| For the fifth Dumbass of the Day in his tectonics week, our staff geologist returned to mining the internet's richest vein of garbage written by grasping freelancers, eHow.com. He found today's dumbass, Sheri Lamb, by simply googling the site for the word "tectonics." Sheri demonstrates a journalism major turned freelancer's typical scientific illiteracy in the piece she called "What Drives the Process of Plate Tectonics?" Sadly, visitors to the post (relocated to Sciencing.com by Leaf Group) are not going to learn the correct answer...
Sheri opens with a bang in a sentence no newspaper editor (even in the sports section, we hope) would allow to stand:
"Scientists claim the theory of plate tectonics has caused the movement of continents ever since they were formed." |
We're pretty sure saying that the theory of plate tectonics causes plate tectonics is circular reasoning; regardless, we're darned sure her claim's wrong. Sheri goes on to explain that...
"The plates consist of the Earth's crust and of the mantle, which is a thick layer of hot rock. Below that lies a sea of magma."
Ummm, the geologist spotted a kernel of truth in the midst of a sea of bull: plates are crust and the rigid uppermost mantle (lithosphere) resting on plastic mantle (aesthenosphere). But there is no "sea of magma" down there anywhere! Still, what may be the dumbassest of Sheri's dumbassery is yet to come: the paragraph she titled Lava:
"Lava moving underneath the Earth's crust is driving plate tectonics. This lava moves at an extremely slow pace. As the magma boils, it rises to the surface and starts to cool. At that point it sinks back to the pot of boiling lava and is heated again as it rises and then falls again. The process, which is referred to as convective flow, causes the plates to move apart."
Mantle convection
Out of that entire paragraph, perhaps the only correct phrase is "convective flow... causes the plates to move..." Everything else? Total crap - just like Sheri's explanation of volcanoes:
"As the heavier plates move under the lighter plates and plunge toward the center of the Earth, they are heated and become magma. This heating process causes carbon dioxide that forces itself up. When it reaches the Earth's surface, it erupts in a volcano..."
| Our staff geologist can now be found lying in the corner moaning in pain. Small wonder eHow and dumbass freelancers like Sheri Lamb are the laughingstock of knowledgeable people everywhere. And it's also a small wonder that Sheri is today's Dumbass of the Day. |  
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SI - TECTONICS
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