Computer fit of the Atlantic continents (Bullard, Everett and Smith)
Ajuste informático de los continentes del Atlántico (Bullard, Everett y Smith)
- Date
- 1965 · confidence high
- Place
- Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Edward Bullard, James Everett and Alan Smith
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Using a computer, Bullard, Everett and Smith fitted the continents around the Atlantic along the 500-fathom isobath through rotations on a sphere, obtaining a fit with minimal overlaps and gaps. It gave quantitative strength to an idea that had so far rested on intuition.
It is one of the first applications of computers to geology. Carey (1955) and others had already made fits on spherical models.
What it led to
- Pangaea reconstructions with Euler poles
- acceptance of drift by the geological community