The reduction of earth's size in both the Noble Quran and Science!

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The reduction of earth's size in both the Noble Quran and Science!

The following article was taken from http://www.geocities.com/thetruebook/ReducingEarth.htm. May Allah Almighty bless sister Sundus for creating such a wonderful web site. Because her web site is located in an unstable URL (geocities, angelfire, Xoom, etc...), I decided to copy this page to my site so that it would get preserved permanently.

Do they not see that We gradually reduce the land from its sides?"

{Al-Quran 21:44 }

Explanation

In the above verse Allah is informing us about the reduction of the outer layers of the earth/land. Earth can be reduce in three ways:

1. Matter is reducing from the outer layers of earth.

2. Due to melting of ice in the polar regions, water increases in ocean and land decreases.

3. Reduction at poles.

Reduction of Matter

Professor Keller, who is a geologist, says the Earth also LOSES mass. All the time, we're losing light elements, mostly hydrogen, from the atmosphere.

Another way the Earth loses mass, says Professor Keller, is through radioactive decay. In case you didn't know it, the Earth's interior is peppered (introduce) with radioactive elements such as uranium. Radioactivity is the decay, or gradual disintegration, of the nuclei of radioactive isotopes. Isotopes are versions of elements that have the same number of protons as the regular element, but different numbers of neutrons.

As these radioactive elements decay, they give off heat (called RADIOGENIC heat). In fact, about four percent of the heat at the Earth's surface comes from inside it! In the process of releasing this energy, the elements also lose mass. (1)

Melting of ice in the polar regions

Global sea level rise is caused by two factors. One is the delivery of water to the ocean as land ice melts, such as mountain glaciers and polar icecaps.

The second factor is the thermal expansion of water within the oceans. As the temperature of the waters in the oceans rises and the seas become less dense, they will spread, occupying more surface area on the planet. Increased temperature will accelerate the rate of sea level rise. (2)

Because sea level is rising thus the land of the earth is decreasing.

Reduction at poles

Standing on Earth's surface can not see the small changes in Earth's shape but researchers have been watching the equator shrink (reduce in size) slowly over the past few decades with satellites, a process that they believe has been going on since the last ice age 18,000 years ago. Since the ice age, glaciers at the poles have been melting slowly as global temperatures warm, allowing magma under Earth's crust to move towards the poles once the heavy weight of ice was no longer squashing them. This allowed the equator to shrink (reduce in size) as the molten rock (magma) moved away.

For the past four years, however, Earth has been doing something quite different. Researchers at Raytheon and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have been watching the equator grow larger. (3)

So when the equatorial diameter of the Earth expands under the effect of the force, thus it looses at the poles.

Conclusion

After much progress in science we observed the reduction of earth in many ways. Think who told Mohammad (SAW) about this fact?

(1) http://www.wsu.edu/DrUniverse/earth4.html

(2) http://www.actionbioscience.org/environment/chanton.html

(3) http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/headline_universe/Earth_shape.html&edu=high

From me, Osama Abdallah:

Here are the contents of sister Sundus' references above:

1- From http://www.wsu.edu/DrUniverse/earth4.html

Dear Dr. Universe
Does the Earth weigh the same as it did 10,000 years ago?

Steve McAbee
Lihue, Hawaii

According to Jeff Brown, an astronomer here at Washington State University, it's well-known that several hundred tons of meteorites enter the Earth's atmosphere every day. The total amount per year can range from 10 million to 1 billion kilograms. (A kilogram is about 2.2 pounds.) A lot of this is just dust or micrometeorites, but it adds up. Let's say an average of 500 million kilograms a year has landed on Earth over the past 10,000 years. That's 5 trillion kilograms. Or 5 billion metric tons. Any way you figure it, that's a lot of rock!
HOWEVER, now let's think about the Earth for a little bit. And about how BIG it is. In fact, it's too big to describe easily in words, so let's switch to the method scientists use to indicate big numbers. The mass of the Earth is over 5 x 1021 metric tons! (That's a 5 with 21 zeroes.)

Figuring the Earth's weight gain or loss is no easy matter.

If meteorites are all we consider, the Earth certainly weighs more than it did 10,000 years ago--though it gained only about one trillionth of its current mass.
However, 10,000 years isn't very long in the overall scheme of things. Earth is about 4.6 billion years old. So figure 4.6 billion years times 500 million kilograms. That's about 2.3 x 1015 tons of meteorite mass, or about 1/2,000,000 of the Earth's current mass. So yes, Earth would definitely have gotten heavier over the past 4.6 billion years.
HOWEVER…, says Kent Keller. In case you haven't noticed, there's always a HOWEVER in science. And this is a big, complicated HOWEVER. Professor Keller, who is a geologist, says the Earth also LOSES mass.
All the time, we're losing light elements, mostly hydrogen, from the atmosphere. How much? Unfortunately, that would be pretty hard to figure.
Another way the Earth loses mass, says Professor Keller, is through radioactive decay. In case you didn't know it, the Earth's interior is peppered with radioactive elements such as uranium, thorium and potassium 40. Radioactivity is the decay, or gradual disintegration, of the nuclei of radioactive isotopes. Isotopes are versions of elements that have the same number of protons as the regular element, but different numbers of neutrons.
These radioactive elements are mixed in with other rock. Granite, for example, can contain as much as four grams per ton of uranium and 13 grams per ton of thorium.
As these radioactive elements decay, they give off heat (called RADIOGENIC heat). In fact, about four percent of the heat at the Earth's surface comes from inside it! In the process of releasing this energy, the elements also lose mass.
Gary Collins, who is a physicist here at WSU, says it should be possible to figure out approximately how much mass is lost, but it would be a difficult calculation. And even if I could talk someone into doing this calculation, we would need to consider even more factors.
For one, Earth gains a tiny amount of mass from the "solar wind," the stream of charged particles from the Sun's corona.
So does the Earth weigh the same as it did 10,000 years ago? Probably not. At least not quite.
By the way, Professor Collins says that you can actually collect the meteorite dust that reaches the Earth. Spread a piece of smooth clean cloth or paper towel on a flat surface where it won't be disturbed. After a few days you'll see dust starting to collect.
Much of this, of course, is just plain dust. The ones you can pick up with a magnet are micrometerorites!

2- From http://www.actionbioscience.org/environment/chanton.html

Global Warming & Rising Oceans By Jeffrey Chanton
Humans rely heavily on fossil fuels in this industrial age.	The deep ocean seafloor is often a cold, dark place, barren of life. But from time to time a large bounty such as a whale carcass will drift down from the surface. Then sea life explodes: all manner of worms and other invertebrates arrive in larval form to colonize the dead organic matter and population increases dramatically -- for a short time. Inevitably the resource dwindles and the population collapses. In a similar fashion, humans now live upon the resource of dead organic matter. We've found our dead whale below ground, in the form of oil, gas and coal -- the fossil remains of plants that lived long ago.
Carbon dioxide output has accelerated with the increased use of fossil fuels.	Fossil energy has fueled the advent and development of the industrial age and allowed human population to explode. The product of our industrial respiration, carbon dioxide (CO₂), has increased in the atmosphere and now threatens to spoil our nest. The atmosphere does more than provide us with oxygen to breathe, it controls the heat balance of the world. The trouble is, compared to the ocean, the atmosphere is relatively small in mass, so human-induced changes can affect it dramatically.
Our atmosphere is small in mass, so changes to it are serious.	The greenhouse effect Prior to the advent of the industrial age, the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere was about 280 ppm (parts per million). Today it's over 360 ppm. That's an increase of about 30% in less than 300 years.
There is now more CO₂ in our atmosphere than ever before in Earth's history.	For the earth, this is an unprecedented rate of change, about 10,000 years worth of change compressed into 100 years. And there is more CO₂ in our air now than at any time since humans evolved, more than anytime over the last million years! The earth is used to slow changes, not fast ones. Slow changes allow the biosphere and earth's species time to adjust. Quick change may cause biological chaos and disrupt agricultural production. Carbon dioxide is critical to controlling the earth's heat balance because it absorbs infrared radiation (IR), basically heat. Coming to earth from the sun, visible radiation passes through the clear atmosphere and hits the earth. A portion of it is absorbed and re-radiated back to space as IR. CO₂traps this IR and reflects it back to the earth's surface, causing further warming.
The greenhouse effect -- the warming of our atmosphere -- relies on CO₂. The heat on Earth would be unbearable with too much greenhouse effect.	This is called the greenhouse effect. Without it, water would freeze on earth. With too much greenhouse effect, water would boil off, leaving the surface of earth a desert. This may have been what happened on earth's neighbor, Venus. There is a delicate balance between sunlight, CO₂ concentration, and heat that we must be careful not to disrupt. To illustrate the greenhouse effect, consider a car with the windows rolled up: The sun's rays pass through the car's windows (visible light), and hit the car's seats. There the visible light is absorbed, and re-radiated to the interior of the car as IR. But the car's glass windows, while transparent to visible light, are opaque to IR, so the heat is trapped within the car, and the car's interior temperature becomes unbearable. So that's why many scientists think that increasing the amount of CO₂ in the air may well cause the earth to get warmer.
Glaciers are already melting on 5 continents.	Rising oceans Global sea level rise is caused by two factors. One is the delivery of water to the ocean as land ice melts, such as mountain glaciers and polar icecaps. Current evidence of global warming includes the widespread retreat of glaciers on 5 continents. For example: The ice cap on Mount Kilimanjaro may be gone in 20 years. About 1/3 of Kilimanjaro's ice field has disappeared in the last 12 years and 82% of it has vanished since it was first mapped in 1912. Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is thinning. Massive Antarctic ice sheets have collapsed into the sea with alarming rapidity.
As water temperatures rise, oceans spread. The 20th century has seen a dramatic rise in sea levels.	The second factor is the thermal expansion of water within the oceans. As the temperature of the waters in the oceans rises and the seas become less dense, they will spread, occupying more surface area on the planet. Increased temperature will accelerate the rate of sea level rise. Since the end of the last ice age, 18,000 years ago, sea level has risen by over 120 meters. Geological data suggests that global average sea level may have risen at an average rate of 0.1 to 0.2 mm/yr over the last 3000 years. However, tide gauge data indicate that the global rate of sea level rise during the 20th century was 1 to 2 mm/yr.
Coastal U.S. has seen beach erosion and dying coastal plants.	Along relatively flat coastlines, such as those of the Atlantic, or coastlines bordering fertile, highly populated river deltas, a 1 mm rise in sea level causes a shoreline retreat of about 1.5 meters. We are already seeing evidence of shoreline retreat in the U.S.: Along the marshy Gulf Coast of Florida, the effects of sea level rise can be observed in the number of dead cabbage palms at the seaward edge of the salt marsh. Along the Atlantic Coast of the USA, erosion is narrowing beaches and washing out vacation houses. As sea level rises and coastal communities continue to grow and pump water from aquifers, salt water intrusion into groundwater will become a greater problem.
Land of some island nations is being submerged under water.	Low-lying Pacific island nations will be inundated or the rising sea level will invade their drinking water aquifers. Tuvalu comprises nine coral atolls between Australia and Hawaii. Their highest point is 5 meters (15 feet) above seal level. As sea level has risen, Tuvalu has experienced lowland flooding. Saltwater intrusion is adversely affecting drinking water and food production. Tuvalu's leaders predict that the nation will be submerged in 50 years. In March 2002, the country's prime minister appealed to Australia and New Zealand to provide homes for his people if his country is washed away, but the plight of this nation is being ignored. Other threatened island nations include the Cook Islands and the Marshall Islands. During the last decade, the island of Majuro (Marshall Islands) has lost up to 20 per cent of its beachfront.
The near future could see millions of "climate refugees."	In addition to island nations, low-lying coastal countries are threatened by rising sea level. A 1 meter rise in sea level would inundate half of Bangladesh's rice land. Bangladeshis would be forced to migrate by the millions. Other rice growing lowlands which would be flooded include those of Viet Nam, China, India and Thailand. Millions of climate refugees could be created by sea level rise in the Philippines, Indonesia and Egypt.
Earth has been experiencing the 10 warmest years on record. Current rate of fossil fuel consumption indicates that the carbon dioxide content of the air will double by 2100.	Changing climate The 10 warmest years on record have been since 1983 and the 7 warmest years on record have been since 1990. If business continues as usual, our current rate of fossil fuel consumption indicates that the carbon dioxide content of the air will double by 2100. This doubling will enhance the greenhouse effect and result in a 1 to 5 degree Centigrade increase in global temperature. Land areas will warm more rapidly than the global average as the temperature of oceanic areas will be moderated by the heat capacity of water. Warming will also be greatest at higher latitudes, for in the past, climate change has affected the earth's polar regions to the greatest extent. Humidity effects, included in the heat index, will exacerbate warming effects.

Warming trends will affect plant distributions and animal habitats.	In addition to rising oceans, warmer temperatures will likely affect: Ecosystems Warming trends will change the distribution of trees and other native plants, altering animal habitat. Models predict the northward retreat of temperate tree species and the northward advancement of tropical and subtropical species. But individual species will respond differently to climate change. Communities of species will not simply march back and forth, chasing the ice caps. Normal associations of plants and animals may be disrupted. Human barriers such as motorway corridors may present significant obstacles for migrating native species to jump, allowing the spread and dominance of weedy and exotic plants.
Increased rain variability -- wetter conditions: more insect pests; drier conditions: more wildfires	Rainfall patterns Changing climate will change rainfall patterns. Drier conditions lead to increased wildfires while wetter conditions can result in more insect pests like mosquitoes and pine beetles. Increased CO₂ in the atmosphere can stimulate plant growth, but there is evidence that plants growing under elevated carbon dioxide contain less nitrogen in their foliage, thus making them less nutritious to grazers.
Climate extremes kill plants and animals.	Climate variability Elevated CO₂ may also affect climatic variability. Extremes kill plants and wildlife. For example, consider a period of time where variability increases but the long-term average is constant. Plants may be killed if the temperature falls below freezing for even a few hours. Likewise birds and insects may die if temperatures get too warm. Increasing variability is a big event, without even considering long-term change.
Conclusion: Making energy-efficient choices and developing alternative energy sources will alleviate global warming.	How can we stop global warming? There is no immediate fix to the problem other than to curtail our use of fossil energy. As individuals we can help in the short term: We need to drive smaller vehicles and heat and cool our buildings more moderately. Carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced if consumers purchase more energy-efficient appliances, such as new refrigerators. Compact fluorescent light bulbs save tremendous amounts of fuel. But in the long term, we need to extract energy more efficiently from fossil fuels and to develop alternative energy sources that do not lead to the production of greenhouse gases. By doubling the concentration of atmospheric CO₂, we are conducting a planetary wager -- one we can't afford to lose.
	© 2002, American Institute of Biological Sciences. Educators have permission to reprint articles for classroom use; other users, please contact editor for reprint permission. See reprint policy.
	About the author: Jeffrey Chanton, Ph.D., joined the faculty at Florida State University in the Department of Oceanography in 1988. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers and received over 45 grants and contracts to support his research. His research interests focus on greenhouse gases and stable isotope tracing. Chanton received his B.A. from New College in Florida and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://www.ocean.fsu.edu/faculty/chanton/chanton.html

3- From http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/headline_universe/Earth_shape.html&edu=high

The Equator is Growing!
News story originally written on August 7, 2002

A view of the Earth from space. What shape does it look like to you?
Click on image for full size ( 378K GIF)
Image courtesy of NASA

Earth may look perfectly spherical from space, like a giant marble, but it actually isn't! Since the first satellites were launched, scientists realized that Earth is not a sphere. Instead, our planet is wider around the equator because matter is forced out as Earth spins (just as you feel you are pushed right when your car turns fast to the left). However, Earth doesn't stay the same, and scientists have been tracking some interesting changes in our planet's shape.

Standing on Earth's surface can not see the small changes in Earth's shape but researchers have been watching the equator shrink slowly over the past few decades with satellites, a process that they believe has been going on since the last ice age 18,000 years ago. Since the ice age, glaciers at the poles have been melting slowly as global temperatures warm, allowing magma under Earth's crust to move towards the poles once the heavy weight of ice was no longer squashing them. This allowed the equator to shrink as the molten rock (magma) moved away.

For the past four years, however, Earth has been doing something quite different. Researchers at Raytheon and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have been watching the equator grow larger. Since we know that glaciers are still melting at the poles, scientists are puzzled why the process would change.

For Earth's equator to increase in size, material must have been moved from somewhere else on the planet. One hypothesis is that molten rock has been moving within the Earth to below the equator. This may have been caused by the brief reversal of the Earth's magnetic field that occurred in 1999, which happens about once every 10 years. One of these reversals may have caused changes in the circulation of magma in the Earth's interior.

Another hypothesis is that there is more ocean water piling up at the equator. As the polar ice caps melt, they add more water into the oceans, which will move with the ocean currents towards the equator.

Whatever the reason, the researchers believe that this change in the shape of Earth is the result of long-term natural variations, and is not anything that humans have done to the planet.

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