[meteorite-list] Venus, Earth and Widmanstatten lines

[Darren Garrison]

On Mon, 7 Sep 2009 18:18:29 -0700 (PDT), you wrote:

>Plate Tectonism is predicted to die away over the many 
>aeons ahead. I think there is some prediction to the stop 
>date. It's before the sun expires but not before humanity, 
>methinks. I forget. 1-2Ga or so, I think, but please don't 
>quote me on that.

There was a paper a few years back that I remember reading about in a secondary
source (Scientific American or similar) that said that the rate of water being
returned to the atmosphere/oceans by volcanic activity is less than the amount
being subducted by plate tectonics-- and that if the rate of both stays
substantially the same, the oceans will run dry within a time frame around that
that you just mentioned.  So plate tectonics may grind to a halt by then, but
the sandworms probably won't notice.