Original paper
What has remained of Hans Stille's tectonics?
Şengör, A. M. Celâl
Global Tectonics and Metallogeny Volume 10 Number 2-4 (2018), p. 77 - 107
161 references
published: May 1, 2018
manuscript accepted: Oct 22, 2017
manuscript revision received: Sep 6, 2016
manuscript revision requested: Jul 15, 2017
manuscript received: Jun 25, 2017
ArtNo. ESP136001002004, Price: 19.00 €
Abstract
With 15 figures Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new Albert EINSTEIN Let it be understood at the outset that to exceed the variety of nature is an extended enterprise, a remote and ideal goal, toward which we strive. Let no excessive flight of theory carry us far from the earth and overcome us in mid-air. William Morris DAVIS Abstract: Few geologists today remember Hans Wilhelm Stille (1876–1966). He was a very famous German geologist, whose ideas had dominated tectonics during the middle quarters of the twentieth century. He was a fixist contractionist, a follower of Élie de Beaumont and not of Eduard Suess in theoretical matters. Not much has remained of his theoretical edifice after the rise of plate tectonics that revived a Suessian way of doing geology. However, there are a number of observations that Stille had made on global tectonics that are still usable. Here I discuss his distinction of germanotype tectonics from alpinotype tectonics. The former is characterized by block uplifts and subsidences with non-penetrative deformation and mainly alkalic magmatism occurring on young cratons and on old orogenic belts; the latter is characterized by penetrative deformation involving numerous nappes of the first genre, folds and thrusts with calc-alkalic magmatism characterizing plate boundaries. The various kinds of germanotype structures give us precious clues concerning the structural behavior of different types of cratons. The germanotype-alpinotype distinction has also been successfully employed in deciphering the tectonic behavior of Mercury. So, Stille has still much to teach us: his main message is that doing good field geology is the sine qua non of understanding the present structure and the evolution of the architecture and the behavior of the earth.
Keywords
Hans Stille • germanotype and alpinotype tectonics • craton • plate boundary zone • Eurasia • Mercury