The subject of plate tectonics has been relegated to the same importance as fluvial hydrology and chemical weathering. It has also rubs shoulders with Hazardous Environments and Human Migration. This is a worry, for without plate tectonics there would be not rivers, no humans and no human migration. Read on to find out why Plate Tectonics should be the overarching theory taught in schools. Or otherwise watch the movie.
Everything is a result of plate motion. The shape of the ocean basins, the high Alps and the high Himalayas, the volcanoes of South America, the American northwest, the island arcs of Japan and Indonesia are due to Plate Tectonics. Tsunamis, which we have had two very destructive ones in the last 20 years, are a result of Plate Tectonics. Earthquakes in California or Nepal are the result of Plate Tectonics. Uplift, rejuvenation of rivers, and erosion are all the result of Plate Tectonics.
Earth's third highest mountain, Kanchenjunga, as seen from Darjeeling, Sikkim, India. A product of Plate Tectonics
Speciation of animals and humans alike is the result of Plate Tectonics. Mineral deposits, so important to our modern lifestyles, are the result of Plate Tectonics. Our very existence is a result of the sequestration of carbon via the Carbon Silicate Cycle – a feedback loop that keeps global temperatures under control and by extension makes our planet habitable. Go read about the Carbon Silicate Cycle to find out some more about that vital and fundamental process.
Plate Tectonics provided a mechanism for explaining almost everything
If you were a geologist, Plate Tectonics would be the lens through which you would view your world. The acceptance of the theory completely revolutionised the study of the Earth Sciences and provided a mechanism for explaining almost everything, a mechanism which until then had not been available to the discipline. The evidence had been mounting since Wegener had first published his paper in 1912, but it was around 1965 that the theory became generally accepted, and the world changed, for geologists at least.
A Precambrian Granite Dome from the Valley of 1000 Hills, South Africa
Geomorphology is fundamentally controlled by the underlying rock types
Plate Tectonics is the fundamental creed of the Earth Sciences, for the reasons I have just given. Geomorphology is one of the sub-disciplines of geology, and is fundamentally controlled by the underlying rock types and structure. For example an area underlain by granite is often characterised by huge granite batholiths which poke their bald heads out through the surrounding landscape – a landscape very different to one underlain by limestones where karsts may develop, which again is very different to one underlain by hard, resistant sandstones. Sure, there are other processes that come into play, but at this level we need not concern ourselves about them at the moment.
A reconstruction of Australopithecus africanus
Plate Tectonics drove human evolution according to new theories
I find it a worry that the current text books do not give Plate Tectonics the importance that it is due. It is dumped down there under the chapter Rocks and Weathering. We live on a planet that is governed by exquisitely fine-tuned, beautiful systems, one of which is Plate Tectonics. When it is given the same level of importance as hydrology and fluvial geomorphology for example, something is lost. Without Plate Tectonics, there would be no rivers, no landforms, no rocks and no weather. In fact our world would be a dull and lifeless place and there would be no mountains, rivers or oceans, and be extension no fluvial systems, rock cycles or weathering. We may not even be here according to some new theories coming out academia, taking into account the role of plate tectonics, aridification of East Africa and the forced speciation that drove human evolution.
So let us elevate this subject to where it should be – the overarching theory from which everything is derived. I made a movie on the development of the theory – you can view it by clicking on the button below.
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So looking forward to exploring with you