Physics

Biography

Biography: Carl Strutinski

Abstract

One of the most celebrated achievements of the plate tectonics theory (PTT) was the finding that rifting within continents
may lead to ocean spreading and permeation of oceanic lithosphere between fragmented blocks of continental lithosphere.
That the reverse, viz permeation of continental lithosphere through oceanic lithosphere, may be equally possible, yet under
totally different circumstances, has not been considered until now. This, I assume, is a deficiency of the PTT and a consequence
of its dealing with rigid plates on a constant-radius Earth. Within the frame of the improved Earth Expansion Model (EEM)
I postulate that creeping mantle currents carrying continents on their back are able to penetrate suboceanic lithosphere and
concomitantly assimilate and entrain the oceanic domains frontally encountered. The purpose of this study is to present
evidence of: 1) the existence of a lithospheric current under SE Asia; 2) the penetration of this current into the northeastern
flank of the Paleo-Indian Ocean and isolation of the extreme part of it as the West Philippine Basin; 3) the southeastward
displacement of the oceanic domains situated directly in front of the current, i.e. those portions now forming the more or less
tectonized basement of the Celebes, Banda and some smaller oceanic basins as well as the Ontong Java Plateau (OJP). In PTT
reconstructions the latter is unanimously considered to have been formed in the Mid-Pacific (Fig. 1A) while I am asserting that
it was initially placed in the present Gulf of Bengal (Fig. 1) forming a land bridge between India (IND) and Australia (AUS).