Table Of ContentPLATE
TECTONICS
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ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-4132-3 (pbk)
To the late Chuck Drake,
who was always interested in peoples stories
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments IX
Naomi Oreskes and Homer Le Grand
Preface: History and Memory Xl
Naomi Oreskes
PART I THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
From Continental Drift to Plate Tectonics 3
Naomi Oreskes
PART II THE EARLY WORK: FROM PALEOMAGNETISM
TO SEA FLOOR SPREADING
2 Stripes on the Sea Floor 31
RnnMason
3 Reversals of Fortune 46
J
Frederick Vine
4 The Zebra Pattern 67
Lawrence W. Morley
5 On Board the Eltanin-19 86
Walter Pitman
6 The Birth of Plate Tectonics 95
Neil D. Opdyke
PART Ill HEAT FLOW AND SEISMOLOGY
7 How Mobile is the Earth? 111
J
Gordon MacDonald
8 Heat Flow under the Oceans 128
john G. Sclater
Vll
Vlll CONTENTS
9 Locating Earthquakes and Plate Boundaries 148
Bruce A. Bolt
10 Earthquake Seismology in the Plate Tectonics Revolution 155
Jack Oliver
PART IV THE PLATE MODEL
11 Plate Tectonics: A Surprising Way to Start a
Scientific Career 169
Dan McKenzie
12 When Plates Were Paving Stones 191
&bert L. Parker
13 My Conversion to Plate Tectonics 201
Xavier Le Pichon
PART V FROM THE OCEANS TO THE CONTINENTS
14 Plate Tectonics and Geology, 1965 to Today 227
John F. Dewey
15 When the Plate Tectonic Revolution Met Westem
North America 243
Tanya Atwater
16 The Coming of Plate Tectonics to the Pacific Rim 264
William R Dickinson
17 From Plate Tectonics to Continental Tectonics 288
Peter Molnar
EPILOGUE: CONTINENTS REALLY DO MOVE
18 Plate Tectonics: A Martian View 331
David T. Sandwell
Notes 347
Further Reading 407
Index 415
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE IDEA FOR THIS PROJECT EMERGED FROM THE HISTORY
Committee of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), then chaired by
Ed Cliver. For some time, the AGU has been committed to the impor
tance of history as a resource for the scientific community. With its com
mitment to publications, oral history, and historically oriented themes
at annual meetings, the AGU has been a model of what history can do
for a scientific community, bringing diverse specialists together in ways
that the daily practice of science rarely does. Beyond expressing our
thanks to the AGU as an organization, we are particularly indebted to
Ed Cliver. The idea for this project was Ed's, and he convinced us to take
it on. Moreover, he stayed involved every step of the way: helping to iden
tify and track down contributors, calling to check progress, reading man
uscripts, and providing moral support and good humor all along the way.
We also wish to express our appreciation for the 17 scientists whose
essays appear in this volume. When we began this project, we did not
know how our invitees would respond, and we had some concerns that
they might be dismissive of history, as scientists sometimes are. This
turned out not to be the case. On the contrary, our authors responded
with enthusiasm and made time in their busy lives to take on this extra
task. Each of them has been a pleasure to work with, and we have
learned a great deal from our interactions with them. Nearly every one
of our authors took additional time to help resolve discrepancies in the
historical record; to discuss historical, philosophical, personal, and
political questions raised by the history of plate tectonics; or to send us
relevant reprints, photos, and interviews. To each and every one of them
we are extremely grateful. We owe a special debt of gratitude to Xavier
Le Pichon, Dan McKenzie, Peter Molnar, and Jack Oliver for extended
conversations and email communications, and to local colleagues at the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) John Sclater and Bob
Parker for their constant willingness to help clarify technical points.
Jason Morgan and Ted Irving were unable to write essays for this vol
ume, but generously gave of their time to talk about their contributions.
We are grateful also to SIO archivist Deborah Day, whose professional
title scarcely does justice to the myriad ways she supports and promotes
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