Summary for the book Dynamics of the Earths axis of rotation and the levels of the oceans

These large wave sites attract surfers, although occasionally, waves get just too big to surf. When waves crash onshore they can make a significant impact to the landscape by shifting entire islands of sand and carving out rocky coastlines. Storm waves can even move boulders the size of cars above the high tide line, leaving a massive boulder hundreds of feet inland. To sailors, they look like walls of water. No one knows for sure what causes a rogue wave to appear, but some scientists think that they tend to form when different ocean swells reinforce one another.

Wind is not the only cause of wild waves. A tsunami is a wave created by a disturbance that displaces a large amount of water, like an earthquake or a landslide, and they often occur in clusters or sets. Tsunami waves are capable of destroying seaside communities with wave heights that sometimes surpass 20m around 66ft.

Tsunamis have caused over , deaths since Tides are actually waves, the biggest waves on the planet, and they cause the sea to rise and fall along the shore around the world.

Tides exist thanks to the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun, but vary depending on where the moon and sun are in relation to the ocean as the earth rotates on its axis. The moon, being so much closer, has more power to pull the tides than the sun and therefore is the primary force creating the tides. Tidal movements are tracked using networks of shore-based water level gauges, and many countries provide real-time information with tidal listings and tidal charts.

Tides can be tracked for specific locations in order to predict the height of a tide and when low and high tide will occur in the future. Equatorial waters would move toward polar areas, initially causing a significant reduction in depth while filling the polar basins that have much less capacity. As regions at high latitude in the northern hemisphere become submerged, the areal extent of the northern circumpolar ocean would rapidly expand, covering the vast lowlands of Siberia and northern portions of North America. The global ocean would remain one unit until the rotation of the earth decreased to the speed at which ocean separation would occur.

The interaction between the inertia of huge water bodies and decreasing centrifugal force would be very complicated. As the consequence of steady slowdown of earth's rotation, the global ocean would be gradually separated into two oceans. Obviously, the last connection will be broken at the lowest point of the global divide line, located southwest of the Kiribati Islands.

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Since the current western Pacific Ocean is a plane, land would emerge quickly because there would be no chance that water would be exchanged between the two circumpolar oceans after the initial split. The area of final separation between the two oceans would be the simultaneous emerging and drying of territory extending for hundreds of kilometers. While gravity pulls more water toward the Arctic Ocean, the lowlands of Siberia and northern Canada would become submerged.

The corresponding movement of water away from the equatorial region combined with the shallow continental shelf waters southeast of Asia and north of Australia will cause land to emerge. A deepening Arctic Ocean would lead to the further expansion of water over the northern plains of Asia, Europe, and North America. Greenland and Antarctica, despite their high elevations, would become significantly smaller in size. New archipelagos emerge from the southern seas. The Great American Lakes, the biggest freshwater reservoirs in the world, dissolve into the ocean.

The slowdown would continue after the separation of the two oceans and cause further migration of the ocean water toward the poles. Surprisingly despite Antarctica's elevation , the southern polar basin has a larger capacity than the northern one. Given the fixed volume of water in both hemispheres, the more capacious basin of the southern pole would result in an overall lower sea level than the northern ocean.

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According to volumetric calculation performed with the ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension, the difference between the sea level of the two oceans should be 1, meters. However, the data accuracy does not warrant this level of precision, so the elevation difference between the sea level of the two oceans used was 1, meters.

The series of maps illustationg this article depict the intermittent stages during this migration of the earth's oceans and changes in land extents, topographic elevation, and bathymetric depth caused by the decreasing speed of the earth's rotation. These maps demonstrate the intermediate stages of transitional geography from a rotating to a stationary world. They show the effects of the gradual reduction of centrifugal force from its current level to none, leaving gravity as the only force controlling the ocean's extent. The actual slowdown of the earth's rotation has been observed, measured, calculated, and theoretically explained.

As newer methodologies are developed and more precise instruments are constructed, the exact rate of the slowdown may vary between some sources.

If the Earth Stood Still

Reflecting this very gradual slowing, atomic clocks must be adjusted to solar time by adding a leap second every so often. The first leap second was added in All Antarctica would be under water at this point. The north polar waters and the water over the vast, recently submerged territories in Siberia and Canada would be getting deeper. At the same time, equatorial waters would be getting more shallow. Large land areas near the equator continue growing and join with each other. By now, nearly all of Canada, Europe, and Russia are covered by a northern circumpolar ocean.

Most scientists agree that the solar day related to the speed of rotation is continuously getting longer. This minimal increase of the day length is due mainly to the oceanic tidal friction. When the estimated rate of the slowdown was projected back to past geologic eons, it showed that the length of a day was several hours shorter than today. Firstly, the complex secular movement of NP in the 20th century to the west, from the 71 st - to the 78 th - meridian and along them, can be alternatively interpreted as the rotational-forward drift of both Eurasia and North America relative to IAB in the direction opposite to the secular course vector.

All five observatories of the Latitude Service were located on continental lithosphere, and the results of their measurements pertain only to the continents of Eurasia and North America as third-order tectono-dynamic structures. It is no accident that sections of the Earth at the 71 st th - meridians and in the opposite meridians extend across these continents. Secondly, the Earth is not a perfect sphere, and its lithosphere will tend to split up as it moves along a meridian.

In this case, the thin oceanic lithosphere would be expected to be the first to split up. Thirdly, common forward continental drift in the Northern Hemisphere can occur only when shear movements take place simultaneously along transform faults in the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans Zemtsov, Finally, the North Pacific plate, as a fourth-order tectono-dynamic structure located between Eurasia and North America rotating clockwise, should rotate in the opposite direction, as was described in Vikulin, In this case, r can be calculated from coordinates of points with the Williams Aviation Formulary V1.

The error in r increases nonlinearly at great arc distances. We can apply a necessary correction using known mathematical tables specifying the segment elements of a circle Zemtsov, a. Such a method is used to estimate the degree of elasticity plasticity of the Eurasian plate at various points of its surface Zemtsov, , , a as it is now covered with a fairly dense permanent satellite geodetic network GPS monitoring.

The modern clockwise rotational drift of the Eurasian plate is clear Fig. Scheme showing bathymetric features in the Indian Ocean and the altitudes of surrounding land Naqvi, However, contrary to V.

Utkin , the centre of rotation is not a point. It manifests itself in the regional morphology Fig. The most important vectors of linear velocities obtained for Tibet and its surroundings are presented in Table 2. Although colleagues Zhiliang et al. They tentatively interpret these vortex motions and crustal deformations as a reflection of the lower crust rock rheology.

According to Table 2, only the CSD point has very small horizontal displacement the reason for which is hard to find. It is located in close proximity to the source of the recent destructive earthquake that occurred in southwestern China Zemtsov, a. The tectonics and seismicity of the Himalayas has been the subject of intense investigations by many geoscientists during the past few decades Kayal, ; Ramesh et al.

Most of the earthquakes were assigned to a fixed depth 33 km as recorded in the catalog of the International Seismological Centre. It has not been possible to correlate the observed seismicity and tectonic features of the Himalayas with any realistic model, particularly the great earthquakes in this region are yet to be understood well. Recent data shed some new light on tectonics of the Himalayas that differs from west to east Kayal, The Central Asian transition zone consists of numerous crust blocks of different sizes.

The most active interblock zones limited the Pamirs, Tien Shan, Shan, and Bayanhar blocks as well as the north boundaries of the Indian Plate. The majority of the most intensive seismic events took place just in these interblock zones. The total quantity of seismic energy generally diminishes away from the boundary of the Indian Plate, but sometimes the maximal quantity releases in the inner parts of the transit zone at a distance of km from the plate boundary.

The most active interblock zones of central Asia differ from subduction and collision zones in the depth of their penetration into the lithosphere and at the same time are rather near to them by the volume of energy realized. The examination of interblock zones shows that the majority of intensive earthquakes occur within them in regions with sharp changes in geodynamic conditions. Geographic coordinates of GPS stations in the east system and their linear velocity vectors in the Tibet Plateau and its environs, based on the data of Yuping et al.

Greatly different ARV values show that Eurasia, the largest modern continent, does not possess the main property of a rotating solid body, i. However, the general pattern of the Eurasian linear velocities includes local anomalous areas the Altai, the Carpathians, etc. Unfortunately, such an analysis of the drift of GPS stations cannot be performed for other continents because similar systematic studies are at the initial stage there. In particular, local GPS networks are concentrated in the United States, mainly in western North America, and are used primarily to trace earthquakes.

Like Europe, this part of the continent drifts NE Melbourne et al. However, these data and the results of the interpretation of the secular apparent North Pole wander passes over the last century suggest that this continent rotates clockwise Zemtsov, a , Due to severe conditions, French scientists obtained only one reliable vector, which suggests that this huge continent apparently rotates counterclockwise. It seems that large-scale forces, rotating the continents in the direction opposite to the rotation of the Earth, permanently exist when the centres of the continents are far away from the equator.

To understand the physical nature of these forces, we can draw analogies with atmospheric vortexes anticyclones and the rotation pattern of floating ice in the Arctic Ocean Zemtsov, a. Anticyclones arise at Arctic and temperate latitudes and rotate clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, but counter-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and form vortexes that are about km across. Descending on the interface of the rotating Earth, a heavy air column begins to whirl, presumably by virtue of frictional torque forces as described in textbooks on theoretical mechanics.

This physical problem has not yet been solved analytically as, unlike absolutely rigid bodies that can touch each other at a single point, natural bodies always touch one another at a site that, in principle, can rotate. In non-linear mechanics, a combination of such problems, in which the radii of curvature of the contact surfaces are considered, is known as a contact problem in the theory of elasticity, plasticity and creep Zemtsov, , although a rough physically determined model of such torsion can be created Fig.

If a site at which rotating bodies touch each other is horizontal, and the force which presses the upper body against the lower one is equal to the weight of the upper body P , then the problem is simpler although friction-sliding forces on the bottom of the upper body will have different directions and magnitudes and, if summed up, will give a torque friction force moment. If the moment of these forces is too low to overcome frictional resistance, the upper body will not move relative to the lower one.

The limit of the torque friction force moment M depends on the distribution of pressure on the bottom of the upper body, and such factors as the shape, size and elastic properties of bodies Eq. This coefficient, in turn, depends on the dimensionless sliding friction coefficient f and the area of contact of bodies.

Analysis of the simplified Eqs. As the torque friction coefficient on the bottom of a cylinder increases with increase in its radius, M is an approximate function of a 3 and P is an approximate function of a 2. The pattern of this movement becomes obvious see Fig. The effect of torque frictional forces can be modelled, for example, when making polished sections on a grinding wheel. The rotation of Eurasia is likely to follow the same physical pattern, i. In reality, of course, each continent has a huge mass, its surface is not flat at the base and a number of secondary interactive geodynamic forces operate.

Currents, Waves, and Tides: The Ocean in Motion | Smithsonian Ocean

Using this continental model and Eq. Thus, the energy of continental motion is ca. Such small values can be neglected Zemtsov, The spherical interface between the continental lithosphere and the asthenosphere is probably formed spontaneously by virtue of a change in the elastic properties of the mantle and its partial melting associated with a natural rise in temperature with depth at the expense of the heat released from the core and lower mantle so that, at a relatively small depth of km, the temperature can be as high as K.

If the moment M on the bottom of the continent exceeds the force of attraction attributed to its base area, it will begin to rotate spontaneously in the direction opposite to the rotation of the base. The temperature of the base may be expected to rise as a result of the torque friction. Spontaneous momenta of spinning friction forces M of vertical cylinders 2 and 3 of radius a pressed down to a massive horizontal disk 1 with the force P.

The disc rotates about the vertical axis OO1 with a linear velocity V. For the largest continents, such as Eurasia, Africa and South America, Lehmann's seismic discontinuity is located in this interval at a depth of ca. The nature of this interface can be explained by a transition from anisotropic lithosphere to essentially isotropic upper mantle. Furthermore, the possibility cannot be ruled out that several, rather than one, subparallel zones of shearing with differentiated rotation are present at the base of the continental lithosphere.

DSS data also show that at a depth of 90— km in the sub-continental mantle a second global layer with elastic wave velocity inversion and high electrical conductivity i. High seismicity qualitatively corroborates both of these mantle interfaces: A maximum torque moment seems to arise in a continent if the centre of its mass is located at the poles of planetary rotation.

For example, the modern Antarctic Continent has a huge area and tendency to retain quiescence in the inertial coordinate system, i. A similar rotation pattern of the continental lithosphere can be recognized in the Phanerozoic history of the Earth from palaeomagnetic data. Geological scheme of Siberia Almukhamedov et al. He postulated that a change in the rotation of the Eurasian plate EAP occurred in Lower Permian time and attributed it to the completion of magmatism in the Urals.

He argued that the subsequent behaviour of the plate was affected by a change in the structure of convective cells in the mantle. However, his arguments were based on old palaeomagnetic data, and the interpretation seems unlikely because it conflicts with the modern forward drift of the EAP and available palaeomagnetic data from the Siberian and Kazakhstan blocks, which indicate long-term clockwise rotation before the Permian Filippova et al.

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Hence, it is not quite correct to consider the drift of the EAP as historically inherited Zemtsov, Schemes showing the geodynamic evolution of the Central Asian foldbelt omitting contiguous areas Filippova et al. Numerals mark microcontinents and continental blocks: Interestingly, differential rotations, slow for the ancient European continent Baltica and fast for Siberia, had existed in Lower Devonian time, and after the Upper Carboniferous collision Fig.

Secondly, Figure 14 shows that as early as the Middle Devonian the ancient European continent Baltica intersected the equator and moved from the Southern to Northern Hemisphere whilst changing the direction of its rotation in Lower Carboniferous time. When it was south of the equator during the Lower Palaeozoic, it was rotating counterclockwise, whereas upon transition to the Northern Hemisphere the sense of rotation became clockwise. Volcanic activity in the Urals had already ceased by Permian time, and by the Upper Carboniferous the Baltica, Siberia and the Kazakhstan blocks had joined to form ancient Eurasia, which then continued drifting northwards and rotating clockwise.