板块构造理论的进展和应用

Progress and applications of the plate tectonics theory

Human interest in geology can be traced back to the Neolithic and Bronze Ages,but modern geology as a research subject is more recent following the influential volumes of Principles of Geology by Lyell[1]in the 1830s,which emphasized processes that may have caused geological observations.In the latter half of the last century,our understanding of the principal processes controlling Earth evolution underwent a paradigm change with the development of the theory of plate tectonics.As noted by Frankel[2],the plate tectonics theory can be considered alongside the theories of evolution in the Life Sciences and of quantum mechanics in Physics in terms of its fundamental importance to our scientific understanding of the world.However,like evolution and quantum mechanics,much in our understanding of Earth processes remains to be resolved.For example,the Earth's present-day surface motions are well known.