Is the earth expanding? Massively!!

11 Responses to Is the earth expanding? Massively!!

1. thingadonta says:

   28 November 2014 at 00:09

   There are scientists who still sympathise, but they are a tiny minority. It was mostly an idea to explain continental drift but before and without plate tectonics and convection currents thrown in. There are plenty of other explanations for what is described.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanding_Earth
   For example, vast amounts of mantle material were emplaced into the crust during continental breakup, which occurred on a large scale after the break up of Pangea and Gondwana, meaning material is simply transferred from the mantle to the crust, which may give the impression of an expansion, but which is of the crust and crustal features only, but not of the earth overall.
2. Scottish-Sceptic says:

   28 November 2014 at 08:59

   I took down our globe last night and was trying to see how the pieces might fit – unfortunately, it didn’t take long to find a map which appeared to show a pattern of rocks that had been sub-ducted. (W.Americas).
   However, the fun bit would have been if it were true. It requires a massive increase in size of the earth. The theory doesn’t seem to allow any mechanism for external material to add to the size … so either the core would get bigger … or as I now realise, the crust gets smaller.
   The only way I can envisage for the earth to get smaller is that a fundamental change in physics has wholly shifted the inter-atomic dimensions. If that were happening we’d have spotted it … but even if we assume it did happen, why not also for the crust?
   Unless the core itself had changed through nuclear fusion/fission – but even that couldn’t work.
3. Daryl M says:

   29 November 2014 at 21:48

   If this was really happening, it would be visible in the measurements of the geoid. There is no such evidence.
4. Scottish Sceptic says:

   30 November 2014 at 09:24

   But what if it were true! I think it would need a physical increase in inter-atomic space. Only way to alter that would be a fundamental shift in physical laws – which would probably result in measurable change or perhaps a change in nuclear composition – but I doubt that would give more than a few percent change.
5. wulliejohn says:

   3 December 2014 at 20:19

   Obvious, innit.
   The globe (Earth) is warming. 97% of scientists are 95% nearly sure. Therefore it is expanding. That is where the missing heat is going. An unfortunate side affect will be that the globe Earth) is rotating slightly slower. So your working day is getting longer. One day, maybe soon, all that rotational energy will come back to bite us and we will have catastrophic atmospheric warming. Also, we, and all our skyscrapers, will all fall over because of the sudden deceleration You read it first here. Where do I apply for a grant?
6. Scottish-Sceptic says:

   3 December 2014 at 23:02

   You had me going there!
   But I remember one scientist was measuring the rise in sea level using rotation in some way.
7. Damian Scott says:

   6 December 2014 at 14:49

   An expanding, hollow Earth is a better fit than Tectonic Plate theory. It also fits the data which shows that, within our Solar System, the more massive the planet, the less mass it has (in proportion to it’s size). Our current theory states that Saturn’s density is so low that it would float on water.
   It sounds mad, but tectonic plate theory’s predictions have all failed. The Earth is solid as far as we can measure it, the null results from seismic testing show it is hollow – the fluid outer core is assumed to explain the Earth’s magnetic field (which it can’t), Continental plates descend deeper than the layer they are supposed to be floating on…
   I could go on but it is all pretty speculative. Ask yourself why you find this idea ridiculous and look at the assumptions which have lead you to this conclusion.
8. Scottish Sceptic says:

   8 December 2014 at 14:20

   As a sceptic I can’t simply reject an idea out of hand without first considering it. And I don’t think it is ridiculous – indeed I wouldn’t have shown the video if I didn’t think it warranted a discussion. However for it to be true, one needs a mechanism to cause the earth to expand whilst the crust remains rigid (or vica versa, the crust to shrink).
   The other big problem is that we have earth quakes at subduction zones, that we see plate movements towards each other by GPS – so at the very least, there is good evidence of current subduction.
   However, that does not rule out the hypothesis of an expanding earth completely. One possibility is that the earth was in collision with a large object at a very distance point in time – and that caused an increase in size. But even doesn’t fit the evidence available.
9. Damian Scott says:

   11 December 2014 at 15:03

   I tend to look at these thing from an electrical point of view. (my bias)
   The Earth is embedded in the Heliospheric current sheet and there is a massive gradient in electrical potential between the Earth and interplanetary space. An object under such stress will attempt to increase it’s surface area to reduce this stress at the boundary/surface. This will cause said object to form a plasma sheath which reduces the stress at the surface, as each layer of the sheath becomes the new anode they can in turn form a sheath of their own which, I believe is the cause of our atmospheres many layers. The stress on the object is reduced but the remaining pressure, I believe, will cause a slow expansion in size, not mass, where the only thing that inceases is the void at the centre of the object.
10. Damian Scott says:

    11 December 2014 at 15:03

    Simply put, I believe if you were to place a large rock, of a similar mass to the Earth, in our Solar system we would see it: Become electrically linked to the Sun’s poles via a looped current (which has been observed). It should start to orbit the Sun induced by the spiralling heliospheric current sheet. The electrical current flowing through the rock should induce rotation. The rock will form an atmosphere (plasma sheath). It should also start to expand and become hollow.
    A massive increase in the gradient from surface to space could cause layers of the plasma sheath to explode outwards as a new, stable equilibrium is sought. I seem to remember reading this used as an explanation of Mars’ missing Northern hemisphere.
    Utter speculation, I realise. Fun though. 🙂
11. Scottish-Sceptic says:

    11 December 2014 at 17:37

    The reason I love this idea is that it challenges some very deep assumption about how the universe works and I’m not entirely convinced they are as “rock solid” as many believe them to be.
    Just thinking of the top of my head – what if some kind of nuclear interaction could spontaneously produce new particles? That would be a very difficult thing to disprove.

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