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49-530: Goleta Point (also known as Campus Point ) is a small peninsula at the southern end of the Gaviota Coast on the central coast in the U.S. state of California . It is located 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of the city of Goleta . Situated within the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), it is characterized by a beach cliff, crashing waves, and a view of the Channel Islands across

98-409: A chapter on continental drift, proposing that Earth's mantle contained convection cells which dissipated radioactive heat and moved the crust at the surface. Holmes's proposal resolved the phase disequilibrium objection (the underlying fluid was kept from solidifying by radioactive heating from the core). However, scientific communication in the 1930s and 1940s was inhibited by World War II , and

147-660: A freshwater reptile rather like a small crocodile, found both in Brazil and South Africa , are one example; another is the discovery of fossils of the land reptile Lystrosaurus in rocks of the same age at locations in Africa , India , and Antarctica . There is also living evidence, with the same animals being found on two continents. Some earthworm families (such as Ocnerodrilidae, Acanthodrilidae, Octochaetidae) are found in South America and Africa. The complementary arrangement of

196-409: A minority of scientific proponents over the decades, the theory of continental drift was largely rejected for many years, with evidence in its favor considered insufficient. One problem was that a plausible driving force was missing. A second problem was that Wegener's estimate of the speed of continental motion, 250 cm/year (100 in/year), was implausibly high. (The currently accepted rate for

245-476: A now-discredited Expanding Earth theory . Continental drift without expansion was proposed by Frank Bursley Taylor , who suggested in 1908 (published in 1910) that the continents were moved into their present positions by a process of "continental creep", later proposing a mechanism of increased tidal forces during the Cretaceous dragging the crust towards the equator. He was the first to realize that one of

294-534: A permanent feature of the Earth's surface, rather than them having "changed places" with the continents. Eduard Suess had proposed a supercontinent Gondwana in 1885 and the Tethys Ocean in 1893, assuming a land-bridge between the present continents submerged in the form of a geosyncline , and John Perry had written an 1895 paper proposing that the Earth's interior was fluid, and disagreeing with Lord Kelvin on

343-834: A sea. A piece of land on a very tight river bend or one between two rivers is sometimes said to form a peninsula, for example in the New Barbadoes Neck in New Jersey , United States. A peninsula may be connected to the mainland via an isthmus , for example, in the Isthmus of Corinth which connects to the Peloponnese peninsula. DON'T FORGET OR ELSE Peninsulas can be formed from continental drift , glacial erosion , glacial meltwater , glacial deposition , marine sediment , marine transgressions , volcanoes, divergent boundaries or river sedimentation. More than one factor may play into

392-444: A slightly medium height. During an above-average break point "swell wells up to create a solid face that has a wide peak." During low and medium tide periods, the rides can be of longer duration provided the tide does not bounce back from the reef . Peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most sides. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in

441-423: Is created at spreading centers , and this, along with subduction , drives the system of plates in a chaotic manner, resulting in continuous orogeny and areas of isostatic imbalance. Evidence for the movement of continents on tectonic plates is now extensive. Similar plant and animal fossils are found around the shores of different continents, suggesting that they were once joined. The fossils of Mesosaurus ,

490-419: Is on sheltered stretch of the coast line which is not affected by the westerly and northwesterly winds. The water is clean. Goleta point is said to contain one of Santa Barbara 's best surf breaks . The break conditions are dependent entirely on the wind direction, direction of the swell, and the tide can create unfavorable conditions. But generally, waves generated in a southwest direction are head high and to

539-539: The Atlantic Ocean (most notably, Africa and South America) seem to fit together. W. J. Kious described Ortelius's thoughts in this way: Abraham Ortelius in his work Thesaurus Geographicus ... suggested that the Americas were "torn away from Europe and Africa ... by earthquakes and floods" and went on to say: "The vestiges of the rupture reveal themselves if someone brings forward a map of the world and considers carefully

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588-643: The Mid-Atlantic Ridge , arguing with this that the floor of the Atlantic Ocean was undergoing extension just like Reykjanes. Bernauer thought this extension had drifted the continents only 100–200 km (60–120 mi) apart, the approximate width of the volcanic zone in Iceland . David Attenborough , who attended university in the second half of the 1940s, recounted an incident illustrating its lack of acceptance then: "I once asked one of my lecturers why he

637-557: The Santa Barbara Channel . The rock formation is frequented by shorebirds . From 1870 to 1890, Goleta Point was used as a whaling camp, with Italian and Portuguese crews situated at the locale. Goleta Point contained a defunct United States Marine Corps Santa Barbara Air Station when it was purchased in 1950 by the University of California . The site is now known as Campus Point. The Campus Point State Marine Conservation Area

686-557: The 1930s to the late 1950s, works by Vening-Meinesz , Holmes, Umbgrove , and numerous others outlined concepts that were close or nearly identical to modern plate tectonics theory. In particular, the English geologist Arthur Holmes proposed in 1920 that plate junctions might lie beneath the sea , and in 1928 that convection currents within the mantle might be the driving force. Holmes's views were particularly influential: in his bestselling textbook, Principles of Physical Geology, he included

735-709: The Asian continent in the Permian period, but failing to account for glaciation in India, Australia and South Africa. Hans Stille and Leopold Kober opposed the idea of continental drift and worked on a "fixist" geosyncline model with Earth contraction playing a key role in the formation of orogens . Other geologists who opposed continental drift were Bailey Willis , Charles Schuchert , Rollin Chamberlin, Walther Bucher and Walther Penck . In 1939 an international geological conference

784-460: The Earth's mantle contained convection cells which dissipated heat produced by radioactive decay and moved the crust at the surface. His Principles of Physical Geology , ending with a chapter on continental drift, was published in 1944. Geological maps of the time showed huge land bridges spanning the Atlantic and Indian oceans to account for the similarities of fauna and flora and the divisions of

833-534: The German Geological Society on 6 January 1912. He proposed that the continents had once formed a single landmass, called Pangaea , before breaking apart and drifting to their present locations. Wegener was the first to use the phrase "continental drift" (1912, 1915) ( German : "die Verschiebung der Kontinente" ) and to publish the hypothesis that the continents had somehow "drifted" apart. Although he presented much evidence for continental drift, he

882-539: The New Global Tectonics", published in 1968, using data collected from seismologic stations, including those he set up in the South Pacific. The modern theory of plate tectonics , refining Wegener, explains that there are two kinds of crust of different composition: continental crust and oceanic crust , both floating above a much deeper " plastic " mantle. Continental crust is inherently lighter. Oceanic crust

931-421: The adjoining stripes reversed polarity. The best explanation was the "conveyor belt" or Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis . New magma from deep within the Earth rises easily through these weak zones and eventually erupts along the crest of the ridges to create new oceanic crust. The new crust is magnetized by the Earth's magnetic field, which undergoes occasional reversals . Formation of new crust then displaces

980-816: The age of the Earth. Apart from the earlier speculations mentioned above, the idea that the American continents had once formed a single landmass with Eurasia and Africa was postulated by several scientists before Alfred Wegener 's 1912 paper. Although Wegener's theory was formed independently and was more complete than those of his predecessors, Wegener later credited a number of past authors with similar ideas: Franklin Coxworthy (between 1848 and 1890), Roberto Mantovani (between 1889 and 1909), William Henry Pickering (1907) and Frank Bursley Taylor (1908). The similarity of southern continent geological formations had led Roberto Mantovani to conjecture in 1889 and 1909 that all

1029-546: The coasts of the three [continents]." In 1889, Alfred Russel Wallace remarked, "It was formerly a very general belief, even amongst geologists, that the great features of the earth's surface, no less than the smaller ones, were subject to continual mutations, and that during the course of known geological time the continents and great oceans had, again and again, changed places with each other." He quotes Charles Lyell as saying, "Continents, therefore, although permanent for whole geological epochs, shift their positions entirely in

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1078-543: The continent of North America had its surface near tide-level, part above and part below it (p.196); and this will probably be proved to be the condition in Primordial time of the other continents also. And, if the outlines of the continents were marked out, it follows that the outlines of the oceans were no less so". Dana was enormously influential in America—his Manual of Mineralogy is still in print in revised form—and

1127-434: The continents had once been joined into a supercontinent ; Wegener noted the similarity of Mantovani's and his own maps of the former positions of the southern continents. In Mantovani's conjecture, this continent broke due to volcanic activity caused by thermal expansion , and the new continents drifted away from each other because of further expansion of the rip-zones, where the oceans now lie. This led Mantovani to propose

1176-528: The course of ages." and claims that the first to throw doubt on this was James Dwight Dana in 1849. In his Manual of Geology (1863), Dana wrote, "The continents and oceans had their general outline or form defined in earliest time. This has been proved with regard to North America from the position and distribution of the first beds of the Lower Silurian , – those of the Potsdam epoch . The facts indicate that

1225-539: The effects of continental motion would be the formation of mountains, attributing the formation of the Himalayas to the collision between the Indian subcontinent with Asia. Wegener said that of all those theories, Taylor's had the most similarities to his own. For a time in the mid-20th century, the theory of continental drift was referred to as the "Taylor-Wegener hypothesis". Alfred Wegener first presented his hypothesis to

1274-542: The facing sides of South America and Africa is an obvious and temporary coincidence. In millions of years, slab pull , ridge-push , and other forces of tectonophysics will further separate and rotate those two continents. It was that temporary feature that inspired Wegener to study what he defined as continental drift although he did not live to see his hypothesis generally accepted. The widespread distribution of Permo-Carboniferous glacial sediments in South America, Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, India, Antarctica and Australia

1323-489: The formation of a peninsula. For example, in the case of Florida , continental drift, marine sediment, and marine transgressions were all contributing factors to its shape. In the case of formation from glaciers (e.g., the Antarctic Peninsula or Cape Cod ), peninsulas can be created due to glacial erosion , meltwater or deposition . If erosion formed the peninsula, softer and harder rocks were present, and since

1372-466: The glacier only erodes softer rock, it formed a basin . This may create peninsulas, and occurred for example in the Keweenaw Peninsula . In the case of formation from meltwater, melting glaciers deposit sediment and form moraines , which act as dams for the meltwater. This may create bodies of water that surround the land, forming peninsulas. If deposition formed the peninsula, the peninsula

1421-524: The magnetized crust apart, akin to a conveyor belt – hence the name. Without workable alternatives to explain the stripes, geophysicists were forced to conclude that Holmes had been right: ocean rifts were sites of perpetual orogeny at the boundaries of convection cells. By 1967, barely two decades after discovery of the mid-oceanic rifts, and a decade after discovery of the striping, plate tectonics had become axiomatic to modern geophysics. In addition, Marie Tharp , in collaboration with Bruce Heezen , who

1470-478: The ocean floor using devices developed during World War II to detect submarines. Over the next decade, it became increasingly clear that the magnetization patterns were not anomalies, as had been originally supposed. In a series of papers published between 1959 and 1963, Heezen, Dietz, Hess, Mason, Vine, Matthews, and Morley collectively realized that the magnetization of the ocean floor formed extensive, zebra-like patterns: one stripe would exhibit normal polarity and

1519-461: The ocean, 5.5 miles (8.9 km) west of Goleta Point. The point is west of the Santa Barbara Light . Goleta (Mores) Landing, 1.75 miles (2.82 km) east of Goleta Point, has a depth of 15 feet (4.6 m) at the end of the wharf. The Goleta Pier is located about 1.75 miles (2.82 km) from this point; from the pier, the university campus is 1 mile (1.6 km) to the west. Goleta Point

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1568-663: The organizer of the conference, was also a fixist who together with Troll held the view that excepting the Pacific Ocean continents were not radically different from oceans in their behaviour. The mobilist theory of Émile Argand for the Alpine orogeny was criticized by Kurt Leuchs. The few drifters and mobilists at the conference appealed to biogeography (Kirsch, Wittmann), paleoclimatology ( Wegener, K ), paleontology (Gerth) and geodetic measurements (Wegener, K). F. Bernauer correctly equated Reykjanes in south-west Iceland with

1617-555: The science of plate tectonics , which studies the movement of the continents as they ride on plates of the Earth's lithosphere . The speculation that continents might have "drifted" was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. A pioneer of the modern view of mobilism was the Austrian geologist Otto Ampferer . The concept was independently and more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in his 1915 publication, "The Origin of Continents and Oceans". However, at that time his hypothesis

1666-421: The seabed beneath the sediments was chemically and physically different from continental crust. As oceanographers continued to bathymeter the ocean basins, a system of mid-oceanic ridges was detected. An important conclusion was that along this system, new ocean floor was being created, which led to the concept of the " Great Global Rift ". Meanwhile, scientists began recognizing odd magnetic variations across

1715-468: The sediment is deposited, forming a delta peninsula. Marine transgressions (changes in sea level) may form peninsulas, but also may affect existing peninsulas. For example, the water level may change, which causes a peninsula to become an island during high water levels. Similarly, wet weather causing higher water levels make peninsulas appear smaller, while dry weather make them appear larger. Sea level rise from global warming will permanently reduce

1764-415: The separation of the Americas from Europe and Africa is about 2.5 cm/year (1 in/year).) Furthermore, Wegener was treated less seriously because he was not a geologist. Even today, the details of the forces propelling the plates are poorly understood. The English geologist Arthur Holmes championed the theory of continental drift at a time when it was deeply unfashionable. He proposed in 1931 that

1813-536: The size of some peninsulas over time. Peninsulas are noted for their use as shelter for humans and Neanderthals . The landform is advantageous because it gives hunting access to both land and sea animals. They can also serve as markers of a nation's borders. Continental drift Continental drift is the theory , originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. The theory of continental drift has since been validated and incorporated into

1862-504: The theory became known as the Permanence theory . This appeared to be confirmed by the exploration of the deep sea beds conducted by the Challenger expedition , 1872–1876, which showed that contrary to expectation, land debris brought down by rivers to the ocean is deposited comparatively close to the shore on what is now known as the continental shelf . This suggested that the oceans were

1911-399: The theory still required work to avoid foundering on the orogeny and isostasy objections. Worse, the most viable forms of the theory predicted the existence of convection cell boundaries reaching deep into the Earth, that had yet to be observed. In 1947, a team of scientists led by Maurice Ewing confirmed the existence of a rise in the central Atlantic Ocean, and found that the floor of

1960-504: The volcano erupts near shallow water. Marine sediment may form peninsulas by the creation of limestone . A rift peninsula may form as a result of a divergent boundary in plate tectonics (e.g. the Arabian Peninsula ), while a convergent boundary may also form peninsulas (e.g. Gibraltar or the Indian subcontinent ). Peninsulas can also form due to sedimentation in rivers. When a river carrying sediment flows into an ocean,

2009-447: The world is the Arabian Peninsula . The word peninsula derives from Latin paeninsula , from paene  'almost' and insula  'island'. The word entered English in the 16th century. A peninsula is generally defined as a piece of land surrounded on most sides by water. A peninsula may be bordered by more than one body of water, and the body of water does not have to be an ocean or

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2058-538: Was composed of sedimentary rock , which was created from a large deposit of glacial drift . The hill of drift becomes a peninsula if the hill formed near water but was still connected to the mainland, for example during the formation of Cape Cod about 23,000 years ago. In the case of formation from volcanoes, when a volcano erupts magma near water, it may form a peninsula (e.g., the Alaskan Peninsula ). Peninsulas formed from volcanoes are especially common when

2107-462: Was established in 2012. Goleta Point, located 6.5 miles (10.5 km) west of Santa Barbara Point , terminates in a cliff about 30 feet (9.1 m) in height. Coal Oil Point is 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Goleta Point. The Isla Vista community is located between Goleta Point and Coal Oil Point. From Goleta Point to Point Conception , 32 miles (51 km), the coast is more rugged than further east. A rock projecting 15 feet (4.6 m) lies in

2156-488: Was held in Frankfurt . This conference came to be dominated by the fixists, especially as those geologists specializing in tectonics were all fixists except Willem van der Gracht. Criticism of continental drift and mobilism was abundant at the conference not only from tectonicists but also from sedimentological (Nölke), paleontological (Nölke), mechanical (Lehmann) and oceanographic ( Troll , Wüst ) perspectives. Hans Cloos ,

2205-403: Was initially sceptical of Tharp's observations that her maps confirmed continental drift theory, provided essential corroboration, using her skills in cartography and seismographic data, to confirm the theory. Geophysicist Jack Oliver is credited with providing seismologic evidence supporting plate tectonics which encompassed and superseded continental drift with the article "Seismology and

2254-414: Was not talking to us about continental drift and I was told, sneeringly, that if I could prove there was a force that could move continents, then he might think about it. The idea was moonshine, I was informed." As late as 1953—just five years before Carey introduced the theory of plate tectonics —the theory of continental drift was rejected by the physicist Scheidegger on the following grounds. From

2303-458: Was one of the major pieces of evidence for the theory of continental drift. The continuity of glaciers, inferred from oriented glacial striations and deposits called tillites , suggested the existence of the supercontinent of Gondwana , which became a central element of the concept of continental drift. Striations indicated glacial flow away from the equator and toward the poles, based on continents' current positions and orientations, and supported

2352-410: Was rejected by many for lack of any motive mechanism. In 1931, the English geologist Arthur Holmes proposed mantle convection for that mechanism. Abraham Ortelius ( Ortelius 1596 ), Theodor Christoph Lilienthal (1756), Alexander von Humboldt (1801 and 1845), Antonio Snider-Pellegrini ( Snider-Pellegrini 1858 ), and others had noted earlier that the shapes of continents on opposite sides of

2401-502: Was unable to provide a convincing explanation for the physical processes which might have caused this drift. He suggested that the continents had been pulled apart by the centrifugal pseudoforce ( Polflucht ) of the Earth's rotation or by a small component of astronomical precession , but calculations showed that the force was not sufficient. The Polflucht hypothesis was also studied by Paul Sophus Epstein in 1920 and found to be implausible. Although now accepted, and even with

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