- Key People:
- J. Tuzo Wilson
- Walter Alvarez
- Related Topics:
- earthquake
- continental drift
- continent
- volcanism
- diastrophism
A powerful technique, seismic tomography, provides insight into the understanding of plate-driving mechanisms. This technique is similar in principle to that of the CT (computed tomography) scan and creates three-dimensional images of Earth’s interior by combining information from many earthquakes. Seismic waves generated at the site, or focus, of an earthquake spread out in all directions, similar to light rays from a light source. As earthquakes occur in many parts of Earth’s crust, information from many sources can be synthesized, mimicking the rotating X-ray beam of a CT scan. Because their speed depends on the density, temperature, pressure, rigidity, and phase of the material through which they pass, the velocity of seismic waves provides clues to the composition of Earth’s interior. Seismic energy is absorbed by warm material, so that the waves are slowed down. As a result, anomalously warm areas in the mantle are seismically slow, clearly distinguishing them from colder, more rigid, anomalously fast regions.
Tomographic imaging shows a close correspondence between surface features such as ocean ridges and subduction zones to a depth of about 100 km (60 miles). Hot regions in the mantle occur beneath oceanic ridges, and cold regions occur beneath subduction zones. However, at greater depths the pattern is more complex. Tomographic images can track the subduction zones beneath Central America and Japan close to the core-mantle boundary, suggesting that a 670-km- (about 420-mile-) deep transition between the upper and lower mantle is not an impenetrable barrier to mantle flow. These images also indicate that some subducted slabs have accumulated in slab graveyards (regions where parts of subducted slabs remain partially intact); these were observed in the mantle beneath portions of several continents and oceans but above the core-mantle boundary.
Geodynamic models suggest that subducted slabs may initially collect at a depth of 670 km beneath the surface, before rapidly descending toward the core-mantle boundary (located some 2,900 km [1,800 miles] deep) in a process known as a slab avalanche. More generally, the geochemical and isotopic compositions of oceanic basalts (which originate by melting of the mantle) appear to require a chemical contribution from the subducted slabs. Taken together, the available data indicate that subducted slabs penetrate into the deep mantle and that slab pull is an important plate-driving mechanism.
Imaging the mantle directly beneath hotspots has identified anomalously warm mantle down to the core-mantle boundary, providing strong evidence for the existence of plumes and the possibility that the mantle plume hypothesis may be a significant contributing process to mantle convection.
The composition of the deep mantle (the lowermost 300–500 km [200–300 miles] of the mantle) is considered to be very heterogeneous, and it may play a fundamental role in plate-driving mechanisms. In addition to being the potential graveyard for subducted slabs throughout much of geologic time, the heterogeneous nature of the deep mantle may be the product of chemical exchanges between the core and the mantle. Furthermore, experiments that mimic conditions near the core-mantle boundary have identified an important mineral reaction (the perovskite to post-perovskite reaction). This reaction is exothermic (it releases energy), and thus it could enhance the production of mantle plumes.
Dissenting opinions and unanswered questions
Dissenters
After decades of controversy, the concept of continental drift was finally accepted by the majority of Western scientists as a consequence of plate tectonics. Sir Harold Jeffreys continued his lifelong rejection of continental drift on grounds that his estimates of the properties of the mantle indicated the impossibility of plate movements. He did not, in general, consider the mounting geophysical and geologic arguments that supported the concept of Earth’s having a mobile outer shell.
Russian scientists, most notably Vladimir Vladimirovich Belousov, continued to advocate a model of Earth with stationary continents dominated by vertical motions. The model, however, only vaguely defined the forces supposedly responsible for the motions. In later years, Russian geologists came to regard plate tectonics as an attractive theory and a viable alternative to the concepts of Belousov and his followers.
In 1958 the Australian geologist S. Warren Carey proposed a rival model, known as the expanding Earth model. Carey accepted the existence and early Mesozoic breakup of Pangea and the subsequent dispersal of its fragments and formation of new ocean basins, but he attributed it all to the expansion of Earth, the planet presumably having had a much smaller diameter in the late Paleozoic Era. In his view, the continents represented the preexpansion crust, and the enlarged surface was to be entirely accommodated within the oceans. This model accounted for a spreading ocean floor and for the young age of the oceanic crust; however, it failed to deal adequately with the evidence for subduction and compression. Carey’s model also did not explain why the process should not have started until some four billion years after Earth was formed, and it lacked a reasonable mechanism for so large an expansion. Finally, it disregarded the evidence for continental drift before the existence of Pangea.
Unanswered questions
In his famous book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), the philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn pointed out that science does not always advance in the gradual and stately fashion commonly attributed to it. Most natural sciences begin with observations collected at random, without much regard to their significance or relationship between one another. As the numbers of observations increase, someone eventually synthesizes them into a comprehensive model, known as a paradigm. A paradigm is the framework, or context that is assumed to be correct, and so guides interpretations and other models. When a paradigm is accepted, advances are made by application of the paradigm. A crisis arises when the weight of observations points to the inadequacy of the old paradigm and there is no comprehensive model that can explain these contradictions. Major breakthroughs often come from an intuitive leap that may be contrary to conventional wisdom and widely accepted evidence, while strict requirements for verification and proof are temporarily relaxed. If a new paradigm is to be created, it must explain most of the observations of the old paradigm and most of the contradictions.
This paradigm shift constitutes a scientific revolution; therefore, it often becomes widely accepted before the verdict from rigorous analysis of evidence is completely in. Such was certainly the case with the geologic revolution of plate tectonics, which also confirms Kuhn’s view that a new paradigm is unlikely to supersede an existing one until there is little choice but to acknowledge that the conventional theory has failed. Thus, while Wegener did not manage to persuade the scientific world of continental drift, the successor theory, plate tectonics, was readily embraced 40 years later, even though it remained open to much of the same criticism that had caused the downfall of continental drift.
The greatest successes of plate tectonics have been achieved in the ocean basins, where additional decades of effort have confirmed its postulates and enabled investigators to construct a precise and credible history of past plate movements for the past 150 million to 200 million years. Early Mesozoic and Paleozoic continental reconstructions are less rigorous because the contemporary oceanic crust has been subducted. For the most part, the principles used to reconstruct continents prior to 150 million years ago are similar to those used by Wegener (i.e., matching the geological evolution of ancient continents and terranes). However, the modern database is far greater than what was available to Wegener during his time; it has allowed for plate reconstructions with far greater resolution. Although geoscientists differ with one another over some of the details, there is a broad consensus on plate reconstructions for the Phanerozoic Eon (541 million years ago to the present).