The Elephant in the Room - is the Big Conundrum...

don findlay wrote:

http://groups.google.com.au/group/sci.geo.geology/msg/
e76e2187061453de?hl=en

So what do the illuminati numerati have to say about that?

Nothing by the look of it, ..but I have:-

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Subduction ...the Far Side of Plate Tectonics

Why? For the good reason that if subduction were to operate then the
ocean floors would never open. Stands to reason.

image in here

Probably said this before but it bears a stand-alone page repeat - if
subduction were to operate, then the ocean floors would never open and
the the continents would never separate. Why? Because as soon as the
continents tried to separate (because of a spreading ridge developing
between them - as in the Atlantic, say) that growth of ocean floor
would be matched by destruction at the other, ..the opposite, .(the
'far') side. And since in our imaginary PT-model the continents are
just beginning to open, then they wouldn't open at all because the
incipient ocean floor opening would be immediately recycled by
subduction back in to the mantle ('destroyed'). The only way the
continents can separate is if there is *no subduction* so that the
ocean floor is free to grow (as in the Atlantic, Indian, and Southern
Oceans).

Now in the Pacific, which is bordered by subduction zones the popular
lingo is "overriding". The Americas are overriding on the Eastern
side of the Pacific to truncate the spreading ridge, and Asia is
overriding on the western side to create the back-arc basins there.
So the Pacific is actually closing (being overridden by the fringing
continental lithosphere) whilst the Atlantic and other oceans are
opening. That is, Pacific subduction is taking up the spreading of
its own ridge and that of the other oceans as well. That is,
subduction down the peripheral margins of the Pacific is forming the
ocean floors of the world. And why? Because for some reason not
explained in Plate Tectonics the oceanic crust around the Fiery Ring
of the Pacific is cold enough to sink, subduct, and drag the ocean
floors of the world down with it, creating in its wake Tsunamis that
wipe hundreds of thousands of people off the face of the Earth. This
wiping of hundreds of thousands of people off the face of the Earth at
a stroke at a particular time on a particular day is apparently
therefore (according to Plate Tectonics) consequent on global
cooling, ..not warming, ..yet global cooling doesn't even rate a
mention in the science media, and those most in a position to draw
attention to the calamities that result from it, are silent. Why?
Because they understand precisely the nonsense of the corner they have
so painted themselves into that they can do nothing about it other
than behave like fishwives on a Tuesday spruiking the weekend
leftovers.

You can see it depends what we mean when we say "the ocean floors
'open' ". Do we mean the continents separate to expose the
mantle, ..or do we just mean that the ridges spread, regardless of
separation of the continental lithosphere? ...because in Plate
Tectonics the ridges can spread no matter how wide the separation of
the continental landmass, whether it's a thousand miles or a thousand
millimetres - cycling of the ocean floors (by ridge spreading and
subduction) is independent of separation of the continents. In fact
if we close up continental separation completely as in the African
Rift Valley, say, .. which is an incipient (or failed, for the
argument it doesn't matter) we could easily conceive of a spreading
ridge down below that (except for Madagascar) has not yet been
successful in opening the crust.

The other point of course is that since the creation of the ocean
floors is driven by subduction, how are we supposed to envisage the
configuration of the subduction zones driving Atlantic spreading? Is
Eastern Pacific flat subduction opening the Atlantic? Both sides,
dragging the spreading ridge towards it as a huge back-arc basin? Or
just one (western) side, with the eastern side of the Atlantic with
the whole of Eurasia (and the back-arc basins of the Western Pacific)
being dragged eastwards by Western Pacific subduction?

And follows the further point that cooling of the Earth has the power
not only to drive subduction, but to lift the crust, create mountains,
a fiery ring around the Pacific, and emplace the ocean floors.

Howzat for sheer effing nonsense, ..believed by a worldful of
'scientists'.
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People promoting subduction must be idiots, and even worse for
insisting they have the scientific high ground. It's classic Kafka.
Fold your tents and go home boys. It's over, Rover. Plate Tectonics
is dead.

Where is he now, our rubber-numbered, butt-kicking boy scout. Sad
really. He used to be so vocal with his bovver boots and navel stud
and all. Now he's gone to pasture. A tectonic wreck. Pinned a
life's work on the fraud of subduction, even touted it as a gift that
keeps on giving, taking advantage of the likes of poor George, who
for his own reasons, sucks up to the BIGTITS of this rubbish.

(Mamma.)