Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-cx56b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-29T08:41:28.022Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Polar Wandering and the Earth's Dynamical Evolution Cycle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Cheh Pan*
Affiliation:
Westinghouse Georesearch Laboratory, Boulder, Colo., U.S.A.

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

With a triaxial deformable Earth model an attempt is made to integrate the dynamics of polar wandering with that of the tectonic movements of the Earth's upper layers. Polar wandering is interpreted as a mechanical response of the rotating Earth to the episodic energy perturbation in the upper layers, whereas the tectonic movements are the adjustments of the upper layers to the polar instability. The present analysis suggests that the attempt of the Earth to adjust itself for polar stability is the driving mechanisms of continental drift and sea-floor spreading, and also that the Earth's wobble is rather a quasi-permanent (slow damping) phenomenon and has two components. And that the Earth would not reach its rotational equilibrium as long as the excess heat-generation in its interior continues to supply energy for its cyclic dynamical evolution.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1972 

References

Burgers, J.: 1955, Nederland. Akad. Wetensch. Proc. 58, 219.Google Scholar
Chinnery, M. A. and Wells, F. J.: 1972, this volume, p. 215.Google Scholar
Dahlen, F. A.: 1971, AGU Trans. 52, 280.Google Scholar
Gaposchkin, E. M.: 1972, this volume, p. 19.Google Scholar
Gold, T.: 1955, Nature 175, 526.Google Scholar
Goldreich, P. and Toomre, A.: 1969, J. Geophys. Res. 74, 2555.Google Scholar
Gutenburg, B.: 1959, Physics of the Earth's Interior, Acad. Press, New York, 240 pp.Google Scholar
Inglis, D.: 1957, Rev. Mod. Phys. 29, 9.Google Scholar
Irving, E. and Robertson, W. A.: 1969, J. Geophys. Res. 74, 1026.Google Scholar
Isacks, B., Oliver, J., and Sykes, L. R.: 1968, J. Geophys. Res. 73, 5855.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaula, W. M.: 1967, Space Sci. Rev. 7, 769.Google Scholar
Kaula, W. M.: 1969a, J. Geophys. Res. 74, 2568.Google Scholar
Kaula, W. M.: 1969b, J. Geophys. Res. 74, 4807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaula, W. M.: 1970, Science 169, 982.Google Scholar
Le Pichon, X.: 1968, J. Geophys. Res. 73, 3661.Google Scholar
Liu, C. P.: 1969a, AGU Trans. 50, 121.Google Scholar
Liu, C. P.: 1969b, AGU Trans. 50, 601.Google Scholar
Ma, T. Y. H.: 1960, Res. Past. Clim. Cont. Drift 15, 24 pp.Google Scholar
Mansinha, L. and Smylie, D. E.: 1967, J. Geophys. Res. 72, 4731.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansinha, L. and Smylie, D. E.: 1968, Science 161, 1127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markowitz, W.: 1968, in Markowitz, Wm. and Guinot, B. (eds.), ‘Continental Drift, Secular Motion of the Pole, and Rotation of the Earth’, IAU Symp. 32, 25.Google Scholar
Munk, W. H.: 1956, Nature 177, 551.Google Scholar
Munk, W. H. and MacDonald, G. J. F.: 1960, The Rotation of the Earth, Cambridge Univ. Press, London, 324 pp.Google Scholar
Pan, C.: 1963, ‘A Preliminary Study on the Relations between Polar Wandering and Seismicity’, , Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Mass. Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Pan, C.: 1968, Tectonophys. 5, 125.Google Scholar
Pan, C.: 1970, AGU Trans. 51, 430.Google Scholar
Pan, C.: 1971a, AGU Trans. 52, 355.Google Scholar
Pan, C.: 1971b, ‘Remarks on the Excitation of the Chandler Wobble by Earthquakes’, in preparation.Google Scholar
Press, F.: 1965, J. Geophys. Res. 70, 2395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rance, H.: 1967, J. Geophys. Res. 72, 2213.Google Scholar
Shimazaki, K. and Takeuchi, H.: 1972, this volume, p. 224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoyko, A.: 1968, in Markowitz, Wm. and Guinot, B. (eds.), ‘Continental Drift, Secular Motion of the Pole, and Rotation of the Earth’, IAU Symp. 32, 52.Google Scholar
Takeuchi, H. and Sugi, N.: 1972, this volume, p. 212.Google Scholar
Thomson, W. T.: 1963, Introduction to Space Dynamics, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 317 pp.Google Scholar
Yumi, S. and Wako, Y.: 1968, in Markowitz, Wm. and Guinot, B. (eds.), ‘Continental Drift, Secular Motion of the Pole, and Rotation of the Earth’, IAU Symp. 32, 33.Google Scholar