Welcome back!
The push vs. pull issue came up a in a thread a few months ago, but it didn't receive enough discussion. Slab-pull as the primary mechanism is, of course, consistent with Baumgardener's proposal of runaway subduction. Ridge-push has a more traditional feel to it, but when push came to shove (so to speak) during the discussion, we couldn't find any conclusive research either way. The evolutionists concluded that neither ridge-push nor slab-pull could be the primary factors, since each should be revealed in either compressive or stretching stress and strain in the region between ridge and subduction zone, and there was nothing we could find that indicated any evidence of this. The Creationists concluded that slab-pull was the primary mechanism.
Anyway, if you can elaborate on your question a bit more to describe why your profs bought into slab-pull, what you thought was lacking in the textbooks, and why ridge push interests you as a possibility, then I'll release this. Nothing long, a couple paragraphs should be sufficient to introduce the topic.
-- | Percy |
| EvC Forum Director |