Plate Tectonics to Earth Expansion - the irreversible, irrevocable change

Abstract:-  The axial dilation of the Alps - Himalayas - circum-Pacific mountain belt is the uppermost and first of a number of sequential top-down dilations of the Earth's crust which significantly penetrate the mantle on a global scale.  'Scarring' occurs as the growth of succesive levels of ocean floor.  Mantle growth, and the architecture of structures describing it are symmetrically linked with the latitudinal and longitudinal reference frames of the planet, and therefore with the Earth's spin.  Both growth and geometry are inseparable corollaries, opposite sides of the same deformational coin; to recognise spin symmetry is to recognise crustal enlargement.  Plate Tectonic theory, assembled on the same period of geological history, does not recognise sequential dilation nor spin symmetry.  Intrinsically it suffers from many inherent and manifestly irreconcilable conundrums.  Historically it is founded on the explicit assumption that enlargement cannot happen, the reason being that it is not known how it can.  By analogy this is a nonsensical argument, tantamount in a flat-Earth world  to saying that the Earth cannot be round because we do not understand the laws of gravity.  In the light of these deficits Plate Tectonics theory is regarded as seriously flawed. It is therefore recommended that it be set aside whilst the emerging alternative be considered.  Reconstruction of global structural sequence from the Mesozoic to Present and retrofitting ocean floors according to sequential mantle breakthrough and spin symmetry, leads axiomatically to the empirical assertion that the size of the Earth has nearly doubled since the Mesozoic, a period of some 300my.  This conclusion supports earlier views of Earth Expansion.  The facts of spatial and temporal linkage between spin symmetry and mantle growth are so irrefutably and inextricably intertwined, and command such authority in empirical reconstruction that it is believed the new theory may herald a change equal in importance to that in previous centuries from flat-earthism and geocentricism.  However with the caution that the emerging view may be similarly transient it is proposed that for the time being attempts at its evaluation on the basis of mechanism be eschewed, and that all effort instead be made to consolidate or deny the spatial-temporal geological facts of global enlargement, which have thus far been overlooked. 

Spreading Ridge Traces as Small and Great Circles - a distinction not recognised in Plate Tectonics.

Abstract:-  Spreading ridges occur as two distinct types.  An earlier one (Red - Indian - Southern Seas/Oceans) traces an essentially small circle shape in the mantle, is associated with so-called 'mountain building' and  'subduction', and is related to near-flat dislocations.  A later one (the Atlantic - SW Indian Ocean) traces an essentially modified longitudinal, near-vertical great circle  dislocation with no mountain building and no subduction.   The distinction between near-flat and near-vertical dislocations is reflected in the tectonics - Pacific emplacement is initiated as a zone of ductile thinning peripheral to bottom up, forcefully domed mantle intrusion with outwards gravitational collapse of the diapir ('subduction') dissipating as lower mantle extrusion (ridge-spreading) develops.   Atlantic emplacement is simply passive, upwelling gap-filling related to top-down, linear crustal failure. 

Transform faults - an indicator of whole-Earth connectivity of plate 'movement'

(...disregarded in the "independent plate  movement" of Plate tectonics.)

Abstract:-  Current plate maps depicting the consensus model of Plate Tectonics show only active sectors of transform faults, spreading ridges and subduction zones and therefore only a snapshot of recent geological time.   A more complete representation of plate architecture is depicted by maps which highlight the full extent of transform faults.  Coupled with GPS movement vectors, such maps show that plates grow in a helical spiral of global extent.  This linkage to each other of the mantle floors of the world's oceans emphasises the whole-Earth connectivity of mantle growth and provides a basis for reappraising global tectonics in the context of the Earth's spin. 

3.

Transform Faults Negate Plate Tectonics 

Abstract:- Transform fault offsets distal to spreading ridges show patterns of sequential initiation, supporting the view that spreading ridges increase in length along their axis as well as across them.  This observation, unrecognised in Plate Tectonics but self-evident to any cursory examination of spreading ridges, implies serious error in the accepted consensus view that plate growth is balanced by its equivalent destruction.  Plate Tectonics is consequently fundamentally flawed.  Moreover, if it is accepted that transform faults are an expression of ridge growth, then globally, the sequential offsetting of distal sectors of transform faults implies that movement of spreading ridges is in real space away from continents and continuously upwards, since this direction is the only one which affords space for growth.  It follows that the Earth has got bigger to the extent of the area of the ocean floors, that subduction does not exist, and that the features which purportedly support it express crustal equilibration and  overriding of the mantle and not 'carrying down' ( 'subduction' by convection cells').  Coupled with the further observation that transform faults have a high degree of symmetry with the Earth's spin, and directional vector continuity, the entirety of structural elements known as transform faults militates against Plate Tectonics.  Plate Tectonics' explanation for what transform faults actually are,  i.e., the means whereby plates move past each other, is grossly and transparently inadequate.

The Benioff zone - exhumed asthenosphere axial to the rupture of the circum-Pacific Mountain Belt

(...unrecognised in Plate Tectonics...)

Abstract:-  The connectivity of the world's oceans indicated by transform faults is spatially partitioned by the Benioff Zone, a highly active zone of Earthquakes up to 600-800km deep encircling the Pacific and coincident on land with the major present-day mountain belts.  The Benioff zone separates those ocean floors with 'active' continental margins (many earthquakes) from those with 'passive' continental margins (virtually no earthquakes).   Thus the Pacific ocean assumes a spatial and temporal significance different from other oceans of the world.  Seen from the perspective of a Pangaean Earth with passive margins closed, and applying the axiomatic universal geological principle that "a map is a section", the Benioff zone is interpreted simply as exhumed asthenosphere, i.e. the roof of the Pacific diapir - the partially melted, more plastic region at the base of the lithosphere overlying the more brittle lower mantle.  The encircling mountain belt and its Alpine - Himalayan extension are then simply regarded as the outer crustal 'lid' of the diapir, deformation of which expresses collapsing and overthrusting gravitational adjustment to diapiric mantle rise. Through the interconnectivity of transform faults global deformation is shown to have a dilational symmetry related to the Earth's spin and to unite structures globally across scales in a way which Plate Tectonics, predicated on movement of independent plates, does not. 

Active and Passive Continental Margins expressed as peripheral and internal ruptures of Pangaean hemispheres

Abstract:- Active and passive continental margins are first-order expresssions of global deformation,  differing in their spatial relation to the Benioff zone,  the mountainous topography that overlies and fringes it, and the manner of crust - mantle adjustment at the zone.  Active margins define the edges of the dilated Pangaean hemispheres and are marked by deep lithospheric failure with strong earthquake activity, elevated topography, and gravitational collapse structures.  Passive margins are described by shallow fragmentation of the interior of Pangaean hemispheres, show virtually no earthquakes commensurate with ductile spreading, and are typically later than active margins.   Active and passive continental margins and the entirety of mantle emplacement are integrated through the growth of spreading ridges and  transform faults which develop commensurate with the changing configuration of structures symmetrical with the Earth's spin.  Global dilation follows as axiomatic from this integrated picture, which Plate Tectonics ignores.

Subduction, the Benioff Zone and Spin Symmetry 

Abstract:- The subduction zone, otherwise known as the Benioff zone, is interpreted as a zone of mantle breakthrough axial to a zone of latitudinal, circumglobal crustal elevation. Further fragmentation of the crust is configured along lines of a helical spiral symmetrical with the Earth's spin, and culminated in pole-to-pole, longitudinal Atlantic spreading.  The Earth's deformation may therefore be described synoptically as a progressive continuum from latitudinal to longitudinal spreading related to the Earth's spin.  This interpretation provides a  simpler and more unifying picture of deformation than that of Plate Tectonics which ignores spin symmetry and represents crustal deformation as being consequent on the movement of "a number of plates which move independently on the Earth's surface".

Subduction or Overriding -  Mantle convection or Gravitational Collapse of Pangaean lithosphere?

Abstract:-  The concept of subduction, the  active 'carrying-down' of oceanic lithosphere at the Benioff zone driving convection cells is central to Plate Tectonics, yet it is only one of two interpretations of what may be happening at these active continental margins.  The other is "overriding', where the decoupled lithosphere on the continental side of the zone is being carried over the lithosphere on the oceanic side.  In using the word 'subduction' Plate Tectonics does not discriminate  between the two yet the difference is crucial: 'overriding' (related to spin) is not 'subduction' (related to convection).  The consensus choice of subduction follows from a belief that this is a zone of mantle destruction, paired with the complementary creation of ocean floor at spreading ridges.  The alternative notion of 'overriding' derives from a demonstrable architectural symmetry of geological structure of the ocean floors and continental margins with the planet's spin. On grounds that Plate Tectonics does not take into account this first-order spin-symmetry of the structure of the planet, and is self-contradictory in many of its inferences, notions of convection are held to be incomplete and in need of revision.  In short, convection predicated on subduction as the corollary of ridge spreading is considered to be invalid. 

Lithospheric Detachments of the Western Pacific - Expressions of Flat-lying Torsional Dislocations in the mantle

Abstract:- Three regions of the Earth's crust are notable for their uplift and for being linked through common elements of crustal torsion and mantle growth, 1. the circumglobal mountain belt of typically Mesozoic stratigraphy centred on Tibet in the Himalayas, significantly known as 'The Roof of the World' ;  2. the 'Tomographic Wheel' of Indonesia (the 'Indonesian' or 'Celebes' wheel),  recognisable in seismic tomography to 700km depth (benioff limit) and graphically represented by a gravitationally corrected isosurface;  and  3. extrusion of the mantle represented by the Pacific Ocean.  These three regions represent detachment of successive levels of the lithosphere between the upper crust, the upper mantle and the lower mantle, with the Benioff representing exhumation of the asthenosphere as isostatic ajustment stabilises the planet.  Elevation on this scale is coupled with a global drop in sea-level which has exhumed Mesozoic stratigraphy to the highest parts of the world and continues to the present day in the elevation of marine terraces world-wide.  A drop in sea-level coupled with elevation on such a scale is not possible in a context of simple models of metre-scale eustatic/ isostatic adjustment and must be seen as corollary effects of outwards movement of the planet's surface from the centre, expressed generally in the architecture of crustal structure, but particularly in the mountain belt that encircles the Earth and in the growth of the ocean floors.  The structures expressing global uplift are the same as those describing the architecture of the planet's spin.  It is concluded therefore that the planet has grown to approximately double its size since the Mesozoic and that surface elevation and sea-level fall are corollary effects of planetary growth, possibly consequent on unknown aspects of physics connecting mass creation to the celestial sphere.  Plate Tectonics based on models of convection disregards first-order aspects of global planetary structure, is contradictory from many perspectives, and is rejected as inadequate as a model for global tectonics.

9.

Asthenospheric Partitioning of Global Structure

Convergent parallelism and asthenospheric partitioning of global structure reflects lithospheric adjustment to lower mantle extrusion

Abstract:-  Global convergent parallelism of spreading ridges, mountain belts and continental margins is united by a helical network of transform faults.   Within this unified picture, rectilineal continental fragmentation is described by a spatial irrotational fixity within Pangaean hemispheres, and profound rotational dislocations on arcuate fracture traces bounding the hemispheres (back-arc basins of the Pacific; scissoring open of the Americas)  which are reflected in seismic tomography to 700km depth.   The scale of the fractures (e.g. linear = Atlantic; arcuate = Indonesia) and the exposed crust - mantle relations indicate asthenospheric partitioning,  continental lithospheric (passive) margins being expressed by 'straight' fracture patterns and lower mantle margins being expressed by arcuate dislocations.  Linear-versus-arcuate dislocations reflect superficial (top-down) membrane stesses on continental lithosphere consequent on the extruding spherical surface of the lower mantle, with rotation (torsion) occurring at the asthenospheric interface (the Benioff) as the lithosphere sloughs off the rising mantle diapir.  Earth expansion follows as a necessary consequence of mantle extrusion within this framework, and provides a comprehensive model for surficial global tectonics.

 
Key words:-  global structure, convergent parallelism,  linear versus arcuate dislocations,  asthenospheric partitioning,  extruding mantle, membrane stresses,  spatial irrotational fixity of pangaean continental fragments,

Lower Mantle Extrusion

Abstract:-  From the Mesozoic to the Present, the structural chronology of the Earth's crust evidences three main stages.  The first stage is an acquired oblateness of the planet, a present-day remnant of which is expressed in the difference in the polar - equatorial radii and in the elevated terrain of the Alpine - Himalayan region and its extensions encircling the Pacific.  The second stage is an equatorial zone of crustal faulting axial to this elevation, which has first-order remnants in the Tibetan, Basin-and-Range, and Alto-Plano regions, and which may have analogy in the Valles Marineris on Mars ( 1 .  2 ).  The third is a deeper-level, protracted extrusion of the mantle evidenced by the emplacement of the ocean floors and peripheral related crustal collapse.  Stages 2 and 3 are interpreted as equilibrating Stage 1, namely the change in the Earth's shape from more elliptical to more spherical.  Spin symmetry of global crustal structure necessitates celestial dynamics as the cause in some way, rather than convection as required by Plate Tectonics.  Speculation here sees global deformation due to a transfer of rotational kinetic energy to the Earth consequent on Moon capture, dissipation through crustal deformation and mantle growth and extrusion, and later crust - mantle equilibration as the Moon recedes.  Crustal disturbance related to variable orbital motion may also be included.  The latter two stages remain fully in evidence as the post-Palaeozoic geology of the planet, which provides a framework for geological extrapolation backwards in time.  This interpretation raises serious questions related to mantle generation and takes no account of the possibility that some process intrinsic to planetary formation in general may be being overlooked. 

11.
 

Mantle Extrusion sequenced in time

Global Dynamics expressed as a combination of spherical planetary adjustment and migrating extrusion of the  lower mantle surface through the lithosphere

Abstract:- The Earth currently has a rotational oblateness of 0.008 which translates as a difference in diameter of 48km at the equator compared to the poles, and a circumglobal elevation expressed as the dissected plateau known as the 'mountain belt' which extends from the Atlantic through Eurasia and encircles the Pacific.  Elevation peaks in the Tibetan region at not less than 8km. Spin symmetry of global structure indicates that this elevation-peak evidences the precursor breakthrough axial to the belt of the curved profile of the lower mantle surface. Lithospheric adjustment occurs as an equilibration across an interface of differential curvature as the Earth adjusts from a more oblate to more spherical shape expressed in the fossilised remnant of crustal oblateness represented by the circumglobal plateau surface and by the active extrusion of the Atlantic, Indian, and Southern Oceans, as the circum-Pacific margins fringing the Benioff zone, and as the Pacific spreading ridge itself.  The synoptic picture is one of continuity of whole-Earth adjustment to latitudinally migrating, spherical mantle extrusion modified by spin-related torsion, and is interpreted as a shift in the gravitational barycentre of the Earth-Moon system.  This picture provides a geological framework for global dynamics within a context of Earth rotation and expansion, rather than one of internal convection in an Earth of constant size and constant rotation rate which ignores spin symmetry.