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GEOREF RECORD

Tuzo Wilson and the acceptance of pre-Mesozoic continental drift

Paul F. Hoffman
Tuzo Wilson and the acceptance of pre-Mesozoic continental drift (in John Tuzo Wilson, a man who moved mountains, and his contributions to earth sciences, Ali Polat (editor))
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences = Revue Canadienne des Sciences de la Terre (March 2014) 51 (3): 197-207

Abstract

Tuzo Wilson's well-known pre-1961 opposition to continental drift stemmed from his early experience as a geologist in the Appalachians and the Canadian Shield, which convinced him that orogenesis did not change drastically over geologic time. Conversely, Taylor (in 1910) and Wegener (in 1912) hypothesized that continental drift began in Cenozoic or Mesozoic time. Between 1949 and 1960, Tuzo Wilson with Adrian Scheidegger developed a quasi-uniformitarian model of progressive continental accretion around fixed Archean nuclei. Tuzo abruptly jettisoned this model in 1961 when, under pressure from paleomagnetic evidence for continental drift and a nascent concept of sea-floor spreading, he finally entertained the possibility of pre-Mesozoic as well as younger continental drift. He immediately found it a superior fit to Appalachian and Shield geology, while his uniformitarian conviction remained intact. Tuzo had blinded himself to the evidence for continental drift so long as he confined it to Taylor or Wegener's conception. In continental drift operating continuously over geologic time, he found a theory he could eagerly accept.


ISSN: 0008-4077
EISSN: 1480-3313
Coden: CJESAP
Serial Title: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences = Revue Canadienne des Sciences de la Terre
Serial Volume: 51
Serial Issue: 3
Title: Tuzo Wilson and the acceptance of pre-Mesozoic continental drift
Title: John Tuzo Wilson, a man who moved mountains, and his contributions to earth sciences
Author(s): Hoffman, Paul F.
Author(s): Polat, Alieditor
Affiliation: 1216 Montrose Avenue, Victoria, BC, Canada
Affiliation: University of Windsor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Windsor, ON, Canada
Pages: 197-207
Published: 201403
Text Language: English
Summary Language: French
Publisher: National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada
References: 124
Accession Number: 2014-027275
Categories: Solid-earth geophysics
Document Type: Serial
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
Illustration Description: illus. incl. geol. sketch maps
N60°00'00" - N65°00'00", W120°00'00" - W110°00'00"
Country of Publication: Canada
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2017, American Geosciences Institute. Reference includes data from Canadian Science Publishing, NRC Research Press, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Reference includes data from GeoScienceWorld, Alexandria, VA, United States
Update Code: 201417
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