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THERE IS BEAUTY IN SIMPLICITY: ZEALANDIA/SOUTH AMERICA RENDEZVOUS ON THE EX-
PANDING EARTH. J. Mestan, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Geophysics, Munich University,
Theresienstr. 41, 80333 Munich, Germany, jmestan@email.cz.
Introduction: Recent sharp high resolution images
and 2D/3D map of the oceanic floor based on VGG
published in The Guardian online [1] made by the Uni-
versity of California San Diego reveal a perfect fit be -
tween the northern edge of Zealandia and the western
rigid continental edge of South America, which is con-
sidered as a geometrical proof that we live on an ex-
panding planet.
Zealandia/South America Rendezvous: Expand-
ing or sometimes called growing Earth hypothesis has
already been hypothesized and discussed for example
by Hilgenberg [2], Carey [3] or Rajlich [4].
The continents Zealandia and South America are
connected intuitively together based on the lines and
faults leading from and visible around the ridge system.
Fig. 1. Obvious geometrical fit between the northern
edge of Zealandia and the rigid western continental
edge of South America. There was done a simple
rotation of Zealandia towards Antarctica around a ridge
system (dotted line on the image below).
First, the eastern edge of Zealandia is put together
with Antarctica. It is applied the same logic that is ap-
plied when connecting Australia with Antarctica or the
Americas with Africa. The fit between the northern
edge of Zealandia and the western rigid continental
edge of the South America that is respected by the An-
des is near perfect (Fig. 1). The age of the oceanic lito-
sphere at the northern edge of Zealandia is roughly
around 180 Ma (marked with black line), which is also
approximately for example the age of the oceanic lito-
sphere around Africa and eastern coast of North Amer-
ica or Eurasia (Fig. 2). Since the Earth's expansion isn't
symmetric, we can talk about a continental drift with
fixed continental roots. This is obvious for example
from the distorted and V-shaped eastern edge of Eura-
sia together with Australia and Zealandia compared
with a more linear coastline of the Americas (Fig. 3).
Fig. 2. Oceanic litosphere ages. There is marked the
position of the northern edge of Zealandia with the
black lines. Image created by Müller, R. D. et al. [5].
Fig. 3. The eastern coast of Eurasia was connected
with the western coast of the Americas approximately
180 million years ago on a smaller Earth during the
Pangea breakup. The shape fit between the northern
edge of Zealandia and the western continental edge of
South America is still visible till today since their brea-
kup was brittle enough at that time.
Conclusion: The conclusion is that the best if not
only explanation for the observed relationships be-
tween the oceanic and continental litosphere (continen-
tal edges) is the Earth's expansion. We have to change
the Earth's volume when creating the Pangea. What we
observe are signs of a classical expanding sphere with a
cracked shell (continental crust) that is adapting to the
underlying sphere with a slowly changing volume. Ge-
ologically speaking, this adaptation is due to the crust
rigidity leading to tremors registered on Earth as earth-
quakes, volcanism and other geological phenomena in-
fluencing our everyday lives.
According to presented findings, Earth seems to be
a hot candidate of relatively newly described class of
celestial objects, the so called chthonian planets, that
may slowly expand and relax when getting back to a
more balanced state and ordinary densities after the gas
giant initial stage [6].
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank to Petr
Rajlich for his commentary.
References: [1] The Guardian (2014) The most de-
tailed map of the oceanic floor ever seen.
[2] Hilgenberg O. C. (1933) Vom wachsenden Erdball.
[3] Carey S. W. (1975) Earth Sci. Rev., 11, 105-143.
[4] Rajlich P. (2004) Geologie mezi rozpínáním Ze-
měkoule a Čechami. [5] Müller R. D. et al. (2008) Ge-
ochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 9, Q04006. [6] Mocquet A.
et al. (2014) Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 372: 20130164.
3600 BAY AREA BOULEVARD u HOUSTON, TEXAS 77058-1113
meetinginfo@hou.usra.edu u www.lpi.usra.edu
January 29, 2018
Jan Mestan
Theresienstr. 41
Munich 80333
Germany
jmestan@email.cz
Dear Jan Mestan:
On behalf of the program committee for the 49th Lunar and Planetary Science
Conference, I regret to inform you that your abstract #1015 entitled “There is
Beauty in Simplicity: Zealandia/South America Rendezvous on the Expanding
Earth” has not been accepted for presentation.
After review, the program committee felt the topic of the abstract is out of scope
for this conference. In addition, it is not supported by scientific analysis and relies
on a newspaper as its data source.
Thank you for your interest in the conference.
Sincerely,
Dr. Louise Prockter
Co-Chair, 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
