Continental drift 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' views were particularly influential: in his bestselling textbook, "Principles of Physical Geology," he included 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' proposal resolved the phase disequilibrium objection (the underlying fluid was kept from solidifying by radioactive heating from the core). However, scientific communication in the '30 and
Drift Desert, Arizona Drift Desert, Arizona Drift Desert is a former ranch and steamboat landing on the Colorado River, now a ghost town, in La Paz County, Arizona. Drift Desert was a ranch with a woodyard landing for the George Alonzo Johnson's steamboats on the Colorado River. It was located 102 miles up river from Yuma, Arizona, 30 miles above California Camp and 29 miles below La Paz, in what was then Yuma County, Arizona. Drift Desert appears on the 1861 Geological Map No. 1. Prepared by J.S. Newberry, M.D. Geologist to the Expedition. Explorations and Surveys. War Department. Map No. 1. Rio