The climatic nature of the movement of lithospheric plates (presentation)

Information in Russian: https://geoinformazia.blogspot.com/2021/06/blog-post.html

Information in German: https://geoinformazia.blogspot.com/2021/06/die-klimatische-natur-der-bewegung.html

Information in French: https://geoinformazia.blogspot.com/2021/06/la-nature-climatique-du-mouvement-des.html

Information in Spanish: https://geoinformazia.blogspot.com/2021/06/la-naturaleza-climatica-del-movimiento.html

Information in Hebrew: https://geoinformazia.blogspot.com/2021/06/blog-post_25.html

Information in Italian: https://geoinformazia.blogspot.com/2021/06/la-natura-climatica-del-movimento-delle.html

Information in Chinese: https://geoinformazia.blogspot.com/2021/06/blog-post_30.html

Dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity,

showing how it happens.

Foreword - the essence

Best of all, the essence of the atmospheric process that controls the movement of lithospheric plates was expressed by the great Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in words known from childhood:

Breezes o'er the ocean play,

Speed a barque upon its way;

Sails all spread, it skims the seas,

Running swiftly 'fore the breeze.

Published: June 21, 2021.

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Alfred Wegener's flaw

Wegener was a professional meteorologist (branch of geography), but not a professional geologist. The processes taking place in the layers of the atmosphere were much closer to him than the processes taking place inside the Earth. In essence, his studies of Greenland were aimed at understanding the processes that take place over the cold, almost-continent.

Assuming that Africa and South America once represented a single whole, then split and began to diverge in different directions, he was obliged to approach the issue of the causes of the horizontal movement of the continents as a geographer and meteorologist. But he did not do this, but adopted a geological logic, according to which all mountain ranges and deepest depressions are the result of processes occurring in the bowels of the planet. Influenced without being a specialist? Didn't see any other options? Would you like geologists to support his idea? Be that as it may, but the mistake turned out to be fatal not only for the entire 20th century, but also for the current century. And this is very strange, since it is the geographer and meteorologist, the geophysicist who can most easily explain the direction of movement of the lithospheric plates by tropospheric circulation and oceanic circulation secondary from it. This is clearly striking, as will be shown with examples below.

Thus, having brilliantly solved the issue of the real movement of the continents, the issue and the reason for the movement of lithospheric plates was postponed for almost a century, that is, until today. Until now, geo-people do not pay attention to the fact that "apples are falling on their heads."

Published: June 22, 2021.

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Scene one: to the west!

So the planet with the atmosphere and hydrosphere is arranged that under the influence of solar radiation (heat), it forms more or less stable polar-equatorial circulation belts of the troposphere, which have almost everywhere (with some exceptions, which will be discussed below) east-west east ... transfer. There is no need to talk about other, higher atmospheric circulation belts here, since the land relief does not exceed the thickness of tropospheric flows.

So, so far, no one has asked the simplest question (well, very simple): why is the most exemplary block of lithospheric plates (African and South Central American, after all, from here the dance of the theory of the movement of lithospheric plates began) for many tens and hundreds of millions of years apart in the west-east direction? Not north-south or in any other direction, namely west-east. Such is the simplest question that any person can ask, but ... such a question is not posed in science. As if everything for granted: they just move somewhere.

But this question has a very logical and simple answer: their movement corresponds to the prevailing secular trade wind flow of air masses (Hadley circulation). If you look at the continent of South America, as, let's say, figuratively, the continental ice floe, then its eastern trade winds are carried to the west, supported by high "hummocks" of the Andes. They, these Cordilleras, are the perfect high sail for the mainland. Has anyone calculated the total pressure exerted by local winds (per year) on all this land, starting from the pressure of ocean currents and the surf of the Atlantic? Do not forget about the constancy of pressure.

The question has been asked, the answer has been received, but are we able to accept it? And in general, is there a Law of small constant forces in nature? At the level of folk wisdom, there is a saying "A drop and a stone wears away". If its impact is constant. Even a small amount of exposure applied continuously can lead to significant results. Here the result is stunning. Or is it just an isolated incident, so to speak, accidental, or, as it is fashionable to say nowadays, taken out of context?

Published: June 23, 2021.

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Scene two: broken mountain range

Now let's turn our eyes to the south of South America, Africa and Australia. What will we see? That's right: free ocean spaces around Antarctica. True, there is one bottleneck, namely between the Cordillera and the mountain range of the Antarctic Peninsula. This configuration is very interesting. Meteorologist Wegener should have paid attention to this...

Don't you think that someone artificially tore these two ridges and made Drake Passage between them? And created in him an orgy of western winds and currents? The entire appearance of this region suggests that the "unknown force" not only pushed the Southern Andes and the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula to the east, but also sunk part of their territories. I will not hide the fact that I know this force - the circumpolar circulation of air masses in the troposphere and ocean currents around Antarctica. Moreover, this is so clearly indicated that it is not necessary to look for another force.

Here is a direct, bright and lively quote from Russian Wikipedia: "Storms are frequent in the strait, and here they are one of the strongest on the planet - a constant westerly wind, sometimes reaching 35 m / s (126 km / h), is combined with the current from the west to east, sometimes reaching a speed of 15 km / h, waves of more than 15 meters in height are also frequent".

True, all the power of hurricanes goes almost nowhere, since here is just an ocean and there are no large island or mainland high-mountain "sails", but this force, as we see, is able to prevent other continents from approaching Antarctica..

And what remains for Antarctica? Once you are torn away from other continents and, once in the arms of the southern circumpolar circulation of the troposphere and the ocean, remain alone and slowly turn clockwise around the pole. But, however, this is not entirely unambiguous, which will be discussed below.

Published: June 25, 2021.

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Scene three: non-standard

We are talking about the Hindustan, or, more precisely, the Hindustan plate.

The musonic circulation of the atmosphere is in itself non-standard for the general circulation of the atmosphere and is associated with the configuration of the surrounding continents, or rather, with Africa and giant Eurasia. The latter distorts the standard near-equatorial circulation of the troposphere most of all.

In winter, the Asian continental monsoon rushes almost towards the movement of the Hindustan plate. Is he strong? Not. Weak and low wind speeds. But the summer monsoon is ten times stronger than the winter, it is he who determines the direction of movement of the plate - from the southwest to the northeast.

Once breaking away from Africa, the plate began to move under the influence of the prevailing direction of air masses, hit the Asian plate with force, forming the Himalayas on its front and raising Tibet in front of its front. And until now, meeting on its way the highest "sail" of the planet - the Himalayas, the winds continue to stubbornly move Hindustan to the northeast, continue to heave the contact zone of two plates - a rather inert and supermassive Asian plate and a small but superactive Hindustan one.

When will it end? Only with the cessation of the active summer monsoon over Hindustan. Are there any prerequisites for this? In the foreseeable future, no.

Published: June 28, 2021.

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Seafloor spreading?

During the movement of lithospheric plates, various "conflict" zones can arise between them. The easiest way for us to explain them is with the words "collision", "divergence" and "graters".

1. As for the collision, the term "subduction" has already taken root here for cases of conflict between oceanic and continental plates. In this case, the oceanic substrate is submerged under the continental one. We agree with all those explanations of the processes in the earth's crust that occur in this case.

But the continental plates proper can also collide, as is observed in the Himalayas. None of them is able to "kneel down" and crawl under the other. This is the most real conflict, the solution of which is to heighten the entire contact zone. In this case, a more dynamic plate moves forward, which we see in the example of Hindustan, which not only crashed into the Asian plate, but entered it, tearing and crumpling neighboring territories along the movement to the northeast. A different term for the conflict zone should be used here.

2. The divergence of the plates, or rather the zone of divergence, was defined by geologists using the example of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as "spreading", during which the plates diverge under the pressure of a suitable mass of matter from below. And to make everything look more reliable, they came up with a scheme for the circulation of matter around the terms "subduction-spreading". Nice, you will not say anything, it seems to be the correct assumption. But...

There is a simpler explanation if we apply the idea of the climatic cause of plate movement for this. The plates diverge under the pressure of tropospheric air masses and the resulting ocean currents. Thus, at the site of the divergence crack, a weakened zone of pressure of the earth's crust appears, through which masses of the underlying matter break through to the surface. This is a completely opposite process, to which the term "spreading" is completely inappropriate. It is possible to call this process "hypo-drift".

3. There are also processes of friction between the plates when they move in almost parallel directions, but with different speeds. We observe such a "grater" phenomenon in Israel...

Published: June 30, 2021.

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Where are we going?

At first glance, everything is simple: where the wind blows, the plates move there. But this is not so, or rather, not at all so. The problem is that there is no free space for movement. Each slab has several connections to several adjacent slabs. Everything around is busy. And in order to move somewhere, you need to overcome the resistance of the "neighbors". In short, there is a constant war between the plates for their living space.

But the movement is still happening. It is clear whose strength is stronger, he wins. Which slabs have more strength for shoving neighbors? Probably those with stronger, more powerful air and ocean currents. Here we are already talking about the energy of atmospheric and hydro streams. Someone calculated and summed up the balance for the entire planet? Is there a supercomputer to deal with these pressure issues?

Whichever continent we take, multidirectional forces of energy flows constantly act on it, and it moves along the sum of flows, among which the result of the average direction of movement manifests itself. And if only that! But you need to take into account the pressure of neighbors!

It turns out that the question of the direction of movement of the lithospheric plates is very ambiguous, and to solve the problem, a supercomputer is needed that specializes only in solving this problem. And, as I see it, cooperation of all countries of the world is obligatory here, that is, the question should be raised at the level of, say, the UN. Why put this question to the UN? And then we will consider the practical, acute, topical issues of humanity related to the movement of plates.

Published: July 01, 2021.

Changing the basics of geomorphology

The climatic reason for the movement of lithospheric plates obliges to revise the foundations of modern geomorphology.

Classical geomorphology is based on two postulates:
a) The endogenous (internal) forces of the Earth create, through tectonic activity, the unevenness of its relief. The postulate is conjectural.
b) Exogenous (external) forces tend to level the unevenness of the earth's surface. Proven postulate.
Thus, on the surface of the Earth, there is a struggle between two opposing forces: one creates, the other destroys.

But the climatic reason eliminates this contradiction, since it is the exogenous forces that set the plates in motion, and as a result of these movements, large geological structures are formed on the earth's surface. Probably, it is possible that internal processes also play a certain role, but their role is significantly leveled.

Thus, summing up, we can say that the source of creation and change of relief are mainly exogenous forces. At present, the role of endogenous forces has significantly decreased in comparison with the early history of the formation of the Earth as a planet.

Published: July 02, 2021.

Search for correlations

In conclusion, one must ask the question: what is the practical use of studying the climatic nature of the movement of lithospheric plates? Answer: definitely in one of the most important: earthquake forecasting, and even more accurate than modern weather forecasting.

While we proceed from the assumption that the internal forces of the earth move the lithospheric plates, there is no possibility of forecasting, since these internal movements are beyond our control. But if we proceed from the climatic nature of plate movement, then not only a possible forecast of earthquakes is outlined, but also more accurate than a meteorological forecast. Why? The answer is simple. The weather forecast is very mobile and hardly predictable, in any case, modern weather forecasts are very inaccurate and even change several times every day. Predictions are based on specific movements of air masses. But the forecast of earthquakes is already based on very specific HAPPENING meteorological events, already actually registered. Why? And because the earth's crust does not immediately react to the meteorological situation, but with some delay, having an inertial reserve. And it is here that correlation studies are very necessary, probing the connections between large atmospheric processes (significant cyclonic depressions and anticyclonic pressure hills, the speed and direction of wind flows, millions of tons of precipitation, thereby increasing pressure on the earth's crust) and their consequences on the movement of continents. ... Especially in places of active (living) tectonic faults!

Previously, such studies could only be of a general and, therefore, uninformative nature. Now that computers and space are at the service of humanity, these correlations are much easier to detect. Moreover, correlations can be determined not only for neighboring territories, but for the entire surface of the earth, since all plates are interconnected. That is, roughly and figuratively speaking, a major atmospheric event can occur in Europe, but will respond in the earth's crust in America or Asia.

This is one side of the issue. Second, no less important, it is necessary to unite the efforts of geophysicists and researchers of the physical processes of the atmosphere. That is, specialized geo-meteorological research institutes are needed, united into a single world complex for the study of the correlation of atmospheric processes and the geodynamics of lithospheric plates and working according to unified jointly developed programs.

Is it worth doing this for the sake of much more accurate predictions (rather than predictions) of earthquakes? It's not up to me to decide. But the word has been spoken.

By the way: the famous astronomer and geophysicist, corresponding member of the AR of the USSR Nikolai Nikolaevich Pariisky pointed out that the most likely reason for the annual variations in the Earth's rotation speed is the influence of the circulation of the Earth's atmosphere, accompanied by the transfer of angular momentum from the atmosphere to the Earth.

Published: July 06, 2021.
Author: Alexey Potupin, physical-geographer, Düsseldorf-Benrath. ©