CompuServe Messages

>> The ridges were not so much like a single entity until the transform fault between N.Brazil and W.Africa mostly closed up,<< What do you mean on closed up? >> apparently due to the faster spreading of the S. Atlantic ridge. There is still that jog in the fault we have discussed as a relic of the non-identity of the ridges.<< Yea there is something in the ridge at that area but to me I can see the long and short versions similarly. >>It looks like a single ridge because all this branching and redirecting activity gets obscured as time passes – only the most recent and most active spreading is as obvious as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.<< I see where you are coming from here but there is big difference on what will happen to the ridge depending on what the actual formation process is. >>The transform faults are the primary (I do not know about only) mechanism for handling differential spreading rates. I take each transform fault to indicate there was or is a difference in spreading rate at the ridge on either side of the fault, though I may be assuming too much.<< They definitely adjusted stress. This is the crux of the whole discussion. The plate motions. However they are propelled are as you have discussed they could be dragged by flows under the surface. They could be pushed by moving continents. They could be pushed by each other. They are somewhat solid except for the mid ocean ridge where one plate interfaces another. Why would the transform faults still all line up across the Mid OCean Ridge after millions of years of moving in all directions why are they mostly lined up still? >>The ridge transform faults between the bulge of W. Africa and N. America (U.S. eastern seaboard) seem to point from one to the other in a NW-SE direction. The faults between Africa and S. America again appear to connect the two, as far as I can see, in a more E-W direction. When I connect two continental shelf edge points that are across an internal ocean, but that were adjacent in Pangaea, I not only expect the ridge to be at the midpoint, I expect to see the nearest transform faults lining up parallel to that line, and that is about what I see. The connection should be a shortest-distance great circle arc, which will seem to be an arc on an ordinary flat map – if anything, the connections seem _too_ good on my flat map.<< I agree totally. The shift faults by connecting up opposite points that connect show the motion of the continents, still to this day. … even though supposedly they have moved in complicated reforming methods over time the shift faults still line up the exact motion in many areas. See what i mean? Why are the faults cutting across both plates when the motions of each are separate. .. relatively unconnected? Why are the shift faults still lined up across the mid rise if the plate motions are in different directions and tangents? Kamron PS I owe working this out to you Thanks for the rich and rewarding conversation.