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Concept

The Wilson Cycle

Geology

A model describing the opening and closing of ocean basins as tectonic plates diverge and subduct through the assembly and disassembly of supercontinents, with the opening and closing of the Atlantic as its classic example. Wilson cycles may have operated since the Archean, about three billion years ago, and the model was a key development of the plate tectonics revolution; it is named for John Tuzo Wilson. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Origin Year
1966 1
The tectonic episodicity was identified by Tuzo Wilson in his 1966 Nature paper asking whether the Atlantic had closed and then re-opened; the name Wilson cycle was applied in 1975 by his colleague Kevin C. A. Burke. The article's history section also credits a classic 1968 Wilson paper, so the model's own source carries both dates.
Connections

Associated With

Kevin C. A. Burke, Scientists

Burke named the concept the Wilson cycle in 1975 in recognition of J. Tuzo Wilson's 1966 identification of the pattern, during Burke's time as a close colleague of Wilson's at the University of Toronto.

Source Wilson Cycle (Wikipedia)
Pangaea, Concepts

The cycle describes the assembly and disassembly of supercontinents.

Source Wilson Cycle (Wikipedia)
Plate Tectonics, Processes

A key development in the theory of plate tectonics during the Plate Tectonics Revolution.

Source Wilson Cycle (Wikipedia)

In Discipline

Geology, Disciplines
Source Wilson Cycle (Wikipedia)

Named After

John Tuzo Wilson, Scientists

Named in recognition of Wilson's observation that the present-day Atlantic appears along a former suture zone.

Source Wilson Cycle (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Wilson Cycle (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    The Wilson Cycle is a model that describes the opening and closing of ocean basins and the subduction and divergence of tectonic plates during the assembly and disassembly of supercontinents.
  • Associated With: Kevin C. A. Burke, Naming section
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