Abstract
The latitude lines plastered across atlases and globes are not the rigid demarcations they appear to be. Over millions of years, continents have moved relative to the Earth's magnetic field, a phenomenon recorded by the magnetization of rocks. Edward Irving, a geologist and emeritus scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada, has been reading the history of latitude variations for more than 50 years. His studies of paleomagnetism provided the first physical evidence of the theory of continental drift (1). In his Inaugural Article (2), published on page 1821 of this issue of PNAS, Irving reviews the areas of research that have informed our knowledge of Earth's history and how the planet's mountain belts, climate, and life have evolved.
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