Professor Tang, a Changjiang Scholar of the Ministry of Education and a professor at Dalian University of Technology, China, has been invited to our institute to present a lecture titled: "The Breakup of Earth: From Rock Mechanics to Earth Science". This lecture explores a self-organized fracture mechanism analogous to thermal expansion-driven lithospheric uplift, using 3D spherical shell models to demonstrate globe-spanning rifting resulting from horizontal extension.
Professor Tang emphasized the significance of delivering this lecture at Leibniz University in Hanover, particularly due to its connection to Leibniz's mathematical discoveries. The core points of the Great Fracture Theory discussed in the lecture include: the Earth's great fracture being driven by internal heat, global-scale fractures triggering extreme cold events on Earth, and fluctuations in Earth's temperature driving significant geological events. Two of these points are directly related to Leibniz's mathematical innovations. Firstly, without Leibniz's invention of binary and the subsequent development of computer technology, simulating the global-scale fracture of the Earth would be impossible. Secondly, the thermal equilibrium equation of Earth's evolution in the Great Fracture Theory, based on the temporal and partial derivatives of the rift length variable, concludes that global-scale fractures inevitably lead to catastrophic global cooling—a conclusion directly benefiting from Leibniz's inventions in calculus and binary mathematics.
