© 2005 Beth Vernon
The Beatles, lava lamps, Gilligan's Island, Viet Nam
Flower children all atune
Martin Luther King, Tie Dye on everything
Armstrong: the first man on the moon
All of this and more, still no one knew the score
The earth, was still a mystery
CHORUS:
But now we know And Isn't it ironic
It took so long to think of Plate Tectonics
Glaciers and fossils found in places unexpected
Were the continents really fixed to stay
Al pondered over all of the evidence collected
Said the continents had drifted away
Old Al had an idea: one big land he called Pangea
Changing shape and moving round some way
It was uncool they called him a fool
CHORUS:
When the Glomar left the shoreline
They had no idea what they'd find
Underwater mountains for a start
Bands of rocks in patterns
From the ridges of the mountains
Could the seafloor be spreading apart?
They scored a TKO 'cause it helped them crack the code
It was the earth's Rosetta Stone
They got the puzzle whipped the giant magnet flipped
CHORUS
Bridge:
Now the earth is made of plates like continents on skates
But the wheels they go real slow
Continents a crashing, a sliding and a bashing
Not as fast as your fingernails grow
Makin' volcanoes, mountains and seafloor trenches
Tsunamis and earthquakes most cataclysmic
And now we know But isn't it ironic
It took so long to think of Plate Tectonics
Yeah Al was right It's just so ironic
It took so long to think of plate tectonics