The Downfall of Uniformitarianism

Creation-Evolution Headlines ^ | 11/04/2003 | Creation-Evolution Headlines

[bondserv]

The Downfall of Uniformitarianism   11/04/2003
Can major paradigm shifts occur in science today?  Check this one out.
    You’ve seen it on TV science programs and in textbooks: plumes of hot magma from deep in the Earth’s mantle rise through the crust and erupt on the surface (the IMAX movie Yellowstone has computer graphics of the whole process).  Perhaps you’ve seen animations of the Hawaiian Islands riding over a “hot spot” and building its chain of volcanoes over millions of years on its slow, drifting journey.  Textbook diagrams show cross-sections of Earth’s crust, with lava erupting from channels rooted deep in the mantle, while crustal plates float and drift atop deep convection currents.
    That’s all defunct now, and so is a lot of the uniformitarian dogma associated with it, claims Warren B. Hamilton (Colorado School of Mines), in an extensive article in this month’s GSA Today.¹  Uniformitarianism is out, catastrophism is in.  Now, don’t get the idea Hamilton denies the Earth is billions of years old; he still accepts the 4.567 billion year figure, the condensation of Earth from a solar nebula, and all that.  But he replaces Charles Lyell’s old premise “the present is the key to the past” with a new picture that seems to pay homage to Stephen Jay Gould.  He calls his model “Punctuated Gradualism.”  How serious is the subject?  Enough for him to entitle his paper, “An Alternative Earth,” and for it to get prominent press in a journal of the world’s leading geological society.
    Here’s the overview Hamilton provides of his paradigm, and the timeline of catastrophic events he now envisions (Note: Ga = giga-annum, i.e., a billion years.  Emphasis added in all quotes):

The Earth described here differs profoundly from that accepted as dogma in most textbooks and research papers.  Crust and upper mantle have formed a mostly closed system throughout geologic time, and their dramatic temporal changes are responses to cooling.  The changing processes define a Punctuated Gradualism and not Uniformitarianism.  Major stages in Earth evolution:

1. 4.567–ca. 4.4 Ga.  Hot accretion and major irreversible mantle fractionation.  Giant bolides continue to ca. 3.9 Ga.
2. 4.4–3.5 Ga.  Era of nearly global felsic crust, too hot and mobile to stand as continents.
3. 3.5–2.0 Ga.  Granite-and-greenstone era.  Permanent hydrosphere.  Old crust cooled to density permitting mafic melts to reach surface.  Diapiric batholiths mobilized from underlying old crust.
4. 2.0 Ga–continuing.  Plate tectonic era.  Distinct continents and oceans.  Top-down cooling of oceanic lithosphere enables subduction that drives plates, forces spreading, and mixes continental as well as oceanic crust into upper mantle.

While much of this timeline looks standard, some of the underlying changes to assumptions are striking.  The rhetoric is also notable in that the new view is revolutionary, and overthrows long-held beliefs about uniformitarianism and plate tectonics.  Notice his confidence in the abstract: “Plumes from deep mantle, subduction into deep mantle, and bottom-up convective drive do not exist.”  In his Overview, he outlines how the old ideas have died:

The conventional model (e.g., Turcotte and Schubert, 2002) of Earth’s evolution and dynamics postulates that most of the mantle is little fractionated, major differentiation continues, and continental crust has grown progressively throughout geologic time; through-the-mantle convection operates, lithosphere plates are moved by bottom-driven currents, and plumes rise from basal mantle to surface; and plate tectonics operated in early Precambrian time.  All of these conjectures likely are false.  They descend from speculation by Urey (1951) and other pioneers, reasonable then but not now, that Earth accreted slowly and at low temperature from fertile chondritic and carbonaceous-chondritic materials, heated gradually by radioactive decay and core segregation, and is still fractionating.

Hamilton explains that “The notion of a cold, volatile-rich, young planet has long since been disproved,” but its corollary of an unfractionated [i.e., homogeneous, and therefore fluid] lower mantle no longer can stand up to the facts; “major constraints” now rule this view out in favor of shallow crustal activity from the upper mantle and crust.  This includes radioactive heating, of which he says, “Earth’s heat loss, now largely of radiogenic heat, is much overstated in the standard model.” He suggests a value 70% the earlier one, and states, “thermodynamic and mineral-physics data require that nearly all radioactivity be above 660 km (Hofmeister and Criss, 2003),” i.e., no deeper than 400 miles.  At that depth there is a discontinuity that could not be breached by a magma plume.
    In short, most volcanic activity and crustal movement is shallow, and plate tectonics started much later than assumed.  What are some of the ramifications geologists will have to consider if Hamilton’s “Alternative Earth” becomes the new textbook orthodoxy?  Some are technical, but here are a few for the casual reader:

• The heat of volcanism is shallow, not deep.  The early crust did not form continents till much later than earlier assumed.
• Plate tectonics began later.  “Plate tectonics did not operate within preserved Archean crust,” Hamilton asserts, and began (in his timeline) at 2.0 Ga.
• Plate tectonics operates differently.  “What drives plates?” he rhetorically asks.  ”Most published models and explanations overlook known plate characteristics and behavior and instead elaborate false assumptions.”  He describes subduction and seafloor spreading as shallow processes, not driven by convection from deep within the mantle.  Notice how he derides those who have fudged their data to argue for deep mantle motions:

  Many published models are misleading: colors are saturated for lower-mantle anomalies one-tenth or one-fifth the amplitude of upper-mantle ones, huge unsampled volumes are assigned average values or populated with spherical-harmonic artifacts, illusory continuity is generated by severe smoothing and sharpening, cross sections are placed where subduction interpretations look most plausible.  Models account for only a few tenths of traveltime variance, and have not been tested by attempting to squeeze solutions back into upper mantle.  Nonsubduction alternatives receive little evaluation.

• No more mantle plumes allowed.  Of the prototypical Hawaiian Islands case, he says, “There, in its only rigorously testable locale, the fixed-plume concept is falsified.”  How do supporters typically respond?  He claims, “Plume advocates respond to such refutations by making their conjectures ever more complex, unique to each example, and untestable.”  Yet beyond this, “All other geochemical, kinematic, and tectonic plume rationales derive from the misinterpretation that Hawaii stands atop a plume.”
• Pure magma cannot reach the surface.  “Pro-plume conjectures assume wrongly that magmas are transported from melting sites to surface without modification, thereby preserving elemental and isotopic ratios of sources,” he chides.  He is emphatic that this assumption is no longer supportable: “Thermodynamics and phase petrology, including cotectic compositions of basalts and presence of underlying cumulates, prove that instead melts are profoundly modified before eruption (O'Hara and Herzberg, 2002).”  Hamilton continues to take opponents to task, accusing them of circular reasoning and flawed methodologies.
• Island chains can form at once.  Rather than growing by drift of plates over hotspots, they form over “crackspots” that allow heat to the surface: “Island alignments, in this view, reflect regional stresses, perpetuation of directions once established, and lithosphere properties.”  Otherwise plume advocates have to explain how the Hawaiian chain made a 60-degree turn.
• Recycled plate slabs are complex.  “Temperature, age, and isotopic ratios of sunken slabs vary regionally.”  What applies hither may not apply thither or yon.
• Plate tectonics is top-down, not bottom-up.  Cooling at the top drives subduction, producing shallow cycles in the upper crust, all happening above 660 km.  It also allows for rotation of plates, impossible under the bottom-up view, which assumed there could be no net rotation: “The no-net-rotation framework minimizes motions of ridges and randomizes motions of subduction hinges so that many roll forward–impossible with gravity drive.  The lack of rational kinematics in these popular frameworks fosters acceptance of mysterious bottom drives,” he says.

These are just a few of the ramifications mentioned by Hamilton.  Other consequences of this “Alternative Earth” with its shallow motions and shallow heating may become evident if the view becomes mainstream, which appears inevitable (see Aug. 20 and Apr. 1 headlines).

---

¹Warren B. Hamilton, “An Alternative Earth,” GSA Today, Vol. 13, No. 11, pp. 4–12.; DOI: 10.1130/1052-5173(2003)013<0004:AAE>2.0.CO;2.

What’s most interesting about this story is not the new model, which may become the next discarded paradigm in the future, but the frank and revealing charges made against proponents of the old model: that they cheated, lied, and used irrational arguments to prop up their beliefs.  Is that possible in science?  You read it right here.
    Creationists have similarly argued against the standard model for a long time and maybe now are getting some comeuppance.  Dr. Walter Brown, for instance, has complained that deep mantle magma plumes are impossible, because the kinematics and thermodynamics would force the channels shut (see his paragraph on volcanoes and lava).  Volcanism, therefore, must occur at shallow depths.
    What can we learn from this paradigm shift?  Make no mistake: confident-sounding scientific models, replete with professional jargon, (maybe even this one here - cf. 11/14/2002 headline), are written by fallible human beings.  Like a hollow idol on a pedestal, a popular theory about the unobservable past might gleam in the sun for awhile, till toppled by tremors of fact.  Broken on the ground, it is swept away and forgotten, and then a new hollow idol takes its place.  Why hollow?  Because no observer was there to corroborate the processes or the vast periods of time they are assumed to take.  Remember Grand Canyon!  It was the prototypical case of a phenomenon requiring millions of years, yet now the consensus is growing that it was formed catastrophically and recently (see 07/22/2002 headline).  It should seem foolish to place one’s faith in the conjectures of mortals instead of in the testimony of an authoritative Eyewitness.
    Those not beholden to secular geological conjectures might well consider what this paradigm shift may do to other geological conjectures.  It may well cause a domino effect on current models in subjects as diverse as radiometric dating (which assumes pristine, unprocessed material from the deep mantle), planetary differentiation, seismology, volcanology, magnetic field dynamo theory, and even the origin of life.  This model tinkers with temperatures, chemistry, the nature of the core and mantle, the timing of continents, and a host of geophysical processes affecting land and sea.  Evolutionists had better revisit their assumptions about the early earth and what this does to their beliefs.
    Now that mantle plumes and deep plate tectonics are out, who knows what will happen next?  Perhaps Hamilton’s shallow plate tectonics theory will topple for other reasons.  It seems to hinder large migrations of plates, such as the belief that India migrated from lower Africa, crashed into Asia and built the Himalayas.  His choice of terms, “punctuated gradualism,” recalls Stephen Jay Gould’s punctuated equilibria, the “Alternative Earth” model in biology.  It arose out of frustration with the lack of evidence for Darwinian gradualism, not because of positive evidence for the alternative.  Gould replaced that “standard model” (neo-Darwinism) with – what? – a new model with even less empirical support, claiming, essentially, that evolution happens so fast it leaves no trace in the fossil record!  Is Hamilton’s “Punctuated gradualism” a parallel in geology?  It seems, at least, to nail the coffin shut on Lyell’s principle of uniformitarianism.  Whatever happens next, we have just seen that major paradigm shifts are still possible in science.  Kuhnians rejoice.  Darwinians beware.

[js1138]

Central Florida is the lightening capital of the world. No exageration. I live north of Melborne, but have benn past it many times.

[MineralMan]

"I told them that some people believe, with all their heart's, that we are looking at their ancestors.

Who do you think believes this?"

I think our mutual correspondent believes that all evolutionists believe this. This demonstrates the most common flaw in creationist arguments. Creationists, at least those who post here, simply do not understand the TOE at all. Why do I think that? Because they are forever posting such nonsense as above.

[bondserv]

Could you document where someone had supernatural knowledge of the 9-11 attacks? Specifics necessary.

Would you have predicted France & Germany's opposition to fighting the evil in Iraq?

The prophetic senario is well documented in the Bible. The descendants of Ishmael will rise up against the people (Christians & Hebews) of the God of Israel. Beginning when Israel being supernaturally regathered from the ends of the earth back into the Land promised to them by God.

The Holy Spirit embodying the Christian Church in America, is the only thing holding back the destruction of Israel. When we are removed by God via the rapture, there will be no resistance to the attempted destruction of Israel.

The end times scenario is well laid out in the Book of Revelation, if you are curious. I am positive you are aware of these things. It is strange how you discount them, when they are right in front of you.

Salvation is not in Science, for if it were we could appease our enemies with "scientific agriculture". You choose to ignore the forces behind the irrationality of men.

[Right Wing Professor]

I told them that some people believe, with all their heart's, that we are looking at their ancestors.

Bit of a temporal problem, there.

[bondserv]

Central Florida is the lightening capital of the world. No exageration.

I am glad they have chosen to study lightening at Florida Tech.

[bondserv]

Bit of a temporal problem, there.

He He, I had hoped you would miss that. ;-)

[Right Wing Professor]

The end times scenario is well laid out in the Book of Revelation, if you are curious

I thought Revelation referred to the destruction of Jerusalem. No, wait, it was the fall of the Roman Empire. Or was it the rise of Islam? No, I'm sure it was the Reformation. Or was it World War II?

Give me a specific event you can predict, in advance, with a little circumstantial detail, and we'll talk.

[MineralMan]

"I am glad they have chosen to study lightening at Florida Tech."

A course in spelling wouldn't come amiss, either.

[Sabertooth]

I'm temprted to say 88.9723% as of 10:00 CST this morning, but I don't know how you'd quantify that.

Is that 10:00 am on a literal day, or a vast expanse of time day?

[js1138]

Give me a specific event you can predict, in advance, with a little circumstantial detail, and we'll talk.

Ooooh. Trick question. Giving the exact day and time is a big no-no.

[MattAMiller]

Would you have predicted France & Germany's opposition to fighting the evil in Iraq?

Yes. They're always churlish with the US and have strong pacifist tendencies. This doesn't require prophecy.

[bondserv]

Give me a specific event you can predict, in advance, with a little circumstantial detail, and we'll talk.

Because of supernatural forces there will be no peace between Arabs and Jews, despite the fact that Britain gave Israelis only 1/6 of 1% of the land recovered from the Ottoman Empire. 99 and 5/6% of the land was given to the people of Islam.

Jerusalem has no port, no water source, and is no longer a trade pathway. Yet the cup of trembling continues to dominate the politics of the entire world. Highly Irrational.

Islamic countries, joined by Russia, will attempt to destroy Israel from the face of the earth. The pattern has been pre-woven.

The worst oppression in recent history has been in Communist and Muslim countries. They are like drop-clothes laid out, before you paint the walls. Satan's fingerprints are on the Liberal movement in our country as well. How else can we explain their irrationality? Many are highly educated. Clearly knowledge doesn't combat the wiles of the enemy.

[Right Wing Professor]

I guess we disagree on what constitutes a specific event

[js1138]

Because of supernatural forces there will be no peace between Arabs and Jews...

And who said you couldn't find everything you need to know in the Bible. You just have to ask the right person.

[bondserv]

me - Islamic countries, joined by Russia, will attempt to destroy Israel from the face of the earth.

I guess we disagree on what constitutes a specific event

Kind of buried that in the middle. Sorry.

Russia's involvement is the non-linearity.

[Right Wing Professor]

Time to rewrite the textbooks again, or maybe throw them away till a new theory comes along.  This time it’s about lightning.  There isn’t a big enough electric field in a cloud to make lightning possible, claims Joseph Dwyer, a Florida Tech physicist, as reported in EurekAlert.   There is a limit to how much charge a cloud can accumulate.

The funny thing is, here's a recent report, citing Dwyer, that says the exact opposite. Quoting "The results suggest that the electric fields associated with lightning storms are strong enough to overcome the drag forces experienced by electrons as they collide with air molecules in the dense lower atmosphere, thereby allowing them to zip around at relativistic speeds."

In my experience, news releases of the sort Eurekalerts cites are written by PR people whose knowledge of science is so meager that they generally manage to say the exact opposite of what they've been told. Anyone have access to the Geophys. Res. Lett. article?

[atlaw]

"Because of supernatural forces there will be no peace between Arabs and Jews."

Right. And supernatural forces are behind the Tutsi/Hutu problems in Rawanda, the Protestant/Catholic problems in Ireland, the Serb/Croat problems in Bosnia, heck even the Yankees/Red Sox problems in New England. "Yea verily, the Sox shall know the cursed Stripes by their bats, and their fielding shall be known by the error of its ways."

[Right Wing Professor]

All right, I'll watch for that.

IMHO, there is good evidence Islam can't get along with anybody. Israel's misfortune is merely that they happen to be smack in the middle of the Islamic world.

[Right Wing Professor]

:-)

I know I billed for 65,000 hours work on 11/12/03, but that's because it was a spiritual day.

[Sabertooth]

I know I billed for 65,000 hours work on 11/12/03,
but that's because it was a spiritual day.

That, or you have attenuated tenure.