off topic: expanding earth
While looking for earthquake related sites, I was reminded of one of the great advantages of the Internet: interesting ideas never die! Years ago I read of the expanding earth hypothesis. It's a simple idea - if you try to fit the continents together (as they were before continental drift) there are gaps. But if the earth was smaller in the geological past, the continents fit perfectly. I lost my copy of the old article, but today I was pleasantly surprised to find several web sites devoted to the topic. The main evidence is summarized here. If this ever becomes mainstream science, remember that you heard it here first!
posted by Chris Tolworthy at 11:38 AM
2 Comments:
Plate techtonics explains the continental drift, I am familiar with the expanding earth theory and It could be that the earths core is becoming less dense which would cause the earth to expand, it could also be that plate techtonics pushed the continental plates apart with the natural subsuface currents of the earth.
What I thought was interesting is that plate movement is discussed in the bible. Gen 10: "25 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan."
This reminds me of the theory that the oil reserves were from dinosaurs, I never could imagine enough dinosaurs ending up in one spot to create such huge deposits.
One of the crazier websites I found said that accretion of interstellar dust was also a factor. http://www.expanding-earth.org/
But maybe it's not so crazy? One of the competing theories for planet formation was the "dust bunny" hypothesis - that over billions of years, dust sticks to existing rocks (through tangling, moisture, electrostatic means or some other way) and this allows big rocks to grow to planet size then gravitational attraction speeds the process. This crazy(?) web site said that the earth was still growing (slowly of course) and when it got too big then humans might have to leave. Wonderful stuff!
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