Storyboard
For
The Motions Of
The Tectonic Plates
A Brief Sketch
The primary motions in the
Earth's crust are
Unitary Spin - North-South Lean
As the Earth Spins west to east, each point of
latitude spins at a different rate of speed. From the
Equator to the North Spin Axis, each point of latitude has less
mass and less speed, hence less energy, less thrust and less
stress. These simple facts can be seen abundantly in the
morphology of the Earth. By the simple manifestation of
perfect gravity, a perfectly spinning globe will be perfectly
balanced in all symmetry except for the Equatorial Lean.
The Spin will cause mass to lean towards the Equator, producing
a fattened "rim" around the Equator. In the Earth this
"rim" is very small and it is mostly composed of water in the
Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.
Centrifugal Push - North-South Migration
Any mass which comes out of symmetry with the
mass balance of the Earth created by gravity will be pushed
towards or away from the Equator. Greater mass must go
towards the equator, lesser mass must go towards the Spin Axis.
The Earth is simultaneously at all times going through changes
in the distribution of its surface mass, many changes are merely
short-term fluctuations but some in long cycles, hence
centrifugal push is always in play in shaping the crust of the
Earth.
Gyre Creep - West-East Motion
Any external force (such as induced by the
gravity of the Moon and Sun) will tend to cause fractures in the
crust parallel to the direction of Spin. These parallel
fractures permit the crust of the Earth to move differentially
between latitudes and thus differentially respond and adjust to
the disturbances of mass and speed produced by the changing
gravity forces of the Sun and Moon. The bottoms of the
oceans are riven throughout with long parallel transform slip
faults which are caused by this gyre creep. In reality,
many different orientations can be found, causing gyre creep
lines (transform faults) to intersect at various angles. Those
which are most parallel with the Equator are likely to be the
most active, the others far more likely to be frozen in
proportion to their angle of intersection with the lines of
current latitude. These intersections are one of the
most important prima facie evidences of the on-going migration
of the tectonic plates and the Earth crust into new orientations
and locations relative to the Spin Equator and Spin Axis.
Because of the strong tidal pull to the west which is induced by
the Earth spinning to the east under the Moon and the Sun, gyre
creep is most likely to cause blocks of the crust to move to the
west as do tidal "bulges" in the oceans.
Lunar-Solar Pull Towards The Equator
This is one of the three primary motions induced
by the Cosmic Frame. The Sun and the Moon, with an average
location over the Equator, incessantly pull all mass towards the
Equator. Any mass which is greater than or above the slope
of symmetry will be pulled more forcefully toward the Equator.
In other words, mountain ranges are being attracted towards the
Equator with greater energy than are the coastal valleys, hence
differential stress is found in the crust at all elevations and
latitudes. This differential stress combines with
centrifugal force to make each point of the Earth unique in its
actual or potential kinetic energy and the material result in
the landforms are virtually unique everywhere.
Lunar-Solar Tidal Lift
This is the second of the three primary motions
induced by the Cosmic Frame. As the Earth spins, the surface of
the Earth under the Sun or the Moon is lifted vertically by a
measurable quantity. This produces the tides, which are in both
the water (measured in meters) and in the crust (measured in
centimeters). This tidal lift is most likely the most
operative force in the subduction zone quakes. The
closer to the Equator, the greater is the tidal lift, hence the
fastest rates of subduction will generally be found in the
tropical zones.
Lunar-Solar Pull Towards The West
The tidal bulge moves toward the west, one for
the Sun, one for the Moon, the one for the moon the most
variable and the greatest...
being more variable in distance and exceeding
the gravity field of the Sun.
So the Moon and the Sun continually create and
pull around a bulge towards the West, one or two a day, which is
like a 12 hour wave when the Moon is in full phase,
reflection stress in the Earth crust, directly
and indirectly (loading and unloading of water)
The stress rises and falls in the Earth, moving
from east to west.
Combined, the mass of the crust will tend
to flow towards the West, most rapidly by latitude
the lower the latitude number, the more rapid
the flow
The poles will creep the slowest, the equator
the most rapid.
North South expansion rifts should expand the
most rapidly (but in fact, not entirley)
the net expansion of the rift should be TO THE
WEST.
But again, apparently in fact, not entirely
The Perihelion Pump
The entire Earth wobbles in certain regular and
somewhat irregular ways and these cycles are directly connected
to the Earth's orbit around the Sun and the Moon's orbit around
the Earth. By far the most important element in the
Earth's wobbles is the irregular size of Earth's orbit around
the Sun. During January of each year the Earth's orbit the
Sun at its closest point. This is most likely the result
of the Southern Hemisphere being heavier than the Northern
Hemisphere.
The three primary cycles are
14 month spiral
The expansion rifts are pumped on a seven
year cycle in the size of the spiral.
When the spiral is the smallest, generally
quakes and volcanism increase
followed by the El Nino warming
When the spiral is the largest - generally the
least.
During certain times,
Net Tectonic Migration
Wobble Expansion Pump
With these dynamics clearly in mind,
in principal, the motions of the tectonic plates should be
very simple for us to determine. After all, we know where they are
going, into the compression zones where the edge of one vast block of the
crust slowly sinks (or subducts) under the edge of another vast block of
crust. And we know where they are coming from, they are slowly
"flowing" from the expansion rifts. Technically, it is merely a
question of connecting the dots. Accordingly, we draw the dots
on maps and bingo, it should all be clear.
Alas, there are many sublime difficulties in this simple
task. Today's dots, when connected
ignorantly with yesterday's dots, will lead us into complete confusion.
Or, we have some stale old dots which we should not attempt to
connect to the fresh "new ones" of this age.
One of the issues is that the crust of the Earth is very
old and it obviously bears the scars of previous ages which may have been
and probably were responding to radically different force vectors at work in
the crust. These scars of the ancient past may provide "false
leads" to "dead ends". Plate subductions and
rift expansions doubtless had a completely different dynamic 150 million
years ago. Yet that ancient time has left major zones in the topography of
the Earth which might easily mislead us away from seeing what is actually happening
in today's Earth.
Another major issue is that we have only half a basket of
dots. The great and wonderful charts which show the
Expanding Rifts
and the Sliding Transform Faults along with the Ages of the ocean bottom
(see below), tell us much but they may also cause us to leap too rapidly to
overdrawn conclusions. The maps convey a great picture but the picture
in the map is a mathematical fantasy made of up of statistical samples.
As we should all know, "blind" statistical generalizations often lead to bad
inferences and silly conclusions.
A profoundly important question also quickly arises when one
attempts to visualize just how blocks of the crust are moving relative to
other blocks. Is the tectonic plate being thrust over the ocean plate
or is the ocean plate being thrust under the tectonic plate. Or,
as a few geophysicists have been asking since the 1990's (slab pull), is the
ocean plate sinking under the continental plate because its relative
coldness and denser material makes it heavier, thus the slab "pulls" itself
under the continental plate?
These issues are not easy to sort out, in fact they may be
unsortable within the science of this generation, but they are not even the
worst problem. The greatest difficulty is the lack of understanding
the motive force of plate motion. Within the prevailing literature
circa 2007, the "structure" of the motive force with energizes and arranges
the directions of movement in the great crustal blocks is not understood on
a planetary level. Two theories, "slab pull" or "hot rising
plumes" have been discussed inclusively. Neither concept can explain
much of anything, both are nearly impossible to research, neither can be
proven, and accordingly, neither is being seriously modeled.
Against this backdrop, the elementary ideas of vortex
tectonic have a lot to offer. How and why the energy arises from the
cosmic framework is elementary and easy to understand. The consequences
which must be manifest are easy to predict and their actual evidence is easy
to recognize. In other words, we can easily spot the "vortex
dots" and connect them elegantly .
Let us begin with a clear idea of how the crust of the
Earth MUST MOVE within the gravity vortex which is Earth. The Earth is
rigorously layered into mass layers by gravity, the heaviest elements in the
center, the lightest on the outer crust. The lighter elements are generally
readily dissolved or carried in suspension in water, hence most of the
visible outer surface of the Earth is the story of the flow of water and its
distribution of the elements which make up the various minerals.
Science has gotten very very good at learning how to tell this part of the
story of the Earth. Well over a billion years of this story are still
discernible here and there.
This story is generally told with a "static" frame.
Geologists and geophysicists have gotten very comfortable in working in a
three or four dimensional frame which is disconnected from the cosmic
framework. This is the current stumbling block in Earth Science.
Let us remove the stumbling block. The Earth is
ceaselessly spinning and rotation a body which is itself spinning and
rotating around at least two other primaries, both the galaxy, and a "local
system" within the galaxy. These are also rotating and orbiting
through the immensely huge and essentially unknown, and perhaps infinitely
unknowable universe.
In other words, as the ancients said, all is in
motion, all the energetics of the tectonics of the Earth flow directly from
this motion, all is in ceaseless change through this motion, hence the
structure of the crust and surface of the Earth is shaped directly as a
consequence of this motion.
This motion is best understood as a vortex. A vortex
is essentially a four dimensional entity. It is a three dimensional flow of
matter which moves in time (the fourth dimension) in a spiraling (recycling)
structure induced and sustained by a "field" of force vectors.
In Earth terms, the Earth spins from west to east daily and
rotates around the Sun once a year. If that was all there was to the
Earth vortex, there likely would be very little Earth history story.
Gravity would compact and uniformly layer all the elements according to
weight. A shallow sea would cover the entire surface. Other than
a mild seasonal variation on the top layer of water, plus some other long
term mild variations caused by changes in the gravity vector and energy
output of the Sun in long cycles, the Earth would not change much in a
billion years.
There would probably still be some "creep" in the mass of
the Earth. It would tend to creep in broad horizonal bands from west
to east (following the direction of spin. Since the crustal mass on
the equater or in the tropic zone directly under the sun at dawn would offer
the greatest amount of new attraction mass, more of it would move than at
the polar zones. Since the spin speed is the most rapid at the
equator, more would move further faster in this zone. The creep rate
would vary by lattitude, the greatest at the equator, the lowest at the
poles. These latitude oriented bands would creep slowly around the
Earth at a very very slow retrograde ratio to the daily spin. This
creep might be so slow as to be almost immeasurable within the span of a
million years.
That would be the fate of the Earth if it were an isolated
planet. What makes the story far more interesting and very complex is
that the Earth is a binary planet. the Earth's vortex is structured
not just by the mutual gravity of the Sun and the mass of the Earth.
It is also structured by the Moon.
The Moon's gravity vectors on the Earth constantly are
adding to or substracting from the gravity vectors of the Sun. This
occurs on a daily basis, a nearly monthly basis, on a nearly annual basis,
and in other cycles, most especially the 18.5 year Saros cycle (cycle of the
eclipses) and its various "beat frequencies" which extend for as long as a
thousand years (and slightly longer).
The Sun and Moon together rule the surface of the Earth. All
surface structures have been directly induced by pulling power of the Moon
working alternatively with the Sun or opposing the Sun.
As the Earth spins, any given point on the crust spins from
west to east. When the spot is underneath the Moon or the Sun, the gravity
vectors will pick the spot up and then eventually drop it after it has
disappeared over the horizon.
This ceaseless activity must and does crack the
Earth. The earth is thoroughly cracked and riven in diverse ways,
including a nearly continuous Great Rift some 70,000 kilometers long
composed which encircles all the continents.
The greatest stress and relative motion in the gyre of
the Earth underneath the Sun and the Moon must be in the equator directly
underneath them where the mass in spinning the most rapidly. Thus the
tropical zone must be cracked and riven the most.
Indeed, the greatest breakup of the crust is clearly
in the tropical zone. The higher the latitude, the lower the count
of tectonic plates. See Bird's 52
Plate Model. Scientists during the past 20 years have
identified many small plate tectonic fragments which move in somewhat
independent ways, these are primarily in the tropical latitudes.
The Moon will tend to retard and thus pull the closest and
greatest amount of mass towards the west.
Indeed, Latin America flows to the northwest, the
greater portion of Asia flows towards the southwest. The greatest
portion of the Pacific Ocean Plate flows towards the northwest.
Again see Bird's 52 Plate Model.
North America flows towards the west. Africa is hardly flowing at
all, for reasons explained below. Only Australia and Antarctica,
the furthest to the south, are contrary with an easterly motion.
These are readily explained below as consequence of the Expansion Rifts.
The Moon will pull the closest mass in the south towards the
equator (plates should flow in a northerly direction).
Indeed, Latin America flows to the northwest.
Australia flows to the northeast. Likely Africa, though relatively
stationary, flows slightly to the northeast. All of the Pacific
Ocean plate flows towards the northwest.
The Moon will pull the closest mass in the north towards the
equator (plates should flow in a southerly direction).
Indeed, all of Eurasia is flowing towards the south.
Only the Pacific Plate and North America are in opposition.
The latitude bands of gyre creep (transform slip faults)
will show the greatest relative motion in and near the tropics, generally
showing an eastward motion, and the least amount of creep in the polar
zones. This gyre creep is primarily the result of the
centrifugal force in the spinning mass of the Earth. This force acts
differentially on each degree of latitude, the greatest force at the
Equator, the least amount of force near the poles of the Spin Axis.
See the charts below. The average
movement of the Antarctic Tectonic Plate appears to be in the range of
10-14 millimeters/year (Bird et al, ibid) The average movement of the
Pacific Plate (which is nearly half the surface of the planet) is
estimated to be about 100 mm/yr at the equator. The average
movement of the Indian Plate, despite the enormous opposition of the
Eurasian plate, is estimated at 25 to 39 mm/yr, while Australia is
moving at about 55-70 mm/yr, Eurasia 7-15 mm/yr, the Latin
America at 30-34 mm/yr and North America at 19-25 mm/yr and Carib
at 25 mm/yr
The polar zones will creep around from east to west in
independent gyres.
Well, not entirely.
The Actic is not an independent plate, it is cloven
down the middle in two to form Eurasia and North America. It is
more of a vast hinge which forces expansion of the crust in certain
directions.
The Antarctic conforms fairly
well. Generally it is turning at the lowest rate of speed in a
circular motion towards the east in the direction of gyre creep.
It also has a drift which moves towards the North at the tip of South
America and to the South from underneath Australia. This drift to
the North is colliding with the tip of South America, retarding its
movement towards the northwest. This collission appears to be
creating a small erratic platelet, between the two vast continents which
is called the Scotia Plate.
As can be seen by careful examination of Bird's map, solar
and lunar field influence on the mass gyre of the Earth explain a great deal
of the rifting, faulting and relative motion of the continents. Not
all of it, but a very great amount of it.
We can finish the job by looking at the structure of the
Great Rift and the relative motion away from the Expansion zones into the
subduction zones. Our best beginning may be with the map by
R. Dietmar Muller et al (Muller, School
of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Australia) which has been
magnificantly published by NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center.
The map published by Muller et al is actually a complex set
of databases of many kinds of phenomenon painstakenly created over many
decades by many different scientists. The databases describe a great
many different kinds of points and tangents, we merely see the
composite result in one dimension, the age profile of the bottom of the
Earth.
The map plots the age of the ocean bottom as it spreads away
from the Expansion Rift. What a brilliant stunning accomplishment!
It probably tells us so much more than we can imagine at the current time.
Here in the Earth Changes Gallery it is used to compare the relative quake
activity and draw conclusions about which plates are the prime movers.
The Expansion Rifts & Age Of The Ocean
Plates
Click On This For Very
Large Poster Version
Image Source: U.S. NOAA
Geophysical Data Center:
To select your size of image:
Age of the Ocean
Floor Poster
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/crustage.html
Or click on this for
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/crustageposter.jpg
 Keep
in the mind that the this map, even in the poster sized version, has a lot
of distortion in it. You really need to see a globe. The red
zones is where the floor of the ocean bottom is the youngest (the
darker, the younger). Thus the widest red zones are where the Earth is
expanding the most rapidly. Obviously the Earth is expanding the
most rapdily in two large zones, one is under Australia and the Indian
Ocean and the other is right down the middle of the East Pacific
The NOAA maps are complemented by a
Data and Analysis Note in the Journal of Geophysical Research (1997)
entitled "Digital Isochrons of the World's Ocean Floor" by Muller et
al.
DIGITAL ISOCHRONS OF THE WORLD'S OCEAN FLOOR
Age of the Ocean Floor
Globe versions from the work of Muller et al.
Here are some 
slide set of the turning globe
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/fliers/00mgg04.html
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/turninglobe.gif
Topographic Map Of Ocean Floor
Click On
This For Large Version
Image Source:
U.S. NOAA Geophysical Data Center:
Poster - Measured
and Estimated Seafloor Topography
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/global_topo_large.gif
a as a fragment of the North American Plate
~ Motions of the Plates
Continues...
We began the discussion in this panel
lamenting the problem of understanding the relative motion between the
various plates. As can be seen above in the definition of the various zones,
we have four major spreading zones in the Earth, three of them are mainly
north-south axis of spread and one is an west-east axis of spread.
These set up the dynamics which are thrusting the plates in their various
migrations. Understanding the rates and directions of migration from
these spreading zones is the fundamental requirement for any Earth science
about the dynamics of tectonic plates.
Unfortunately this information is not be
any means complete nor is it based on a serious data series of on-going
measurements. This leaves all reasoning based upon such phenomenon
fairly vague and weak. Compounding this problem is that completely
missing in the annals of peer-reviewed science is any coherent theory of
what animates the motions. Why does the Earth expand in these
zones?
The existing theories are not widely
understood, supported, nor are they even physically possible, let alone
testable. Nor do they provide us with a logic for the actual tectonic
structure of the expansions and contractions in the crust. Like Crazy Aunts
nattering in the attic, they offer nothing but headaches induced by too much
obscure Latinized Greek polysyllabic bullsnargle which insecure academics
like to pass off as "science". Hot spots, cold spots, slab pulls,
convection currents, you name it, Crazy Aunts nattering endlessly in the
Attic. All completely imaginary conjectures.
Let's begin with a real principle. The vortex principle suggests that the
crustal mass should tend to flow from west to east in the same direction as
the Earth's spin and rotation around the Sun. It would be quite strange if
it does not.
JPL satellite measurements suggest in the
main (there are some contrary readings) that indeed the Antarctic circles around and around
from west to east in the same direction as the spin of the Earth.
If so, it would have very little
north-south tectonic drift unless perturbed by interference from another
plate, which might be the case with the tip of Latin America.
The crust of the Earth is breaking up into
the smallest fragments on or near the Equator. This proves what
we already can infer from elementary physics, namely that the most mass
spin energy is expressed in the equator, the Earth breaks at the Equator
more than at any other latitude. This must be a major factor in the
entire dynamic.
Near the equator, there are two primary
nodes of expansion fracture which are very close to 180 degrees separation:
two Indian Ocean Rift Triple Junctions hugging tightly on Longitude East 70
and two East Pacific Rift Triple Junctions located between Longitudes West
110 and 100, that's a separation of 180 to 170 degrees, opposite sides of
the world. These expansion rift areas are considered to be the most active in
the world today.
Offset from both of these two expansion rifts by about
25-30
degrees of Longitude TOWARDS THE EAST, we find the two most active
north-south compression zones in the world. To the east of the East Pacific
Rise, we find one of the longest compression zones in the world, running
from the Andes chain though the Carib Plate to terminate at the often active
Colima and Popo volcanoes. To the east of the Indian Ocean Rift
we find the the Sumatra Trench which is a major subduction zone of the
Australian-Indian Plates against Eurasia and the Philippine (of Western
Pacific) Plate Frags. The largest quakes in the world from December
2004 to 2007 have been found on these zones, including two 9+ quakes off
Sumatra and one 8+ quake in Peru.
Clearly the greatest tension in the crust
is in those north-south zones. This is exactly what MUST BE if the
vortexian principles of Lunar-Solar induction of tectonic creep is real.
Now the interesting question is, what is
moving against what. Without foreknowledge, using the simplest logic,
one might suppose that the Pacific Plate Frags (Nazca, Cocos, Rivera) are
separating from the East Pacific Rise and are moving the most rapidly
against South America, the Carib, and North America. One would suppose
as well that the Indian or Australian Plates are seperating rapidly from the
Indian Ocean Rift and colliding with Sumatra, which is really part of
Southeastern Eurasia.
In othere words, these ocean plates moving
towards the East.
But they are also moving from the South
aggressively expanding out of Antartica.
said to be moving mainly to the
North. South America said to be moving towards the West.
North America to the west, riding up over
a northward trending ocean bottom.
Where does it get the thrust?
Most likely, from the same vortex
principals, the overall net drift of the greatest portion of crustal mass is
also from west to east. This may be best seen from the perspective of the
Atlantic Great Rift. The Northern
So does the greater portion of Eurasia
above the collission belt of the Causcasis, Himalayas
Western Europe moving the the NE in same
dirction as Arfica
and Australian Plate.
and Indian plates
But Asia is moving to the Southeast, head
on against Pacific Plate and Philippine Plate, which are moving to the
Geodesy comment: this is a very short term database. It is roughly
consistent with a lot of Plate Tectonics
estimates but is not the only game in town and probably is not the final
answer on long term trends and movements
Additionally, for intance, North America has more of a westerly motion and
even somewhat of a souhthwestern motion
in the higher parts of the Rocky Mountain cordillera running to the Yukan
and thence to the West.
New Madrid, St. Lawrence, and the Colorado/Yellowstone zones may be and
probably are important pivot zones of
relative motion. The Cook Inlet zone is another profoundly important pivot
point Hence, wiser to see North America
in greater detail.
How A
Subduction Zone Works
Scientists have composed a digital movie of the Puerto Rican Trench, which
is the deepest zone in the Atlantic, some 8000+ meters at its deepest..
This is most likely the subduction zone on which Edgar Cayce's Atlantis
floundered and sank as its leading western edge subducted under the
Carib Plate. A great article on the sunken beaches and lagoons found
on the sides of this "trench" is reviewed in the Return of the Phoenix.
Go take a look in a simulated "dive" through the Puerto Rico Trench on the
Northeastern Edge of the Carib Plate. The movie is short and
worth a quick peek. As you view it, the left side is the Carib Plate,
the right side may be part of the sunken island empire of Atlantis.
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/puerto_rico_trench.html
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/diveanimations.html
Both plates are currently moving towards the left (which is be crudely close
to west by northwest). The plate on the right side is moving more
rapidly than the left. Bird et al indicate approximately, C = 10,
Atlantic = 25 Visualize the right side thus being forced to plow under
the left side. Slowly it does, crumpling and lifting up the left edge.
Puerto Rico is the result.
Can you visualize those high peaks on the Atlantic side plunging under the
Carib Size? Gradually they do.
Ocean
Sediments - Another Clue To The Mystery Of Tectonic Motion
Click On This For
Large Version
Image Source: U.S. NOAA
Geophysical Data Center:
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/sedthick9.jpg
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