Original version

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

Discovery

Documentaries

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Discovery: The Day the Earth Moved

Magazines & Reviews

The Day the Earth Moved

01/01/2018 GMT

BBC World Service - Discovery, The Day the Earth MovedSearch BBC

How scientists learned the earth’s crust is made up of shifting plates.

How fifty years ago scientists became convinced that the earth’s crust is made up of shifting plates.

Roland Pease tells the story of how fifty years ago geologists finally became convinced that the earth’s crust is made up of shifting plates. The idea of mobile continents, continental drift, had been talked about, for example because it looked like Africa and South America had once been joined, and were now separated by the Atlantic. But given the solidity of rocks and the vastness of continents, that idea made no sense. Until plate tectonics, as it became known, gave it a scientific basis and rebuilt it into a mechanism that explained earthquakes, mountain belts, chains of volcanic islands and many other geological phenomena.  Roland Pease talks to many of the key researchers in the story, now in their 70s and 80s, and finds out how their work transformed our understanding of the earth. 

Picture: Tectonic plates of planet earth - map with names of major and minor plates, Credit: PeterHermesFurian

Presenter: Roland Pease

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Discovery

The Day the Earth Moved

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

About BBC World Service