Institute of Earth Sciences heiMAG Laboratory for Earth Magnetism

"Terms such as continental drift, seafloor spreading, and plate tectonics are understood even by nongeologists to reflect the mobility of the Earth’s lithospheric plates.  The revolution in the Earth sciences that took place in the 1960s has changed our view of the Earth.  The former view was that of a fairly static planet with occasional mountain-building episodes of uncertain origin.  Our current view is that of a dynamic system of continental and oceanic lithospheric plates with frequently changing relative motions that are largely responsible for the structural evolution of the Earth.  Paleomagnetism provided some of the quantitative data about past locations of continents and oceanic plates; these observations have become cornerstones of plate tectonic theory.  Today paleomagnetism is providing evidence about motion histories of suspect terranes with respect to continental interiors and is enlightening the processes by which continents grow and mountain belts form.  In addition, paleomagnetism has provided major refinement of stratigraphic correlations and geochronologic calibrations of both marine and nonmarine fossil zonations.  These geochronologic advances have major implications for patterns and rates of biological evolution.”

Dr. Robert F. Butler, Paleomagnetism: Magnetic Domains to Geologic Terranes