when did plate tectonics become widely accepted by the scientific community
The theory of plate tectonics is a relatively new scientific concept. While its forerunnerâthe theory of. continental driftâhad its inception as early as the late 16th century, plate tectonics only emerged and. matured as a widely accepted theory since the 1960s (see This Dynamic Earth booklet).
The theoretical model builds on the concept of continental drift developed during the first few decades of the 20th century. The geoscientific community accepted plate-tectonic theory after seafloor spreading was validated in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of a planet (the crust and upper mantle), is broken up into tectonic plates.