Quick postscript:
I agree with Aardwolf & allynh's discussion as summarized in the following quote:
Aardwolf wrote:In 2005, a 60km long stretch of the earth opened up to a width of eight metres over a period of just ten days.
So at the time did a similar stretch of land disappear at the northern edge of India underneath the Himalayas? Or did the mediteranean contract by 8 metres as the African plate slid under the Eurasion plate? I think there would have been signicant devastaion if so. If you argue a fixed earth size, this newly created area of land must have gone somewhere...
On a constant sized Earth where does the land go...and how come there isn't physical evidence of rapid "subduction" as a result of these rapid (geologically speaking) Earth movements from a central point?
These questions typically go unanswered by constant-sized Earth proponents. Standard Model geologists most often fail to point out these contradictions, by their own volition, to their theory and usually fail to respond with an explanation when others "connect the dots" from this type of physical observation & measurement.
As far as webolife's comment:
webolife wrote:It is also possible, as in the case of columnar jointing in cooling basalt flows, that the pieces of continental crust adjacent to the rift are contracting in some way as to open a gap between them... not saying that I think this is the case there in Africa, just that one should be careful about statements that imply there is only one logical solution.
First, I acknowledge that webolife is only offering a possible alternative explanation (which is better than most Standard Model geologists). But it must also be pointed out that webolife offers not one stitch of evidence or analysis specifically in regards to the Afar triple junction which would suggest his alternative explanation has any physical validity. So, while recognizing a goodfaith offer of an alternative, it must be noted that it comes across as "throwing mud at the wall and hoping some of it sticks".
Now, moving on, Europa has been raised in the discussion thread, again. This seems to be a recurrent bone of contention, but it need not be.
This TPOD, Small-Scale Moon, Jun 25, 2010, argues that experimental electric discharging machining in the laboratory matches the patterns observed & measured on Jupiter's moon Europa:
Laboratory experiments reveal the effects of electric discharges on Jupiter's moon Europa.
Many Picture of the Day articles have discussed the ice moon Europa. The overwhelming conclusion, based on observation, is that it was the scene of cataclysmic events sometime in the recent past. Those events carved its surface into long, sweeping rilles called "flexi" that wend for thousands of kilometers, as well as blackened swaths that crisscross its landscape in multi-kilometer wide spans.
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2010/ ... lscale.htm
Now, I link a high resolution NASA image of Europa:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegal ... _1339.html
Please link the NASA image and focus on the full image of Europa. Notice that directly below the superimposed box (to show where the higher resolution image which dominates the NASA webpage is taken from) is a structure that clearly matches the above fractal image allynh presented, a central point with "spider" arms radiating out from the central point.
What conclusions can be drawn from a comparison of images?
Easy, both physical processes, expansion & electric discharge machining, has gone on in the past on Jupiter's moon, Europa. Yes, allynh makes a valid point, which I agree with, that numerous structures identified as cracks are not consistent with electrical discharge machining. Some of these cracks are too long and too straight to be consistent with what Science knows of electric discharge machining from laboratory plasma experiments (others are ambiguous, and, as pointed out above, some are indisputably electric discharge machining).
And, as I have previously argued on this thread, celestial body expansion (stars, planets, and moons) is due to electrical processes, Birkeland currents with resulting Z-pinches of plasma filaments, specifically regarding Earth, the High Current Z-Pinch Aurora as proposed by Anthony L. Peratt.
