....Transform
faults offset spreading ridges?
(..in Earth expansion they do, ...but not in Plate Tectonics)
....Transform
faults offset spreading ridges?
(..in Earth expansion they do, ...but not in Plate Tectonics)
| Contrary to Plate Tectonic dogma, animations depicting Plate Tectonic theory do not allow for spreading ridges to be offset by transform faults. |
Fig.1. Transform fault offsets in the Atlantic. The offsets are obvious in the image, but Plate Tectonic animations depicting transform fault motion and the initial assumptions made regarding their configuration do not allow for offsetting of the ridges by transform faulting.
Fig.2. Spreading ridge offsets on transform faults. Animation 1. . Animation 2.
Click the animations and watch carefully and see that the spreading ridges do not move; they are not being offset by transform faults. The offset shown exists prior to the onset of transform movement and therefore has nothing to do with it. What Plate Tectonics is saying here is that all those displacements in Fig.1 (and all the way round the rest of the world) happened before the oceans began to open. Read the caption in Animation 1:- ""The ocean has not yet begun to open. Segments of rift are linked by fractures that will later become transform faults." But it's simply nonsense to say that all these original offsets (blue Fig.1 above) become transform faults. A fault causes a displacement when it moves, but the only part on which there is relative movement (a fault) is the sector between the ridges, the limit indicated by the arrows. Beyond that there is no relative movement of the ocean floors across that black line representing the extent of the transform fault. From the ridge to the subduction zone the ocean floors move as one. Which is exactly what the animations show: away from the ridges the entire ocean floor moves as one.But that's not how it's depicted in texts:-
"In many places, the spreading ridges are offset by great transform faults.<......> .In this program, we deal only with the class of transform faults that offset two spreading ridge segments. As you run the program, you may notice that the lengths of the transform faults remain constant and, as a consequence, the offsets of the ridge segments do not change."
http://visearth.ucsd.edu/VisE_teach/lessons/Sea_floor_LP.html"Most transform faults are found on the ocean floor. They commonly offset the active spreading ridges, producing zig-zag plate margins, and are generally defined by shallow earthquakes." <http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/understanding.html>
"In order for seafloor spreading to occur on a nearly spherical Earth, differential rates of spreading between the equator and the poles is accommodated by transform faults that offset the ridge axis." <http://sorcerer.ucsd.edu/ERTH50/Lect23_Diverg.pdf>
.... but as we have already seen, the animations of movement on transform faults prohibit offsetting of the ridges. None of these 'faults', these little 'jaggie bits' - like saw teeth - at the ridges, ...contribute to any segmentation of the Earth's surface into "a number of plates" that "move independently" about the Earth's surface.
So According to the animations what have we ended up with here? - the entire oceanic crust away from the spreading ridge segments, which is sliced by transform faults ("fractures") but which moves all-of-a-piece towards subduction zones, and the part between the ridge segments which supposedly moves but which (as animations show) does not offset spreading ridges. So the whole ocean floor is moving (all-of-a-piece; no plate discrimination here), but not offsetting the spreading ridges.
| "These plates move
independently, sometimes colliding, some-times sliding against
each other. The Earth’s surface is broken into 10 to 12 major plates and
many smaller minor plates. These plates, each about 100 kilometers (60
miles) thick, move relative to one another an average of a few centimeters
a year."
http://ct.gsfc.nasa.gov/journeys/Rocky_Paradox.PRINT.pdf "Scientists now know that
Earth's crust, which encompasses all of the continents and the seafloor,
is made up of a patchwork of a dozen major and several minor tectonic plates.
These plates move independently and shift uneasily atop Earth's
molten mantle."
"Earth's crust is divided
into a dozen or so major segments, called plates. These plates move
independently of each other as a result of convection in the upper
layers of the mantle as Earth loses heat."
"Earth's crust is not solid
as once thought, but is made up of a dozen or so tectonic plates that move
independently of one another"
"Outer layer of earth's upper
mantle and crust broken into lithospheric plates, like sutures in a skull.
These plates are rigid, and move independently "
"It has been hypothesized
that there may be several mesoplates in the mantle that lie below the lithospheric
plates and move independently."
"...the lithosphere thickens
over time. It is fragmented into tectonic plates (shown in the picture),
which move independently relative to one another. This movement
of lithospheric plates is described as plate tectonics."
"Outer portion of the lithosphere
is broken into pieces, called plates, that move independently of
each other."
"According to the theory
of plate tectonics, the earth’s crust is broken up into at least a dozen
rigid plates that move independently of one another. "
"Earth's crust -- the top
five to 40 kilometers or so -- is composed of about a dozen huge, rigid
"tectonic" plates that "float" on the semi-solid rocks of the upper mantle,
allowing them to move independently. "
"Thus, if continents are
found on different plates which move independently, it is reasonable
to postulate that the plate arrangement may have been different at some
time in the past. Many scientists believe that a great number of the Earth's
surface features resulted from past movement of large portions of the crustal
plates."
"Q: What is a tectonic plate?
|
So, Plate Tectonics says the subducting slab, by which is meant the ocean floor all around the Pacific margin, is going down, ... forced down by the crust (/lithosphere) - as a single piece, pulling the rest of the ocean floor with it. And not just the ocean floor, but whatever continents are resting on it too - which in effect amounts to the rest of the world's surface. And this 'getting pulled down as a single piece' is the driver for "independent plate movement"?
The crust / lithosphere is forcing the ocean floors down, and once into the deep hot interior of the Earth the slab of ocean floor gets denser because of inversion to eclogite and this denser leading edge pulls the rest of the less dense slab down with it (blobtonics) -- less dense because it hasn't got hot enough yet? From one side of the Earth to the other. One big subducting slab?What nonsense! Yet exactly that is the implication of the 'logic' of what Plate Tectonics is saying, ..never mind the other nonsense that this 'pulling down' is causing the ocean floors at the spreading ridges to fray into the many dislocations we observe as transform faults - which is where this page started. Plate Tectonics it is said is driven by subduction, therefore all we see of ocean floor structure including transform faults, must be sheeted home to this 'subductive' behaviour.
The really surprising thing however is how so many people can so imaginatively avoid recognising what is staring them in the face - that the spreading ridges are moving away from the continents and are doing so by ocean floor growth in the direction of the ridge, not the other way round (that the continents and the entire oceanic lithosphere are moving away from the ridges). Such a simple adjustment of cognition, and everything falls into place. You'd think somebody in the academic profession would argue for the alternative view, particularly since the consensus one (continents away from the ridges) is based, very unscientifically, on a "convenient assumption."..... Why it almost makes you wonder if the science is really what it's about.. You'd think somebody would reckon that one worth a run, but no, ..that would go against the bodgy consensus and risk the ire of peer review.
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/tackley00selfconsistent.html