As I said, the book does a detailed analysis of a number of plate tectonic movement theories. For example, there is a theory that plate movement etc. might be related to heat associated with the decay of radioactive elements.

If I remember correctly, the book provides some information regarding how much energy it would take to cause tectonic plates to move. Then it looks at a number radioactive elements that are believed to have been present when the Earth formed. And it tracks their decay over the years and estimates how much heat would have been released in the decay process. It then arrives at the conclusion that those decay processes would not generate enough heat to have much of an effect on plate movement.

It also looks at how plates move relative to the Earth layers underneath them. And it discusses how some plates can move freely because there they are relatively smooth on the bottom. And the Earth layers underneath them are also smooth. So things slide freely relative to one another.

In other locations the layers underneath might have an uneven surface. And that can slow or stop the movement of the plates above.

It looks at “hot spots” and explains why some seem to move such as the ones in the Hawaiian Islands area while “hot spots” in other locations are stationary.

So, there is a lot of interesting reading there. And the tectonic plate theories discussed in the book are mostly not the authors’. What they did was collect all of the major theories proposed over the years and provided references to them. And they then did those detailed analyses of each theory.

OCEAN BOTTOM METHANE

Off Canada’s West Coast there are supposed to be vast reservoirs of methane gas on the ocean floor. At that pressure and low temperature, methane combines with sea water to form a type of methane/sea water paste.

That is the type of stuff that kept clogging the vent tubes in that runaway oil well in the Gulf of Mexico a few years ago. Methane from the well mixed with the cold, high pressure ocean water and formed a type of sludge that blocked the vent tubes. So, BP had to try other things to control the oil leak.

Canada’s reserves of methane out there are estimated to be large enough to provide our world with a major source of methane that would last for quite a while. The problem as I understand is that no one knows a good way to get it to the surface and use it.

When the goop is brought to the surface by accident in fishing nets etc. it reportedly rapidly vaporizes like a monster firecracker.