The Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis, also known as the Morley–Vine–Matthews hypothesis was the first key scientific test of the seafloor spreading theory of continental drift and Plate tectonics.
Geophysicist Frederick John Vine and the Canadian geologist Lawrence W. Morley independently realized that if the seafloor spreading theory was correct, then the rocks surrounding the mid-oceanic ridges should show symmetric patterns of magnetization reversals, a record of the Earth's geomagnetic reversals, captured in the cooling volcanic rocks. Morley's letters to Nature (February 1963) and Journal of Geophysical Research (April 1963) were both rejected, so Vine and his adviser Drummond Hoyle Matthews were first to publish in 1963. Later geomagnetic surveys found the patterns are in fact present, providing strong confirmation of the theory.[1][2]