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One Billion Years of Tectonic Plate Movement in 40 Seconds
- Thread starter joeinid
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Great, Joe. Poor Alfred Wegener. The video shows that continental drift/plate tectonics is so obvious. I read that Ben Franklin and people even earlier saw how obviously Africa and South American fit together. And finding coal veins and fossils of the same type in the connecting part of both Africa and South America during Wegener's lifetime should have cinched it. But he tragically died in an expedition at age 50 and his theory was not confirmed for another 25 years - until the mid '50's - when I was in grade school. Until I read about it, I didn't realize how recent these confirmations were.
Larry
Larry
Shadowfax
Well-known member
Very cool, thanks!
Keep in mind tho, they call it a Theory and seems pretty difficult to know these movements are actual and correct. But it all makes sense and we could always see how things would fit together before they split off.
Keep in mind tho, they call it a Theory and seems pretty difficult to know these movements are actual and correct. But it all makes sense and we could always see how things would fit together before they split off.
Note that the time lapse is only the last 20% of the Earth's existence. The action that we can best appreciate starts around 140 million years ago (MA). You can see Africa taking shape, ready to split from South America, and North American starting to form and split from Europe and Greenland.
In science, the term "theory" has a very specific meaning, much strong than "guess", "supposition", "belief" or "hypothesis." Theories require testing and the more testing that confirms a theory without contradiction, the stronger the theory becomes. The best tests are ones that the theory predicts and then are observed. Obviously, theories of activities that take place over tens or hundreds of millions of years are best tested over long periods of time. However, many of those theories can predict activities or structures that have not yet been observed, even though the events have already happened. This occurs very often in astronomy. For example, the great test of the theory of general relativity that predicted light should be bent when passing near a large mass - confirmed when starlight was observed to be bent during a total eclipse of the sun.
The theory of plate tectonics which arose from Wegener's work predicts the frequency of earthquakes and the location of the earthquakes. It also predicts the future location of the next Hawaiian island and that Hawaii (the Big Island) should be the youngest island with the most active volcanoes. Kauai should be the oldest island. This is confirmed by radioactive dating. In fact, there are even older islands stretching in a straight line to the northwest of Kauai, twice the length of the current Hawaiian islands. The Kure atoll (northwest of Midway Island) is about 28 million years old, while the island of Hawaii (the Big Island) is only about 400,000 years old. The newest Hawaiian island is still forming beneath the ocean, to the southeast of the Big Island. There is a similar progression that has been mapped in the Northwestern US for a series of mammoth earthquakes and currently the super volcano under Yellowstone is next predicted disaster in waiting in this chain.
Larry
In science, the term "theory" has a very specific meaning, much strong than "guess", "supposition", "belief" or "hypothesis." Theories require testing and the more testing that confirms a theory without contradiction, the stronger the theory becomes. The best tests are ones that the theory predicts and then are observed. Obviously, theories of activities that take place over tens or hundreds of millions of years are best tested over long periods of time. However, many of those theories can predict activities or structures that have not yet been observed, even though the events have already happened. This occurs very often in astronomy. For example, the great test of the theory of general relativity that predicted light should be bent when passing near a large mass - confirmed when starlight was observed to be bent during a total eclipse of the sun.
The theory of plate tectonics which arose from Wegener's work predicts the frequency of earthquakes and the location of the earthquakes. It also predicts the future location of the next Hawaiian island and that Hawaii (the Big Island) should be the youngest island with the most active volcanoes. Kauai should be the oldest island. This is confirmed by radioactive dating. In fact, there are even older islands stretching in a straight line to the northwest of Kauai, twice the length of the current Hawaiian islands. The Kure atoll (northwest of Midway Island) is about 28 million years old, while the island of Hawaii (the Big Island) is only about 400,000 years old. The newest Hawaiian island is still forming beneath the ocean, to the southeast of the Big Island. There is a similar progression that has been mapped in the Northwestern US for a series of mammoth earthquakes and currently the super volcano under Yellowstone is next predicted disaster in waiting in this chain.
Larry