Plate Tectonics And Continental Drift., And I thought I knew all about it... Options

[lunk]

Plate tectonics and continental drift have been taught to me from a very early age.
I frequently found myself staring at geological formations, wondering how on earth, they were formed.
It sort of made sense, and what I didn't understand, I figured that it had all been studied, and some expert had already figured it all out, and there was no point in exploring the subject any further.
Now, I have recently discovered that there were other theories floating around:

http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/lau...98/EARTHEXP.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Warren_Carey

Now there are stories, of the Earth being only 6000 years old,
and a huge flood that covered the world, and predictions of a firery future...
However, I find little, outside a few human scribbles,
to support these stories.

But, I do see a grain of truth in the demonstration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJzic3kk4_g

Proof that the Earth has become larger.
...and that's about all.

imo, lunk

[Omega892R09]

Yes that is a good question, where did all the salt water come from?
Short answer: from fresh water mixed with salt.

Long answer: the crystalline salt domes grew, the earth expanded, fresh water rushed down into the gaps and dissolved some of these previously underground salt domes.

Salt water existed before salt domes, that is where the salt in the domes came from when shallow seas evaporated. This allowed salt domes to rise, more like pillars in reality, through the less dense overlaying crust. So where did all that salt come from originally?

Hydrogen is the simplest and most common element in the galaxy,
water is 2/3rds hydrogen.

There is a considerable amount of oxygen chemically locked into the Earth.
Sounds good but it does not work like that.
The most abundant element [on the earth] is oxygen existing as O2 in the free state where it comprises 20.9 by volume and 23% by weight of the atmosphere.

46.6% by weight of the earth's crust is oxygen being the major constituent of silica materials, this tends to make continental crust lighter than the underlying lithosphere and thus supported by isostasy. This is why continents can float about on the lithosphere plates driven by the convection currents in the asthenosphere and also by the pull of the more dense undersea basalt floors as they move into destructive margins. Oceans cover about three quarters of the globe and oxygen comprises about 89% by weight of the water in those oceans. Proportions of oxygen from J.D.Lee, 'Concise Inorganic Chemistry'.

So it is conceivable that water could be generated within the Earth itself, as a chemical byproduct of Earth Growth, and the oceans are constantly being added to, at the mid ocean rifts.
...but they aren't changing much because the mid ocean rifts are widening.

Water could indeed be generated from within the earth but not as a byproduct of earth growth.
Mineralogist JD Smyth has calculated that spinel structure woodsleyite, found at depth in the mantle, could contain a water molecule. This would amount to there being more water below the earths surface than above it. This information comes from R. Fortey, 'The Earth: An Intimate History' (worth a read BTW) but I have been unable to track down the article in which these calculations are laid out. However the nature of the work of Smyth can be judged from:

[Thermodynamics of mantle minerals – I. Physical properties

I will have more to say about this in a future post, hopefully.

The age of the ocean floors is a good indicator of the directions the continents, should appear to be moving. (see attachment)

Notice that the age of the oldest part of the ocean floor is less than 200 million years old, most of it is less than 65 million years old, which is new, compared to the and the continents that are as old as 5000 million years?

(in reality they move the same way that the last years bark on a tree does, as that tree, grows.)

All the continents are moving away from each other, this is logically impossible without growth of the Earth.

Only if you ignore the existence of subduction, Benioff, zones which is a big IF and here is why.

Austrian geologist Leonore Hoke has spent time in the high Andes of Bolivia taking and evaluating gas samples from almost every volcanic fumerole in that area. She found large quantities of water vapour, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide. In lesser quantities, but of great significance, she found helium and nitrogen.

There were two forms of helium. The lighter Helium-3 and the heavier Helium-4 the later results from the decay of uranium and thorium both of which enrich the earth's crust. In average continental crust there is about 100 million times more heavy than light helium. At deeper levels in the earth the ration shrinks to about 100000 times more heavy helium than light helium. Thus the source of helium can be traced.

Hoke found that the helium escaping in the Andean volcanoes was enriched in helium-3, by up to 500 times. Thus some helium comes from the mantle. No kicker to your 'there are no subduction zones' theory yet you think.

But the large quantities of water vapour suggested a wet source. This coupled with the finding of nitrogen, which could only have come from the sediment on the sea floor, indicated that the volcanic activity along the Andes, and around the remainder of the Pacific Ring of Fire (and a few other zones on earth) had to come from sea floor being subsumed near the junction with the ocean.

Cenozoic behind-arc volcanism in the Bolivian Andes, South America: implications for mantle melt generation and lithospheric structure. Leonore Hoke & Simon Lamb

Cenozoic behind-arc volcanism in the Bolivian Andes, South America: implications for mantle melt generation and lithospheric structure. Leonore Hoke & Simon Lamb

Note the reference to Charles Lyell in that URL.

Seismic records re-enforce the idea that the ocean floor is descending into the mantle along these zones.

The Western Cordillera of North America provides more evidence for subdction zones and right on your doorstep lunk so to speak with a subduction zone running along the western edge of Vancouver Island. This zone is couple with the Juan de Fuca Ridge further out and to the transform faults to the north and south. The San Andreas to the South and the Queen Charlotte to the North and this one runs from the South of Alaska into the Aleutian Trench. This fault has provided evidence of its activity in recent times and many times.

The higher silica content of magma typical of eruptions along such faults is responsible for the increased pressure that builds, due to large amounts of gas, which then results in such a violant event as typified by Mt St. Helens, Popocatépetl, Pinatubo, Pelée, Krakatoa, Ngauruhoe (NZ), Unzen (near Nagasaki), one of the series of explosions from which killed the french vulcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft.

As the Western Cordillera zone develops then ocean sediments are also scrapped off to form an uplifted wedge along the edge of the continent. Such is the extent of these exotic terranes, over 200 in number having been formed from Alaska to Mexico each having a distinct lithography with one having been formed by the impress of a back island arc, making this area geologically complex. At some time in the future Vancouver Island itself will be pushed into union with the continent.

That really is enough for one post but I am planning something on the images that you have included, the second being normally used in conjunction with explanations of paleomagnetism.

As for the gratuitous provision of portraits of Wegener and Carey. That is interesting for one had ideas ahead of his time about continental drift and which theory had drifted into obscurity at his death. Which was sad because all he lacked were the tools to prove that some of his thinking had merit.

As for Carey, his expanding earth has now been discredited. Discredited may be a strong term where undermined would be a kinder choice but then Carey did continue to push his theory in spite of increasing scientific evidence reinforcing the validity of plate tectonics, and thus discredited sticks. A true scientist should be open minded enough to embrace scientific ideas based on solid findings.

PS. I had started a cross-sectional diagram to aid visual grasp of subduction zone as particularly applied to the Western Cordiller but other events and time caught up with me and I doubt that you have not seen the like.