Neville Price presents a major breakthrough in our understanding of the subject of plate tectonics in this new book. In this ambitious look at the importance of impacts of objects from space on the earth, he challenges the fundamentals of the theory on which geoscience has rested for the past 25 years. In the latter half of the 20th century
This book provides an overview of the history of plate tectonics, including in-context definitions of the key terms. It explains how the forerunners of the theory and how scientists working at the key academic institutions competed and collaborated until the theory coalesced.
This essential volume explores the slow but mighty shifts that created the continents and that continue to shape modern landscapes. Readers will look at theories put forward through the ages to explain volcanoes and earthquakes, and they'll examine how geologists learned what we now understand about Earth's crust. In a world of constant movement, how do these ever-shifting plates affect our lives today? Photographs, diagrams, and sidebars help students understand the science that answers this and other questions.
In the early 1960s, the emergence of the theory of plate tectonics started a revolution in the earth sciences. Since then, scientists have verified and refined this theory, and now have a much better understanding of how our planet has been shaped by plate-tectonic processes. We now know that, directly or indirectly, plate tectonics influences nearly all geologic processes, past and present. Indeed, the notion that the entire Earth's surface is continually shifting has profoundly changed the way we view our world.
This series offers a detailed, informative and lively discussion on four of the key areas of physical geography. Each book helps develop the knowledge of how specific features of the Earth are formed, their causes and effects, patterns and processes, and our study and understanding of them. The series aims not only to answer, but also to inspire questions about different environments and landscapes, and our relationships with some of the greatest forces of nature we experience on Earth. Photographs bring the effects of the subject vividly to life, while diagrams enhance the readers' practical understanding of the processes that have created the landscapes of the world in which we live today.
Developments in Geotectonics, 6: Plate Tectonics focuses on the exposition of the plate-tectonics hypothesis, as well as plate boundaries, stratification, and kinematics. The book first offers information on the rheological stratification of the mantle and kinematics of relative movements. Topics include lithosphere, asthenosphere, kinematics of finite motions, measurements of instantaneous movements, and worldwide kinematic pattern. The text then ponders on movements relative to a frame external to the plates and processes at accreting plate boundaries. Discussions focus on reference frames, paleomagnetic synthesis, creation of oceanic crust, and continental rifts. The publication elaborates on processes at consuming plate boundaries, including sinking plate model, structure of trenches and associated island arcs and cordilleras, and consumption of continent-bearing lithosphere. The text is a valuable source of data for readers interested in plate tectonics.
Discusses plate tectonics, the theory that the surface of the earth is always moving, and the connection of this phenomenon to earthquakes and volcanoes.