Geosyncline

[4][5] Eduard Suess, a leading geologist of his time, disapproved the concept of geosyncline, and in 1909 he argued against its use due to its association with outdated theories.

[7] The continued development of the geosyncline theory by Stille and Kober following the publication of Eduard Suess' Das Antlitz der Erde from 1885 to 1909 was not unchallenged, as another school of thought was led by Alfred Wegener and Émile Argand.

[10] The term continued to have usage within a plate tectonics framework in the 1980s, although as early as 1982, Celâl Şengör argued against its use, in light of its association with discredited geological ideas.

[12][13] Stille theorized that the contractional forces responsible for geosynclines also formed epeirogenic uplifts, resulting in a pattern of undulation in the Earth's crust.

[15] He nonetheless believed that mid-ocean ridges were orogens, although Stille disagreed, asserting that they were places of extensional tectonics, as exemplified by Iceland.