J. Tuzo Wilson
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- Wilson, J. Tuzo - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
(1908-93), Canadian geophysicist. J. Tuzo Wilson helped rekindle the concept of plate tectonics with his important 1965 paper "A New Class of Faults and Their Bearing on Continental Drift," which introduced his theory of an entirely new class of geologic faults, transform faults-that is, boundaries of plates that slide past each other-as a third type of movement in addition to convergent plates (those moving closer together) and divergent plates (those moving apart). His theory, devised to help explain continental drift, became almost universally accepted, and he was credited with coining the term "plate" in reference to the rigid portions into which the Earth’s crust is divided.