The Plate Tectonics Revolution: Crash Course Geography #19

Today we’re going to tell the story of a quiet revolution in the 1960s that shifted our entire understanding of how the Earth works. We currently believe that the Earth’s broken outer shell rises from the mantle and folds back in - kind of like a dance of creative destruction and reconstruction - giving us our continents and oceans, mountains and valleys, volcanoes, and earthquakes. And it would take a group of scientists all over the world to get us this grand unifying theory of plate tectonics. SOURCES Petersen, et al 2011. Fundamentals of Physical Geography. Cengage Christopherson, R.W. 2010. Elemental Geosystems. Prentice Hall. 6th edition Strahler, A. 2011. Introducing Physical Geography. Wiley and Sons. 5th Edition #750