Continents and Currents View in Flash Download/Print PDF (208KB) Audience: Grades K-4 and 5-8 National Science Education Content Standards: Standard D: Earth and Space Science Keywords: plate tectonics, sea floor spreading, Pangaea, ocean currents

Continents and Currents beautifully demonstrates how the position of continents affects the movements of ocean currents. It serves as an engaging introduction for discussions of plate tectonics, currents, climate, and even Earth history.

Captain Harry Hammond Hess (1906 - 1969), the commander mentioned above, was a professor of geology at Princeton University. In the early 1960s, he was influential in emerging research on plate-tectonics theory. Captain Hess was known for both his research and his appointment by President John F. Kennedy as Chairman of the Space Science Board of National Academy of Sciences.