Expanding Earth FAQ

From McCarthy (2005): "[This would presume] that the
volume of surface water has remained stable for hundreds
of millions of years, a notion that underscores the
mainstream bias toward staticism in all things planetary --
regardless of what is observed. As [the question] implies,
expanding Earth theory (EE) necessarily requires that the
quantity of seawater, like the quantity of surface ocean crust,
has been increasing since the Triassic and so predicts an
influx of massive volumes of water, a process likely linked to
the origins of oceans. This is another prominent prediction
that distinguishes expanding Earth from plate tectonics
(PT), and sophisticated measurements have ruled
decisively. According to tidal gauge data observed
throughout the 20th century (Miller & Douglas, 2004) global
sea level has been rising 1.5 -2 mm yr . More recent
satellite measurements depict a global sea level rise
(GSLR) of 3.2 mm yr (Cabenas et al., 2001).

"While for many years researchers
had attributed GSLR to temperature
and salinity related changes in
volume, Miller and Douglas (2004)
showed that such volume changes
can "account for only a fraction of
sea level change, and that mass
change plays a dominant role in
twentieth-century GSLR".
In the most parsimonious explanation
in EE, this expansion of the oceans
is just the continuation of the process
that originally inundated the Earth's
surface. Currently, the mainstream
view of seawater origination is
controversial, with many crediting
volcanic exhalations (Rubey, 1951
and many textbooks on basic
geology), others, icy comets. Kerr
(1997) and Goldsmith (1997)
discussed particulars and problems
with this later view.

But while, in general, rifting will correlate with increasing hydrothermal vent output, this obviously
cannot be expected to be a perfect correlation. For example, Cretaceous sealevel, based on
continental marine transgressions, is estimated to have been roughly 50 meters higher than
today and, at times, more than 100 meters higher. In the expanding Earth view, the quantity of
seawater in the Cretaceous was actually less than today, but the volume of ocean basins was so
much smaller that a significant amount of marine water remained on continents. Given that both
ocean-basin volume and quantity of seawater were significantly less at that time, sudden
oceanic access to young rift basins, notable differentials in vent output and spreading rates, or
any other of the more prosaic effects on sealevel (like amount of continental ice) would result in
a much greater percentage-change in sealevel. And that is what we observe.

References:

Briggs, J. C. (2004) The ultimate expanding earth hypothesis. Journal of Biogeography, 31, 855-857.

Cabanes, C., Cazenave, A. & Le Provost, C. (2001) Sea level rise during past 40 years determined from
satellite and in situ observations. Science, 294, 840-842.

Carey, S. W. (1988) Theories of the Earth and Universe. A history of dogma in earth sciences. Stanford
University Press, Stanford.

Ford, D (1999) The Expanding Earth; the 'other' theory of geology and global tectonics. http://www.geocities.
com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/8098/HomePage.htm

Goldsmith, D. (1997) Comet origin of oceans all wet? Science, 277, 318.

Isacks, B., Oliver, J. & Sykes, L. (1968) Seismology and the new global tectonics. Journal of Geophysical
Research, 73, 5855–5899.

Kerr, R.A. (1997) Spots confirmed, tiny comets spurned. Science, 276, 1333-1334 .

Maxlow, J. (2001) Quantification of an Archaean to Recent Earth Expansion Process Using Global,
Geological and Geophysical Data Sets. Thesis (Ph.D.) Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia.
http://adt.curtin.edu.au/theses/available/adt-WCU20020117.145715/

McCarthy, D. 2005. Biogeographical and geological evidence for a smaller, completely-enclosed Pacific
Basin in the Late Cretaceous. Journal of Biogeography, 32, 2161-2177.

Miller, Kenneth G., Kominz, Michelle A., Browning, James V., Wright, James D., Mountain, Gregory S., Katz,
Miriam E., Sugarman, Peter J., Cramer, Benjamin S., Christie-Blick, Nicholas, Pekar, Stephen F. (2005) The
Phanerozoic Record of Global Sea-Level Change. Science, 310, 1293-1298

Miller, L & Douglas, B.C. (2004) Mass and volume contributions to twentieth-century global sea level rise.
Nature, 428, 406-409.

Murakami, M., Hirose, K., Yurimoto, H., Nakashima, S. & Takafuji, N. (2002) Water in Earth's lower mantle.
Science, 295, 1885-1887.

Oliver, J. & Isacks, B. (1967) Deep earthquake zones, anomalous structures in the upper mantle, and the
lithosphere. Journal of Geophysical Research, 72, 4259–4275.

Perkins, S. (2001) New type of hydrothermal vent looms large. Science News, 160, 21.

Rubey, W.W. (1951) Geologic history of sea water. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 62, 1111–1148.

"Neither theory is incompatible with EE, and it is unclear why either process would have
halted over the last few hundred million years. But the most obvious mechanism for
origin and increase of surface seawater, and the one favored by EE enthusiasts like
Carey (1988), Maxlow (2001), and Ford (1999) are hydrothermal vents. Estimates
suggest that the entire volume of the Earth's oceans will pour through vent systems in the
next 1 million (Perkins, 2001) to 10 million years. Murakami et al. (2002) have also
recently discovered that the mantle may contain more than five times the amount of
water than the oceans. In brief, we have confirmed evidence for a water-laden source
(mantle), a massive influx of seawater (hydrothermal vents), and a corresponding net
increase in seawater mass that has been measured every year for more than a century
(GSLR).
"In the PT view, GSLR is not related to the origin of oceans, the influx of water from the
hydrothermal faucets, or the massive reserves of water in the mantle. Instead, it is
assumed to flow exclusively from continental sources (Miller & Douglas, 2004).
Regardless, the PT hypothesis that the quantity of surface water has remained stable for
hundreds of millions of years, despite annual observations of GSLR, is dependent on a
variety of assumptions."

Yes, and we do. But first it must be noted, that
one should still expect an extremely rough
correlation between amount of seawater and
ocean basin volume because hydrothermal
vents are geophysical systems that are
intricately linked to rift systems. In general,
frequency of oceanic hydrothermal vents often
corresponds to seafloor spreading rate -- with
the greatest output of hydrothermal vents
occurring at the locations of greatest rate of
seafloor formation. This is also clear from
studies of the two most voluminous lakes in the
world, Tanganyika and Baikal, both of which sit
upon rift systems and hydrothermal vents. As
these rift systems grow and spread, more
hydrothermal vents will form adding to the
prodigious volume of the lakes. Both systems
are nascent oceans.

Paleo-sealevel provides two paradoxes for the
conventional view:

1) Because they assume that the Earth was of constant
radius, the deep seas on the Cretaceous continental
boundaries require sealevel to be as much as 250 -320 m
above current levels. And even assuming an ice-free
world at that time, the amount of continental ice today can
only explain a difference of 54 m. Thus, current modelers
assume the ocean basins were shallower during these
times. In other words, it is now conventional that the
ocean basins had significantly less volume in the
Mesozoic.

2) The only known mechanism for the large scale
fluctuations that occurred within very brief periods of time
during the Cretaceous is through phase change of
continental ice -- and the globe was ice-free during this
time.

Recently, Miller et al. (2005) have challenged these
suppositions in an effort to explain the paradoxes. They
have challenged other estimates of sealevel at that time,
lowering their value to a peak of 70 m to 100 m. But this
still requires smaller ocean basins during that time period.
They also note that, "Eustatic changes with amplitudes of
10s of meters in less than 1 My pose an enigma for a
supposedly ice-free Green-house world, because
ice-volume changes are the only known means of
producing such large and rapid changes." They assume
that ice developed in the interior of Antarctica anyway,
even though they note: "The existence of continental ice
sheets in the Greenhouse world is a controversial
interpretation."

Figure and caption from Miller et al. (2005).
Fig. 3. Global sea level (light blue) for the interval 7 to 100 Ma derived by
backstripping data (21). Global sea level (purple) for the interval 0 to 7 Ma
derived from 18O, shown in detail on Fig. 4. Shown for comparison is a
benthic foraminiferal 18O synthesis from 0 to 100 Ma (red), with the scale
on the bottom axis in [reported to Cibicidoides values (0.64 lower than
equilibrium)]. The portion of the 18O curve from 0 to 65 Ma is derived
using data from Miller (44) and fig. S1 recalibrated to the time scale of
(71). The 18O curve from 65 to 100 Ma is based on the data compiled by
Miller (36) calibrated to the time scale of (72). Data from 7 to 100 Ma
were interpolated to a constant 0.1-My interval and smoothed with a
21-point Gaussian convolution filter using Igor Pro. Pink box at 11 Ma is
sea-level estimate derived from the Marion Plateau (51). Heavy black line
is the long-term fit to our backstripped curve (23). Light green boxes
indicate times of spreading rate increases on various ocean ridges (57).
Dark green box indicates the opening of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea
and concomitant extrusion of the Brito-Arctic basalts.