Is plate tectonics a Tychonian compromise?

Abstract

The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) developed a model of the universe – the Tychonic system – by combining the Ptolemaic system with the Copernican system. In the Tychonic (geocentric) system the Moon and the Sun were considered to revolve around the Earth, while the planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) revolve around the Sun. In this paper the theory of the plate tectonics is interpreted as a Tychonic conception because – making several compromises – fixism and mobilism are mixed in a unique pattern, in which the compression and the extension are unified in a compressional interpretation (see the coexistence of trenches and orogenic chains on the active continental margins), while, conversely, the fold-belts and the mid-oceanic ridges are separated into two different geodynamic domains. For all these cases, the extensional description could be more appropriate.