Does the plate tectonic model represent a "quantum leap" in our understanding of the Earth as currently alleged? And will that model be a fruitful guide for the Earth sciences into the 21st Century? This book answers such questions with a definite no! The autor's message is clear: something must be fundamentally wrong when an originally highly tentative model, having subsequently failed all critical tests, continues to be regarded as universally valid. On this background the autor launches a new Earth evolution model, a theory with much broader scope and greater explanatory power than its predecessors. In the new framework global tectonics becomes intimately linked to Earth's rotation, and based on well-known dynamical principles of rotating bodies the whole of Earth history becomes a chain of interrelated phenomena. The book is first of all intended for students and professionals in the Earth sciences, but it will also be of interest to high scool teachers, geographers and historians of science. Karsten M. Storetvedt has held the chair in geomagnetism at the University of Bergen since 1973. He graduated in 1962, and received his doctorate at the University of Bergen in 1969 after post-graduate and pre-doctoral studies at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, partly under the late Prof. S.K. Runcorn. During the late 1980s his interests made a significant shift from paleomagnetism towards global geophysical theories, history and philosophy of science, and problems in science teaching.
