ng into a single immobile plate. Assumingtinue muc present, tlantic Ocean il eventually it is muc off and become a kind of Madagascar ofto Europe, squeezing terranean out ofexistence and ting up a cains of y running from Paris toCalcutta. Australia o its nort by some isto Asia. ture outcomes, but not future events. ts are  inents are adrift, like leaves on a pond. to Global PositioningSystems  Europe and Norting at about to  long enougo San Francisco. It is only ty oflifetimes t keeps us from appreciating t a globe and inents as t one-tentof tory.

    Earts in ectonics, and ery. It is not simply a matter of size or density—Venus is nearly a ts and yet ectonic activity. It is t—t is really not—t tectonics is an important part of t’s organic  and er James trefil  it, “It  tinuousmovement of tectonic plates  on t of life on eartst tectonics—ce, for instance—ant spur to t of intelligence. Otings of tinents may  least some of tinction events. InNovember of 2002, tony Dickson of Cambridge University in England produced a report,publisrongly suggesting t tionsory of rocks and tory of life.  Dickson establis tion of tered abruptly and vigorously tt  ten correlate ant events inbiological ory—tburst of tiny organisms t created t, t causes try to cically from time to time, but tting of ocean ridges .

    At all events, plate tectonics not only explained t  from France to Florida, for example—but also many of its internalactions. Eartion of island cions ofmountains, tself—tter t di