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Re-evaluation of the Palaeogeographic Argument for an Expanding Earth

Abstract

EGYED1 has inferred that the Earth was expanding at a mean rate of 0.5 mm yr−1 during Phanerozoic time. The evidence on which he based this conclusion was taken from two series of palaeogeographic maps showing the distribution of land and sea since the early Cambrian, by Strakhov and H. and. G. Termier respectively. With the aid of a planimeter Egyed estimated the percentage of continental areas covered by the sea for successive geological periods and was able to demonstrate clearly a secular decline since the early Palaeozoic with the more or less regular downward trend having superimposed on it a series of shorter phase oscillations.

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HALLAM, A. Re-evaluation of the Palaeogeographic Argument for an Expanding Earth. Nature 232, 180–182 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/232180a0

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