Earth's Crust Missing In Mid-Atlantic

Science Daily ^ | March 2007 | Cardiff University

[gogogodzilla]

So that's where Domino's and Pizza Hut have been getting their crusts!

Strip mining the ocean floor for crusts...

[x_plus_one]

NEAL Adams has a good theory on expanding plaanets

It goes along with the expanding universe theory....

[Heatseeker]

I think it probably happened as a side-effect of the breakup of Pangaea, presumably due to drugs, touring schedules and creative differences.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Earth's crust missing???

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[Lil'freeper]

Basalt of the earth, ping.

[albee]

"How does this relate to the Mariana's Trench?"

Geeeeez!

I didn't know she had one.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Followed by world wide scalding hot tsunamis of biblical proportions.

[xcamel]

FReepmail me to get on or off

Click pn POGW graphic for full GW rundown

Ping me if you find one I've missed.

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Science related

[aruanan]

No, it's missing because the Atlantic region is the driving force of continental drift except it happened over a period of years, not ages?

[Little Ray]

Bush's fault.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SFD for the ping!

Fred N, check out the link in message 62.

Catastrophism ping list

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[expatpat]

The Bermuda Triangle exists.....!

[Total Package]

I needed some clean fill dirt for my backyard.

[BenLurkin]

How is this even possible?

[Robert A Cook PE]

Rove, you magnificent bastard!

Rove, you magmaefficent bastard!

[Ole Okie]

the mantle - the deep interior of the Earth, normally covered by crust many kilometers thick - is exposed on the seafloor, 3000m below the surface

Gee whiz. In the 50's and maybe 60's everybody was all excited about ocean drilling to the Moho (the Mohorovicic discontinuity between the crust and the mantle). And there it was - the mantle itself - just lying there quietly - just waiting for Algore to invent the internet, global warming, and as a trifecta, discover the Moho!! /s

[Robert A Cook PE]

But compared to billions of tons of very cold water right around the vents, and very, very slow expansion of the relatively little molten rock actually present at any given time, the water (always flowing past the rapidly cooling rock) overall in the ocean doesn't heat up at all.

Main ocean currents are most strongly affected by the Coriolis effect - which is why EVERY ocean has a similar pattern of west-running currents near the equator, north-runnning current on the west shore, east on the north face, and then south-running currents on the east coast. (Above for north hemisphere.

Stop the earth, and the currents will quickly stop. Salt and temperature affect more the depth where the fastest currents flow, not their overall clockwise direction.

The premise if this story, the words used by the writer are very, very poor.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Iceland-threatening geology ping! 8<)

[Grizzled Bear]

I recently heard a couple of Canadian geologists debating whether the next big geological change was going to put Australia next to W. Canada, or do something in the Atlantic.

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The Australians I met aren't going to go along with that. They really like their climate the way it is right now!

[Robert A Cook PE]

A bit more detail: The graph you have shows the sub-surface currents. These are very slow - the text below gives a cycle of about 1000 years.

Note that the "cycle" compares to the 3-4 nm per HOUR rate of the faster Gulf Stream and Pacific currents which are the shallow wind-driven currents I mentioned.

quote follows:

CHAPTER 8: Introduction to the Hydrosphere


(q). Surface and Subsurface Ocean Currents



Surface Ocean Currents

An ocean current can be defined as a horizontal movement of seawater at the ocean's surface. Ocean currents are driven by the circulation of wind above surface waters. Frictional stress at the interface between the ocean and the wind causes the water to move in the direction of the wind. Large ocean currents are a response of the atmosphere and ocean to the flow of energy from the tropics to polar regions. In some cases, currents are transient features and affect only a small area. Other ocean currents are essentially permanent and extend over large horizontal distances.

On a global scale, large ocean currents are constrained by the continental masses found bordering the three oceanic basins. Continental borders cause these currents to develop an almost closed circular pattern called a gyre. Each ocean basin has a large gyre located at approximately 30° North and South latitude in the subtropical regions. The currents in these gyres are driven by the atmospheric flow produced by the subtropical high pressure systems. Smaller gyres occur in the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans centered at 50° North. Currents in these systems are propelled by the circulation produced by polar low pressure centers. In the Southern Hemisphere, these gyre systems do not develop because of the lack of constraining land masses.

A typical gyre displays four types of joined currents: two east-west aligned currents found respectively at the top and bottom ends of the gyre; and two boundary currents oriented north-south and flowing parallel to the continental margins. Direction of flow within these currents is determined by the direction of the macro-scale wind circulation. Boundary currents play a role in redistributing global heat latitudinally.



Surface Currents of the Subtropical Gyres

On either side of the equator, in all ocean basins, there are two west flowing currents: the North and South Equatorial (Figure 8q-1). These currents flow between 3 and 6 kilometers per day and usually extend 100 to 200 meters in depth below the ocean surface. The Equatorial Counter Current, which flows towards the east, is a partial return of water carried westward by the North and South Equatorial currents. In El Nino years, this current intensifies in the Pacific Ocean.

Flowing from the equator to high latitudes are the western boundary currents. These warm water currents have specific names associated with their location: North Atlantic - Gulf Stream; North Pacific - Kuroshio; South Atlantic - Brazil; South Pacific - East Australia; and Indian Ocean - Agulhas. All of these currents are generally narrow, jet like flows that travel at speeds between 40 and 120 kilometers per day. Western boundary currents are the deepest ocean surface flows, usually extending 1000 meters below the ocean surface.

Flowing from high latitudes to the equator are the eastern boundary currents. These cold water currents also have specific names associated with their location: North Atlantic - Canary; North Pacific - California; South Atlantic - Benguela; South Pacific - Peru; and Indian Ocean - West Australia. All of these currents are generally broad, shallow moving flows that travel at speeds between 3 and 7 kilometers per day.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the east flowing North Pacific Current and North Atlantic Drift move the waters of western boundary currents to the starting points of the eastern boundary currents. The South Pacific Current, South Indian Current and South Atlantic Current provide the same function in the Southern Hemisphere. These currents are associated with the Antarctic Circumpolar (West Wind Drift). Because of the absence of landmass at this latitude zone, the Antarctic Circumpolar flows in continuous fashion around Antarctica and only provides a partial return of water to the three Southern Hemispheric ocean basins.



Surface Currents of the Polar Gyres

The polar gyres exist only in the Atlantic and Pacific basins in Northern Hemisphere. They are propelled by the counterclockwise winds associated with the development of permanent low pressure centers at 50° of latitude over the ocean basins. Note that the bottom west flowing current of the polar gyres is the topmost flowing current of the subtropical gyres. Other currents associated with these gyres are shown on Figure 8q-1.



Subsurface Currents

The world's oceans also have significant currents that flow beneath the surface (Figure 8q-2). Subsurface currents generally travel at a much slower speed when compared to surface flows. The subsurface currents are driven by differences in the density of sea water. The density of sea water deviates in the oceans because of variations in temperature and salinity. Near surface sea water begins its travel deep into the ocean in the North Atlantic. The downwelling of this water is caused by high levels of evaporation which cools and increases the salinity of the sea water located here. The high levels of evaporation take place in between Northern Europe and Greenland and just north of of Labrador, Canada. This sea water then moves south along the coast of North and South America until it reaches Antarctica. At Antarctica, the cold and dense sea water then travels eastward joining another deep current that is created by evaporation occuring between Antarctica and the southern tip of South America. Slightly into its eastward voyage the deep cold flow splits off into two currents, one of which moves northward. In the middle of the North Pacific and in the Indian Ocean (off the east coast of Africa), these two currents move from the ocean floor to its surface creating upwellings. The current then becomes near surface moving eventually back to the starting point in the North Atlantic or creating a shallow warm flow that circles around Antarctica. One complete circuit of this flow of sea water is estimated to take about 1,000 years.
(See fig in post 1.)

Figure 8q-2: The following illustration describes the flow pattern of the major subsurface ocean currents. Near surface warm currents are drawn in red. Blue depicts the deep cold currents. Note how this system is continuously moving water from the surface to deep within the oceans and back to the top of the ocean. (Source: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment -ACIA).