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From: pamp@bcsaic.UUCP (Wagener)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: alternative to plate tectonics
Message-ID: <21@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Dec-86 17:22:52 EST
Article-I.D.: bcsaic.21
Posted: Thu Dec 11 17:22:52 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Dec-86 01:00:08 EST
References: <531@weitek.UUCP> <1272@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <1273@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <777@jc3b21.UUCP>
Reply-To: pamp@bcsaic.UUCP (Pam Pincha-Wagener)
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 44

In article <777@jc3b21.UUCP> larry@jc3b21.UUCP (Lawrence F. Strickland) writes:
>
>Just recently on Public TV, there was a show that mentioned plate tectonics,
>sea-floor spreading and the like.  They made one very interesting statement
>that I'm having a lot of trouble verifying.  According to Wegner's hypothesis,
>there was once a large super-continent (Pan-gaea) that split up to form the
>later continents.  MUCH evidence supports this.  Also supported is the fact
>that the current continent shapes (plus or minus a few buldges) are very
>similar to what the were when Pan-gaea broke up.
>
>Now the show I saw contended that for North America, at least, the continent
>was built up from deposition on an originally smaller continent based in
>southern Canada.  They called it the Canadian shelf or something like that.
>They also noted that this rock PRE-DATED the formation of Pan-Gaea!
>
>Try as I might, I can't find any books or other sources that either confirm or
>deny this.  Most go back to Pan-gaea and talk about the break up and the sea-
>floor spreading and subduction that has taken place since then, but nothing
>that would indicate shapes of continents prior to the formation of Pan-gaea.
>
>Was this just a flight of fancy of the author of the show?  Are there any
>theories on continents prior to Pan-gaea?  Where can one find this stuff??
>

No, it wasn't a flight of fancy. What was being discussed was the
theories of micro-plate accreation. This is work that has come out
of the NW US and Western Canada studies back around 1978-1983. Most
of the discussions have been going on in the geology technical journals.
I don't have the references here at work, but I know that Dr.Charles A.
Ross did some work in paleontology that discussed this theory and gave
some supporting evidence. Other authors to look up are Zvi Ben-Avraham,
Alan Cox, Amos Nur, and especially Davey Jones,Norman Silberling, and
John Hillhouse (USGS). You would probably want to look up information
on Wrangellia and allochthonous terranes.

I do have one popular article on the subject.

Overbye,Dennis, 1983, The Jigsaw Earth,Discover,april,n.4v.4,p.86-91.

This gives a good description of what was covered in the tv show.

Hope this helps.

Pam Pincha-Wagener