Simultaneous advances in early seismic imaging techniques in and around the Wadati-Benioff zones along the trenches that delimit many continental margins, along with many other geophysical (eg gravimetric) and geological observations, showed how the oceanic crust could disappear in mantle, providing the mechanism for balancing the length of shortened ocean basins along their margins.
All this evidence from both the ocean floor and continental shores made it clear by 1965 that continental drift was viable and that the plate tectonic theory, which was defined in a series of articles between 1965 and 1967, was born with all its extraordinary explanatory and predictive power. The theory revolutionized the Earth sciences by explaining a diverse range of geological phenomena and their implications in other studies, such as paleogeography and paleobiology.
