Readers will be led down a random path from continental dynamics to paleoclimate. A key to understanding continental dynamics is recognizing that differences in gravitational potential energy per unit area between high and low terrain govern much of large-scale continental deformation. Removal of mantle lithosphere, not just crustal thickening, plays a crucial, but difficult-to-test, role in changes in surface elevation. Although measuring past surface heights remains a challenge, indications of such processes suggest that surface uplift associated with such removal can affect relative plate motion. Climate change, from a warmer to cooler climate, and associated changes in erosion and sedimentation introduce further complications to determining past elevations. The phenomena that led to such cooling include a number of possibilities, but I favor the emergence of islands in the Maritime continent, which transformed the Pacific Ocean from one with a warm eastern tropical Pacific, as during El Niño events, to the present-day La Niña–like background state. Teleconnections from the eastern tropical Pacific to Canada affect the duration of summers and the potential of high-latitude ice to accumulate. ▪Lateral gradients in gravitational potential energy per unit area (GPE), a force per unit length, govern large-scale continental dynamics.▪Removal of mantle lithosphere and thickening of crust raise GPE; knowledge of mean surface elevations provides a test of these processes.▪Climate change from a warmer to cooler climate and from one with less to more erosion can give the false impression of elevation change.▪Emergence of Indonesian islands, more rain over them, a stronger Walker Circulation, and cooler eastern Pacific may have led to ice ages.

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自传：50 年来对地球科学的理解


读者将被引导从大陆动力学到古气候的随机路径。理解大陆动力学的一个关键是认识到高地和低地之间每单位面积的重力势能差异在很大程度上控制着大尺度大陆变形。地幔岩石圈的去除，不仅仅是地壳增厚，在地表高程的变化中起着至关重要但难以测试的作用。尽管测量过去的表面高度仍然是一个挑战，但此类过程的迹象表明，与这种去除相关的表面隆起会影响相对板块运动。气候变化，从温暖气候到凉爽气候，以及相关的侵蚀和沉积变化，为确定过去的海拔带来了进一步的复杂性。导致这种冷却的现象包括多种可能性，但我赞成在海洋大陆出现岛屿，它使太平洋从厄尔尼诺事件期间的温暖东热带太平洋转变为今天的拉尼娜现象。从热带太平洋东部到加拿大的遥相关会影响夏季的持续时间和高纬度冰积累的可能性。▪每单位面积重力势能 （GPE） 的横向梯度，即每单位长度的力，支配着大尺度的大陆动力学。 ▪了解平均地表高程可以检验这些过程。▪气候从温暖到凉爽，以及从侵蚀减少到增加的变化会给人一种海拔变化的假象。▪印度尼西亚岛屿的出现、更多的降雨、更强的沃克环流和更凉爽的东太平洋可能导致冰河时代。