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Subject:
From:
"Cramer, John" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Conchologists of America List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 15 Jan 2001 12:59:37 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
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No, Art.  The Mid-Atlantic Ridge does not "push" water to shore areas.  It
does raise the sea level by reducing the volume of the ocean basin.
However, the ridge volume is not changing at any great rate.  Hence, it
can't be affecting sea level changes.  The "Ring of Fire" is a ring of
subduction zones that might be understood to increase ocean basin volume.
However, here too the volume changes are slow to non-existent.  Over
billions of years, plate tectonic activity on Earth has increased
continental volume and, I suppose, "concentrated" the ocean basins.
Over the long haul, average temperature has to be the controlling factor for
sea levels.  We are way down in sea level now compared, say, with the Eocene
(45 million years ago).
Incidently, the rebounding of Maine from the weight of the last glacier is
the cause of the current rocky sea coast for which Maine is famous.  The
bedrock rises and is eroded by the ocean as it does.

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