The original mapping of seafloor magnetic striping - over a large area - was reported in two parts: Mason et al. (1961) and Vacquier et al. (1961).

Dietz (1961) is a really elegant paper putting it all together, showing how the magnetic striping relates to oceaning spreading at ridges.

and... J. Tuzo Wilson's seminal 1965 paper explaining the role of transform faults in balancing the whole earth plate motions.

Framework of Plate Tectonics

Interferometric Synthetic Aperature Radar (InSAR) was used by Simons et al. (2002) to detect the surface offset in the 1992 Landers earthquake. This figure shows the fault trace and the interference pattern created by differencing the position of landforms before and after the earthquake.

Tan and colleagues (2002) propose that slabs falling to the core- mantle boundary might create a temporary insulating lid that allows a superplume to build up. Check out one of their model animations