al Tectonics
Chapter One
Historical
perspective
1.1 CONTINENTAL
DRIFT
Although the theory of the new global tectonics, or
plate tectonics, has largely been developed since 1967,
the history of ideas concerning a mobilist view of the
Earth extends back considerably longer (Rupke, 1970;
Hallam, 1973a; Vine, 1977; Frankel, 1988). Ever since
the coastlines of the continents around the Atlantic
Ocean were first charted, people have been intrigued by
the similarity of the coastlines of the Americas and of
Europe and Africa. Possibly the first to note the similarity
and suggest an ancient separation was Abraham
Ortelius in 1596 (Romm, 1994). In 1620, Francis Bacon,
in his Novum Organum, commented on the similar form
of the west coasts of Africa and South America: that is,
the Atlantic coast of Africa and the Pacific coast of South
America. He also noted the similar configurations of
the New and Old World, "both of which are broad and
extended towards the north, narrow and pointed
towards the south." Perhaps because of these observations,
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