Uplift and collapse of segments of the earth's oceanic crust can explain many of the data reported by oceanographers during the past 15 years. Common engineering principles can explain the major oceanic features as the results of uplift, cooling, and collapse of the crust caused by heat, gravity, and isostatic response.

The double island arc forms as the result of uplift of a cylindrical expanding body of hot rock materials, which assumes a domal shape as it moves upward and becomes molten. The flanks of the uplift collapse downward and inward to form a subduction (Benioff) zone. The crest of the uplift faults, extrudes basalt, and collapses into a median basin which separates two parallel fold belts.

The single island-arc system, although more curved, is similar to the double island-arc system. During uplift of the asthenolith, compression is generated on the concave side and tension on the convex side. The uplift is asymmetric away from the compressional forces. A subduction (Benioff) zone forms on one side only. During collapse the uplift falls into an asymmetric fold belt.

Magnetic anomalies can be explained by constant cooling of iron-rich crustal materials. A heated body cools from the outer edges inward. As the distended crust collapses, it folds first on the outer flanks of the uplift and then sequentially inward. The materials become progressively magnetized as they cool below the Curie point from the outer flanks inward. A succession of symmetrical younger magnetic anomalies is formed around the center of the collapsing heat-expansion event.

The unique median nature of the oceanic ridge and rise systems can be explained as the result of uplift and collapse of existing parallel belts which stress the crust in such a way as to weaken it at the midpoints to create a line of weakness. These median lines can serve as the preferential locale for future uplift formed as the result of isostatic adjustment as the earlier belts cool and collapse. The belts retain a certain amount of parallelism which conceivably explains the apparent "close fit" of some continental margins which are also old orogenic belts.

There are fundamental differences between orogeny of the sea floor and its continental counterpart. Sea level can be displaced by oceanic orogenic activity on a worldwide scale. There should be a measurable relation between periods of uplift and orogeny at sea and transgressions of the seas across the continental shelves.

Alternate explanations for the oceanographic data are just as logical as those advanced in the "new global tectonics" and are far more conservative of energy required to do the work. No additional hypotheses such as "convection cells, drift, etc." are needed.