Plate Tectonics

An Insider's History of the Modern Theory of the Earth

Naomi Oreskes

424 pages, parution le 11/03/2002

Ajouter à une liste

Indisponible

Résumé

Can anyone today imagine the earth without its puzzle-piece construction of plate tectonics? The very term, plate tectonics, coined only thirty-five years ago, is now part of the vernacular, part of everyone's understanding of the way the earth works.

The theory, research, data collection, and analysis that came together in 1968 to constitute plate tectonics is one of the great scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century. Scholarly books have been written about tectonics, but none by the scientists-players themselves. In Plate Tectonics, editor Naomi Oreskes has assembled those scientists who played key roles in developing the theory to tell -- for the first time, and in their own words -- the stories of their involvement in the extraordinary confirmation of the theory.

The book opens with an overview of the history of plate tectonics, including in-context definitions of the terms that are discussed throughout the book. Oreskes introduces Wegener and du Toit, the forerunners of the theory, who inspired how scientists working at the key academic institutions -- Cambridge and Princeton Universities, Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Geological Observatory, and the University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institute of Oceanography -- competed and collaborated until the theory coalesced in 1968.

Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Preface: History and Memory xi

Part I The Historical Background

1 From Continental Drift to Plate Tectonics 3

Part II The Early Work: From Paleomagnetism to Sea Floor Spreading

2 Stripes on the Sea Floor 31
3 Reversals of Fortune 46
4 The Zebra Pattern 67
5 On Board the Eltanin-19 86
6 The Birth of Plate Tectonics 95

Part III Heat Flow and Seismology

7 How Mobile is the Earth? 111
8 Heat Flow under the Oceans 128
9 Locating Earthquakes and Plate Boundaries 148
10 Earthquake Seismology in the Plate Tectonics Revolution 155

Part IV The Plate Model

11 Plate Tectonics: A Surprising Way to Start a Scientific Career 169
12 When Plates Were Paving Stones 191
13 My Conversion to Plate Tectonics 201

Part V From the Oceans to the Continents

14 Plate Tectonics and Geology, 1965 to Today 227
15 When the Plate Tectonic Revolution Met Western North America 243
16 The Coming of Plate Tectonics to the Pacific Rim 264
17 From Plate Tectonics to Continental Tectonics 288

Epilogue: Continents Really Do Move

18 Plate Tectonics: A Martian View 331

Notes 347
Further Reading 407
Index

L'auteur - Naomi Oreskes

Naomi Oreskes est professeur d'histoire des sciences de la Terre à l'Université de Californie, San Diego.

Autres livres de Naomi Oreskes

Les marchands de doute

L'effondrement de la civilisation occidentale

Découvrir tous les livres de Naomi Oreskes

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Westview
Auteur(s)	Naomi Oreskes
Parution	11/03/2002
Nb. de pages	424
Format	16 x 23,5
Couverture	Broché
Poids	712g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780813339818