Space missions . Solar System . Volcanoes 101 . Site map . 01.26.00 W hile long-held theories of plate tectonics have accounted for movement of Earth's continents over eons, a new study suggests the wandering of the planet's magnetic poles might account for some of what scientists observe in the geologic records.
Large arrows show direction of calculated movement of magnetic pole and equator.
In a particular TPW some 84 million years ago, Earth appears to have changed radially. It's an odd event. Although the findings by Sager and Anthony Koppers of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography don't eliminate plate tectonics as a factor in the poles' movement, Sager said their research suggests that tectonics alone would not have caused it. Their research appears in a recent issue of the journal Science . On one hand, Sager explains, plate motion makes the axis appear to move, and on the other, the axis may actually shift.