WEEK 1: IMPORTANT FIGURES

James Hall

-noted deformed Paleozoic strata in the Appalachians (10 times the thickness of undeformed Pal. strata in the Mississippi valley).

-Proposed Geosyncline Theory (until 1962)

Geosyncline Theory

Proposed by James Hall, pieces of underlying granite break off and promotes mountain building due to vertical sag and rise.

Antonio Snider-Pellegrin

First proposed that S. America and Africa were once connected.

J. D. Dana

-Proposed that continents floated in the mantle due to them being less dense, granitic material compared to more dense basaltic material.

-Proposed that Earth cooled form an initial molten mass.

-Enhanced Geosyncline Theory: realized sediments aren’t dense enough to compress crust.

-Accepted isostacy.

-Proposed use of kerosene for lighting city lamps instead of whale oil, indirectly “saving” blue whales.

Johann Steinman

Igneous Petrologist

-Discovered ocean crust: studied sequences of rock where ocean crust is thrusted onto continents (Ophiolite Sequence)

Andrija Mohorovic

-Discovered Mohorovich Discontinuity: used seismograms and found certain energy waves arrived sooner to recording tools than others and figured there is a boundary in different places.

**Average Thickness in NY: 30km

Alfred Wegener

Meteorlogist

Originally theorized the concept of continental drift, but idea was rejected and seen as propaganda since Germany was an aggressor in WWI

*No tools or mechanism to prove theory, denounce after WWI ended.

D. T. Griggs

-Proposed a slow-moving fluid stratum that pulls down crust to form trenches what we know as subduction.

H. H. Hess

-Published first paper for plate tectonics: “History of Ocean Basins (1962)”.

Hugo Benioff

-Set up tunnels in the bedrock of the San Andreas fault.

-Trailblazed the idea of subduction zones.