Fictitious Supercontinent Cycles

Abstract

In the physical sciences, attempts to describe processes, events, and phenomena upon the basis of problematic paradigms can be wholly incorrect and lead to physically impossible consequences, e.g., the ultraviolet catastrophe of radiation physics, and/or can necessitate ad hoc assumptions and can be unreasonably complex, e.g., the epicycles of planetary physics. Like epicycles, I suggest that supercontinent cycles, sometimes referred to as Wilson cycles, are artificial constructs, attempts to describe geological observations upon the basis of problematic paradigms. Here I describe the foundation for that assertion and offer insight into a fundamentally different geoscience paradigm, Whole-Earth Decompression Dynamics, which obviates the need to assume supercontinent cycles.