They have rocked the ground beneath us for centuries. Fear circulates all the time around them as people contemplate whether or not they will be involved in an earthquake while scientists disregard those concerns and strive to research more on them to uncover how our world works. There are still unexplained theories in earth science; today however, we will be exploring a small chunk of it that is true in its form – the history.
The name may sound cool and yes, plate tectonics are intriguing in countless ways especially how they work. In 1912, a man named Alfred Wegener proposed his theory of “Continental drift”. He believed that the continents weren’t stationary and are constantly in motion which seemed obnoxious to scientists of his time. Before you decide copy the scientists’ actions, you must hear about Mr. Wegener’s influential and very persuasive theories. One particular theory was the past existence of a supercontinent named “Pangea”. Wegener’s explanation was that Pangea eventually drifted off into the continents we have today and he also has evidence to prove it. One such piece is that there are matching fossils and geological features on different continents. It wasn’t until several decades later that his ideas were proven correct and were finally incorporated into geology.
Now moving on to plate tectonics – plate tectonics is the main idea of continental drift; they are simply large slabs of rock continents move on very slowly on the ocean floor. They collide with each other and extreme friction between them is what causes earthquakes, even with their perpetually slow motion (they shift around 1-2cm every year). The most powerful earthquake occurred in Chile in 1960 and had a magnitude of 9.5 which is quite astonishing comparing to normally strong quakes which have recorded magnitudes of around six to seven.
If you have read up until here, you have done it! You now have a proper knowledge on the general idea and origin of the exploration and past research of earthquakes. Next time you come across and article regarding an earthquake, consider what you just learned and be grateful that without Alfred Wegener, we would have no idea why the ground shakes.
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