A Thorny Debate in Plate Tectonics May Finally Be Resolved

“In the grand scheme of things, plate tectonics is a young theory,” says Brian Savage, a seismologist at the University of Rhode Island. “The plate-tectonic theory is 50 or 60 years old. That’s not old. I always tell my students to compare it to evolution—that’s 150 years old, about as old as electricity and magnetism.”