Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History of the Modern Theory of the Earth

Abstract

Anyone who has ever taught an introductory class or talked to a general audience on plate tectonics has attempted to tell how the theory came about. A challenge is to convey the enormous excitement that characterized the years of the “plate tectonics revolution.” The gestation and birth of this “new view of the Earth,” to borrow the term from S. Uyeda, took place merely 4 decades ago; yet it has changed forever the way we look not only at Earth, but also at all the terrestrial planets, and even at the larger icy bodies in our solar system.