The old tectonic plates.
It sounds like something you might find in your grandmother’s china cabinet, The Tectonic Plates. Kind of like Wedgwood china or something.
But in reality, the tectonic plates are below us. All of us. We’re standing on them, in fact. The earth’s crust is fragmented into huge pieces of rock. And scientists have named those biggy rocks the tectonic plates.
These slabs fit together like the parts of a huge jigsaw. And, wherever the plates rise above sea level, they form continents and islands.
So. Let’s talk about the old Earth for a minute.
Just think for a minute about this next statement. Really take it in.
Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus about 50 million years.
Think about what is under our feet. The whole deal is 4.54 billion years old. Maybe go outside and pick up a rock. Hold it in your hand and imagine just how old it might be. It gives me the quivers.
Anyway, about 250 million years ago, the continents were joined together in one big land mass. This giant supercontinent was called Pangea. That is the Greek word meaning “all the earth.”
About 200 million years ago, Pangea slowly began to break up.
Here is how things got rolling. By 135 million years ago, Pangea had split into two main land masses. They were known as Gondwanaland and Laurasia.
To clarify.
Laurasia == North America, Europe, Asia (but not India).
Gondwanaland == Antarctica, South America, Africa, India, and Australia.
I wished they had named our continent something better. Not that I have anything against Laura, but Laurasia sounds so namby-pamby.
Now Gondwanaland? That has a real ring to it. Especially when you say it in a low voice with umph. Gondwanaland!
Regardless. My people are from Laurasia. Blah, blah, blah.
We all know that there are seven continents, five oceans, and on. But here is the key. The earth’s crust is made up of about 15 major plates. The plates that form the ocean floor are called oceanic plates. The plates that form the land masses are called the continental plates.
And, of course, we have seen over the years how scientists know the boundaries by monitoring earthquakes and volcanoes, which tend to occur most frequently where different plates meet and collide. I think, sooner or later, California will drop right off into the ocean. That’s my main reason for not going there. I don’t want to be the innocent bystander that day.
Anyway, I bring all this business about our tectonic plates because today, November 1, 1880, is the birthday of Alfred Lothar Wegener. He was a polar scientist, a geophysicist, and a meteorologist from Germany.
He was one of the first to put down his thoughts on polar research. He developed and publicized the theory of continental drift. Wegener showed that the continents had split apart and drifted away from one another over geological time. I wonder if he named Laurasia. Dang it.
Wegener met some opposition along the way. Scientists back then thought our lands had “shrunk up” and not shifted around. But he was pretty much right on in his theories. He published his explanations in full in his book “The origin of continents and Oceans” in 1915.
He devoted his life to his pursuit of figuring out this Earth ball of ours. Wegener died while on an expedition to Greenland in the first week of November 1930. He died from carbon monoxide asphyxiation from his stove while on that journey. His body was discovered the following year, in May 1931.
He was only 50 years old.
And the plates probably shifted under our feet that day.
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“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
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“Earth’s crammed with heaven…
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
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“Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there.”
― Gary Snyder
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Earth shifts
