I was unaware that there was discussion about when plate tectonics started up. I suppose I hadn’t bothered to wonder about it. From the December SciAm.

A plate tectonics mystery

Making of A Continent pt1

buffy said:

I was unaware that there was discussion about when plate tectonics started up. I suppose I hadn’t bothered to wonder about it. From the December SciAm.

A plate tectonics mystery

Ogmog said:

Making of A Continent pt1

“No one knows how or when this fundamental process, plate tectonics, began.”
Yep.

“ Earth was a warmer, more gooey planet when its magma ocean first solidified, and its brand-new crust would seem more likely to bend than to break into plates. Scientists who use computer models to reconstruct this early environment tend to think plate tectonics began three billion years ago or less, because simulations struggle to show how the process could have started before that. Field geologists, however, often point to four-billion-year-old rocks in places such as Canada and Australia as evidence of an earlier start. These ancient rocks appear to have been made by subduction, when two plates collide to thrust one of them deep into Earth’s mantle.”

I wasn’t aware of the disagreement. Thanks. This may be shaping up to be the biggest early origin battle since the battle over the age of the universe.

mollwollfumble said:

buffy said:

I was unaware that there was discussion about when plate tectonics started up. I suppose I hadn’t bothered to wonder about it. From the December SciAm.

A plate tectonics mystery

Ogmog said:

Making of A Continent pt1

“No one knows how or when this fundamental process, plate tectonics, began.”
Yep.

“ Earth was a warmer, more gooey planet when its magma ocean first solidified, and its brand-new crust would seem more likely to bend than to break into plates. Scientists who use computer models to reconstruct this early environment tend to think plate tectonics began three billion years ago or less, because simulations struggle to show how the process could have started before that. Field geologists, however, often point to four-billion-year-old rocks in places such as Canada and Australia as evidence of an earlier start. These ancient rocks appear to have been made by subduction, when two plates collide to thrust one of them deep into Earth’s mantle.”

I wasn’t aware of the disagreement. Thanks. This may be shaping up to be the biggest early origin battle since the battle over the age of the universe.

Yes according to written records ~6000years old but some handwaving scientists have it as a lot older

mollwollfumble said:

buffy said:

I was unaware that there was discussion about when plate tectonics started up. I suppose I hadn’t bothered to wonder about it. From the December SciAm.

A plate tectonics mystery

Ogmog said:

Making of A Continent pt1

“No one knows how or when this fundamental process, plate tectonics, began.”
Yep.

“ Earth was a warmer, more gooey planet when its magma ocean first solidified, and its brand-new crust would seem more likely to bend than to break into plates. Scientists who use computer models to reconstruct this early environment tend to think plate tectonics began three billion years ago or less, because simulations struggle to show how the process could have started before that. Field geologists, however, often point to four-billion-year-old rocks in places such as Canada and Australia as evidence of an earlier start. These ancient rocks appear to have been made by subduction, when two plates collide to thrust one of them deep into Earth’s mantle.”

I wasn’t aware of the disagreement. Thanks. This may be shaping up to be the biggest early origin battle since the battle over the age of the universe.

I kinda’ learnt earlier than some by watching in fascination
at the surface of a pot of old fashion oatmeal simmering on the stove as a child.

try it