Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the movement of plates of the Earth’s lithosphere. The model builds on the concept of continental drift, which proposed that continents had “drifted” relative to each other across the ocean bed. The speculation was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The concept was developed independently by Alfred Wegener in 1912, but the theory was generally rejected.
It was only with the discovery of mid-oceanic ridges in 1947 that the theory began acquiring evidence. Scientists also used devices developed during WWII to study odd magnetic variations across the ocean floor. By 1967, plate tectonics were fully accepted in modern geophysics.
