I didn't ask whether you knew what was there. (It had better be iron, or we have another one of those contradictions.) I asked what the pressure is. You know: high, low, medium. What? And since we're talking about the center of the earth and all that iron there: where did it come from. I mean I thought the earth was formed from a swirling cloud of hydrogen gas which somehow coalesced. Where did the iron come from and how did it make its way neatly to the center if it wasn't there at the beginning?
You talk about the tectonic plates, but when I was in college we had a guy who believed in that stuff who came to lecture (I wish I could remember his name but I don't.) and as I recall he was considered a quack. (I was a math student, but I like to hear guys with far out theories speak so I attended.)
As for the folding, isn't it neat that you think the rock somehow flows in to fill the gaps that would be created. Flows in from where? Put any of these rock in a vice of sufficient strength and you will crush the rock. It won't flow or bend, at least at normal temperatures.
Tributaries formed the side canyons you say. There are no tributaries. The land is sort of flat and featureless as you approach the Grand Canyon (from the south, at least - I haven't been to the North Rim.) and then, boom, there it is: a huge hole in the earth with a little river running along at the bottom a mile below. You can see it at Google.
Yeah, the question about the archaeologists was serious. To me it looks as if the earth is still accreting, but you have the land washing away. And, oh BTW, how come almost all of the land is in the northern hemisphere? Yasuo Shinozuka had an interesting idea about this, but I stopped hearing from him. I don't know what became of him.
ML/NJ
You don't read very carefully, do you?
You asked: "What is the pressure at the center of the earth?"
I answered: "I don't know what it is"
"it" = the pressure.
That's where it happens to be at this time. It wasn't always collected there, or mostly there. The continents are in constant motion, or rather the tectonics plates on which the ocean basins and land masses are embedded in are in constant motion. At one time most of the landmasses were gathered around the equator (supercontinent of Pangaea, 250 million yrs ago). At another time, in the southern hemisphere (supercontinent of Rodinia, 1 billion yrs ago).
Who said anything about rock flowing in from somewhere else filling gaps?, although that can and does of course happen with volcanic and magmatic intrusions. Look up the geology of the Palisades Sill in your own state of New Jersey. The rock, rather, 'squooses' like taffy under such extreme conditions.
See:
http://www.geo.wvu.edu/~jtoro/structure/ppt/16Ductile%20processes.pdf
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Put any of these rocks in a vice of sufficient strength and you will crush the rock. It won't flow or bend, at least at normal temperatures.
I didn't say anything about this occurring at normal temperatures. These things occur at great depth where it is much warmer than at the surface. Also, the great pressures involved generate heat.
See:
"In Earth science the brittle-ductile transition zone is a zone, at an approximate depth of 15 km (9.3 mi) in continental crust, at which rock becomes less likely to fracture and more likely to deform ductilely. In glacial ice this zone is at approximately 30 m (98 ft) depth. It is not impossible for material above a brittle-ductile transition zone to deform ductilely, nor for material below to deform brittly. The zone exists because as depth increases confining pressure increases, and brittle strength increases with confining pressure whilst ductile strength decreases with increasing temperature. The transition zone occurs at the point where brittle strength exceeds ductile strength."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ductility#Geology