Plate tectonics in Middle-earth article?

Not really my bag but I did read a paper which was given during the Tolkien Centenary Conference.

https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.c ... cle=2167&context=mythlore

I don't think plate tectonics is mentioned by name in this article (published in Mallorn 7) but some of the concepts are discussed.

The Geology of Middle-earth by Pat McIntosh (Mallorn 7, 1973)

https://journals.tolkiensociety.org/mallorn/article/view/336

Maybe The Science of Middle-Earth: A New Understanding of Tolkien and His World, the translation of the French book, Tolkien et les sciences.

I don't remember reading anything about tectonic plates, but it does talk about geology and volcanism, so...

Hynes did a piece on it with Tolkien Studies, I believe:

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/482207/summary

Now, I am no longer familiar with Henry Gee's work (it would take some time to read up on it but my translation for Wiley is 10+ years ago and I simply do not have the time right now) but I do seem to remember a chapter on how Tolkien perceived the "geology of Middle-earth"; not plate tectonics as this scientific term and concept post-dated most of the writings that are well-known but the one before that...

So his "Science of Middle-earth" will probably be much closer to the mark than the more recent French publication that has a chapter on plate tectonics, iirc, but the reviews on it have made clear (see Kristine Larsen with JTR) it is next to useless.

Olwe wrote:

Henry Gee's ... "Science of Middle-earth" will probably be much closer to the mark...

I pulled my copy (2nd edition) again, good suggestion.

In Chapter 5 "Holes in the Ground" there is a small amount of discussion (but no mention specifically of "plate tectonics").

... he once wrote that the name 'Gondwanaland' was the closest approach made by geology to poetry (Letters 324). This shows that Tolkien must have at least heard of the theory of continental drift proposed in 1915 by Alfred Wegener (1880-1930), outside of which 'Gondwanaland' - as a name for the once-united southern continents - has no meaning.

and

It is remarkable that Tolkien built geological change so substantially into his legendarium ... not just as nods to the style of catastrophe as found in Biblical and yet more ancient legends, but as a testament to the very latest movements in geological thought.