Friday, June 01, 2012
A PROPOSED MECHANISM FOR EARTH’S TECTONIC PLATE MOVEMENTS
Copyright © 2012 By George William Kelly
About This Blog: "The Bivortex Theory of Everything"
I am an amateur astrophysics theoretician. Since 2004 I have delved into the history of science, acquiring insights into astrophysics, gravity, electromagnetism, and atomic theory. I stumbled upon my own "theory of everything." I named it the "Apple Bivortex Theory of Everything" because the apples in my kitchen had a shape similar to a bivortex body. Later I deleted the "apple" out of respect for Isaac Newton's famous apple. All my experiments have been "thought experiments."
I am an amateur astrophysics theoretician. Since 2004 I have delved into the history of science, acquiring insights into astrophysics, gravity, electromagnetism, and atomic theory. I stumbled upon my own "theory of everything." I named it the "Apple Bivortex Theory of Everything" because the apples in my kitchen had a shape similar to a bivortex body. Later I deleted the "apple" out of respect for Isaac Newton's famous apple. All my experiments have been "thought experiments."
The Bivortex Particle ( May 2004) . . . Bivortex Spin (June 2004) . . . The Bivortex Field (June 2004) . . . The Bivortex Quadrupole Field (August 2004) . . . Bivortex Equatorial Disks (August 2004) . . . Bivortex Field Effects (August 2004) . . . The Bivortex Periodic Table (November 2004) . . . Stumbling Upon a Grand Unified Theory (December 2005) . . . The Bivortex in Cyclones and Tornadoes (May 2007) . . . The Bivortex Model of the Sun--A Proposed Mechanism Underlying Sunspot Cycles (May 2007) . . . The Bivortex and Moving Volcanic Hotspots (January 2008) . . . The Bivortex Mechanism Underlying Plate Tectonics (April 2008) . . . The Primordial Photon (June 2008) . . . Sunspot Cycles and the Parana Parana River Stream Flow (November 2008) . . .The Bivortex and Dark-Matter Photons (July 2009) . . . An Invitation to Vortex Tube Manufacturers (March 2010) . . . BBSO [Big Bear Solar Observatory] High-Resolution Sunspot Images (September 2010) . . .The Bivortex Anatomy of Hurricane Irene (August 2011) . . . Four Phases in the Lifetime of Average Solar Flares (September 2011) . . .Accelerated Expansion of the Universe (October 2011) . . ."Black Hole" Described as Gravity Vacuum at Core of Bivortex Star (January 2012) . . .A Proposed Mechanism for Earth's Tectonic Plate Movements (June 2012)
To comprehend my proposal for a mechanism underlying
movements of the Earth’s crust, one should think of the Earth as a “bivortex”
body. Assume that the Earth is a spinning spheroidal assembly of particles. The
particles flow into one vortex at the North Pole and into another vortex at the
South Pole, forming a bivortex (a term that I have coined). The particles spiral
clockwise into one pole and counterclockwise into the other pole. At the center of the sphere they meet and swirl
into a coil, which forms the Earth’s core. From this core, particles are flung
out along the Earth’s equatorial plane. At intervals along this plane the
particles diverge northward and southward. Successively they arch back toward
the bivortex axis, returning to each hemisphere and to each pole. This flow of
particles creates a quadrupole gravito-electro-magnetic current which flows in
at each pole, radiates out at the center, and flows back, in Coreolis fashion, to
each pole. This dynamic spheroidal, bivortex flow of particles constitutes the
Earth.
With a bivortex in mind, it is easy to assume that the early
Earth had a very hot core and a fiery, gaseous atmosphere. All revolved around
a single axis. The Earth must have eventually slowed down, cooled off, and
begun to develop a crust. Because molten material from the core flowed out peripherally
along the equatorial plane to the sphere’s surface, the crust formation on the
surface must have concentrated into a single belt-like continent straddling the
equator. Gradually the continent would have grown wider on each side, as
additional magma flowed to the surface from the core. With the appearance of water,
there would have been one great North Ocean and one great South Ocean—one ocean
on each side of the single continent.
Over the course of eons the axis of this bivortex Earth would
have developed the slight wobble that it has today. Periodically this wobble would cause the
Earth-core to flip upside down, reversing the Earth’s magnetic field. And
sooner or later the Earth-core would flip over again, restoring the magnetic
field to its original position. Such flip-overs would not take place instantly.
Each flip-over would take millions of years. (I have suggested elsewhere on
this website that the Sun has a core which flips 180 degrees every 11 years and
360 degrees every 22 years, creating the sunspot activity cycle.)
One major effect of such a flip-over by the Earth-core would
be the break-up of the Earth’s great single, circumferential continent. The Earth-core’s
equatorial, disc-like outflow of magma which had built this single continent
would tilt progressively, as the Earth-core’s axis flipped, until the magma
flowed at right angles to the original continent. Eventually, the Earth-core’s
axis would travel 360 degrees, back to its original position. Such magma flow
changes would cause newly created crust to grow at angles to the single
belt-like continent. The re-directed magma would split the Earth’s crust into
separate continents, push them apart, and shove them around, just as we see
them slowly moving around today. The great North and South Oceans also would
change, flowing in between the shifting continents and continental
fragments.
One other effect on the Earth’s surface would be caused by
the flip-over of the Earth-core’s north/south axis. During these 180-degree flip-overs,
hot magma from the Earth-core would flow not only from the Earth-core’s equator
but also out through each of its vortex spirals. It would exit at the opposite
poles of the Earth-core’s axis in the form of a jet or plume. These two plumes
would leave a trail of hotspot volcanoes on the Earth’s surface. The Earth-core’s north polar hotspot trail
would move southward from the pole in one hemisphere of the Earth’s crust. The south polar hotspot trail would move
northward from the opposite pole in the other hemisphere. The two leading
hotspots of these trails would occupy diametrically opposite locations half-way
around the globe, or 180 degrees.
EVIDENCES OF BIVORTEX MECHANISM IN EARTH’S GEOGRAPHY
Let us imagine how the concept of the bivortex Earth
described above might explain some of the Earth’s physical features today. There
are two factors: volcanic hotspot trails and a tilting magma belt.
1. Twin Axial Hot
Spot Trails Indicate Flip-over by Earth-Core
There are many volcanic hotspot chains or strings on Earth. One
type occurs along tectonic plate subduction borders where one plate plows
underneath another plate. This type does not show an age progression from oldest
to youngest along the chain. Therefore, its hotspots do not qualify as moving
hotspots. Many island chains and archipelagos exist in
the oceans of the Earth, but are not known to be successively adding new
volcanic island links in one direction. One
North Pacific volcanic island hotspot trail, however, has grown successively longer
over millions of years. It is called the
Emperor-Hawaii seamount chain. It consists of a chain of oceanic volcanoes,
some appearing as islands and some as underwater seamounts. Meiji, which lies
between the eastern tip of the Aleutian Islands and the Siberian peninsula of
Kamchatka, is generally considered to be the northernmost island in the chain. Meiji
is said to be 85 million years old. Each
following island in the chain is younger than the previous island. The chain
ends with the youngest, the Hawaiian Islands.
The Hawaiian Islands continue to grow southward today with highly active
volcanoes.
Two explanations have been proposed for the Emperor-Hawaii
chain. Both of these ideas say that the hotspots are caused by a volcanic plume
rising from the Earth-core. One explanation:
the plume is stationary; the Pacific tectonic plate is moving above it; the
plume burns a hole through the plate, creating a volcano; the plate moves on; the
plume burns successive holes through the plate; a chain of inactive or lingering
volcanoes remains behind in the plate. The second explanation says the volcanic
plume itself is moving and creates successive volcanoes as it moves along. The
bivortex theory agrees with the second explanation. It proposes that the Earth-core is in the
process of flipping over. It suggests
that the north polar vortex plume of the Earth-core has already traveled southward
from the Earth’s North Pole, out of the Arctic, past Kamchatka, and all the way
to Hawaii. It has taken about 100 million years for the hotspot to reach Hawaii
from the North Pole. Today, this hotspot chain is well on its way to crossing
the Earth’s equator.
If it is true that the Emperor-Hawaii hotspot trail represents
the flip-over movement of the Earth-core’s north polar plume, there should be a
corresponding opposite movement of the Earth-core’s south polar plume. This would leave a hotspot trail moving northward
from the Antarctic to a leading hotspot diametrically opposite to Hawaii. I suggest that the Comoros Islands in the
Madagascar Strait is that other leading hotspot. Hawaii and the Comoros today could be atop the
opposite poles of the Earth- core as the Earth-core flips over.
The trail of volcanic hotspots leading up to the Comoros
Islands is not as evident as the Emperor-Hawaii chain. This is probably due to the presence of the
Antarctica continent at the South Pole, in contrast to the Arctic Ocean at the
North Pole. A continent would provide more of an obstacle for the Earth-core’s
plumes than an ocean. I shall work
backward, from the Comoros Islands toward the Earth’s South Pole, to see if I
can trace this hot spot trail.
The Comoros archipelago is a group of volcanic islands at
the north end of the Mozambique Channel, which separates the large island of
Madagascar from the African country of Mozambique. The Comoros are aligned from the southeast to
the northwest, becoming younger toward the northwest. The youngest and largest is Grand Comoros,
said to be 0.01 million years old. Its
Mount Karthala is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Estimated ages
of the other islands vary: Anjouan, 1.5
million/3.9 million years ago; Moheli, 5 million years ago, and Mayotte, 3.65/7.7
million years ago. Two submerged seamounts, the Paisley Seamount and the Banc
du Geyser, lie eastward of Mayotte.
Farther south in the Mozambique Channel are other volcanic islands—not
part of the Comoros—that may continue the hot spot trail left by the Earth-core’s
south pole plume. The first is Juan de Nova Island, midway down the Mozambique
Channel. Its age has been estimated at 5
million years ago. The second is Bassas
de India, an atoll in the southern portion of the Mozambique Channel. I have
not found its age. Within 110 km south
of Bassas de India lie Europa Island, the Jaguar Seamount, and Hall Tablemount,
all candidates for the hot spot trail but whose ages I have not found.
Here there is a considerable gap in the trail. The next
obvious island hotspot is the Marion Islands. The crustal age of the Marion hotspot
has been given as 30 million years ago.
From Marion, and its companion Prince Edward Island, the hot spot trail makes
a sharp bend to the east. The next
island link is the Crozet Archipelago of five islands, said to have formed
about 50 million years ago. Then, farther
to the east are the Kerguelen Islands, a group of about 300 islands, islets,
and reefs dated 68.5 million years ago.
The Kerguelen Plateau swings out northwestward from the Wilkes Land
shore of continental Antarctica, suggesting that this edge of the continent marks
the earliest obvious starting point on the trail of the Earth-core’s moving south
pole plume.
There is an interesting similarity between the South
Pole/Comoros hotspot trail and the Emperor/Hawaii hotspot trail. The South Pole/Comoros trail bends to the northwest after leaving Antarctica,
continues past Kuergelen and Crozet to Marion, and then bends north again to
Comoros. The Emperor/Hawaii hotspot
trail makes a turn to the southeast
between Milwaukee Island and Midway Island and continues southeast to
Hawaii. The corresponding turns by
these two hotspot chains could result from the axial relationship between the
two poles, or the plumes’ turns may have been triggered by obstacles such as
the underwater Mid-Pacific Mountains, or by easy pathways along rifts between
the Antarctic, Australian, and African continental plates.
The two volcanic island hotspot trails that we have
discussed do not lead all the way back to the Earth’s North Pole and South
Pole, which we might designate as their starting points. The Emperor-Hawaii islands stop when they
reach the Aleutian Island chain, which transects their path. The Comoros island chain only goes back to
the Kerguelen plateau off the Wilkes Land coast of Antarctica. It could be
speculated that the Emperor-Hawaii chain jumped across the Aleutians, continued
along the Bering Sea’s submerged Shirshov Ridge (and possibly the displaced
Bowers Ridge) to Kamchatka’s Cape Olyutorski, and finally followed the Moma
Rift and Chersky Mountain rift to the Arctic’s Laptev Sea and Gakkel Ridge. An Aleutian
offset fracture of such an Emperor-Hawaii path might have been caused by a
hinge-like spreading between the North American plate and the Eurasian plate,
with the Aleutians marking the border with the Pacific plate.
Do the Earth-core's tumbling polar plumes leave a trail when they cross the geographic poles of the Earth's outer crust? Recent findings indicate there are three parallel volcanic ridges crossing underneath the Arctic Ocean from Canada and Greenland to Siberia. The middle one, which is called the Lomonosov Ridge, actually crosses the Earth’s geographic North Pole, running from the Lincoln Shelf of Canada to the East Siberian Shelf of Russia. On one side of the Lomonosov Ridge lies the Gakkel Ridge running from Greenland and the Iceland Rift to the Laptev Shelf of Siberia. On the other side of the Lomonosov Ridge lies the Alpha/Mendeleev Ridge between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and the Chukchi Shelf near Alaska.
Do the Earth-core's tumbling polar plumes leave a trail when they cross the geographic poles of the Earth's outer crust? Recent findings indicate there are three parallel volcanic ridges crossing underneath the Arctic Ocean from Canada and Greenland to Siberia. The middle one, which is called the Lomonosov Ridge, actually crosses the Earth’s geographic North Pole, running from the Lincoln Shelf of Canada to the East Siberian Shelf of Russia. On one side of the Lomonosov Ridge lies the Gakkel Ridge running from Greenland and the Iceland Rift to the Laptev Shelf of Siberia. On the other side of the Lomonosov Ridge lies the Alpha/Mendeleev Ridge between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and the Chukchi Shelf near Alaska.
Three parallel mountain ranges cross the continent of
Antarctica with roughly the same orientation as the Arctic Ocean’s three
ridges. One of these ranges, the
Gamburtsev Mountains, has only recently been found to form a linear range
crossing the whole continent. It was
hard to detect because the entire range is covered by a huge ice cap. Parallel to the Gamburtsev Mountains are the
Transantarctic Mountains, which run from Victoria Land, on the Ross Sea, to the
Ronne Ice Shelf and the Filchner Ice Shelf on the Weddell Sea. This range passes near the geographic South
Pole. A third Antarctic range, which does not seem to have an overall name, follows
the West Antarctica coast near the Amundsen Sea and Bellingshausen Sea. It
includes Mt. Sidley, 4,181 feet, and Mt. Siple, 3,100 feet. This third range
seems to be one-half of a rift, the other half having split off from Antarctica
long ago.
I can only speculate on causes of the similarities between
the three mountain ranges of the South Pole and the three undersea ridges of
the North Pole. Perhaps they resulted
from three different flip-overs of the Earth-core. Or, perhaps they were caused by a wobble to
right or left by the Earth-core during the passage of its plumes across the
North Pole and the South Pole of the Earth’s crust.
2. Earth-Core’s Equatorial Magma Belt Creates Earth’s
Crust
In addition to the two polar magma plumes that jet from the
Earth-core’s poles, the bivortex theory suggests another, separate magma
outflow from the Earth-core. This
outflow would occur at the Earth-core’s equatorial plane, perpendicular to the
Earth-core’s axis. Upon reaching the
Earth’s surface the outflow would create new crust. The new crust would be deposited in a belt encircling
the Earth at successive angles to the Earth’s axis during the Earth-core’s
flip-over.
If the Earth-core today is flipping over and its polar
hotspot plumes are located at Hawaii and the Comoros Islands, its equatorial
outflow of magma must occur on the Earth’s surface at right angles to the
Earth-core axis. This would place the
magma outflow along the Atlantic Ocean Ridge at the middle of the ocean
floor. The ridge separates the North and
South American tectonic plates from the African and Eurasian tectonic
plates. It is known to be pushing these
plates apart by creating and spreading new crust on the sea floor. It is splitting Iceland apart. It does not follow a straight line of
longitude, but instead zigzags along the easy outlet provided by rifts between
tectonic plates.
Where is the other half of the Earth-core’s equatorial magma
belt? The bivortex theory suggests that the belt’s other half continues on the
opposite side of the Earth. Upon
examination, it appears that the magma from the other half of the belt rises
underneath continental shelves instead of ocean bottoms. The magma rises
beneath the Eurasian/Australian/Pacific tectonic plates and escapes to the
surface at their edges, creating offshore islands and back arc basins. This half of the Earth-core magma belt
includes parts of Siberia, Kamchatka, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines,
Indo-China, Indonesia, New Guinea, and New Zealand. It also encompasses the Sea of Okhotsk, Sea
of Japan, East China Sea, South China Sea, Coral Sea, and Tasman Sea, all of
which lie behind offshore islands. This
belt has long been considered part of the so-called “Ring of Fire” because,
like the North and South American Pacific shorelines, it experiences numerous
volcanoes and earthquakes. However, we suspect that the Earth-core magma
belt’s seismic activity is caused primarily by growth of new crust, while the
seismic activity from the Aleutians to Chile is due to subduction and transform
faults caused by the westward drifting of the American continents.
We have tried to map the Eurasian/Australian/Pacific
Earth-core magma belt as follows: Gakkel
Ridge, Cherskiy Mountains, Moma Rift, Kamchatka, Sea of Okhotsk, Kurile
Islands, Japan, Sea of Japan, East China Sea, China, Taiwan, Philippines,
Vietnam, South China Sea, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, Tasman
Sea, New Zealand. The magma growth belt,
of course, will shift as the Hawaii/Comoros axis of the Earth-core continues to
flip over and change the location of its polar plumes and its magma belt on the
Earth’s surface.
Afterword: It is my hope
that, some day, geologists will consider and scientifically test my speculation about the
Earth-core, its polar plumes, its magma belt, and their effects on the movement
of tectonic plates.