Cartesian Plate Tectonics: Pangaea and the Moon

Rene Descartes discussed plate tectonics mixed in Part 4 of Principia Philosophia between Articles 57-74. He explains that the current outward form of the Earth arose from the crust falling into place after its mantle hardened.

We use his concepts to explain how the moon formed, as well as the current continental plates of the Earth, from a single impact event.

We propose that around 140 million years ago, a body named Theia hit Earth near Point Nemo (48 degrees south in the Pacific Ocean) at an angle of 20 degrees. This knocked the Earth, causing it to tilt its axis 23 degrees.

This carved out a huge chunk of the Earth which by itself, according to Descartes 3rd Rule of Motion, would rise straight up to create the moon with an orbit of 48 degrees.

With the Earth’s tilt, it would be 25 degrees.

Deduct the angle of the actual impact then you get 5 degrees, which is the current tilt of the moon’s plane relative to the Earth.

The impact sent shockwaves through the Earth’s crust, creating cracks the tectonic plates in 3 main nearly-equidistant areas corresponding to how far they are from the impact:

1. The mid-Atlantic ridge splitting the South American and African Plates
2. The Somali Plate and Indian Plate
3. Philippine Plate and Pacific Plate

Ideally, the mid-Atlantic ridge should have been a single curve. But because of the Coriolis Force, the ridge goes West exactly at the equator.

Therefore, the current shape of the world as well as the position of the moon, was due to that single impact event.

This knowledge is useful for lobbying to mine the moon. This because the impact of Theia added energy to the substances ejected by that impact. This added-energy increases the chances of finding precious metals on the moon.

This is different from the impact that destroyed the planet that now is seen as the asteroid belt. This is because that planet was already hardened and the energy dissipated instead of being absorbed to create new elements.