Theory of Plate Tectonics
In 1957 Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen published their first physiographic map of the North Atlantic. This was the turning point for geology towards the theory of plate tectonics and continental drift proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1915 (42 years earlier)
Source: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Presented by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos Studios/Fuzzy Door Productions, 2014.
Public Domain
Back to archive
Full disclosure, I may occasionally borrow a sentence from Will Durant's Story of Civilization. I absolutely love that collection!