Plate Tectonics: A Paradigm Shift in Thinking - Hardcover

Maxlow, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1680536141 ISBN 13: 9781680536140

Publisher: Academica Press, 2026

Synopsis

Plate Tectonics is a well-established unifying theory that embraces and integrates much of what we observe and measure in the Earth sciences. Since it was first established in the mid-1960s, however, plate theory has continued to be driven by geophysics, at the expense of geology, geography, and biogeography. Because of this, some have suggested that non-geological scientists may have made a poorly informed decision to use the long-since rejected Continental Drift theory to explain the mechanics of newly observed crustal plates during the early 1960s. In Plate Tectonics, James Maxlow offers new ways of interpreting and understanding the vast amount of global observational data now available and offers a refinement to the plate tectonic paradigm. Maxlow’s prime purpose is to utilize, investigate, and interrogate all modern global observational data – data collected since the introduction of plate tectonics – to see if they are commensurate with the fundamental principles and premises that continue to govern plate tectonic theory today. Maxlow’s research utilizes an extensive range of global observational data to reverse–engineer geology back through time. Reverse–engineering seafloor and crustal geology enables more accurate understandings of past plate assemblages and configurations of the ancient continents, ancient poles, climate zones, biogenic distributions, exposed lands and seas, and global distributions of hydrocarbon and metallic resources. Maxlow’s conclusions are applicable to all disciplines of the Earth sciences and will appeal to a broad range of professional expertise.

About this title

About the Author

James Maxlow was born in Middlesbrough, England, in May 1949. His passion for geology was no doubt inherited from a family history of “ironstone workers” who supplied iron ore mined from the Eston Ironstone Mine to the foundries and steel rolling mills of Middlesbrough, England, during the early 1800s to mid-1900s. James immigrated to Australia with his parents in 1953 and grew up in Melbourne. He studied Civil Engineering at what was then Swinburne College but soon became disillusioned with engineering and redirected himself to geology at the then Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, graduating in 1971. During his research years, James met and communicated with many wonderful scientists from around the world, including Professor Samuel Warren Carey from Tasmania, the father of modern Earth Expansion, Jan Koziar from Poland, the first scientist to measure and calculate an ancient Earth radius using modern seafloor mapping, and the late Klaus Vogel from Germany, the father of modern small Earth modelling studies. It was during James’s studies that Professor Carey recognized the potential of his research into tectonics. Carey then kindly “passed on his baton” to James in order to further his ongoing research into tectonics. James received his Master of Science in geology in 1995, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in 2002, from Curtin University of Technology, in Perth, with a letter of commendation from the university chancellor for his original and thought-provoking research.

Edition details

• Publisher: Academica Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1680536141
• ISBN 13: 9781680536140
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 446