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. 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.
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.
Alfred Lothar Wegener (1 November 1880 –
November 1930) was a German polar researcher,
geophysicist and meteorologist.
During his lifetime he was primarily known for his
achievements in meteorology and as a pioneer of polar
research, but today he is most remembered as the
originator of the theory of continental drift by
hypothesizing in 1912 that the continents are slowly
drifting around the Earth (German:
Kontinentalverschiebung).His hypothesis was
controversial and not widely accepted until the 1950s,
when numerous discoveries such as palaeomagnetism
provided strong support for continental drift, and
thereby a substantial basis for today's model of plate
tectonics. Wegener was involved in several expeditions
to Greenland to study polar air circulation before the
existence of the jet stream was accepted. Expedition
participants made many meteorological observations
and were the first to overwinter on the inland
Greenland ice sheet and the first to bore ice cores on a
moving Arctic glacier.
Harry Hess was a professor of geology at Princeton
University (USA), and became interested in the geology
of the oceans while serving in the US Navy in World War
II. His time as a Navy officer was an opportunity to use
sonar (also called echo sounding), then a new
technology, to map the ocean floor across the North
Pacific. He published ‘The History of Ocean Basins' in
1962, in which he outlined a theory that could explain
how the continents could actually drift. This theory later
became known as ‘Sea Floor Spreading'.
Robert Sinclair Dietz (September 14, 1914 – May 19,
1995) was a scientist with the US Coast and Geodetic
Survey. Dietz was a marine geologist, geophysicist and
oceanographer who conducted pioneering research
along with Harry Hammond Hess concerning seafloor
spreading, published as early as 1960–1961. While at
the Scripps Institution of Oceanography he observed
the nature of the Emperor chain of seamounts that
extended from the northwest end of the Hawaiian
Island–Midway chain and speculated over lunch with
Robert Fisher in 1953 that something must be carrying
these old volcanic mountains northward like a conveyor
belt.
 Earth's interior is made up of a series of layers
that sit below the surface crust. In order of depth, these
layers include the solid, but flowing mantle, the liquid
outer core and the solid iron outer core, which helps
create Earth's protective magnetic field. The layers can
also be categorized into the rigid outer lithosphere
(which includes the crust and top portion of the mantle
and makes up Earth's tectonic plates) and the
athenosphere, the portion of the mantle that is solid,
but made up of hot, weak, flowing rock. Read about the
latest research on Earth's layers below.
Inner core: 1.7% of the Earth's mass; depth of 5,150-
6,370 kilometers (3,219 - 3,981 miles)
The inner core is solid and unattached to the mantle,
suspended in the molten outer core. It is believed to
have solidified as a result of pressure-freezing which
occurs to most liquids when temperature decreases or
pressure increases.
Outer core: 30.8% of Earth's mass; depth of 2,890-5,150
kilometers (1,806 - 3,219 miles)
The outer core is a hot, electrically conducting liquid
within which convective motion occurs. This conductive
layer combines with Earth's rotation to create a dynamo
effect that maintains a system of electrical currents
known as the Earth's magnetic field. It is also
responsible for the subtle jerking of Earth's rotation.
This layer is not as dense as pure molten iron, which
indicates the presence of lighter elements. Scientists
suspect that about 10% of the layer is composed of
sulfur and/or oxygen because these elements are
abundant in the cosmos and dissolve readily in molten
iron.
Oceanic crust: 0.099% of Earth's mass; depth of 0-10
kilometers,(0-6miles)
The oceanic crust contains 0.147% of the mantle-crust
mass. The majority of the Earth's crust was made
through volcanic activity. The oceanic ridge system, a
40,000-kilometer (25,000 mile) network of volcanoes,
generates new oceanic crust at the rate of 17 km3 per
year, covering the ocean floor with basalt. Hawaii and
Iceland are two examples of the accumulation of basalt
piles.
Continental crust: 0.374% of Earth's mass; depth of 0-
50 kilometers (0 - 31 miles).
The continental crust contains 0.554% of the mantle-
crust mass. This is the outer part of the Earth composed
essentially of crystalline rocks. These are low-density
buoyant minerals dominated mostly by quartz (SiO2)
and feldspars (metal-poor silicates). The crust (both
oceanic and continental) is the surface of the Earth; as
such, it is the coldest part of our planet. Because cold
rocks deform slowly, we refer to this rigid outer shell as
the lithosphere (the rocky or strong layer).
Oceanic Lithosphere
The rigid, outermost layer of the Earth comprising the
crust and upper mantle is called the lithosphere. New
oceanic lithosphere forms through volcanism in the
form of fissures at mid-ocean ridges which are cracks
that encircle the globe. Heat escapes the interior as this
new lithosphere emerges from below. It gradually cools,
contracts and moves away from the ridge, traveling
across the seafloor to subduction zones in a process
called seafloor spreading. In time, older lithosphere will
thicken and eventually become more dense than the
mantle below, causing it to descend (subduct) back into
the Earth at a steep angle, cooling the interior.
Subduction is the main method of cooling the mantle
below 100 kilometers (62.5 miles). If the lithosphere is
young and thus hotter at a subduction zone, it will be
forced back into the interior at a lesser angle.
Continental Lithosphere
The continental lithosphere is about 150 kilometers (93
miles) thick with a low-density crust and upper-mantle
that are permanently buoyant. Continents drift laterally
along the convecting system of the mantle away from
hot mantle zones toward cooler ones, a process known
as continental drift. Most of the continents are now
sitting on or moving toward cooler parts of the mantle,
with the exception of Africa. Africa was once the core of
Pangaea, a supercontinent that eventually broke into
todays continents. Several hundred million years prior
to the formation of Pangaea, the southern continents -
Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, and India -
were assembled together in what is called Gondwana.
Plate tectonics involves the formation, lateral
movement, interaction, and destruction of the
lithospheric plates. Much of Earth's internal heat is
relieved through this process and many of Earth's large
structural and topographic features are consequently
formed. Continental rift valleys and vast plateaus of
basalt are created at plate break up when magma
ascends from the mantle to the ocean floor, forming
new crust and separating midocean ridges. Plates
collide and are destroyed as they descend at subduction
zones to produce deep ocean trenches, strings of
volcanoes, extensive transform faults, broad linear
rises, and folded mountain belts. Earth's lithosphere
presently is divided into eight large plates with about
two dozen smaller ones that are drifting above the
mantle at the rate of 5 to 10 centimeters (2 to 4 inches)
per year. The eight large plates are the African,
Antarctic, Eurasian, Indian-Australian, Nazca, North
American, Pacific, and South American plates. A few of
the smaller plates are the Anatolian, Arabian,
Caribbean, Cocos, Philippine, and Somali plates.
Asthenosphere – the semi-rigid part of the middle
mantle that flows like not asphalt under a heavy weight.
Crust- composed of two rocks. The continental crust is
mostly granite. The oceanic crust is basalt (much denser
that granite)
Mantle- flows because of convection currents.
Convection currents are caused by the very hot material
at the deepest part of the mantle.
Seismic Waves
One ingenious way scientists learn about Earth’s
interior is by looking at how energy travels from the
point of an earthquake, called seismic waves. Seismic
waves travel outward in all directions from where the
ground breaks at an earthquake. Seismograph stations
measure the energy released by these earthquakes, but
there are two that scientists are most interested with in
regards to understanding the interior of the earth.
Primary waves (also called P-waves) are fastest,
traveling at about 6 to 7 kilometers (about 4 miles) per
second, so they arrive first at the seismometer. P-waves
move in a compression/expansion type motion,
squeezing and unsqueezing earth materials as they
travel. P-waves bend slightly when they travel from one
layer into another. Seismic waves move faster through
denser or more rigid material. As P-waves encounter
the liquid outer core, which is less rigid than the mantle,
they slow down. This makes the P-waves arrive later
and further away than would be expected. The result is
a P-wave shadow zone. No P-waves are picked up at
seismographs 104o to 140o from the earthquakes
focus.
Secondary waves (also called S-waves) are about half as
fast as P-waves, traveling at about 3.5 km (2 miles) per
second, and arrive second at seismographs. S-waves
move in an up and down motion perpendicular to the
direction of wave travel. This produces a change in
shape for the earth materials they move through. Only
solids resist a change in shape, so S-waves are only able
to propagate through solids. S-waves cannot travel
through liquid. By tracking seismic waves, scientists
have learned what makes up the planet’s interior. P-
waves slow down at the mantle core boundary, so we
know the outer core is less rigid than the mantle. S-
waves disappear at the mantle core boundary, so the
outer core is liquid.
Other clues to Earth’s interior includes the fact that we
know that Earth’s overall density is higher than the
density of crustal rocks, so the core must be made of
something dense, like metal. Also, since Earth has a
magnetic field, there must be metal within the planet.
Iron and nickel are both magnetic. Finally, meteorites
are the remains of the material that formed the early
solar system and are thought to be similar to material in
Earth’s interior.