NCGT Issue 50 March 2009 PDF

New Concepts in Global Tectonics NEWSLETTER
No. 50, March, 2009 ISSN: 1833-2560 Editor: Dong R. CHOI (editor@ncgt.org)
Editorial board
Ismail BHAT, India (bhatmi@hotmail.com); Peter JAMES, Australia (pmjgeotech@yahoo.com.au); Leo MASLOV, Russia (ms_leo@hotmail.com); Cliff OLLIER, Australia (cliffol@cyllene.uwa.edu.au); Nina PAVLENKOVA, Russia (ninapav@ifz.ru); David PRATT, Netherlands (davidpratt05@cs.com); Giancarlo SCALERA, Italy (scalera@ingv.it); N. Christian SMOOT, USA (christiansmoot532@gmail.com); Karsten STOREDVEDT, Norway (Karsten@gfi.uib.no); Yasumoto SUZUKI, Japan (yasu-suzuki@vega.ocn.ne.jp); Boris I. VASILIEV, Russia (tesla@poi.dvo.ru)
www.ncgt.org
________________________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS
From the Editor We have come a long way and made great achievements!.........2 Letters to the Editor Censorship at 33 IGC, Colin LAING..................................................................................................................................3 NCGT symposium proposal, Richard BOULAY4 Earthquake precursors in northwestern Apennines, Italy, Valentino STRASER4 Global volcanism and oceanization, V.V. ORLENOK.......................................................................................................6 Articles Geoid tectonics, Chapter 4. State of stress in the Earths crust, Peter M. JAMES8
The often quoted explanation of erosion to account for high horizontal stresses at shallow depths is demonstrated to be fallacious: tectonic effects are necessary and these result from geoid stresses associated with polar wonder. Insitu stress measurements, mining experience and reservoir induced seismicity reveal that the Earth crust is in a state of incipient failure.
Does cosmological expansion exist in smaller scale? Volkmar MUELLER18

The coincidences among calculated values close to Hubble constant involve the possible expansion of the Earth, the anomalous redshift of space probes travelling beyond the solar system, and other seemingly unrelated processed.
On universal tectonic trends of rotating celestial bodies (supertectonics), Gennary G. KOCHEMASOV..............23

The globular shape of rotating celestial bodies means that their tropical and extra-tropical belts have significantly different angular momenta. To achieve balance between opposing forces bodies tend to diminish radius and mass in the tropics and increase them outside the tropics.
Stress distribution in continental margins and intraplate seismisity, Lev A. MASLOV...35

Using Coulombs law and the energy of deformation as the materials critical state criteria, areas of critical state of the material were calculated. The analysis of deep geophysical section in the Asia-Pacific continental margin reveals a remarkable correspondence between the calculate stresses, gravitational, heat flow, magnetic anomalies, seismological/electrical models.
Geology and tectonic development of the Pacific Ocean. Part 5. Global low gravity-belt: an outer ring of the Great Pacific Ring Structure, Dong R. CHOI and Nina PAVLENKOVA..46
A broad, globe-encircling low-gravity belt runs from Siberia, through India, Australia, Antarctica, Brazil to Canada. The belt forms tectonically stable Archean shields and is underlain by fast mantle which extends to the core-mantle boundary.
Geopolitical Corner Open letter to International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS)....55 Reply from the President of IUGS..56 33IGC Oslo NCGT session paper abstracts57 Publications Trans-Asiatic lineaments and Himalayan Orogeny, V. RAIVERMAN............................................................................70 Global lineaments: Application of digital terrain modelling, Igor V. FLORINSKY................71 Tectonics, deep structure, metallogeny of the Central Asian-Pacific belt junction area, L. P. KARSAKOV et al..71 Distribution of ancient and continental rocks in the Atlantic Ocean, Takao YANO...72 Global volcanism and the Earth oceanization, V.V. ORLENOK.73 Lysenkoism and global warming, Cliff OLLIER.78 Obituary John Grover, Charles GROVER, Stephanie GROVER GREENIDGE and John MCROBERTS......81
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For contact, correspondence, or inclusion of material in the Newsletter please use the following methods: NEW CONCEPTS IN GLOBAL TECTONICS. 1. E-mail: editor@ncgt.org, ncgt@ozemail.com.au, or ncgt@hotmail.com, each file less than 5 megabytes; 2. Fax (small amount of material): +61-2-6254 4409; 3. Mail, air express, etc., 6 Mann Place, Higgins, ACT 2615, Australia (files in MS Word format, and figures in jpg or tif format); 4. Telephone, +61-2-6254 4409. DISCLAIMER: The opinions, observations and ideas published in this newsletter are the responsibility of the contributors and do not necessary reflect those of the Editor and the Editorial Board. NCGT Newsletter is a quarterly international online journal and appears in March, June, September and December.
New Concepts in Global Tectonics Newsletter, no. 50, March, 2009
FROM THE EDITOR

We have come a long way and made great achievements!!
he first issue of the NCGT Newsletter was published in December 1996. Since then, it has appeared every three months. The present issue is the 50th, which means the Newsletter is now celebrating its golden jubilee! The NCGT group had less than 10 members when we founded it at the 28 IGC Beijing in August 1996. The core members soon jumped to 50 and a few years later to 500. Since the journal moved online from issue no. 40, Sep. 2006, the number of readers has rapidly increased, and today we boast several thousand. The establishment of the Editorial board and a peer review system in December 2005 enabled us to enhance the quality of the articles. In the last 12 years, the journal has published 205 articles, or about four articles per issue. Our journal currently enjoys a high reputation in geological circles; as one of our regular readers aptly put it: The NCGT Newsletter has evolved into a formidable journal! The rapid increase in the number of people abandoning plate tectonics is a strong sign that we have started to influence geological thinking. In the last 12 years the NCGT group has organized seven international conferences and symposia: IGC30 (Beijing, 1996), Tsukuba Symposium (Japan, 1998), Colorado Symposium (USA, 2002), IGC32 (Italy, 2004) and post-congress symposium (Urbino, 2004), AAPG European meeting (Athens, 2006), and IGC33 Oslo (2008). IGC34 will take place in Brisbane in 2012. Another conference is being organized in Canada in 2010, which will be announced shortly. We will keep publishing indisputable hard data from the real Earth. We will stick to the policy that field data are the mother of geology, and continue to pursue the aims of the NCGT group. Some of the key findings reported in the Newsletter are: 1) ancient continental rocks are present under the basalts in the deep oceans; 2) Earth surface structures have deep roots extending to the core-mantle boundary; 3) the present-day deep oceans have formed since the Mesozoic; and 4) vertical block movements prevail in the mantle and crust. Readers are encouraged to study these findings and their implications for the contending models of the Earth. It would be healthy to see more debate in the pages of the Newsletter.
However, the path has not been smooth. As pioneers, we have had to go through trials and tribulations. The latest example was seen at the 33IGC Oslo when the congress organizers resorted to blatant interference and meddling. Our Open Letter to the IUGS and their reply are included in this issue. The Oslo organizers have not yet responded to us (25 Mar. 2009). We will continue to expose and document every attempt at ideological suppression. In the last twelve years we have lost some of our most valuable leaders and prominent scientists, including Mac Dickins, Yukinori Fujita, Igor Rezanov, and John Grover. We will always remember them, and will continue our battle to achieve the aims to which they themselves devoted their lives. Our goal is to create a robust geodynamic model of the Earth, not simply to oppose plate tectonics or to pursue our pet ideas. For this purpose we need to work together -- a multidisciplinary team effort is required, and most importantly we have to remain open-minded. Before the next jubilee issue, no. 100 in June 2020, I believe great progress will have been made in developing alternative geodynamic models. Lastly I would like to express my most sincere thanks to our editorial members and other enthusiastic supporters who have selflessly sacrificed their precious time, money and energy for the continuing success of our journal and the advancement of geological science.
******************** Advice for authors: The NCGT receives many manuscripts written in such poor English that they are barely comprehensible. It is a difficult and time-consuming task to assess whether they merit publication and to turn them into reasonable English. We would urge all non-English-speaking authors with little knowledge of English to have their articles translated into English by a professional translator or at least to have them checked by somebody with a good command of English before submitting them to the Newsletter. This is in the interests of authors and readers alike.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor am concerned to read in your editorial of NCGT 49 that there is continued opposition and censorship regarding any matters that question the concept of plate tectonics. I have raised this matter in my submission to the Australian Parliamentary Committee on Higher Education. The matter is very serious. We may be approaching the situation that was caused in China by the incursion of the Mongols causing the drying up of innovation in China in the 15th century; and a similar drying up of scientific thought in the Arab world about the same time. The matter of majority acceptance by academic geologists in plate tectonics without apparent debate is extremely serious and their failure to consider alternatives to plate tectonics or to realise that the idea of fixing former pole positions by present day magnetic observations is fundamentally flawed (Laing, 1998). I am convinced after 59 years as a working geologist that the earth in the long term is shrinking and cooling. This is shown by three factors as follows:1] No icecaps at the South Pole before the Palaeocene, and none at the North Pole before the Pleistocene 2] A study by Lyttleton and Bondi (1992) on the date of Chinese eclipses which indicated a change in the moment of inertia of the Earth. This indicated that the Earth is shrinking. This shrinking is the cause of the rock folding and faulting in the Earths crust Laing (1978). 3] Studies by Laing (1964, 1978 & 2001) on folding intensity in Australasia indicating that the degree of folding and consequent crustal shortening varies with the age of the rocks and their distance from the Pacific Margin. Unfortunately no one has done the same type of analysis elsewhere in the world. The consequence of the acceptance of plate tectonics by a majority of academic geologists and attempted censorship of alternatives is extremely serious because that acceptance has extended into popular culture and into the global warming debate. If it is accepted as I do that the Earth long term is shrinking and cooling then the consequences of the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are not as serious. The Antarctic ice cap and the Greenland ice caps will partially melt cooling the sea which will increase the absorption of carbon dioxide into the sea. The idea that it will substantially raise the pH of the sea only comes from those who have never studied carbon dioxide water reactions. We will have sea level increases and disruptions in weather patterns caused by changes in major sea currents. But this does not spell imminent disaster for the Earth. As they did in the Ice Ages fauna and flora will shift to adjust for climate change and human populations will adjust to rising sea levels as did the Dutch. The global warming will cause increased evaporation from the sea and consequently increased rainfall on land. The consequence of the Earth cooling and shrinking in the long term puts the concept of global warming in a different context. It appears that the gradual cooling of the Earth brought the effect of the Milancovitch cycles into play, the variation in the Earths orbit around the sun causing the Ice ages. The global warming caused by the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will merely reduce or ameliorate the next Ice Age.
References Laing, A.C.M., 1964. Tectonic Patterns in Australia and New Zealand particularly in the Permian. 37th ANZAAS Conference. Laing, A.C.M., 1978. Crustal shortening in the Australasian Plate. 25th International Geological Conference and Bulletin 1 Australasian Geological Institute1978 Laing, A.C.M., 1998. The Myth of Plate Tectonics. NCGT Newsletter, no. 6, p. 14-24. Laing, A.C.M., 2001. Tectonic Papers. Published A.C.M. Laing ISBN 0-958517-01-0 Lyttleton, R.A. and Bondi, H., 1992. How plate tectonics may appear to a physicist. Journ. British Astron. Assoc., v. 102, no. 4, p. 194-195.
NCGT Symposium proposal

Dear Editor,
n his letter to NCGT no. 49 (December 2008), Peter James invited suggestions for an independent symposium on New Global Tectonics. I assume that the usual high standards of the NCGT editorial board will apply to the content of any new symposium and that all relevant and reasoned views will be accommodated, whatever the conclusions of the speaker. Consequently, I restrict my suggestion to the matters of venue and marketing. In order to attract a wider audience than the usual gang and to increase the economic prospects of the symposium it should be held in tandem, perhaps including a one day overlap with an existing symposium or conference. My orientation is economic rather than academic and I think a link with a mining industry geology conference would inject some fresh air into the proceedings. Possible candidates would include the Prospectors and Developers Conference (PDAC) in Toronto in March (over 20,000 attendees) or the Round-Up in Vancouver in January (over 7,000 attendees). There are other mining conferences as well as geology and hydrocarbon conferences that would surely be suitable for consideration. The strategy is to independently attach to industry conferences for the exposure, the marketing synergy and to avoid academic interference either directly or through industry tentacles. The March PDAC conference is held in a large city and attracts thousands of international visitors including geological survey representatives from about 20 mining nations. It begins on a Sunday, inviting consideration of a Saturday-Sunday overlap. The January Round-Up, beginning on a Monday and extending through Thursday is already overlapped by the preceding two day Cambridge Mining Investor conference which is held on Sunday and Monday. Vancouvers facilities are excellent, the city is stunningly beautiful and it would be possible to overlap the Cambridge show with a Saturday and Sunday symposium or, dare I suggest a double overlap of both conferences by holding a Sunday-Monday symposium. In general, the overlap should be at the beginning of the other conference to avoid conference burnout of potential registrants. There is a time for paranoia and it is now. The organization of the dates, venue and other logistics should be made by NCGT symposium organizers and made independently of any conference neighbours. The reason is obvious as evidenced by the nasty meddling at the recent Oslo conference. Happily, it would only be a matter of selecting a compatible and nearby venue, since all of the NCGT attendees will likely elect to attend the other contemporaneous conference and will be able to access accommodations and other travel related services through the other conference registration website. There is another marketing aspect to this suggestion. It would be possible at reasonable cost to host an NCGT booth at the other conference to promote NCGT itself and to gather attendee information for future conferences. This initiative would allow some effective cross promotion without surrendering programming or venue control. Perhaps recommendations for other venues and conferences could be thrown into the mix before the feasibility of this suggestion is considered. Richard Boulay, Calgary, Canada rickboulay@shaw.ca ******************* Earthquake precursors in northwestern Appenines Dear Editor,
n NCGT Newsletter no. 43, Arun Bapat explained the Seismo-Electro-Magnetic theory and referred to a few seismic precursory signs observed on the occasion of recent earthquakes, such as increases in the surface temperature of what would be the epicentre area and the growing number of medical examinations and admissions to hospital on the days preceding the seismic shock.
The seismic swarm which recently occurred on the North-Western side of the Apennines in Italy offered the possibility of testing the coincidence between the earthquake itself and the seismic precursors, which included the appearance of abnormal light phenomena in the atmosphere. The main shock (M = 5.1) occurred on 23 December 2008 and was followed, in the following weeks, by a swarm with magnitudes often above M 3. The area is said to have a low seismic hazard, yet mild earthquakes usually occur every year within a 50-km radius. The event of December 2008 was absolutely exceptional for the North-Western Apennines. Luckily there were no fatalities, but damage amounted to over 100 million euros. According to the authors study (the theory is a new one and is proposed for the first time in this document), stronger earthquakes (above M 4) have quite a regular recurrence which, for this area, corresponds to 12-year intervals: 1886, 1898, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1971, 1983 (see: Petrucci, F., Careggio, M. and Conti, A., 1996. Dinamica dei versanti e della pianura della Provincia di Parma. LAteneo Parmense, Acta Naturalia, v. 32, p. 1-39), 1995, 1996, 2007 and 2008. Therefore, after the severe earthquakes of 1995 and 1996, a prediction was made for the years 2007 and 2008 and, consequently, after the earthquake of 30 July 2007 (M= 4.2) another seismic shock was predicted for the following year. Early in the morning (about 6.10 am) on 6 December 2008, a bright light appeared over a wide area of the North-Western Apennines. The event, markedly different from the ones recorded by the author in NCGT Newsletter no. 44, was rather comparable to those described with reference to the Kobe-Japan earthquake (Tsukuda T., 1997. Sizes and some features of luminous sources associated with the 1995 Hyogo-Ken Nambu earthquake. Jour. Phys. Earth, p. 73-82) and the one in Saguenay, Canada (St-Laurent, F., 2000. The Saguenay Quebec Earthquake Lights of November 1998, January 1999, Seismological Research Letters, v. 71, no. 2, p. 160-174) and was the precursory sign of a forthcoming severe seismic shock. The temperature inversions recorded during the following days in the area where the luminous source (EQLs) had been seen (only a few kilometres from what would be the swarm area), confirmed that heavy stress was accumulating in the subsurface. Measurements showed thermal variations of about 6 C (measurements were taken with the support of Protezione Civile Italiana from Parma, and were intended to monitor the seismic hazard on the north-western side of the Italian Apennines) and thus revealed readings similar to the ones indicated by Bapat for the Kashmir earthquake (8 October 2005, with temperature variations ranging between 6 and 10C). After the main shock (which occurred at UTC 15:24, with a hypocentre located by Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia at the intersection of coordinates 44.519o E and 10.382o N at a depth of about 27 km) and the following tremors, figures were recorded for hospital admissions in a small town of about 10,000 inhabitants, 20 km away from the epicentre, in December 2008. As can be inferred from the diagram, the correlation between emergencies/admissions to the Casualty Ward and the earthquakes in December 2008 is really remarkable. Diagrams show that the increase in medical examinations and hospital admission is markedly above the average in the two to three days preceding the seismic shock, as well as on the occurrence of the luminous phenomenon, which was also reported in local papers. Both the earthquakes and the luminous phenomenon which occurred before seismicity seem to be closely related to the electromagnetic field variations and their frequency which, as Bapat and other authors suggest, can affect the biological activity of sensitive people. The diagram, which shows the number of patients in December 2008 and the earthquakes, does not include such days as 8 December (a holy day) and Christmas holidays 2008. The peak that, according to the diagram, corresponds to 9 December 2008, can be said to be only apparently an abnormal value. As a matter of fact, since December 8 is a holiday, hospital admissions, apart from emergencies, were postponed to the following day. The peak therefore represents the addition of two days, viz. 8 and 9 December 2008. The figure M=1 (6 December 2008) stands for the luminous event and does not indicate a seismic magnitude. To complete the information, it is worth pointing out that in November 2008 there were 240 patients, compared to 282 in December (seismic swarm) and 89 in the first half of January 2009.
6,00 5,00 4,00 3,00 2,00 1,00 0,00 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 December, 2008 31 1 3 5 7 9
Magnitude
50 45 40 35 Patients 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 December, 2008 31 1 3 5 7 9
Valentino STRASER fifurnio@tiscali.it ********************
Global volcanisms and the Earth oceanization

Dear Editor,
believe you have received by now two copies of my book, Global volcanism and the Earth oceanization (see the Publications section of this issue Editors note).
As you can see from this monograph, a lot of fundamental problems in modern science have been solved, in particular: 1. It establishes that oceanization processes started at the Mesozoic-Cenozoic boundary.
2. It provides the first numerical determinations of endogenously produced water and photolytic losses (dissipation of the Earths hydrosphere). 3. It determines the photolysis constant as a function of the area of a sea basin and the temperature of the Earths photosphere 4. It establishes that the volume and mass of the water produced on the Earths surface have not been constant throughout geological history, as claimed by modern science. Its dissipation limits the lifetime of the ocean basins on the Earth and other planets to a few tens of millions of years. The age of the present oceans is 65 million years but they will not last longer than another 200 millions years. So, the conception of its Precambrian existence is not scientifically grounded, just like plate tectonics present reconstructions of plate movements in the oceans. 5. It establishes that during the Earths history there were two epochs of global volcanism - Katarhean (Early Archean) (4.0x109 ) and Cenozoic (65x106). In the initial epoch of volcanism a sialic layer was formed in the Earths crust with a 10 km thickness along with a shallow ocean on half of the terrestrial surface. The modern world arose in the Cenozoic era. During the huge time period between them, volcanism was very weak, regional and spotty. The source of the initial volcanism was short-life isotopes which saturated the dust-gas nebulae towards the end of planetary accretion. Their lifetime was 106 to 108 years and this everywhere led to a similar timespan for the initial volcanism on the Earth and other planets. 6. It critically examines an old physics of the Suns evolution and proves that its permanent luminosity for 5.6 billions years has not been co-ordinated with the main geological events in Precambrian and Phanerozoic history. From the end of the Katarhean till the early Phanerozoic the cool Sun had low luminosity and there were low temperatures and severe conditions, with weak moistening in the Earth. That considerably hampered the evolution of a biosphere. The facts given above are enough for western readers to understand that further speculative plate tectonic reconstructions will remain valid for dilettanti only. Sincerely yours, V.V. Orlenok orlenok@albertina.ru
ARTICLES
CHAPTER 4 GEOID TECTONICS: STATE OF STRESS IN THE EARTHS CRUST
Peter JAMES Consulting Engineering Geologist, Australia pmjgeotech@yahoo.com.au
Abstract: The Principle of Effective Stress can be demonstrated to be valid to depths of tens of kilometers, allowing vertical stresses to be calculated at least to the Moho. The often quoted explanation of erosion to account for high horizontal stresses at shallow depths is demonstrated to be fallacious; tectonic effects are necessary and these result from geoid stresses associated with polar wander. Insitu stress measurements, mining experience and reservoir induced seismicity reveal that the crust of the earth is often in a state of incipient failure. Keywords: effective stress, vertical stress, horizontal stress origin, crustal failure(s)
Introduction n situ stress conditions in the uppermost levels of the Earths crust directly influence civil and mining engineering works. At deeper levels, the state of stress produces earthquakes and other deformations such as jointing, faulting, rifting and orogeny. The discipline of rock mechanics deals with the superficial levels of the crust but, in order to develop a quantitative model to study geological processes, it is necessary to establish a similar type of framework for the analysis of stresses at depth, at least to the base of the crust. This requires some criteria to deal both with the origin of the stresses and with the way these stresses are imposed on the crust, whether it be in regions of stable crust or in regions undergoing deformation.
The vertical component of stress is reasonably predictable and typically close to the overburden loading, but wide variations occur in the horizontal component, ranging from values lower than the vertical to values many times the vertical. The origin of these variable horizontal stresses needs to be clarified since, if wrong assumptions are made about this aspect, predictions based on such wrong assumptions are also likely to be in error. Once the stress conditions are clarified, it will then be appropriate to develop a model for the shear strength of rocks at great depth. To do this, a model needs to be based on established principles of the mechanics of natural materials and reference will be made to the principles used in everyday geotechnical engineering. One of the surprising points that will emerge from this approach is the realisation that the crust of the Earth is frequently in a state of incipient failure. 4. 1 The Principle of Effective Stress One of the corner stones of geotechnical engineering is the principle of effective stress. Simply put, this states that the deformation of natural materials (either in compression, tension, or shear) depends not on the total applied stress (loading) but on the total stress less the fluid pressure in the voids or cracks within the mass. This principle was first stated by Karl Terzaghi, the father of geotechnical engineering and it is known by daily confirmation - to work in the civil or mining engineering levels of stress. Uncertainty about its applicability at higher stress levels and/or in hard rocks has sometimes been expressed in geological literature but the confusion has normally been the result of the testing conditions used in the laboratory, and this will be discussed later. Early in the development of geomechanics1 a convincing experiment was carried out at Cambridge to test the principle of effective stress to moderately high stress levels. A loading system was set up for use on lead shot, so that both the total load on the pellets and the pressure of the water in the voids between the pellets could be
The term geomechanics is an amalgam of the initial term soil (or rock) mechanics with geotechnology. It has been criticized for combining both Greek and Latin roots but appears to have come to stay and will be used frequently throughout the book.
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varied and measured independently. Lead shot was chosen for the experiment since the area of contact between individual pellets could be physically measured at certain stages, in order to arrive at the average inter-pellet, or inter-granular stress. Loadings up to 1 x 105 kPa were used, equivalent to the effective stresses at some 6 km depth in the crust. At this stress level, the lead shot became so deformed that 95% of the full contact area between pellets was achieved. That is, the lead shot was transformed from individual grains almost into solid lead. By varying both the loadings and the pressure of water in the voids during the experiment, and by measuring the areas of contact between pellets at specific stages, it was conclusively demonstrated that deformation under load, or compressibility, depended not on the total applied loadings, nor on the area of contact between pellets, but purely on the difference between the total applied load and the pressure of water in the voids of the lead shot: that is, compressibility depended only on the effective stress. The readily deformable lead shot became almost solid under pressures of 1 x 105 kPa. Somewhat greater pressures could be anticipated for closing up the pores in a hard rock. For example, narrow cracks in a sandstone or basalt, with a modest Youngs Modulus of E = 1000 bars2, could require loadings of the order of 1 x 107 kPa to achieve closure. Neglecting temperature effects on rock strength for the moment, this implies a vertical stress level of hundreds of kilometres beneath the surface of the Earth. This, of course, is an oversimplification but what might be expected is that cracks and pores will be present in hard rocks to considerable depths. Moreover, since the cracks and pores in the rocks will contain fluids under various pressures, we have a situation that should be amenable to analysis using the principle of effective stress. Some direct confirmation of this comes from the study of reservoir induced seismicity, where indications are that the principle works to depths of at least 12 15 km. The analysis of deeper earthquakes also suggests that the principle has applicability to far greater depths. These matters are treated in Chapter 8 As mentioned above, some hesitancy about the use of effective stress for hard rocks, at moderately deep levels on the crust, has been expressed in the geological literature, Heard (1963). This hesitancy typically stems from simulated testing in the laboratory. Practical reasons dictate that testing is carried out at rates that are excessively fast for hard rocks. A triaxial shear test on a clay with a permeability of 1 x 10-7 cm/sec requires something like a week to come to failure, if any reasonable measurement of pore pressures (or dissipation of pore pressures) is to be achieved. This pore pressure factor is of utmost importance if effective stress conditions are to be realised and, unless this parameter is accurately determined, the results of testing can be little better than meaningless. Now, the permeability of a hard rock tends to be much lower than that of a clay: of the order of 1 x 10-14 cm/sec compared with 1 x 10-7 cm/sec for a clay. Thus, a shear test on a specimen of hard rock would need to be run a million times slower if meaningful shear strength parameters of the rock are to be obtained. No researcher can afford to wait that length of time for his/her results. Tests on hard rock have therefore tended to be made at the slowest rates practicable, which end up as being far too high to give parameters in terms of effective stress. The interpretations of such tests then have to be made in ignorance of what the actual pore pressure conditions are along the plane(s) of incipient failure, or along planes of crack propagation. As a result, conflicting and confusing parameters can be expected and, indeed, are obtained. It should be mentioned that this argument does not apply to rapid undrained tests or unconfined compression tests on rock specimens. However, the use of compression strengths alone does not allow for any predictive assessments of strengths at depth, particularly where failure takes place along discontinuities in the rock mass. In normal geological processes, rates of deformation appear to be more compatible with rock permeability. For a collision zone, a hundred kilometres wide and deforming at the respectable rate of several centimetres per year, the rate of strain would be around 1 x 10-14 cm/cm/sec, which is more in keeping with the conditions necessary for the rocks to behave in accordance with the principle of effective stress.
A value more like 5 x 105 bars would be more appropriate for such rocks.
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4.2 Stresses in the Earths Crust Vertical Stresses In its simplest form, the principle of effective stress for vertical stresses within the crust can be written as = n u (1) n effective total pore stress stress pressure In general, reliable insitu stress measurements in stable geological areas indicate that the vertical stress lies within about 10% of the calculated overburden pressure. That is, the vertical stress can be taken as the loading due to a vertical column of the super-incumbent material. This is logical. If the insitu stresses at depth were greater than the weight of overburden, the crust would be uplifted, and vice versa. Thus, we can confidently assume for most situations that the vertical (total) stress is given by depth times average density. Data on pore pressures at depth are scanty. Deep boreholes have revealed that the pore pressure can fluctuate markedly, even within single lithological units. For a stable geological environment, however, one could anticipate an average pore pressure gradient that lies reasonably close to the hydrostatic condition. That is, the pore pressure at any depth would equal the depth by the density of water. The water table obviously need not stand at the ground surface but for any reasonable depth in the crust there is no loss of accuracy to assume that it does. Both total pressures and pore pressures for such conditions are shown in Figure 4.1 and, under these conditions, Equation (1) can now be written for any depth, D: v where and D w u = = = = = .D w. D depth general rock density density of water w.D; v (2)
.D
The effective stress at the base of a bimodal crust (the Moho) can now be obtained by inserting the relevant depths and densities. For continental areas, with a crust extending to, say, 35 km depth v = 5.5 x 105 kPa For oceanic crust, say 6 km depth 'v = 1.0 x 105 kPa Horizontal Stresses Horizontal stresses in the crust are more difficult to predict; indeed, except in idealised, undisturbed, sedimentary sequences, typically impossible. In the past, earth scientists relied on what was referred to as Heims Rule, which stated that, at depth, stresses in rocks tend towards the hydrostatic state: that is, the horizontal stress tends to come to equilibrium with the vertical. This view is still stated in many textbooks, although the depth at which this equalisation occurs is unclear. Without stress differentials, however, it would become extremely difficult to explain the occurrence of shallow and intermediate earthquakes.
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Figure 4.1. Gradients for vertical stress and (hydrostatic) pore pressure in the Earths crust.
Another explanation often favoured for high horizontal stresses is the erosion factor. In one takes the situation of recently deposited sediment that has not been subject to any erosion cycle or any major fluctuation in water table, the effective vertical stress at any depth in such a sediment would never have been exceeded in the past. This condition in argillaceous sediment is termed normally consolidated and the horizontal stress in such a situation is given theoretically by the relationship: h where = = v . /(1-) Poissons Ratio (3)
For an incompressible material, Poissons Ratio is 0.5, but this does not apply to sediments undergoing consolidation. For most rocks, a value of Poissons Ration only marginally in excess of 0.2 0.25 is typical. Putting this value in the above equation would indicate that the horizontal stresses in an undisturbed sediment should be something like a quarter to a third of the vertical stresses. If, however, there has been an erosion cycle (or, indeed, large fluctuations in the water table) this normally consolidated condition changes and an argillaceous sediment would then be termed over-consolidated; that is, it has been squashed down by greater vertical loadings in the past, than the loading it presently supports. Now, as overlying material is removed, one could expect the vertical stresses within the sediment to reduce in proportion to the amount of removal. However, as the sediment is semi-infinite laterally, the horizontal stresses tend to remain locked in at their maximum value. If the erosion cycle removes enough superincumbent material, the vertical stresses can be reduced to a level below that of the horizontal stress, especially near the surface. But there might be complicating factors. In a sediment of any age, it is not possible to say just how much of the high horizontal stress has been caused by the erosion cycle and how much by some form of tectonic stress. But some sense can be made of this matter The London Clay (Eocene) is an overconsolidated clay with horizontal stresses typically recorded as two to three times the vertical. At the end of the depositional period of the London Clay, and that of subsequent
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younger deposits, the vertical stress on an element of the clay would be given by the final depth times density, vi. The associated horizontal stress, hi, would be a quarter to a third of this. hi = say, 0.25 vi
There follows an erosion cycle and the vertical stress is radically reduced to a new value of vii but the horizontal stress remains pretty well at its maximum value. In London Clay, this maximum horizontal value is taken to be some two to three times the present day vertical value. That is, the original vertical and present horizontal values are now related by: hi = 2 - 3 vii The maximum vertical loading on the element is thus given by substitution: vi = 10 vii approximately In other words, the original depth of sediment above the element in question was, at some time in the past, ten times the present depth. If the insitu stress measurement was taken at 20m depth, then one would assume that some 200m of sediment had been removed from above the present land surface of the London basin. If the measurement was taken at 40m depth, the depth of sediment removed comes to 400 m. But the geology of the London basin has been relatively stable since Jurassic times and the possibility of there having been an additional 400m of sediments above the present land surface can not really be justified. Hence, one would have to conclude that horizontal tectonic forces have played a part in the high horizontal stress within the London Clay. This is not unexpected. On the Isle of Wight (Englands south coast), there is a large monoclinal structure in the beds younger than the London Clay, indicating that there have been tectonic compressive stresses in this region since the deposition of the London Clay. The erosion cycle argument becomes more unrealistic for an older and relatively undisturbed basin such as the Sydney basin. This is characterised by the massive Hawkesbury Sandstone of Triassic Age: flat-lying for the most part and relatively undisturbed. Figure 4.2a provides insitu stress measurements in the basin published by Enever and Lee (2000). At a depth of, say, 250 m the measured horizontal stresses are some six times the vertical. In order to produce this high locked-in horizontal stress, through erosion, a similar calculation to that above would require something like the removal of twenty times the depth at which the insitu stress measurement was made: in this instance, 5,000 m. The measured horizontal stresses do not increase greatly below 250 m but if one takes conditions at 1,000m depth, where they are just over twice the vertical, the erosion hypothesis would imply that 6,000 m of material has been removed from the area. This magnitude of deposition and removal may occur in a geosyncline-to-fold-mountain cycle, but is out of the question for a relatively undisturbed basin, such as the Sydney basin, where there is no evidence of overlying younger sequences of that thickness.
Figure 4.2. Insitu stress measurements: a) Sydney Basin; b) Bowen Basin
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The same exercise can be done for the relatively undisturbed Bowen Basin, in Central Queensland, Figure 4.2b again taken from Enever and Lee (ibid). The rocks of the Bowen Basin consist largely of Triassic mudstones and siltstones, with some coal seams. Horizontal stresses here exceed the vertical again and there are low angle faults in the basin, indicating that failure has resulted from past compression. The sediments are nonetheless flat lying for the most part and give the appearance of being little disturbed. If the erosion hypothesis were applied here, to account for the horizontal stress condition, some 3,000 m of material would be required to have been eroded from above the basin. Again, there is no geological evidence to suggest that this could have been possible. The conclusion must therefore be made that high horizontal stresses measured insitu are typically the result of tectonic forces, not some erosion cycle. As an aside, the authors of the paper from which these figures were taken did explain the horizontal stresses as tectonic, but as a consequence of compression of the Australian plate following its collision with Papua New Guinea. A simple analysis reveals that this mobile plate tectonics view is as invalid as the erosion cycle view. The mobile plate tectonics framework requires lithospheric plates to be rigid. Under such conditions, the horizontal stress difference between the two basins, of the order of 2 x 104 kPa, should be causing horizontal compression. Assuming a Youngs Modulus for hard rock in the upper parts of the plate, this stress difference would produce a shortening of several kilometres between Sydney and Bowen, with the movement still in progress, but no deformations characteristic of this sort of compression have been recorded. For reasons set out later, it is believed that the stress condition in each geological region or basin is a discrete condition related to that basin only. The above has treated only high horizontal stress conditions, but very low horizontal stresses are sometimes measured in deep tunnels and underground power houses. Values of half the vertical stress are not readily accommodated by the erosion cycle hypothesis except perhaps beneath very high ridges that have been subject to deep erosion on either flank. In the past, these values have more often than not been dismissed as due to instrument error. However, the explanation for these simply lies in the application of tectonic tensile stresses on the rock mass, as set out in the next section. If tensile tectonic forces were to be applied to a sediment that has previously been subjected to compressive tectonic forces, the outcome is likely to be complex. Before moving on to the origin of these variable horizontal stresses, it is worthwhile looking at some further interpretations that can be made of the stress patterns shown on Figures 4.2. The manner in which the horizontal stresses fall off in the uppermost few hundred metres, in both basins, suggests some form of stress release. Here, we might allow for a small amount of erosion to have taken place, in the interests of simplifying the analysis. Let us assume one or two hundred metres of erosion has taken place and that this has reduced the vertical stress accordingly. Near the surface, this vertical stress reduction imposes increasing shear stresses on the rock mass, subject as it is to a high horizontal stress. When the shear stress increases sufficiently, partial failure occurs in the rock mass, either by jointing, or by small thrusts etc. The shear stress is relieved by this until further erosion produces the same effect. The situation can be illustrated in terms of Mohr circles. This type of analysis is explained in most fundamental textbooks on geomechanics and is not described herein. Mohr circles can be drawn here for the horizontal-vertical stress at a number of depths in the Sydney Basin, Figure 4.3. The insitu tests give total stress and it is necessary to present the results in terms of effective stress. This is a simple matter of displacing the Mohr circles to the left, by the value of the estimated pore pressure at any particular level. The dotted circles in the figures are in terms of effective stress for a hydrostatic distribution of pore pressure with depth.
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Figure 4.3. Insitu stress conditions, Sydney Basin, plotted as Mohr circles
The line through the tangents to the effective stress circles represents a failure or quasi-failure envelope for the rock mass and its inclination gives the angle of friction (shearing resistance) of the rock mass in the horizontal direction. For the generally massive sandstones forming the bulk of the Sydney Basin, the angle of shearing resistance so obtained is approximately 55. If a similar exercise is done for the mudstones/siltstones of the Bowen Basin, an angle of shearing resistance of about 32 is obtained. Both are reasonable rock mass values for the respective lithologies. Of more interest to the geological situation is the fact that the rock mass in the upper few hundred metres exists in a state of incipient failure. By inference, one could also postulate that in some regions of the Earth the whole upper crust also exists in a state of incipient failure. When something causes a change in relationship between the insitu horizontal and vertical stresses, the rock mass yields, as in an earthquake. But the yielding does not relieve the shear stresses any more than it needs to and so the state of incipient failure remains. This situation is confirmed by the fact that failures do occur in hard rock masses as the result of only very minor changes in stress. For instance, the floors of open cut mines, in hard rock, have been known to heave, or fracture, when only fifty or a hundred metres of overburden has been removed. The reduction in the vertical stress associated with removal of 100 m of overburden is miniscule in relation to the shear strength of the rock mass and the logical explanation for failure has to be that the rock mass was already on the edge of failure before removal of the overburden. That is, the very small reduction in the vertical stress, through removal of the overburden, was sufficient to increase the insitu shear stress sufficiently to exceed the rock strength. An illustration of how the same principle acts on a larger scale is given by Hilleard (1993). Underground coal mine workings were proceeding nearby a railway viaduct crossing a deep and wide gorge in the Sydney Basin. The workings were outside the restricted zone, with regard to the horizontal distance from the viaduct, but removal of the coal seam removed some of the lateral strutting effect at depth, causing a concentration of the horizontal stresses within the remaining beds. As a result, the sandstone in the base of the gorge heaved, the movement causing minor disruption to the viaduct otherwise it probably would not have been noticed. Again, the implication is that the gorge must have been in a quasi-stable condition before the removal of the coal seam
15
Perhaps the best example of the way the upper crust can exist in a state of incipient failure comes from a study of reservoir induced seismicity (RIS). When a reservoir is impounded behind a dam, it causes a rise in pore pressure in the ambient rock masses. This reduces the insitu effective stresses, but obviously by only a very small amount, displacing the Mohr Circles representing the insitu stresses by a small amount, to the left; that is, towards the rock mass failure envelope. This small shift is so often adequate to set off earthquake activity in the underlying or adjacent rock mass. Typically, RIS does not restrict itself to one earthquake, but a whole swarm of small earthquakes can occur within one area, sometimes followed by a swarm in another area. It seems that while an initial earthquake (failure) relieves the stress situation at its own particular location, it does not relieve the general insitu stress situation. Localised relief merely transfers stress to adjacent zones. This matter will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 8. Origin of Horizontal Stress Where do these variable horizontal stresses originate? Since I have taken the opportunity to criticise most or all of the fundamental aspects of mobile plate tectonics in the Appendix, none of its mechanisms are used below. Instead, all the stresses discussed below are taken to be geoid stresses: the result of polar wander and migration of major geoidal features such as the equatorial bulge and polar flattening, as described in the previous Chapter. To put it another way: geoid migration can only be effected under horizontal stress changes and hence by imposition of shear stresses on the crust. The general patterns of polar wander were discussed in Chapter 2 and it needs to be stated again that all of the various pole positions - shown for, say, periods in the Palaeozoic should be considered as having equal validity. A mobile pole would have its position determined in the rocks of different continents and although these rocks might belong to a recognisable geological period, their ages could well differ by millions or tens of millions of years. In that time, a mobile pole could have travelled across the Atlantic and back. Indeed, all of the paleomagnetic pole positions should be seen as little more than a prcis of what has been going on in terms of polar wander. The general trends indicate that there have been full ninety degree changes in latitude, over time: polar regions have been transformed into equatorial regions and vice versa. On top of the general trends, it needs also to be kept in mind that polar wander is unlikely to have been a direct migration of the pole from one location to another. Some meandering, or circum-location, is likely to have been involved, the sort of behaviour illustrated by Figure 4.4. During the period(s) of oscillation, the associated equatorial alignment would have travelled back and forth across a particular element of crust, bringing about changes both in climate, in sea levels and in the imposed stress conditions. A situation of this type could produce conditions suitable for the cyclic deposition of coal measures, and this topic is considered again later. It is also significant that paleomagnetic results for any one rock sometimes reveal more than one paleo-pole position. The Hawkesbury Sandstone, for instance, has been found to contain several old pole positions, despite its undisturbed appearance. Plate tectonics would perhaps require that the strongest of these be taken as the valid one, but this is to assume that the strongest was the original one. As far as is known by this author, the effect of magnetic imprinting under conditions of high compression is not a matter that has been studied to any degree. Depending on the path of polar wander, and the location of the element of crust under consideration, geoid stresses could be either positive (compressional) or negative (tensional). Each mode of stress imposition will in operation at different locations on the earth and each mode will produce a different set of results on the materials composing the Earths crust. Each mode therefore has to be treated in turn. The effects can not, however, be determined until we have some method of calculating the shear strengths of the crustal materials. But what can be said is that, since the magnitude of the horizontal stress has an upper limit, as given in Chapter 3.1, its effects should fall off with depth. This is shown in Figure 4.5, for the application of the maximum geoid stress available (1.28 x 105 kPa). So, to some extent, the Heim Rule is justifiable. Nonetheless, major differences between the horizontal and vertical stress occur in the crustal regions and, for the moment, we shall concern ourselves with this effect down only as far as the Moho. Other important consequences, for earthquakes, are treated in Chapter 8.
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Figure 4.4. Equatorial oscillations for a pole spiraling in towards its final location. (See Chapter 6.3 for use of this figure in explaining Coal Measures)
REFERENCES Enever, J.R. and Lee, M.F., 2000. On the prediction of rock stress. GeoEng 2000, Inst. Engineers Aust., Melbourne. Heard, H.C., 1963. The effects of large changes in strain rate in the experimental deformation of Yule Marble. Jour. of Geol., v. 71. Hilleard, P.R., 1993. Bedrock movements and failures of the Stanwell Park Railway Viaduct. In, Mcnally, G. et al. (Ed), Collected Case Studies, Engin. Geol., v. 2. James, P.M., 2000. Mechanisms of reservoir induced seismicity. GeoEng 2000, Inst. Engin. Aust., Melbourne.
17
Figure 4.5. Relationship between imposed maximum geoid stress (horizontal) and the increase in vertical stress, with depth.
18
DOES COSMOLOGICAL EXPANSION EXIST ON SMALLER SCALES?

Volkmar MUELLER Observatory Crimmitschau, 08451, Germany (retired) volkmar_mueller@hotmail.com
Editors note: This paper was controversial and generated a lot of discussions among reviewers and the author. Some of the reviewers comments are attached at the end of the paper. Abstract: In different branches of science, values are calculated that are close to the Hubble constant in both magnitude and units. These coincidences involve the possible expansion of the Earth, the anomalous redshift of space probes travelling beyond the solar system, and other seemingly unrelated processes. If these were truly coincidences, the probability would be quite remarkable. Key words: coincidences, cosmological expansion, Earth expansion, Pioneer anomaly, post glacial uplift, deceleration of Earth rotation
Introduction osmological expansion is characterized by the Hubble parameter. According to WMAP measurements it is 71+8 km*s-1*Mpc-1, and values outside these tolerances are also found in the literature. Substituting 1 Megaparsec = 3.086x1019 km, we eliminate distance from the units, yielding 2.30+0.26x10-18 s-1. The Hubble constant is generally interpreted to mean that the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away from us.
The Hubble parameter is generally thought to apply at great distances, those greater than the size of galaxy pairs or clusters. According to Einstein-Strauss, there exists around each mass a sphere in the Friedman Universe where the cosmological expansion is excluded because the matter within it is bound by gravity. The Hubble parameter should therefore not be found in processes whose scales are smaller than galaxies. If similar parameters can be found at much smaller scales, should they be treated as coincidences or do they suggest an underlying process which is not understood. Figure 1 is a summary of these rates. What follows is an explanation of the more significant examples. Pioneer anomaly When Pioneer 10 was about 20 AU away from the Earth, its radio signal displayed an inexplicable redshift. Anderson et al. (2001), suggested that an unknown power accelerated the probe by (a) = 8.74+1.33x10-8cm/s2. If the focus of attention is not the deceleration a, but a/c (a / speed of light), this provides a deceleration rate of 2.92 x 10-18 s-1 . This value is close to the Hubble constant. This anomaly was also found for the Pioneer 11, Ulysses, and Voyager probes. The negative forerunner is meant postponement instead of expansion. It is explainable however. Slowing of Earth rotation Mean solar time is decelerating by 29.22 seconds in a Julian century (Ahnert, 1959). By taking into account the length of a Julian century (t) of approx. 31.56 x 108 seconds, it is possible to determine the deceleration rate of the Earths rotation.
t = Difference ETUT in seconds, and t = length of Julian century in seconds. = 29.22 s / (31.56 x 108 s)2 = 2.94 x 10-18 s-1 .
This value is close to the Hubble constant and is close to the dilatory rate calculated from fossils. A very similar dilatory rate can be found in fossils for large time intervals (< 6 x 108 a). Established literary works attribute this deceleration rate to tide friction.
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Post glacial uplift. Ruder et al. (1990) at the Wettzell Geodesic Observatory in Wettzell, Germany with a ring laser and LAGEOS satellite, made precise measurements of global distances, determined the multipole moment of the Earth, measured continental drift rates, and compared them to paleomagnetic values. They also determined that the distance between the north and south poles was increasing by 1mm per year, or the polar radius was increasing by 0.05cm/year. Calculating the change in radius per year (in seconds) per radius, we have:
r = radius difference, r = distance (earths radius), t = time)

= 0.05cm / (6.357 x 108cm * 31.56 x 106s) = 2.5 x 10-18 s-1. This increase in polar radius is usually attributed to the Earth rebounding from the pressure of the ice from the last ice age, but the expansion rate is very similar to the expansion of the universe inferred from the Hubble constant. Pan-continental surface of the Earth. According to Maxlow (1999) and others, all of the present continents, including continental shelves, could fit on a globe of 55 60 % (3750 km) radius without gaps or overlaps. This suggests that the continents formed on a much smaller earth which grew to its present size. If we take 4.3 billion years for the age of the continents, we can calculate an expansion rate (2) = (6371 km 3750 km) / (6371 km* 4.3x109years* 31.56x106s/year) = 3.0x10-18 s-1 (Mueller, 2007). Again, comparison with the Hubble constant is unavoidable. Discussion and initial conclusions Agreement between measurements may be the result of cause or accident. The more exact the numbers, the less likely that it is by accident. If there is close agreement between two precisely calculated numbers such as the expansion of the universe and the slowing down of Earth rotation; accidental agreement is very unlikely, but still possible. But every additional agreement of a new parameter calculated from a different branch of science decreases the chance of accidental agreement greatly. If all of the parameters similar to the Hubble constant in Table 2 are viewed together, the probability of chance agreement should be negligible. Therefore the possibility of cosmological expansion occurring on small scales should be considered. If cosmological expansion applies to the Earth, then thermal and tectonic effects cannot be the cause of Earth expansion; but they may be the result of it. Many critics of Earth expansion assert that the slowing down of Earth rotation is less than what should be expected from the rapid expansion rates proposed by some authors. But the values for expansion and rotation retardation calculated here are similar, countering this criticism. The distance of 1 Mpc causes cosmological expansion at a speed of 71 km * s-1. A distance as large as the radius of the Earth proportionally corresponds to a speed of 0.06 cm * a-1 . The measured secular delay in the Earths rotation produces the same expansion velocity according to the rotation theorem (Mueller, 2007). If the retardation of Earth rotation and the expansion of the lunar orbit have the same rates, both rates probably have the same cause (tidal friction would only have a marginal effect). It is very improbable that tidal friction could cause the same deceleration rate in the examples quoted. The examples of Table 2 suggest that an observer at the Earths center would see expansion rates strictly proportional to distance for lengths of many orders of magnitude (see Fig. 1). These include the distance to the outer core, to the surface of the Earth, to the moon, to the Pioneer probes, to galaxies, and even to the astronomical horizon. The Earth expansion rate would be 35-40 times smaller than that proposed by Maxlow (1999) and others; but very close to that proposed by Egyed (1969). According to the authors mentioned above, cosmological expansion within small scales produces the following effects compared to any expansion of the Earth:
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- The exponential growth of the Earth, which started in the Mesozoic era without any recognizable cause, does not apply. - Some astronomical phenomena can be explained. - The much lower rate is more acceptable; its value is close to Egyeds (1969) and others. - The principle of spin sentence means that the Earths radius must expand by approx. 0.6 mm p.a. for the deceleration in the rotation speed. - The moons orbit that is expanding at approx. 3.8 cm p.a. does not prove that tidal friction is the cause. - The cause of the Earths expansion is not a geo-scientific problem, but a cosmological one. Some aspects cannot be mentioned within the scope of an essay. Even if phenomena with the same expansion rate can be explained differently, there is still a strange level of congruence.
Acknowledgements: I thank the reviewers, particularly Martin Kokus, for suggestion, modifications and corrections.
Figure 1. The relationship expansion-speed /distance
Table 1
Explanation to the values of the Figure 1
1
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
2
World-radius 1 Mpc 1 Ly Pioneer anomaly Moon-orbit Radius of the Earth ** Radius of the Earth * Interior core of the Earth Radius of the Pulsars
3
1,265..1023 km 3,087..1019 km 9,46..1012 km 3..109 km 384600 km 6371 km 6371 km 1222 km 10 km
4
lg 23.10 lg 19.49 lg 12.98 lg 9.477 lg 5.585 lg 3.804 lg 3.804 lg 3.087 lg 1.000
5
299805 kms-1 71 kms-1 2,24.10-5 kms-1 22436 cma-1 3,8 cma-1 2 cma-1 0,06 cma-1 > 0,0146 cma-1 7,64..10-5 cma-1 lg 5.48 lg 1.85 lg -4.65 lg 4.35 lg 0.56 lg 0.30 lg -1.21 >lg -1.835 lg -4.12
21
Columns 1 = Number of the point in the diagram; 2 = Phenomenon; 3 = Distance; 4 = Logarithm of this distance; 5 = Speed of the expansion; 6 = Logarithm to 5
*
**
Expansion speed resulting from the retardation and application of the rotation theorem. Expansion speed corresponds to assumptions of Carey, (1996); Maxlow (1999) and others. For comparison: The growth rate is 35-40 times bigger than the cosmological rate of the expansion. Table 2: Relevant expansion-rates and retardation-rates
Criterion Adjustment (SI UT) -second Expansion of Moon-orbit LLR Surface-relationship ocean / continent Fossils Cambrian-Cretaceous Old terrestrial fold-mountains (2.75 Mrd a) Polar diameter the earth after ice age Hubble constant Vaucouleurs 1982 WMAP Solar system / Pioneer anomaly Rate of retardation PSR 1534+12 Interior core of the Earth Loss-rate original kilogram Project.unified field theory / Expans.of Earth
Basis Rate
R E E R E E E E E R E ? E
In general accepted cause Tidal friction Tidal friction Unknown (Hypoth. Earth-expansion ) Tidal friction Hypothetical expansion of the Earth Reduction of the polar-ice Cosmological expansion Cosmological expansion Unknown Loss of mass by radiation Growth of the inner core of the Earth Unknown Scalar -thermal expansion
(n* 10-18 s-1) 3.01 bzw 2.935 3.15 + 0.06 3.03 4.1-3.01 3.57 2.5 + 0.95 3.08 2.30 + 0.26 2.91 + 0.44 2.4 12.8 2.6 16 3.57
Spot of discovery to the calculation Ahnert, 1959 Ruder, 1990 Mueller, 2007 Sager, 1976 Ruder, 1990
Anderson, 2001 Manchester, 2005 Denis, 2006 Rauner, 2003; Mueller 2007 Schmutzer, 2000 & 2004
References Anderson, J.D. et al., 2001. Study of the anomalous acceleration of Pioneer 10 and 11. arXiv: gr-qc/0104064 (e-print service of the Cornell University) Ahnert, P., 1959. (Publisher) Die astron. Zeitmessung und ihre Probleme. In, Kalender fr Sternfreunde, p. 92 -108. J.A. Barth-Verlag Leipzig Carey, S.W., 1996. Earth Universe Cosmos, Chapter 7 Earth Expansion On-line books and papers regarding global expansion tectonicsphttp://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/launchpad/8098/2.htm Denis, C. et.al., 2006. Secular changes of LOD associated with a growth of the inner core. Astron. Nachr., v. 327, p. 309-313. Egyed, L., 1969. Physik der festen Erde. (German translation of: A Fld Fizikja). Akadmiai Kiad, Budapest. Manchester, R.N. et. al., 2005. The ATNF Pulsar Database. http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/pulsar/psrcat/ Maxlow, J., 1999. Global Expansion Tectonics. http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/6520/ Mueller, V., 2007. Expansion von Erde und Universum. http://www.zeitexpansion.de Rauner, M., 2003. Das Ma aller Massen. http://www.technik-channel.de/artikel/616496 Ruder, H. et. al., 1990. Geodsie und Physik. In, Physikalische Bltter Nr 46, no. 2, p. 41 46. (Official communication-organ of the " Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft " (DPG), since 2002 :" Physik Journal "). Sager, G., 1976. Gedanken zur Expansion d. Erde. Beitrge zur Meereskunde, Heft 37, Akademieverlag Berlin. Schfer, G. and Wex, N.,1993 Binrpulsare testen Einsteins Gravitationstheorie. In, Sterne+Weltraum 11/93, p. 770. Schmutzer, E., 2000. Approximate global treatment of the expansion of the cosmic objects induced by the cosmological expansion. Astron. Nachr., v. 321, p. 227 -233. Schmutzer, E., 2004. Projektive Einheitliche Feldtheorie. p. 421. Verl. H. Deutsch Frankfurt/M.
Comment 1: He makes some interesting points, but the Pioneer Anomaly is that the spacecrafts are going slower not faster than they should ( http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/pioneer_anomaly/), so they should display a blue shift not a red shift. This may throw doubt on his other lines of evidence? Reply: First would be ascertained: It is not in general a blue shift which separates a missing red shift with the data is measured. I hold the anomaly for a scale problem. There are two aspects: The Pioneer probes fly in the infinity. Without strength effect the speed should be computable. The probes do not fly in the infinite. The speed should decrease proportionally from its distance.
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Why? The probes do not fly in the infinity separate towards a limit value. The limit value is the astronomical horizon or world age zero. Because the limit value cannot become break through, the speed of the probes must have dropped there on zero. This dropping of the speed is a delay. This delay is perceived as "blue shift" or missing red shift. The size of the delay amounts -(8.74 + 1.33) * 10-8 cm /s-2. With this value the delay rate 2.92 * 10-18 s-1 was determined in the manuscript. This rate has therefore a cosmological cause. Dropping the measured speed can be avoided. This is reached if the UT1-scale the metrics determines. With it this scale has a cosmological meaning. In this way the forming of the "blue movement" can be explained. A delaying power or divergence of principles is not necessary for the time being. Comment 2: His calculations seem ok and its a little more than coincidence but in any case he uses the standard assumptions, Hubble effect, age of Earth, etc, and has picked up something unusual by chance? Probably BUT the Hubble expansion or redshift has nothing to do with distance, and recent data show that radiometric dating is seriously flawed so his Earth expansion calculation will be in error (as the Hubble). So from the electric universe point of view, we would say his results are coincidence in respect of Hubble and Earth expansion, but the effects on the space probes are very real and readily explained in electric universe principles.
23
ON UNIVERSAL TECTONIC TRENDS OF ROTATING CELESTIAL BODIES (SUPERTECTONICS)

Gennady G. KOCHEMASOV
IGEM of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 35 Staromonetny, 119017 Moscow, Russia kochem@igem.ru, kochem.36@mail.ru
Abstract: The globular shape of rotating celestial bodies means that their tropical and extra-tropical belts have significantly different angular momenta. Such unevenness in a single body disturbs it because it increases the level of tectonic stress and energetic state working against the natural trends for minimizing these physical characteristics. To achieve balance between opposing forces bodies tend to diminish radius and mass in the tropics and increase them outside the tropics. Traces of resultant destructive and constructive actions are fixed in planetary geospheres of different classes of celestial bodies: planets, satellites, and asteroids. The Earths geospheres from lithosphere to atmosphere and biosphere are treated in more detail. As all celestial bodies rotate and present similar tectonics, their common characteristics could be called supertectonics Keywords: planetology, angular momentum, tropics, extra-tropics, heavenly bodies, tectonics
Introduction ne physical property of the rotating Earth is widely exploited by cosmic scientists. They know that spacecraft launches are cheaper from the equatorial regions because of the larger radius (the distance to the rotation axis), thus giving larger angular momentum to launching crafts. In geological and planetary sciences this objective property is rarely considered. But the simultaneous existence in one rotating body of latitudinal belts with sharply differing angular momenta (tropics and extra-tropics) leads to tendencies trying to equilibrate these momenta. This is needed for diminishing internal tectonic stresses and energetic status. To achieve this a planetary body (like the Earth) tends to destroy its equatorial (tropical) belt diminishing its radius and mass (for example by the crust crushing into numerous islands and troughs) and build up extratropical and polar regions (as by massive plume intrusions into the upper crust). Gravity is much stronger, and prevails over this tendency and a body keeps its global shape, yet many traces of this reform are preserved in its geospheres. The paper gives many examples of these adjustments in planets, satellites, and in an asteroid. The tectonics discussed is applied to various rotating heavenly bodies based on classic physical properties, but all bodies rotate so we may call it supertectonics (Kochemasov, 2009b).
Angular momenta A difference in appearance and structure between tropical and extra-tropical zones of various heavenly bodies is often observed. Rocky and gas planets and satellites are affected, which compels us to look for a common cause. All bodies rotate and their spherical shape causes zones at different latitudes to have differing angular momenta, as the distance to the rotation axis diminishes gradually from the equator to the poles (Fig. 1). This is felt particularly when one launches rockets into space preferable cheaper launches are from the equatorial regions Kourou in the French Guyana is better than Baikonur in Kazakhstan. One remarkable change occurs at the tropic latitudes. As a total rotating planetary body tends to have angular momenta of its tectonic blocks or belts equilibrated, it starts mechanisms leveling this basic physical property. At tropical zones (bulged also due to the rotation ellipsoid) the outer shell crust tends to be destroyed, subside and shrink; the density of crust material changes. The atmosphere reacts, changing chemistry and structure. In the terrestrial anthroposphere man becomes smaller (the well-known pygmification process). Extra-tropical belts, on the contrary, tend to add material and increase radius. Angular momentum tends to make a body like like a cucumber, but mighty gravity always makes it globular. According to the Le Chatelier rule mechanisms with opposing tendencies also begin to act in response. Traces of this cosmic struggle are very often seen on the surfaces of heavenly bodies as structurally distinguished tropical and extra-tropical zones (Fig. 1).
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Figure 1. Differing angular momenta (M) of the equatorial and extra-equatorial zones of a rotating globular body.
Figure 2. Earth: Intensive faulting of the tropical zone of the Atlantic bottom (Pushcharovsky, 1994, the bookjacket picture).
Earth On Earth the wide planetary tropical zone is marked by destruction of the crust. It is demonstrated by development of numerous islands of the Malay Archipelago (the Sunda Isles, Maluku Isles, and Philippines) between southeastern Asia and Australia. In Africa and South America huge depressions of the Congo and Amazon Rivers develop where the Archean crust has subsided to depths of more than 2 km (Haughton, 1963). In the Pacific along the equator numerous islands of Micronesia occur (massive corals mark subsiding basaltic summits, according to Darwin). Subsidence of the basaltic oceanic crust is followed by an intense folding and faulting of basalt and sedimentary layers (Fig. 2), as a larger mass must occupy a smaller space as the planetary radius diminishes). The central Atlantic shows this well, as huge transform fault zones are replaced by more quite tectonics to the north and south (Fig. 2, Pushcharovsky,1994) where basaltic effusions (plateau-basalts, traps) form large provinces. This addition of dense basalts to the upper crust level helps to increase angular momentum of the extra-tropical blocks. At the higher and lower latitudes in other places of Earth enormous masses of erupted
25
mantle-derived basalts form volcanic plateaus and huge dyke fields (Figs. 3 & 4; Hergt et al., 1991; Bochkarev et al., 2007). Their origin is assigned to gigantic hot plumes (superplumes) rising from the core-mantle boundary and melting mantle, with production of easier-melting basaltic fractions. The hotter mantle expands adding to angular momentum, like the additional dense basalts in the crust. Seismicity of the tropical zone is significantly higher than outside it, indicating more intense destruction in the crust and the upper mantle in the tropics (earthquake statistics in Bulatova, 2008, Fig. 5). Mantle derived diamonds are more nitrogen rich (and heavier) in extra-tropical zones than in Africa where even unique diamonds with boron (less dense) are known (Mitchell, 1986; Cartigni, 2005).
Figure 3. Continental and oceanic flood basalts (Mz-Cz) (Hergt et al., 1991; Nmeth et al., 2007; Saunders, 2005).
Figure 4. Large igneous provinces of Asia; basaltic eruptions are blackened (Large Igneous Provinces of Asia , 2007; the book-jacket picture).
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Figure 5. Cascade of time-latitudinal seismicity distribution of earthquakes with magnitude M6.5 for 1900-2002 years (after IASPI catalogue) (Bulatova, 2008).
Changes in the atmosphere follow the same trend. Its heavier components like carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone are less abundant in the tropics and enriched in the higher latitudes (Figs. 6 & 7). In the lower atmosphere there is a similar tendency. A newly produced global map for wind power (speed) over oceans made by the NASAs QuikScat satellite after 10 years of observations reveals that wind powers in the equatorial belt are weaker than at higher and lower latitudes (Fig. 8, NASAs News Releases, July 09, 2008 ). Wind farms for electricity production are possible off the coast of Northern California, around Tasmania, New Zealand, Tierra del Fuego. Thus, like other geospheres, the atmosphere tends to add momentum to extratropical zones. In the hydrosphere the larger warm streams out from the tropics in comparison with the smaller cold streams towards the equator possibly confirm the trend. In any case, the oceanic level at the higher latitudes is 2 to 2.5 meters higher than at the equator, which is usually explained by varying water temperature and salinity.
Figure 6. Carbon dioxide distribution in the Earths atmosphere (NASAs News Releases, Oct. 09, 2008).
27
Figure 7. Ozone distribution in the Earths atmosphere (Nimbus-7/TOMS data of total ozone).
Figure 8. Global map for wind power (speed) over oceans made by the NASAs QuikScat satellite after 10 years of observations (NASAs News Releases, July 09, 2008).
In the anthroposphere the geospheric trend is very clearly visible. There is a problem of development of people with small mass and stature in the equatorial (in a wide sense) region of Earth. Not depending on a main morphological type (great race or geographical branch) people of this belt are significantly smaller in mass and stature than their counterparts of more northern and southern latitudes (Kochemasov, 2008a). This
28
phenomenon exists in Africa (the Pygmies of the Congolese basin), America (tribes of the Amazonian basin and the Central America), Asia (the Papuans, Veddoids, Negritos, Malayans, and Vietnamese), and Oceania (Micronesians comparative to Polynesians). This phenomenon is observed among mammals and was explained by Bergmans law - the colder temperatures of the higher latitudes require better ability to keep heat by larger mass. If it is mainly true for animals it is not easily applicable to man. Firstly, man knows how to protect himself from cold; secondly, in the hot tropical belt of Oceania tall and massive Polynesians and relatively smaller Micronesians occur practically together, so the temperature has nothing to do with morphology of man. There are all reasons to think that in the animal world, along with Bergmans law, action of the angular momentum law also explains the dwarf forms of tropics (observed in deer, bears, elephants and other animals). Moreover, this conclusion is supported by observations in the dendrosphere where the mean wood density in the equatorial regions is somewhat less than in the extra-equatorial regions of tropics: for folia trees 697 kg/m3 (Africa) against 751 (India) and 785 (Australia) (Fig. 9) (Kochemasov, 2008b; Vorobyev, 1982).
Figure 9. Mean timber density: 1-Africa, 2-India, 3-Australia (Kochemasov, 2008b).
Other planets On Mars the widespread enigmatic chaotic and fretted terrains at the highland-lowland boundary could be traces of crust destruction along the wide tropical belt. A system of hillocks and their separating depressions is controlled by crosscutting tectonics. Prevailing subsidence here is characteristic. On the contrary, wide extratropical belts of pedestal craters with broad effusions of fluid-rich material (Fig. 10; Kadish et al., 2008) obviously help to mend defective momentum (compare to Figs. 3-4 on Earth). On Venus there is the strongly rifted equatorial Aphrodite Terra and Phoebe Regio accompanied by a wide development of basalt filled Planitiae at higher latitudes. The thick rapidly rotating Venus atmosphere is highly turbulent but in some UV images of the Venus-Express spacecraft (July 2007) atmospheric clouds show a dark equatorial belt surrounded by much lighter domains (Fig. 11). In earlier images of Mariner 10 such redistribution of sulfuric acid clouds also was observed. On Saturn a wide tropical zone usually has higher albedo than extra-tropical zones. Relatively heavier methane clouds in the H-He atmosphere are absent around the equator and concentrated on the higher latitudes (Fig. 12). In the tropical zone of Titan the darker methane lowlands (Fig. 14) are normally rippled in at least two directions with spacing a few km to 20 km (Kochemasov, 2007a) (such forms are erroneously taken by some scientists as dunes). This rippling is gradually replaced by smooth surfaces of dark basins (possibly liquid
29
methane) at the higher northern and at lesser degree southern latitudes. This planetary pattern is comparable with the behavior of the basalt floor of terrestrial oceans.
Figure 10. Mars: extra-tropical belts of pedestal craters with broad effusions of fluid-rich material (Kadish et al., 2008). Red lines - 60 parallels.
Figure 11. Venus: UV image of atmospheric clouds shows a dark equatorial belt surrounded by much lighter domains (Venus-Express spacecraft, July 2007).
Figure 12. Saturn: PIA09769, weak methane absorption at the equatorial belt (the bright area, IR light, 890 nm).
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On Iapetus the wide equatorial zone of the bright trailing hemisphere is distinguished by relatively numerous craters with darkened floors (Fig. 13). It looks as if the tropical terrain on the uplifted bright hemisphere is tending to subside and disintegrate. This terrain connects both flanks of the dark leading hemisphere and is a continuation of its equatorial bulge (a squeezed-out feature as a result of the dark hemisphere subsidence).
Figure 13. Iapetus: PIA09756, continuation of the dark equatorial ridge of the leading side on the trailing side by dark floor craters.
Figure 14. Titan: PIA08995, equatorial region (dark) with the bright region Adiri at center, IR-939 nm,
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Around the Tethys equator there is a band of slightly darker surface material. It may be an area of less contaminated ice and ice with a different structure than ice at higher latitudes, the opinion of Cassini scientists from the Space Science Institute, USA. If it is coarser-grained (more loosely packed) and purer then the equatorial region it would tend to be less dense, diminishing its angular momentum (Figs. 15 & 16).
Figure 15. Tethys: PIA09766 (left) dark equatorial belt, leading side.
Figure 16. Tethys: PIA10424, dark equatorial belt, leading side.
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Recently acquired images of the asteroid 2867 Steins (Fig. 17) show not only a diamond-like shape of this 4.6km body but also some color peculiarities of its equatorial belt pointing to processes of structural (?) and compositional (?) alterations. The Sun, with its famous dark spots in the region 30 degrees of latitude, probably demonstrates the same tectonic tendencies as other rotating celestial globes though a hot plasma star could have its own peculiarities. Under more close inspection of other planetary bodies this separation of tropical and extra-tropical zones may be discovered. Special interest is attached to a zone of transition between the tropics and extra-tropics where two domains meet with sharply different momentum. Here one may expect highly energetic restless behavior of planetary spheres. Indeed, persisting swirling storms around 35 parallel of the southern latitude in the Saturnian atmosphere and the famous Roaring Forties of the terrestrial hydro- and atmosphere are two phenomena that may be explained by the same physical law. The saturnian Storm Alley (as it is called by the Cassini scientists, Fig. 18) is a stable feature, observed earlier by Voyager. The Earths Roaring Forties are well known to navigators from very remote times (Fig. 8). As full equilibration of angular momentum between two zones is impossible as long as a body rotates and keeps its spherical shape, a contradiction of tropics and extratropics will be permanent and the zone mainly between 30 to 50 degrees in both hemispheres will always be a zone of friction, turbulence and strong winds. Some echoes of these events will be felt farther poleward up to 70 degrees. On Earth the Roaring Forties (40-50) have a continuation in Furious Fifties (50-60) and Shrieking (Screaming) Sixties (below 60, close to Antarctica).
Figure 17. Asteroid (2867) Steins: characteristic changes at the equatorial belt (ESA-Rosetta mission, Sept. 5, 2008).
In the Earths case the turbulence affects the atmosphere, oceans and lithosphere. Navigators for sailing use strong westerly winds in Roaring Forties. Europe is often hit by anomalous, sometimes disastrous weather conditions (though winds in the northern hemisphere are somehow softened by landmasses). In the crust of Eurasia, North America and in the Southern ocean along latitudes 46-48 there are two latitudinal geomorphologic planetary flexures marking transition of subsiding inward belts to uplifting outward (pole ward) belts (Kotov, 2003). These slow secular crust and lithosphere movements of opposite signs witness the tendency of the rotating Earth to equilibrate the angular momenta of its tropic and extra-tropic belts. Thus, both the rocky sphere and the gaseous giant globe obey the same fundamental law of nature and try to adjust uneven angular momenta of tropic and extra-tropic belts, marking the transition between them by anomalous features.
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Figure 18. Saturn: PIA10411 swirling storms, Storm Alley, 35 south
The universal planetary tectonic peculiarities described above, combined with universal polyhedral wave structure of planetary spheres (Kochemasov, 2007b) allows us to call this tectonics supertectonics (Kochemasov, 2009b).
Images credit: NASA/ JPL/ Space Science Inst. (Figs. 10-14). References Bochkarev, V., Brekhuntsov, A. and Lukomckaya, K., 2007. Permian-Triassic amphitheatre of superplume magmatism in northern Eurasia. Large Igneous Provinces of Asia, Mantle Plumes and Metallogeny. Abstracts of the International Symposium in Novosibirsk, Russia, 13-16 August 2007. Novosibirsk: Publishing House of SB RAS, 225p. (p. 11-13) (in English). Bulatova, N.P., 2008. Application of space-time statistics of the Earths seismicity to a study of tectonic and geodynamic processes. Geophysics of the XXI century: year 2007. Proceedings of the 9th V.V. Fedynsky geophysical readings (March 1-3, 2007, Moscow), Tver: GERS Press, 368p. (p. 43-51) (in Russian). Cartigni, P., 2005. Stable isotopes and the origin of diamonds. Elements, v. 1, no. 2, p. 79-84. Haughton S.H., 1963. The stratigraphic history of Africa south of the Sahara. Edinburgh and London. Oliver and Boyd, 365p. Hergt, J.M., Peate, D.W. and Hawkesworth, C.J., 1991. The petrogenesis of Mesozoic Gondwana low-Ti flood Basalts. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 105, p. 134-148. Kadish, S.J., Head, J.W. and Barlow N.G., 2008. Pedestal craters on Mars: distribution, characteristics, and implications for Amazonian climate change. LPS XXXIX, Abstract 1766.pdf. Kochemasov, G.G., 2007a. Wave structures in the Saturnian system. New Concepts in Global Tectonics Newsletter, no. 38, p. 13-15. Kochemasov, G.G., 2007b. Platos polyhedra as shapes of small satellites in the outer Solar system. New Concepts in Global Tectonics Newsletter, no. 44, p. 43-45. Kochemasov, G.G., 2008a. Angular momenta of different latitudinal belts of rotating Earth and their influence on geospheric structures (lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere). General and regional problems of tectonics and geodynamics. Proceedings of the XLI Tectonic conference, T. 1, Moscow, GEOS Print, 560p. (p. 442 446) (in Russian). Kochemasov, G.G., 2008b. A reflection of tectonic levels of the Earths global tectonic blocks in the dendrosphere (in wood density). Actual problems of regional geology and geodynamics, X Gorschkovs readings, Moscow State University, Proceedings, Apr. 28, 2008, 42 pp. (15-19) (in Russian). Kochemasov, G.G., 2009a. Storm Alley on Saturn and Roaring Forties on Earth: two bright phenomena of the same origin. Geophysical Research Abstracts, v. 11, EGU2009-2768 (CD-ROM). Kochemasov, G.G., 2009b. Universal planetary tectonics (supertectonics). ibid., EGU2009-2747.
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Kotov, F.S., 2003. A reflection of planetary flexures in limits of the continental lithosphere. Tectonics and geodynamics of the continental lithosphere. Proceedings of the XXXVI Tectonic conference. T. I, 4-6 Feb. 2003, Ed. Yu.V. Karyakin, Moscow, GEOS, 2003, 370p (p. 305-308) (in Russian). Mitchell, R.H., 1986. Kimberlites: their mineralogy, geochemistry and petrology. New York, 436p. NASAs News Releases, July 09, 2008: Ocean wind power maps reveal possible wind energy sources. http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov NASAs News Releases, Oct. 09, 2008: NASA maps shed light on carbon dioxides global nature. July 2008 CO2 in the mid-troposhere (8 km above Earth), AIRS data in ppmv, PIA11194-226.jpg. Nmeth, K., Martin, U., Haller, M.J. and Alric, V.I., 2007. Cenozoic diatreme field in Chubut (Argentina) as evidence of phreatomagmatic volcanism accompanied with extensive Patagonian plateau basalt volcanism? Episodes, v. 30, p. 217-223. Pushcharovsky, Yu.M., 1994. Atlantic tectonics with elements of nonlinear geodynamics. Moscow, Nauka, 84p. (Geological Institute Transactions, v. 481) (in Russian). Saunders, A.D., 2005. Large Igneous provinces: origin an environmental consequences. Elements, v. 1, p. 259-263. Vorobyev, G.I., 1982. Timbers of the world. Moscow, Forest Industry Press. (Russian translation from TRADA, Timbers of the world, v. 1, 1979, 328p. and v. 2, 1980, 352p.).
35
STRESS DISTRIBUTION IN CONTINENTAL MARGINS AND INTRAPLATE SEISMISITY

Lev A. MASLOV
Computing Center, RAS 65, Kim Yu Chen Str., Khabarovsk, 68000, Russia, ms_leo@hotmail.com
Abstract: A generalized tectonophysical model of a continental margin was developed, including its geometry, rheology and density distributions. Stress and deformation fields in continental margins were evaluated using analytical solutions of two different mathematical problems. The geophysical deep section in the Asia-Pacific continental margin was considered for evaluation of stress caused by the material density anomalies in this section and for comprehensive geologicalgeophysical interpretation of the calculated stress field. The results show that the continental margin is an area of high concentration of stresses and deformation energy. Using Coulombs law and the energy of deformation as the materials critical state criteria, areas of critical state of the material were calculated. There are three zones of possible critical state of the material that originate in the continental margin and stretch in three directions: 1) vertically downward, 2) toward the continental block, and 3) toward the oceanic block of the model. Additional horizontal compression or extension applied to the layer changes the pattern of the materials critical state zones: the extension directs critical state zones toward the oceanic block, while the additional compression directs the critical state zone toward the continental part of the model. Magnitudes of calculated stresses are of the order of tens and hundreds of MPa. These stresses can initiate earthquakes and deep fault formation. Regularities in spatial distribution of the materials critical state zones are in good agreement with the spatial distribution of intraplate earthquakes. The comprehensive analysis of the deep geophysical section in the Asia-Pacific continental margin revealed a remarkable correspondence between the calculated stresses, gravitational, heat flow, and magnetic anomalies, seismological and electrical models of the section. Keywords: continental margin, stress, materials critical state, mathematical modeling, intraplate seismicity.
Introduction he stress field in passive and active continental margins has been modeled using numerical as well as analytical methods. The finite-element method for several assumed forms of the crustal structure was used by McQueen (1986); a three-dimensional finite-element modeling of stress and faulting patterns in a heavy (subject to gravity) layer of variable thickness and rheology was done by Liu et al. (2000); a numerical model for the evaluation of crustal stresses in the eastern Australia passive margin was constructed by Zhang, et al. (1996). One can find a number of the most recent publications on numerical modeling in continental margins in the proceedings of the GeoMod2008 conference (Bollettino di Geofisica, 2008). Numerical methods allow us to solve complex linear and non-linear geodynamic problems with arbitrary varying parameters (density, geometry, rheology, etc.). From the other side, numerical solutions lack generality; any numerical solution is a particular solution for the given data. Analytical methods have a number of advantages over numerical ones: computations based on analytical solutions are efficient and theoretically complete. Analytical solutions do not require, contrary to numerical solutions, a convergent test to find the exact solution: it is already exact. Fleitout and Froidevaux (1983) developed an analytical method to study the relative magnitude of stresses caused by transmitted and locally induced forces in the lithosphere of a continental margin. An analytical method for the evaluation of stress tensor components in the lithosphere under topographic load was developed in (Tresl and Marvanova, 1988). It was shown that horizontal stress may considerably exceed the surface (topography) load. Study of intraplate earthquake activity revealed that the overwhelming majority of earthquakes are concentrated in the Earths upper crust (Maggi et al., 2000) within the boundaries of the continental margins (Triep and Sykes, 1996).
The goal of the current study is to present results of stress evaluation in the continental margin, and to discuss the spatial distribution of earthquake hypocenters within plate boundaries. Continental Margins Continental margins are structures possessing sharp changes in surface topography, gravitational and magnetic fields, density, composition, and rheological properties over a relatively short horizontal distance. The margins have highly contrasting surface topography. These regions have high volcanic and seismic activity and
36
contrasting tectonic movements. An example of a continental margin on a global scale is the Pacific Tectonic Belt (Maslov and Romanovsky, 1995). Figure 1a illustrates a diagram showing a deep section of a typical continental margin; Figure 1b shows the deep section The Great Valley of California Mount Whitney (Robertson, 2001). The horizontal dimension, L, of a typical continental margin varies from 300 to 600 km, whereas the vertical dimension, H, of a layer ranges from 25 to 50 km. The change of the surface topography, H , can reach 5 km over the distance L; the change of topography of the layers lower boundary reaches up to 20 km over the same distance. The layer material density variation, , can amount to 0.5 g/cm3, and the change of rheological coefficients (viscosity or elasticity) can span several orders of magnitude. Study of intraplate earthquake activity revealed that the overwhelming majority of earthquakes is concentrated in the Earths upper crust (Maggi et al., 2000) within the boundaries of continental margins (Triep and Sykes, 1996), forming a ring of hypocenters around continents at the depths 5 30 km.
Figure 1. Sections of a continental margin. a - section of a typical continental margin. b - section of the North America continental margin (Robertson, 2001).
Mathematical Modeling Method A. A heavy layer (subject to gravity) of variable thickness, variable density and variable rheology (viscosity or elasticity) was considered as a model of the continental margin, Figure 1a. The distribution of stresses in this layer was found as a solution of the following simultaneous differential equations:
x + x xz + x 2 ( x
xz = 0 z z g = 0 z + z) = 0
(1)
Plane deformation is considered. In these equations x is the horizontal coordinate, z is the vertical coordinate, x , xz , z are stress tensor components, is the density of a layer, = ( x) , g is the acceleration due to gravity, and 2 is the Laplaces operator. Since the ratio of characteristic layer thickness variation, H , to the average layer thickness, H, in a continental margin is much less than 1, the small parameter method
37
(Nayfeh, 2000) was used, and the boundary conditions were formulated for the upper and lower boundaries of a layer of constant thickness H . For the upper boundary of the layer, z=0, the normal stress was calculated as z ( x) = T ( x) T ( x) g . (2) The tangential stress for the upper boundary ( x) = 0 . (3) For the lower boundary of the layer, z = H , the normal stress was calculated as z ( x ) = M ( x ) ( x ) g . (4) The tangential stress for the lower boundary ( x) = const 0 . (5) In formulas (2-5) T ( x) is the topography of the upper boundary of the layer, T ( x ) -density of topography; M ( x) is the topography of the lower boundary of the layer, ( x) - anomalous density of the layer relative to the underlying substance. The upper and lower boundary loads as well as density, ( x) , of the layer were represented as a sum of Fourier series components. The analytical solution of problem (1-5) was sought in the form: x (k ) A cos(k x / L) kz kz kz kz (6) z (k ) = B sin(k x / L) (C1e + C 2 e + C 3 ze + C 4 ze ) (k ) C cos(k x / L) xz The seven unknown constants A, B, C, C 1, C 2, C 3, C 4 for the kth harmonic were found by substituting (6) into equations (1-5) and solving the system of algebraic equations. Taking the sum of the stresses x (k ) , k =N one can obtain the full solution of the problem (1-5). Strain (strain rate in the case of viscous rheology) tensor components were evaluated using constitutive relations (stress - strain equations) for plane deformation. The elastic and viscous rheologies of the layer were considered with elastic and viscous variable coefficients correspondingly. An arbitrary initial stress field can be added to the calculated one, thus modeling additional compression or extension of the continental margin by plate-tectonic forces. Method B. This method constitutes a half-space with internal density heterogeneities loaded by the weight of surface topography. Stress and strain tensor components were evaluated as superposition integrals of the Mindlin solution for internal (density heterogeneity, ( , , ) ):
z (k ) , xz (k ) in (6) from k=1 to
ui ( x, y, z ) = g ( , , ) uiV (x, y, z; , , )ddd ,

V
(7)
and Boussinesq solution for surface (topography) loads solutions:
vi ( x, y, z ) = g T ( , ) T ( , ) viS ( x, y, z; , )d ,
(8)
i = (1,2 ,3) ( x ,y ,z) ( , , ) .

Functions
u iV
are displacements, fundamental solutions of the Mindlin problem; functions
viS
are
displacements, fundamental solutions of the Boussinesq problem. With Poissons ratio of = 0.25 the Mindlin and Boussinesq solutions satisfy the model elastic rheology; with = 0.5 the Mindlin and Boussinesq solutions satisfy the Navier-Stokes equation of viscous flow. This enables the consideration of a viscous rheology along with the elastic one. The stress was calculated by taking convolution integrals (7) and (8) for the density model ( x, y , z ) in a geophysical deep section of the Asia-Pacific continental margin. The Critical State Criteria According to Coulombs law, fracture occurs at
38
=0 + m,
(9)
where 0 is a cohesive or initial shear stress that must be overcome before the material breaks when is zero; is the effective normal stress, and m is a coefficient that depends on the confining pressure of the substance. Byerlee determined m to be 0.85 and 0 = 0 at confining pressures up to 200 MPa, and m to be 0.6 and 0 = 80 MPa at greater confining pressures. The Earths crust and upper mantle are multicomponent and multiphase substances under pressure, high temperature, and variable loads of different spatial and temporal scales. Kinetic processes are very active in these substances. In deformation of the crust and mantle substances two counter directed kinetic processes coexist: the formation of defects and their dissipation (healing) (Vladimirov, 1975; Hansen and Baker-Jarvis, 1990; Tuncay et al., 2000). The result of deformation is dependent on the balance between the build up and release of energies. If this balance is positive, then the accumulation of defects results in a subsequent fracture. The current study considers alongside with Coulombs law the energy of deformation:
2 2 W ( x, z ) = R ( x, z )[ x + z2 + ( x z ) 2 + 6 xz ]/ 9
(10)
as the materials critical state criterion. In the case of elastic rheology
x , z , xz
are strain tensor
components, and R( x, z ) is the coefficient of elasticity; in the case of viscous rheology components of the strain rate tensor, and R ( x, z ) is the viscosity of the material.
x , z , xz
are
Results For the Method A, the stress and strain tensor components were calculated for the given boundary loads, rheology, and layer density, Figure 2. Here, the stress amplitude on the upper boundary load was taken to be equal to 22MPa, which is equivalent to the amplitude of the topography load 0.8 km of density 2.75 g/cm3. The stress amplitude on the lower boundary load was taken to be equal to 15MPa, which is equivalent to the amplitude of the topography load 7.6 km of anomalous density 0.2 g/cm3. The drag force at the base of the layer was assumed to be equal to 1MPa. Figure 2b shows shear stress calculated values. The highest stresses are observed within the continental margin a quarter thickness below its surface. The magnitude of the calculated shear stress is equal to 30MPa. According to (Kohlstedt et al., 1995) this stress is enough to produce ruptures in the material. The energy of the deformation field was also calculated. It is localized in two narrow zones stretching from the margin downward to the continental block, Figure 2c. Figure 3 shows geometries of the materials critical state zones, according to Coulombs law, equation (9) in the form:
( x, z )
x ( x , z ) pt for plate-tectonic deviatoric stress pt . The configuration of the materials critical state zones, Figure 3d
and 3e, reminds us of primary and secondary seismic focal zones in the deep section across Honshu Island (Tarakanov, 2005), Figure 4.
(11)
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Figure 2. Shear stress and energy of deformation fields. topography of the upper and lower boundaries of the layer; arrows show directions, of horizontal displacements in the layer, b shear stress isolines, MPa, c energy of deformation isolines in relative units W / R , Equation (10).
Stress distribution in the Obluchie - Datta Cape deep geophysical section, was calculated using the Method B, i.e. Mindlin and Boussinesq analytical solutions, (Maslov et al., 2001). The section is located in the continental part of the Asia-Pacific transitional zone with the coordinates (49.03o N, 131.03o E) and (49.03o N, 140.32o E), Figure 5. It covers the Bureya Massif and Sikhote-Alin fold system and includes the juxtaposed young structures of the Middle Amur depression, and those of the West Sikhote-Alin and East Sikhote-Alin volcanogenic zones. Density modeling was carried out for the section (Kuznetsov, 2000). The initial density structure of the section, positions of elementary cells and their sizes, was constructed using the morphology of the gravity field and MCWE (method of converted waves from distant earthquakes) data. The density distribution was determined using a program package with regularization of the solution searched. The parametrical continental model of the Earth (PEM-K) was assumed to be the normal one. Gravitational and magnetic field measurements, electromagnetic and seismological prospecting along the geophysical profile Obluchie Datta Cape were performed, and density, electrical, and seismological models of the section were developed (Kuznetsov, 2000). Figure 6 shows the results of the stress calculation, as well as the geophysical components of the deep section. Calculated shear stress is shown in Figure 6d. As it is seen from this Figure, maximal shear stress regions correspond to the regions of maximal gradients of density distribution in the section and that of the horizontal derivative (g ) / x of the gravity field. At the same time, areas of maximal shear stress correspond to the regions of high magnetic anomalies, T , concentrated in the West Sikhote-Alin and East Sikhote-Alin Volcanogenic Belts, which are the western and eastern flanks of the Sikhote-Alin mountain range. This correlation can be explained by the accumulation near the surface of basic and ultrabasic rocks of intrusive and volcanic genesis with high contents of ferromagnetic (magnetite and titanmagnetite) materials. In the vertical cross section, one can see that there is a spatial correspondence between the regions of maximal shear stress, and those of low seismic wave velocity anisotropy. In the electric model of this section two peaks of electric conductivity are observable in just two regions of maximal shear stress values. In the study area the highest heat flow values of 60-80 mW/m2 and 50-60 mW/m2, correspondingly, are observed in the Eastern and Western flanks of the Sikhote-Alin Fold System, while for the Sikhote-Alin mountain range typical values of heat flow are of 40-45 mW/m2 (Gornov, 1998).
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Figure 3. Geometry of the materials critical state zones according to Coulombs law. a three directions and sites of possible fractures location of the material, b no external compression or extension applied to the layer, c additional extension of 30MPa applied to the layer, d - additional compression of 30MPa applied to the layer. Solid lines show directions of the minimal gradient of the field.
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Figure 4. Projections of earthquake foci on vertical planes across Honshu Island. Magnitudes 7.5 3. (Tarakanov, 2005). The primary (slanted towards the Island) and the secondary seismic focal zones (slanted towards the Ocean) can be seen on this Figure. This is similar to Figure 3d, indicating that the layer is subjected to additional horizontal compression.
Figure 5. Geographical location of the profile Obluchie Datta cape in the Asia-Pacific continental margin (49o N, 131o E) (49o N, 141o E).
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Vertical lines A and B (Fig. 6) show a correlation of the gravitational anomalies, magnetic anomalies, electric conductivity, heat flow, seismic wave velocity anisotropy, and the stress field calculated on the base of the materials density model of this section.
Figure 6. Geophysical model and mechanical stress of the Obluchie Datta Cape profile. Bouguer gravity anomaly, b magnetic anomaly, c density model of the profile (g/cm3), d shear stress isolines in 25MPa, e electric and seismological models of the section, f areas of low seismic wave velocity anisotropy, g upper boundary of a layer of high electric conductivity, h West Sikhote-Alin and East Sikhote-Alin Late-Mesozoic Volcanogenic Belts.
Discussion It is shown in the previous section that the continental margin is an area of high shear stress concentration. The formula:
L P (12) 1P 2 , 4.22 H P1 = T T g sin( x / L ) and P2 = M g sin( x / L)
max =
with
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was derived from the analytical solution of the problem (1-5) for harmonic topography loads P 1 and P 2 acting on upper and lower boundaries of a layer. In this formula max is the absolute value of the shear stress and P2 are upper (z = 0) and lower (z = - H) boundary loads; T is the amplitude of topography, T its density; M is the amplitude of topography of the lower boundary, and is the anomalous density relative to the underlying substance. Graphs of max for different L /H ratios are shown in Figure 7. It is seen from this Figure, that for the ratio L /H=60, for instance, L=2400 km, H=40 km, and for disbalance of layer surface and bottom topographic loads P = P1 P2 = 5MPa, the maximal shear stress in a continental margin exceeds 70MPa. It was found also that the shear stress attains its maximum at about of layer thickness from its surface. maximum inside a continental margin; L is the wavelength of the load; H is the thickness of the layer; P 1
Figure 7. Maximal shear stress in a continental margin as a function of a layers upper and lower boundary topography loads |P1 P2|
Study of earthquake activity in Greenland (Gregersen, 2006) shows that earthquakes occur only in the continental margin, Figure 8. A similar pattern of earthquake epicenter distribution is observed in Scandinavia and Antarctica. These continents are areas of rapid deglaciation. In our view, the rapid deglaciation takes off a load from the surface of these continents, which cannot be compensated by much slower processes at the lower boundary of the crust. This results in greater values of P = P1 P2 , and according to computer modeling, Figures 2 & 3, and formula (12), in higher stress that might exceed critical values and cause earthquakes. The global map of intraplate earthquake distribution (Triep and Sykes, 1996) shows that the concentration of earthquakes can be observed also in the margins of Africa, Australia, and North America. The other component of the spatial distribution of earthquake hypocenters is their focal depths. Figure 9 shows a histogram of earthquake focal depths (Maggi et al., 2000). Approximate Moho depths are indicated by dashed lines. This study shows that almost all earthquakes on the continents are confined within a crustal layer that varies in thickness from about 10 to 40 km. As it is seen from Figure 8, the greatest number of earthquakes occurs at the depth of approximately of layer thickness from its surface. According to (Maggi et al., 2000), this is caused by spatial variations in the continental strength which are probably temperature structure and the presence or absence of small amounts of water. From the analytical solution of the problem (1-5) it follows that the shear stress attains is maximum at about of layer thickness from its surface. Not rejecting
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the other causes, mentioned in the work (Maggi et al., 2000), we can conclude that regularities in spatial distribution of earthquakes considered above are conditioned by the geometry of a continental margin also.
Figure 8. Intraplate earthquakes in Greenland (Gregersen, 2006).
Figure 9. Histograms of earthquake focal depths on the continents (Maggi, 2000).
Conclusion Analytical solutions have been used and computer algorithms have been developed for evaluating stress tensor components in continental margins. Results show that the continental margin is an area of high concentration of shear stress, reaching its maximum value inside a margin approximately of layer thickness from the
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surface. This is in good agreement with the spatial distribution of intraplate earthquake hypocenters. Formula (12) shows that the amplitude of maximal shear stress in a margin depends on the equilibrium of a layer. The interaction of the locally-derived stress and the external stress, applied to the layer was studied using Coulombs law of fracture as well as the energy of deformation criteria. Calculations show that the additional horizontal compression or extension applied to the layer changes the location of the materials critical state zones. This mechanism can be used to explain the existence of primary and secondary (deepening towards ocean) seismic focal zones under Honshu Island and other areas. The comprehensive analysis of the deep geophysical section in the Asia-Pacific continental margin revealed a remarkable correspondence between the calculated stresses, gravitational, heat flow, and magnetic fields, seismological and electrical models of the section.
Acknowledgements: I wish to express my gratitude to Sara G Burtwell for her careful reading of this manuscript, valuable advice, and comments which helped me to finish this study. This work was financially supported by RFBR grant N 09-05-00426-a.
References Bollettino di Geofisica (Bulletin of Geophysics), 2008. Teorica e Applicata (Theory and Applications). An International Journal of Earth Sciences, Special Edition, v. 49, 542p. Fleitout, L. and Froidevaux, C., 1983. Tectonic stresses in the lithosphere. Tectonics, v. 2, p. 315-324. Gornov, P., 1998. Heat flow in the crust of the Russian Far East. In: Regularities of the structure and evolution of geospheres, IV International Interdisciplinary Symposium, Khabarovsk, Russia, p. 86-89 (in Russian). Gregersen, S., 2006. Intraplate Earthquakes in Scandinavia and Greenland. Neotectonics of Postglacial Uplift. Jour. Ind. Geophys. Union, v. 10, p. 25-30. Hansen, A.C. and Baker-Jarvis, J., 1990. A rate dependent kinetic theory of fracture for polymers. International Journal of Fracture, v. 44, p. 221-231. Kohlstedt, D.L., Evans, B. and Mackwell, S.J., 1995. Strength of the lithosphere: constraints imposed by laboratory experiments. Jour. Geophys. Res., v. 100, p. 17,587-17,602. Kuznetsov, V.E., 2000. Deep structure and modern geodynamics of Amur region (Priamurie). Geology of the Pacific Ocean, v. 15, p. 307-316. Liu, M., Shen, Y. and Yang, Y., 2000. Gravitational collapse of orogenic crust: A preliminary three-dimensional finite element study. Jour. Geophys. Res., v. 100, p. 3,159-3,173. Maggi, A., Jackson, J.A., McKenzie, D. and Priestley, K., 2000. Earthquake focal depths, effective elastic thickness and the strength of continental lithosphere. Geology, v. 28, p. 495-498. Maslov, L.A., Kuznetsov, V.E. and Komova, O.S., 2001. Stress field in the Earths crust and upper mantle along the profile Obluchie Datta Cape, Priamurye. Tikhookeanskaya Geologiya, v. 20, p. 25-30 (in Russian). Maslov, L.A. and Romanovsky, N.P., 1995. Geophysical characteristics, deep structure, magmatism and metallogeny of the Pacific Belt. In: PACRIM CONGRESS, Auckland, New Zealand, p. 497-501. McQueen, H.W.S., 1986. Vertical movements and stress across passive continental margins. Bull. Roy. Soc. N.Z., no.24, p. 99-109. Nayfeh, A.H., 2000. Perturbation methods. Wiley-Interscience, New York. Robertson, E.C., 2001. The interior of the Earth. http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/interior/ Tarakanov, R., Z., 2005. On the nature of seismic focal zone. New Concepts in Global Tectonics Newsletter, no. 34, p. 6-20. Tuncay, K., Park, A. and Ortoleva, P., 2000. A forward model of three-dimensional fracture orientation and characteristics. Jour. Geophys. Res., v. 105 (B7), p. 16,719-16,735. Tresl, J. and Marvanova, V., 1988. Stresses and displacements in the lithosphere due to terrain popography. Studia Geoph. et Geod., v. 32, p. 350-361. Triep, E.G. and Sykes, L.R., 1996. Catalog of Shallow Intracontinental Earthquakes. http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/seismology/triep/intra.expl.html Vladimirov, V.I., 1975. A kinetic approach to theory of fracture of crystalline solids. International Journal of Fracture, v. 1, p. 869-880. Zhang, Y., Scheibner, E., Ord, A. and Hobbs, B.E., 1996. Numerical modeling of crustal stresses in the eastern Australian passive margin. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 43, p. 161175.
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GEOLOGY AND TECTONIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. PART 5. GLOBAL LOW-GRAVITY BELT: AN OUTER RING OF THE GREAT PACIFIC RING STRUCTURE
Dong R. CHOI Raax Australia Pty Ltd 6 Mann Place, Higgins, ACT 2615, Australia raax@ozemai.com.au; www.raax.com.au Nina I. PAVLENKOVA Institute of Geophysics of the Earth, RAS B. Grusinskaya 10, Moscow, 123995, Russia ninapav@ifz.ru
Abstract: On a high-resolution global gravity map two very distinctive N-S-trending low-gravity belts are recognized: One running from Antarctica, through Australia and India, to Siberia in the eastern hemisphere, and another from Canada to Brazil in the western hemisphere. They are connected at the north and south poles though locally obscured, and form a globe-encircling ring structure, which is newly named the Global Low-Gravity Belt. The belt forms the tectonically stable outer ring of the Great Pacific Ring Structure. The inner ring is the present-day circum-Pacific mobile belt. The origin of the Low-Gravity Belt is not yet clear because it correlates with high seismic velocities in the upper mantle and the lower mantle structure has not been studied sufficiently to solve this problem. Keywords: global gravity field, the Pacific ring structure, long-range seismic profiling, seismic tomography
Introduction hile studying deep Earth structures, the senior author came across one of the most critical tectonic features on the globe which is very clearly imprinted on a high-resolution gravity map but neglected or little appreciated by geophysicists. It is a globe-encircling low-gravity belt running through Siberia, India, Australia, Antarctica, Brazil, Canada and the Arctic Ocean (Fig. 1). This belt is considered to form the outer ring of the mega-Pacific ring structure which has its active part in the western Pacific (Choi and Vasiliev, 2008) and the inner ring in the present circum-Pacific mobile belt.
We will briefly describe this low-gravity zone and discuss its origin and significance in the light of the tectonic development of the Pacific Ocean and the globe. Global Low-Gravity Belt The world gravity map shown in Fig. 1 is GRACE gravity model 01 (July 2003). This map was made on the basis of 111 days of GRACE satellite data (www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/gallery/gravity). On this map one can clearly see the presence of two distinctive, broad (2,000 to 2,500 km) low-gravity zones. They are: 1) a belt running from Siberia, through India and Australia, to Antarctica in the eastern hemisphere, and 2) a belt running from Canada to Brazil in the western hemisphere. At the Earths surface these zones are characterized by Archean-Proterozoic cratons or platforms in continents and, under the oceans, by paleolands which submerged in the Cretaceous, supported by dredged ancient continental rocks or seismic profile interpretations (Fig. 1: Muratov, 1966: Choi, 2001; Choi, 2005 & 2007; Wezel, 2005; and many others). Moreover, these belts are connected in the Arctic and Antarctic regions although locally obscured (Figs. 2 & 3), and form a global ring structure with its centre at the eastern boundary of the most tectonically active Western Pacific Deep Mobile Belt which has been mobile since the Mesozoic (Choi and Vasiliev, 2008). We name this lowgravity anomaly the Global Low-Gravity Belt. Outside the GLG Belt, there are large patches of low gravity anomalies in the northern Pacific. These areas formed lands until Jurassic to Cretaceous time (Walker et al., 1987; Choi, 1984 & 1987). This is supported by dredgings of Precambrian continental rocks under basalt (Tabunov et al., 1989; Vasiliev and Choi, 2008).
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Figure 1. Top GRACE gravity anomaly map. Bottom Distribution of low-gravity anomalies superposed on the Archean and Lower Proterozoic cratons/platforms. Two very conspicuous low-gravity belts are discernible in the top figure: 1) Siberia India Australia Antarctica, and 2) Canada Brazil.
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Figure 2. Antarctica gravity map (from German satellite data. Original contour map provided by courtesy of J.G. Weihaupt, Univ. of Colorado, Denver; Weihaupt et al., 2006; Weihaupt and Rice, 2007), showing the continuation of the two low-gravity belts (SIAA and CB Belts) across Antarctica. The Canada-Brazil (C-B) Belt is disrupted by the younger Scotia Arc, but reappears in the north, Argentine Basin. Distribution of Archean and Lower Proterozoic rocks is from Jatskevich et al. (2000). The low-gravity belt underlies about half of the Archean shield/craton. S-I-A-A = Siberia-IndiaAustralia-Antarctica low-gravity belt.
Figure 3. Arctic gravity anomaly map (left) and geoid anomaly map (right). Both extracted from Forsberg et al. (2006) and www.esa.int/esaLP/SEMMNBAATME_index_2.html. Note that the two low-gravity belts are connected in the Arctic Ocean, which is best seen in the geoid map.
The GRACE gravity map shows the geoid anomalies, which reflect mainly the Earths surface topography (local high-gravity anomalies in the mountain regions) and the mantle inhomogeneity (large-scale low and high anomalies). The observed gravity field provides us with insight into intriguing tectonic features of the mantle. The high-gravity regions all coincide with the tectonically most active regions in Meso-Cenozoic time. The regions are commonly underlain by slow mantle at shallow depth (above 350 km) except for the
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Himalayas, which sit in the area of the low-gravity belt and fast mantle at shallow depth, and the Andes of South America, whose upper mantle has a neutral velocity (see Kawakami et al., 1994; Choi and Vasiliev, 2008). Both regions commonly have the highest mountains on the globe. In addition, two outstanding mantle highs are recognized: one in Southeast Asia and another in the northern Atlantic Ocean (Iceland high-gravity anomaly). The former corresponds to the Borneo-Vanuatu Geanticline identified by the senior author (Choi, 2007). The northern Atlantic ridge region is tectonically active and characterized by magmatism (see tectonic synthesis by Wezel (2005) of the Atlantic Ocean in general). Crust and upper mantle seismic profiling To determine the origin of the GRACE gravity anomalies they are compared with the seismic data on the mantle structure. The most detailed seismic data on the crust, the upper mantle and the mantle transition zone (down to a depth of 700 km) are obtained by seismic long-range profiling carried out in Russia with Peace Nuclear Explosions (Fuchs, 1997; Pavlenkova and Pavlenkova, 2006). These profiles cross the low-gravity belt in the area of the Siberian Craton. To characterize both the Siberian low-gravity anomaly and the North Atlantic high-gravity anomaly in Fig. 4C the crust and upper mantle cross-section is presented along the line AA (Figs. 4A & 4B). The cross-section is compiled from the nuclear explosion data and from western European seismological data (England et al., 1978). The cross-sections show a complicated inhomogeneity of the crust and the uppermost mantle. The most drastic changes are observed beneath Western Europe and the Atlantic in the area of the high-gravity anomaly. At the western boundary of the East European platform (20o E) the crust thins from 40-45 km to 25-30 km and the velocities in the uppermost mantle decrease from 8.1-8.3 to 7.9-8.1 km/s. This decrease is explained by high heat flow in Western Europe. The character of the transition zone between the upper and the lower mantle also changes: the velocity gradients in the region of the 400-km discontinuity are very different east and west of the boundary. As a result in the lower part of the upper mantle at 300-400 km depth higher seismic velocities are observed beneath the North Atlantic and Western Europe and they may be the origin of the high geoid anomaly (see curve G in Fig. 4C). To determine the origin of other observed gravity anomalies, 2-D and 3-D density models were made for the whole region under discussion (Gordienko and Pavlenkova, 1985; Pavlenkova and Romanyuk, 1991; Yegorova et al., 1995). The modelling has shown the gravity effect of the seismic inhomogeneity of both the crust and upper mantle. As well demonstrated in Figs. 4B & 4C, the gravity variation exactly copies the relief of the mantle surface. This looks reasonable because the biggest density contrast is present at the mantle-crust boundary. Gravity modelling, however, has shown that the geoid anomaly in Fig. 4C may not be explained by the decreasing crustal thickness because the crust-mantle boundary relief is usually compensated in the gravity field by surface relief and by uppermost mantle inhomogeneities. The gravity modelling for the profile AA has shown that the main gravity effect belongs to the upper mantle structure, which correlates with tectonics and heat flow. The old platforms with low heat flow are characterized by higher velocity in the upper mantle to a depth of 300 km. The same results were obtained for all the long-range profiles crossing the Siberian low-gravity anomaly (Siberian part of the Global Low-Gravity Belt) and they characterize the structure of the whole upper mantle and the mantle transition zone down to a depth of 700 km. The low-gravity belt covers the old Siberian Craton, which is characterized by higher velocities in the upper mantle relative to adjoining regions. No low-velocity layer that may be connected with the asthenosphere is observed in the upper mantle under the craton. The thermal asthenosphere determined by Artemieve and Mooney (2002) beneath the craton at depths of 250300 km, has not been confirmed by new data based on seismic and xenolith data and upper mantle temperature. All the mantle transition zone discontinuities (depths of 400-700 km) are flat in the area of the Siberian anomaly. The only seismic boundary which can explain this low-gravity anomaly is the H boundary; it subsides beneath the Siberian Craton from 320 km to 360 km on average. But the velocity contrast at this boundary is not high (no more than 0.1 km/sec), not enough to create the geoid negative anomaly in the Craton.
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Figure.4. Comparison of the crust and upper mantle seismic cross-sections (A) and (C) with the geoid anomalies (Pavlenkova, 2005). A - Seismic velocity section along the long-range Kimberlite profile made with peace nuclear explosions. (In the inset the long-range profile scheme is given). The profile crosses the West Siberian young platform and the old Siberian Craton. B - Geoid anomaly map of Eurasia and the North Atlantic (Gaposchkin, 1974). Compare this with the GRACE gravity map in Fig. 1. C - Seismic velocity section along the line A-A (middle figure) constructed from the long-range profile data for the Russian platform-Siberian Craton area and from the seismological data for Western Europe and the Atlantic. The cross-sections demonstrate the differences in the oceanic and continental upper mantle velocities, the absence of a continuous asthenosphere, and the regular correlation between the geoid anomaly and the mantle transition zone structures in Western Europe. The Siberian low gravity correlates with higher velocities in the uppermost mantle and with a small subsidence of the H boundary.
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Thus, in the case of the Siberian negative anomaly, the only conclusion may be that this anomaly cannot be explained by the crust, upper mantle or the mantle transition zone inhomogeneities. The inverse relationship between uppermost mantle heterogeneities and geoid anomalies is observed in the other regions of the world (Bott, 1971). But their origin may be deeper: in the lower mantle or in the upper core. Upper to middle mantle seismic tomography The mantle velocity is uniformly fast under the GLG Belt except for the northern Indian Ocean under which slow middle mantle dominates (347 to 991 km) (Kawakami et al., 1994). Lower mantle seismic tomography and core-mantle boundary topography A seismic tomographic map of the deepest section of the mantle (2,566 to 2,900 km by Kawakami et al., 1994) is shown in Fig. 5A. This map unequivocally shows that the major fast-mantle distribution at the mantle bottom is the shadow of the GLG Belt. There are, however, some exceptions: 1) the fast-mantle zone from the Aleutians to Hawaii which was explained by a deep fracture system developed in the area of Archean shield/craton (Vasiliev and Choi, 2008; Choi and Vasiliev, 2008b); and 2) much wider distribution of fast mantle in China, and the East China Sea, the Philippine Sea and Bonin Islands. The latter has a wide development of Archean rocks on land, and the water-covered regions have ultramafic and metamorphosed Paleozoic rocks (Vasiliev and Choi, 2008), though the available information is still fragmentary. Fig. 5B was drawn from Morelli and Dziewonsky (1987). The core-mantle boundary (CMB) highs are situated at the centre of the present oceans except for the southern Atlantic, indicating that the CMB rises are directly related to the subsidence and formation of the oceans. However, the highest (or shallowest) core-mantle boundaries do not exactly correlate with bathymetric and tectonic subsidence trends in all oceans. For example, in the Pacific the CMB high culminates under the Hawaiian Islands, and does not coincide with the bathymetric and the Mesozoic-Cenozoic subsidence trends as demonstrated in the seamounts/guyots (Pushcharovskty and Udintzev, 1970) and the NW-SE-trending subsidence zone in the western Pacific (Choi and Vasiliev, 2008a & 2008b). This may suggest that the CMB highs came into play in the Cretaceous, and are younger than the Western Pacific Deep Mobile Belt, which started to form in the Jurassic. The activities related to the CMB highs inherited the older tectonic trends and enhanced them, and this is still continuing today. Discussion and conclusions As described above, in the global gravity field a distinctive low-gravity belt is recognized around the Pacific hemisphere. It runs from Antarctica, through Australia and India, to Siberia, Canada and Brazil and forms a globe-encircling ring structure, named the Global Low-Gravity Belt. This belt forms the tectonically stable outer ring of the Great Pacific Ring Structure (new name; Fig. 6). It consists of: 1) the outer ring, characterized by a broad low-gravity belt, and 2) the inner ring, occupying the present circum-Pacific mobile belt. The mega-ring structure appeared in the Jurassic in association with the activation of the Western Pacific Deep Mobile Belt (Choi, 2005; Choi and Vasiliev, 2008b). In this area the magmatic activities were most active until Cretaceous to Paleogene time, and regional subsidence became most active from the Neogene to the Quaternary. This structure is one of the most outstanding, global-scale structures and affected the tectonic development of the entire globe. In interpreting the deep mantle structures and in formulating geodynamic models of the Earth, this great tectonic feature cannot be ignored. The Global Low-Gravity Belt is one of such features and is very interesting from global geodynamic point of view. It forms a ring around the Pacific, and, together with the WadatiBenioff zones and the positive gravity anomalies (mountain ring), distinguishes the Pacific from the other parts of the Earth. This confirms the idea that the Pacific is a primary old structure which reflects the division of the Earth into two hemispheres with high and low relief (continental and oceanic hemispheres). The same division is typical for other planets too (Moon and Mars). Such global structures cannot be formed by chaotic movement of lithospheric plates. They support geodynamic concepts which propose that observed regularities exist throughout geological history (Storetvedt, 2003; Pavlenkova, 1995 & 2005). This study presents unequivocal evidence that the major tectonic trends of
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the Earths surface have deep roots that extend to the core-mantle boundary. The evidence presented here is so obvious and indisputable that it ought to seal the fate of plate tectonics once and for all. An unsolved problem, however, is the origin of the low-gravity belt. The comparison between the gravity field and the lower-mantle tomography shows that the low-gravity anomaly is shadowed by fast mantle throughout the mantle section. But the fast (high seismic velocity) mantle cannot generate the low-gravity anomaly, because for the main mantle rocks a direct correlation is observed between velocity and density (Kern, 1993). There are two possible solutions to the problem: The first is the low resolution of lower mantle tomography data, which cannot yet discriminate the possible intricate changes in low and high velocities with depth. Another suggestion is a change in upper-mantle composition which causes an inverse relationship between seismic velocities and densities. As shown in Jordan (1979) the compositional variations of peridotites are accompanied by density and velocity variations that are inversely correlated: This is true, for instance, of the mantle xenoliths from the French Massif Central (Sobolev et al., 1996). From geological viewpoint, it is reasonable to assume that the ultimate origin of the Great Pacific Ring Structure is inside the core which occupies more than half the Earths radius. However, because the liquid core cannot maintain the inhomogeneity, only possible area which can generate the gravity anomaly is the coremantle boundary. Further studies are necessary to solve these problems.
Figure 5. Comparison between a seismotomographic image of the bottom mantle (top figure A) and the core-mantle boundary (CMB) relief (Morelli and Dziewonski, 1987) (bottom figure B). The Global Low-Gravity Belt is superimposed on the tomographic image. Note the match between the low-gravity and fast-velocity mantle distributions. In the bottom figure the Mesozoic basin trend in the Pacific and Eastern Siberia is superposed. The culmination of the CMB is along the Hawaiian Islands, slightly off the Mesozoic basin axis. The CMB highs are situated in the middle of the present oceans except the South Atlantic, but they have no apparent correlation with the mantle velocity variation.
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Figure 6. Great Pacific Ring Structure. The inner ring is the present-day circum-Pacific Mobile Belt where tectonic and magmatic activities have been concentrated since the Mesozoic and slow mantle underlies above 350 km (Choi and Vasiliev, 2008). The outer ring is composed of stable Archean cratons underlain by fast mantle as far as the core-mantle boundary. Acknowledgements: The authors thank J.W. Weihaupt of the Univ. of Colorado for providing us with the original gravity map of Antarctica and David Loper of Florida State Univ. for references regarding the core-mantle boundary. Our sincere thanks are offered to David Pratt for comments and English editorial work. References Artemieva, I.M. and Mooney, W.D., 2002. On the relation between cratonic lithosphere thickness, plate motions, and basalt drag. Tectonophysics, v. 358, p. 211-231. Bott, M.H.P., 1971. The mantle transition zone as a possible source of global gravity anomalies. Earth Planet Sci. Let., v. 11, p. 28-34. Choi, D.R., 1984. Late Permian-Early Triassic paleogeography of northern Japan: Did Pacific microplates accrete to Japan? Geology, v. 12, p. 728-731. Choi, D.R., 1987. Continental crust under the northwestern Pacific. Jour. Petroleum Geology, v. 10, p. 425-440. Choi, D.R., 2001. Submarine geology of the oceans around Australia. Himalayan Geology, v. 22, p. 81-90. Choi, D.R., 2005. Deep earthquakes and deep-seated tectonic zones: a new interpretation of Wadati-Benioff zone. Boll. Soc. Geol. Italy, Spec vol. no. 5, p. 79-118. Choi, D.R., 2006. Where is subduction under the Indonesian arc? NCGT Newsletter, no. 36, p. 2-11. Choi, D.R., 2007. Borneo-Vanuatu geanticline and the tectonic framework of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. NCGT Newsletter, no. 42, p. 18-25. Choi, D.R. and Vasiliev, B.I., 2008a. Geology and tectonic development of the Pacific Ocean. Part 1: Mesozoic basins and deep-seated tectonic zones. NCGT Newsletter, no. 46, p. 28-34. Choi, D.R. and Vasiliev, B.I., 2008b. Geology and tectonic development of the Pacific Ocean. Part 4, Geological interpretation of seismic tomography. NCGT Newsletter, no. 48, p. 52-60. England, P., Kennett, B., and Worthington, M., 1978. A comparison of the upper mantle structure beneath Eurasia and the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Geoph. Jour. R. Astr. Soc., v. 54, p. 575-585. Forsberg, R. Skourup, H., Andersen, O., Knudsen, P., Laxon, S.W., Ridout, A., Braun, A., Johannessen, J., Tscherning, C.C. and Arabelos, D., 2006. Arctic Ocean geoid, ice thickness and mean sea level the Arcgice project. Proc. ESA workshop 15 years of progress in radar altimetry, Venice, March, 2006. http:esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/arcgice_venice.pdf. Fuchs, K. [ed.], 1997. Upper mantle heterogeneities from active and passive seismology. NATO ASI Series, (1. Disarmament Technologies - v. 17), Contribution N 336, International Lithosphere Program, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. 366p. Gaposchikin, B.M., 1974. Earths gravity field to the eighteenth degree and geocentric coordinates for 104 stations from satellite and terrestrial data. Jour. Geophys. Res., v. 79, p. 654-670.
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Gordienko,V.V. and Pavlenkova, N.I., 1985. Combined geothermal-geophysical models of the Earth's crust and upper mantle for the European continent. Jour. Geodynamics, v. 5, p. 75-90. Jatskevich, B.A. [ed.], 2000. Geological Map of the World. 1:5,000,000. Ministry of Natural Resources of Russian Federation, RAS. Jordan, T.H., 1979. Mineralogies, densities and seismic velocities of garnet lherzolites and their geophysical implication. In F.R. Boid and H.O.A. Mayer [eds.], The mantle sample: inclusions in kimberlites and other volcanics, Proc. 2nd International Kimberlite Conference. v. 2, AGU, p. 1-14. Kawakami, S., Fujii, N. and Fukao, Y., 1994. Frontiers of the earth and planetary sciences: a gallery of the planetary worlds. Jour. Geol. Soc. Japan, v. 100, p. I-VIII. Kern, H.M., 1993. Physical properties of crustal and upper mantle rocks with regard to lithosphere dynamics and high pressure mineralogy. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, v. 79, p. 113-136. Morelli, A. and Dziewonski, A.M., 1987. Topography of core-mantle boundary and lateral homogeneity of the liquid core. Nature, v. 325, p. 678-683. Muratov, M.V., 1966. Comparison of ancient platform basement and the history of their formation. Bull. of University of Geology and Exploration, no. 3, p. 3-48 (in Russian). Pavlenkova, G.A. and Pavlenkova, N.I., 2006. Upper mantle structure of the Northern Eurasia from peaceful nuclear explosion data. Tectonophysics, v. 416, p. 33-52 Pavlenkova, N.I., 1995. Structural regularities in the lithosphere of continents and plate tectonics. Tectonophysics, v. 243, p. 223-239 Pavlenkova, N.I., 2005. Fluids-rotation conception of global geodynamics. Boll. Soc. Geol. Italy, spec. vol. no. 5, p. 9-22. Pavlenkova, N.I. and Romanyuk, T.V., 1991. Seismo-gravity modeling for the crust of Siberia. Geology and Geophysics, no. 1, p. 34-42. Pushcharovsky, Yu.M. and Udintzev, G.B. [eds.], 1970. Tectonic map of the Pacific segment of the Earth. Scale 1:10,000,000. Compiled by Oceanological Institute of Oceanology of Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Sobolev, S.V., Zeyen, H., Stoll, G., Werling, F., Altherr, R. and Fuchs, K., 1996. Upper mantle temperatures from teleseismic tomography of French Massif Central including effects of composition, mineral reactions, anharmonicity, anelasticity and partial melt. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., v. 139, p. 147-163 Storetvedt, K.M., 2003. Global wrench tectonics. Fagbokforlaget. 397p. Tabunov, S.M., Tomanovskaya, Yu.I and Staritsyna, G.N., 1989. Rock complex of the Pacific Ocean bed in the areas of Clarion and Clipperton faults. Pacific Geology, v. 4, p. 11-20. Vasiliev, B.I. and Choi, D.R., 2008. Geology and tectonic development of the Pacific Ocean. Part 3, Structure and composition of the basement. NCGT Newsletter, no. 48, p. 23-51. Walker, J.D., Burchfiel, B.C. and Rodyden, L.H., 1983. Westward-derived conglomerates in Moenkopi Formation of southeastern California, and their probable tectonic significance. AAPG Bull., v. 67, p. 320-322. Weihaupt, J.G., Rice, A. and Van der Hoeven, F.G., 2006. Multiple meteoroid impact in Antarctica. Proc., Annual meetings of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco. EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, v. 87, no. 52, December 11-15. Weihaupt, J.G. and Rice, A., 2007. Suggestions of multiple meteoroid impact in Antarctica: How do we sort it out? The 31st Symposium on Antarctica meteorites, national Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, Japan, June 5-7. Wezel, F.C., 2005. Geological evidence on the formation of the Atlantic Ocean. Boll. Soc. Geol. Italy, spec vol. no. 5, p. 61-78. Yegorova,T.R., Koslenko,V.G., Pavlenkova,N.I. and Starostenko,V.I., 1995. 3-D density model for the lithosphere of Europe: construction, method, and lithosphere and preliminary results. Geophys. Jour. Int., v. 121, p. 873-892.
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GEOPOLITICAL CORNER
OPEN LETTER TO IUGS
DATE: 2 February, 2009 TO: President, International Union of Geological Sciences CC: IUGS office holders, past President, Nominating Committee, ICSU FROM: 33rd IGC Oslo, STT-09 session conveners
Complaints about unprecedented ideological suppression at the 33rd International Geological Congress
ince the late 1960s the once ridiculed continental drift hypothesis of Alfred Wegener has been embraced by the geoscientific community at large. Under the guise of plate tectonics (PT) the long held view of crustal fixism was replaced by an increasingly mobilistic model, which has subsequently guided geological thinking. From the outset, there was a great need to put the PT model to critical tests, but due to the pressure to conform, such endeavours never became true trials of the popular hypothesis. The frequent discrepancy between PT expectations and factual observations has led to a string of ad hoc repairs to the model, and the twisting of many data, mixed up with idiosyncratic complexity. Despite a range of falsified predictions and the continuing unresolved situation, critical discussion unfortunately ended decades ago; a theoretical black box came in its place. The pretence continues that everything is fine, despite the fact that present global tectonics is deeply mired in conjecture. In the analysis of science analyst Thomas Kuhn, the Earth sciences now show all the characteristics of being in a state of theoretical crisis awaiting a new paradigm.
The Italian organizers of the 32nd IGC were apparently fully aware of the pressing need for rethinking the global geological system, setting up a sizeable program acknowledging the multitude of observational facts that call for paradigm change. Thus, a one day Multidisciplinary Symposium (S09.01) at the main venue was followed by a very successful post-Congress workshop (PWO-09) hosted by the University of Urbino, 29-31 August 2004. The aim of the workshop was to discuss diverse hypotheses of global tectonics in a relaxed atmosphere. Throughout the Italian IGC gatherings the guiding principle of the discussions was that true scientific progress can be seen as the opposite of arguments based on dogmatic authority. In the end, a few always win over the many, whenever solid facts are on their side. From the Italian experience we were looking forward to the 33rd IGC in Oslo, but as it turned out the Scandinavian Organizers were intolerant to ideas that smacked of opposition to plate tectonics. Our proposal of a symposium on New Concepts in Global Tectonics (NCGT) was accepted by the Program Committee. But when it came to the stage of formulating its goal (the focus of our session was problems with plate tectonics, including discussions of new data and alternative global models) the ideological pressure from the Organizers began to show up. Thus, we had to rewrite the session abstract in order to make it more socially and emotionally acceptable. That was only the beginning; before practicalities were finally settled the day before the symposium date, we had been through much uncertainty and frustration. The date of the symposium was shifted only a couple of weeks before the Congress (as conveners we came to know about these last minute changes only by accident), making it difficult for some of our foreign speakers and symposium participants who had made travel arrangements according to the previously announced schedule. Next on the list of oddities was that one of our invited speakers was removed from the oral session; this was without prior consultation with us as conveners. The Program Office was later unable to explain their course of action. The invited speaker became so offended by the Organizers treatment, having downgraded him from invited speaker to poster presenter, that he cancelled his congress participation altogether. The day before the symposium, there was great confusion regarding room allocation. We had to negotiate this matter on the spot; first we were offered a small and totally inadequate seminar room (15-20 seats) in a
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neighbouring building, before we were finally given a decent auditorium (in another building). Furthermore, our symposium was the only one in the program book for which the location was marked TBA to be announced. People in the Registration Area wondered why our symposium deserved such special treatment. Apart from these bad experiences, we had the impression the Congress as a whole was smoothly run. We cannot escape the impression, therefore, that our symposium was subject to ideological policing. What we experienced at the 33 IGC Oslo is totally unacceptable for any international conferences and is against the policy of the IUGS, which involves encouraging formulation and testing of new geological concepts, models and methodologies. We request the IUGS to ask the 33rd IGC organizers to give us a full explanation for the difficulties which we had to endure. We also request a firm commitment from the IUGS that this sort of blatant discrimination and suppression will never be repeated at future International Geological Congresses. With best regards, 33 IGC STT-09 New Concepts in Global Tectonics session organizers: Karsten Storetvedt (Norway), Karsten@gfi.uib.no Dong Choi (Australia), raax@ozemail.com.au Forese Wezel (Italy), wezel@uniurb.it *****************
REPLY FROM THE IUGS PRESIDENT

10 February, 2009 To: Dr. K. Storetvedt, Dr. D. Choi, and Dr. F. Wezel, 33-IGC STT-09 Session organizers Subject: 33 IGC STT-09 New Concepts in Global Tectonics session organizers From: Prof. Alberto C. Riccardi, IUGS President Dear Drs. Storetvedt, Choi and Wezel,
hank you very much for your e-mail and the accompanying open letter regarding the organization of your session on New Concepts in Global Tectonics during the 33rd International Geological Congress, Oslo, Norway.
As you know the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) is an international scientific, nongovernmental, non-political, and non-profit-making organization, whose aims are to unite the global geological community in promoting development of the earth sciences through the support of broad-based scientific studies, applying the results of these and other studies to improve the prosperity of nations and the quality of human life. The IUGS is a member of the International Council for Science (ICSU), and in that quality accepts the principles and ideas included in ICSUs document on Freedom, Responsibility and Universality of Science (2008). A basic idea exposed there is that science is the attainment of knowledge through research - the systematic exploration and explanation of the unknown, in the understanding that the scientific process is based on the formulation and testing of hypotheses by the generation of verifiable evidence from observations and experiments. Thus, in this context exists ample freedom for both, challenging existing theories and proposing new ones. Implicit to these scientific rights and freedoms are a number of responsibilities, one of them being that in the conduct of science all work should be of the highest quality and, in so far as is possible, reported in a way that makes it reproducible and/or verifiable. I understand that similar ideas are shared by all earth scientists and are implicit in all earth science activities, as those related to scientific meetings and publications, the International Geological Congresses included.
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Your letter, therefore, comes as a surprise to me. My first reaction would be to attribute the situations you mention to some misunderstandings and to the organizational problems that are prone to arise in and event of such a large magnitude. However, as the organization of each International Geological Congress is handled by the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) I am here complying with your request, and forwarding your open letter and this answer to the 33rd LOC, in the security that they will give you the explanations you require. On the basis of what has been said and concerning your request regarding any sort of discrimination and suppression at future International Congresses, I assure you on behalf of the IUGS Executive Committee and Council that the IUGS, as ever, will put every effort to guarantee scientific freedom, according to the principles and ideas mentioned at the beginning of this letter. Yours sincerely, Prof. Alberto C. Riccardi IUGS President cc: IUGS Executive Committee, 33rd International Geological Congress, International Geological Congress Committee
_____________________________________________________________________ 33RD IGC, OSLO NCGT SYMPOSIUM (12 AUGUST, 2008) ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS
Conveners: Karsten M. Storetvedt, Dong R. Choi and Forese Carlo Wezel
Editors note: We requested the permission to publish NCGT session abstracts to IGC33 organizers twice in September and December, 2008, but our request had not reached the IGC33 Publications section until 13 January, 2009. This was after the publication of NCGT Newsletter no. 49 in which the ideological suppression was mentioned in the Editorial.
Seismicity of deep earthquakes in the Japanese islands and surrounding areas Yo AKAMATSU, ex-teacher of Tokyo Metropolitan High School (Japan). yo-akam@m2.hinocatv.ne.jp NICS of Island Arcs Research Group of Geotecto Study Group (Japan) The Research Group investigates the spatial distribution of earthquakes in the Japanese islands and their neighbourhoods , based on the Annual Report of Seismicity published by the Meteorological Agency of Japan in 2006. The hypocenters of earthquakes greater than 4.5 in magnitude for those shallower than 100 km and greater than 3 in magnitude deeper than 100km from 1983 to 2005 are shown on the topographic map. The equal focal depth lines are drawn in Kuril-Kamchatka islands, Honshu Island, Izu-Ogasawara islands and surrounding areas. They dip away from the Kuril-Kamchatka trench northwestward, from the Japan trench westward and from the Izu-Ogasawara trench southwestward in general, as shown by Wadati (1935). Similar lines are drawn in Kyushu, Ryukyu Islands and surrounding areas. They dip away from the Ryukyu trench northwestward. The equal focal depth lines are not as simple as are pointed out above, and are composed of several segments that run linearly or circularly, and are displaced several 10km or more near their boundary lines. Those displacing lines run in NW-SE direction in echelon and 4 units bounded by the lines are designated in Hokkaido-Kuril region. The shifts reach about 50 to 100km. Those displacing lines run in E-W and ESE-WNW directions in Honshu, the Sea of Japan and surrounding region in general and several units bounded by those lines are designated. The shifts reach about 200km in the Sea of Japan and about 50 km in Honshu. The displacing lines run in NE-SW and ENE-WSW directions and 6 units are designated in Izu-Ogasawara region. The shifts reach about 20 to 200km. Those displacing lines run in WNW-ESE direction in Kyusyu and Ryukyu region, and 3 units bounded by those lines are designated. Their shifts are about 20 to 200km. The units bounded by elliptic arrangement of faults accompanied by deep earthquakes are designated (Suzuki and
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the Research Group of Geotectonics of Island Arcs, 2008). These units are also correlated to those surrounded by equal focal depth lines and displacing lines. The seismic units bounded by the equal focal depth lines and displacing lines are discriminated, in which vacant spaces in seismicity. Those spaces are correlated with surface geology, suggesting the deep roots of geology. ********** The earthquakes and their linked tsunami waves Pencho BINEV, Union of the Bulgarian Scientists (Bulgaria). pbinev@abv.bg The established notions about the genesis and propagation of the tsunami waves come up against significant difficulties when trying to explain the specific characteristics of this natural phenomenon. According to the traditional hypothesis, these are mechanical waves that have arisen as a result of earthquake or volcanic actions under the ocean surface. They travel on the surface toward the coast at a velocity v, the square root of the product g.h, where g is the gravity acceleration and h is the depth below the wave. In the shallow coastal waters h substantially diminishes, while the wave amplitude can increase up to 30 meters and even more, which can account for the tsunami destructive action. Another hypothesis also treats the tsunami waves as of mechanical origin, but propagating under the water surface. Near the coast they emerge onto the surface and decelerate, while their amplitude increases. The quoted concepts require radial propagation of the waves from the location of their genesis, correlation between the cause of the wave and its destructive effect upon time, as well as pronounced tidal character. However, the available statistical data about the tsunami waves are not in agreement with such conclusions. According to the concept developed herein sources of the tsunami wave genesis are the electrostatic fields. Earthquakes or volcanic eruptions are only the initiators of the creation of local electrostatic and electromagnetic poles over the oceanic floor and the coast. The disposition and strength of these electrostatic and electromagnetic fields depend on conditions: the characteristics of the oceanic electrolyte and of the bottom and coast in the respective part of the ocean. They are not simply connected with the local primary center where the development and spreading of the electrical charges has occurred, so that not just their radial propagation must be envisaged. The electric poles thus built, and the fields created by them, direct in different directions the oceanic electrolyte, which generates the tsunami wave. The periodic charging and discharging of these gigantic condensers determines the time, the cyclic character and the strength of the respective wave. ********** Mesozoic basins and deep-seated tectonic zones in the Western Pacific Dong CHOI, Raax Australia Pty Ltd (Australia). raax@ozemail.com.au Boris VASILIEV, Pacific Oceanological Institute (Russian Federation). boris@poi.dvo.ru Jurassic and Cretaceous basins are well developed in the western part of the Pacific Ocean. They were formed in the area where paleolands had existed until the Triassic to early Jurassic. There is a direct correlation between the current deep earthquake zone and the Mesozoic basin distribution, indicating that these Mesozoic basins have been formed by reactivation of deep-seated tectonic zones and the subsidence is still continuing today. In addition, the major ENE-WSW trending fracture zones such as the Mendocino, Clarion and Clipperton Fracture Zones as well as the NW-SE Eltanin and Udintsev Fracture Zones have contributed to the basin formation. The subsidence, transgression and volcanic activities have progressed eastward from Jurassic to Cenozoic, finally flooding the entire Eastern Pacific region in Neogene to Quaternary. A good correlation between the slower mantle (350 to 1,700 km) and the loci of Mesozoic basins indicates that the slower mantle is responsible for the subsidence of the basins. Also uniform presence of the faster mantle at the shallow depth (80 to 350 km) above this slow mantle suggests that the faster mantle reflects the state of chemical depletion by losing gases and liquids to the Earth's surface. This is consistent with the fact that the deep-seated tectonic zones and Wadati-Benioff zone are generally accompanied by faster velocity zone, requiring the reconsideration of tomographic image interpretation - the velocity variation reflects the level of chemical depletion instead of temperature. There is a clear contrast in the distribution of slowvelocity zones between the shallow mantle (surface to 350 km) and deep mantle (350 to 2,900 km); the slow shallow mantle is confined in the present Pacific continental margins and marginal seas where magmatic activity is strong, whereas the slow deep mantle occupies the western part of the Pacific Ocean where deep ocean prevails today.
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The planetary geodynamic system of through ore-forming structures "GEOTRANS" Leonid GALETS'KIY, Institute of Geological Sciences of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Ukraine). geos@geolog.kiev.ua Within the bounds of the East-European platform (EEP), Carpathian-Balkan and Black sea-Caspian regions the phenomenal geodynamic system of long-living (Upper Archean to present time) transregional lineaments megazones of activation which control the placing of large ore, diamond and oil-gas bodies. They are fixed by the anomalous geophysical, geochemical and power fields, differ by the high endo- and the exogenous activity, promoted by seismicity and are expressed by thickening subparallel disjunctive dislocations, presence of key horstgraben structures, manifestation of deep geological structures: basite-ultrabasite, kimberlite, alkaline and subalkaline, layered intrusions, and also metasomatic formations. Within the limits of EEP more than 20 ore-concentrating megazones of diagonal and orthogonal directions are selected, the main ones being Novgorod, Northern-Central- and South-Ukrainian, Pechenga-Ladoga, KovdorKhibines, Northern Kola and others. The latitudinal zones are most expressed. They have a width a 50-150 km, extent of thousand kilometers; maximal ore productivity is revealed in the compound dynamic knots of crossing with the tectonic zones of other directions. One of power sources of periodic tectonic magmatic activation is the tension created by the change of the rotary mode of planet. As a result of precession of Earth's axis and change of speed of rotation of Earth, in the critical zone of discharging of tensions, there is a high-gradient dynamic environment, which stimulates deep migration of ore elements, sends and focuses ore-forming fluid streams. Structural traps are created at higher levels, by deformations in different directions and by combination with other factors: by geochemical barriers, zones of volume cataclase, screening surfaces, p-t conditions. As a result of "vibrating" tectonics the special dynamic environments of increased permeability are created, providing the active and stable functioning of the ore-forming systems, and forming of large deposits, foremost the non-ferrous, noble metals and diamonds. The favorable conditions for ore-concentration are created by co-operative influence of cosmogenous and endogenous factors on the basis of self-organization of the ore-forming systems. Comparison of findings with other regions of world showed the presence of structures of the same type within the limits of all large continents. It forms the basis of selection for the general planetary geodynamic system of through transregional ore-concentrating megazones of activation "GEOTRANS". Further study opens up new prospects for the exposure of large and unique deposits, and it is also needed for the account of areas of increased seismicity and exogeodynamic activity during the constructing of large objects and prevention of catastrophes. ********** New theoretical conception concerning the tectonic processes of the Earth Hatam GULIYEV, Institute of Geology Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (Azerbaijan). hatam@lan.ab.az According to proposed conception the reason for any motion, including the tectonic one, is the perpetual struggle between energy and matter. Energy wants to transfer to the free form but the matter wants to acquire the form with minimal potential energy. The energy-matter and matter-energy transformations take place within this antagonistic struggle. As a result the mechanical motions are realized according to principle of the least action. So, the motions of any intensity take place in any place of the Earth and inside as well. Those motions lead to change of the environment density. Non-linearity and instability of the process of density change upon the deformation growth leads to consequence of processes of the density increment and decompaction. Great lateral and vertical faults originate at the various depths in decompacted zones as a result of instability of borders of the zones that divide the disturbed and undisturbed environments. Those faults are filled by decompacted environments due to deformation processes. These masses transfer into liquefied state at various depths and under specific situations. On the one hand, this makes the conditions for long-term (from geological viewpoint) existence of zones of such a kind. On the other hand, due to the next stage of deformation instability, these liquefied masses, moving along the lateral and vertical faults, are the autonomous sources of tectonic movements within lithosphere and along the whole mantle. **********
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Suruga Bay: Origin of one of the world's deepest bays Masaaki HANADA, Institute of Oceanic Research and Development, Tokai University (Japan) hanada@scc.u-tokai.ac.jp Michihei HOSHINO, Emeritus Professor of Tokai University (Japan) Suruga Bay is located at the southern extremity of the Fossa Magna, a major tectonic zone that crosses through the center of the Japanese archipelago, and the Izu-Bonin submarine ridge continues on toward the south. The depth of the mouth of the bay is 2,500m makes it the third deepest bay in the world after the Gulf of Aden (5,360m at the mouth) and the Gulf of California (3,700 m at the mouth). The base of the Izu-Bonin Arc consists of an ophiolite layer and a crustal compositions layer made up of granitic and metamorphic rock Vp=6.0 km/sec. It has uplifted blocks corresponding to a rift shoulder on east and west sides of the apex of the 6.0 km/sec layer and in the surface layer. Crustal cross-section in the east-west direction based on explosive seismic survey in the northern part of Suruga Bay indicates that the depth of the 6.0 km/sec layer is 10 km below the ground surface. Benthic foraminifera discovered in the Early Miocene marine strata distributed along the Fossa Magna indicate that they all inhabited a deep sea environment from the Pacific Ocean side to the Japan Sea side. (There are known to be species among them that indicate a depth below the carbonate compensation depth.) The base depth of the basement of the Gulf of California, off Mexico, is like Suruga Bay, 10-11 km. The Gulf of California is also located at the northern extremity of an ocean ridge just as Suruga Bay is located at the northern extremity of the Izu-Bonin ridge. It is a widely known fact that a rift valley is developing at the crest of the MidAtlantic Ridge and continues on as far as the rift valley developing on Iceland. In Iceland, the depth of the base of the rift valley covered by a lava layer is thought to be 10 km. There is known to be much continental rock of the late Proterozoic Era in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The Vp=6.0 km/sec layer in the Rockall Ridge, a branch of this ridge, consists of Grenvillean rock. Submarine ridges currently observed on the earth are late Proterozoic geosynclinal-orogenic belts and the rift belts on the submarine ridges are the descendents of rift belts formed at the crest of Grenvillian orogenic belts. The Gulf of Aden is the deepest bay in the world and it is also located on an extension of the Carlsberg Ridge. The bottom of the three bays indicated above are places of advancing crustal solidification due to multiple disturbances during the Proterozoic Era and are areas left behind by the upthrust of the earth's crust during the Paleozoic Era and later. The upthrust formations observed on both sides of the bay are primarily rift shoulder upthrust during the Cretaceous Period and later and the furrows of these bays are a part of the penetrating aulacogene. ********** Juvenile petroleum systems work via global tectonic processes releasing deep fluid inclusions Alexander KITCHKA, CASRE IGS, Nat'l Ac. Sci., Ukraine (Ukraine). kitchka@casre.kiev.ua Origination, maturation, migration and accumulation of abiotic hydrocarbons are intimately linked to basin dynamics and, in consequence, to crustal evolution and tectonic differentiation of basin roots. A new theoretical concept for abiotic origin of petroleum attributes world's petroleum reserves to subcrust evolution of volatilesaturated zones (VSZ) characterized by high-density population of juvenile fluid inclusions enriched with hydrocarbons (Kitchka, 1998, 2007). Hydrocarbons, mainly methane and its homologues, are not rare constituents of fluid inclusions, which also include liquid oils and bitumens even in the crystalline basement. The concept that hydrocarbon-rich, primordial fluid inclusions concentrated in the lithosphere are releasing from time to time along tectonically opened pathways suggests massive inorganic petroleum discharges. It is not difficult to calculate that within an active fault zone (e.g. a regional strike-slip belt) that the crushing and mylonitization of rocks propagate to significant length, width and depth in the crust and involve thousands of cubic kilometers of host rocks and the release of enormous fluid volumes from juvenile inclusions. Main tectonically driven stages of abiotic petroleum development are as follows. Atrophication of rifting leads to transformation of the VSZ into a transition zone at crustal-mantle interface with a regional halo of residual fluid inclusions captured during the latest riftogenic pulses. These post-rift residual fluid halos represent near-vertical domains of high fluid concentrations traced upward along primary and secondary fault zones. Next important stage of VSZ development corresponds to primary petroleum migration, a process similar by analogy with that supposed for sedimentary rocks. Progressive downwarping of a sedimentary basin floor and secondary overheating of fluid
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inclusions stimulate three-dimensional re-fracturing of the crust under augmentation of lithostatic loading and propagation of micro-cracks swarms that supply the fault zones with new flow surges of juvenile fluids. Subsidence rate is a very important parameter governing the mobilization ratio for juvenile fluids (Artyushkov, 1993). These fluids are periodically accumulated and separated in quasi-stable fractured chambers emerging at the transition interface from unstable frictional faulting to localized quasi-plastic shearing (Sibson, 1994). Ascending dilational clouds diverging from the aforementioned chambers along fault surfaces feed temporary traps in the crystalline basement and sedimentary cover with hydrocarbons. Typically, the temporal traps in the upper crust are associated with active or passive multilevel detachment surfaces enabling lateral migration of juvenile hydrocarbons along suprahydrostatic-circulating fluid system and their further fractionation. ********** Tectonic spiral structures of the Tethyan vortex street: GRACE geoid interpretations and African lightning teleconnections Bruce LEYBOURNE, Geostream Consulting (United States). leybourneb@hotmail.com Chris SMOOT, Geostream Consulting (United States) Giovanni GREGORI, Istituto di Acustica O. M. Corbino (Italy) Gabriele PAPARO, Istituto di Acustica O. M. Corbino (Italy) Ismail BHAT, Univ. Kashmir (India) The Tethyan Vortex Street (TVS) spiral structures are exemplified by: 1) Sestri Spiral, 2) Aegean Spiral, 3) Kersihir Spiral, 4) Spiral of the Lut desert, 5) Tibesti Spiral, and 6) Arabia Spiral, (Neev and Hall 1982). Counter-clockwise spiral structures of the TVS are also common features along the world-encircling vortex street (Smoot and Leybourne 1997). The 6 spirals have associated gravity highs from GRACE geoid data and may be associated with active or dormant joule spikes (Gregori 2002). Monthly geoid mgal values are data mined from GRACE missions between Feb. 2003 to Nov. 2005 and thermal expansion indicators are examined for each tectonic spiral, while external teleconnections to other gravitational and electrical indicators are sought. Annual flash rates of anomalous lightning over the Congo have a similar geospatial pattern and location to the geoid low exhibited in GRACE. One observation is the joule spike heating elements are generally associated with GRACE gravity highs, while one of the largest lightning grounding areas in the Congo appears as a gravity low. GRACE gravitational teleconnections of the Congo and African Rift area exhibit strong teleconnection signals to the Aegean Spiral, while exhibiting weaker links to the Lut Spiral. Extreme amounts of lightning arcing into the mantle underneath Congo and telluric attraction to neighboring joule spikes in Uganda, supplies soldering rift energies which may be capable of anchoring the African continent, and may supply new theoretical evidence suggesting why Africa is considered the most stable of continents of the Pangean Breakup (Nance et. al. 2006). In addition African lightning has been linked to tropical Atlantic cyclone formation (Chronis et. al. 2007), and unraveling some of these complexities may be possible. Monitoring Acoustic Emissions (AE) (Gregori et. al. 2001) and electrical indicators at some key electrical sources and sinks may determine relevant timing information related to tropical hurricane activity. ********** Continental lower-crustal laminar flow hypothesis Dewei LI, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (China). dewei89@sina.com Finite element modeling of a lot of geological, geophysical and geochemical investigations within the continent indicate that crustal flow layers exist in the continental crust. Channel flow model and laminar flow model have been created to explain flow regularity and flow mechanism. Channel flow reveals that the flow of a low-viscosity middle to lower crust in thick crust and high elevation orogen or plateau flow outward from mountain root in response to topographic loading or denudation. Laminar flow model proposed by Li Dewei (1992) based on investigation of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau involves a circulative movement of the different states of rocks between basin and orogen, lower crust and upper crust driven by thermal energy related to upwelling mantle plume diapir in internal continent or vertical movement of magma upon dehydration subduction plate on active continental margin. Softened or melted substance of the lower crust in a basin flows laterally toward adjacent mountain root driven by gravity, and simultaneously a thin basin crust and a thick orogenic crust are formed. Partial melting magma within the thickened orogenic lower crust drags vertical movement of metamorphic rocks of lower crust and middle crust because of density inversion, and forms metamorphic core complexes and low-angle detachment fault system acted
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by vertical main stress induced by thermal underplating of lower crust. Lateral spreading of uplifting mountain results in thrust fault system on the border between mountain and basin, and detritus synchronously produced by erosion of uplifting mountain is transported and deposited along the marginal deep depression in the foreland basin dragged by lower crust flow. Channel flow is similar to laminar flow on the continental intraplate deformation, middle-lower-crust extrusion, detachment fault contemporaneous with thrust fault, and exhumation of deep metamorphic rocks, and partial melting of orogen, but there are radical difference on tectonic setting, flow domain, flow surface, flow scale, flow pattern, flow regime, flow direction, flow substance, flow behavior or flow effects, flow time, and flow mechanism between the two models. Channel flow can be regarded as a part of spatial-temporal structure of laminar flow, but lower crustal laminar flow is driven by thermal energy and gravity and not by surface processes such as denudation or topographic loading. From a global viewpoint, laminar flow is only a small part of multigrade or multiscale circulative flow system of the earth. ********** The impact at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary Nicolas PARUBETS, Granton Institute of Technology (Canada). gitechnp@ca.inter.net At the end of the 20th century, several authors, some of whom had a great deal of well established supporting geological evidence, presented the hypothesis that a large extraterrestrial body had impacted the Earth at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary (PMB). One of the conclusions flowing from that hypothesis is that some comets and asteroids could have been created as a result of the impact at the PMB. One of the predominant theories of the formation of comets and asteroids asserts that they had been formed from the accretion of protoplanetary dust and ices. However, this view no longer fits with 21st century space age findings. Spitzer Spectral Observations of comet Tempel 1 during a Deep Impact encounter, and Hayabusa spacecraft observation of the asteroid Itokawa revealed the presence of hydrated silicates in comet Temple 1 as well as gravel and boulders on the surface of the asteroid Itokawa. These substances could have "existed from the initial formation". However, only Earth and ancient Mars retained abundant reactive water. Of course, the presence of gravel, boulders, and traces of clay and limestone in some asteroids and comets does not constitute proof that they originated during a PMB impact but does strengthen the PMB impact hypothesis. Using the available geological data, the presentation includes not only further development of the PMB impact idea, but also cogent proof of such an occurrence. The data are taken primarily from the Initial Reports of the Proceedings of the DSDP and the Proceedings of the ODP. There is also other valuable information supporting the PMB Impact hypothesis: the largest recorded volume of marine evaporates, an abrupt hiatus in coal formation, worldwide changes in the carbon cycle, a fundamental change in the magnetic field, and the period of the greatest recorded mass extinction, when life on the planet almost vanished for seven million years. Strong paleobotanical evidence supporting the idea of such an impact is presented. An absence of growth rings in Paleozoic woods is contrasted with clear growth rings in Mesozoic and later woods in order to demonstrate the onset of seasonal changes at the PMB. This onset is attributable to a massive impact that shifted the Earth's axis of rotation by 23 degrees and signalled the beginning of the Mesozoic Era. Taken separately, such geological facts cannot be strong enough arguments to confirm the hypothesis under consideration. However, when all these facts appear together, they form a conclusive body of evidence, which at least strongly supports and to some extent proves the PMB Impact hypothesis. ********** The main stages of global tectonics according to the fluids-rotation conception Ninal PAVLENKOVA, Institute of Physics of the Earth (Russian Federation). ninapav@ifz.ru The fluids-rotation concept supposes two main energy sources for global tectonics: the degasification of the Earth (the fluids advection) and changes in the Earth rotation. Three basic stages are distinguished . Like other planets the Earth is divided into two hemispheres with different relief: the Pacific hemisphere with the lowered relief and a thin oceanic crust, and the continental hemisphere with a raised relief and a thick continental crust. Formation of these hemispheres has taken place in Archean-Proterozoic when several blocks of thick continental lithosphere were formed. Geochemical studies show that degasification plays an important role in their formation: the continental crust was formed from the mantle matter with large contents of fluids. Judging by the paleomagnetic data at that
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time the large continents located in the southern hemisphere, which means that the intensive deep fluid flow was in this area. Other parts the Earth's surface were covered with the prime crust and only small domains of the subcontinental crust appeared in this "oceanic" area. The formation of the thick lithosphere in the southern hemisphere has led to asymmetry of a planet and to relative displacement of the mass centers of the Earth's spheres. It produced high pressure between the spheres and could have initiated their relative displacements. As a uniform asthenosphere does not exist and the continents have deep roots such displacements were most probable on a surface of a liquid outer core. The marked mass centre dislocation has caused the turning of the mantle around the core with movement of the continental hemisphere from South Pole to the equator. It corresponds to the data on movement of paleomagnetic and paleoclimate poles that took place in Paleozoic era. The rotation of the mantle around the core passed non-uniformly: the tidal forces connected to periodic change of Earth's rotation axis position in system the Earth-Lund-Sun were imposed on the basic moving forces restoring the mass center balance. The periodic displacements of the mantle created conditions for alternation of tectonic activity epochs. Rotation of the mantle around the core is one of stages of planet's self-organization, but it could not restore completely a stable equilibrium of the Earth's spheres as a newly created nonequilibrium system. Therefore in Mesozoic era another important stage began: an expansion of the southern hemisphere with its radius now bigger than the northern one. Such expansion created the regular system of the mid-oceanic ridges forming a ring around Antarctica with the symmetric Mid-Atlantic, Indian and Pacific ridges. Supposedly at the last stage the formation of the continent on South Pole (Antarctica) and destruction of a continental crust on the northern hemisphere (formation of the Arctic ocean) took place to mount on the mass center balance. ********** The lateral tensile fracturing model of fault Zehua QIU, Institute of Crustal Dynamics, China Earthquake Administration (China). qzhbh@163.com The new discovery of a major coseismic fault of the great 1976 Tangshan earthquake has been reported. Unlike the inferred strike slip fault (apparently about 10km long) passing through the city of Tangshan, whose maximum rightlateral offset is about 1.5m at the surface, the newly discovered fault takes remarkable appearance of a normal fault dipping to northwest with a scarp 3m deep. The newly discovered coseismic fault of Tangshan earthquake is much longer (more than 40km) and can be obviously recognized in aerial photos taken shortly after the main shock. Epicenters of aftershocks are located mostly northwest of the fault. Whereas the inferred strike slip fault has neither been found in the aerial photos nor in seismic reflection profiles, the normal fault is already proved with fine geophysical explorations carried out by Jidong Oilfield Company, PetroChina. The fault is in listric shape but can not be explained with the prevailing model of listric faults. Another model, the lateral tensile fracturing model is proposed, less to explain how a listric fault occurs. Background tectonics of Tangshan and adjacent areas are considered to be undergoing vertical differential movement, relative uplift on the northwest and subsidence on the southeast. The seismic region is located on an old Kaiping syncline striking northeast with northwest wing nearly vertical and southeast wing rather flat. Once a dip slip blind fault occurs at depth in such tectonic setting, an extreme stress concentration will occur at the tip and new fracture branch, which is termed lateral tensile fracture in this case, will propagate along a path normal to the greatest tensile stress component. Based on fracture mechanics, laboratory experiments as well as numerical simulations, a double-couple of forces without moment is demonstrated to be applicable to simulate the source mechanism related to the lateral tensile fracture. The model is against the assumption of stick-slip on existing fault as the cause of the earthquake but not in conflict with seismological observations. As a matter of fact, global statistics of CMT solutions of great earthquakes raises significant support to the idea that lateral tensile fracturing might account for not only the Tangshan earthquake but also others. The lateral tensile fracture model does not only account for the generation of normal fault. Reverse fault can take place near the surface as well if horizontal compression normal to the strike of lateral tensile fracture is strong enough. **********
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A source of confusion in plate motion direction Mohammad RAEESI, University of Bergen (Norway). raeesi@geo.uib.no The plate tectonics concept has dramatically changed the understanding about the Earth's phenomena since the 1960s. But do we understand correctly the concept? We try to address the problem of plate motion direction using seismological evidence. We emphasize the proofs of a southward component of motion for central Eurasian plate, which has not been addressed in any other plate motion model. The question first arose following a M6.7 earthquake on Feb. 4th, 1997 in northeast Iran. Based on the aftershock distribution relative to the surface rupture trace we concluded that the Turan block, which is part of the Eurasian plate, should have a southward component of motion directed towards Iran. This was at odds with the common belief that Turan block was fixed and that the geological structures in northeastern Iran were regarded as resulting from compression of Iranian sub-plate to Eurasia. The aftershock distribution of the M7.4 earthquake on June 20th, 1990 in northern Iran supports the idea of existence of a southward component of motion for Eurasian plate. Although the concept of relative plate motion is mathematically correct, it is sometimes misinterpreted and consequently it will be confusing. In order to prevent this confusion, it seems necessary to derive the absolute plate motion vectors using additional constraints. The same confusion, but on a smaller scale, which is derived from the misinterpretation of Newton's third law, is observed in other branches of the Earth sciences, like seismology and structural geology. ********** Horizontal plate movements could be explained by redistribution of geological masses to have diagonal values of inertia tensor Sergey Y. SOKOLOV, Geological Institute RAS (Russian Federation). sysokolov@yandex.ru Plates movements originate from following: lithosphere masses, stratified and available for drift, move in a direction, which maximizes values for main inertia moment and zero values for tangential parts of inertia tensor relatively to current position of rotation axis. That means a general trend of masses moving towards the equator and distributing homogeneously around it. Modern asymmetrical distribution of the surface masses could imply nontrivial trajectories for masses to come into diagonal condition of inertia tensor. This state could also be accessed by shift of rotation axis position. It is believed that both two mechanisms do exist. The modeling of this process was done in two steps. First approach estimates the axis position, which brings inertia tensor into specified condition. Variation of axis position with 0.1 arc degree step was done calculating of inertia moment for all surface masses for each new axis position. It gives the result of 72.5W 15.6N for the axis position bringing inertia tensor of crust masses to diagonal view. It is approved by known data of polar wander 10 cm/year drift along this value of longitude. Another step makes variation of masses movements for each 1 arc degree cell of surface around circle with 5 degree step and detecting of the direction, which brings the total inertia to the state specified above. This modeling gave the result for movement vectors which generally match to the GPS data for the North and South America, North-Eastern Eurasia, Oceania and Pacific subduction ring. It doesn't match to GPS data at Africa, Europe and Southern Eurasia? the areas located above African Super Plume. It is reasonable for that area to compute later the superposition of movements originated from inertia justifying and Plume spreading. It means that horizontal tectonic component could be explained without mantle convection? only by superposition of two specified above agents. The ridge axis fabric will have in this case the same geology but resulted from passive compensation of space left after active continental masses drift. The subduction arc areas will also have the same geology but resulted from thrusting of active continents onto passive oceanic lithosphere. This mechanism vitally needs in alteration of rotation axis position in geological time. It is known (Avsyuk, 2001) that axis position in the Earth body moves significantly and periodically (~200 Ma) due to complicated interaction of Moon, Earth and inner core in liquid core. That means that the target for Earth surface masses movement was permanently changing its position, so the process didn't stop while reaching necessary configuration once in time. This idea is supported by changing of newly born oceans azimuth in time and phase shift of their stages? while latitudinal ocean is closing the longitudinal ocean is opening and visa versa. The investigation will be continued to calculate the movements for significant geological epochs. **********
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Element, mineral and rock formation in the context of Excess Mass Stress Tectonics EMST Stavros TASSOS, Institute of Geodynamics, National Observatory of Athens (Greece). s.tassos@gein.noa.gr In the context of Excess Mass Stress Tectonics - EMST the proton-neutron pair of the atomic nucleus, with MeV binding energies, represents the equilibrium, maximum tension of space, and the eV range electron cloud, the looser 'plasma' state where electrons accelerate from rest to light speed. Both fusion and fission involve the transformation of a smaller or bigger nucleus, to a more stable bigger or smaller one, respectively, and both converge to the max of ~8.8 MeV per nucleon of Fe56. These two spontaneously occurring processes are non-entropic, i.e., the products of both have higher nuclear binding energy/frequency as per E=hf. In fact, fusion and fission is nothing else than multiplication and division of a quantity by the same number, i.e., proportionality principle. Both involve a cyclic and linear extension component that increases frequency with time. Any excess energy input transforms an unpaired standing wave-energy into a paired standing wave-matter, or excess mass. So, elements form in the Earth's inner core, the equivalent of the atomic nucleus; accelerate from static to vmax in the 'plasma' outer core, and are emplaced atom-by-atom and in solid state around it, forming the mantle. Depending on structural constraints form compounds, crystals, minerals and rocks, in three phases: 1. The first pre-Fe, or pre-U phase, started long before 4.6 b.y.a. when H2, Li7, Be9, B11, He4, and N14, with nuclear binding from ~1.1 to ~7.5 MeV, formed. The first rocks on Earth, mostly as big monocrystals, were the Li, Be, B rich proto-pegmatites. 2. The second pre-Fe, or meta-U, phase starts ~4.6 b.y.a. and sets the radioactive decay clock with the ~7.6 MeV of U238 on the fission side, and the ~7.7 MeV of C12 on the fusion side. U and C entered into the crystalline structure of proto-pegmatites, thus forming the proto-kerogen, and CH4, the parent molecule of hydrocarbons. As the constant extension of space and the consequent frequency increase provided the higher binding energies per nucleon, elements like O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, S, K, and Ca, through fusion, and Th and Cs through fission, and minerals like spodumene, feldspar and quartz formed and entered into the crystalline structure of proto-kerogen and proto-pegmatites; gradually transforming them into kerogen and pegmatites, and the pegmatites into granites. So ~200 m.y.a. an all encompassing pegmatitic/granitic crust covered the surface of a smaller, ~60% its present radius, Earth. 3. The meta-Fe phase started ~200 Ma when the 8.8 MeV of Fe56 was provided. The emplacement of Fe into the structure of preexisting minerals was associated with radiant heat due to the resonance of 'excess' electrons in microcracks, close to the Earth's surface; causing the pyrolysis of kerogen into coal, oil and gas, and the baking of kaolinite into shale. Minerals, like micas, olivine and pyroxene were formed, and of them rocks, first the BIFs and later diorite and gabbro, and the Earth grew to its present size. ********** Earthquake and tsunami generation in the context of Excess Mass Stress Tectonics EMST Stavros TASSOS, Institute of Geodynamics, National Observatory of Athens (Greece). s.tassos@gein.noa.gr Conventionally rocks are an elastic medium, and horizontal static stress changes produce the accumulation of elastic strain, then frictional sliding, rupture, inelastic slip, and finally an earthquake is generated. But, in fact, and depending on the degree of micro- and macro-cracking, rocks under the action of a weak static stress do not deform at all, or they deform non-elastically through the slow creep to the fast slip. In effect they act as a series of separate blocks, like a deck of cards that move linearly the one relative to the other, thus removing elastic strain energy from the system. In the context of Excess Mass Stress Tectonics? EMST, since ~200 m.y.a., Fe, the last element to form rises as a high frequency/energy reduced Fe2-, in which the s- and d-orbital electronic states coincide. Upon decompression-oxidation to become Fe2,3+ releases its 4-5 excess electrons that enter into microcracks serving as resonant cavities for their resonance at the ~1014 Hz of radiant heat. When the electron concentration exceeds the threshold of ~1018 electrons/m2 that balances gravitational attraction, internal pressure builds up, microcracks enlarge and a great mass of rock is uplifted over time. If and when the concentration of electrons in the microcavities surpasses their impedance to flow a dielectric breakdown occurs, i.e., a transient discharging of electrons, causing a sudden conductivity increase and an implosive collapse that coerces the otherwise plastic underlying rock block to respond transiently elastically. An earthquake is thus generated. The magnitude depends on the size of the active volume of almost concomitantly discharging micro-cavities. If this transient dynamic stress that caused the earthquake exceeds the rock's strength can also produce a fault rupture; a secondary non-elastic effect. In an earthquake, as in a tsunami, the dynamic stress produced by the vertical displacement of the rock or the water column, respectively, acts as the elastic force, which causes compression and a pair of standing waves, the source P waves, oscillating parallel to the direction of stress; and extension and two unpaired standing-travelling waves
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propagating in opposite directions normal to the direction of strike. The Love surface waves have no vertical component and appear as horizontally polarized transverse waves. The Rayleigh surface waves, as the sea waves, could be considered to represent the interplay of P and S body waves. Actually, seismic waves as any wave, is the interchangeable compaction and rarefaction of space represented by the two orthogonal sides of any orthogonal triangle, the hypotenuse of which is the medium's maximum deformation rate. In a homogeneous and isotropic layer there is no change with depth, but in an inhomogeneous medium, the rigidity of which increases with depth, as inside the Earth, the amplitude of both body and surface waves decreases proportionally to the rigidity/frequency/density increase with depth. ********** Abiotic petroleum in a degassing Earth Karsten STORETVEDT, University of Bergen (Norway). Karsten@gfi.uib.no Are crude oil and natural gas stemming essentially from reworked biological debris, or are they products of deep Earth degassing? In the Western world the idea of a biogenic origin of petroleum is still running supreme, but major petroleum reservoirs are currently being discovered in a wide variety of rocks, often possessing no alleged source materials. For example, it is noted that many Middle East oil fields produce from rocks with no apparent proximal source rocks; the production may have experienced little drawdown from virgin state pressures, despite decades of high capacity withdrawals. Methane-dominated natural gas has, for example, been found at depths of 6 km in the granitic rocks of the Siljan Crater in Sweden, and of over 12 km at the Superdeep borehole of the Kola Peninsula. Oil and gas seeps along many deep fracture zones and as inclusions in volcanic rocks, notably in sectors of the circum-Pacific Benioff zones and in locations on mid-oceanic rifts, have remained puzzling. In the context of Global Wrench Tectonics - a degassing Earth model - major petroleum basins are restricted to areas of transtension, associated with deep lithosphere-cutting fault zones providing the necessary channels for fluid flow to the surface (of brines, hydrocarbons, magma etc). Substantial volumes of gas hydrates require effective migration pathways for water and hydrocarbon gasses. According to the new theory, such prerequisites naturally are present in narrow, fault-controlled, deep water belts off many continental margins, along which also a concentration of salt diapirs and mud volcanoes occur. The strong linear trends of many petroleum producing salt basins suggest fault control? e.g. the Central North Sea, Dnieper-Donetsk, and Pericaspian basins. All major oil and gas provinces in the world are apparently associated with transtensive tectonic conditions, supporting the abiogenic theory of petroleum. Events of true polar wander (i.e. relatively short-lived phases of planetary reorientation relative to the ecliptic) are likely to have served as a natural hydraulic device, pumping oil, natural gas, water, and high concentration saline fluids into near-surface reservoirs. ********** New physical platform for Earth evolution studies Karsten STORETVEDT, University of Bergen (Norway). Karsten@gfi.uib.no Due to the multitude of problems facing the planetesimal theory, it is suggested that the planets evolved from relatively isolated spheres of variegated and relatively concentrated source clouds. A minor fraction of the solar nebula underwent compositional fragmentation, expelling diverse protoplanetary masses into orbits close the Sun's plane of rotation (cf. Cameron 1978 and 1985). Forces of ejection gave rise to widely differing angular momenta. In this context, Earth formed from the condensation of a relatively fast spinning sphere of concentrated mineral dust mixed with various gases and volatiles. It is commonly assumed that the pre-solar nebula, from which the planets formed, had temperatures up top of 50 degrees Kelvin. The question is then how such a rotating mineral cloud, immersed in cold gas, came to 'settle' in the ensuing solidifying process. Experimental studies of the mixing processes in granular media have disclosed that grain assemblages have a tendency to segregate by size, density, shape and other particle properties (e.g. Cook et al. 1976; Fan et al. 1990). Thus, in the early stages of planetary development the centrifugal force of rotation produced an overall segregation of the dust particles according to size. Larger constituents, including radioactive elements like U and Th, were forced dynamically towards the outer regions, while a not insignificant fraction of the gaseous elements might have been entrapped in the developing core. One might envisage therefore substantial radioactive heating of the outer parts of the early planet, consistent with the presence of komatiitic lavas - the major constituents of the greenstone belts that formed between 3.5 and 2.5 Gy. The suggested higher temperatures of the protoplanet's outer regions (corresponding to present-day upper
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mantle) would have enhanced reaction rates and associated advanced degassing, particularly with regard to the larger heterogeneity of the lower mantle, building up a proto-crust of anorthositic-dioritic composition. In the relatively cold protoplanetary gaseous mass, magnetized particles built up larger and heavier irregular bodies to serve as kernels for gravitational accretion of the high-density iron-rich core (Tunyi et al. 2001). As elements like sulphur, carbon, silicon, hydrogen and oxygen easily dissolve in high pressure metallic mixes, these lighter constituents can be expected to have followed iron alloys into the core, thereby explaining its current density deficit. The core has apparently a strong capacity to store hydrogen, and due to its relatively low temperatures it can be inferred that the planet's deep interior is in a highly undegassed state. It is concluded that vertical mass transfer from the deep, associated with chemical reactions, heat/melt production and dynamical changes, represent the impetus for the range of surface and lithospheric geological and geophysical expressions. ********** Phanerozoic Earth history in the framework of global wrench tectonics Karsten STORETVEDT, University of Bergen (Norway). Karsten@gfi.uib.no Various lines of evidence suggest that the early Earth was a relatively cold and largely undifferentiated (undegassed) body, blanketed by a relatively thick pan-global anorthositic-dioritic layer. Subsequently, slow and unevenly distributed devolatilization of the interior has occurred, gradually producing variable thinning and chemical/mineralogical transformations of the outer shell. The inferred mantle roots beneath the present continents are other products of uneven degassing. These processes have further led to periodic changes in the Earth's moments of inertia; instigating changes of planetary rotation. The growing deep oceanic depressions, having accelerated in late Mesozoic times, did not only accommodate the increasing volume of expelled juvenile water, but had also the capacity to house the former extensive epicontinental seas, eventually giving rise to the present regions of dry land. In concert with the pronounced mechanical weakening of the progressively inhomogeneous crust, along with an ensuing growth of irregular asthenospheric horizons, the brittle outer shell (the lithosphere) became increasingly unstable tectonically. Episodic loss of heavier eclogitized crustal material to the upper mantle, associated with stages of isostatic subsidence of developing oceanic regions, led to periodic planetary acceleration. This, in turn, gave rise to events of inertia-driven deformation of the lithospheric layer, producing latitude-dependent wrench deformation across the globe. The planetary acceleration that advanced in the Upper Cretaceous pitched the Earth into a tectonic calamity: relative, mostly minor, in situ continental rotations, responsible for the observed discrepancies between palaeomagnetically-based polar wander paths, took place for the first time in Earth history. The notions of lateral continental drift and sea floor spreading are at variance with factual evidence. The thinned crust beneath the evolving oceanic basins were deformed and metamorphosed. Tectonic belts are aligned either along time-equivalent equators (e.g. the Caledonian, Hercynian and Alpine belts of Europe), or have evolved in palaeomeridional settings (such as in the cases of the Ural, Grenville and Pan-African belts). Regions of the upper mantle that received the greater amount of degassing volatiles underwent long-term uplift (prior to their subsequent subsidence) while the remaining surface area - the continental blocks to be, were affected by transgressive super cycles. Widespread events of crustal loss to the mantle, gave rise to regressive eustatic phases, accompanied by volcanism and exhalation of toxic volatiles to ocean and atmosphere - with their climatic and biological consequences. It is the combination of intermittent crustal loss to the mantle, associated planetary acceleration, and the range of connected geological phenomena that define the principal geological boundaries. ********** On the elliptic arrangement of faults accompanied by deep earthquakes in the Japanese islands and neighbourhoods Yasumoto SUZUKI, Ex-Member of the Geological Survey of Japan (Japan). yasu-suzuki@vega.ocn.ne.jp NICS of Island Arcs The Research Group of Geotecto, Study Group (Japan) P-wave radiation pattern of an earthquake tells us the axes of maximum pressure and maximum tension, and two nodal planes, one of which corresponds to the fault plane. The authors choose the more inclined nodal plane to be a fault plane accompanied by an earthquake, as it runs parallel to the strike of nodal planes accompanied by the earthquake of dip-slip type occurred in the neighboring area, which run parallel each other (Suzuki et al., 1977). Suzuki and Kobayashi (2005) pointed out that the faults accompanied by deep earthquakes in central Honshu run elliptically roughly 200km to 300km in width, and to a depth of 500km or so. The elliptic arrangement of faults is
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cut by radial ones. The area is composed mainly of Paleozoic and Mesozoic formations intruded by Mesozoic and Paleogene granitic rocks geologically. The elliptic arrangement of faults is comparable to the ring-like distribution of granitic rocks, which suggests their deep origin. Seven units of such elliptic arrangement are found in Hokkaido and Honshu. Their widths are about 100 to 300km, and they extend to a depth of 300km or so. Normal faults are predominant in the central part and reverse ones in the marginal part in general, but the unit in Kanto region is predominant in reverse ones. Five units of similar arrangement are found in Izu and Ogasawara (Bonin) ridges. Each unit is from 150km to 200km to 200km to 300km in width, and extends to a depth of 500km or more. Reverse faults are predominant in the northern two units, but normal ones in the southern three units. Elliptic arrangement is found in Kuril basin, where the width is about 300km to 1200km, and the bottom extends to a depth of 500km or more. Arch-shaped arrangements of faults accompanied by deep earthquakes are found in the northeast, central and southwest parts of the Sea of Japan. They extend to a depth of 500 or 600km or more. The extended general trend of the arch runs parallel to the intrusion of granitic rocks in the Korean peninsula. Elliptic arrangement of faults accompanied by deep earthquakes indicates the fine structure of the wedge-shaped part on the deep earthquake zone. Each unit has its own characteristics in geomorphology and geology, so it must have its own deep structure to a depth of several hundred km and its own driving force of tectogenesis. The synchronous activity of destructive earthquakes in the elliptic unit of central Honshu might suggest the evidence of such tectogenesis. *********** Impulse magnetic field in planetary formation Igor TUNYI, Geophysical Institute SAS (Slovakia) Peter GUBA, Geophysical Institute SAS (Slovakia) Peter BALAZ, Institute of Geotechnics SAS (Slovakia) Milan TIMKO, Institute of Experimental Physics SAS (Slovakia) Jozef KOVAC, Institute of Experimental Physics SAS (Slovakia) Ladislav E. ROTH, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (United States) This study is a follow-up of our previous studies on the aggregation of ferromagnetic grains due to an impulse magnetic field. We have performed laboratory experiments on a sample of natural magnetite from Kiruna, Sweden. The mechanochemical analysis showed that the sample consisted of magnetite Fe3O4 (98%) and silicate SiO2 (2%). The sample was effectively non-magnetic. The sample was then milled to a powder with an average grain size of 0.88 m. In the absence of magnetic field, the powder particles may aggregate as a result of electrostatic forces. In our case, this process yielded a non-compact cluster, easily destroyed by weak external forcing. The powdery sample was then subject to the impulse magnetic field of 5 T. The magnetic field gives rise to a compact, deformable cluster. The individual grains are magnetically bonded, with the cluster exhibiting a permanent magnetic moment. In addition, the predominantly silicate (non-magnetic) grains, having not been affected by the field, stayed apart of the cluster. *********** The structure and composition of the Pacific Mega-basin basement complex Boris VASILIEV, Pacific Oceanological Institute (Russian Federation). boris@poi.dvo.ru Dong CHOI, Raax Australia Pty Ltd (Australia). raax@ozemail.com.au This paper documents the basement complex of the Pacific Mega-basin based on dredgings, drillings and study on xenoliths in the volcanic lavas. The obtained data testify to the multiplex heterogeneous and heterochronic structure of the basement complex of the Pacific Mega-basin. Numerous relicts of continental crust are identified in their composition, which vindicate both the dredged continental type rocks and the volcanic composition (ankaramite, trachybasalt and boninite association). They are revealed in the geological profiles where comparatively detailed investigations were carried out. Further study will reveal convincingly the continental composition of the Pacific Ocean basement. Also a large part of the crust of the Pacific Mega-basin obviously has a melanocratic composition, which testifies to a wide development of ultramafic and mafic rocks; they were directly derived from the seafloor and the boreholes and in the form of xenoliths in volcanic lavas. In all probabilities, the Earth's crust has been
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formed by repeated tectono-magmatic processes occurred in the continental lithosphere. This is confirmed by the isotopic composition of lead, strontium and niobium in the igneous rocks of oceanic islands, which gives the age of the substratum (from which they were melted) being 3.5 billion years. The same age was obtained from lherzolites in the xenoliths found in the Hawaiian volcanic lavas. The final formation of the basement complex under the large part of the Pacific Mega-basin has occurred in the Jurassic - Cretaceous period as a result of gigantic-scale global magmatism, similar to the continental one, which marked the beginning of the newest basaltic stage of the development of the Earth. Some recommendations are given for future deep-water drillings to further the study of composition and age of the basement rocks of the Pacific Mega-basin. ********** The reason for a decrease in the Earth's rotation speed in geological time. The total continental plate torque friction force moment Victor ZEMTSOV, Institute of Geology (Russian Federation). zemtsov@krc.karelia.ru Angular rotation velocity (ARV) is the main characteristic of the rotational motion of a solid body. In plate tectonics, it is estimated not very accurately and is based on the assumption that every continent is a rigid slab. Calculations of the instantaneous ARV of the Eurasian domains, based on GPS-networks, disprove this concept. The method used in physics to estimate the ARV of a rotating body is simple and, as a result, to a second approximation, Eurasia is actually not a rigid plate. Within the continent, the ARV of its domains changes several times, increasing in absolute value from the continental periphery to the central domain of rotation (Zemtsov, 2007). Based on palaeomagnetic data, similar and new patterns of the rotational tectonics of ancient Eurasia can be recognized. A change in the direction of rotation for ancient Europe (Baltica) when it intersected the equator is apparently a general geophysical pattern of the plate motion. During this short Upper Devonian interval in the tectonics of Baltica there were a lot of near-E-W strike slip crust deformations accompanied by ultramafic diamondiferous magmatism in the northern Fennoscandian Shield (in ancient coordinates). Differential rotations, slow for Baltica and fast for Siberia, existed in Lower Devonian time and after their collision in the Upper Carboniferous can be observed presently, showing that average ARV values were latitude-dependent. It seems that one should distinguish the pattern of wrench deformations at tropical latitudes. According to K.M. Storetvedt (2005), these are dominantly N-S deformations caused by lithospheric compression and linear shearing strain deformations directed along the equator, but wrench deformations at moderate and polar latitudes are chiefly ring-shaped shearing strain deformation and extension deformation, caused by spontaneous continental rotations. From the beginning of Triassic time during 160 Ma average ARV values for Baltica, the Urals and for the Siberian domains were somewhat higher than contemporary ones (Zemtsov et al., 2006). This seems to be connected with the motion of Eurasia southwards and with the known decrease in the Earth's rotation speed, i.e. with the gradual movement of the Moon away from the Earth in geological time (Varga, 1996; Zharkov, 2003). The majority of ancient continental domains of today's Eurasia have been rotating in the opposite direction to the vector ARV of the Earth for ca. 580 Ma. Thus, on the bottom of such a continent there has been a torque friction force moment, which together with the tidal friction in all oceans could lead to the decrease of the Earth's mantle ARV through the Phanerozoic. ********** About the birth of Mediterranean by mantle flow and thrust Jiagui ZHANG, Institute of Geomechanics, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (China). jiagui62@sina.com Here is a deduction about the birth of Mediterranean and tectonic movement around it. In author's recent opinion, there mainly exist three types of global dynamics, which are the westward dynamic gravitation generated by Earth rotation, cosmic gravity and gravitational equilibrium, making the Earth move differently everywhere. Africa is put westward by the mantle flow and thrust zone(for short, MFTZ) with axis across Tanga, Bujumbura and Mbandaka and MFTZ across Laut Maluku, Thai Carat Isthmus, Indian Peninsula and Arabian Sea which are raised by the dynamic gravitation, and Eurasia northward by cosmic gravity. The border of both is open, active and capable of mantle flow, especially upper mantle flow. The mantle under Persian Gulf with the support of westward dynamic gravitational flows and thrusts to the east part of Mediterranean via Euphrates, and the mantle under Red Sea to the plain via Adriatic Sea, and then to Aegean because of the thrust from the western part of Mediterranean, which put
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the crust NW-ward, thin the crust under the eastern part of Mediterranean and give birth to the eastern part. The mantle under Atlantic flows and thrusts to the western part of Mediterranean mainly via Biscay Bay and Gibraltar Strait by gravitational equilibrium, which puts the crust under the western part of Mediterranean to move radially and gives birth to the western part of Mediterranean. Two differently-oriented mantle flows contact along Italy and give out volcanoes and earthquakes. All the movement involving orogeny, depression, fault slip, volcanoes and earthquakes around Mediterranean are in connection with those mantle flows.
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PUBLICATIONS
Trans-Asiatic lineaments and Himalayan Orogeny
V. RAIVERMAN KDM Institute of Petroleum Exploration, Oil & Natural Gas Commission, Dehra Dun, India In, Sinha, A.K., (ed.), Himalayan orogen and global tectonics. The International Lithosphere Programme. 1992. p. 121-155.
Excerpt from abstract any authors are of the opinion that the Indian plate collided with the Tibetan plate sometime between the Later Cretaceous and early Tertiary and that the continual subduction of the Indian plate terminated in the creation of the Himalayan orogenic belt. Were such the case, the disposition of pre-collision lineaments occurring over the Indian shield should bear no relationship to those occurring on the Eurasian plate across the orogenic chain. However, an analysis of structural features, stratigraphy, igneous episodes and evolutionary history of sedimentary basins ranging in age from Precambrian to Quaternary shows that there are a number of prominent lineaments which are co-linear, straddling the two so-called plates cross the mountain chains. Some of the lineaments co-axial with major Gondwana grabens of India cross thee the Sind-Baluchistan Arc to the west and the Assam-Arakan ranges to the east. Still others are seen to extend into the Indian Ocean regime from the shield. A complete matching of a large number of such lineaments between India and adjacent t regions suggests unity between India and Asia and rules out any long-distance migration of the Indian plate from the polar to the Himalayan region. Available fossil evidence does not support a separation of the Indian plate from that of Asia in the past. Low-angle thrusts in the Himalaya, fossil oceanic crust in the suture zones and the current style of interpretation of paleomagnetic data do not necessarily favour the plate tectonics hypothesis and alternative models for Himalayan orogeny must be investigated. It is now known that there are three more suture zones in the Tibetan massif north of the Indus Suture. It provides an orogenic model of integrated development of the Himalaya and the Tibetan massif, the uplift of which appears to have taken place by upward movement of a sub-crustal magmatic and basification front rising from the mantle facilitated by deep fracture zones.
Legend. 1. Orographic axis, 2. ophiolite, 3. lineament
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Global lineaments: Application of digital terrain modelling

Author: Igor V. FLORINSKY. In, Zhou, Q., Lees, B. and Tang, G-A. [eds.], Advances in Digital Terrain Analysis. 462p., Springer, 2008. ISBN: 978-3-540-77799-1 Abstract n the past few decades, there have been proposals suggesting that hidden global linear (helical) structures exit, which are tectonically and topographically expressed. In this study, this hypothesis was checked using digital terrain modelling. The study was based on a 30 arc-minute gridded global digital elevation model. Eighteen topographic variables were for the first time calculated and mapped for the entire surface of the earth. Digital terrain analysis provided support for the existence of global lineaments: on maps of specific catchment area, it was possible to detect five mutually symmetrical pairs of helical structures encircling the Earth from pole to pole. The structures are topographically expressed by patterns of the global ridge network. They are apparently associated with traces of the torsional deformation of the planet: two double helices are in reasonable agreement with theoretically predicted traces of shear fractures, while another two double helices are in reasonable agreement with ideal traces of cleavage cracks. Geological phenomena observed along the structures are discussed (i.e. fracturing, faults, crystal, and ore deposits). It is probable that double helices are relic structures similar to a planetary network of helical lineaments of Venus. ********************
Tectonic, deep structure, metalloeny of the Central Asia-Pacific Belts junction area
Authors: Karsakov, L.P. et al. [eds.], 2008. Yu.A. Kosygin Institute of Tectonics and Geophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Far Eastern Branch, and Ministry of Land and Resources, Peoples Republic of China. Shenyang Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources. Explanatory Notes for the Tectonic Map, Scale 1:1,500,000. Published by Geological Publishing House, Beijing. 213p. In English. For more information, please contact R. F. Cherkasov, itig@itig.as.khb.ru. Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1 Siberian Platform Chapter 2 North China Platform Chapter 3 Central Asia orogenic belt Chapter 4 Pacific orogenic belt Chapter 5 Structure of interaction of central Asian and Pacific tectonic belts with continental margin Chapter 6 Intraplate rift structures Chapter 7 Deep structure of the region Chapter 8 Metallogeny of the region Chapter 9 Seismicity and recent geodynamics Conclusions References
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Ancient and continental rocks in the Atlantic

Takao YANO (yano@rstu.jp) Dept. of environmental Science, Faculty of Sciences, Tottori University Tottori 680-8551, Japan
Age distribution of the ocean floor simplified from Dercourt (2000) and Sigmond (2002). This map was published in Abstracts of papers presented at the NCGT Tokyo Symposium, August, 2008, p. 18. References: Dercourt, J. [ed.], 2000. Geological mal of the World, Scale 1:25,000,000. Commission for the Geological Map for the World and UNESCO; Sigmond, E.M-O., 2002. Geological Map, Land Sea Areas of Northern Europe, Scale 1:4 million. Geological Survey of Norway.
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Global Volcanism and the Earth oceanization

Author: V. B. Orlenok (orlenok@albertina.ru) Published by: Immanuel Kant State University of Russia Press. 224p., 2008. In Russian with English Summary n this monograph the author develops his work on theoretical issues concerning the Earth and planets, the origin and evolution of the world ocean, and the structure of the earths crust. He presents numerous calculations of endogenously produced water and photolytic losses in the hydrosphere and indigenous materials during different stages of geological history as well as examining initial (Katarchean) and recent (Cenozoic) periods in global volcanism, their influence on the generation of the sialic basement and the Earths oceanization. The volume and masses of indigenous materials and water pouring out onto the earths surface have been calculated. The apparatus for photolysis making developed by the author made it possible to assess the hydrospheres conditions throughout the Precambrian and Phanerozoic. A relationship has been found between the life spans of the ocean basins and their areas, water masses and solar conditions. Our planet has never had available resources for making and retaining (for hundreds of millions of years) a deep-water ocean. Even a shallow ocean which could cover 80% of the Earths surface due to photolytic water dissipation could disappear in just for several dozen million years. The author has determined substantial reductions in the radius of the Earth and planets and in other conditions such as volume, territories, masses and average density for 4.5x109 years; critically analyzed geophysical data from the earths crust throughout the continents and oceans which revealed a lack of basic distinctions in the structure of their potential and seismic fields; examined the characteristics of early volcanism and the hydrosphere regime on the surface of planets which belong to the Earth group, the inner planets and the planetary giants. This manual is intended for specialists in the field of Earth sciences as well as students, postgraduates of geographical and geological faculties of universities and other higher educational establishments. Review by: V.A. Solvyev, K.N. Dyankonov and N.A. Shilo ********** CONTENTS Preface Chapter 1. Present structure and dynamics of the ocean floor 1. Topographic features of the sea bottom, seism tectonics and volcanism 2. Modern conceptions of the ocean nature Chapter 2. CENOZOIC GLOBAL VOLCANISM AND THE EARTH OCEANIZATION 1. Evident indications of great subsidence of the ocean floor 2. Determination of the rate of the ocean floor subsidence 3. Quantitative estimation of endogen water inflow coming out on the Earth surface for last 70x106 years 4. Estimation of photolytic losses in the hydrosphere 5. Paleogeographical conditions in the Phanerozoic time before starting an oceanization 6. New equation of water balance 7. Reasons for the Earth oceanization 8. Dissociation and deserpentation processes on the Earth crust 9. Reasons for the Cenozoic global volcanism 10. Heat and water balance during oceanization 11. Alterations in the ocean level for recent 140 years causes and effects Chapter 3. Future of the World Ocean 1. Calculation of water volume on the Earth 2. Why was not impossible the Ocean existence in the Proterozoic time? 3. What will be the time of the Ocean existence? Chapter 4. Katarhean global volcanism and generation of sialic complex of the Earth crust
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1. Pre-geological Earth state 2. Evolution and conditions in the Sun 3. Radius reduction and alterations in other parameters of the Earth 4. Original global volcanism 5. The function of the short-living radioactive isotopes during original volcanism 6. The stage of volcanism weakening in the Precambrian epoch Chapter 5. Original volcanism and water through other planets 1. Geological aspects in the analysis of the issue 2. Planets of the Earth group 3. Planets-giants 4. The Titan, the Triton and Galilean satellites of the Jupiter Chapter 6. Geological history of the late Mesozoic seas 1. Distribution of Pre-Cambrian granite-metamorphic rocks through oceanic areas 2. Shapes and depths of the Jura-Cretaceous seas 3. Shape and depths of the Cenozoic ocean 4. Paleogeography of sea basins during the late Phanerozoic time 5. Paleogeography of the Cenozoic ocean Chapter 7. Seismic structure of the Earth crust in the oceans 1. Critical analysis of seismic records for the earth structure in the oceans 2. Estimation of deep-earth seismic sounding with travel time equation of refraction waves 3. Seismic pattern of the earth crust in the oceans Chapter 8. Petromagnetic structure of the Earth crust in the oceans 1. Why is it impossible to consider magnetic anomalies in the oceans for calculations of a spreading velocity 2. Analysis of the equation of paleomagnetic reconstructions 3. Example of determination virtual poles of the magnetic poles of the Earth for this epoch 4. Critics of paleomagnetic reconstructions of neomobilism Conclusions References ********** Conclusions In the history of the Earth two main volcanic epochs are distinguished which have led to the formation of the sialic base of the Earths crust and also to the formation of the world oceans. The epoch of initial volcanism, which started right after the end of planetary accretion (4.5109 years), took place on a planetary scale and lasted about 400 million years. More than 6.0109 km3 of volcanic material and about 9.0107 km3 of water were thrown out onto the Earths surface. By the end of Katarchean (4.0109 years) after the intensive volcanic phase, granitization and metamorphism on the Earths entire surface, the sialic base of the crust was formed with a thickness of ~10 km and shallow oceanic basins appeared. These basins occupied about half of the Earths surface and had an average depth of about 300 m. In the Katarchean the Sun had been in a prestellar stage and there was no photolytic dissipation of the hydrosphere during this epoch. That is why a considerable part of primordial oceans existed up to the end of the Katarchean (4.0-3.9) 109 years, i.e. before the Sun entered the stage of a variable luminosity star. Sharp attenuation of volcanism, and a considerable reduction of water outflow, as a result of photolysis quickly destroyed these proto-oceans: t = 91022g(H2O) /F=2.3107 years, where photolysis (F) from the area of 3108 km2 of initial oceans is equal to: F=1.3107g/year3108km2=3.91015g/year;
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i.e. the primordial oceans existed for a little more than 20 million years. Nevertheless, the long existence of primordial shallow oceans during the greatest part of the Katarchean (400 million years), comparable with the duration of the shallow sea basins of the Phanerozoic created favorable conditions for the beginning and intensive development of prokaryotic biospheres. Because of the lack of solar heat and light this biosphere extracted energy from the sea basins warmed up by volcanoes, and also the hotbed effect on the land surface caused by the powerful relic-volcanic atmosphere. Numerous prokaryotic metabolites prove this (quartzite, graphite, sulphidic, magnesia and carbonate deposits, mummified remains of microorganisms in the Aldany shield). The absence of any of signs of photosynthesis is additional proof of the prestellar stage of the Sun. The first evidence of photosynthesis comes from findings of fossils in volcanic rocks of the Swaziland (South Africa) Suite series which is 3.1109 years old. Volcanic rocks 4.5-4.0109 years old were found also on the Moon (in raised, mountain areas) while younger volcanic rocks (3.9-3.6109 years) were lifted from the bottom of lunar "seas". The former reflects initial volcanism on the Moon, and the latter reflects basalt outpourings caused by massive meteoric bombardment. Powerful volcanic formations which later became cratered by meteorites, have been found on all terrestrial planets and big satellites of the giant planets. Just like on the Moon, the imposing of craters on volcanic relief denotes its more ancient age (4.0109 years) which coincides with initial volcanism on the Earth and the Moon. The simultaneity of initial volcanism on the Earth and other planets proves the existence of a general power source. It could only be short-life isotopes U235, Al26, Be10, etc. that had fallen on the planetary surface together with the rest of dust-gas clouds at the end of accretion. As a result of the explosion of a young Supernova star developed by a catastrophic carbon-nitrogen cycle the avalanche of short-life isotopes has covered circumsolar space. It is necessary to see a similarity with terrestrial conditions which appeared on terrestrial planets during the initial volcanic epoch. It suggests the possibility of wide development of powerful prokaryotic biospheres there, whose traces can be searched for in areas of initial volcanic development. If the Sun in the Katarchean was in a modern spectral class (G) (6000 K) as is postulated by the physical theory, then the prokaryotic biosphere would not remain 400 million years at the same evolutionary level. It is enough to recollect that in the Phanerozoic under the same conditions of the humidifying but hot Sun the evolution of the organic world for the same 400 million years made a prompt jump from prokaryote and trilobite to Homo Sapiens. To put it another way, if the Sun (according to the theory) had reached a yellow spectral class 5.6 billion years ago the development of the organic world of the Earth could have begun 4 billion years earlier! The duration of initial Katarchean volcanism is completely regulated by the longevity of short-life isotopes (106-108 years). Therefore the full attenuation of volcanism was 4.0-3.9109 years ago. The subsequent 3.9 billion years are characterized by a considerable reduction of volcanic intensity on all surfaces of the Earth and its full termination on other planets. For such a long time interval only 0.45109 km3 of volcanic material and 1.35108 km3 of water have been formed. The intensity of volcanism was only 0.35-0.011015 km3 per year, i.e. in 50-100 times less than during the initial volcanic epoch. Provided that we collect all water formed during the late Archean, Proterozoic and biggest part of the Phanerozoic the ocean formed (480 m depth) could cover half the surface of the Earth of that time (5.6108 km2). The average photolysis constant Fn in the Proterozoic equals: Fn=1.7107 g/km2per year The duration (t) of such rather shallow oceans would equal: t=1.351023 g (2O)/F=2.8107 years (F=FnS), i.e. only one hundredth of 3.9109 years! In conditions of weak volcanism and a small amount of water on the surface of the Earth, and with predominantly low, mainly negative temperatures, the further evolution of prokaryotic biospheres of the Katarchean has stopped. Its second radiation (2.3109 years) was in conditions of weak volcanism. Therefore the increase of solar heat due to the rising Sun photosphere temperature up to 4000-4500 K could be the basic energy source, promoting this revival of the organic world. From this time the photosynthesis mainly of
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aquatic plants and photolysis of water molecules became constant sources of oxygen in the terrestrial atmosphere. It is necessary to note the boundary between the Late Archean and Proterozoic (2.6109 years). It coincides with full disintegration of long-life isotope 40 (2.62 x 109 years) which was the unique power source of weak volcanism at this stage. The absence or fragmentariness of glacial tillites in the Proterozoic comes from the weak moisture of the land, the absence of extensive sea basins, the dryness of the atmosphere and extremely low mode of atmospheric precipitation. Only at the end of Riphean (900 million years ago) did signs of the short-term increase and fast falling of solar luminosity appear, which is reflected in alteration of tillites with reddish weathered crust and evaporites. In the Phanerozoic in line with weak volcanism, numerous shallow sea basins appeared. At the boundary of the Devonian and Carboniferous (360 million years ago) the Sun was in the stage of a yellow spectral class (6000K). Under cover of the formed ozone screen, using sunlight, heat, water and developed prokaryotic and eukaryotic biospheres, the powerful evolutionary development of the organic life of the Earth began simultaneously with the start of the second global volcanic epoch. The second global volcanic epoch began at the end of the Mesozoic (Late Jurassic) from adjacent continental areas of the Indian and Atlantic oceans and also in the central part of Pacific Ocean. In the late Cretaceous and Paleogene volcanism enveloped the central regions of these oceanic basins. However in the Miocene the median areas of future rift ridges remained exposed to the air. A little later in the Miocene and Pliocene the arches of mid-oceanic ridges in the northwestern region of the Pacific Ocean started to subside and deep-water trenches of island arcs were formed. The rate of subsidence of the world ocean bottom as a whole promptly increases, as we can see from the hypsometry of shallow sediments, and now has reached the highest value of 0.8-1.0 mm/year. During this period more than 1109 km3 of volcanic materials and 2.2109 km3 of water have been outpoured onto the surface of the Earth in an area of more than 340106 km2. As a result, for the first time the deep world oceans were formed which now occupy more than 2/3 of the Earths surface. The average thickness of volcanic rocks was 2.5 km. Large-scale subsidence of the Earths crust with an amplitude of up to 8 km accompanied the volcanism and simultaneous extrusion of huge masses of water which exceeded the volume of volcanic rocks by a factor of more than two. So considerable subsidence of the Earths crust could occur in the mobile asthenosphere, in the process of its decontamination, dehydration and volcanism. The intensity of Cenozoic global volcanism was 15.3 km3 per year, i.e. it is comparable with the intensity of initial volcanism in the Katarchean. However its duration was considerably shorter, only 65-70 million years. The intensity of volcanism has now fallen to 2-3 km3 per year. Water losses from photolysis were 6.3 x 1023 g from those 2.2 x 1024 g extruded on the surface during volcanism. It corresponds to a sheet of water with a thickness of 1.5 km, i.e. (without photolytic dissipation) the world oceans would cover 90% of the land surface. What was the cause of the second, Cenozoic epoch of global volcanism? Why after almost four billion years since the end of the initial volcanic period did the new one begin, but only on the Earth and partly on Venus? According to the author, there was one more source a zone of radiogenic heat (ZRH) at the boundary between the metal core and the lower mantle. The externally discharged part of the clouds, whose average density at a distance of 105 km from the core was about 10-3 g/cm3, and up to 0.1-1 g/cm3 near it, has been a million times less saturated with these isotopes than the area of condensations near the core. Subsequent accretion of dust-gas material has buried the thickness of the bottom mantle enriched with long-life isotopes. As the half-life period of uranium and thorium is more than 4.5109 years, full warming up of the bottom mantle began only after four billion years. Thus the ZRH is not only an area of special thermodynamic conditions, but also a zone of radiogenic heat, which accumulation started endothermic interaction reactions of dihydrite and peroxide metals on the upper boundary of ZRH melt: 2+2 ++2. The main product of this thermo-chemical reaction is water, which in hydrate-like compounds together with free hydrogen during the Phanerozoic rose up to the planets periphery under the sialic layer, forming the secondary zone of melt, the asthenosphere. Under the sectors of future oceans this zone has had the greatest development. When pressure diminished hydrate water associated with light elements Al, Si, C, Mg and
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others dissociated in released water and were a base for the development of exothermal hydrolytic reactions in the asthenosphere. The volume of processed substances from the low mantle which can be determined from the expenditure of H2, H2O and heat made of 3.8 x 1031 kal. This heat was quite enough to start the initiation process of Cenozoic global volcanism. If in the epoch of initial volcanism essentially past meteorite substance of dust and gas nebulae which contained small quantity of water (0.5%), only in the epoch of Cenozoic and an upper mantle saturated with endogenous as well as serpent hydrate rocks from sialic and mafic layers of the Earth crust. That is why only a tenth of all waters have been brought to the surface in the Cenozoic by volcanism. During the modern period of weak volcanism a huge amount of endogenous waters continue to arrive through rift faults in mid-oceanic ridges, deep faults in island arcs. Therefore the acceptance of the heterogeneous model of the accretion of the Earth and other planets defines all the features of their subsequent evolution. Initial components are the metallic core, the radioactive mantle saturated with long-life isotopes, and a relic gas atmosphere. All the rest is a product of the evolution of protosubstance. All planets have a metallic core, and the weight of dust-gas clouds condensed round it depends on core weight and consequently on gravity. This dependence based on the parameters of planetary radius and a core for the Earth and the Moon (according to the authors definition) had approximately identical values: 1:5 for the core; 1:2.9 ZRH; 1:2.2 the modern mantle. Thus, these proportions make it possible to define the parameters of the internal structure of all planets and their satellites. By the same principle the author has found connections between the volume of a planetary body and the volume of initial volcanism that have made it possible to calculate the power of volcanic formations, weight of water and its photolytic losses after the end of volcanism on all planets and their large satellites. If we speak about the homogeneous accretion of planets and the formation of planetary spheres thanks to chemical differentiation, none of these questions would be solved. The fact of the matter is that presenting such differentiation is possible only mathematically in the real thermodynamic conditions of the mantle where pressure reaches tens to hundreds of thousands of times atmospheric pressure. However it is unrealistic to carry out such processes physically and still nobody is able to do it. Calculations show that photolysis will destroy the modern deep-water ocean during 200 million years in conditions of modern energy of solar luminosity preservation and the termination of endogenous waters. But the ocean level is now continuing to rise at a rate of 2.6 mm/year and as shown in chapter 3, this process will proceed for about 12 years, after which a drop in the ocean level is possible. So, the huge scale of volcanism during 4.5109 years brought a mass of 7.45109 km3 of magmatic rocks onto the Earths surface, having a mass of 241025 g, and 14.6 km thick. Together with decontamination, dehydration and heat loss it inevitably led to a reduction in the Earths mass. Over the last 1.0 billion years the radius of the Earth has decreased by over 150 km, and for all history by over 585 km. Hence, the counteraction of the Earth is inevitable; the external rigid sialic cover will be defined as a whole by a reduction in the volume of the planetary body. The dynamic display of this process is expressed in steadily decreasing vertical movements of the Earths crustal segments. All other movements are very limited in both space and time. Mid-oceanic rift ridges like many elevations within continents and deep trenches are, in fact, residual ones, often complicated by mantle diapiric tectonics as has taken place along mid-oceanic ridges. The theory of Earth expansion (i.e. work against gravity) is physically impracticable on a planetary scale. Midoceanic ridges dont reflect the expansion, but combine structures of residual elevations that appeared when the platform subsided along both sides with a structure of its arch tension due to intrusion down up a mantle diapir which has disrupted this arch by rift faulting. Therefore Precambrian crustal rocks and sometimes ultramafic mantle diapirs are quite often exposed in it. The establishment of oceanization makes it possible to comprehend the Earths geological history from new perspectives, and to constrain frameworks of discussions about the nature and age of the oceans and, more important, to put the forecasting of environmental evolution on a scientific basis.
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The scientific community should abandon the captivity of the academic utopias of neomobilism and face reallife natural phenomena the oceanization of the Earth, to begin its studying and to make necessary decisions for protection of coastal centers of civilization from rising sea level. Moreover, we should correct our notion of a perpetually hot Sun, whose age may be comparable with the age of the Metagalaxy, which follows from the physical model of the fully hydrogen content of the heavenly body that appeared in the last century. According to the material presented here, the Sun reached its modern luminosity (6000K) not 5.6 billion years ago but only 400 million years ago in the Devonian. Strong spelling since 0.5 1 million years ago is an index of the Suns luminary incidence connected to hydrogen processing (for about 97%) in it, which was not only 100% but 2% as in meteorites and a dust-gas nebula. Now the interglacial period is coming to an end, and may be replaced by the next large cold snap and a new glacial age during this millennium. Therefore the problems of modern climate warming are rather short-term and will end within the next decade. ******************
(Editors note: The following article appeared in Energy & Environment, v. 20, nos. 1 & 2, p. 197-200. Reproduction permitted by the Bob Foster, Guest Editor of the journal. Contents of the entire issue are listed at the end of this article)
Lysenkoism and global warming

Emeritus Professor Cliff OLLIER Honorary Research Fellow, School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, The University of Western Australia
E-mail: cliffol@cyllene.uwa.edu.au ABSTRACT: A classic instance of the baleful effect of political interference in science is provided by the Lysenko Affair. There are, unfortunately, close parallels between that example and the modern politics of Global Warming. Significantly, Trofim Lysenko introduced his ideas first through politics. Some think his ideas had Marxist backing because biology could be then modified in the way that Soviet communists wanted in order to control peoples behaviour. Furthermore, Lysenko demonised conventional genetics, which again suited his masters - who believed this to be the basis behind Fascist eugenics.
1. INTRODUCTION. Trofim Lysenko was an insignificant agriculturalist, who thought he had a new way of developing crops that would vastly increase food production in the starving Russia of Stalin. It was called vernalisation, and included treating seeds before cultivation to affect their behaviour. The Soviet government was anxious to increase food production, and quell disturbances amongst the growers; and Lysenko was an adept propagandist, and became a cult leader who impressed the peasants. Ultimately, he became the head of the Soviet Lenin All Union Institute of Agricultural Sciences, and ran the nations research in this field. He promised to triple or to quadruple crop yields.
Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (1898-1976)
2. NO OPPOSITION TOLERATED Opposition to Lysenko was not tolerated, and was labelled bourgeois or fascist. Lysenko used his position to denounce Mendelian geneticists as "fly-lovers and people haters", which had serious consequences. From 1934 to 1940, with Stalins blessing, numerous geneticists were shot and others exiled to Siberia. Nikolai
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Vavilov, for example, a truly great geneticist and biogeographer, was sent to Siberia where he died of starvation in 1943, while Lysenko, in person, took over his role of Director of the Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Any survivor of the purge had to keep quiet. In 1948 genetics was officially labelled a bourgeois pseudoscience and genetic research came to a halt. Krushchev also supported Lysenko, but after his departure in 1964 the Academy of Sciences investigated the records, and a devastating critique of Lysenko was made public. The ban on genetics was lifted in 1965.
Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov (1887-1943)
When Lysenko denounced Mendelian thought as reactionary and decadent: he also announced that his speech had the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The ominous parallel is that the Global Warming movement was really kicked-off by James Hansen, when he gave evidence to a United States Senate Committee in June 1988. Ever since, the IPCC has worked through national and international organisations. Hansen became climate adviser to the US President, to Al Gore, and many others including Lehman Brothers - who saw carbon emission trading as a new business opportunity. The IPCC claims its reports are written by 2500 scientists, but in fact the crucial scientific underpinning is the work of only about 35, controlled by an even smaller number.
Lysenko speaking at the Kremlin in 1935 (Joseph Stalin standing at right)
Opposition to Global Warming is often likened to denial of the Holocaust. We are repeatedly told that the "science is settled" and there is no debate hardly a scientific approach. The influence of the IPCC spread throughout the world of administration, and it became increasingly difficult to get research funding without being a believer in Global Warming. 3. A NEW RELIGION Why would governments be persuaded to follow this idea before it is scientifically evaluated? One reason may be that there was a rising tide of what some have likened to a new religion Environmentalism. Of course no politician wants to be seen as "anti-environment", nor lose the votes of the Greens. The Greens, for their part, are happy to follow the Global Warming line because it gives them enormous political power. As a minor party or influence they often hold the balance of power, and the major parties dare not offend them. The propaganda machine of the IPCC is magnificent, with its greatest tool being the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth. It still has enormous impact, although the High Court in Britain did decide it could not be shown in schools without comment because it contained major errors. I suspect this film was the reason the Nobel Peace Prize was given to Al Gore and the IPCC. Another propaganda hit was the "Hockey Stick Graph", purporting to show that temperature was rising at an ever-increasing rate. This has been totally discredited, but it still seems to be branded on the collective mind of politicians and the public. Much
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government propaganda has been lent to support Global Warming; and major media outlets, such as the BBC in Britain, have chosen to join the debate on the Global Warming side. 4. GROWTH OF THE GLOBAL WARMING MACHINE "Global Warming", like Lysenkoism, is much easier to understand than the complexities of real science. This appeals to the public, and also to politicians and other influential people, who can talk as if they understand it. If questioned about details they refer back to the IPCC reports. So-called "independent reports" on climate change have been produced by Nicholas Stern in Britain and Ross Garnaut in Australia. Both Stern and Garnaut make it plain they are not scientists but economists, and have based their conclusions on the IPCC reports. Yet both continue to make public statements warning about the increasing dangers of climate change - as if they were experts. This merely keeps their reports in the public eye, and echoes the flawed science of IPCC Global Warming. It has been claimed that Sir Nicholas - now The Lord Stern of Brentford - is currently also in the business of carbon trading. At a lower level, without the need for evidence, everything can be blamed on Global Warming droughts, floods, malaria, hurricanes and even cooling! The IPCC rhetoric continues; although its predictions have as yet failed to come true, just as Lysenkoism continued when the promised crop increases never arrived. The IPCC forecast ever-increasing temperatures, but global temperatures have become lower since 1998. They have now put off Global Warming for 15 years because some other factor has intervened. The models did not predict this event, but such detail does not affect the faithful. Some scientists sided with Global Warming in the early days, and are so committed they cannot get off the bandwagon. Others worked for the IPCC, but resigned when they realised how their work was being twisted, or that real science did not support the claims that were being made. Luckily we do not have the equivalent of Siberia to deal with them. The Global Warming affair has already lasted twenty years, and many bureaucracies and scientific research centres have sprung up most of the latter being computer-simulators. Computer simulation has a part to play in science, but it should not replace observation, and hypothesis testing and falsification. The name of the game has changed from Global Warming to Climate Change, to broaden the range of effects that can be blamed on warming. There are now government Departments of Climate Change, for which read "Departments of Global Warming Blamed on Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide" 5. A LESSON FROM HISTORY: PARALLELS WITH LYSENKOISM We should not forget the basic fact, that the one villain in the piece - and the one that is costing billions of dollars - is anthropogenic carbon dioxide. This is the equivalent of vernalisation in the Lysenko era. In summary, the comparisons between Lysenkoism and Global Warming are: 1 Work first through political organisations. 2 Claim that the science is settled. There is nothing to debate. 3 Disregard or deny all the accumulating evidence that the predictions are wrong. 4 Demonise the opposition (Mendelian geneticists; Global Warming deniers) 5 Victimise the opposition (execution or exile; loss of jobs or research funds) 6 Relate to a current ideology (Stalinism; Environmentalism) 7 Support a vast propaganda machine. 8 Create a huge bureaucracy where many people have careers dependent upon the ruling concept. 6. CONCLUSIONS The parallel between the Lysenkoism of the Soviet Era, and the Global Warming of today, is expressed nicely in the words of Helena Sheehan (1993), who wrote of Lysenkoism: What went wrong was that the proper procedures for coming to terms with such complex issues were shortcircuited by grasping for easy slogans and simplistic solutions and imposing them by administrative fiat. Lysenkoism was eventually replaced by real science. The same will happen to Global Warming eventually, because real science will not go away.
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REFERENCES Helena Sheehan. 1993. Marxism and the Philosophy of Science: A Critical History (Humanities Press International).
********** Contents of Energy & Environment, v. 20, nos. 1 & 2. Special issue: Natural drivers of weather and climate.
Guest editorial Bob Foster (Australia) Refereed Papers Solar Cycle 24: expectations and implications David C. Archibald (Australia) Can we predict the next Indian mega-famine? I.R.G. Wilson (Australia) The Suns role in regulating Earths climate dynamics Richard Mackey (Australia) Climate change and the Earths magnetic poles, a possible connection Adrian K. Kerton (UK) Earths radiative equilibrium in the solar irradiance Martin Hertzberg (USA) Sources and sinks of CO2 Tom Quirk (Australia) The Australian temperature anomaly, 1910-2000 Tom Quirk (Australia) Cooling of the global ocean since 2003 Craig Loehle (USA) Viewpoints and Technical Communications Sun-climate linkage now confirmed Adriano Mazzarella (Italy) Earths heat source the Sun Oliver K. Manuel (USA) Solar behaviour, and its influence on Earths climate Timo Niroma (Finland) The Earth in an electric solar system Louis Hissink (Australia) Limits on CO2 climate forcing from recent temperature data of Earth David E. Douglass and John R. Christy (USA) Earth-temperature/CO2-equilibrium prior to 1850 Martin D. Cropp (New Zealand) Lysenkoism and global warming Cliff Ollier (Australia) Climate Change: dangers of a singular approach, and consideration of a sensible strategy Tim Ball (Canada) Climate Policy: Quo Vadis? Hans Labohm (Holland) Fuel for Thought Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen (UK)
For more information, please contact Bob Foster, fosbob@bigpond.com ________________________________________________________________________________________
OBITUARY
John Charles GROVER (25/11/1920 21/9/2008)
O.B.E., M.Sc (Geol. & Geophys.), B.E. (Min. & Met.), F.R.G.S., F.Aus. I.M.M., F.I.M.M., F.I.E. Aust., F.G.S.
John Grover in front of Geological Survey Department, Solomon Islands in 1966.
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orn and raised in Sydneys eastern suburbs, John lived through the Great Depression, was one of the first to cross the newly constructed Harbour Bridge with his boy scout group, and, at the age of 14 after the death of his father, had to leave school to find work and bring money to the family (his mother and two younger siblings). With the outbreak of war, he was part of the Light Horse Militia (mounted until May 1940). He served in the Middle East with 2/1 Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers 6th Division, as Lieutenant. In 1942 he entered the campaign in Papua New Guinea with 2/14 Field Company. Here, as in the Middle East, he was involved in the design and construction of roads, bridges and jetties; water reticulation for the camps and also the demolition of all constructions. John was promoted to Captain for the final campaigns in Buna, Wau and Bulolo. It was during the final campaign under the auspices of the 6th Australian Division Education Officer that he sat for his school leaving certificate examinations in several subjects. After more private study in Australia, he qualified for entry into the University of Sydney in 1946. He graduated in 1950 with first class honors with a Bachelor of Engineering in Mining and Metallurgy. It was in his final year that he was offered the position of Senior Geologist in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate to establish a Geological Survey. He accepted the position and spent the next 17 years in the Solomons. His work was varied and exciting. It was the era of exploration of the jungle by foot with man packs and local porters. He performed geological exploration of the islands, planned and co-ordinated seaborne and airborne geophysical surveys, sampled streams and soils geochemically. He co-ordinated exploration by land, by warships and instrument aircraft. John directed a world standards seismological station in Honiara. It provided warning of impending eruptions of populated volcanoes so that people could be evacuated in time. This became a major research project and earned him a Master of Science in Geology and Geophysics (1968). It was also the basis of his book Volcanic Eruptions and Great Earthquakes. His work also focused on the training of the local people to professional standards so they would eventually replace the western staff. For his service to the Solomon Islands, he was awarded the O.B.E (Officer of the Order of the British Empire). Almost forty years later he was again honored for his work in the islands when an Australian CSIRO research team named a newly discovered underwater volcano after him (Seamount Grover). His geological maps of the region are now in the National Library in Canberra. John married Caroline in 1959 and brought her from England to the steamy tropics. They had three children, Felicity, Charles and Stephanie. In 1968 they left the Solomons and spent a year in Fiji before returning to Sydney. In 1975 he was invited to head the United Nations Geological Survey project for the Marxist government of Ethiopia. He worked with 11 international experts exploring the country during unstable political times. On his return to Australia in 1977, he joined Peko-Wallsend as co-coordinator of special projects, retiring in 1982. His retiring years were spent writing books: The Struggle for Power what we havent been told and why. (Dwyer 1980). The Struggle for Cargo what the cargo cultists are doing to Australia. (Rigby 1984). The Hellmakers. (Ellan 1988). Volcanic Eruptions and Great Earthquakes advance warning techniques to master the deadly science. (Copyright Publishing Company Pty Ltd 1998). Maker and Breaker the story of an Engineer Officer 1939-1945. (Australian Military Publications 2008). John spent his life speaking out for what he believed was right and just. His final years were a slow, sad demise as he was afflicted with Alzheimers disease. He lived at home under Carolines care until she could no longer cope. He spent his final year in a nursing home in Mona Vale, ending his days by the sea, as he had begun them. Charles Grover jandcg@bigpond.net.au Stephanie Grover Greenidge stephgreenidge@hotmail.com
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More on the life and work of a great Australian: ohn Grover was a gentleman and scholar of the old school, and a born and bred patriot. He was unfailingly courteous and dedicated to help make this a better world. A true polymath (a person of great and varied learning), he studied the earth sciences with vigour and effect, and with his great friend, French volcanologist, Dr Claude Blot, pioneered seismic long-range predictive techniques for volcanic eruptions and great earthquakes. His landmark book on this topic, Volcanic Eruptions and Great Earthquakes, will eventually be recognised as a classic in this field, as his work has been now taken up by other eminent earth scientists. The book details his odyssey into the islands of the Pacific to bring answers as to how the inhabitants could, given reliable early warning, survive cataclysms of nature as the Earth continually reshapes from within and its dynamic core manifests its effects through to the surface. John Grover's background helps describe the measure of the man. At the age of 18, his grandfather came from the UK in a sailing ship in 1832 to work on a Victorian gold prospect, eventually settling in 1887 in Kelly Country on the King River where Coojong Farm is today. The small brick house which he built is still there. When all the men were away, the Kelly Gang held up Johns grandmother at gunpoint and forced her to cook meals for them. They did this twice. She must have been a good cook said the grandson in one of his many speeches. John Grovers father went to the Boer War. On his return he became alarmed at Australias lack of defences. The new Federal Government acted quickly to build Rifle Ranges in and outside every town and settlement in NSW and Norfolk Island. Appointed Inspector of RR in 1910, Henry C. Grover continued this work until his retirement. It paid off when Japanese visitors saw the effects in the 1930s. They advised Tokyo not to invade Australia because we had arms and knew how to use them! With this family background, John Grover became a Regimental Cadet at Moore Park in the 1930s until the war. He then served in the Middle East, Papua and New Guinea, spent a year training Infantry Officers in jungle engineering. He resigned his rank to return to his unit in the Aitape-Wewak campaign until the war ended. There he sat for his Leaving Certificate Examinations, in a tent. At Sydney University he studied Mining and Metallurgy and worked underground as a miner at Cobar gold and copper mine and at Broken Hill lead mines for some months at each. Invited to fly to the Solomon Islands, he went in a wartime Sunderland Flying Boat to find and sample a gold and silver prospect. He did the mapping and took the samples for assay in Sydney, working for the entrepreneur Roy Hudson, and Geologists Terence Connolly and Dr Owen Jones on Gold Ridge. John Grover was appointed as Senior Geologist to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate Government, Subject to obtaining a first class degree and commencing his duties 8 months hence (April 50). He was invited by the then New Hebrides Condominium Government to join French volcanologist Dr Claude Blot and two others in March 1962: firstly to explain why Lopevi volcano erupted violently without warning to the people who lived there, and then to find a better way of forecasting volcanic eruptions for the future. He and Dr Blot achieved these objectives as described in his book. So began over 20 years of adventure in exploring Islands in the Pacific in another phase of his career - with the use of US aircraft and teams of experts from Australian, American, Swedish, British and Danish Universities. He performed this work with distinction. He later went to Marxist Military Ethiopia as UN Project Manager of a large team of experts during a civil war, and back in Australia was a prolific author, writing his well-researched books on sociopolitical issues, being an active social commentator and much sought-after lecturer on minerals and energy and political issues surrounding access to these. During his war service, a Jebel Druze horseman in the Lebanon mountains told him that He who tells the truth must keep one foot in the stirrup!. John was a proud member of the RSL, and in his many inspiring talks told the truth with no notion of leaving the scene in a hurry. In his adventurous life, he enjoyed the wonderful
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support of his wife, Caroline, who could write a few books of her own on her pioneering life with a man who accepted every challenge. Indeed no book could do justice to John Grover. But a glimpse of the man is provided in a photograph taken in 1966 by Jorgen Lundberg, a Swedish geophysicist. This picture was sent to John Grover in December 2003. It brought back memories of those years when the Geological Survey Department of the Solomon Islands was in full swing. They were great years for us all. The building was designed by me in the absence of an architect. The central top storey was the Drawing Office and Library where competent draughtsmen were trained before being sent to Britain for their final year. The confident back and central rows were the geological assistants, scientists, and specialists. The men upfront were the trained Guadalcanal and other stalwarts, all of whom had contributions to give, without which it would have been impossible to achieve what we did. Vale John Grover OBE A tribute compiled by John McRobert (johnmcrobert@bigpond.com) who has unashamedly used extracts from John Grover's extensive files. (John Grovers article can be found in NCGT Newsletter no. 36, 2005, p. 2-11)
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New Concepts in Global Tectonics Newsletter, no. 50, March, 2009 ABOUT THE NCGT NEWSLETTER
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This newsletter was initiated on the basis of discussion at the symposium Alternative Theories to Plate Tectonics held at the 30th International Geological Congress in Beijing in August 1996. The name is taken from an earlier symposium held in association with 28th International Geological Congress in Washington, D. C. in 1989. Aims include: 1. Forming an organizational focus for creative ideas not fitting readily within the scope of Plate Tectonics. 2. Forming the basis for the reproduction and publication of such work, especially where there has been censorship or discrimination. 3. Forum for discussion of such ideas and work which has been inhibited in existing channels. This should cover a very wide scope from such aspects as the effect of the rotation of the earth and planetary and galactic effects, major theories of development of the Earth, lineaments, interpretation of earthquake data, major times of tectonic and biological change, and so on. 4. Organization of symposia, meetings and conferences. 5. Tabulation and support in case of censorship, discrimination or victimization.

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New Concepts in Global Tectonics NEWSLETTER

Does cosmological expansion exist in smaller scale? Volkmar MUELLER18

On universal tectonic trends of rotating celestial bodies (supertectonics), Gennary G. KOCHEMASOV..............23

Stress distribution in continental margins and intraplate seismisity, Lev A. MASLOV...35

New Concepts in Global Tectonics Newsletter, no. 50, March, 2009

FROM THE EDITOR

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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NCGT Symposium proposal

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6,00 5,00 4,00 3,00 2,00 1,00 0,00 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 December, 2008 31 1 3 5 7 9

50 45 40 35 Patients 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 December, 2008 31 1 3 5 7 9

Valentino STRASER fifurnio@tiscali.it ********************

Global volcanisms and the Earth oceanization

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Figure 4.2. Insitu stress measurements: a) Sydney Basin; b) Bowen Basin

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DOES COSMOLOGICAL EXPANSION EXIST ON SMALLER SCALES?

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r = radius difference, r = distance (earths radius), t = time)

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Figure 1. The relationship expansion-speed /distance

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ON UNIVERSAL TECTONIC TRENDS OF ROTATING CELESTIAL BODIES (SUPERTECTONICS)

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Figure 9. Mean timber density: 1-Africa, 2-India, 3-Australia (Kochemasov, 2008b).

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Figure 16. Tethys: PIA10424, dark equatorial belt, leading side.

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Figure 18. Saturn: PIA10411 swirling storms, Storm Alley, 35 south

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STRESS DISTRIBUTION IN CONTINENTAL MARGINS AND INTRAPLATE SEISMISITY

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z (k ) , xz (k ) in (6) from k=1 to

ui ( x, y, z ) = g ( , , ) uiV (x, y, z; , , )ddd ,

and Boussinesq solution for surface (topography) loads solutions:

i = (1,2 ,3) ( x ,y ,z) ( , , ) .

are displacements, fundamental solutions of the Mindlin problem; functions

New Concepts in Global Tectonics Newsletter, no. 50, March, 2009

as the materials critical state criterion. In the case of elastic rheology