated heating properties

in 1895 prompted a re-examination of the apparent age of the Alfred Wegener in Greenland in the
Earth. [49] This had previously been estimated by its cooling rate winter of 1912–13.
under the assumption that the Earth's surface radiated like a black
body.[50] Those calculations had implied that, even if it started at red
heat, the Earth would have dropped to its present temperature in a few tens of millions of years. Armed with
the knowledge of a new heat source, scientists realized that the Earth would be much older, and that its core
was still sufficiently hot to be liquid.

By 1915, after having published a first article in 1912,[51] Alfred Wegener was making serious arguments for
the idea of continental drift in the first edition of The Origin of Continents and Oceans.[41] In that book (re-
issued in four successive editions up to the final one in 1936), he noted how the east coast of South America
and the west coast of Africa looked as if they were once attached. Wegener was not the first to note this
(Abraham Ortelius, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini, Eduard Suess, Roberto Mantovani and Frank Bursley Taylor
preceded him just to mention a few), but he was the first to marshal significant fossil and paleo-topographical
and climatological evidence to support this simple observation (and was supported in this by researchers such
as Alex du Toit). Furthermore, when the rock strata of the margins of separate continents are very similar it
suggests that these rocks were formed in the same way, implying that they were joined initially. For instance,
parts of Scotland and Ireland contain rocks very similar to those found in Newfoundland and New Brunswick.
Furthermore, the Caledonian Mountains of Europe and parts of the Appalachian Mountains of North America
are very similar in structure and lithology.

However, his ideas were not taken seriously by many geologists, who pointed out that there was no apparent
mechanism for continental drift. Specifically, they did not see how continental rock could plow through the
much denser rock that makes up oceanic crust. Wegener could not explain the force that drove continental
drift, and his vindication did not come until after his death in 1930.[52]

Floating continents, paleomagnetism, and seismicity zones

As it was observed early that although granite existed on continents, seafloor seemed to be composed of
denser basalt, the prevailing concept during the first half of the twentieth century was that there were two types
of crust, named "sial" (continental type crust) and "sima" (oceanic type crust). Furthermore, it was supposed
that a static shell of strata was present under the continents. It therefore looked apparent that a layer of basalt
(sial) underlies the continental rocks.
However, based on abnormalities in plumb line
deflection by the Andes in Peru, Pierre Bouguer had
deduced that less-dense mountains must have a
downward projection into the denser layer underneath.
The concept that mountains had "roots" was confirmed
by George B. Airy a hundred years later, during study
of Himalayan gravitation, and seismic studies detected
corresponding density variations. Therefore, by the
mid-1950s, the question remained unresolved as to
whether mountain roots were clenched in surrounding
basalt or were floating on it like an iceberg.
Global earthquake epicenters, 1963–1998. Most
During the 20th century, improvements in and greater earthquakes occur in narrow belts that correspond to
use of seismic instruments such as seismographs the locations of lithospheric plate boundaries.
enabled scientists to learn that earthquakes tend to be
concentrated in specific areas, most notably along the
oceanic trenches and spreading ridges. By the late
1920s, seismologists were beginning to identify several
prominent earthquake zones parallel to the trenches that
typically were inclined 40–60° from the horizontal and
extended several hundred kilometers into the Earth.
These zones later became known as Wadati–Benioff
zones, or simply Benioff zones, in honor of the
seismologists who first recognized them, Kiyoo Wadati
of Japan and Hugo Benioff of the United States. The
study of global seismicity greatly advanced in the 1960s
Map of earthquakes in 2016
with the establishment of the Worldwide Standardized
Seismograph Network (WWSSN)[53] to monitor the
compliance of the 1963 treaty banning above-ground testing of nuclear weapons. The much improved data
from the WWSSN instruments allowed seismologists to map precisely the zones of earthquake concentration
worldwide.

Meanwhile, debates developed around the phenomenon of polar wander. Since the early debates of continental
drift, scientists had discussed and used evidence that polar drift had occurred because continents seemed to
have moved through different climatic zones during the past. Furthermore, paleomagnetic data had shown that
the magnetic pole had also shifted during time. Reasoning in an opposite way, the continents might have
shifted and rotated, while the pole remained relatively fixed. The first time the evidence of magnetic polar
wander was used to support the movements of continents was in a paper by Keith Runcorn in 1956,[43] and
successive papers by him and his students Ted Irving (who was actually the first to be convinced of the fact
that paleomagnetism supported continental drift) and Ken Creer.

This was immediately followed by a symposium in Tasmania in March 1956.[54] In this symposium, the
evidence was used in the theory of an expansion of the global crust. In this hypothesis, the shifting of the
continents can be simply explained by a large increase in the size of the Earth since its formation. However,
this was unsatisfactory because its supporters could offer no convincing mechanism to produce a significant
expansion of the Earth. Certainly there is no evidence that the moon has expanded in the past 3 billion years;
other work would soon show that the evidence was equally in support of continental drift on a globe with a
stable radius.

During the thirties up to the late fifties, works by Vening-Meinesz, Holmes, Umbgrove, and numerous others
outlined concepts that were close or nearly identical to modern plate tectonics theory. In particular, the English
geologist Arthur Holmes proposed in 1920 that plate junctions might lie beneath the sea, and in 1928 that
convection currents within the mantle might be the driving force.[55] Often, these contributions are forgotten
because:

At the time, continental drift was not accepted.

Some of these ideas were discussed in the context of abandoned fixistic ideas of a deforming
globe without continental drift or an expanding Earth.
They were published during an episode of extreme political and economic instability that
hampered scientific communication.
Many were published by European scientists and at first not mentioned or given little credit in
the papers on sea floor spreading published by the American researchers in the 1960s.

Mid-oceanic ridge spreading and convection

In 1947, a team of scientists led by Maurice Ewing utilizing the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's
research vessel Atlantis and an array of instruments, confirmed the existence of a rise in the central Atlantic
Ocean, and found that the floor of the seabed beneath the layer of sediments consisted of basalt, not the granite
which is the main constituent of continents. They also found that the oceanic crust was much thinner than
continental crust. All these new findings raised important and intriguing questions.[56]

The new data that had been collected on the ocean basins also showed particular characteristics regarding the
bathymetry. One of the major outcomes of these datasets was that all along the globe, a system of mid-oceanic
ridges was detected. An important conclusion was that along this system, new ocean floor was being created,
which led to the concept of the "Great Global Rift". This was described in the crucial paper of Bruce Heezen
(1960),[57] which would trigger a real revolution in thinking. A profound consequence of seafloor spreading is
that new crust was, and still is, being continually created along the oceanic ridges. Therefore, Heezen
advocated the so-called "expanding Earth" hypothesis of S. Warren Carey (see above). So, still the question
remained: how can new crust be continuously added along the oceanic ridges without increasing the size of
the Earth? In reality, this question had been solved already by numerous scientists during the forties and the
fifties, like Arthur Holmes, Vening-Meinesz, Coates and many others: The crust in excess disappeared along
what were called the oceanic trenches, where so-called "subduction" occurred. Therefore, when various
scientists during the early 1960s started to reason on the data at their disposal regarding the ocean floor, the
pieces of the theory quickly fell into place.

The question particularly intrigued Harry Hammond Hess, a Princeton University geologist and a Naval
Reserve Rear Admiral, and Robert S. Dietz, a scientist with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey who first
coined the term seafloor spreading. Dietz and Hess (the former published the same idea one year earlier in
Nature,[58] but priority belongs to Hess who had already distributed an unpublished manuscript of his 1962
article by 1960)[59] were among the small handful who really understood the broad implications of sea floor
spreading and how it would eventually agree with the, at that time, unconventional and unaccepted ideas of
continental drift and the elegant and mobilistic models proposed by previous workers like Holmes.

In the same year, Robert R. Coats of the U.S. Geological Survey described the main features of island arc
subduction in the Aleutian Islands. His paper, though little noted (and even ridiculed) at the time, has since
been called "seminal" and "prescient". In reality, it actually shows that the work by the European scientists on
island arcs and mountain belts performed and published during the 1930s up until the 1950s was applied and
appreciated also in the United States.

If the Earth's crust was expanding along the oceanic ridges, Hess and Dietz reasoned like Holmes and others
before them, it must be shrinking elsewhere. Hess followed Heezen, suggesting that new oceanic crust
continuously spreads away from the ridges in a conveyor belt–like motion. And, using the mobilistic concepts
developed before, he correctly concluded that many millions of years later, the oceanic crust eventually
descends along the continental margins where oceanic trenches—very deep, narrow canyons—are formed,
e.g. along the rim of the Pacific Ocean basin. The important step Hess made was that convection currents
would be the driving force in this process, arriving at the same conclusions as Holmes had decades before with
the only difference that the thinning of the ocean crust was performed using Heezen's mechanism of spreading
along the ridges. Hess therefore concluded that the Atlantic Ocean was expanding while the Pacific Ocean
was shrinking. As old oceanic crust is "consumed" in the trenches (like Holmes and others, he thought this
was done by thickening of the continental lithosphere, not, as now understood, by underthrusting at a larger
scale of the oceanic crust itself into the mantle), new magma rises and erupts along the spreading ridges to
form new crust. In effect, the ocean basins are perpetually being "recycled," with the creation of new crust and
the destruction of old oceanic lithosphere occurring simultaneously. Thus, the new mobilistic concepts neatly
explained why the Earth does not get bigger with sea floor spreading, why there is so little sediment
accumulation on the ocean floor, and why oceanic rocks are much younger than continental rocks.

Magnetic striping

Beginning in the 1950s, scientists like Victor Vacquier, using

magnetic instruments (magnetometers) adapted from airborne devices
developed during World War II to detect submarines, began
recognizing odd magnetic variations across the ocean floor. This
finding, though unexpected, was not entirely surprising because it was
known that basalt—the iron-rich, volcanic rock making up the ocean
floor—contains a strongly magnetic mineral (magnetite) and can
locally distort compass readings. This distortion was recognized by
Icelandic mariners as early as the late 18th century. More important, Seafloor magnetic striping.
because the presence of magnetite gives the basalt measurable
magnetic properties, these newly discovered magnetic variations
provided another means to study the deep ocean floor. When newly
formed rock cools, such magnetic materials recorded the Earth's magnetic
field at the time.

As more and more of the seafloor was mapped during the 1950s, the
magnetic variations turned out not to be random or isolated occurrences,
but instead revealed recognizable patterns. When these magnetic patterns
were mapped over a wide region, the ocean floor showed a zebra-like
pattern: one stripe with normal polarity and the adjoining stripe with A demonstration of magnetic
reversed polarity. The overall pattern, defined by these alternating bands of striping. (The darker the color is,
normally and reversely polarized rock, became known as magnetic the closer it is to normal
striping, and was published by Ron G. Mason and co-workers in 1961, polarity)
who did not find, though, an explanation for these data in terms of sea
floor spreading, like Vine, Matthews and Morley a few years later.[60]

The discovery of magnetic striping called for an explanation. In the early 1960s scientists such as Heezen,
Hess and Dietz had begun to theorise that mid-ocean ridges mark structurally weak zones where the ocean
floor was being ripped in two lengthwise along the ridge crest (see the previous paragraph). New magma from
deep within the Earth rises easily through these weak zones and eventually erupts along the crest of the ridges
to create new oceanic crust. This process, at first denominated the "conveyer belt hypothesis" and later called
seafloor spreading, operating over many millions of years continues to form new ocean floor all across the
50,000 km-long system of mid-ocean ridges.

Only four years after the maps with the "zebra pattern" of magnetic stripes were published, the link between
sea floor spreading and these patterns was correctly placed, independently by Lawrence Morley, and by Fred
Vine and Drummond Matthews, in 1963,[61] now called the Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis. This
hypothesis linked these patterns to geomagnetic reversals and was supported by several lines of evidence:[62]
 1. the stripes are symmetrical around the crests of the mid-ocean ridges; at or near the crest of the
ridge, the rocks are very young, and they become progressively older away from the ridge crest;
2. the youngest rocks at the ridge crest always have present-day (normal) polarity;
3. stripes of rock parallel to the ridge crest alternate in magnetic polarity (normal-reversed-normal,
etc.), suggesting that they were formed during different epochs documenting the (already
known from independent studies) normal and reversal episodes of the Earth's magnetic field.

By explaining both the zebra-like magnetic striping and the construction of the mid-ocean ridge system, the
seafloor spreading hypothesis (SFS) quickly gained converts and represented another major advance in the
development of the plate-tectonics theory. Furthermore, the oceanic crust now came to be appreciated as a
natural "tape recording" of the history of the geomagnetic field reversals (GMFR) of the Earth's magnetic field.
Today, extensive studies are dedicated to the calibration of the normal-reversal patterns in the oceanic crust on
one hand and known timescales derived from the dating of basalt layers in sedimentary sequences
(magnetostratigraphy) on the other, to arrive at estimates of past spreading rates and plate reconstructions.

Definition and refining of the theory

After all these considerations, Plate Tectonics (or, as it was initially called "New Global Tectonics") became
quickly accepted in the scientific world, and numerous papers followed that defined the concepts:

In 1965, Tuzo Wilson who had been a promoter of the sea floor spreading hypothesis and
continental drift from the very beginning[63] added the concept of transform faults to the model,
completing the classes of fault types necessary to make the mobility of the plates on the globe
work out.[64]
A symposium on continental drift was held at the Royal Society of London in 1965 which must
be regarded as the official start of the acceptance of plate tectonics by the scientific community,
and which abstracts are issued as Blackett, Bullard & Runcorn (1965). In this symposium,
Edward Bullard and co-workers showed with a computer calculation how the continents along
both sides of the Atlantic would best fit to close the ocean, which became known as the famous
"Bullard's Fit".
In 1966 Wilson published the paper that referred to previous plate tectonic reconstructions,
introducing the concept of what is now known as the "Wilson Cycle".[65]
In 1967, at the American Geophysical Union's meeting, W. Jason Morgan proposed that the
Earth's surface consists of 12 rigid plates that move relative to each other.[66]
Two months later, Xavier Le Pichon published a complete model based on six major plates
with their relative motions, which marked the final acceptance by the scientific community of
plate tectonics.[67]
In the same year, McKenzie and Parker independently presented a model similar to Morgan's
using translations and rotations on a sphere to define the plate motions.[68]

Plate Tectonics Revolution

The Plate Tectonics Revolution was the scientific and cultural change which developed from the acceptance of
the plate tectonics theory. The event was a paradigm shift and scientific revolution.[69]

Implications for biogeography

Continental drift theory helps biogeographers to explain the disjunct biogeographic distribution of present-day
life found on different continents but having similar ancestors.[70] In particular, it explains the Gondwanan
distribution of ratites and the Antarctic flora.

Plate reconstruction
Reconstruction is used to establish past (and future) plate configurations, helping determine the shape and
make-up of ancient supercontinents and providing a basis for paleogeography.

Defining plate boundaries

Current plate boundaries are defined by their seismicity.[71] Past plate boundaries within existing plates are
identified from a variety of evidence, such as the presence of ophiolites that are indicative of vanished
oceans.[72]

Past plate motions

Tectonic motion is believed to have begun around 3 to 3.5 billion years ago.[73][74]

Various types of quantitative and semi-quantitative information are available to constrain past plate motions.
The geometric fit between continents, such as between west Africa and South America is still an important
part of plate reconstruction. Magnetic stripe patterns provide a reliable guide to relative plate motions going
back into the Jurassic period.[75] The tracks of hotspots give absolute reconstructions, but these are only
available back to the Cretaceous.[76] Older reconstructions rely mainly on paleomagnetic pole data, although
these only constrain the latitude and rotation, but not the longitude. Combining poles of different ages in a
particular plate to produce apparent polar wander paths provides a method for comparing the motions of
different plates through time.[77] Additional evidence comes from the distribution of certain sedimentary rock
types,[78] faunal provinces shown by particular fossil groups, and the position of orogenic belts.[76]

Formation and break-up of continents

The movement of plates has caused the formation and break-up of continents over time, including occasional
formation of a supercontinent that contains most or all of the continents. The supercontinent Columbia or Nuna
formed during a period of 2,000 to 1,800 million years ago and broke up about
1,500 to 1,300 million years ago.[79] The supercontinent Rodinia is thought to have formed about 1 billion
years ago and to have embodied most or all of Earth's continents, and broken up into eight continents around
600 million years ago. The eight continents later re-assembled into another supercontinent called Pangaea;
Pangaea broke up into Laurasia (which became North America and Eurasia) and Gondwana (which became
the remaining continents).

The Himalayas, the world's tallest mountain range, are assumed to have been formed by the collision of two
major plates. Before uplift, they were covered by the Tethys Ocean.

Current plates
Depending on how they are defined, there are usually seven or eight "major" plates: African, Antarctic,
Eurasian, North American, South American, Pacific, and Indo-Australian. The latter is sometimes subdivided
into the Indian and Australian plates.
There are dozens of smaller
plates, the seven largest of
which are the Arabian,
Caribbean, Juan de Fuca,
Cocos, Nazca, Philippine
Sea, and Scotia.

The current motion of the

tectonic plates is today
determined by remote sensing
satellite data sets, calibrated
with ground station
measurements.

Other celestial
bodies (planets,
moons)
The appearance of plate tectonics on terrestrial planets is related to planetary mass, with more massive planets
than Earth expected to exhibit plate tectonics. Earth may be a borderline case, owing its tectonic activity to
abundant water [80] (silica and water form a deep eutectic).

Venus

Venus shows no evidence of active plate tectonics. There is debatable evidence of active tectonics in the
planet's distant past; however, events taking place since then (such as the plausible and generally accepted
hypothesis that the Venusian lithosphere has thickened greatly over the course of several hundred million
years) has made constraining the course of its geologic record difficult. However, the numerous well-preserved
impact craters have been utilized as a dating method to approximately date the Venusian surface (since there
are thus far no known samples of Venusian rock to be dated by more reliable methods). Dates derived are
dominantly in the range 500 to 750 million years ago, although ages of up to 1,200 million years ago have
been calculated. This research has led to the fairly well accepted hypothesis that Venus has undergone an
essentially complete volcanic resurfacing at least once in its distant past, with the last event taking place
approximately within the range of estimated surface ages. While the mechanism of such an impressive thermal
event remains a debated issue in Venusian geosciences, some scientists are advocates of processes involving
plate motion to some extent.

One explanation for Venus's lack of plate tectonics is that on Venus temperatures are too high for significant
water to be present.[81][82] The Earth's crust is soaked with water, and water plays an important role in the
development of shear zones. Plate tectonics requires weak surfaces in the crust along which crustal slices can
move, and it may well be that such weakening never took place on Venus because of the absence of water.
However, some researchers remain convinced that plate tectonics is or was once active on this planet.

Mars

Mars is considerably smaller than Earth and Venus, and there is evidence for ice on its surface and in its crust.
In the 1990s, it was proposed that Martian Crustal Dichotomy was created by plate tectonic processes.[83]
Scientists today disagree, and think that it was created either by upwelling within the Martian mantle that
thickened the crust of the Southern Highlands and formed Tharsis[84] or by a giant impact that excavated the
Northern Lowlands.[85]

Valles Marineris may be a tectonic boundary.[86]

Observations made of the magnetic field of Mars by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in 1999 showed
patterns of magnetic striping discovered on this planet. Some scientists interpreted these as requiring plate
tectonic processes, such as seafloor spreading.[87] However, their data fail a "magnetic reversal test", which is
used to see if they were formed by flipping polarities of a global magnetic field.[88]

Icy satellites

Some of the satellites of Jupiter have features that may be related to plate-tectonic style deformation, although
the materials and specific mechanisms may be different from plate-tectonic activity on Earth. On 8 September
2014, NASA reported finding evidence of plate tectonics on Europa, a satellite of Jupiter—the first sign of
subduction activity on another world other than Earth.[89]

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, was reported to show tectonic activity in images taken by the Huygens
probe, which landed on Titan on January 14, 2005.[90]

Exoplanets

On Earth-sized planets, plate tectonics is more likely if there are oceans of water. However, in 2007, two
independent teams of researchers came to opposing conclusions about the likelihood of plate tectonics on
larger super-Earths[91][92] with one team saying that plate tectonics would be episodic or stagnant[93] and the
other team saying that plate tectonics is very likely on super-earths even if the planet is dry.[80]

Consideration of plate tectonics is a part of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and extraterrestrial life.[94]

See also
Atmospheric circulation – The large-scale movement of air, a process which distributes thermal
energy about the Earth's surface
Conservation of angular momentum
Geological history of Earth – The sequence of major geological events in Earth's past
Geosyncline
GPlates – Open-source application software for interactive plate-tectonic reconstructions
List of plate tectonics topics
List of submarine topographical features – Oceanic landforms and topographic elements.
Supercontinent cycle – Quasi-periodic aggregation and dispersal of Earth's continental crust
Tectonics – The processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its
evolution through time

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External links
This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics (http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.ht
ml). USGS.
Understanding Plate Tectonics (http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/understanding.html).
USGS.
An explanation of tectonic forces (http://www.tectonic-forces.org/). Example of calculations to
show that Earth Rotation could be a driving force.
Bird, P. (2003); An updated digital model of plate boundaries (http://peterbird.name/publication
s/2003_PB2002/2003_PB2002.htm).
Map of tectonic plates (http://snobear.colorado.edu/Markw/Mountains/03/week3.html).
MORVEL plate velocity estimates and information (http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~chuck/MORV
EL/). C. DeMets, D. Argus, & R. Gordon.
Plate Tectonics (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008q0sp) on In Our Time at the BBC

Videos

Khan Academy Explanation of evidence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EdsBabSZ4g)

750 million years of global tectonic activity (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/tectonics.ht
ml). Movie.
Multiple videos of plate tectonic movements (http://qz.com/577842/scientists-have-used-ground
breaking-technology-to-figure-out-how-the-earth-looked-a-billion-years-ago/) Quartz December
31, 2015

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