Abstract
THE current concepts of plate tectonics took shape when Wilson1 expounded his concept of transforms. He discussed the relationships in space of the three global tectonic elements (rises, arcs and great faults) which constitute the present network of mobile belts and delineate crustal plates. He suggested that any one of these elements is transformed at its apparent geographic termination into one of the other two, and he termed the junction “a transform”. McKenzie and Morgan2 have recently written: “There are two main reasons why plate tectonics does not yet provide a complete theory of global tectonics. The first is that the mechanism by which the motions are maintained is still unknown. . . . The other is that the original ideas only apply to motions at present taking place, and are not concerned with either the slow evolution of plate boundaries or with changes in their relative motion through geological time”. This article, like that of McKenzie and Morgan, is concerned with the relationships of global tectonic elements in time.
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