一封新近被发现的 F.B.Taylor 1931年12月4日写给大众科学月刊的一篇文章的一位作者的一封信证明,A.Wegener 的关于大陆漂移的一些观点.最初是由 Taylor 那里得来的。Taylor 的这封信详述了大陆漂移假说的早期发展,并说明 Wegener 很早便对 Taylor 关于漂移的著作有所了解。Taylor 作为漂移假说创始者的权利的主要根据是1908年美国地质学会的一篇文章。在由该学会发表于1910年的这篇文章中.Taylor 用地壳“片(sheets)”(我们现时叫做板块)的碰撞,概述了一些第三纪山岳带的形成。这些“片”在一个塑性下伏层之上.水平爬动数百公里乃至数千公里。Taylor 的板块构造概念的一个推论就是大陆的破碎和错动。Taylor 认为.裂谷如同大西洋中脊之类,都标志着板块边缘的扩散。火山孤、海渊和山系圈界出收剑边缘;而某些断层,诸如格林兰周围的一些断层,则表示出横交板块边缘.关键词:地质学史、板块构造 A newly discovered FBTaylor letter dated December 4, 1931 to an author of an article in the popular science journal, shows that A.Wegener’s views on the continental drift were originally derived from Taylor’s Come on. This letter from Taylor details the early development of the continental drift hypothesis and shows that Wegener had a long history of Taylor’s work on drift. The main basis for Taylor’s rights as a founder of the drift hypothesis is an article by the 1908 American Geological Society. In this article, published by the Society in 1910, Taylor outlined the formation of a number of Tertiary mountain bands using the collisions of crustal “sheets” (what we now call plates). These “slices” are above a plastic layer of ground that climbs hundreds or even thousands of kilometers horizontally. One corollary of Taylor’s plate tectonics is the fragmentation and misalignment of the continent. Taylor believes that the rift, like the mid-Atlantic ridge, marks the spread of plate edges. Volcanic orogeny, sea depths and mountain systems show the edge of the sword, while some faults, such as some faults around Greenland, show the cross-section edges. Key words: history of geology, plate tectonics