CURRENT COMMENTS   (Updated 23 Sep. 1999)

Ralph A. H. Groves (5 June 1999) 

A 20th CENTURY FAULT

Freedoms in the USA did not channel the growth of knowledge through a University system that had proved to be successful in the European development of thought.  Here it was anyone’s game and the development of knowledge became fragmented into specializations that did not relate to one another or supported a natural growth of discovery.

The fragmentation allowed for the jealous guarding of assumed knowledge that did not support the growth of truth.  Knowledge became partial truths that were guarded as fundamentals and the right to challenge such assumptions was ignored.  The stark example of that dilemma is the development of knowledge concerning the geology of the planet.

In the middle of the Century, the ocean floor was explored and mapped.  It was discovered there were open rifts in all the oceans where the floors grew at determined rates. However, since the planet was assumed to be of a positive dimension, the thinkers were unable to understand the truth of the new information.  Their assumed knowledge remained as truth, and explanations were concocted to adhere to their previous belief. 

As we approach the final days of this century, it is increasingly obvious we continue to tie ourselves to previous assumptions that handicap our evaluations of the realities of our research.  We have not allowed a productive study of the geology of our planet that includes an honest view of Earthquakes, Global Warming and Atmospheric change. 

Since our planet is the fundamental support of our lives, we need to put aside the dogma of an ungrowing Earth, and open our minds to the reality of our findings.  The Earth is unquestionably expanding and we need to allow for an open review of the findings that support that truth.

Sam Elton (8 June 1999)

NEWTON'S FOLLY

Everyone, even Sir Isaac, is entitled to one big mistake!!  

Newton estimated that Jupiter has 300 times the gravitational attraction of Earth because the orbital velocities of Jupiter's moons are so much higher than is the case for our Moon.  On a similar basis he calculated that Saturn is about 100 times as "attractive" as Earth.  There is nothing basically wrong with these estimates and they have been refined to several decimal places in recent times.

However, Newton went on to suggest that Jupiter must contain 300 times as much matter as Earth, in order to account for its strong gravitational attraction.  And on the same basis he reasoned that Saturn must contain about 100 times as much matter as our planet.  But then the ever cautious Newton added "Or so it seems."  Subsequent scientists ignored Newton's qualifier and long ago decided that  the moment we know a planet or moon's gravitational attraction value (gravitational mass) we know precisely how much matter it contains. 

The densities of all significant solar system members have been calculated on the basis that we know their true matter-amounts but these Newtonian matter-amount and density estimates have never been physically tested and they remain predictions in spite of the fact that they have long been elevated to the status of seeming facts.  We all take Newton's word for it that the predictions are correct.…in spite of lack of proof.…and that is the real folly!

The vast majority of geophysicists and planetologists reject the idea that Earth has expanded from Martian size because the density of a much smaller Earth would have been unbelievably high...if the accepted Newtonian density estimate is correct.  The standard estimate may be seriously in error.  The gravitational properties of planets may change in time.  For example, Earth may have expanded due to the development of high temperature core(s).  And a lower temperature, Mars-like Earth could well have had a weaker, Mars-like gravitational field!  Once freed from the shackles of invariant, "absolute" gravity, it is possible to visualize Earth expanding and evolving from Martian stages on to Uranus-Neptune stages and beyond.

Oakley Shields (7 June 1999)

    A rapidly expanding earth could still expand and have substantial Pacific subduction.  Plate tectonics must balance the amounts of subduction and seafloor spreading at all times to maintain a constant Earth diameter.  But currently the total length of MORs exceeds that of convergent ocean margins by about 10,000 km, equivalent to the amount of Pacific perimeter elongation in rapid earth expansion models.  Measured geodesic rates in the Pacific show shortening occurring across trenches, implying subduction.  Plates entering trenches would encounter progress-slowing forces not experienced at MORs, like continental drag and collisional resistance.  Subduction on a rapidly expanding earth, however, would not have been nearly as extensive as that depicted in Panthalassa/Tethys models.

    More direct evidence for subduction can be gleaned from the voluminous plate tectonic literature.  Scraped-off sediments appear as tectonic melanges in various places along North Pacific margins, and deformed turbidites are sometimes accreted to the lower trench wall.  Magnetic anomalies get younger at North Pacific margins (Japan to British Columbia), yet no MORs currently exist there.  The magnetic anomalies continue beneath the continental slope in some North Pacific trenches.  The on-land igneous activities of spreading ridge subduction have been documented for the Pliocene of southern Chile and the late Cretaceous -early Tertiary of Japan.  There are instances where seamounts are entering and deforming in trenches and where aseismic ridges produce trench cusps.  And seismic tomography studies have recently identified what appear to be numerous subducted slabs in the mantle.  Expansion without subduction is no longer favored by this growing body of evidence.

© 1999, St. Clair Enterprises  (Page last updated 23 Sep. 1999)