Plate tectonics, theory dealing with the dynamics of Earth’s outer shell—the lithosphere—that

revolutionized Earth sciences by providing a uniform context for understanding mountain-building

processes, volcanoes, and earthquakes as well as the evolution of Earth’s surface and reconstructing its
past continents and oceans.

TOP QUESTIONS

Who first proposed the idea of plate tectonics?

What is the cause of plate tectonics?

What is the Ring of Fire, and where is it?

Why are there tectonic plates?

The concept of plate tectonics was formulated in the 1960s. According to the theory, Earth has a rigid
outer layer, known as the lithosphere, which is typically about 100 km (60 miles) thick and overlies a
plastic (moldable, partially molten) layer called the asthenosphere. The lithosphere is broken up into
seven very large continental- and ocean-sized plates, six or seven medium-sized regional plates, and
several small ones. These plates move relative to each other, typically at rates of 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4
inches) per year, and interact along their boundaries, where they converge, diverge, or slip past one
another. Such interactions are thought to be responsible for most of Earth’s seismic and volcanic activity,
although earthquakes and volcanoes can occur in plate interiors. Plate motions cause mountains to rise
where plates push together, or converge, and continents to fracture and oceans to form where plates
pull apart, or diverge. The continents are embedded in the plates and drift passively with them, which
over millions of years results in significant changes in Earth’s geography.

Volcanology

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Earth sciences: The theory of plate tectonics

Plate tectonics has revolutionized virtually every discipline of the Earth sciences…

The theory of plate tectonics is based on a broad synthesis of geologic and geophysical data. It is now
almost universally accepted, and its adoption represents a true scientific revolution, analogous in its
consequences to quantum mechanics in physics or the discovery of the genetic code in biology.
Incorporating the much older idea of continental drift, as well as the concept of seafloor spreading, the
theory of plate tectonics has provided an overarching framework in which to describe the past
geography of continents and oceans, the processes controlling creation and destruction of landforms,
and the evolution of Earth’s crust, atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and climates. During the late
20th and early 21st centuries, it became apparent that plate-tectonic processes profoundly influence the
composition of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, serve as a prime cause of long-term climate change, and
make significant contributions to the chemical and physical environment in which life evolves.

For details on the specific effects of plate tectonics, see the articles earthquake and volcano. A detailed
treatment of the various land and submarine relief features associated with plate motion is provided in
the articles tectonic landform and ocean

Before the concept of plate tectonics, global cooling was a geophysical theory by James Dwight Dana,
also referred to as the contracting earth theory. It suggested that the Earth had been in a molten state,
and features such as mountains formed as it cooled and shrank.[1] As the interior of the Earth cooled
and shrank, the rigid crust would have to shrink and crumple. The crumpling could produce features such
as mountain ranges.

Application

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The Earth was compared to a cooling ball of iron, or a steam boiler with shifting boiler plates. By the
early 1900s, it was known that temperature increased with increasing depth. With the thickness of the
crust, the "boiler plates", being estimated at ten to fifty miles, the downward pressure would be
hundreds of thousands of pounds per square inch. Although groundwater was expected to turn to steam
at a great depth, usually the downward pressure would contain any steam. Steam's effect upon molten
rock was suspected of being a cause of volcanoes and earthquakes, as it had been noticed that most
volcanoes are near water. It was not clear whether the molten rock from volcanoes had its origin in the
molten rock under the crust, or if increased heat due to pressure under mountains caused the rock to
melt. One of the reasons for volcanoes was as a way in which "the contracting earth disposes of the
matter it can no longer contain." A relationship between earthquakes and volcanoes had been noted,
although the causes were not known. Fault lines and earthquakes tended to happen along the
boundaries of the shifting "boiler plates", but the folding of mountains indicated that sometimes the
plates buckled.[2]

In the early 1900s, Professor Eduard Suess used the theory to explain the 1908 Messina earthquake,
being of the opinion that the Earth's crust was gradually shrinking everywhere. He also predicted that
eruptions would follow the earthquake and tsunami in Southern Italy. He attributed the earthquake to
the sinking of the Earth's crust, in the zone of which the Aeolian Islands are the center. He declared that
as the process of sinking went on, the Calabrian and Sicilian highlands on either side of the Straits of
Messina would be submerged, only the highest peaks remaining above the sea. The strait, he said, would
thereby be greatly widened.[2]

Similarly, Professor Robert T. Hill explained at that time that "the rocks are being folded, fractured and
otherwise broken or deformed by the great shrinking and settling of the earth's crust as a whole. The
contraction of the earth's sphere is the physical shrinkage of age that is measured in aeons instead of
years. The prehistoric convulsions of the earth before man inhabited this planet were terrific, almost
inconceivable." There "was no doubt that earthquakes are diminishing." The displacement of the 1906
San Francisco earthquake was only a few feet, while prehistoric earthquakes made fissures and slides of
20,000 feet.[2]

1906 map of earthquake regions

1906 map of earthquake regions

The Pacific Ring of Fire had been noticed, as well as a second earthquake belt which went through:
[clarification needed]

the Philippines

Panama

the Caribbean

Spain

the Alps

the Himalayas

Asia to Japan[2]

A contracting Earth served as framework for Leopold Kober and Hans Stille who worked on geosyncline
theory in the first half of the 20th century.[3]

Objections
Edit

Some of the objections include:

Some large-scale features of the Earth are the result of extension rather than shortening.

After radioactive decay was discovered, it was realized it would release heat inside the planet. This
undermines the cooling effect upon which the shrinking planet theory is based.[4]

Identical fossils have been found thousands of kilometres apart, showing the planet was once a single
continent which broke apart because of plate tectonics.

Current status

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This theory is now disproven and considered obsolete. In contrast to Earth, however, global cooling
remains the dominant explanation for scarp (cliff) features on the planet Mercury. After resumption of
Lunar exploration in the 1990s, it was discovered there are scarps across the Moon's surface which are
caused by contraction due to cooling.[5]

Spreading

Seafloor spreading is a geologic process where there is a gradual addition of new oceanic crust in the
ocean floor through a volcanic activity while moving the older rocks away from the mid-oceanic ridge.
The mid-ocean ridge is where the seafloor spreading occurs, in which tectonic plates—large slabs of
Earth’s lithosphere—split apart from each other.

Seafloor spreading was proposed by an American geophysicist, Harry H. Hess in 1960. By the use of the
sonar, Hess was able to map the ocean floor and discovered the mid-Atlantic ridge (mid-ocean ridge). He
also found out that the temperature near to the mid-Atlantic ridge was warmer than the surface away
from it. He believed that the high temperature was due to the magma that leaked out from the ridge.
The Continental Drift Theory of Alfred Wegener in 1912 is supported by this hypothesis on the shift
position of the earth’s surface.

Continental drift is the theory that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each
other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed.[2] The speculation that continents might
have 'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The concept was independently and
more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, but his theory was rejected by many for lack of any
motive mechanism. Arthur Holmes later proposed mantle convection for that mechanism. The idea of
continental drift has since been subsumed by the theory of plate tectonics, which explains that the
continents move by riding on plates of the Earth's lithosphere.