[meteorite-list] interesting speculation Pacific 'Basin' origin

From: lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu <lebofsky_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:50:57 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <1773.128.196.250.86.1170107457.squirrel_at_timber.lpl.arizona.edu>

Back in the dark ages (1950s and early 1960s), before the Dawning of the
Age of Aquarius (Which really starts somewhere between 2060 and 2100), we
were taught (and some of us even taught) that it was "interesting" how it
looked like South America fit into Africa and that the Pacific Ocean basin
was about the size of the Moon. One of the models for the formation of the
Moon was the binary fission model: the Earth was rotating fast enough to
spin off the Moon. There are a lot of problems with this model, but it
sure looked good when one looked at the size and shape of the Pacific! It
still hung on even after the "discovery" of moving plates.

This model hung on until at least the mid 80s (Alan Binder, et al.), but
with the advent of the Giant Impact model (Hartmann and others), the other
models (fission, co-accretion, and capture) began to lose favor.

Larry

On Mon, January 29, 2007 2:30 pm, Gerald Flaherty wrote:
> Just for fun, before we understood about plate tectonics
> and thought that land only moved up and down, not back and forth, it was
> widely believed that the Pacific Ocean was, not an impact feature, but an
> "outpact" feature, the place
> where the Moon spun off the Earth, leaving what would be the largest
> "basin" in the Solar System (if it were true, that is).
> Sterling Webb
> Hadn't heard this before but often considered the "break up" of Pangea
> etc., a result of impacts. A "string" of cometary material similar to that
> which impacted Jupiter in the late 90"s might do a superb job of
> "perforating" the continents into a
> myriad of interesting shapes. Or as the multiple "strings of impact
> craters" seen on the Martain surface describe. Not that impacts are needed
> to explain such phenomena. "Ordinary" tectonic gyrations probably provide
> an ample source for the stretching and contorting going on worldwide
> today. Jerry Flaherty
>
>
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Received on Mon 29 Jan 2007 04:50:57 PM PST