scholarly journals Fifty years of the Wilson Cycle concept in plate tectonics: an overview

2019 ◽  
Vol 470 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Wilson ◽  
G. A. Houseman ◽  
S. J. H. Buiter ◽  
K. J. W. McCaffrey ◽  
A. G. Doré
Keyword(s):  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Geological Evolution ◽  
Wilson Cycle ◽  
Opening And Closing ◽  
Orogenic Belts

AbstractIt is now more than 50 years since Tuzo Wilson published his paper asking ‘Did the Atlantic close and then re-open?’. This led to the ‘Wilson Cycle’ concept in which the repeated opening and closing of ocean basins along old orogenic belts is a key process in the assembly and breakup of supercontinents. This implied that the processes of rifting and mountain building somehow pre-conditioned and weakened the lithosphere in these regions, making them susceptible to strain localization during future deformation episodes. Here we provide a retrospective look at the development of the concept, how it has evolved over the past five decades, current thinking and future focus areas. The Wilson Cycle has proved enormously important to the theory and practice of geology and underlies much of what we know about the geological evolution of the Earth and its lithosphere. The concept will no doubt continue to be developed as we gain more understanding of the physical processes that control mantle convection and plate tectonics, and as more data become available from currently less accessible regions.

scholarly journals About this title - Fifty Years of the Wilson Cycle Concept in Plate Tectonics

10.1144/sp470 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 470 (1) ◽  
pp. NP-NP
Keyword(s):  
Mantle Convection ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Mantle Dynamics ◽  
Tectonic Inheritance ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Geological Evolution ◽  
Wilson Cycle ◽  
Opening And Closing ◽  
Orogenic Belts

Fifty years ago, Tuzo Wilson published his paper asking ‘Did the Atlantic close and then re-open?’. This led to the ‘Wilson Cycle’ concept in which the repeated opening and closing of ocean basins along old orogenic belts is a key process in the assembly and breakup of supercontinents. The Wilson Cycle underlies much of what we know about the geological evolution of the Earth and its lithosphere, and will no doubt continue to be developed as we gain more understanding of the physical processes that control mantle convection, plate tectonics, and as more data become available from currently less accessible regions.This volume includes both thematic and review papers covering various aspects of the Wilson Cycle concept. Thematic sections include: (1) the Classic Wilson v. Supercontinent Cycles, (2) Mantle Dynamics in the Wilson Cycle, (3) Tectonic Inheritance in the Lithosphere, (4) Revisiting Tuzo's question on the Atlantic, (5) Opening and Closing of Oceans, and (6) Cratonic Basins and their place in the Wilson Cycle.

John Tuzo Wilson: a Canadian who revolutionized Earth Sciences

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. v-viii ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Polat
Keyword(s):  
Earth Sciences ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
50Th Anniversary ◽  
Continental Drift ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Wilson Cycle ◽  
Geologic Record

John Tuzo Wilson (1908–1993) was one of the greatest Canadian scientists of the 20th century. His contributions to Earth Sciences, leading the formulation of the theory of plate tectonics, have revolutionized our understanding of how the planet Earth works and evolved over the past 4 billion years. This 50th anniversary special issue of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences is dedicated in honour of John Tuzo Wilson, who inspired tens of thousands of students all around the world to study the Earth. This special issue contains 12 papers dealing with various aspects of the “Wilson Cycle” in the geologic record, plate tectonics, mantle plumes, and how John Tuzo Wilson accepted “continental drift” and formulated the theory of plate tectonics. The contributions have mostly been made by geoscientists who directly or indirectly associated with John Tuzo Wilson and have contributed significantly to the plate tectonics paradigm.

Fitting a new piece into the Precambrian puzzle: the detrital rutile record and its links to modern plate tectonics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inês Pereira ◽  
Craig D. Storey ◽  
Robin Strachan ◽  
Hugo Moreira ◽  
James Darling ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Continental Crust ◽  
Detrital Zircon ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Secular Evolution ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Selective Preservation ◽  
Clastic Sedimentary ◽  
Detrital Zircon Ages ◽  
Orogenic Belts ◽  
Collisional Orogens

<p>Plate tectonics is responsible for shaping the Earth’s surface, influencing the geological, hydrological and atmospheric cycles. However, there is no consensus on when plate tectonics initiated: was it fully operational during the Archean or did it not develop until the Proterozoic?</p><p>Much of what is currently known about the secular evolution of Earth’s continental crust and its links to plate tectonics has been recovered from detrital minerals. This is related to the incomplete rock record; the detrital record allows access to information from eroded and unexposed terrains. Most studies have relied on the detrital zircon record, but it is still unclear if the coincidence in age peaks with periods of supercontinent assembly reflects episodic continental growth or bias due to selective preservation of new crust within collisional orogenic belts. Furthermore, because zircon mostly grows in high-temperature conditions, it mostly calibrates magmatic cycles. To understand the evolution of plate tectonics and to assess its influence on continental crust preservation, we developed a new proxy, relevant to a range of metamorphic conditions, including HP-LT.</p><p>We investigate the U-Pb distribution ages of detrital rutile, from a range of modern stream sediments and siliciclastic units at sub-amphibolite facies metamorphic grade. Rutile mostly forms in collisional orogens and, by comparison with the zircon record, we can test the existence of a preservation bias. Zircon and rutile age distributions from our sample sets show a significant correlation, both peaks and troughs, that can only be reconciled if the detrital zircon record reflects a preservation bias that occurred during supercontinent assembly.</p><p>We further present new U-Pb and trace element data from detrital rutile within two clastic sedimentary units, preserved at sub-greenschist facies conditions in NW Scotland. These are the Torridon (Tonian) and the Ardvreck (Cambrian) groups, whose detrital zircon ages span a significant period between 3 and 1 Ga. By applying Zr-in-rutile thermometry and comparing it to the preserved metamorphic record, we show that both low and high dT/dP conditions can be inferred since at least 2.1 Ga.</p><p>Combining the existence of paired metamorphism up to 2.1 Ga with the periodic preservation of the continental crust throughout most of the Earth’s history implies that one-sided subduction, a hallmark of plate tectonics, has operated since at least the late Paleoproterozoic, and that supercontinent assembly during and after this period has been driven by plate tectonic mechanisms.</p>

scholarly journals A historical account of how continental drift and plate tectonics provided the framework for our current understanding of palaeogeography

2018 ◽  
Vol 156 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. MEINHOLD ◽  
A. M. CELÂL ŞENGÖR
Keyword(s):  
Earth Sciences ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Continental Drift ◽  
Historical Aspects ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Mountain Belts ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Shallow Seas

AbstractPalaeogeography is the cartographic representation of the past distribution of geographic features such as deep oceans, shallow seas, lowlands, rivers, lakes and mountain belts on palinspastically restored plate tectonic base maps. It is closely connected with plate tectonics which grew from an earlier theory of continental drift and is largely responsible for creating and structuring the Earth's lithosphere. Today, palaeogeography is an integral part of the Earth sciences curriculum. Commonly, with some exceptions, only the most recent state of research is presented; the historical aspects of how we actually came to the insights which we take for granted are rarely discussed, if at all. It is remarkable how much was already known about the changing face of the Earth more than three centuries before the theory of plate tectonics, despite the fact that most of our present analytical tools or our models were unavailable then. Here, we aim to present a general conspectus from the dawn of ‘palaeogeography’ in the 16th century onwards. Special emphasis is given to innovative ideas and scientific milestones, supplemented by memorable anecdotes, which helped to advance the theories of continental drift and plate tectonics, and finally led to the establishment of palaeogeography as a recognized discipline of the Earth sciences.

Two Visions of the Earth

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Oreskes
Keyword(s):  
Earth Sciences ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Continental Drift ◽  
Geological Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Face ◽  
Bohr Atom ◽  
Similar Theory

Plate tectonics is the unifying theory of modern geology. This theory, which holds that the major features of the earth’s surface are created by horizontal motions of the continents, has been hailed as the geological equivalent of the “theory of the Bohr atom in its simplicity, its elegance, and its ability to explain a wide range of observation,” in the words of A. Cox. Developed in the mid-1960s, plate tectonics rapidly took hold, so that by 1971, Gass, Smith, and Wilson could say in their introductory textbook in geology: . . . During the last decade, there has been a revolution in earth sciences . . . which has led to the wide acceptance that continents drift about the face of the earth and that the sea-floor spreads, continually being created and destroyed. Finally in the last two to three years, it has culminated in an all-embracing theory known as “plate tectonics.” The success of plate tectonics theory is not only that it explains the geophysical evidence, but that it also presents a framework within which geological data, painstakingly accumulated by land-bound geologists over the past two centuries, can be fitted. Furthermore, it has taken the earth sciences to the stage where they can not only explain what has happened in the past, and is happening at the present time, but can also predict what will happen in the future. . . . Today moving continents are a scientific fact. But some forty years before the advent of the theory of plate tectonics, a very similar theory, initially known as the “displacement hypothesis,” was proposed and rejected by the geological fraternity. In 1912, a German meteorologist and geophysicist, Alfred Wegener, proposed that the continents of the earth were mobile; in the decade that followed he developed this idea into a full-fledged theory of tectonics that was widely discussed and debated and came to be known as the theory of continental drift. To a modern geologist, raised in the school of plate tectonics, Wegener’s book, The Origin of Continents and Oceans, appears an impressive and prescient document that contains many of the essential features of plate tectonic theory.

Family Therapy and Beyond: Where is the Milan Systemic Approach Today?

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Family Therapy ◽  
Family Resilience ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Current Position ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
The Family ◽  
Therapy Field ◽  
Solution Focused

This paper reviews the current position of the Milan Approach in the family therapy field. Over the past 20 years this approach has made a major contribution to the development of family therapy theory and practice in the U.K. However, the ideas have been modified in order to fit different client groups in a range of settings; until today, the Milan, or Post-Milan approach is an amalgam of the original concepts and new techniques. This paper describes the development of this approach and highlights the following topics as central to current thinking: language, power, narrative, family resilience, externalising, focusing on change, and solution focused approaches. Several techniques of the Post-Milan approach are demonstrated in a discussion of one case treated by the author.

The Origin of the Moon and its Relationship to the Origin of the Solar System

1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 133-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold C. Urey
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Origin Of The Moon

During the last 10 years, the writer has presented evidence indicating that the Moon was captured by the Earth and that the large collisions with its surface occurred within a surprisingly short period of time. These observations have been a continuous preoccupation during the past years and some explanation that seemed physically possible and reasonably probable has been sought.

PLANETARY SELF-ORGANIZATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-282
Author(s):  
OLEG IVANOV
Keyword(s):  
Dynamical System ◽  
Heat Source ◽  
Mantle Convection ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Rotation Speed ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Heat Sources ◽  
Kinematic Parameters ◽  
The Earth ◽  
New Type

The general characteristics of planetary systems are described. Well-known heat sources of evolution are considered. A new type of heat source, variations of kinematic parameters in a dynamical system, is proposed. The inconsistency of the perovskite-post-perovskite heat model is proved. Calculations of inertia moments relative to the D boundary on the Earth are given. The 9 times difference allows us to claim that the sliding of the upper layers at the Earth's rotation speed variations emit heat by viscous friction.This heat is the basis of mantle convection and lithospheric plate tectonics.

The Nature of Degrowth: Theorising the Core of Nature for the Degrowth Movement

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pasi Heikkurinen
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Culturally Sensitive ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Radical Reduction ◽  
Nature Experience ◽  
Matter Energy

This article investigates human–nature relations in the light of the recent call for degrowth, a radical reduction of matter–energy throughput in over-producing and over-consuming cultures. It outlines a culturally sensitive response to a (conceived) paradox where humans embedded in nature experience alienation and estrangement from it. The article finds that if nature has a core, then the experienced distance makes sense. To describe the core of nature, three temporal lenses are employed: the core of nature as ‘the past’, ‘the future’, and ‘the present’. It is proposed that while the degrowth movement should be inclusive of temporal perspectives, the lens of the present should be emphasised to balance out the prevailing romanticism and futurism in the theory and practice of degrowth.

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