DRIFTING CONTINENTS, SHIFTING SEAS: An Introduction to Plate Tectonics

In a compromise between Anderson's (1971) and Golden's (1972) scientific detection approach and Klein's (1972) more rigorous concept orientation, Young begins by tracing the plate tectonics theory from a 17th-century French monk to Canadian geologist Tuzo Wilson, then follows the drifting continents themselves from Pangaea to the present, before settling down to an investigation of what's going on at the ocean ridges and trenches. Offering less on the development of the theory than do Anderson or Golden and far less technical depth than Klein, this is geared to the minimally ambitious homework reporter for whom less is more tolerable.