Plate Tectonics

  • Abraham Ortelius proposed that the continents had once been joined but were pulled apart by "earthquakes and floods."

  • Nicolaus Steno - Proposed the law of superposition

    each rock layer is older than the one on top of it
  • James Hutton tested the law of superposition

    he used Steno’s Law of Superposition and compared rock layers to rocks above and below the rock.
  • Alfred Wegner proposes "Continental Drift"

  • Arthur Holmes- proposed convection is the force driving continental drift.

  • Robert S. Dietz named Hess's idea ¨seafloor spreading¨

  • Harry Hess names "spreading ridges"

  • Dan McKenzie proposed the theory of plate tectonics

  • Drummond H. Matthews

    he began to study deep crustal seismic events that allowed research into the structure and evolution of oceanic and continental crust.
  • Matthews and Vine both received the Hughes Medal