THE EXPANDING EARTH. 1976. S. Warren Carey. ....
And that is what this book is about, a "more probable model" which proposes "that the earth is expanding and that the separation of the continents by growth of new oceans is not extensively compensated by the swallowing of old crust elsewhere" (p. 14).
"That the diameter of the earth has increased with time at an increasing rate, is the theme of this book"
(p. 118). In fact Carey suggests that there is evidence that the surface area of the earth has doubled since the Paleozoic era (pp. 20, 47, 51).
The evidence that Carey cites necessitating an expanding earth are:
gaping gores, which appear to be false artifacts, in even the best Pangea assembled on a present size earth (p. 39).
"A coherent integral assembly is only possible on a globe of smaller radius ..." (p. 27).
hierarchy of polygons into which the earth's crust is broken. Carey identifies nine first-order polygons (p. 12) which are more or less equivalent to the plates of tectonic theory. He provides evidence that each of these are broken up into second order polygons which in turn, are broken into third order polygons, etc. (p. 42).
Carey suggests this is the natural consequence of the earth's crust accommodating to the increasing radius of the earth. increase in area of each of the first-order polygons (tectonic plates) since the Paleozoic and an increase in the distance between the centers of each plate (p. 47).
Pacific paradox associated with evidence that the Pacific Ocean doubled in size during the time that Pangea ruptured and dispersed and the Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans developed (p. 50). consensus that Australia, South and North America, Africa, India and Europe have moved to more northerly latitudes since the Mesozoic era and yet are generally further from the Arctic now than then (pp. 52, 116, 199). In fact, as a result of the mid-Atlantic ridge, the Arctic Ocean is still expanding today.
young ocean floors. Carey feels that "it is incredible that no sizeable block of old ocean crust would be left anywhere" if the size of the earth has remained fixed but that this would be expected on an expanding earth (p. 53).
close geologic association of India with Antarctica, Australia and Africa. On a globe of the earth's current radius it is not topologically possible to assemble Pangea so that India fits all these neighbors (p. 435) but "all these close connections emerge automatically when Pangaea is assembled on a terrella of appropriate radius" (p. 436).