Nexus - 0603 - New Times Magazine-pages

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(The concept of lateral crustal motion powered by thermal ener- lens-shaped cracks" to feed the heat and material for volcanic gies and magma intrusions is, as you'll recall, part and parcel of eruptions.” So here we have a process that on the surface seems plate tectonic theory and, by implication, of Uniformitarianism.) to answer the question. However, recalling that a process is sim- Strain describes the Hawaiian circumstance: ply a recipe for change, we can see that this formula falls short in Extending north-northwest from the Hawaii Islands is a row of explaining where the hot magma originates or whence the heat seamounts that led scientists to the hypothesis that the crust that powers the system comes. moves over a fixed hot spot in the asthenosphere. Inspection of the National Geographic Society's FORCES, WORK AND ENERGY Physical Map of the Pacific Ocean How, then, do we reconcile the fact that reveals the existence of several aligned Sp Rotation can occur the arcs exist, that we can see lava flowing chains of seamounts. The Hawaiian about any independent during an eruption, and that in the case of all Ridge from Midway Islands to Hawaii is axis. too many volcanoes we can see the explo- the most prominent... The Emperor sive power of pent-up pressures? Where, Seamount Chain appears to be an exten - then, if not in the energy of the system, are sion of the Hawaiian Ridge but with a the forces? dog leg, giving it a more northern The answer is in the forces, the bending Bending caused by alignment. moments and the associated vibrational, Strain points out that if these two chains an external force. fretting and underplating activiti sociat- were created by the same hot-spot grouping ed with the RB-Effect (see figures 4, 5, 7, 8, and by the same crustal motions, they 9). These are all gravitationally induced by should be near parallel. But the physical the Sun, the Moon and, to a lesser extent, evidence provided by the National Figure 7: Rotational Bending in a simple beam. the other planets in the system, and as such Geographic Society's map of the Pacific (From The Gods, Gemini, and the Great Pyramid, they are feeding the Earth's internal system. Ocean bottom clearly shows that they are by James Bowles; reprinted with permission.) They are external forces, i.e., gravity acting not! This, in turn, he suggests, makes it difficult to accept the upon the Earth's mass, and they produce motion within it, which notion that they were created by tectonic motions. Strain then some scientists have called "tidal waves within the crust". introduces an alternative concept: a system of slow-moving, The combined force-motion scenario represents work per- atmospheric-like "magma tornadoes" whose random movement at formed upon the Earth, and work converts directly into energy. the lower crustal interface would not only give an accounting for But while force by its very nature is hidden from view, the conse- the non-parallel alignment of the seamounts, but would provide an quence of its presence is not hidden. Forces produce motion, and explanation for other short-lived events that have formed small, motion is detectable. Forces that produce motion are doing work, randomly positioned mounts on the ocean floor, for which ortho- and work converts to energy, and the expenditure of energy is vis- dox science has no explanation. ible. We need only to identify the energy expenditures, while The dynamics suggested by plate tectonic theory in relation to being mindful that in doing so we are on the third rung of the lad- the Pacific seamounts is also discussed in a der. The first rung of the ladder that struc- 1992 Scientific American article, titled — tures the unifying theory represents forces; "Dynamics of Kilauea Volcano", by [ the second rung represents work! Forces, Dvorak, Johnson and Tilling:"* au