Stabilizers on Earth
Cont’d from page 2
Rain dissolves CO2, becomes acidic (CO3H2) and cause weathering of mountains which are mainly of granitic composition. Granitic rocks are thus chemically transformed to become limestone, a carbonate material (SiO3Ca+CO2 = CO3Ca+SiO2). The eroded carbonate rock particles are carried off by rivers and deposited, layers upon layers, on the ocean floor to become sedimentary limestone.
Marine creatures with shell, owe their protective jackets to the calcium minerals released into the ocean water from these sedimentary limestone deposits.
Extreme heat, pressure and forceful eruption of CO2, magma and lava upward would metamorphose and uplift ocean’s sedimentary limestone deposits to become part of the mountain. Erosion of the mountain, such as what the Colorado River has done to the Grand Canyon, would expose the parallel lines of sedimentary soil layers within the mountain which were once deposited on the ocean floor.
Mountains are thus built from the ocean floor. Mountains are built, then eroded and uplifted again to recycle earth minerals and materials.
Mountain building process takes millions of years. Earth was given almost 2.5 billion years in order to be able to sculpt mountains on its thin crust. So, the CO2 production cycle has been in operation for 2.5 billion years. Without consistent CO2 introduction into the atmosphere, through the cycle mentioned above, Earth would cool off causing oceans and seas to freeze. Without liquid water and moderate temperature on Earth, land animal and human life would cease to exist.
“He made the Earth egg-shaped.
From it, He produced its own water and pasture.
He established the mountains. |
All this to provide life support for you and your animals.” (79:30-32)
Plate Tectonics Theory
Plate Tectonics is the movement of Earth’s crust across the surface of the planet. The earth’s crust is broken into large pieces called plates or slabs, as a response to upward movements of molten rocks in the upper Mantle. Plates would either move away from each other (Divergent plate boundary) or move to close the gap (Convergent plate boundary) or slip past each other (Strike Slip boundary). Earthquakes happen when stresses at plates’ boundaries overcome the frictional forces, which keep the plates locked.
“When you look at the mountains, you think they are standing still but they are moving, like the clouds. Such is the manufacture of GOD, who perfected everything. He is fully cognizant of everything you do.” (27:88)
This movement is made possible by an extremely hot interior iron and molten rocks of the mantle which is of basaltic composition (mostly Si & Mg). In addition, there is considerable radioactive material locked in the Earth interior, which would decompose and break into their lighter isotopes. This unleashes great heat. Heat thus created is equivalent to the heat produced by thousands of nuclear power plants. The combined heat from hot Earth interior and heat produced by the decomposition of the radioactive materials acts as a heat engine causing gigantic convection cells of hot, semi fluid basalt to move up. This mechanism is called “convection.” Convection is one of three types of heat transfer, namely radiation, conduction and convection.
The upward movement of basalt could be likened to the way water boils inside the pot on the stove when heated at the center from below. If we place two tiny lentil seeds at the bottom of the pot, there would
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be a moment when we see both seeds rise to the surface of boiling water, move horizontally until they reach the side of the pot, then get sucked down. All parts of water move to the center to be heated in the same way. Convection cells of basalt would make the top of the mantle restless similar to the top of the boiling water.
Earth crust is only 3 miles in thickness on the average at ocean floor and 20 miles in thickness at continents. Maximum Continent crust thickness is approximately 1 percent of Earth diameter. The thin and brittle crust breaks easily as a response to convecting basalt. With the Earth crust thicker at continent compared to the Earth crust in the ocean, ocean floor cracks. There are approximately 8 major and 20 minor plates floating on Earth’s surface. A thin layer of mantle gets attached to the bottom of each plate making it thicker. The combined crust and this thin layer of mantle, which move as one piece, is called lithosphere.
As the convecting semi fluid basalt moves upward with high pressure, it melts as pressure decreases. Liquid basalt would look for gaps and crevices of the Earth crust to settle into. Gaps in between the oceanic plates (divergent plate boundaries) provide the path of least resistance.
Hot liquid basalt erupts into the ocean floor (spreading centers) at gaps and gradually spreads over the entire oceanic plate while the horizontal component of the convection (same horizontal force causing the lentil seeds to move laterally at the top of boiling water) will move the plate toward the edge of the neighboring plate to close the gap (Convergent Plate boundaries).
As basalt erupts into the ocean floor plate at spreading centers, water is gradually added to the crystal mineral of the basalt and transforms the basalt into hydrated basalt, with
Cont’d on page 4 |