A Geological American center argued that the Japan Tsunami followed by earthquakes caused the island to drift away from its region some centimeters away; even the earth's pivot is reported to have drifted some centimeters away from its normal center. This led me to think about the phenomena of plate tectonics and try to understand how the oceanic movement could cause this continental drift. Plate tectonics is the geo-scientific branch which describes the movements of the earth and is based on 'continental drift' and 'sea floor spreading' theories. The German geologist,Alfred Wegner, argued that today's continents were once a single landmass called as 'Pangaea'. Due to the constant motions of the earth crust,the landmass began to drift away to form the seperate continents that we witness nowadays. 'Sea floor speading' helps to explain the theory of continental drift. Due to the constantmotionsof molecules within the oceanic fluid (called current convection) the sea floor moves and carries the continents along with it, causing its drifting away.
These are scientific data which proves that the globe has been built on the logic of expansion. The same way as the cosmos expands, as stated in the Qur'anic verse: "Indeed, We have built the heaven with might, and We are expanding it", the earth as well is expanding as the Qur'an says:
It is He Who stretched out the earth and placed firmly embedded mountains and rivers in it and made two types of every kind of fruit. He covers over day with night. There are Signs in that for people who reflect. (Surat Ar-Ra‘d, 3)
The spreading or the strechting out of the earth comes with the sense of constant movement and expansion, and through this process of the earth's expansion, the verse talks about the mountains and rivers being formed. Is this a coincidence? Indeed no, because it has been scientifically proved that the mountain building (even earthquakes, and volcanic activity) happen along the boundaries of the litosphere (the solid outer layer of the earth) and astenosphere (the weaker and the deeper part of the earth). Furthermore, as explained above the continents are rooted within the ocean, and so when the continents drift apart, or in simple terms, when the earth expands, this would result in the formation of rift valleys or rivers, because the expansion happens at the level of the continent not at the sea bed. So the formations of mountains and rivers is caused by the expansion of the earthas it has been scientifically proved.
Some would just argue that the Qur'anic verses do not come with scientific details, I tell them that the Qur'an is meant to be a book of guidance relying on 'physical evidences' about creationism (but not a book of science), and so it gives constant hints to these scientific evidences throughout the Qur'an leaving Mankind to come up with the details and the scientific explanation of each data. Another stunning verse in Qur'an speaks about the motion of the mountains, which is in fact related to the constant movement of the earth underneat. God says in the Holy Qur'an:
"And you see the mountains you reckoned to be solid, moving past like clouds."
In appearance, the mountains seem to be motionless, but, in fact, they are moving, due to the movement of the earth crust. God also says in the Qur'an, refering to the geological function of the mountains as preventive of earth shocks:
"We placed firmly embedded mountains on the earth, so it would not move under them."
These data were the result of modern scientific finding, how could any one leaving in the desert land, where no phenomena could be noticed, or when the means of scientific research was not available. Again this does not mean that Qur'an is a book of science, but a book of human guidance based on factual and physical evidences about the truthfulness of the message of Islam.