Re: Human Language

Sean Stinson (sstinson@uoguelph.ca)
20 Jan 1997 20:00:35 GMT

Thomas Clarke (clarke@acme.ucf.edu) wrote:
: Wegner had a theory that the continents drifted about in the ocean bed
: something like icebergs in the sea, but he had no physically possible
: explanation.
Sean replied,
Actually Wegener proposed the drag of tidal friction on the
continents as his explanation for their movement. The problem
was not a lack of a physically possible explanation, but the lack of
support from others in the scientific community, who rejected his
tidal forces as being to weak to move continents. Wegener was later
vindicated when the plate tectonic theory revealed that the "ball-
bearing" layer of the mantle called the low-velocity zone, made it
possible for simple forces, such as tidal friction and gravity, to move
the plates.