Book contents
- From Crust to Core
- From Crust to Core
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Why Carbon in Earth Matters
- 2 The Origin of Deep Carbon in Deep Space
- 3 Deliveries of Cosmic Carbon Continue
- 4 On the Nature of Earth’s Interior
- 5 Earth’s Physical Interior Revealed
- 6 Thousands, Millions or Billions
- 7 Physics and Chemistry of Deep Earth
- 8 Confronting the Continental Drift Conundrum
- 9 The Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Rift Valley
- 10 Earth’s Deep Dynamics Discovered
- 11 Reversals of Fortune
- 12 Deep Carbon
- 13 Carbon-Bearing Phases in the Mantle
- 14 Diamond in the Mantle
- 15 Deep Life
- Glossary
- Biographical Notes
- Index
- References
8 - Confronting the Continental Drift Conundrum
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2020
Book contents
- From Crust to Core
- From Crust to Core
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Why Carbon in Earth Matters
- 2 The Origin of Deep Carbon in Deep Space
- 3 Deliveries of Cosmic Carbon Continue
- 4 On the Nature of Earth’s Interior
- 5 Earth’s Physical Interior Revealed
- 6 Thousands, Millions or Billions
- 7 Physics and Chemistry of Deep Earth
- 8 Confronting the Continental Drift Conundrum
- 9 The Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Rift Valley
- 10 Earth’s Deep Dynamics Discovered
- 11 Reversals of Fortune
- 12 Deep Carbon
- 13 Carbon-Bearing Phases in the Mantle
- 14 Diamond in the Mantle
- 15 Deep Life
- Glossary
- Biographical Notes
- Index
- References
Summary
At the beginning of the twentieth century, conventional geological authority reposed peacefully on the bedrock of uniformitarianism. The received wisdom held that geological processes had changed little across time and that there was no evidence of sudden large-scale changes. Furthermore, the geology of the ocean floor was not considered to be an area of fruitful inquiry. The geological continuity of strata and mountains across deep oceans was explained by the cooling and contracting Earth. Most of the European geologists had accepted the framework of the evolution of Earth’s rocky crust that Europe’s leading geologist, Eduard Suess (1831–1914), had developed from the mid-1880s.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- From Crust to CoreA Chronicle of Deep Carbon Science, pp. 147 - 166Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
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