before oceans

BEFORE THE DEEPWATER OCEANS

Before the Permian Extinction planetary mass and surface area was the same as Mars, surface area equal to the surface area of the continental landmasses and the lithosphere draped the planet in an unbroken rocky shell, punctuated by volcanoes relieving internal pressure, from transforming electrons and positrons into atoms by the field, with volcanic eruptions which increased planetary surface area by thickening the lithosphere.

Earth was in geosynchronous orbit with Mars, halfway between their present solar orbits, when an impact with the moon knocked Earth out of geosynchronous orbit with Mars and releasing the planets on opposite trajectories, into new solar orbits closer to and further from the sun.

A map of the titanium abundances on the Moon’s near side indicates extremely high concentrations compared to terrestrial rocks. We mimicked the high-Titanium basalts using high-temperature experiments clearly demonstrating how the melt-solid reaction is integral in understanding the formation of these unique magmas.

Titanium deposits, only on the near side of the moon, suggest heating by atmospheric friction before the moon impacted, shattering the lithosphere at the future location of the Pacific Ocean, causing the Permian extinction, before rebounding into lunar orbit. The impact with the moon shattered the lithosphere into plates creating a depression which became the sea bed of the Pacific Ocean.

The Siberian Traps were an immense episode of flood-basalt volcanism that occurred about 252 million years ago near the end of the Permian Period. Instead of erupting from a single volcano, lava poured from thousands of long fissures across what is now Siberia over several hundred thousand years. The eruptions produced an estimated 3–5 million cubic kilometres of basaltic lava, enough to bury an area the size of Australia beneath successive lava flows that reached several kilometres in thickness in some places.

SPREAD RATES OF THE OCEANIC PLATES

Arctic Ocean
North America – Eurasia — 10–20 km/Myr

Indian Ocean
Africa – Antarctica — 10–20 km/Myr
Africa – Indo-Australian plate — 50–60 km/Myr
Australia – Antarctica — 60–70 km/Myr
Arabia – Africa — 20–30 km/Myr

Pacific Ocean
Pacific – Nazca — 40–160 km/Myr
Pacific – Cocos — 80–90 km/Myr
Pacific – Antarctic — 70–100 km/Myr
Nazca – Antarctic — 70–80 km/Myr
Pacific – Juan de Fuca — 55–65 km/Myr

Assuming a global mid-ocean ridge length of 65,000 km and average spreading rate of 25 km/ million years, it is possible to estimate how much new surface area could be created over the 250 million years since the Permian–Triassic extinction event. Starting with a surface area equal to the surface area of the continental land masses—about 44 million km²—and this additional oceanic area were added through continuous seafloor spreading, the total planetary surface would grow to roughly 550 million km².

Converting surface area back into the radius of a sphere yields a radius of roughly 6,600 km, which is quite close to the modern radius of Earth, about 6,371 km. In purely geometric terms, therefore, the amount of crust that could be generated by spreading at the assumed rates over 250 million years is of the same order as the surface area required for a planet to grow from roughly Mars-sized to approximately the present dimensions of Earth.

GRAVITY HAS INCREASED

Since the Permian extinction planetary mass has increased tenfold, surface area has increased 3.5 times, surface gravity has increased 2.5 times, and surface curvature reduced from the curvature of Mars to the curvature of the deep water oceans, causing faults and earthquakes as the landscape flattens.

In humans and bovids, cortical bone has been evaluated to withstand maximum stress. Hence, within the context of comparable loading regimes, the mechanical state of each sauropod model examined suggests that all skeletal pedal postures would most likely have resulted in mechanical failure (e.g., stress fractures).

This state would have been intensified when subjected to repetitive heavy loadings, as would be expected during normal locomotion, ultimately resulting in fatigue fracture in all digits. Being unable to support or move properly, the high probability of mechanical failure would have had a substantial impact on the animal’s survival.

The Kori bustard is the heaviest living animal that can fly. Males weigh between 10 and 16 kilograms and the biggest up to 23 kg. For comparison, the wandering albatross has a larger wingspan, but only the biggest reach even 16 kg.

The huge Quetzalcoatlus northropi lived 70 million years ago, stood as tall as a giraffe on the ground, more than five meters tall and weighed 250 kilograms.