地壳的垂直运动和水平运动是大地构造学中长期争论的一个問題。随着人类对于地质构造現象认识的扩大与深入,大地构造学中的垂直运动說和水平运动说时有兴衰和更替。十九世紀末叶,在“主火論”占优势的岁月里,人們认为地壳变动主要是由岩浆活动引起的。人們对岩浆自下而上的侵入和喷发現象的认識使地壳的垂直运动說大盛一时。后来,由于阿尔卑斯构造研究的开展,巨大冲断层和辗掩构造的发現,于是水平运动說就逐漸代替了垂直运动說。二十世紀二十年代,A.威格納所創立的大陸漂移說,认为南、北美 The vertical and horizontal crustal motion of the Earth’s crust is a matter of long and mid-term debate. As mankind expands and deepens the understanding of the phenomenon of geological formations, the theory of vertical movement and horizontal movement in tectonology have been said to rise and fall and to be replaced. In the late nineteenth century, during the years when “main fire theory” prevailed, it was thought that the crustal movement was mainly caused by magmatic activity. People’s understanding of the magmatic bottom-up intrusion and eruption causes the crust to move vertically. Later, as a result of the study of tectonic Alps formation, the discovery of giant thrust faults and tearing structures, horizontal motion was gradually replaced by that of vertical motion. In the twenties of the twentieth century, A. Wigner founded the continent by drifting, saying that South and North America