Geoscience and Environment


Emile Argand and Mobilism

(1879-1940)
“As profound as it was, [Argand's] work went largely ignored by North Americans for decades; I learned of it only after I had found in my own data much of what he had described.” (Peter Molnar, From Plate Tectonics to Continental Tectonics, Plate Tectonics, edited by Naomi Oreskes, Westview Press, 2001)
Emile Argand was a Swiss geologist who specialized in tectonics—mountain building. Based on his studies of the Alps and global tectonics, including the Himalayas, Argand developed the concept of mobilism—the idea that there was once one supercontinent that broke up, the fragments moving to the positions of today's continents.

Much of Argand's work has been confirmed by modern plate tectonics, though the timing and mechanism proposed by his famous contemporary, Alfred Wegener, have been shown to be invalid.

Historians and philosophers of science have explored the scientific basis for the rejection of continental drift, including the lack of a physical mechanism. What has not yet been explored are the socio-political and psycho-social aspects of rejection.

argand(GIF 14K)
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These webpages present a brief outline of Argand's work in the context of the modern theory of plate tectonics.

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