EESA06H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Magnetometer, Mesosaurus, Isostasy
Document Summary
All of geoscience has been based on the theory of plate tectonics. More test questions come from this chapter than average*** In 1500s and 1600s, people noticed that the coastlines of various continents looked like they fit together. Beaumont said that over time, earth was getting smaller (contracting) because it was cooling down; this is not true. Hilgenberg thought that the earth was expanding, that the continents were together than spreading apart; also not true. Geoscientists found that there used to be ice cover in areas that there is not ice cover now. If you move continents and put them together, there is consistent glaciation; supported idea that continents used to be closer together than they are presently. Inconsistent with the idea that the earth is shrinking because mesosaurus could not travel the atlantic ocean if it was even bigger than it is now. Isostasy-> a floating body is going to replace as much volume as its weight.
