User:Duncan.france/PT EA

Introduction

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There are major facts that refute the theory of plate tectonics in the forms accepted by its supporters. It only takes one recalcitrant fact to wreck a postulate, and the number of recalcitrant facts is too great to ignore. However, objections raised have been indeed largely ignored.

For a list of papers raising examples of objections to various aspects of the plate tectonics theory, click here. Note that this list is not all embracing. Except for papers by Drewry et al. (1974) and Fallaw (1977), there has been no attempt to counter the many objections that have been raised. The failure of plate tectonics advocates to answer all but two or three of the major problems that these authors have raised is inexplicable. A few of the unexplained facts are discussed below in this entry.

Meteorology, physical oceanography and climatology

Evaporites

As shown by Meyerhoff (1970), 95-96% of all evaporites, from mid-Proterozoic to the present, were deposited in areas that today are areas where evaporation exceeds water input (by precipitation and streams). This is not possible unless the Earth’s oceans and wind circulatory systems have been nearly constant through time. These systems cannot have remained constant unless the Earth’s continents and ocean basins, as well as the rotational axis, have maintained their same relative positions through time. These statements are supported by the observation that the evaporate deposits of all ages in either or both of two zones, parallel with the present equator – one south and the other north of the equator. Both belts are displaced with a mean position of 12° north of the present equator because the Earth’s heat equator was displaced northward from the present geographic equator during past geologic time, just as it is today.

Coal deposits

The Earth’s major (88% by volume) commercial coal deposits are located in the eastern one- to two-thirds of all the continents and subcontinents – North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Australia and India. Exceptions to this statement are the coal deposits of Northwest Europe, those surrounding the Arctic Ocean and those of Antarctica. The location of these deposits means that warm moisture was available along the eastern sides of each of the land masses just as it is today. This, in turn, implies that the existing oceans were present. The commercial coal deposits in north-western Europe (of Carboniferous age) are the exceptions that prove the rule. The deposits are present because the Gulf Stream, which flows northward along the eastern margin of North America, crosses the North Atlantic to north-western Europe. They could not have formed unless a proto-Gulf Stream – or some other major moisture source – was present in the past on the western and north-western coasts of Europe. No existing coal deposits could have formed if the continents were once joined, because the interior of such a continent would have been a vast desert, owing to its remoteness from moisture sources..

Glacial deposits

Both well-known glacial deposits of the Permo-Carboniferous of the southern hemisphere, and those of the Miocene to Quaternary in both hemispheres, have in fact a bipolar distribution with respect to the present geographic poles. Most western earth scientists seem unaware of the major Permo-Carboniferous glacial deposits extending from the Bering Strait westward to the Pechora Sea, adjacent to Norway. The presence of Permo-Carboniferous glaciers at the present equator also has been used to argue in favour of polar wandering and continental movements. The fact that Pleistocene glaciation of equivalent extent also took place at the equator is seldom mentioned. Study of the Permo-Carboniferous glacial deposits around the present equator shows conclusively that these deposits were from mountain glaciers (Meyerhoff and Teichert, 1971). The same is true of the late Tertiary-Quaternary glacial deposits in the Andes, eastern Africa, and Northern India (just as during the Permo-Carboniferous), as well as in Borneo and New Guinea. If all the southern continents are grouped together in the postulated Gondwanaland reconstruction (Fig 1), the minimum diameter of Gondwanaland was 8000km. Established facts of climatology and meteorology are that glaciers form as a result of the interaction of warm moisture-bearing air and ocean currents with cold air currents, and that the moisture necessary to maintain continental glaciation cannot be sustained by air currents that flow more than 2000km inland. Therefore, in a Gondwanaland reconstruction, the glaciers of South Africa, eastern Africa, north-eastern Brazil, central Africa, and western Australia could not have existed. Epeiric seas could not have provided the necessary moisture because epeiric seas in sub-polar latitudes (e.g. the Baltic and Hudson Bay) freeze over in winter months and are too cold during the summer months to supply significant amounts of moisture to air currents

 Caption for Figure 1:
 Late Carboniferous to Early Permian glacial centres on the classical   Gondwanaland reconstruction.  Arrows show directions of movement.  It is not physically possible for glaciation on this scale to take place more than 2000km from deepwater ocean currents.  Therefore, in view of the fact that some of the glaciers shown are up to 4000km from the coast, Pangaea/Gondwanaland, as is usually understood, could not have existed.

Reef deposits

The use of carbonate reefs to determine paleoclimates requires great care. Teichert (1958) showed that there are living reefs at high latitudes. However, Khudoley (1 974) demonstrated that in the geological record tropical reefs can be di stinguished from non-tropical reefs, and that tropical reefs of all periods, like evaporates and coal deposits of the past, form broad bands parallel and symmetrical with the present heat equator.

Conclusions

All reliable paleoclimatic indicators, described as ambiguous by geologists unfamiliar with the principals of climatology and meteorology, demonstrate that the continents and ocean basins, as well as the rotational-geographic axis, have maintained their present positions since the middle Proterozoic.

Paleogeomorphology

Extensive continent-wide fluvial drainage patterns were developed on the elevated southern continents before the Late Carboniferous glaciation began. Numerous highland valleys became the loci of Late Carboniferous and Permian mountain glaciers. In South America, Africa, India, Australia, and parts of the northern USSR, many of these Permo-Carboniferous glaciated valleys are being re-excavated by erosion to form the present drainage systems (Meyerhoff, A.A and Teichert, 1971a, and b). This coincidence of Permo-Carboniferous and modern drainage divides in five continental or sub-continental areas suggests strongly that the base levels for Permo-Carboniferous streams were the same as those of present streams (i.e. the Atlantic, Indian and Southern Oceans) – a coincidence incompatible with the topography of a postulated Gondwanaland.

Paleontology

Paleontology has been used loosely by some researchers to corroborate concepts of plate tectonics. Most paleontological evidence cited in the literature is based on similarities at the generic and family levels (Fallaw, 1977), but similarities at the species level appear to be far more important. The exceptions are planktonic animals, swimmers (such as fish), and invertebrates that have long-lived veliger larval stages. Studies of the fossil record shows that similarities among marine invertebrates on opposite sides of the Atlantic were numerous during only two periods of history: the Devonian, and the Quaternary.

Marine invertebrates

Shirley (1964), Mamet and Belford (1968), and Mamet and Playford (1968), in worldwide studies of certain invertebrate groups, have identified a distinct North American realm; another distinct Tethyan realm that embodies Europe, central Asia, Africa, south-eastern Asia, and north-western Australia, an intermediate realm extending across northern Siberia into north-western Canada. This intermediate realm is a mixture of the North American and Tethyan realms. In continental reconstructions of Pangaea, the North American and Tethyan realms abut one another without any gradation (Fig. 2), an impossible situation if Pangaea existed, as Mamet and Belford (1968) discussed.

 Caption of Figure 2
 Mississipian faunal realms on a reconstruction of Pangaea for Mississipian, and other times

In this reconstruction the Tethys faunal realm becomes severely dismembered. The highly unlikely result for Mississipian times is evidence that existing Pangaean reconstructions are wrong (Mamet and Belford, 1968)

Stehli’s work (1957-1971, see Reference 1 for details) has shown that species diversity gradients for the Permian parallel the present equator and therefore preclude north-south movements of continents. The evidence of the coals and the glacial deposits (see above) eliminates the possibility of east-west movements. Thus, a combination of paleontological paleoclimatic data forms a powerful weapon for determining whether or not plate motions have occurred.

Non-marine ostracods

The 20 species of non-marine Cretaceous ostracods that supposedly are common to eastern Brazil and Gabon (Krömmelbein and Wenger, 1966) – and for which, as of 1987, no documentation has been published – have been used as evidence to support the former union of South America with Africa. There are no common marine species. If one examines modern bird migration paths, the reason for the similarity in the non-marine species becomes at once evident. Birds drink only fresh water and carry the larvae of the non-marine species with them as they fly back and forth between Africa and South America.

Vertebrate faunas

These faunas possibly offer one of the best methods of testing the whole concept pf plate tectonics from middle Paleozoic time onward. Fig. 3 shows percentages of tetrapod genera and species common to the different continents. Colbert (1972) wrote that the “entire fauna” of Africa spread to Antarctica (or vice versa). Yet, of the approximately 48 taxa described from Antarctica, only 3 are common to Antarctica and Africa. The much touted Lystrosaurus is indeed found in Antarctica and southern Africa. However, Colbert (1969) has emphasised that Lystrosaurus is an aquatic form. It has not only been found in South Africa and Antarctica, but also in what was the European USSR (Kalandadze, 1975), India and China. Lystrosaurus is absent from the Americas and Australia, suggesting that Africa, Europe and Asia had much the same relationship to the other continents during Triassic time as today.

Fossil flora

The Glossopteris flora, used in support of continental drift, has much the same distribution as the present Nothofagus-Araucaria-Podocarpus flora, which is not older than Tertiary. The reason for the similarities can be traced to the present wind dispersal routes for the Southern Hemisphere. The distribution of the Permo-Carboniferous floras indicates that the wind dispersal routes of Permo-Carboniferous time were much the same as those today. See Figure 3 for Commonality (or otherwise) between continents, of Triassic tetrapods (reptiles and amphibian). Since this figure was generated, Chatterjee (1984) has shown that, for Jurassic and earlier times, i.e. when, according to plate tectonics theory, India was part of Gonwanaland, in the southern hemisphere, 90% of all Indian genera and species are present in the Northern Hemisphere, but not in Southern Hemisphere (Pangea) continents!!!

 Caption Figure 3
 Commonality (or otherwise) between continents, of Triassic tetrapods (reptiles and amphibian)

The figures are percentages of common genera or species. For example, 7 genera, but no species are common to India and East Africa. Since this figure was generated, Chatterjee (1984) has shown that, for Jurassic and earlier times, i.e. when, according to plate tectonics theory, India was part of Gonwanaland, in the southern hemisphere, 90% of all Indian genera and species are present in the Northern Hemisphere, but not in Southern Hemisphere (Pangea) continents!!!

Tethys

Tethys encompasses a belt from Gibraltar on the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Mediterranean Sea. It has been alleged that Africa has collided with Europe, India with Asia, and Australia with Asia.

 Caption Fig 4
 The continuity of Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic orogenic belts between Africa and Europe (from Maxwell, 1970)

Africa-Europe

Figure. 4, based on Maxwell (1970), and Caire (1970), shows the close structural and stratigraphic relationships between North Africa and Europe. Individual rock formations, some dating to the early Paleozoic, can be traced across the Strait of Gibraltar, from Tunisia to Italy, via Sicily, and from Egypt to Turkey. As noted by Klemme (1958), Gill (1965), Kent (1969), Caire (1970), Maxwell (1970), and King (1971), movements between the two continents in the Mediterranean region are impossible. The surface and subsurface geology also precludes extensive horizontal movement north of the present Alpine chain because several lithologic units are continuous from within the various Alpine chains onto the foreland north of them. If movements occurred between Africa and Europe, they have been of the order of a few dozen kilometres, not several hundred or several thousand (Maxwell, 1970; King, 1971).

 Caption Figure 5
 Cambriam paleogeography of Tethys – west India to eastern Mediterranean.  This shows the geological continuity of the whole area

Middle East

Figure 5, from Wolfart (1967), shows the lithofacies continuity across the entire Middle east region during the Cambrian. Scores of detailed geologic data (see Kamen-Kaye, 1970b; Kashfi, 1976) show conclusively that the now former-USSR, Iran and Saudi Arabia have been part of a single geologic province since Proterozoic time.

India

The many allegations that India collided with Asia in Late Cretaceous or early Tertiary time are known by all geologists who have worked in the region to be false. The Tethyan (Mediterranean) faunas and formations intertongue with, and overlap, those of Gondwanaland on the Indian Peninsula, in the Salt Range, in Swechwan (western China), and in central Asia (in the Former Soviet Union). These irrefutable facts have been determined over more than 120yrs of detailed field mapping. Accounts by Johnson et al (1976) and many others, regarding the flight of India from Antarctica, are thus flights of fancy.

Paleomagnetism

The techniques used to determine supposed ancient magnetic pole positions by paleomagnetic data are reviewed thoroughly by Rezanov (1968) and Meyerhoff (1970a). Suffice it to say that paleomagnetic data are not sufficiently precise for use in determining ancient polar positions. Moreover, they involve a set of unproved assumptions regarding the nature of the Earth’s magnetic field. The determination of ancient pole positions from paleomagnetic data obtained from individual regions within continents, not to mention from single outcrops, show a spread of more than 4000km, a space wider than the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, the scatter of paleomagnetic pole plots from single localities or small areas within single continents is so imprecise that no inferences regarding the relative movements of continents can be drawn

Linear magnetic anomalies

Extent of Linear magnetic anomalies

Linear magnetic anomalies paralleling and symmetrical with the axes of the mid-oceanic ridges are acclaimed widely as ‘characteristic’ of mid-oceanic ridges. Indeed, they are supposed to show – in the manner of a tape recorder – the progressive history of the ocean basins, by recording the variations of the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field through time, as new ocean crust is formed at the ‘crest’ of each mid-oceanic ridge, or ‘spreading centre’. A ‘magnetic stratigraphy’ of alternate normal and reversed magnetic events was built up through middle Mesozoic times (Larson and Pitman, 1972, US Geodynamics Committee, 1973)., and an attempt was made to extend this ‘stratigraphy’ through all Phanerozoic time (McElhinny, 1971). The entire concept of ‘magnetic stratigraphy’ was based on the Vine and Matthews (1963) explanation for the origin of the magnetic stripes. The literature in which alternate interpretations are published was summarised by Meyerhoff and Meyerhoff (1972b, p. 354-355). The fact that magnetic susceptibility contrasts (in other words, due to differences in rock type) could account for the magnetic stripes is largely ignored (van Andel, 1968). The oxidation/polarity paradox (Smith, 1972) – possibly catastrophic to the Vine-Matthews hypothesis – is discussed by almost no one.

It is axiomatic that the anomalies are always aligned parallel to the trend of the generating mid-oceanic ridge. Yet linear magnetic anomalies are known for only 70% of the seismically active mid-ocean ridge system. They are absent, for example, along the entire south-west branch of the Mid-Indian Ridge system, as well as in parts of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans ridge systems. For that part of the ridge system which has linear magnetic anomalies, less than 50% exhibit anomalies that are symmetrical with respect to the ridge axis; possibly 80% show no symmetry beyond the so-called ‘anomaly 5’. This lack of symmetry is seldom discussed, as pointed out by Meyerhoff and Meyerhoff (1972, 338-343, and in Meyerhoff et al, 1972, 675-678). In about 21% of the ridge system having linear anomalies, those anomalies are oblique, or even nearly at right angles, to the ridge crest!

In some areas, such as:

a) The western Pacific Ocean

b) The western North Atlantic, and

c) The Canadian Basin of the Arctic,

linear anomalies are present where a ridge system is completely absent (Larson and Chase, 1972; Larson and Pitman, 1972, U.S. Geodynamics Committee, 1973, p.177). This is also true of the east-west magnetic-anomaly system east of the Galápagos Islands, and of the anomalies of part of the north-eastern Pacific adjacent to North America.

From the preceding, it is fair to conclude that the generally accepted, simplistic explanation of the linear magnetic anomalies is not the correct one, and thus the conclusions deriving from that model are neither accurate nor justified.

Paradoxes

Some of the paradoxes of the ‘linear’ magnetic anomalies have been alluded to above. However, other, even more serious ones are discussed in Meyerhoff et al (1972) and Merhoff & Meyerhoff (1972b). Below are summarised only a few of the major discrepancies, including some mentioned above:

1) The anomalies of the Gakkel (Mid-Arctic) Ridge form an anastomosing, non-linear pattern

2) In the North Atlantic, except for the Reykjanes Ridge, there is no clear pattern of symmetrical linear anomalies north of about $48^{0}$N lat. (see Figure 6, and Vogt and Avery, 1974)

3) From $15^{0}$N lat. to $10^{0}$S lat., the anomaly pattern of the central Atlantic is thoroughly confusing. The confusion is not lessened by explaining it through offsets along many transform faults. Rather, by inserting transform faults, the linear magnetic-anomaly pattern becomes more confused (see U.S. Geodynamics Committee, 1973, p.177)

4) There are no linear anomalies in the Indian Ocean from south of South Africa to Rodrigues Island at $20^{0}$S lat. The pattern north from Rodriguez Island to the Gulf of Aden also is confusing and ambiguous (U.S. Geodynamics Committee, 1973, p.177)

5) An east-west striking anomaly system appears to occupy the northeast Indian Ocean between the northern arm of the Mid-Indian Ocean Ridge and Australia (U.S. Geodynamics Committee, 1973, p.177)

6) At least two sets of anomalies intersect at a sharp angle southwest of South America (U.S. Geodynamics Committee, 1973, p.177)

7) The magnetic pattern in the Tahiti area appears to strike at right angles to the East Pacific Rise (=mid-oceanic ridge). The same is true of the anomaly system east of the Galápagos Islands

8) Four distinct systems of anomalies characterise the northern Pacific Ocean:

a) A WSW-ENE trending ‘Phoenix’ system in the area north of Tonga-Kermadec-Fiji (Larson and Chase, 1972)

b) A NW-SE trending ‘Hawaian’ system around Hawaii

c) A WSW-ENE trending ‘Japanese’ system east of Japan

d) The peculiar northeastern Pacific system which trends N-S into the Gulf of Alaska, then it turns abruptly westwards adjacent to and beneath the Aleutian island arc

These systems are discussed by Larson and Chase (1972), but their explanations for these separate sets of lineations are a series of highly contrived ad hoc modifications of the plate tectonics concept. Their explanations are scientifically unconvincing. Many of the above contradictions, real or apparent, have not been satisfactorily explained. Some are rationalized by the concept of the so-called ’triple junctions’ – a very dubious hypothesis at best. According to this hypothesis, subduction zones should be found between the different arms of the so-called ‘triple junctions’, but, as Heirtzler (1971) pointed out, no such subduction zones exist. Heitzler’s paper is an excellent discussion – written in 1969 – of the many puzzles associated with magnetic lineaments. Discoveries since Heirtzler’s paper was written seem only to compound the puzzles.

 Caption of Figure 6
 History of seafloor spreading in northeastern Pacific. (after Pitman and Hayes, 1968) I-IV= blocks of lithosphere (plates) in independent motion in directions indicated by arrows. Heavy lines = axes of spreading. stripes = magnetic anomalies. cross-hatching = deep-sea trenches. North American continent is shaded.

The situation near the Aleutian arc is perhaps the most puzzling (figure 6). With ‘younger’ anomalies closest to the trench, it has been suggested that, during its displacement to the north, the mid-ocean ridges (responsible for generation of the magnetic lineations) slipped under the trough, down into the subduction zone, and continued to exist and generate new oceanic floor as it did so (Pitman and Hayes,1968)! Is it so difficult to see in this example that all the logic of the hypothesis of sea-floor spreading, and hence of plate tectonics collapses (Beloussov, 1974)? Attempts to explain this phenomenon are many, but all have been unsuccessful (see summaries by Heirtzler, 1971, and Peter et al, 1971) Another axiom of the plate tectonic theory is that these anomalies can only occur in oceanic crust, the oldest of which has a date estimated (based on spreading rates) of 150 my, i.e. in the Jurassic. It is also axiomatic that, after the splitting up of the supercontinent, the initial magnetic anomalies should be parallel to the continental plate boundary (or in the case of a pair of oceanic plates, sub-parallel to each oceanic plate boundary. However, at least 19 areas exist where linear magnetic anomalies intersect continents or island arcs. Some can be seen on Figure 6 (others can be seen on Fig. 8-2, US Geodynamics Committee, 1973).

The areas of intersection are:

1) Japan island arc

2) Aleutian island arc

3) Gulf of Alaska

4) Middle America Trench

5) East of the Galapagos Islands

6) South-east end of the Chile Rise

7) Southwest of the Indonesia island arc

8) Gulf of Aden

9) North of Alaska

10) Intersection of the Alpha Cordillera with the East Siberia Sea

11) Intersection of the Alpha Cordillera with the Canadian Arctic islands

12) Intersection of the Gakkel Ridge with Siberia

13) Intersection of the Gakkel Ridge with Greenland

14) Intersection of the Mohns (Mid-Atlantic) Ridge with the Barents shelf

15) Intersection of the north-eastern Atlantic anomalies with the Vǿring Plateau

16) Intersection of the north-eastern Atlantic anomalies with the British Isles

17) Intersection of the anomalies east of the Reykjanes Ridge with the Hatton-Rockall Bank

18) Intersection of the anomalies east of the Reykjanes Ridge with the Faeroe-Iceland-Greenland Ridge and Greenland shelf

19) Intersection of the Davis Strait-Baffin Bay anomalies with the continental crust of northwest Greenland

In plate-tectonics theory, such intersections should be the result of over-riding of the ocean basins by the continent (via a subduction zone), or separated from the continent by alleged transform faults.

The latter explanation may be valid for five or six of the above examples. However, such an explanation is clearly not valid for most of them, and particularly for those in the Arctic and North Atlantic, as well as in areas of intersections with island-arcs. The intersection along the Aleutian island arc is the strangest of all (see above).

Explanation of Intersections between Magnetic-anomaly bands and Continents and Island Arcs

Meyerhoff et al. (1972) observed that all areas where magnetic-anomaly bands appear to intersect continents or island arcs are underlain by continental crust which is Proterozoic or younger (i.e. younger than 1700my; see Fig 7). They also showed that the magnetic stripes are approximately concentric with Archean continental nuclei. These facts suggest that the magnetic anomalies are very late Archean or very early Proterozoic

Caption Figure 7 North-polar projection showing Archean shields and linear magnetic anomalies. Map shows that magnetic anomalies are traceable onshore, where they are approximately concentric around Archean nuclei Anomalies ‘dive’ beneath Proterozoic and younger rocks. For clarity, Archean magnetic anomalies are not shown. All sources are give in Meyerhoff, et al., (1971). Note: North Atlantic data is incomplete.

Meyerhoff et al. interpreted the anomalies as ancient features created during the formation of the oceanic crust layer – the last shell or layer formed during the cooling of the earth. This interpretation is supported by the following:

1) The oceanic layer is of nearly uniform thickness everywhere – 4-6km – a fact that is incompatible with the concept of seafloor spreading. How can the oceanic crust layer have a uniform thickness if crust is being generated at the same time along the mid-oceanic ridges where, in some places spreading is taking place supposedly at a rate of 10cm/yr, whereas in others at only 0.5cm/yr (Worzel, 1975)?

2) The magnetic anomalies intersect continental masses in all parts of the earth, but only where the crust is younger than early Proterozoic

3) The Vǿring Plateau ia early Paleozoic or Proterozoic, and interrupts the anomaly bands off Norway (Meyerhoff, 1974)

4) The anomaly bands are approximately concentric with Archean nuclei, but not with middle Proterozoic or younger crust

5) Transform faults, whose presence is required at almost all places where linear anomalies intersect with both continents and island arcs, are absent in critical areas

6) The linear anomalies apparently continue onshore in the Russia far east, Western Siberia and the Urals, as well as the Baltic shield area - see Figure 7. In fact, Fig. 7 is not explained by any model of plate tectonics proposed

7) A number of samples giving Proterozoic dates continue to be found in all the world’s oceans (see Presence of ancient rocks in ocean basins).

Topology

Meservey (1969) has shown that the postulate of plate tectonics does not meet the topological requirements that pertain to the earth’s present diameter. He noted that the perimeter of the Pacific rim encloses only a third of the area of the Earth’s surface. Yet the Pacific perimeter must have enclosed at least half of the Earth’s area for it to pass over the Earth’s circumference (as one goes back in time) and be assembled on the opposite side of the Earth. Therefore , there is no topologically possible shift of the continents on an Earth of the present size (refer to expanding earth hypothesis) from any postulated pre-drift positions, if one accepts the constraints on the perimeter.

Absence of subduction zones in critical areas

Antarctica is surrounded almost completely by a mid-oceanic ridge system from which new crust is allegedly being generated. There are no subduction zones in Antarctica. The same is true for the African block between the Mid-Indian Ocean Ridge and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge systems. The East African Rift system is also left unexplained. The plate tectonic theory would imply that in order to accommodate the lack of subduction zones, the circum-Antarctic ridge system, and the Mid-Atlantic and Mid Indian Ocean ridges themselves are all migrating at half the spreading rate of the component plates, with the Antarctic and African plates growing by accretion, the latter externally, at the ridge systems, and internally at the East Africa Rift system…

Antipodal positions of continents and ocean basins

The antipodal positions of the continents and ocean basins are unexplained by the plate tectonics model, which also requires the existence of a continuous low-velocity zone (asthenosphere) around the Earth. A low-velocity zone is absent beneath Archean shields on all continents; this absence implies that the continental crust beneath the Archean shields is welded to the mantle. Accordingly, the continents cannot have shifted either with respect to the mantle or with respect to one another for much of geologic time. Even if the low-velocity zone were present beneath the shields, the antipodal positions of the continents and ocean basins would have to be explained by advocates of plate tectonics as coincidence.

Thickness of oceanic layer

Worzel (1965) pointed out that, if the various spreading rates alleged by advocates of plate tectonics are reliable, one of the greatest mysteries is to explain the fact that oceanic crust (layer 3) is uniformly 4-6km thick around the entire world. Worzel posed the question: ‘How can the newly created oceanic crust be of the same thickness (5km) in all ocean basins, whether produced at a mid-oceanic ridge whose alleged spreading rate is 12cm/yr or at a mid-oceanic ridge whose alleged spreading rate is 1cm/yr’? This question has never been answered by advocates of plate tectonics.

Geosynclines, island arcs and tectonic cycles

The plate tectonics hypothesis fails to explain:

1. The formation and deformation of geosynclines of the continental interiors

2. The existence during the same geologic times of several parallel intra-continental geosynclines (e.g. the Altai, Nan Shan, Kunlun Shan, and other geosynclines of eastern and central Asia

3. The origin of marginal seas along the western sides of ocean basins, and the absence of marginal seas on the eastern side of ocean basins

4. The episodic nature of orogenic events in geosynclines and adjacent platforms, and also the repeated tectonic cycles within a single geosyncline

5. The fact that Paleozoic or Proterozoic sialic crust underlies almost all geosynclines and most island arcs, and

6. The large scale vertical movements on the sites of geosynclines, platforms, and cratons (Illich, 1972)

Evidence from ocean basins

Undeformed sediments and Fracture Zones

Most sediment in island arc trenches, and within fracture zones that cross mi-oceanic ridges, are undeformed, i.e. are flat-lying. Yet, according to the plate tectonics concept these are the sites where deformation should be most intense! This particularly applies to the island arc sites. In addition, some of the fracture not only cross Benioff zones but also enter continents – e.g. in the eastern Pacific from the Mendecino to the Sala y Gomez fracture zone. This phenomenon is contrary to plate tectonics requirements.

Caribbean

There is no room for the Caribbean area in pre-continental drift reconstructions. Moreover, as shown by Meyerhoff and Meyerhoff (1972a), the boundaries of the so-called Caribbean Plate are, in many areas, no defining boundary (e.g. line of earthquake epicenters) is present.

Presence of ancient rocks in ocean basins

1) Precambrian rocks (757-1690 my) have been found along the western edge of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, at $45^{0}$N, in the north Atlantic Ocean (Wanless, et al., 1968)

2) Precambrian rocks have been described from St. Paul’s Rocks in the equatorial Atlantic (Melson, et al. 1973), and Tahiti (Krummenacher and Noetzlin, 1966)

3) Paleozoic trilobites are known from several areas along the eastern flank of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (Furon, 1949)

4) Early Jurassic through Early Cretaceous shallow-water limestone crops out near the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (Honnorez, et al., 1975)

In fact, as more oceanic areas are sampled, increasing numbers of older rocks are being found within the ocean basins where ice-rafting is impossible

Greenland-Iceland-Faeroe Ridge

The Greenland-Iceland-Faeroe Ridge is now known to be underlain by a continental crustal layer with a depth to the Mohorovičić discontinuity of 30km to more than 42km. Zverev, et al. (1977) determined the depth to the Moho beneath Iceland to be possibly as great as 60km. ., see Figure 8.

Caption for Figure 8
Cross sections (west to east) of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge – based on refraction-seismic and gravity data (From Zverev et al., 1977)

Above: from western Iceland to the Shetland Islands. Note that the Moho (vertical and cross-hatched patterns) is either at the 7.5km/sec or 8.0km/sec level. This corresponds to a depth of 45 to 60km beneath Iceland, which is not explained by plate tectonics. Below: corresponding figure for the Mid-Atlantic ridge at the equator. The white space above the cross-hatch pattern is a low-velocity zone in the upper mantle. As in Iceland, the structure does not correspondence to predictions by plate tectonics. These patterns are found in mid-oceanic ridges everywhere

If continental crust extends from Greenland to Scandinavia beneath Iceland, how can one possibly postulate plate movements in the northern part of the north Atlantic Ocean?

Iceland itself is a contradiction. Not only is the entire island (100,000$km^{2}$) underlain by a Mohorovičić discontinuity 42-60km deep, but also the island consists of north- to north-east trending anticlines and synclines with dips as great as $45^{o}$. Individual rock units can be traced the full width of the island, particularly in the north. No rift transects the island as required by the plate tectonic model. The so-called anomaly 5 strikes into active volcanic zones on both the western and eastern flanks of the island. Numerous granitic xenoliths have been found in the volcanic rocks of Iceland, which would be consistent with the island being underpinned by siallic continental rocks. The overall structure of the island resembles that of an area that has been subjected either vertical or compressive movements, rather than the tensile stresses required by the plate tectonics model

Conclusions

This summary of evidence against plate tectonics is incomplete. In such a short article no attempt at completeness could be made. Nevertheless, the volume of evidence against plate tectonics is so great that the concept cannot be considered as anything more than an hypothesis until all the mentioned items have been explained in terms of hypothesis. Otherwise, an alternate hypothesis – one that does incorporate and explain ‘’’all’’’ the evidence – would be required to replace it.

Main references

1) Plate Tectonics - Evidence Against by A.A. Meyerhoff and Howard Meyerhoff in The Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences, Vol X, Series editor: Rhodes W. Fairbridge: The Encyclopedia of Structural Geology and Plate Tectonics, edited by Carl K. Seyfert’’ 1998. New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. ISBN 0-442-28125

2) Various papers in Plate Tectonics – Assessment and Reassessment, Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists, Memoir 23, 1974, Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 74-28810

Bibliography

For detailed bibliography A-L inclusive: Click here, and M-Z: Click here