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Polar Wandering and Continental Drift: Evidence from Paleomagnetic Observations in the United States, 1960

Autor: D. W. Collinson - S. K. Runcorn

Cod: 6066
In stoc: Da

68000.00Lei

Detalii produs The first validation of Wegener's continental drift theory
(Wegener, 1912) by means of paleomagnetic data.

After the uncertainties of the past, (Runcorn 1956a, 1956b) Stanley Keith
Runcorn and his student David Collinson wrote a crucial study in 1960.
This study was published in the prestigious Bulletin of the Geological
Society of America. Here, Runcorn categorically concluded:

''The data also show that the polar-wandering curve of North America is
displaced westward relative to that for Europe and provide an estimate for
the amount of drift between the two continents since Mesozoic time, wich
is of the order of 30 degrees in longitude."

''His data suggested that the Earth's north magnetic pole had moved, or
wandered, widely over hundreds of millions of years. Runcorn's first
explanation was that the geographic pole of the Earth had itself migrated,
but this was contradicted by evidence that the drift of the magnetic pole as
shown by American rocks was different from that shown by European ones.
The magnetic curves of the European and American rocks could be aligned,
or reconciled, however, on the assumption that those two continents had
formerly been joined and had subsequently drifted apart into their present-
day positions. Impressed by this result, Runcorn became an early proponent
of the theory of continental drift.''

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Runcorn received the John Adam Fleming Award of the American
Geophysical Asociation in 1983, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical
Society in 1984, the Wegener Medal of the European Geophysical Society
in 1987 and the highly distinguished Vetlesen Prize (in 1970). He was Pope
John Paul II's science advisory panel.

The Vetlesen Prize was established in 1959 by the G. Unger Foundation, and
was designed to be the Nobel Prize of The Earth Sciences, awarded for
'scientific achievement resulting in a clearer understanding of the Earth, its
history, or its relations to the universe'.

Bulletin of The Geological Society of America, volume 71, Number 7, July 1960
pp. 915-958 with 4 tables and 27 figures, original printed wrappers, minor
previous owner marks, fine condition.

Price: $ 17,000.00