Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Brak
The article says that if the earth were a little less massive it probably wouldn't be geologically active. That seems unlikely to me. Even without plate tentonics we would still have shield volcanoes forming over hotspots.
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Not only is it unlikely, it is wrong. The article mis-states what is included in the original research article, which (top of p.7) points to Venus and says "This observation indicates that the ~1 earth-mass case falls within a zone of transition between ‘hard’ stagnant lid and mobile plate regimes." The original article was talking about the distinction between plate tectonics and non-plate tectonics, not that between geologically active and non-geologically active (which even Mars certainly was at one time).