What drives plate tectonics on Earth? Earth global forces (true polar wander, ridge push, slab pull) or forces connected to Earth axial rotation (tidal friction, eötvös effect), are usually invoked to describe the driving mechanisms of plate tectonics. Some of these forces provide the required energy to move plates (4x10^18 J/yr), but always with strong assumptions. Can the dark energy be considered/added with the previous ones? Is the dark energy sufficiently strong to affect the Earth dynamics? What are the best estimates of such energy?
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12210-014-0298-9
What do you mean by "dark energy"? Are you talking about the cosmological dark energy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy). If yes, I do not see the relation between cosmic expansion and plate tectonics...
Cosmological dark energy and possibly gravitational waves permeate the universe. Some authors are trying to detect them on earth with atom interferometry techniques, as they affect the terrestrial gravitational field.
Plate tectonics is governed by gravity (as almost all geological processes on earth), so I was wondering if it was right to speculate on this issue.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1001.4061
"Cosmological dark energy and possibly gravitational waves permeate the universe."
This may represent a concordance view - or not - but there are some that would dare question even these assertions. For examples, see http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.2314 and http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9904046.
Regarding the question of whether dark energy [gravitational waves] can affect plate tectonics - only the most tenuous theoretical suppositions might suggest the possibility - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect.
Very unlikely. Dark energy does not interact with matter directly. Its gravitational interaction with Earth's matter is by many orders of magnitude smaller of any other physical effect in such a compact body as Earth. Moreover, dark energy is distributed isotropically in space while the plate tectonics has the apparent anisotropy.
NO - answer to the question. Dark energy is important if volumes/distances under consideration are huge - cosmological. Simplifying, you can imagine this medium as so diluted that it is unnoticeable when plenty of normal matter is around. Universe as a whole is pretty empty, so overall it is important.
I agree to Segei: Dark matter and dark energy act on a very much larger (i.e. intergalactic) length scale, and there has been no direct observation yet of cosmic dark matter interacting with anything we know on earth. Gravitational waves arriving here are also too weak to observe experimentally so far.
The answer is: NO! (Incidentally, plate tectonics is not just a consequence of gravitational forces, but also of, e.g., the temperature profile of the earth, which has something to do with radioactive decays, the composition of the earth's crust, etc.)
Energy is a calculation describing the motion of matter. So what matter is being described by "dark energy"?
As people before me have said, the answer to this question is a short NO. I am not a seismologist, but plate tectonics is related to phenomena inside the Earth. Never mind for the moment what exactly they are. The existence of dark matter has been inferred from the analysis of observed velocity of rotation versus distance from the center curves in spiral galaxies. Which has nothing whatsoever to do with the interior of the Earth.
Dark energy and gravitational waves are amazingly weak, to play any role in the Solar System, and this is even worse in the Earth scale (for the moment it is impossible to measure them on Earth, even with highly-advanced instruments, how can they affect the Earth plates?).
They only play a (BIg) role, especially Dark Energy, on huge scales, that is on the Universe as a whole.
Could greatly increased radioactive decay produce the energy that would drive plate tectonics?
Alas, there is no dark energy and no "cold dark matter" as these terms are used in cosmology. See journalofcosmology.com, nearly every volume starting with 15. The dark matter of galaxies is frozen hydrogen planets in clumps. The planets merge to form the stars. When all the planets in a clump have merged you get a globular star cluster.
The plate motion can be explained without invoking the debatable role of the dark matter.
Ref. R Bruce: Radioactive decay may not be working in isolation.
I have always been intrigued by the possibility of "decoupling" at the interface of core and much lighter lower mantle as a consequence of spinning.
I think not. Such type of energy has effect only on the behavior of the President Bush and Ukrainian nationalists.
Sincerely yours,
Prof. Yuriy Gatinsky, Moscow, SGM RAS
Dear all, thank you for your many answers. I infer that is dared (if it isn't wrong) to consider these universal-scale forces on planet-scale processes.
I think, however, that more complete theories must be found for a full explanation of the plates dynamics. In a probabilistic universe, it is always best not to exclude any possibility (also that President Bush suffered the dark energy).
The answer is No.
As it was shown recently
http://vixra.org/abs/1311.0058
or here:
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1401.2404
the dark energy actually is no - Riemannian part of the scalar curvature of our Universe, which appears due to the presence of torsion (asymmetrical connections) in the Einstein – Cartan – Shroedinger theory. So it cannot affects on plate tectonics due to extremely small value.
Yes, indeed, dark energy does not interact with any form of matter. It is derived from the observed rate of expansion of the universe on the basis of the cosmological equations that take into account the presence of negative pressure (" antigravity "). It can only interact with the gravitational field. But this implies that when considering any gravitationally bound systems, including plate tectonics, IN PRINCIPLE, we should consider the effects of dark energy, the more that the physical nature of the latter is unknown: the vacuum energy? the new ultra-weak field? or new gravity on very large scale distances? This means that the question is correct.
But !
When we talk about tectonic plates, we mean the age of the universe, associated with the history of the Earth and the Solar system. During this period, the expansion of the universe, although it is accelerating, so slow that even after tens of billions years, it cannot prevent the gravitational attraction and coalescence of two neighboring galaxies - our Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. No earth will be in that time.
CONCLUSION: The effect of dark energy on gravitational relations on Earth is so insignificant that geophysics cannot worry about it...
As far as we know about Dark Energy (and uo to now Dark Energy is a working hypothesis, since there is no **direct** evidence of its existence), it doesn't interact with ordinary matter, being something that has effect on the cosmological expansion of the Universe.
The question is interesting but in my opinion, because we don't know yet if dark energy exists (whereas we see that plate tectonics is working every day even if a lot of hypotheses exist on the real engine), is premature to ask that. At this moment is impossible to give a satisfactory answer.
All the above comments are based on supposition of homogeneous distribution of dark energy in the Universe, while there may be its fluctuations in time and space. Who knows properties of dark energy in the restricted space? We don’t know all the properties and features of the dark energy, except for two ones: its practically negative density (only ~ 4 hydrogen atoms in a cubic meter of space) and its antigravity in interaction with matter. How could these properties be revealed if dark energy tuned out to be in a bounded volume, e.g. inside a planet? It is OK, when a balance between antigravity pressure of dark energy and gravitation of surrounding matter conserve. However, there are many processes on the planets, which can disturb such a balance, e. g. rotation of planets. It can force motion of dark energy, which, in its turn, can be a source of tectonic activity. Certainly, it does not exclude influence of all the other factors on that.
Possible accumulation of dark energy inside the Earth imposes constraints on the models of the planet formation. The models of the stochastic origin of the matter compressions and their further accumulation by gravitation might not be sufficient. The MHD models only, including gigantic anticyclonic vortices, could be adequate.
Should distinguish the concepts: dark matter and dark energy. Dark matter is the matter of unknown nature, which may be collected in bunches. Its existence is confirmed by observations of the movement of stars and estimates of galaxy clusters mass.
Dark energy is a cosmological parameter that can be compared to vacuum energy. The density of dark energy is constant and independent of time and place, she is not going into any clumps. It's just a property of space, weakening gravity (i.e., antigravity).
We speak about dark energy, don’t we?
If we don’t know, what dark energy is, at least, conjunctive mood should be used.
Yes, there is conception that dark energy is a cosmological parameter, and you are its apologist. OK. It is your opinion.
There is also another conception:
• ↑ Cosmology and the Fate of Dilatation Symmetry, C. Wetterich, Nucl. Phys. B 302, 668 (1988)
• ↑ The Cosmon Model for an Asymptotically Vanishing Time Dependent Cosmological «Constant», C. Wetterich, Astron. Astrophys. 301, 321 (1995), arXiv: hep-th/9408025v1
I am sure some new conceptions will appear. Welcome!
As regarding dark matter, it may be in the Solar System too (see, please, in RG
" Deep physics from Small Bodies : Dark Matter in the Solar System"
by T. Marshall Eubanks ).
New strange ideas are movers of further progress. Welcome!
Dark energy and dark matter sounds like more astrophysical make believe.
In contrast, water is real and observable, and enables many geological processes to proceed rapidly eg petroleum formation, volcanism, deposition, erosion, ore genesis, tectonism/earthquakes, flooding, mass flows, tsunami etc etc.
Since the concept of gravity is still not well understood after so many centuries of scientific evolution, see for example this discussion in RG:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/An_old_question_that_is_still_fresh_Is_gravity_a_Newtonian_force_or_Einstein_space-time_curvature
then how can we be so sure about the connection between the gravity and the anti-gravity?
I think we should be open minded and investigate all possibilities that could show physical results in Earth dynamics and dark energy has to be considered among those possibilities. The straight "No" has been proved from history of science to be just the reaction of the old to the new proposal, but I remind all of us that science is progressing by making and testing new hypotheses, not by dogmatically getting stuck at the old status.
As I see, we all here are not close specialists in cosmology, at least, at the dark matter/dark energy level, so that let us consider it in the most simple and general examples.
Believing that dark energy is a cosmological parameter only, Prof. V. Chechev consider further its properties, admitting, thereby, its physical entity.
As known, dark energy reveal itself in gravitation interactions only, ignoring electromagnetic ones, which are much stronger. For instance, everyone knows that two little oppositely charged balls attract each other, whereas the neutral ones don’t. Nevertheless, everyone knows that planets are attracted by the sun and have an influence upon each other. Therefore, the manifestation of the gravity depends on the mass of matter, ant it can be so strong in the presence of large material objects that may distort space.
Similar in the case of the dark energy antigravity: being, apparently (?), a perfect vacuum energy, homogeneously distributed in the Universe, dark energy is exhibited itself only as weakening (?) gravity in every point. However, everyone nowadays knows that just all the 68.3% dark energy in the Universe is a cause of the accelerated expansion of the latter.
Possible effects of the dark energy existence inside the Earth are described in the article in RG: “Urgent hypothesis on plane MH370 disappearance” by D. Christopoulos and G. Ustinova.
It is clear that studying seismicity and modeling tragic events we have rare chances to investigate new possible properties and features of the dark energy itself.
Plate tectonics, dark matter, dark energy...etc.etc. may all be myths created by our current gurus, as they do not know any better. They simply reflect our current state of ignorance/knowledge. May be our " standard models" of the day are all lacking. I am with those who are still looking.
Meer Taqi Meer, one of the greatest Indian poets, had said over 200 years ago, when he was 92+ years old: " I have come to know that I know nothing, and it took me a life tme to figure that out." How many our current gurus are willing to make that admission?....KEEP LOOKING !
In the old days, they said: "Scio nescio."
I wonder whether we need 'Research Gate' for such confessions.
Well, there are plenty of other forums if they want to come forward. Thanks J.F.
I would be careful to blame dark energy, a complicated concept, to do something with a tested thing happening as plate tectonics. I do not say that there is not an effect, I just say that in general plate tectonics can be explained with way simpler physics.
Dark energy is too small to effect anything inside earth. Now consider for a certain time due to some unknown mechanism a high dark energy density created somewhere inside earth and it would cause decay rapidly. That could cause an expansion inside the earth which in effect could change the position of plates. But if such event can happen inside the earth it can happen surface of earth and outside the earth too.But we never observed such an incident at surface of earth. No one ever seen sudden expansion of anything on earth's surface for an unknown cause. Also if such incident happens inside the earth, there is a great probability for astronomers to observe such event in space. Which is not observed yet. The conventional models are successful to describe plate tectonics
properly. So I think it is safe to say that dark energy do not play role in plate tectonics.
Dark energy cannot exist on the surface of the Earth, because due to antigravity it escapes from it. Meanwhile, being captured during the Earth formation, dark energy can exist in some caverns in the Earth entrails in equilibrium with gravitation of the upper rocks. Just the accidental release of the dark energy we observed in the cases of tragic disappearances of planes and ships, which in the conditions of its negative density are devoured by gigantic whirlpools.
Certainly, many other conventional factors have contributed to plate tectonics.
This is an interesting question. There is no accepted theory or mathematical model of dark energy. In the absence of a mathematical model, the first answer which compares measurements and orders of magnitude for the different forces involved, is one way to address the unavailability of a mathematical model. I strongly incline to the view that the mathematical model that explains dark energy may explain a variety of other phenomena. Suppose dark energy is a kind of primal force and coincides with the same mechanism leading to cosmological inflation. Then such a force having emergent effects (causing inflation and sustaining the universe’s expansion) may also apply to a variety of other natural phenomena. If this force in common applies to both inflation and dark energy then it should apply at all scales. If it applies at all scales, it may apply in some way to plate tectonics. So I do not foreclose the possibility that the same mathematical model that might explain inflation and dark energy might in some way apply to the source of the energy that results in plate tectonics. Wouldn’t it be interesting if there were a mathematical connection, via a mathematical model, between dark energy and plate tectonics?
Yes, you are absolutely right. There is necessary mathematic modeling of the processes. Perhaps, it is especially interesting simulation based on mathematical analysis of real tragedy cases: e.g. simulation of a vortex in two medium (water and air), determination of its height in air space, as well as diameter of the outer whirl, which might capture planes. It is rare and straight way to study feature and properties of the dark matter itself and, therefore, its possible role in plate tectonics.
Very well, dear Claudia.
Doubts are the most valuable and efficient stimulus in scientific creation. I am sure in your success. I wish it to you.
Impact of dark energy on the tectonics inside the Earth is only an indirect factor of the idea aroused in connection with a Malaysian plane disappearance (see, please, the article in RG: “Urgent hypothesis on plane MH370 disappearance” by D. Christopoulos and G. Ustinova, as well as my previous comments). It is clear, that if the dark energy exists inside the Earth, it may (due to its near negative density) influence on tectonic processes among all the other factors. Is its role main? Who knows?
As I believe, the dark energy might be initial trigger of all the other processes, participating in plate tectonics.
The solid inner core of the Earth makes one addition rotation inside the
Earth every 400 years, so in GRADS, it move one GRAD per year. This would
create large shearing forces inside the Earth, and create a large magnetic
Field. This magnetic Field interacts with the Sun's Magnetic Field creating
a rotational torque that keeps the Earth rotating about its own Axis as it
orbits about the Sun. The variation in the applied torque, and the Earth's
interaction with that applied torque is recorded in the magnetic reversals
frozen in cooled basalt magma of the ocean floors.
Plate Tectonics requires a recycling process of materials inside the Earth,
and Convection Cells, along with a recycling process for hardened Oceanic
Crust where the Energy to initiate and sustain that process is roughly
20 times the available energy. So if both Subduction, and Convection
Cells are not actually possible in a medium of stratified material
densities, what is really going on inside the Earth?
A hint can be seen on the cover of the March 2000 Edition of
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN magazine. Layers inside the Earth
are Shearing past one another creating a large amount of friction,
and heat. This is in addition to the heat of compression, the
Heat of radioactive decay, and the inability of the earth to
move that heat from the core to the surface of the planet,
because the thermal gradient is so " flat ". the Planet is actually
getting hotter inside, and expanding, not only in the Core, but
all the way up thru the mantle.
Think of the Earth as a self heating fractional distillation column
run by a complex self heating system driven by radioactive decay,
and frictional shearing forces. All of the processes combined
interact to accelerate the rate of increase in radius, Surface Area,
and volume, while one or more additional processes also
interact to increase the mass of the planet.
It is the mass increase of the planet that is problematic where
energy becomes mass, which creates volume, gravitational
forces, brownian motion, friction, heating etc.
The question becomes why did it take roughly 4300 million
years to double the radius of the earth from 1703 km
to 3434 km, and only 252 million years to increase it from
3434 km to 6372 km?
What happened 252 million years ago to accelerate
the process of evolution of the earth so dramatically, that the
planets surface area is now trippel what it was back then?
Personally, what ever the process, I think it is not unique to the
Earth, but is part of normal planet evolution where rocky
planets evolve into liquid covered gas giants, and later into
gas enveloped gas giants. Our Solar System has two of
each type.
So does dark energy accelerate this process when planets
become greater than a Mars sized planet?
I vaguely see a sort of complex feedback loop system of
self growing, self heating, self accelerating planet
evolution from small to large,and cold to hot.
So, dear John, we can safely suppose that all next presented work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy
are just garbage?
Dear John, think, please, that you have presented a first-rate example of the case, when nescience generates ignorance. I like your joke.
@ John Hartnett... dark energy definitely exists... we do not know what it is but it exists in reality (Physics Nobel Prize 2011)...
As long as we really do not know what it is, we have no idea whther or not it affects plate tectonics - it really depends on the question "where is the dark matter" and to what extent does it interact with matter on a small scale (a planet)
There is no mystery about the driving force of plate tectonics, the surface cools, the interior is hot, and so lithosphere sinks into the deep mantle under the action of gravity. All of these forces add up just fine, and dynamical models are in excellent agreement with observations. It has nothing to do with the inner core, or dark energy.
Right, John. Dark energy for the driving force of plate tectonics is only a beautiful invention (toy) for talking, not more.
Women always keep paint debate, including scientific, by emotions and bélles-léttres. But, unfortunately, the facts are stubborn. In physics, a lot of hypotheses, sometimes very beautiful, arise constantly. Experiments and observations reject most of them. However hypotheses must be inherently noncontradictory.
In our case it is known that dark energy in the epoch of existence of the Earth is so insignificant effect on gravity, that it makes no sense to attract it for the problem of driving tectonics plates. Indeed, for the dark energy is true “Begotten to crawl cannot fly”.
[By the way, an idea of fundamental gravitation constant effect on plate tectonics is not new. In 1937 Dirac supposed that the gravitational constant decreases with the cosmological time but experiments and observations have rejected this idea].
Dear Prof. Chechev, thank you that you have not offended at my comments.
There are no any emotions except surprise. You, as horse in blinders, have driven into the discussion, without interesting its reason.
Meanwhile, the question of Dr. Patrizio Petricca is conditioned by the Dr. Demetris Christopoulos and my “Urgent hypothesis on plane MH370 disappearance” (you may see it at his or my Profiles in RG), which explains the tragedy (as well as many other enigmatic phenomena) by the possible stochastic escape of dark energy from the Earth entrails, where it can be deposited being captured during the planet origin in hydrodynamic processes.
The question is: IF DARK ENERGY EXISTS INSIDE THE EARTH can it influence on plate tectonics? Agree, please, it is not the same as “Can dark energy has effects on plate tectonics?”
All my comments on the question have just such flavor. No one is going to impinge on general processes of plate tectonics.
Dear Dr Ustinova,
I have read your article. This is a very interesting hypothesis, only in the base of it, as I have already said, it cannot be the dark energy that was put into cosmology in the 21st century. I believe that this term introduced by analogy with the dark matter, confuses researchers in fields of science related with astrophysics. Dark matter is named correctly; it's really just unlighted substance consisting of some weakly interacting particles. Dark matter was discovered in galaxies and clusters of galaxies from the star motion analysis and measurements of the total mass of galaxies. It can be assembled in clumps and be heterogeneous in distribution.
But dark energy, from the very meaning of this cosmological parameter, in any way, anywhere, ever (its density is constant and independent of time and place) cannot be collected in bunches, including inside the planets. (In this regard, in the introduction of your article the last sentence, giving rise to the subsequent conclusions, wrong). The physical nature of dark energy is debated, but most likely it's a ultra-weak scalar field superimposed on gravity. In our era, its effect is negligible, but in 10-20 billion years in large-scale aspect it will determine the picture of the world.
Name your hypothetical energy inside the Earth as you like - exotic energy, unknown energy, the hypothesis will not be harmed. You can even bring the DARK MATTER, but not dark energy, in that context, as it was introduced in cosmology.
I wish you success. If there is not a set of different theories and hypotheses, it will not be created the only one that is actually realized.
Dear Prof. Chechev,
I understand your mentor position, but it would be more properly to leave it and to suppose that I also know the present situation in the dark energy/dark matter field. More over, I share your opinion about dark energy as a cosmological constant, as energy of absolute vacuum, which is homogeneously spread in the universe. Yes, it is the most adequate present conception of the subject, corresponding well to the Λ-CDM model.
Meanwhile, if you look, at least, into the Wikipedia, you find that another conception exists, namely, dark energy as scalar dynamic fields whose energy density can vary in time and space [C. Wetterich, Nucl. Phys. B 302, 668 (1988); Caldwell R. R., Steinhardt P. J. Phys.Rev. D 57, 6057 (1998)]. That conception is supported by Standard model and superstring theory. Although, as I see, we both don’t like it, a probability of its validity exists, so that my last sentence in Introduction of the Hypothesis (“There is no yet uniform understanding about the structure of the dark energy: whether it is homogeneously spread in the Universe, or space and time fluctuations are possible.”) is not wrong.
Let us consider further the phenomena of interest. There are the historical legends on sudden disappearance of the Lemouria and Atlantis continents. Of course, if they are real, we may suppose inconceivable tectonic processes inside the early Earth. However, the contemporary enigmatic phenomena in the Bermuda triangle and especially the recent plane MH370 disappearance demand to elucidate the processes. All the events could be conditioned by sudden local fall of density practically to zero or even negative values. The only essence of such property is just dark energy. Why do we need invent an “exotic energy” with such property, if we have already the dark energy? It is more natural to study unknown features and peculiarities of the dark energy, if we have a chance to do it, analyzing the abovementioned phenomena. (By the way, because the low density is the crucial factor of the events, your proposal about possible role of the dark matter must be rejected, as well as dark matter/dark energy bumbles of some debaters).
The phenomena are observed on the Earth, and if they are conditioned by the dark energy negative density, we must conclude its presence inside the Earth. It is possible if the planet formed rapidly enough in hydrodynamic anticyclonic vortices (especially nearby the Sn Ia explosion, injected ~ 0.6-0.8 solar mass of iron into the protosolar nebula) and captured a certain part of the environment homogenously spread dark energy. The last turned out to be non-uniformly deposited in the Earth entrails. When due to stochastic processes some its quantities obtain a possibility to escape from the Earth, the discussed phenomena occur. The most informative is the formation of a counterclockwise vortex, which height numbers ~4.5 km above seabed and ~2 km above sea level, where the plane course is forced to be changed and it has been devoured by abyss.
Admitting this hypothesis we obtain, perhaps, a chance to study some properties of the dark energy. Indeed, homogenous spread of the dark energy concerns unbounded space only. How is its behavior in restricted volumes, e.g. in some caverns inside the Earth, where its pressure is equilibrated by the gravity of the surrounded rocks? Do its features depend on its quantity?
In one of my comments above I pointed out to the dependence of gravity on mass:
“As known, dark energy reveals itself in gravitation interactions only, ignoring electromagnetic ones, which are much stronger. For instance, everyone knows that two little oppositely charged balls attract each other, whereas the neutral ones don’t. Nevertheless, everyone knows that planets are attracted by the sun and have an influence upon each other. Therefore, the manifestation of the gravity depends on the mass of matter, ant it can be so strong in the presence of large material objects that may distort space.
Similar in the case of the dark energy antigravity: being, apparently (?), a perfect vacuum energy, homogeneously distributed in the (unbounded) Universe, dark energy is exhibited itself only as weakening (?) gravity in every point. However, everyone nowadays knows that just all the 68.3% dark energy in the Universe is a cause of the accelerated expansion of the latter.”
In any case I believe that properties of the dark energy in restricted space, as well as their dependence on its quantity, are good questions.
Thank you for your interest to the subject.
Good dark energy! Anywhere it is not concentrated, even in the center of galaxies, because it repels itself, and suddenly only in the Earth it has been concentrated (fluctuation!) and causes a drop of planes and the Bermuda Triangles. Now we can not be thinking of the causes of unexplained phenomena, that's all it is, ominous!
Yes, it repels itself if environment allows it. I should congratulate you with discovery a ground of the dark energy influence on the tectonic processes: being prisoner in the Earth entrails it cannot reconcile itself to such a fate.
What make the continental plate drifting? We have enough evidences to prove that they are drived by thermal imbalances,Continental blocks (rigid) cut and open oceanic crust, magma upwelling, bulge to promote the block ran forward
http://hi.baidu.com/liangguanghe1
http://hi.baidu.com/liangguanghe1
Plate tectonics is driven by gravitational forces and heat gradient there´s nothing more to say. The plates moveaccording to the law f movementon the rounded ("ball") surface. Everything else is a pure speculation.
I think that there is no chance whatsoever that dark energy and dark matter have any influence on processes in the interior of the Earth (or any other planet). The existence of dark matter (and accordingly dark energy) has been inferred from the analysis of galactic rotation curves.
To Guanghe Liang
Planets gradually grow larger with time ( extreme amounts of time),
so Continents are pulled apart by the internal forces of planet growth,
expansion, and re arrangement of materials internally. If you think about
any number of surface observation on planets, they all contain evidence
of surface fracturing and surface stretching, and the surface healing
processes associated with erosion and deposition, or volcanism.
The concepts of Plate tectonics ( static radius, convection cells, subduction,
rising continents, static water amounts, static air volumes etc. ) has imposed
an unfortunate choke hold on the thinking of most geologists and geophysicists
such that alternative ideas are not allowed.
The simplest concept is the one that explains the maximum number of
observations with the least number of ad hoc addendums.
plate tectonics has too many unsatisfactory ad ons.
1) convection cells : not possible in a density stratified environments,
only possible in things like water where the density is fairly uniform,
and the material is fluid, not plastic.
2) subduction; not possible as the available energy to do subduction
is only 5% of the required energy.
Static volumes of air and water: not possible in any planet of any
size. The air and the water come up out of the planet. Whether the planet keeps
the air and water is another thing dependent of temperature, and the solar wind.
3) Rising continents: possible, but since the middles of continents
contain lateral compressional mountain ranges and adjacent basins,
the explanation is that surface curvature correction ( flattening ) due to
continents fitting on an ever larger radius planet creates the mountain
ranges where the compressive stress is greatest, and creates
perimeter fractures where the tensile stresses are greatest.
Rivers occupy these tension stress fractures.
The energy to move plates comes from the energy required to make
planets grow larger, stratify the materials internally by density, produce
magma, release excess liquids, and gases, create oceans, create
atmosphere, fracture rock, stretch continents, compress mountain ranges,
fracture perimeters of continents, and create differential vertical motions
of continents and ocean floors that create the illusion of subduction.
That illusion is created by the movement of material out from under
continents toward the oceans spreading ridges such that continents
settle downward, while ocean floors move upward, while simultaneously the
radius and surface area of the planet is increasing, so all of the surface
is moving upward, just at different rates.
Notice here one concept ( energy becoming matter ) allows all of this to
happen simultaneously.
Accelerated radiogenic decay providing the energy for plate tectonic movements?
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