Wednesday, October 08, 2008

A Short History of the Theory of Plate Tectonics

Wegener's hypothesis was drift,
derived from notions long ago advanced
like Taylor's, who suggested that uplift
was caused by lunar gravity. It chanced
that centrifugal pseudoforce was bunk
but later research showed that drift was right:
the ocean floor revealed reversals sunk
in polarized crosswalks of magnetite.
Dietz and Hess suggested seafloor vents
bring new basalt upwelling from each ridge
while older crust is swallowed by the trenches.
Galapagos, the land of Darwin's finches
is brand new, on the scale of continents.
It makes you think we're living on the edge.


Collection available! Knocking from Inside

4 comments:

poefusion said...

Good Morning, Tiel~ You've been so nice to me over the past year and I wanted to say thank you. It hasn't gone unnoticed. I wanted to give you this blog award which can be found "here" when you're ready to pick it up. I hope no one misses the opportunity to cross paths with you in their lifetime as it would be their loss if they shouldn't. You are a kind person who writes beautifully. Have a nice day.

By the way, your poem is another good one.

Tumblewords: said...

The last line brings it home! Nice!!

Anonymous said...

Very scientific and with all those links quite educational too. they say it's only a matter of time...

Stan Ski said...

Makes you tremble to think how delicate this earth is.