Feb. 2, 2005 Physicists in the US have proven that wax is an
excellent model of the ocean floors. Using a tub of wax,
geophysicists at Cornell and Columbia have produced a predictive
model of tectonic microplates – one of the most important and
poorly understood features of plate tectonics – for the first
time. This research is reported today in the New Journal of
Physics (http://www.njp.org) published jointly by the Institute
of Physics and the German Physical Society (Deutsche
Physikalische Gesellschaft). This breakthrough gives scientists
a clearer understanding of the mechanisms of plate tectonics:
how the landmasses of the Earth shift and change over time, how
earthquakes are generated, volcanoes erupt, and precious metals
are concentrated in rich seams. Tectonic microplates could also
help identify whether this process, which many scientists argue
was a key factor in triggering the evolution of life on Earth,
occurs on other bodies in the Solar System. Richard Katz, now at
Columbia University, and Eberh