The Chicken, the Egg, and Plate Tectonics
By Nicolas Coltice
Whole-planet models could upend our view of how geophysical forces shape the Earth.
This Article From Issue
May-June 2021
Volume 109, Number 3
Page 166
Ten years ago, I took a fateful train trip from my home in Lyon, France, through the Alps, mountains forged by Earth’s powerful forces over millions of years, to Zurich, Switzerland. At the time, my thoughts weren’t on the majestic scenery, but on one of the biggest puzzles in Earth science: how to connect the huge, invisible motions of the deep Earth to the detailed, dramatic changes on the planet’s surface. These processes created the Alps, move continents, and have helped keep our planet habitable for billions of years. At the other end of the trip, Paul Tackley and Tobias Rolf showed me some remarkable work that promised the beginning of a meaningful answer.
QUICK TAKE
- For nearly half a century, plate tectonics has provided a simple, convenient way to explain the formation of mountains and deep-sea trenches and movement along fault lines.
- Geological and geophysical experiments combined with supercomputers and algorithms allow us to model how internal and external forces shape the Earth’s surface.
- Just as large-scale atmospheric models can probe climate, these new whole-planet models allow us to better understand the physical forces that continue to sculpt the planet.
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