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From: mae@weitek.UUCP (Mike Ekberg)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: alternative to plate tectonics
Message-ID: <531@weitek.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 2-Dec-86 18:25:02 EST
Article-I.D.: weitek.531
Posted: Tue Dec  2 18:25:02 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Dec-86 22:09:31 EST
Organization: WEITEK Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 33

About ten years ago, while I was in college, I read a book that presented
a theory to explain many of the phenomenon used to back up the theory of
plate tectonics.

The theory went something like this...

The earth consists of a large gob of semi-liquid stuff(mantle) that is coated
with an extremly thin shell of hardened goop, ie crust. Occasionally, 
for unknown reasons, the thin shell 'slips' over the surface of the 
semi-liquid stuff. After a while, the shell movement reaches some sort
of equilibrium(sort of like Punctuated Revolution? :-} ).

This theory 'explains' the following phenomenon:

1. magnetic reversals		- since the magnetic pole is in the mantle,
				  when the crust shifts relative to the
				  mantle, the apparent direction of the 
				  earths magnetic field shifts.

2. sea floor expansion		- since the earth is not a perfect sphere,
				  when the crust shifts, cracks open as the
				  crust gets stretched of the bulgy parts. 
				  Stuff leakes out from the interior.

3. weird fossil records		- the author sited examples of fossils of 
				  tropical plants in Siberia. Siberia used
				  to be on the equator. 


Is there anything to this theory or is it totally from left field?

BTW, according to the Grab Bag column in the S. F. Examiner, the crust is
much thinner relative to the inside then an egg shell is to the egg.