Re: Negating Plate Tectonics - Strike 7


Robert Grumbine wrote:
In article <1151687979.010446.30430@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Kermit <unrestrained_hand@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

don findlay wrote:

[snip]

Plate Tectonics ignores the element of spin in global tectonics.

Any physicists here to correct me? Surely any frozen foam on the
surface of the planet would pretty much just sit there, if spinning
were *all that was going on, yes?

Don's never coherent enough to explain what he means by 'spin'.
Whatever it is, it is not the fact that the earth rotates, or
even that the inner core is rotating at a very slightly different
rate than the mantle.

Geoscientists are certainly aware of the fact that the earth
rotates. This produces the oblateness of the earth's shape,
for reasons which were understood by Newton. It was quantitatively
verified in the early 1800s. But rotating self-gravitating
bodies will form oblate spheroids regardless of whether they're
liquids or gases or even elastics. See S. Chandresekhar's
_Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium_ for much more detail
than you'd have thought possible. So this is irrelevant to
any theory of earth surface appearance or mountain building, etc.

The earth's rotation may also be important if you study motions
of things relative to the 'fixed' surface. This is the coriolis
force, and important for meteorology and oceanography. Whether
it's relevant for outer core and mantle convection, I don't know
offhand. Turcotte and Schubert (title something like _Geodynamics_)
discuss dynamics like this, so should have the quantitative answers.
It's irrelevant to plate drift velocities.

--
Robert Grumbine http://www.radix.net/~bobg/ Science faqs and amateur activities notes and links.
Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much
evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they
would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences

Yes, I've noticed that problem of his lack of coherence. If his
'torsional tectonics' is such a revolutionary theory, he should have no
problems explaining it to me. I think I'm a fairly bright dude,
although I am not educated in geology. Instead his explanations are
overly wordy, and difficult to follow, and laced with negatives and
put-downs of people who think plate tectonics is a valid explanation of
the data.

He goes on and on about things like how 'overriding' is not
'subduction' and the difference is crucial, and how the transform
faults are symmetrical with the spin, and subduction ignores this, and
that the lithosphere is decoupled from the mantle, etc., etc., but
doesn't back his theories up with supporting data (unless you count the
graphics on his website).

The link I showed at the top of my previous post showed the velocities
of the various GPS stations worldwide as measured over several years.
Far from showing any kind of 'scissoring open' or 'extrusion' of the
pacific basin, there is a measurable spreading of the atlantic, while
the pacific is getting swallowed up on nearly all sides, as Asia
rotates clockwise and North America rotates counter-clockwise, and
Australia marches northeast over the pacific plates.

These are real data, measured, repeatable, and supporting plate
tectonics. I would expect to see a completely different pattern of
motion if Don's ideas as expressed on his website were at all correct.
The data support plate tectonics, not 'tortional tectonics'.

Sorry Don. You lose.

.

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