Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History of the Modern Theory of the Earth

by Naomi Oreskes

Can anyone today imagine the earth without its puzzle-piece construction of plate tectonics? The very term, "plate tectonics," coined only thirty-five years ago, is now part of the vernacular, part of everyone's understanding of the way the earth works.The theory, research, data collection, and analysis that came together in the late 1960’s to constitute plate tectonics is one of the great scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century. Scholarly books have been written about tectonics, but none by the key scientists-players themselves. In Plate Tectonics, editor Naomi Oreskes has assembled those scientists who played crucial roles in developing the theory to tell - for the first time, and in their own words - the stories of their involvement in the extraordinary confrimation of the theory.The book opens with an overview of the history of plate tectonics, including in-context definitions of the key terms that are discussed throughout the book. Oreskes explains how the forerunners of the theory, Wegener and du Toit, raised questions that were finally answered thirty years later, and how scientists working at the key academic institutions - Cambridge and Princeton Universities, Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Geological Observatory, and the University of California-San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography – competed and collaborated until the theory coalesced.

Genres: Science, Geology, Nonfiction, History, History Of Science, Geography, Environment

452 pages, Paperback

First published December 26, 2001

About the author

Naomi Oreskes is an American historian of science. She became Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University in 2013, after 15 years as Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

Reviews

[Thi T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This important scientific revolution seems to suffer from shallow treatment by educational media designed for he public. It's mind-boggling. Your parents lived through this scientific revolution. You If have ever been heard someone intimate that the jigsaw puzzle fit between South America and Africa was somehow a smoking gun to accepting continental drift, read this book. If you have ever been taught that Plate Tectonics needed a physical mechanism to explain it, read this book. The essays in this book describe the actual conflicts behind Plate Tectonics that you will not found written in any way, as eloquently or even as objectively factually similar, in any other Geology text. You will never get to meet Lavoisier's or even Einstein's colleagues, but many of the writers in this collection are still alive and kicking. This is a really fantastic record of History of Science. written for this generation to understand.

[Mikael Cerbing · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is quite a few interesting things with this book, even if I didnt love it myself.

First: it will be a very important document for the history of geology, as it is written by quite a few people directly involved with the plate tectonic (revolution/paradigm shift/evolution/fact creation?).

Second: It also shows that great scientific writing and understanding is not the same as great science writing. Its an art and a skill to write well about a history of a subject, and not all people can do that. It is one of the reasons why it is tought as a subject. Some of these authors could not write god scientific history and had no idea about how it is done. Some where pretty good at it.

For me, I did not have enough modern geology knowledge to fully understand this book. I could probably have googeld me to a lot of stuff if I could be arsed, but a book like this should also try to better explain things like this. See the second point above. If you have had a basic course in geology I think this will be much easier to understand.

All in all: a great book for someone that gonna write the history of geology in the 20th century. But I rather wait for that book.

[Theo Eleftheroglou · Rating 5 out of 5]

An anthology of personal accounts as disclosed by prominent marine geologists and geophysicists who played a pivotal role in forming the major paradigm of modern Geology: Plate Tectonics

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I skipped a few sections in the middle and end. The best parts were the beginning and the end.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essays on the emergence of one of the most important development in the history of geology written by the folks that made them. It's hard to believe that the underpinnings for much of today's geology is only about 50 years old. These essays bring the discoveries that lead to the breakthrough to life. Science in the excitement of discovery!

[Anthony Faber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bunch of historical essays by the people that were at the forefront of the plate tectonics "revolution", talking about what happened. A few of them were geared for someone who either has more knowledge than me or better retention of what was written earlier, but I followed most of it and the description of academic culture in the late 50s and 60s was interesting.

[Elizabeth]

As heard on the Nature Backchat podcast: http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/...