This vista is intended to convey the knowledge that our Earth is dynamic and that plate tectonics is an active process today.

Fred Taylor and Paul Mann (UTIG), together with colleagues in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, have examined the record of vertical tectonism preserved in coral reefs in the New Georgia Islands. The New Georgia Islands are a part of the Solomon Island Group, a 900 kilometer long double chain of volcanic islands in the convergent zone juxtaposed between the Cretaceous Ontong Java Plateau, a large igneous province (LIP) on the Pacific Plate, and the Australian Plate.

In this vista, participants/students will use radiocarbon dates and elevation above current sea level of raised coral reefs in the New Georgia Islands to calculate rates of tectonic uplift. This activity will also involve the development of a conceptual model to explain the pattern of uplift for the last 10,000 years that emerges from the data.