Over at Download the Universe, Ars Technica science editor John
Timmer reviews a science ebook whose science leaves something to
be desired. Written by J. Marvin Herndon, a physicist,
Indivisible Earth presents an alternate theory that ostensibly
competes with plate tectonics. Instead of Earth having a molten
core and a moveable crust, Herndon proposes that this planet
began its existence as the core of a gas giant, like Jupiter or
Saturn. Somehow, Earth lost its thick layer of gas and the
small, dense core expanded, cracking as it grew into the
continents we know today. What most people think are continental
plate boundaries are, to Herndon, simply seams where bits of
planet ripped apart from one another. The problem is that
Herndon doesn't offer a lot of evidence to support this idea.
Once the Earth was at the center of a gas giant, Herndon thinks
the intense pressure of the massive atmosphere compressed the
gas giant's rocky core so that it shrunk to the point where its
surface was completely covered by wh