One of the best books I have read in a long time is "Annals of the Former World" by John McPhee. Off and on for twenty years as a vacation from writing novels, he went into the field with a series of geologists, and documents the slow acceptance of plate tectonics. I gave it to my son, so am prevented from yielding to any temptation to quote from it, or pick words to use in this thread. Very, very good reading.