Thread:Mal Bertha/@comment-30529396-20171030162935/@comment-30529396-20171031180846

Well I already saved 1 and possible one more so If this is my last shot, I'll make it count:

What appears to be the movement of continents is in many cases the movement of entire plates including attached pieces of ocean. That motion is mostly accommodated by changes in the area of the seafloor, not changes in the area of land. Oceans change size when the rate of loss of seafloor by subduction is not equal to rate of growth by seafloor spreading. The Atlantic grows because the growth of seafloor by seafloor spreading isn't offset at all by loss of seafloor by subduction. The Pacific is shrinking as subduction zones roll back from advancing plates. Both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are now making new seafloor by seafloor spreading at midocean ridges, but the Atlantic is growing while the Pacific is shrinking.