The evolution oftectonophysics is closely linked to the history of thecontinental drift andplate tectonicshypotheses. The continental drift/ Airy-Heiskanenisostasy hypothesis had many flaws and scarce data. The fixist/ Pratt-Hayford isostasy, the contracting Earth and the expanding Earth concepts had many flaws as well.
The idea of continents with a permanent location, thegeosyncline theory, the Pratt-Hayford isostasy, the extrapolation of the age of the Earth by Lord Kelvin as a black body cooling down, the contracting Earth, the Earth as a solid and crystalline body, is one school of thought. A lithosphere creeping over the asthenosphere is a logical consequence of an Earth with internal heat by radioactivity decay, the Airy-Heiskanen isostasy,thrust faults and Niskanen'smantle viscosity determinations.
In 1858, Snider-Pellegrini made these two maps. They depict his interpretation of how the American and African continents may once have fit together before subsequently becoming separated.Airy model of isostasy: 1. thickness of the crust under mountains, 2. lower mountains, 3. thickness of normal continental crust, 4. thickness of oceanic crust, 5. sealevel, 6. pieces of the Earth's crust, 7. asthenosphere.
Christiancreationism (Martin Luther) was popular until the 19th century, and theage of the Earth was thought to have been created circa 4,000 BC. There were stacks of calcareous rocks of maritime origin above sea level, and up and down motions were allowed (geosyncline hypothesis,James Hall andJames D. Dana). Later on, thethrust fault concept appeared, and acontracting Earth (Eduard Suess, James D. Dana,Albert Heim) was its driving force. In 1862, the physicist William Thomson (who later becameLord Kelvin) calculated the age of Earth (as a coolingblack body) at between 20 million and 400 million years. In 1895,John Perry produced an age of Earth estimate of 2 to 3 billion years old using a model of a convective mantle and thin crust.[1] Finally,Arthur Holmes publishedThe Age of the Earth, an Introduction to Geological Ideas in 1927, in which he presented a range of 1.6 to 3.0 billion years.
Wegener had data for assuming that the relative positions of the continents change over time. It was a mistake to state the continents "plowed" through the sea, although it isn't sure that this fixist quote is true in the original in German. He was an outsider with adoctorate in astronomy attacking an established theory between 'geophysicists'. The geophysicists were right to state that the Earth is solid, and the mantle iselastic (for seismic waves) and inhomogeneous, and the ocean floor would not allow the movement of the continents. But excluding one alternative, substantiates the opposite alternative: passive continents and an active seafloor spreading andsubduction, withaccretion belts on the edges of the continents. The velocity of the sliding continents, was allowed in the uncertainty of the fixed continent model and seafloor subduction and upwelling with phase change allows for inhomogeneity.
The problem too, was the specialisation.Arthur Holmes andAlfred Rittmann saw it right (Rittmann 1939). Only an outsider can have the overview, only an outsider sees the forest, not only the trees (Hellman 1998b, p. 145). But A. Wegener did not have the specialisation to correctly weight the quality of the geophysical data and the paleontologic data, and its conclusions. Wegener's main interest was meteorology, and he wanted to join the Denmark-Greenland expedition scheduled for mid 1912. So he hurried up to present his Continental Drift hypothesis.[2]
Note: Francis Bacon was thinking of western Africa and western South America and Theodor Lilienthal was thinking about the sunken island ofAtlantis and changing sea levels.
Uniformitarism is the prevailing view in the U.S. (Oreskes 2002).
Charles Lyell assumed that land masses changed their location, but he assumed a mechanism of vertical movement (Krill 2011). James Dwight Dana assumed a permanent location as well, influencing the American fixist school of thought (Irving 2005). It wasn't known that the seafloor isn't mainlygranite rock (sial) (as the continentalcratons) but mainlybasalt rock (sima).
Quote, Lyell: "Continents therefore, although permanent for whole geological epochs, shift their positions entirely in the course of ages." ((Lyell 1875, p. 258) cited in (Summerhayes 1990))
Quote, Wallace about Dana: "In 1856, in articles in the American Journal, he discussed the development of the American continent, and argued for its general permanence; and in his Manual of Geology in 1863 and later editions, the same views were more fully enforced and were latterly applied to all continents." ((Dana 1863) cited in (Wallace 2007, p. 342))
Airy-Heiskanen Model; where different topographic heights are accommodated by changes in crustal thickness.
Pratt-Hayford Model; where different topographic heights are accommodated by lateral changes in rock density.
Vening Meinesz, or Flexural Model; where the lithosphere acts as an elastic plate and its inherent rigidity distributes local topographic loads over a broad region by bending.
Willis, Bailey; Willis, R. (1929).Geologic Structures. McGraw-Hill book company, inc. p. 131.the evidences of movement noted in rock structures are so numerous and on so large scale that it is clear that dynamic conditions exist from time to time. (Holmes 1929a). But Willis was a fixist, as he supported the permanent position of the oceans, although he didn't believe in land-bridges (Krill 2011).
Wettstein, H. (1880).Die Strömungen der Festen, Flüssigen und Gasförmigen und ihre Bedeutung für Geologie, Astronomie, Klimatologie und Meteorologie. Zuerich. p. 406.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Quote, Benjamin Franklin (1782): "The crust of the Earth must be a shell floating on a fluid interior.... Thus the surface of the globe would be capable of being broken and distorted by the violent movements of the fluids on which it rested".[12][13][14]
The vertical movement ofScandinavia after the ice age is accepted (recent average uplift c. 1 cm/year). This implies a certain plasticity under the crust (Flint 1947).[15]
Eduard Suess proposedGondwanaland in 1861, as a result of theGlossopteris findings, but he believed that the oceans flooded the spaces currently between those lands. And he proposed theTethys Sea in 1893. He came to the conclusion that theAlps to the North were once at the bottom of an ocean (Suess 1901).
Bertrand, Marcel Alexandre (1884). "Rapports de structure des Alpes de Glaris et du bassin houiller du Nord".Société Géologique de France Bulletin. 3.12:318–330.
Schardt, H. (1884). "Études géologiques sur le Pays d'Enhaut vaudois".Bull. Soc. Vaudoise Sci. Nat.20:1–183.
Schardt, H. (1893). "Sur l'origine des Préalpes romandes".Arch. Sci. Phys. Nat. Genève.3:570–583.
Schardt, H. (1898). "Les régions exotiques du versant Nord des Alpes Suisse. Préalpes du Chablais et du Stockhorn et les Klippes".Bull. Soc. Vaudoise Sci. Nat.34:113–219.
Peach BN, Horne J, Gunn W, Clough CT, Hinxman LW (1907). "The Geological Structure of the North-west Highlands of Scotland".Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Scotland. Glasgow.
Although Wegener's theory was formed independently and was more complete than those of his predecessors, Wegener later credited a number of past authors with similar ideas:[18] Franklin Coxworthy (between 1848 and 1890),[19]Roberto Mantovani (between 1889 and 1909),William Henry Pickering (1907)[20] andFrank Bursley Taylor (1908).[21]
In the 1920s Earth scientists refer to themselves as drifters (or mobilists) or fixists (Frankel 1987, p. 206). Terms introduced by the Swiss geologist Émile Argand in 1924 (Krill 2011).
Moreover, most of the blistering attacks were aimed at Wegener himself, an outsider (PhD in astronomy) who seemed to be attacking the very foundations of geology.[22]
Matching of the coastlines of eastern South America and western Africa, and many similarities between the respective coastlines of North America and Europe.
Numerous geological similarities between Africa and South America, and others between North America and Europe.
Many examples of past and present-day life forms having a geographically disjunctive distribution.
Mountain ranges are usually located along the coastlines of the continents, and orogenic regions are long and narrow in shape.
The Earth's crust exhibits two basic elevations, one corresponding to the elevation of the continental tables, the other to the ocean floors.
The Permo-Carboniferous moraine deposits found in South Africa, Argentina, southern Brazil, India, and in western, central, and eastern Australia. (Frankel 1987, pp. 205–206)
Note I: Wegener described in a sentence the seafloor spreading in the first publication only. But he believed it is a consequence of the continental drift (Wegener 1912a inJacoby 1981). He abandoned this sentence probably under the advice ofEmanuel Kayser, University of Marburg.[2]
Note II: 'Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen' is one of the leading geographical monthlies of international reputation. (Ruud 1930); Wladimir Köppen (father-in-law), (Köppen 1921a), (Köppen 1921b), (Köppen 1925) and Kurt Wegener (brother), (Wegener 1925), (Wegener 1941), (Wegener 1942) defended there the Continental drift hypothesis in a somewhat mirror controversy (inDemhardt 2005).
Quote: "Daly,..., seeks to substitute sliding for drifting, assuming that broad domes or bulges form at the earth's surface, and on the flanks of these domes the continental masses slide downward, moving over hot basaltic glass as over a lubricated floor". (pp. 170–291)[25]
The Alps were and still are the best investigated orogen worldwide.Otto Ampferer (Austrian Geological Survey) rejected contractionism 1906 and he defended convection, locally only at first. Otto Ampferer even used the word swallowed in a geological sense. The Geological Society Meeting in Innsbruck, held on 29 August 1912, changed a paradigm (T. Termier words, the acceptance ofnappes andthrust faults). So thatÉmile Argand (1916) speculated that the Alps were caused by the North motion of the African shield, and finally accepted this reason 1922, following Wegener's Continental drift theory (Argand 1924 asStaub 1924). Otto Ampferer in the meantime, at the Geological Society Meeting in Vienna, held on 4 April 1919, defended the link between the alpine faulting and Wegener's continental drift.[2][26][27]
Quote, translation: "The Alpine orogeny is the effect of the migration of the North African shield. Smoothing only alpine folds and nappes on the cross section between the Black Forest and Africa once again, then from the present distance of about 1,800 km, we have an initial gap of around 3,000 to 3,500 km, ie. a pressing of the alpine region, alpine region in a broader sense, of 1,500 km. To this amount must be Africa have moved to Europe. This brings us then to a true large scale continental drift of the African shield". (Staub 1924, p. 257) cited in (Wegener 1929, p. 10)
Quote, University of Chicago geologist Rollin T. Chamberlin: "If we are to believe in Wegener's hypothesis we must forget everything which has been learned in the past 70 years and start all over again." (Hellman 1998b), (Sullivan 1991, p. 15)
Quote, Bailey Willis: "further discussion of it merely incumbers the literature and befogs the mind of fellow students. (It is) as antiquated as pre-Curie physics". (Hellman 1998b, p. 150), (Hallam 1983, p. 136)
Bailey Willis and William Bowie saw thesima with great strength and rigidity through the seismological studies, and tidal forces would act more on the sima (2800 to 3300 kg/m3) as it is denser than thesial (2700 to 2800 kg/m3) (Frankel 1987, p. 211).
Quote, W. Van Waterschoot van der Gracht (Wilson cycle): "there may have been a pre-Carboniferous "Atlantic" that was closed up during the Caledonian orogenis" (Holmes 1929a).
In 1923, he received a grant from theCarnegie Institution of Washington, and used this to travel to eastern South America to study the geology of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.
1931: Peacock named thecalc-alkaline igneous rock series.
Choubert, B. (1935). "Recherches sur la genèse des chaînes paléolithiques et antécambriennes".Revue de Géographie Physique et de Géologie Dynamique (in French).8 (1):5–50.
Schwinner (1941) sees subduction as the cause of Wadati–Benioff zone and volcanic activity, but does not link it to continental drifting. He was in a way an anti-drifter.[2]
Umbgrove, JHF (1942).The Pulse of the Earth (1 ed.). The Hague, NL: Martinus Nyhoff.
Alexander du Toit,Glossopteris findings in Russia are an erroneous identification. It was used as argument by anti-drifters (Du Toit 1944).
1944, cores of deep ocean sediment show rapid rate of accumulation, suggesting that old oceans are an impossibility ((Revelle 1944) cited in (Bullard 1975)).
Gewers, T. W. (1950). "Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa".Journal of Geology.52 (suppl): 1.Bibcode:1948JG.....56..497..doi:10.1086/625552.marked regression away from continental drift
1951, Alfred Rittmann shows that crystalline mantle is able to creep at its temperature and pressure and he showssubduction, volcanism and erosion in the mountainous regions.Rittmann (1951), figure 4, p. 293.
1951, André Amstutz uses the word subduction.
Amstutz, André (1951). "Sur l'évolution des structures alpines".Archives des Sciences (in French) (4–5). Géneve:323–329.4) Première phase tectogène, approximativement durant le crétacé: Premières contractions tangentielles et déversements du géanticlinal briançonnais dans la dépression Mt. Rose, par subduction (ce mot n'est-il préférable à celui de sous-charriage ?) de masses Mt. Rose sous de masses St.Bernard; et peut-être simultanément déversements dans la dépression valaisanne-dauphinoise. (pp. 325–326)
E.g.: it had been shown that floating masses on a rotating geoid would collect at the equator, and stay there. This would explain one, but only one, mountain building episode between any pair of continents; it failed to account for earlier orogenic episodes.
Gohau, Gabriel (1990).A History of Geology. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.ISBN978-0-8135-1665-3.
Wessel, P.; Müller, R. D. (2007). "Plate Tectonics". In Anthony B. Watts (ed.).Treatise on Geophysics: Crust and Lithosphere Dynamics. Vol. 6. Elsevier. pp. 49–98.
^abLongwell, Chester R."Some Physical Tests of the Displacement Hypothesis"(PDF).We cannot disregard entirely the suggestion that continental masses have suffered some horizontal movement, because evidence for such movement is becoming ever more apparent in the structure of the Alps and of the Asiatic mountain systems.
^Gansser, Augusto (1973). "Orogene Entwicklung in den Anden, im Himalaja und den Alpen: ein Vergleich".Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae.66. Lausanne:23–40.
Heezen, B. C; Tharp, M (1965). "Tectonic Fabric of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and Continental Drift".Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.258 (1088):90–106.Bibcode:1965RSPTA.258...90H.doi:10.1098/rsta.1965.0024.S2CID121476006.
Carey, S. W. (1958). "The tectonic approach to continental drift". In Carey, S. W. (ed.).Continental Drift—A symposium, held in March 1956. Hobart: Univ. of Tasmania. pp. 177–363Expanding Earth from p. 311 to p. 349.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Coats, Robert R. (1962). "Magma type and crustal structure in the Aleutian arc".The Crust of the Pacific Basin. American Geophysical Union Monograph. Vol. 6. pp. 92–109.
Dana, James Dwight (1863).Manual of Geology: Treating of the Principles of the Science with Special Reference to American Geological History. Bliss. p. 805.
Flint, R. F. (1947).Glacial Geology and the Pleistocene Epoch. New York: John Wiley and Sons. p. 589.ISBN978-1-4437-2173-8.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Frankel, H. (1987)."The Continental Drift Debate". In H.T. Engelhardt Jr; A.L. Caplan (eds.).Scientific Controversies: Case Solutions in the resolution and closure of disputes in science and technology. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-27560-6.
W.A.J.M. van Waterschoot van der Gracht; Bailey Willis; Rollin T. Chamberlin; John Joly; G.A.F. Molengraaff; J.W. Gregory; Alfred Wegener; Charles Schuchert; Chester R. Longwell; Frank Bursley Taylor; William Bowie; David White; Joseph T. Singewald, Jr.; Edward W. Berry (1928). W.A.J.M. van Waterschoot van der Gracht (ed.).Theory of Continental Drift: a symposium on the origin and movement of land masses both intercontinental and intracontinental as proposed by Alfred Wegener, A Symposium of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG, 1926). Tulsa, OK. p. 240.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Le Grand, H. E. (1990). "Is one picture worth a thousand experiments?". In Le Grand, H. E. (ed.).Experimental Inquiries: Historical, Philosophical and Social Studies of Experimentation in Science. Dordrecht: Kluwer. pp. 241–270.
Hess, H. H. (November 1962)."History of Ocean Basins"(PDF). In A. E. J. Engel; Harold L. James; B. F. Leonard (eds.).Petrologic studies: a volume to honor of A. F. Buddington. Boulder, CO: Geological Society of America. pp. 599–620.
Jeffreys, H. (1924).The Earth – its Origin, History and Physical Constitution (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 429.
Jeffreys, H. (1952).The Earth – its Origin, History and Physical Constitution (3 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 574.ISBN978-0-521-20648-8.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Kay, Marshall, ed. (1969).North Atlantic: geology and continental drift, a symposium. Tulsa, OK: American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG).
Keary, P; Vine, F. J. (1990).Global Tectonics. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications. p. 302.
Kious, W. Jacquelyne; Tilling, Robert I. (February 2001) [1996]."Historical perspective".This Dynamic Earth: the Story of Plate Tectonics (Online ed.).U.S. Geological Survey.ISBN978-0-16-048220-5. Retrieved2008-01-29.Abraham Ortelius in his work Thesaurus Geographicus... suggested that the Americas were 'torn away from Europe and Africa... by earthquakes and floods... The vestiges of the rupture reveal themselves, if someone brings forward a map of the world and considers carefully the coasts of the three [continents].'
Lilienthal, T. (1756).Die Gute Sache der Göttlichen Offenbarung. Königsberg: Hartung.This is also likely owing to the fact that the coasts of certain lands, situated opposite each other though separated by sea, have a corresponding shape, so that they would be congruent with one another were they to stand side by side; for example, the southern part of America and Africa. For this reason one supposes that perhaps both of these continents were previously attached to each other, either directly, or through the sunken island of Atlantis;...
Lyell, Charles (1875).Principles of Geology (12 ed.).
Marvin, Ursula B. (1973).Continental Drift: The Evolution of a Concept. Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 239.ISBN978-0-87474-129-2(Dissertation).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Naomi Oreskes; Homer Le Grand, eds. (December 2001).Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History of the Modern Theory of the Earth. Westview Press. p. 448.ISBN978-0-8133-3981-8.
Ortelius, Abraham (1596).Thesaurus Geographicus (3 ed.). Antwerp: Plantin.The vestiges of the rupture reveal themselves, if someone brings forward a map of the world and considers carefully the coasts of the three [continents (Europe, Africa and Americas)]
Suess, E. (1875).Die Entstehung der Alpen [The Origin of the Alps]. W. Braumüller.A mass movement, more or less horizontal and progressive, should be the cause underlying the formation of our mountain systems.
Suess, Eduard (1885-08-19).Das Antlitz der Erde [The Face of the Earth]. Translated by H. B. C. Sollas. Vienna: F. Tempsky. Three volumes.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Sullivan, Walter (1991).Continents in Motion: The New Earth Debate (1 ed.). American Inst. of Physics. p. 425.ISBN978-0-88318-703-6.
du Toit, Alexander (1937).Our wandering continents: an hypothesis of continental drifting. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.ISBN978-0-8371-5982-9.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Umbgrove, J.H.F. (1947).The Pulse of the Earth (2 ed.). The Hague, NL: Martinus Nyhoff. p. 359.
Wallace, Alfred Russel (2007).Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection With Some of Its Applications. Cosimo, Inc. p. 516.ISBN978-1-60206-453-9.
Ziegler, P.A. (1990).Geological Atlas of Western and Central Europe (2 ed.). Bath: Shell Internationale Petroleum Maatschappij BV, Geological Society Publishing House. p. 239.ISBN978-90-6644-125-5.
Argand, E. (1924). "La Tectonique de l'Asie".Extrait du Compte-rendu du XIIIe Congrès Géologique International 1922 (13th International Geological Congress) (in French).1 (5). Liège:171–372.
Fukao, Y; Obayashi, M; Inoue, H; Nenbai, M (1992). "Subducting slabs stagnant in the mantle transition zone".Journal of Geophysical Research.97 (B4):4809–22.Bibcode:1992JGR....97.4809F.doi:10.1029/91JB02749.
Grapes, Rodney H. (2012). Barry J. Cooper (ed.)."Wegener and continental drift re-examined"(PDF).INHIGEO Newsletter. No. 44. pp. 75–77.ISSN1028-1533. Retrieved2022-02-27. Review of Allan Krill,Fixists vs. Mobilists in the Geology Contest of the Century, 1844–1969.
Hager, Bradford H.; O'Connell, Richard J. (1981). "A Simple Global Model of Plate Dynamics and Mantle Convection".Journal of Geophysical Research.86 (B6):4843–67.Bibcode:1981JGR....86.4843H.doi:10.1029/JB086iB06p04843.
Heezen, B. C.; Tharp, M. (1961).Physiographic diagram of the South Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Scotia Sea, and the eastern margin of the South Pacific Ocean. Boulder, CO: The Geological Society of America.
Heezen, B. C.; Tharp, M. (1964).Physiographic diagram of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the South China Sea, the Sulu Sea, and the Celebes Sea. Boulder, CO:The Geological Society of America.
Heezen, B. C; Tharp, M (1966). "A discussion concerning the floor of the northwest Indian Ocean – Physiography of the Indian Ocean".Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.259 (1099):137–149.doi:10.1098/rsta.1966.0003.S2CID202574464.}
Heezen, B. C. (October 1966).Lecture at the conference 'What's New on Earth'. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University.
Hess, H.H. (1960a). "Nature of great oceanic ridges".Preprints of the 1st International Oceanographic Congress (New York, August 31 – September 12, 1959). Washington: American Association for the Advancement of Science. (A). pp. 33–34.
Hess, H.H. (1960b). Evolution of ocean basins: Report to Office of Naval Research. Contract No. 1858(10), NR 081-067 (Report). p. 38.
Holmes, Arthur (1929c). "Radioactivity and Earth movements".Geological Society of Glasgow Transactions.XVIII:573–580.
Hurley, P.M.; Melcher, G.C.; Rand, J.R.; Fairbairn, H.W.; Pinson, W.H. (1966). "Rb-Sr whole rock analyses in Northern Brazil correlated with ages in West Africa".Geol. Soc. Am. Progr., Ann. Meetings San Francisco (1966). pp. 100–1 (abstract).
Jacoby, W. R. (January 1981). "Modern concepts of earth dynamics anticipated by Alfred Wegener in 1912".Geology.9 (1):25–27.Bibcode:1981Geo.....9...25J.doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1981)9<25:MCOEDA>2.0.CO;2.ISSN0091-7613.the Mid-Atlantic Ridge ... zone in which the floor of the Atlantic, as it keeps spreading, is continuously tearing open and making space for fresh, relatively fluid and hot sima [rising] from depth.
Köppen, W. (1921a). "Polwanderungen, Verschiebungen der Kontinente und Klimageschichte".Dr. A. Petermanns Mitteilungen.67:1–8,57–63.
Köppen, W. (1921b). "Ursachen und Wirkungen der Kontinentalverschiebungen und Polwanderungen".Dr. A. Petermanns Mitteilungen.67:145–9,191–4.
Köppen, W. (1925). "Muß man neben der Kontinentalverschiebung noch eine Polwanderung in der Erdgeschichte annehmen?".Dr. A. Petermanns Mitteilungen.71:160–2.
Ninkovich, Dragoslav; Opdyke, Neil; Heezen, Bruce C.; Forster, John H. (November 1966). "Paleomagnetic stratigraphy, rates of deposition and tephrachronology in North Pacific deep-sea sediments".Earth and Planetary Science Letters.1 (6):476–492.Bibcode:1966E&PSL...1..476N.doi:10.1016/0012-821X(66)90052-5.
Oreskes, Naomi (2002)."Continental Drift"(PDF). San Diego: University of California. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2012-02-04.
Rittmann, Alfred (1939). "Bemerkungen zur 'Atlantis-Tagung' in Frankfurt im Januar 1939" [Comments about the 'Atlantis Conference', Frankfurt, January 1939].Geologische Rundschau.30 (3): 284.Bibcode:1939GeoRu..30..284R.doi:10.1007/BF01804845.S2CID129572224.
Rittmann, Alfred (1951). "Orogénèse et volcanisme".Archives des Sciences (4–5). Géneve:273–314.
Silver, P.G.; Carlson, R.W.; Olson, P. (1988). "Deep slabs, geochemical heterogeneity, and the large-scale structure of mantle convection: Investigation of an enduring paradox".Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences.16:477–541.Bibcode:1988AREPS..16..477S.doi:10.1146/annurev.ea.16.050188.002401.
Staub, R. (1924). "Der Bau der Alpen".Beitr. Z. Geolog. Karte der Schweiz, N. F.52. Bern: 272.
Vening Meinesz, F. A. (1952a). "The Formation of the Continents by Convection".Kon. Ned. Akad. Weten.55 (527).
Vening Meinesz, F. A. (1952b). "The Origin of Continents and Oceans".Geologie en Mijnbouw. New Series.14:373–384.
Vening Meinesz, F. A. (1955). "Plastic Buckling of the Earth's Crust: the Origin of Geosynclines".Crust of the earth: A symposium. Geological Society of America.
Vening Meinesz, F. A. (1959). "The results of the development of the Earth's topography in spherical harmonics up to the 31st order; provisional conclusions".Koninkl. Ned. Akad. Van Wetenschappen Amsterdam. Proc. Ser. B., Phys. Sciences.62:115–136.
Wegener, Alfred (1912a). "Die Herausbildung der Grossformen der Erdrinde (Kontinente und Ozeane), auf geophysikalischer Grundlage".Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen.63:185–195,253–6,305–9.Diese (gemeint sind "relative geringfuegige Niveaudifferenzen der grossen ozeanischen Becken untereinander") scheinen es auch nahezulegen, die mittelatlantische Bodenschwelle als diejenige Zone zu betrachten, in welche bei der noch immer fortschreitenden Erweiterung des atlantischen Ozeans der Boden desselben fortwaehrend aufreisst und frischem, relativ fluessigen und hochtemperiertem Sima aus der Tiefe Platz macht [This (meaning the "relatively minor differences in level of the large oceanic basin with each other") seem to suggest also to consider the Mid-Atlantic Rift as the zone in which the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean is still ongoing, and its seafloor tears open constantly to make space to fresh, relatively fluid and tempered Sima] Presented at the annual meeting of the German Geological Society, Frankfurt am Main (6 January 1912).
Wegener, K. (1925). "Die Kontinentalschollen".Dr. A. Petermanns Mitteilungen.71:51–53.
Wegener, K. (1941). "Geophysik und Geographie".Dr. A. Petermanns Mitteilungen.87:98–100.
Wegener, K. (1942). "Die Theorie Alfred Wegeners über die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane".Dr. A. Petermanns Mitteilungen.88:178–182. He gives reasons for the paleo connection of the Americas and Eurasia-Africa by naming paleontological similarities, parallelism of coastal forms and the recently researched submarine Atlantic mountain range as ideal seam of continental splits (p. 181).
Wilson, J. Tuzo (July 1962). "Cabot Fault, an Appalachian Equivalent of San Andreas and Great Glen Faults and Some Implications for Continental Displacement".Nature.195 (4837):135–8.Bibcode:1962Natur.195..135W.doi:10.1038/195135a0.S2CID4289725.
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