Plate Tectonics Are What Makes Earth Inhabitable | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and we're just moving slowly against. one another starting static in the. slowest possible way yeah perhaps one. day we'll be a a mountain. range yeah or a deep deep Trench.

M all right you go you get down there. I'll be up in the mountains all right. when I'm down there I'll be like hello. how's the weather up there ha haa Jerry. will be uh you know her nickname will. sea level Roland sea level yeah but we. need to spell it with just the letter c. right C that's more nicknaming oh no it. sounds mean all of a sudden sea level oh. I didn't mean it like that yeah like. Jerry's the sea level producer.

right wow that was just subconscious. sorry Jerry that's. okay so uh since Jerry said that was. okay I say we just go ahead and move on. because we're making all these plate. tectonic jokes for a good reason Chuck. we're going to talk today in part about. plate tectonics that's right but first. we're going to go back before that yeah. so um I included this I cobbled This. Together from a bunch of different stuff. including uh our old vulnerable house. stuff work site mhm net Geo Live Science.

go wrong there Heritage daily good stuff. great uh U of Calgary yeah the U stands. for upwardly mobile upwardly mobile of. Calgary uhuh and then one dream daily. which I hadn't heard it before but it's. a cool little site is it a. wri on The Daily on The Daily so yeah I. C this together and I wanted to put this. in there about the the idea of what what. what people used to think of I guess I'm.

fascinated with that lately because we. just did a whole episode on on what. people used to think before the. Scientific Method uh feel like we talked. about something similar in another. episode then now we've got this but this. to me is like we're right on the precius. of of essentially folklore and then. scientific understanding this is. essentially like the dividing line what. we're looking at right here in this. first little anecdote and then the other. reason I thought it was really. significant is because I think Madame.

botski who kind of comes up in a second. she would play really well today. everybody be like what kind of BS are. you selling I want to give you some of. my money like she would be a featured. like goop contributor basically. yeah yes you're talking about uh Helena. blavatsky AKA Madam blavatsky the. Russian occultist from the. 1800s who was a member and co-founder in. fact of the theosophical society that.

sounds like it would play these days for. sure for sure uh and something that uh. BL I keep wanting to say batovsky. blatsky was going on about back then was. something called. Lura and we'll get to how that came. about in a second as well but this is. the idea that a lot of uh. theosophists uhhuh um thought that Hey. listen religion is tried science is. tried.

but nobody still here in the 19th. century has fully explained how we got. here and what's going on on planet Earth. but I am able to because I am the great. latsky and I am I have talent and. insight into the times that came before. yeah through psychic gifts right so yeah. so just drop your uh rubles in a bucket. and I'll tell you exactly so she had I. think multiple books but in one in.

particular that came out in 1888 called. The Secret Doctrine she talked about uh. that there how there were seven root. races this is another thing people were. very preoccupied with where we came from. yeah and the reason why is because just. a couple decades before Darwin had. published on the origin of the species. and it's really difficult to get across. like the Revolution and understanding. that book brought right and that made. people fascinated like wait okay well. where did we come from if God just. didn't go Boop 7,000 years ago where did.

we come from let's figure that out and. again this was at a time when science. was very much mmed with um Superstition. I guess MH so you could really get some. play with the superstitious stuff and. that's exactly what botski was doing she. was saying um check this out this place. called lamura it's a lost continent. everybody loves those and it's where one. of the three of seven root races came. from yeah the third root race uh in. which giant hermaphroditic egg laying.

humans uh preex organ humans lived along. with the. dinosaurs and everyone's like hey sounds. pretty good to me sounds good take my. money yeah so uh it made me wonder too. of some of this um obsession with where. we came from too cuz you know we'll. learn later other people talked about. you know some of the original races like. was some of that rooted in things like. you know horor to come like we're the.

original people so we're the ones who. count yeah I think it definitely was. finds its roots in that that era that. whole Fascination at this time yes okay. I thought so and also there's something. that comes up in another episode we're. going to talk about um uh scientific. Romanticism which I guess this is. probably kind of an example of but. that's like um yeah not only are we. uncovering like this history in the Deep. past we're uncovering my ethnicity's. history in deep past and all we're going.

to find is the most splendorous. spectacular examples of how we're. actually the survivors of A Lost. Civilization that was even grander than. anything we can understand now that's. another thing that people were pursuing. at the same time so that's pop culture. but again it's kind of dressed up like. it's it's following the same lines as. science but it's not really science. fortunately at the same time there were. like legitimate scientists working it's. just they were still following blind. alleys to some way which I just I want.

to press the pause button right here I'm. not I am in no way suggesting that. science is done like we've reached. science is exactly perfect the way it is. now yeah yeah um there's still plenty of. problems with it there's still Lots left. to discover and so by by casting. dispersions or shade at this kind of uh. situation back in the mid to late 19th. century I'm not insinuating that our. current reality is vastly superior and. perfect I'm just saying at this time.

there were big problems with science and. pop culture meshing yeah and you've I'm. glad you said that but You' you've been. clear where you are on that through the. years I think hey we get new listeners. every episode man that's a good point. and it's a lot easier to say that than. to say go back and listen to 16 years. worth of stuff right or field a bunch of. angry emails too yeah we will never get. those after you said. that uh so lamuria was not something. that blat. created um Luma has in well this this.

this will all tie into tectonic plates. believe it or not yeah just wait just. wait it really does in a very neat way. it's spectacular I love how you did this. uh but there was a British zoologist. named philli I'm sorry Phillip phck is. not a name that I know of um not no. phallic is in there but who would name. their kid phet not Phyllis uh or Gary. Goldman the great comedian has a great. bit on Phyllis and that name being.

retired in. 1933 by the government Gary Goldman The. Rock and Roll Part Two guy Gary Goldman. g m the great standard comedian I got. you anyway Phillip not Phyllis nor. philic uh scatter or scater wrote an. essay in 1864 called the mammals of. Madagascar and this one is is sort of uh. kind of funny when you think about uh. how Madagascar so clearly fits off of. where it broke off from Africa but.

Slater didn't see that at the time he. really wondered like hey I'm looking at. Madagascar it's right off the just right. off the coast of Africa there and they. have all these dozens of species of. lemurs yet Africa and India don't only. have a few species of lemur he was wrong. about that even which isn't the point uh. they didn't have any true lemurs but he. was like why is Madagascar just loaded. with all these lemurs and Africa so. close has none and he says here's what. happened there was a land bridge there.

and it was once you know all connected. and I'm going to call that big you know. great continent lemia after the Lemur. yeah he really liked lemur a lot so this. is a lost continent it includes a. landbridge and what skater's doing here. is what was kind of all the scientific. rage it was like okay again like we came. from apes animals evolve from other. animals let's take that new worldview. and figure out how that works and he.

couldn't figure out like how like. similar species got it out there. eventually mhm could be separated by. hundreds of miles of water the the best. explanation that he thought was a land. bridge that's just currently inundated. with water and so like you said he came. up with lamura and that got very quickly. deposited into the pop culture and. people like um botski and others were. like yep Lura and then let's add to it. so we can get that goop money yeah and.

land bridges were just land bridges were. the thing and here's the and we'll you. know we'll get to some more this in a. minute but like they weren't totally off. in all of this stuff like they were on. the right track for some of it some a. little bit more than others uh there was. I think a German biologist that you. track down named Ernst uh Heckle or. Heckle and he was like Hey listen uh. lamira was not only a thing but that's. where we all came from that was a cradle. of Humanity there were 12 varieties of.

men here here we go with that stuff. again yeah and we evolved from these. ancient primates right there at this. place that is now you know partially. underwater right what's nuts about the. whole thing though is that that actually. has happened before there actually is at. least one and I'm sure there's plenty um. it's not a lost continent but a Lo a. lost pretty decent Siz bit of land yeah.

that is now covered by water that once. held people who lived there and um it's. called doggerland and it's just so nuts. that like these guys were off in their. interpretation of what they were seeing. to explain um species um Divergence and. as we'll see like Fossil Beds separated. by an ocean but they still kind of match. up on one coast of Africa and one coast. of South America all these things are. trying to put together they they were on.

the right track trying to explain it but. they were just off a little bit and yet. at the same time they were explaining. stuff that they didn't actually know. really existed but did does that make. sense in a really roundabout way yeah. for sure and when something like. doggerland happens where you know this. was the land that was around basically. what we now know is the UK and it. connected to Europe and in 1931 a. fisherman pulled up a a barbed antler. Point part of a weapon basic basally. part of a harpoon that they were using.

12,000 years ago buried in Pete they're. like well wait a minute Pete isn't in. the ocean peteet's in the forest why. would it be 25 miles out into the ocean. and then they started poking around more. and more in the decade since and they're. like oh well this used to all be land. and beneath the North Sea uh are canoes. and burial sites and all kinds of other. things that we can point to as like. pretty good proof that yeah this happens. there is land that uh used to be here. that is now Beneath the Sea at different.

places on planet Earth and I mean like a. lot of land this this land stretched out. from all points it's surrounded the UK. and stretched toward Europe from. Southern Scandinavia to Britany and. France it was just connected and there. were riverbeds and um all sorts of. animals to hunt it was just really cool. and then over time as the sea levels. Rose it became inundated and then there. was a landslide an undersea landslide. that really inundated it and it was just. lost to history because the people. running around they were running around. there you know no less than 5,000 years.

ago um maybe seven um so everyone forgot. about it but one of the noteworthy. things that I found just completely. fascinating is HG Wells show off that he. was set an 1897 book called The Story of. the Stone Age in exactly that place he. didn't call it dogger land but he set. his story in this land that was now. covered by water between the UK and. Europe and it turned out about three or.

so decades later that he was confirmed. HG Wells was a special human yeah pretty. cool so he actually managed to combine. the science and the speculation.

I think so yeah I watched the I've been. trying to watch some scary movies in. October and now into November bit and I. watched that Invisible Man update from a. few years ago with Elizabeth Moss that I. had never seen before have you seen it. no it's good okay and it's you know it's. not the same story HG Wells put forward. but uh it's it's you know it's base sort. of adapted from that story uh and it's. actually really good and quite scary and. has a great ending okay good to know so.

I recommend it did you ever get around. to watching the Jan Origins miniseries. no you got to email me this stuff I. don't remember anything after I leave. the studio so scary so you know um The. Grudge that Sarah Michelle Geller was in. in the 90s sure that was based on well I. know the movie and I know it was based. on an original Japanese film right right. called Jan and so somebody went back and. made a prequel to the Japanese version. that explains how everything. got that way they scr yes it is so scary.

that like I will leave the light on um. from you know the family room to the. bedroom as I'm going to bed and then. turn it off remotely I just won't turn. it off and walk through the dark it's. that scary it's awesome yeah I didn't. watch as many this year because movie. Crush isn't around I used to like really. heavily watch a lot of horror movies in. October but I only caught a few this. year and uh I still I I enjoy being. scared like that being in another part. of your house and having to navigate.

your way back in the dark even in in my. 50s it's always scary and kind of funny. like of course I know that the. supernatural being from the movie I just. watched isn't in this hallway but but do. I really know that could be exactly I. know all right uh off topic let's take a. break a sure let's and we'll be right. back should. [Music]. know.

y want to learn about a ter sword and. call aoda how to take a perfect all. about is the H the lizy Mur and the. canall Run explain everything to your. brain should. know word up Jerry all right so when we. broke actually we were talking about. horror movies but a little bit before. that I was talking some about how it's a. little FR not frustrating but maybe kind. of funny that they didn't put together.

that Madagascar so clearly broke off. from Africa and fits very nicely if you. just shove it back together right there. in its spot mhm and as I was studying. today I have my my light up globe on my. desk and you know when you look at that. thing uh my my medium smart 8-year-old. daughter can say hey Daddy you know it. looks like Africa could fit into South. America and it looks like all of these. things sort of could be puzzled together.

to form a larger uh. supercontinent that's medium smart but. she knows the word supercontinent that's. pretty smart but it's it seems pretty. obvious to us now uh but it was all. about land bridges back then and sort of. this idea of supercontinent came about a. little slower yeah because if you stand. on any continent and just stand around. and wait you will not perceive that. you're moving even though you are moving. yeah so they they were not aware of the.

fact that the continents moved and um so. of course that wasn't what they went. with they went with land bridges again. it's a very sensible explanation how did. one thing get to another when it's. covered by oceans well that's there was. land that used to be above the ocean and. they just migrated across it's happened. before there's dogger land there's the. bearing land bridge all that stuff but. the the idea that the continents moved. that just was not around until uh. another guy came along who we'll talk. about in a second but there was like.

little inklings of this idea that um. that just weren't there was like a a. light bulb that was just about to come. on but it just burns out right before. right before it fully comes on that's. kind of what was happening with the idea. that the continent moved and again just. to reiterate the whole reason people are. thinking about this stuff is because. Fossil Beds suddenly take on new meaning. if we um if evolution and natural. selection exists um clim climatological.

evidence suddenly takes on new meaning. why species are similar but separated by. from one continent to another it takes. on significance and so they're looking. around their world with brand new fresh. eyes and trying to answer these. questions and they were coming up with. all these different meta narratives and. on the way to to the idea that we have. now that the continents actually move. and they actually formed one large. supercontinent in the past like I was. saying there were a few people who came. along and almost had it yeah uh the idea.

of uh Continental contraction was one. pretty good idea and an alternate Theory. um you know pre tectonic plate shift and. that is that the Earth was a huge magma. ball which it which is true yeah and. that as that thing cooled down over time. the land that it Formed trunk basically. as things might do when they cool and. the continents broke apart so that was. that was really headed toward the right. idea Until the End basically for sure um.

another thing that they had trouble kind. of explaining were things like mountains. uh like I kind of kid it around the. beginning one of us will be a mountain. range yeah uh they did have theories. that parts of the earth were you know. breaking off from one another and could. go underneath other parts but they just. hadn't quite arrived there until uh. Alfred Wagner came along in. 1912 and published a book called the. origin of continents and oceans where he. was kind of like hey wait a minute.

everyone this looks like a giant puzzle. if you stand back and look at a map and. you're just not standing back far enough. like get get over on the other side of. the room and then everyone did and they. oh wow and this helped explain things. like You're were talking about why the. coast of Africa and the coast of Brazil. might share fossils even though they're. separated by such a vast ocean yeah or. share species or all sorts of different. explanations it it would go on to become. considered a a Theory of Everything for. Geology for earth science in much the.

same way that our understanding of the. adom is like explains you know quantum. mechanics or vice versa um it was a. really big deal that he came up with. this but it was not well-received at. first as we'll see like he was not. considered a genius in his time people. ridiculed him essentially and um his his. whole idea was very quickly forgotten. for several decades until he was pretty. much proven right. but in that book the origin of the.

continents and oceans he's saying um not. only did the continents move apart. because they used to form this. supercontinent called Pangia all the. land um they're still moving around. today and all the victorians and I'm. sorry these would be edwardians maybe. were like nuh I've Stood Still for like. an hour at a stretch and I could not. tell we were moving so we're not moving. and he's like no really trust me the. continents are still moving it explains. everything how about earthquakes they're.

like well it's God putting his finger on. Antarctica he's like no it's actually. these plates sliding against one another. they said wrong and they just kind of. went back and forth like this until. Wagner died in 1930 in a. blizzard. wow really uh really shot right to the. ending there yeah so the other thing. that was pretty brilliant was he was. like well not only you know maybe we. can't stand back uh there's no room big. enough to where we can stand back and.

see how exactly that puzzle might fit. but what we can do because you know. under this theory of uh of continental. drift we can look at the fossil record. and look at different speical phenomenon. and that is part of the puzzle as well. like if we match up this place with that. place maybe in our Mind's Eye we can. Envision how they used to fit together. even though it's not as tidy as. Madagascar off the coast of Africa it's. so cool he took he was so he was a. climate or a meteorologist and a.

geophysicist right he was a sharp dude. he took paleoclimatological data I think. there was like a fern species that he. was tracking um there was Glacier um. Glacier coverage I guess like evidence. of old Glacier coverage and then species. and fossils and he would take all this. and basically say okay well this fits. here and then this this range now. connects from you know India to North. Africa that explains that that would fit.

and it he figured out not only that the. continents fit together exactly how they. would fit together and not by geography. but by all of this evidence all this. data he had and pairing it up and so I. mean he really like did some amazing. work and again like people were just. like we don't believe what you're saying. and then in the 50s and 60s apparently. as Nat giio puts it um as we got more. technologically advanced in Warfare M we.

started to confirm Wagner's theories uh. inadvertently like when they were trying. to detect submarines using magnetometers. or when they used seismographs to um to. detect nuclear testing elsewhere in the. world these things actually. inadvertently turned up evidence that oh. my gosh the continents actually are. moving and they're moving today and. Wagner was right let's go dig him up and. shake his hand yeah and not only that. that but now we know that Pangia wasn't.

even Pangia is just the most recent. supercontinent right there were super. continents before that cuz uh before. Pangia they were obviously separate. continents that came together to form. Pangia and those continents had broken. off from the previous supercontinent uh. that we call uh penoa that was about 600. M million years ago and there was one. before that called rodinia who what what. was that like a billion years ago yeah. and Earth has had lass for about 3. billion years so if you're looking at.

this on on that timeline this is pretty. quick movement it's not to us today it. was it like uh half an inch a year or. something or roughly one and a half. centimet something like that yeah it's. um you know that that's cooking if you. look at it on that kind of timeline. exactly so what we've arrived to today. Chuck is called plate tectonics and it's. essentially so Wagner's theory was. continental drift that the continents. drift and they were like well how wager. he's like uhuh yeah well finally with.

plate tectonics we've arrived at how we. still don't know exactly what the. mechanism is but what we figured out is. that below the Earth's crust below the. What's called the lithosphere it's the. crust in the uppermost mantle the really. thick hard stuff yeah that's about 60. mil or 100 kilom thick take your choice. um there's something called the. asthenosphere and it's like molten it's. viscous it's liquid um and it's. separated from the lithosphere so that.

the lithosphere can move about on it. yeah right kind like the the oil yes. sort of mhm exactly oil ball bearings. WD40 all mixed together that's what the. lithosphere is moving around on so now. we know how it could happen we still. don't know exactly what creates the. motion in the ocean but uh we do know. that this is this is what it's based on. one way or another this is what it it's. based on and it's possibly because of.

the convective currents coming from the. center of Earth toward the outer crust. and mantle yeah and Johns Hopkins. University uh a few years ago in. 2019 said this has been going on for. about two and a half billion years yeah. uh which tracks with the other you know. um supercontinents we were talking about. and I guess this was uh this is a. professor from the University of Florida. named Ray Russo uh an associate. professor that talked about the Earth.

being what you call it a quote large. scale heat engine uh and you know like. we talked about that just big hot ball. of magma and so you know all this heat. coming from all these different things. throughout these you know you know. hundreds of thousands and millions of. years is going to try Heat's going to. try to go from warm to cold it's going. to flow from a warm area to a cold area. right and if the heat is on the interior. of the earth it's going to try to move. outward and in fact does towards the.

cold surface of the Earth yeah what's. neat is the earth still hasn't cooled. off from when it was formed almost five. billion years ago uh it may have by now. I don't know if it would have or not but. the thing that keeps it going that keeps. it hot is um well left over heat um. radioactive decay of all these amazing. atoms and elements that are in the core. they're under such intense pressure that. they just create more heat and that. creates more pressure and so on and so. forth and you've got more and more. radioactive decay and then also um just.

the compression the gravitational. compression is so great it actually. produces temperatures that's that's some. pressure right there right and so all. this heat is emanating like you said. outward um toward the colder surface and. as it does it carries the heat energy. with it as it gets toward the top it. starts to cool off and it goes oh here I. go back down cuz the cooler stuff sinks. it's less dense it's less buoyant than. heat than the warm uh stuff that's. coming up from the core and then that. stuff gets heated up and comes back up.

and what I've just described is a. convective current it's the same thing. that you get when you look at one of. those awesome see-through glass cookware. pots from the early 80s yeah when the. water's bubbling that's a convective. current it's the same yes the the the. water the bubbles of water are trying to. get away from the heat Source they're. Rising as they get toward the top they. cool and they come back down and that's. exactly what they're saying is happening. they being today's scientists um is. coming from the core um moving like that.

moves like all the all the molten junk. that's in that 400 miles of. asthenosphere and as that's moving they. think that that is acting like some sort. of maybe conveyor belt or something that. moves the plates around so we know they. move on the asthenosphere and they think. the convective currents are possibly the. mechanism that actually moves them yeah. and there's this other Theory called. slab pool uh you were talking about. those uh oceanic plates sinking um of.

the to the less dense plates below them. and you know just think about when. you're pulling a a tablecloth off of a. table it's basically saying hey the. tablecloths coming but so is that dinner. plate that's sitting on the tablecloth. you're coming with me right and and. that's what slab pull is basically at. point I think I no I said 0.5 6 inches. per year is the average speed uh. although science isn't fully in. agreement on. uh if things are going faster now or if. they're going slower but uh they have.

figured out that things are still moving. and as these plates are are close to. each other there's going to be three. different ways which they're going to. interact and that's going to help cause. planet Earth basically uh divergent. boundaries obviously are when they're. diverging when they're moving away from. each other and you're going to find. earthquakes uh a lot along these these. areas. um we talked about this in earthquakes. and volcanoes and super volcanoes so.

it's a bit of a refresher sure but. that's a divergent boundary uh the other. two are convergent uh that's obviously. when things are going toward one another. and that's where you're going to get. those mountain range uh mountain ranges. when when two continents are going to. hit one another they're going to buckle. up and either go up or down so you're. either going to get a mountain range or. something like the Mariana Trench on the. ocean floor right and then you have. transformed plate boundaries and that's. when things are uh not moving away. they're or toward each other they're.

just sort of generally happily side by. side going by one another very slowly. saying hey how you doing uh we might be. cracking apart here and there as we as. we touch one another but we're not. smashing against one another very slowly. and you're also going to find. earthquakes here along these fault lines. yeah I say we take a break because I. mean you mentioned like volcanoes and. earthquakes and all that happening. there's a lot of action that happens. thanks to plate tectonics and in fact it.

turns out that life actually may not be. able to exist on Earth were it not for. plate tectonics they're that important. let's do. [Music]. it want to learn about a terror call. itoda how to take a perfect all. abouta the the LI Mur and the can. explain everything to your.

brain word up. Jerry okay Chuck so one thing I wanted. to mention is tectonic is a strange word. and it sounds super futuristic and. technological it's actually a very old. Medieval word mhm that um was used uh as. um what you would call a builder or a. carpenter so plate tectonics is the the. actual process of building Earth and. that's a really apt name for it because. that's what's going on with plate.

tectonics because when all that magma. starts to come up it doesn't just move. the plates at places where there's a gap. between the plates that magma comes up. and comes out and as it does and cools. it forms new rock essentially new Earth. and over the course of millions and. millions and millions of years that. moves up and out and over and does all. sorts of other cool things until it's. eventually recycled back into magma uh. where it will be heated and eventually. brought back up as new magma to form new.

continental crust so tectonic is a. really great word for this whole process. yeah totally uh and you were talking. about and uh or I guess I was talking. about the fact that we spoke about. volcanoes and how they form in volcanoes. and super volcanoes right but uh as a. refresher the these plates uh are cause. you know they're moving around and when. there's a break in the crust that's. basically like a event for all that. hotness underneath and that lava to come.

out or to erupt uh this is what I'm. going to recommend my second movie of. the day may have talked about it before. but the documentary fire of Love MH is. amazing it's about volcanoes it's about. this couple these volcano Hunters okay. and it is one of the most uh amazing. some of the most amazing footage I've. ever seen in my life is this 16 mm film. footage that this couple shot. uh years and years ago that this current. documentarian has put together in the.

form of fire of Love okay would love it. all right I'll check it out yeah is is. it even better footage than Joe getting. spit out of the volcano that he just. jumped in in Joe Versus the Volcano. because that was a pretty amazing site. it's pretty amazing the Noah P pony wo. in this one okay so. um I haven't seen that movie in a while. I hope it holds up it does okay so uh as. I was saying there's a lot of stuff that. the plate tectonics do in addition to.

volcanoes you're like volcanoes big. whoop again um this is how new crust is. formed like all that magma comes up out. of these vents or even on land and forms. new land or new undersea crust right. yeah that also does all sorts of other. things too like when that magma comes up. it's bringing all sorts of minerals and. elements and all sorts of crazy. superheated stuff that's really reactive. and and ready to just party essenti when. it comes shooting out of these magma um.

Vents and it actually I did not realize. this one of the things that under sea. volcanoes are responsible for is the um. balancing the ocean salinity I never. thought like where did the salt come. from it comes from the magma that's. spitting out at the bottom of the ocean. yeah and we came from there and so it's. no coincidence that our blood has about. the same salinity as seawater yeah. pretty cool and then on land those same. openings down to the magma Chambers.

below um what we typically think of as. volcanos when they erupt they create new. land too they replenish land they. replenish soil over time um they so yes. there was a there's a direct um. connection between the volcanoes that. are formed by plate boundaries and life. on Earth but it gets even more Arcane. than that yeah for sure uh you know we. mentioned earthquakes it's also no. coincidence that we're going to find you. know earthquakes don't happen everywhere.

they are clustered around these uh. tectonic plate boundaries and when they. press together when those plates move. and for them it's a sudden movement that. Energy's got to go somewhere and that is. what an earthquake is uh we should do. one on the the fault lines like the San. Andreas fault maybe the most famous. fault line I feel like the rock did that. it's done. right that's funny. uh what else what about those uh what.

about the Rocks the the unders sea rocks. so remember when I said that they used. to and probably still do have. magnetometers like UND sea to detect. submarines mhm well this is actually one. reason they figured out that that Wagner. is right and that it's plate tectonics. doing it they inadvertently detected. that if you go along the sea floor on. either side of a ridge um you're going. to find that your. compass goes haywi yeah yeah and the. reason why is because as that magma.

comes up from the vent in the middle of. the undersea Ridge and Spills out over. um there's some minerals in there that. actually kind of um clock the North Pole. right like like the the minerals our. Magna episode was really really. interesting I went back and listened to. it again um and I it's even more. difficult than I remember trying to. explain it m but just suffice to say. that there's minerals that align. themselves with the North Pole and in.

effect when they become Rock they record. where the North Pole was well Earth's. magnetic north pole sometimes switches. with the South Pole it can wander. throughout Earth and end up at the. opposite side and depending on when. those rocks were formed from that. undersea vent it will record where that. North Pole was and so over the course of. millions and millions of years I think. the poles flip every 1 to 300,000 years. something like that um those those new.

ridges that are created are going to get. pushed further and further out from the. vent so that if you went over them with. a compass you will see that they just. keep flipping back and forth marking. each time that the North Pole uh changed. Direction amazing I think so too and. they're like well the only the only. thing that explains this is that these. the the the continents are actually. pushing apart they're forming new. continents that's coming out out of the. vent and as it cools it's getting pushed. apart by new stuff hence the the plate.

tectonics theory seems pretty accurate. yeah and you know it has a effect on the. overall climate too because we tend to. think when we think about plate. tectonics we think about the the land. masses that are moving but that's also. going to affect the shape of the ocean. and very much did inform the shape of. the ocean you know two and a half. billion years ago whenever all this. stuff started uh because it you know. used to be what did they call it not a. super ocean a uh. panasia oh I can't remember but.

basically super ocean like all the ocean. yeah all the ocean uh but the the. current shape like what I'm about to say. might sound silly like uh the current. shape of the ocean prevents um the. equator and the poles from having like. wildly different temperatures they have. pretty widly different temperatures. according to us like humans walking. around on the planet but if it wasn't. for the fact that it was that the oceans. ended up shaped in such a way where they. are are supplying like always supplying.

this warm equatorial water toward those. polar regions uh the the difference in. temperature between the poles and the. equator would be I I don't even know it. would be it would be crazy how big that. disparity would be it'd be a mess yeah. it wouldn't be like oh it's like hot at. the equator and boy it's super cold. there it would be you know I wish. somebody knew what hundreds of degrees I. I don't know but I I know that really. weird stuff happens along temperature. gradients so you would not want.

something like that it would not be. hospitable for us yeah but but all of. the ocean currents and because of the. way the oceans are shaped because of the. way the continents broke apart. influences climate all over the place. yeah it carries water from here to there. and um yeah it's pretty pretty. interesting and again that all you can. trace it all the way back to the um to. the movement of the plates there's also. um carbon dioxide the amount of CO2. that's in the atmosphere at any given. point in time also serves as a um a. global thermostat right and that um if.

there's a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere. uh it warms up kind of like what's going. on right now and when there's a lot of. CO2 in the atmosphere um the water sea. levels rise and as the sea levels rise. rocks are weathered and a lot of the CO2. in the atmosphere gets sucked out of it. into water to form Limestone and. essentially gets locked away from the. atmosphere and as this happens enough. over enough time the atmosphere cools as.

the atmosphere cools sea levels lower. again and the opposite process starts to. happen those rocks that are exposed now. get weathered and that CO2 enters the. atmosphere again and then another way. that the plate tectonics influence this. is the stuff that gets formed into. limestone settles to the bottom of the. ocean and it's just trapped it's trap. CO2 but as it forms part of a plate that. ends up back down into the core into the. cenosphere and gets he heated up and. turned into magma again when it comes. out of the volcano it brings all that.

CO2 with it releasing in the atmosphere. it's a really long it's the carbon cycle. and over really long geological time. scales it keeps the Earth from getting. too warm or too cold it's a thermostat. and again without plate tectonics this. would not be possible and we probably. would not be here today talking about. this yeah absolutely uh if you're. wondering where you know if if things. are moving even that slowly where might. we be in a million years from now or.

something like that that's a good. question and there are people that are. studying exactly that uh they're. computer simulations obviously that. scientists can run uh to see which way. we're going and how fast we're going and. what might bump into what at what point. and they have estimated some things uh. they you know they're they're good. enough now to know and say out loud like. Hey listen this is a guess still we have. no idea what's going to happen really. hold us to this in a million years in a. million years or 100 million years uh.

but they're saying what we think might. happen is one day just as there were. previous supercontinents before Pangia. we will all be reunited again and maybe. that's when Humanity really comes. together as as one uh supercontinent in. about 250 million years and they've. already pream it uh Pangia Proxima uh. which I guess is just you know what. they're approximating it will be like. there'll be new mountain ranges and in. fact they think once Africa eventually.

finishes going north and hits Europe. then that may be like if you think the. Himalayas or something way do you get a. load of like the mountain range that's. coming in 100 million years yeah the. rock needs to do a movie about. that I mean that's probably in. development already probably waiting on. the SAG strike to finish pen. Proxima but the Rock's going to get in. in the middle and hold the yeah you just. sold the movie yep so uh you got.

anything else I got nothing else this is. really fascinating I mean 6 in a year. doesn't sound like a lot but uh when. you're talking about plate tectonics. it's it's moving yeah a lot happens uh. well if you are jazzed by this you can. go search plate tectonics on the website. house stuff works.com or anywhere on the. internet and it will bring up all sorts. of neat little earth science lessons and. since I said that it's time for listener.

mail all right I'm going to call this uh. don't listen to us cuz we're not. vets because on the white dog poop short. stuff we talked about uh cooking your. own dog food which a lot of vets rode in. and said don't do that unless you're. really have it dialed in with a a pet. nutritionist mhm and we talked about. grainfree I mentioned grainfree because. our one of our dogs required it uh. because of an autoimmune issue sweet. Buckley and. I was under the misinterpretation that.

or the misunderstanding rather that that. was just sort of good for all dogs and. they were like no grain free can lead to. cardiac. abnormalities du so we heard from lots. of vets this is from uh a very. frustrated vet and stuff you should know. fam is all it says uh Hey guys your. white dog poop episode drove me bonkers. uh pet nutrition is a Hot Topic. unfortunately uh not only should people. not be getting advice from you but there. are a lot of people uh on the internet a.

lot of quacks even that within their own. industry they're saying that you. shouldn't listen to Sure uh homecooked. diets are difficult to do we see all. sorts of medical abnormalities from. unbalanced diets it should be only done. under the guidance of a Veterinary. nutritionist uh please do not even look. for random recipes online even if. they're written by a vet uh because of. the quacks in our industry I I I want to. just stick up for my wife here and be. like yes she's she's got that covered. she's not some dummy who just looks up.

random recipes on the internet oh are. you guys making your own food yeah she. cooks for Momo quite a bit oh okay I. think that's what they're responding to. is I mentioned that yeah I think you. mentioned it but one of my friends was. doing it and I texted him right away and. I was like hey dude stop cooking for. your dog until you get it down yeah I. mean and the Vets right you should talk. to a nutritionist there's also like. nutrition info sites like legitimate. sites. that kind of help you balance what. you're cooking for your dog but yes.

random recipes on the internet are not a. good idea unless you're cooking like. chicken Diane or something I think he. was under the impression like hey give. him some fruits and veggies and protein. and like you're done right and that's. just not the case no uh and in fact. we're not one to buzz Market too much. but this vet said uh balance. it is a. great option if you're looking for. legitimate recipes and formulations and. supplements I think that's the one that. that you went and found initially oh. sure it. is.

right uh grainfree is also dangerous has. been linked to um dilated. cardiomyopathy uh still a developing. area of research but grain sensitivity. is super rare in dogs uh and grain is. fine for the vast majority of. dogs so uh when you recommend to food. look for a food that is compliant with. wsava guidelines uh I think we can all. agree these are prettyy reasonable. things to want in a pet food company uh.

most of the food on the Shelf does not. meet these standards though so people. should talk to their vets uh I'm. thankful you didn't touch on raw food. which is trash or the idea that vets are. paid by big pet food because we're. not that is from a a frustrated vet I'm. not even going to say stuff you should. know fan anymore I have to say yeah Yumi. um uh went online and got her wsva. certification over the course of many. years. heck yeah so yeah she's got it all. covered everybody of course you do in.

your house do I sound. offensive uh who was that for they. didn't even sign their name after all. that they dragged us like that and they. didn't even sign their name they signed. it as a frustrated vet so I I took that. to me and that's how they wanted to be. addressed I see well what was their. email. address uh Dr quack at vet.com. uh okay uh thank you Dr quack I mean. frustrated vet we app appreciate that uh. we know that you are looking out for all. the animal babies out there hats off to.

you for that and we would never accuse. you of being owned by big pet food no. that's just crazy talk uh if you want to. get in touch with us anonymously or. otherwise and say you guys stink you. stink to high heaven uh we' love to hear. that kind of thing you can wrap it up. spank it on the bottom and send it off. to stuff podcast at iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart Radio. for more podcasts my heart radio visit. the iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts or.

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