Wilson Cycle

The Wilson cycle is the recurring sequence of continental rifting, ocean basin formation, plate convergence, and ocean closure that governs the tectonic evolution of Earth surface over 300–500 million year timescales. Named after the Canadian geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson, it describes how supercontinents assemble, stabilize, and then fragment under the stress of mantle convective drag — a macroscopic expression of the same dissipative processes that organize Bénard cells in a laboratory pan. The cycle is not a historical accident but a thermodynamic necessity: a planet with radioactive internal heat and a solid lid must eventually redistribute that heat through surface deformation. The Wilson cycle is geology proof that even rocks, given enough time, behave as a fluid governed by the same principles of self-organization that apply to air, water, and living tissue.