Stone to Silicon

Math & science · 1967

Plate tectonics

Seafloor magnetic stripes reveal that Earth's surface is a set of moving plates.

Vine and Matthews (1963) read spreading ridges, and by 1967-68 the full theory explained earthquakes, volcanoes and mountains. Geology gained its unifying theory.

See it in the living treeWikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 3