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Published online 6 August 2008 | Nature 454, 675 (2008) | doi:10.1038/454675a
News in Brief: Snapshot
Earth rocks
Map of planet shows its age.
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Thats a very nice image - shame that it was cropped to leave out New Zealand.
Most geologists believe that North and South America are moving away from Africa and Europe. This map does not give support to symmetrical strips of rocks on either side of the Atlantic ridge. Also the ridge changes direction in such a way that Europe should actually be moving south from the actions of the northern ridge. I suspect that the ridges generate a shallow plate, and the shallow earthquakes in the longest ridge-ridge transforms support this. See http://charles_w.tripod.com/ridge.html
Our home earth picture similar a beautiful marble, like those I had when a child.