Archive: Plate Tectonics

In Our Time reports that the BBC Radio Four series is pulling ten classic episodes into a fresh archive guide. Host Misha Glenny has chosen a programme first aired in January two thousand eight that explores how plate tectonics revolutionised our picture of the planet. The episode explains why continents drift apart—America moving farther from Europe, the Pacific shrinking, the Red Sea widening, the Himalayas still rising, and the Horn of Africa likely to become an island. As the show points out, the theory linked mountain formation, earthquakes and the global spread of fossils, fundamentally reshaping geology. Listeners are invited to tune in for the expert discussion and take a deeper look at Earth’s slow‑moving surface.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton