Possibly, but the geological evidence I seen doesn't support that theory. As an amateur example, the Atlantic Ridge is spreading apart, a horizontal movement, while the Pacific Ring of Fire has more of a vertical movement.
If anything the Atlantic Ridge is pushing on the North American and Asian plates and forcing them on top of each other, like a VW Beetle running underneath a semi tractor trailer.
Then again, I am an electrical engineer and my knowledge of geology, etc. comes from Discover Magazine and The Learning Channel, so your mileage may vary.
You are absolutely correct. This is OBSERVABLE science. As opposed to the anthropogenic global warming make it up as you go along type of science.
This is complete garbage. The earth grows, not shrinks. I wonder if these chicken little geeks have bothered to calculate just how much longer the day has gotten due to the earths expansion, and the gradual slowing down of the earths rotation over that last two centuries alone. As most people with more than 2 brain cells know, the earth collects space dust, iron etc.
The earths rotation has been gradually slowing as each century passes by. The earths orbit around the sun has also been slowing with each passing century. The continental plates have been moving apart on one side and together on the other side. This is what causes earth quakes in the first place.
This is all basic grade 5 geography. What the heck has the Newark ledger editor been smoking, allowing garbage like this to go into print.
What's scary, is half of the American population will believe this garbage, guess which half? The loony left of course!
It's also a reflection of how poor of a job our education system is doing. They obviously can't even teach basic elementary school geography anymore. Why Billy has 2 Moms, and why Little Jane has 2 dad's is much more important.
The Pacific has a spreading center also, but it is the East Pacific rise, and part of it has been shoved under the west coast of North America.
The ridges have active volcanic zones near their centerlines, which create new plate, the old goes under the continents or other ocean plates in the oceanic trenches.
Because the spreading rates are uneven down the length of the ridges, there are numerous transform faults cross cutting the ridges.
In most instances, the oceanic plates push the continental plates around.
Then you know more than they did when they formed all these theories!