Geologists Unite Against Heresy - Four Revolutions in the Earth Sciences - page 78

and glacial deposits. Formations along the shores of South America and southern
Africa still resembled each other more closely than either resembled the geology
immediately within its own borders. 23 Geology had all these facts and more. What
it did not have was a unifying theory to explain them.
Today one can watch on the Internet a short video in which one is asked to
count the number of times members of a basketball team pass the ball. As the
video plays and the actors throw the ball, a person wearing a gorilla suit crosses
the room, pausing long enough for a bit of exaggerated chest-thumping, then exits
the stage. 24 Most viewers, having been told to keep their eye on the ball, only spot
the strange simian after he or she is pointed out and they watch the video a second
time. Through the 1940s and 1950s, continental drift was the gorilla in the room.
It was right there, practically beating its chest, yet geologists could not or would
not see it. There was one exception, however: a farsighted man whom we have met
before.