Problems frequently arose in geology classrooms. One very experienced geology professor of that time, Dr. Douglas A. Block, frequently told me how embarrassed he and other geology professors felt walking into class knowing students would ask obvious questions professors could not answer. [See Dr. Block’s endorsement of the hydroplate theory on page
i.] So when the plate tectonic theory was finally proposed, it was greeted with great fanfare, because Earth’s features might be explained by exciting new mechanisms: seafloor spreading, subduction, mountain formation, mantle circulation, hot spots, transform faults,
and flipping magnetic poles—none of which has ever been seen or measured—only inferred with vivid imaginations. (emphsis mine) PT advocates assure us these mechanisms operate too slowly to see—over billions of years. Students seldom questioned these claims; questioning might show disrespect or a poor understanding, jeopardizing their degrees.