314 The Poetry of Physics and The Physics of Poetry
pattern of alternating magnetic polarizations confirms the hypothesis that
molten rocks flow out of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and push the continents
apart. It also explains why the east coast of North and South America
seem to fit like jig-saw puzzle pieces into the west coast of Europe and
Africa. The similarity of rock formations and life forms where these
continents would have been in contact provide further evidence
supporting this hypothesis. Additional evidence supporting this
hypothesis is that the rocks closest to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge are the
youngest and those furthest way the oldest.
The places where plates meet are zones of geological activity such as
volcanoes, earthquakes and mountain formation. For example the
Himalayan mountains are a result of the Indian subcontinental plate
colliding with and being thrust under the Eurasian continental plate,
which it lifted to create these mountains. Another example is the Pacific
Plate’s Ring of Fire along the west coast of North and South America,
the Pacific east coast of Asia extending down into the south Pacific just
to the east of Australia. This zone contains 75% of the active and
dormant volcanoes on Earth and is also a very active earthquake zone.
The earthquakes occur as a result of the fact that the tectonic plates
cannot glide by each other because of friction. The potential energy that
builds up as a result of this is released during an earthquake.
Oceans
The Earth’s surface is 71% covered by Oceans or 361 million square
kilometers with a volume of 1.3 billion cubic kilometers. The average
depth of all the world’s ocean is 3,790 meters with a maximum depth is
10,923 meters. The salinity of ocean water is on average about 3.5% salt.
Oceans were the birthplace of life on the Earth. Oceans play an
important role in the Earth’s climate. They transfer heat through their
currents from the tropical zones near the equator to the northern and
southern regions of the planet. One example is the Gulf Stream which is
like a river running through the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico
along the east coast of North America after which is splits in two with
the northern stream crossing to Europe moderating the climate there and
the southern stream recirculating off West Africa.
Although we have different names for the oceans, Atlantic, Pacific,
Indian, Artic and Antarctic there is in fact only one continuous body of
saline water covering the Earth’s surface encompassing all of the above