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| Titel |
The Earth expansion theory and its transition from scientific hypothesis to pseudoscientific belief |
| VerfasserIn |
P. Sudiro |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
2190-5010
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: History of Geo- and Space Sciences ; 5, no. 1 ; Nr. 5, no. 1 (2014-06-20), S.135-148 |
| Datensatznummer |
250115310
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/hgss-5-135-2014.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
During the first half of 20th century, the dominant global tectonics
model based on Earth contraction had increasing problems accommodating new
geological evidence, with the result that alternative geodynamic theories were
investigated. Due to the level of scientific knowledge and the limited
amount of data available in many scientific disciplines at the time, not
only was contractionism considered a valid scientific theory but the debate
also included expansionism, mobilism on a fixed-dimension planet, or
various combinations of these geodynamic hypotheses. Geologists and
physicists generally accepted that planets could change their dimensions,
although the change of volume was generally believed to happen because of a
contraction, not an expansion. Constant generation of new matter in the
universe was a possibility accepted by science, as it was the variation in
the cosmological constants. Continental drift, instead, was a more heterodox
theory, requiring a larger effort from the geoscientists to be accepted.
The new geological data collected in the following decades, an improved
knowledge of the physical processes, the increased resolution and
penetration of geophysical tools, and the sensitivity of measurements in
physics decreased the uncertainty level in many fields of science.
Theorists now had less freedom for speculation because their theories had to
accommodate more data, and more limiting conditions to respect. This
explains the rapid replacement of contracting Earth, expanding Earth, and
continental drift theories by plate tectonics once the symmetrical oceanic
magnetic striping was discovered, because none of the previous models could
explain and incorporate the new oceanographic and geophysical data.
Expansionism could survive after the introduction of plate tectonics because
its proponents have increasingly detached their theory from reality by
systematically rejecting or overlooking any contrary evidence, and
selectively picking only the data that support expansion. Moreover, the
proponents continue to suggest imaginative physical mechanisms to explain expansion,
claiming that scientific knowledge is partial, and the many inconsistencies
of their theory are just minor problems in the face of the plain evidence of
expansion. According to the expansionists, scientists should just wait for
some revolutionary discovery in fundamental physics that will explain all
the unsolved mysteries of Earth expansion.
The history of the expanding-Earth theory is an example of how falsified
scientific hypotheses can survive their own failure, gradually shifting
towards and beyond the limits of scientific investigation until they become
merely pseudoscientific beliefs. |
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