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Breakthrough Achieved in Explaining Why Tectonic Plates Move the Way They Do
Scripps Institution of Oceanography ^ | July 15, 2010 | Unknown

Posted on 07/16/2010 7:42:12 AM PDT by decimon

Researchers at Monash University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography identify movements of plate and plate boundaries; could substantially improve models of tectonic motion

Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego

A team of researchers including Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego geophysicist Dave Stegman has developed a new theory to explain the global motions of tectonic plates on the earth's surface.

The new theory extends the theory of plate tectonics - a kinematic description of plate motion without reference to the forces behind it - with a dynamical theory that provides a physical explanation for both the motions of tectonic plates as well as motion of plate boundaries. The new findings have implications for how scientists understand the geological evolution of Earth, and in particular, the tectonic evolution of western North America, in the past 50 million years.

(Excerpt) Read more at scrippsnews.ucsd.edu ...


TOPICS: History; Science
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; continentaldrift; crustaldisplacement; gps; magneticfield; magneticpole; magnetism; platetectonics; poleshift; sciencefrontiers; williamcorliss
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1 posted on 07/16/2010 7:42:14 AM PDT by decimon
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To: SunkenCiv

Top down ping.


2 posted on 07/16/2010 7:42:53 AM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon

The extension of unemployment benefits is sure to accelerate the movement of the plates to the same degree to which it has accelerated job growth.


3 posted on 07/16/2010 7:46:04 AM PDT by hometoroost (McCain is a Ron and Nancy Republican: Campaigns like Reagan, governs like Pelosi)
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To: decimon

Well, it looks like my graduate school theory of billions of subterranean hampsters has gone by the board.


4 posted on 07/16/2010 7:49:37 AM PDT by centurion316
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To: decimon

Thanks for posting. Now I’ll have to find more to read on this.


5 posted on 07/16/2010 7:51:52 AM PDT by JimSEA
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To: decimon
THEORY.....

Just like Global warming

6 posted on 07/16/2010 7:51:55 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (What)
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To: decimon

“I jus’ keep movin’ from place to place”


7 posted on 07/16/2010 7:53:17 AM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder ("No longer can we make no mistake for too long". Barack d****it 0bama, 2009, 2010, 2011.)
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To: decimon

I would think that it is fairly obvious.

The whole planet is growing in size. Has been for billions of years.

That ‘growth’ causes earthquakes as well. If you get on GOOGLE EARTH and look at the DEEP OCEAN RIDGES, you can see the ‘growth lines’ on the seafloor.


8 posted on 07/16/2010 7:54:40 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The Last Boy Scout)
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To: decimon

Growing in size?

You mean like Popcorn?


9 posted on 07/16/2010 7:58:03 AM PDT by PSYCHO-FREEP ( Give me Liberty, or give me an M-24A2!)
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To: decimon

Sounds like an overcomplicated explanation of the plates moving due to the convection within the earth.


10 posted on 07/16/2010 7:58:10 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: Sacajaweau

tested hypotheses and theories are two different things. Just FYI.


11 posted on 07/16/2010 7:58:28 AM PDT by morkfork (Candygram for Mongo)
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To: Sacajaweau

Yes it is theory, but very well supported theory, unlike global warming. All non-experimental geology is theory based on circumstantial evidence. The evidence is heavily in favor of plate tectonic theory.

Are you a geosynclinalist?


12 posted on 07/16/2010 8:00:57 AM PDT by HerrBlucher (In the White House the mighty White House the Liar sleeps tonight.............)
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To: UCANSEE2
There are matching subduction regions where the crust in pushed down (or goes down naturally and pulls the rest of the plate along) which eliminates sections of the earth's surface.
13 posted on 07/16/2010 8:01:27 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (Gun control was originally to protect Klansmen from their victims. The basic reason hasn't changed.)
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To: Sacajaweau

THEORY.....

Just like Gravity


14 posted on 07/16/2010 8:08:38 AM PDT by stormer
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To: HerrBlucher

Theory and hard science are too often confused.

Interestingly enough, it was the son of Charles Darwin who came up with the “theory” that the moon was moving away form the earth an why.

He was wrong about why and how but today we know for a fact that the moon is moving away from the earth.


15 posted on 07/16/2010 8:09:00 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: HerrBlucher
Are you a geosynclinalist?

Dude! You can't just ask someone that on a public forum.

16 posted on 07/16/2010 8:11:09 AM PDT by agere_contra (Obama did more damage to the Gulf economy in one day than Pemex/Ixtoc did in nine months)
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To: agere_contra
Are you a geosynclinalist?

That's the sort of thing you say right before you absquatulate.
17 posted on 07/16/2010 8:18:33 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: centurion316
Well, it looks like my graduate school theory of billions of subterranean hampsters has gone by the board.

Well, it's not like that dissertation will see the light of day. I mean, someone signed off on it.

18 posted on 07/16/2010 8:23:33 AM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon

I think that I was able to impress the committee in other ways. Steven Schneider thought that it made sense.


19 posted on 07/16/2010 8:26:59 AM PDT by centurion316
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To: centurion316
Steven Schneider thought that it made sense.

But he thought you had to offer up a scarier scenario and replaced the hamsters with clowns?

20 posted on 07/16/2010 8:31:21 AM PDT by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
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