CHAPTER 10

Venus

The retrograde rotation of Venus is explained by
Kepler’s Second Law.

The Legend

The ancient Greeks had a legend about the god Zeus swallowing the goddess Metis, who was pregnant. She gave birth to Athena, inside Zeus, who was seized by a raging headache. Hephaestus, the son of Zeus, split open Zeus’s skull with an axe and Athena sprang out of Zeus’s skull as an adult, clothed in a suit of shining armor. Athena, associated by the Greeks with the planet Venus, became their goddess of wisdom.

Even by the usual standards of Greek mythology, this story is bizarre. One might ask why it became established at all if there wasn’t some allegorical interpretation to it. There was!

Velikovsky

A theme running through the famous book ‘Worlds in Collision’ by Immanuel Velikovsky, published in 1950, is that Venus came out of Jupiter as a comet trailing a prominent tail, and later turned into a planet. Velikovsky was an outstanding scholar who, nonetheless, included enough mistaken conclusions in his writings that many scientists failed to take him seriously. This was regrettable because he discovered ancient sources, long forgotten, which could have changed the foundations of astronomy and geology. Most scientists still fail to appreciate the significance of his accomplishments.

Velikovsky was mistaken in accepting the legend about the origin of Venus so literally. His claim that Venus came out of Jupiter as a comet which changed into a planet could not be true and astronomers knew it. He quoted numerous historical records of Venus having been observed coming from Jupiter but it apparently didn’t occur to him that Venus could have been a former moon of Jupiter, and the scientists weren’t about to help him out.

Galilean Orbits

I am proposing that Venus was a moon of Jupiter until less than 4,000 years ago. It had been, in effect a fifth ‘Galilean’ moon. Jupiter’s four largest moons at present, progressing outward are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Calisto, and the moon Ganymede is larger than the planet Mercury. They are known as the Galilean moons in honor of their discoverer, Galileo Galilei. Some scientists have claimed that the moons follow a principle called the Titius-Bode Rule and that all potential orbits from Io to Calisto are presently occupied. The rule describes how proceeding outward from the Sun, each planet is approximately twice as far from the Sun as the one before.

This ‘rule’ is something astronomers often discredit, but they still like to quote it when it suits them. The rule is absolutely real and is governed by the electromagnetic effect, but ‘fails’ ultimately with distance. Just because its influence does not extend to infinity does not make it any less a rule. The Titius-Bode Rule applies as far from the Sun as the planet Uranus before it breaks down for Neptune, although Pluto approximates the predicted position for the next planet out from Neptune.

There is another way of looking at this within the Jovian system. Astronomers have determined that the three inner Galilean moons are in orbital resonance with Jupiter. The result is that in the time it takes for Io to make four orbits around Jupiter, Europa makes two orbits and Ganymede makes one. One might suspect a presently unoccupied potential orbit since a moon between Io and Europa could have an orbital resonance of three. All four Galilean moons are tidally locked to Jupiter, presenting the same face, constantly to their planet. Venus is considerably hotter than Europa, with an interior that is cooler than that of Io, adding to the evidence that Venus once occupied an orbit between Io and Europa.

I support Velikovsky’s belief, not currently shared by most astronomers, that smaller worlds change their orbits from time to time and serve variously as planets or moons. There is not a shred of proof for astronomers’ claims that all planets and moons formed in their present orbits and have never left them. These claims directly contradict numerous ancient sources that Velikovsky identified, and are simply examples of notions that struck someone as a good idea at the time.

Volcanism

Io’s constant volcanism is commonly attributed to tidal heating as its interior is pulled by gravity between Jupiter and the other Galilean moons, although there is no proof of this either. Dr. Donald Scott (see below) has drawn attention to the fact volcanic centers on the surface of Io wander about, which is something that most volcanos simply don’t do. This activity is the result of electrical forces, rather than tidal attraction.

Volcanism on Venus may have been generated electrically while it was a moon of Jupiter and some volcanos appear to have moved along a circular path during their formation. Some that made less than a complete revolution formed horseshoe-shaped craters. The volcano ‘Buck’ on Venus is offered as an example of this phenomenon in ‘The Electric Sky’ (Page 138) by Dr. Donald Scott, a retired professor of electrical engineering and talented amateur astronomer. ‘The Electric Sky’, printed by Mikamar Publishing, is offered as “A Challenge to the Myths of Modern Astronomy”, and should be required reading for every astronomer.

It will not surprise my readers to learn that I do not accept every one of Dr. Scott’s conclusions. For example, I confidently attribute certain features in astronomy to distinctly different causes; such as Valles Marineris, the giant canyon on Mars (See: #12: Mars).

It could be preferable to train electrical engineers to become astronomers than to train astronomers to become electrical engineers. Be that as it may, while there is no recognized requirement for electrical engineers to become astronomers, the best thing that astronomers could do to further their understanding of the Universe would be to learn something about electrical engineering. Beliefs about our own Sun, stars, comets, our galaxy and the Universe itself too often attribute observed phenomena to gravity instead of to electromagnetism. (See: #14: The Electric Sun).

The Hot Surface

Venus has the highest average surface temperature of all the planets and moons in the Solar System, including Mercury, which is only half the distance of Venus from the Sun. The surface of Venus, at almost 500^o C (almost 900^o F), is hotter than any atmospheric effect could achieve. Russian probes descending on parachutes indicated rising temperatures as the surface was approached, and a NASA report on the fly-by of Mariner II in 1962 confirmed high surface temperatures, also concluding: “Little greenhouse effect could occur there”.

Heat flow measurements have demonstrated that heat flows upward to the surface of Venus. (That is what Velikovsky claimed also, although he claimed Venus had a high internal temperature because it had come out of Jupiter.) The extremely high surface temperature of Earth’s sister planet has been retained since it was a Jovian moon, being heated by Jupiter’s strong electrical field.

Carl Sagan described Jupiter as a “failed star” because he believed it to be made up primarily of hydrogen and helium. He also recognized that Jupiter must take in electrical energy from its surroundings, although he failed to recognize that our Sun takes in electrical energy from its surroundings as well, as the source of its energy. Sagan didn’t have the benefit of results from the Ulysses program, but observations derived from it have been ignored by astronomers in any case.

Ulysses had the greatest potential to change astronomy of any project that ESA-NASA has carried out, but the lessons that should have been learned were ignored due to an inability of scientists to think outside of their current orthodoxy. A Ulysses-type experiment would show that electric currents enter Jupiter’s north and south poles. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Ulysses program, the following extract is taken from Chapter #14: The Electric Sun.

The Atmosphere of Venus

The temperature of the Venusian atmosphere changes very little between the night and day sides, and from pole to pole, despite the slow rotation of the planet and its negligible surface winds. In fact, the only notable temperature variation occurs with altitude as ‘snow’ precipitates on the mountain tops. This is not water-snow but a different white substance, probably crystallized carbon dioxide, that precipitates out of the atmosphere. Long, narrow lava flows, frequently exhibiting an anastomosing (recombining) pattern, are an indication they formed on a hot surface. The lava remained liquid longer than it would have on a cooler surface, flowing easily and forming complex braided patterns.

Venus appears to have had an ocean, resulting in the development of a deep regolith (soil and other unattached material). If the regolith developed when Venus was a Jovian moon, superheated water and steam would have enabled deep weathering of the basalt surface. Some of the basalt probably occurs as pillow lava, which would have formed just as it does in Hawaii when molten lava plunges into the sea. Mars appears destined to attract more interest by space agencies, however, so the pillow lavas will have to wait a while before being confirmed.

The Comet Tail

A comet from the Oort Cloud was perturbed into an orbit around Jupiter and encountered Venus. Due to their disparate electrical charges, a flow of electricity surged through the comet when it encountered the moon. The comet disintegrated and its electric charge was transferred to Venus, with two immediate results.

The finer portion of the regolith was repulsed away from Venus electrically while continuing to be attracted gravitationally, enveloped by a highly reflective sheath of ice from the comet. This constituted the “comet tail” referred to by Velikovsky. Venus was propelled rapidly away from Jupiter because its electric charge was now incompatible with the charge of Jupiter. Planet and moon each carried a negative electrical charge.

Comets are powerful electrical capacitors, storing huge amounts of electrical energy. Countless comets in the Oort Cloud constitute the cathode for the entire Galaxy. Comets are commonly claimed to have been ‘leftover’ from the formation of the Galaxy, but they are not leftover from anything. Comets constitute an essential part of a beautifully functioning system that has not yet been appreciated.

The surface of Venus has been described as “clean and pristine” by NASA, for only coarse gravel and boulders now remain upon its surface. According to Velikovsky, rusty soil from Venus which entered Earth’s atmosphere accounted for the first of the ten plagues recounted in the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament and gave the Red Sea its name. Velikovsky described two close encounters between Venus and Earth, 52 years apart. It was at the first encounter that the plagues and other events recounted in Exodus occurred, and the Mayans, and others retained the memory of this interval in their tablets and monuments.

It is interesting that no magnetic field is associated with Venus, while a magnetic field has been recognized for each of the Galilean moons. Astronomers have attributed this to electric currents being induced by Jupiter’s strong field, so Venus might also have had a magnetic field when it was a moon of Jupiter. As far as is known, all the planets and moons of the inner Solar System share similar crustal rock types, the most common being basalt.

Removal from Orbit

Venus was propelled rapidly away from Jupiter since the electrical charge it had acquired from the comet was too strong for it to continue in its accustomed orbit. Since Venus moved toward the inner Solar System it was required to move ahead of Jupiter. This is explained by Kepler’s Second Law, which describes how an imaginary line from any planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas of space in equal amounts of time.

But Venus had a tidal lock on Jupiter, just as Earth’s moon has a tidal lock on Earth, always presenting its same face toward us. As Venus moved ahead of Jupiter it turned back, very slowly, continuing to face Jupiter. Distance eventually overcame this attraction, but even today Venus continues to rotate in a retrograde direction (opposite to that of the other planets), so slowly that on Venus, a day is longer than a year. One result of the retrograde rotation is that on Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. It is probable that most times a Galilean moon is displaced from its orbit around Jupiter it is propelled into the inner Solar System, due to the influence of the Sun.

The retrograde rotation of Venus is claimed to be slowing down. If this is so, Venus could eventually develop a tidal lock on the Sun (a planet behaving like a moon). It used to be thought that Mercury behaved in such a manner but Mercury is now known to have an orbital resonance of 1 1/2 rotations to each orbit it makes of the Sun. On Mercury also, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. The orbit of Venus is the most circular of any planet, which could not have been attained in response to gravitational capture alone; electromagnetism clearly played a role. Venus, just like Mars, is known to have a phase lock on Earth so that it presents its same face to Earth at every closest approach.

One must now recognize the electrical reality of the Solar System, a reality promoted by the late Swedish Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvén, the late Ralph E. Juergens, and continued by others, including Dr. Donald Scott, for gravity alone cannot begin to explain the wanderings of Venus and Mars as reported by Velikovsky in ‘Worlds in Collision’. He was disbelieved, although his sources are meticulously documented. One controversial source was the Old Testament, but as Velikovsky wrote in ‘Worlds in Collision’, (Page 307)….least of all do we place faith in books that demand belief, religious books, though we swear on these.”

Ancient Memories

“Or must we be in permanent collision with the planets and comets in order to believe in such catastrophes?” “Worlds in Collision” (Page 305)

Accounts of events that took place long ago have often been disregarded for no good reason. Cycles of Venus that were recorded by the Babylonians and Mayans do not agree with today’s cycles. Both civilizations, located far apart, attributed huge significance to a historical 52-year interval. Velikovsky established that this interval occurred between two close approaches of Venus to Earth, which threatened the lives of people around the world. As the new planet drew close to Earth it displayed phases, like Earth’s moon, which led to the cult of the bull in Greece, while Samoan tribes recounted that Venus grew horns.

Around the world, people retained memories of when Venus gave off smoke or had hair, or a beard. The Chaldeans compared the light of Venus to the light of the rising sun, while the Chinese astronomical text from Soochow (now Suzhou) records how Venus was visible in full daylight and rivaled the sun in brightness (‘Worlds in Collision’ Pages 164-5). Interestingly, a ‘full’ Venus is now only 1/14,000 as bright on Earth as is a full Moon. Earlier records of planetary movements, though meticulously kept, make no mention of Venus.

Velikovsky drew attention to stories about Venus that were shared by Babylonians, Greeks, Hebrews, Chinese, Polynesians, and American tribes. His investigative methods were anathema to the scientists, who imagined them to be inferior to their own. When practically identical stories are remembered by diverse groups around the world, however, there is no justification for dismissing them out of hand. People who lived only a few thousand years ago were no less intelligent or perceptive or thoughtful than us, and some recorded their observations by every means available to them.

It is wrong after historians have determined what took place in the past, for astronomers to totally disregard the product of their scholarship. They have no right to dismiss our history and replace it with their own dogma. It has been my observation that astronomers are rarely distinguished historians, and have typically taken precious little interest in human history.

I have stated that Velikovsky made mistakes, but most of them tended to involve interpretation. He recognized the influence of the electromagnetic force on the Galaxy and the movements of planets and moons away from their orbits. He knew that our geological history is mostly the result of catastrophism rather than uniformism and that the available wealth of legend and ancient history can provide a significant step toward an understanding of our past.

“It is very seldom that the same man knows much of science, and about the things that were known before science came.” Lord Dunsany (Edward Plunkett) 1878 – 1957.

Plasma Sheath

For as long as there has been life on Earth, our planet must have maintained an orbit around the Sun that is fairly close to the present one. This does not mean, however, that its orbit has never changed. Velikovsky described, from numerous sources, the length of a year changing from 360 days to 365¼ days. The circumference of Earth’s orbit increased by slightly less than 1 ½ % in 747 BC, as Venus took up its present orbit around the Sun. Mars was to take up its present orbit 60 years later.

In ‘The Electric Sky’, Dr. Donald Scott proposed that planets discharge electric currents to stabilize planetary orbits. A planet’s plasma sheath forms from electrical energy received from the Sun, which is streamed away from the Sun by the Solar Wind. The plasma sheath of Venus comes close to Earth at its closest approach, which could have required Earth to adjust its orbit slightly in 747 BC, to accommodate the insertion of Venus into its present orbit.

Earth has a plasma sheath as well, that is streamed away from the Sun by the Solar Wind. Most of the time, our Moon does not encounter this sheath due to the orientation of its orbit. Occasionally, however, our Moon encounters this sheath, and as it does it undergoes a physical shudder that can be seen from Earth, as strong electrical charges come together. I discussed this with NASA scientists when I visited JPL but they were unable to provide any explanation.

COMETS

Nucleate Comets

Life itself may originate on comets, perhaps when chains of amino acids occupying ice-crystal templates are impacted by the Solar Wind at speeds that may be high enough to result in nuclear processes. An infinite number of tiny natural factories working over infinite time may have forged reproducing life more than once, to be distributed throughout the Galaxy. When bacteria were discovered living happily in the core of a nuclear reactor, biologists were surprised that they could have evolved fast enough to tolerate such conditions. Perhaps they should not have been so surprised — these bacteria may just have felt they had come home.

I will explain in the chapter (See: #16: Cosmology 1) that microwave background radiation cannot be an echo of the big bang, as is supposed. I have proposed instead that microwave radiation results from electrical and nuclear activity on comets of the Oort Cloud. They are impacted by the solar wind as it accelerates from the Sun and from other stars.

The Oort Cloud, I propose, is not just a hollow sphere of comets surrounding our Solar System but a continuous interstellar construction throughout the Galaxy. Comets store large electrical charges which, as the Ulysses program implied, provide energy to power the Sun and the stars. Comets make up the negative terminal of the entire Galaxy. Debris and gasses from planets and moons, and crumbling asteroids, and the remains of other comets that strayed into the inner reaches of the Solar System are swept along before the Solar Wind to be added ultimately to nucleate comets in the Oort Cloud. One major population of asteroids, the carbonaceous chondrites, is interpreted here as the burned-out remains of comets that entered the Solar System in the past. They are rich in carbon, and all carbon on a previously barren Earth may have come from comets.

I propose that when planets and moons received their oceans they received the complete package. Consisting in large part of salt water, the package included bacteria, viruses (which exchange information between bacteria to initiate the process of evolution), and hydrocarbons (which provides food for bacteria). Earth received an additional gift at the catastrophe which ended the Proterozoic (late Precambrian) eon, more than half a billion years ago. Paleontologists refer to this event as the “biological big bang” due to the “explosion” of life forms that followed.

Rosetta Probe

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta Probe landed its ‘Philae Lander’ onto Comet 67-P in November 2014,  then communication with the lander was lost when its batteries died. So it was heartening news when communication was re-established eight months later. A spokesperson from NASA reminded us that…“Here is an opportunity to learn about comets, about which we know almost nothing.”  So far—so good.

The spokesperson then went on to explain how comets represent some of the oldest objects in the Universe, how they are made up of material which didn’t get included into planets, etc., etc. Does anyone detect a problem here? On the one hand, elementary research is being carried out, while on the other hand, it is essential that the results must fit into the presently accepted orthodoxy. This demonstrates one of the major problems in astronomy. No fresh thinking can be introduced which might upset the ‘Old Boys’ Network’, made up of those whose reputations are dependent upon maintaining the standing of their previously published conjectures.

Its ‘déjà vu’ all over again. Those incredibly strong streams of electrons that Ulysses detected entering the poles of the Sun have not yet resulted in the realization that our Sun and the stars are powered by electricity. (See: #14: The Electric Sun.) Electron streams entering the poles of the Sun are no longer even mentioned on NASA’s website about Ulysses. It is preferred that anything contradicting established orthodoxy is quietly ignored, just as the USGS quietly ignored the young age of a volcanic rock formation beneath the Caribbean Sea.

Any study begun with such preconceived opinions practically guarantees flawed results. Recall what Ralph E. Juergens had to say about the Sun, long before the Ulysses program took place: “The modern astrophysical concept that ascribes the Sun’s energy to thermonuclear reactions deep in the solar interior is contradicted by nearly every observable aspect of the Sun.”

Cloud Comets

“A few Greek philosophers were aware that planets, on close contact, are greatly disturbed, and that out of their agitated atmospheres comets are born.”
(“Worlds in Collision”, Page 271).

“We do not live in a museum; we live in a factory.” M.W.

Velikovsky did not discuss these comets further, but those that formed when Venus and Mars drew close were not solid (‘nucleate’) comets from the Oort Cloud, but what I have termed ‘cloud comets’, formed in large part of highly reflective ice crystals from the nucleate comet that displaced Venus from its Jovian orbit. They came from the disintegration of the tail that had followed Venus from the time it left its orbit around Jupiter, until its encounter with Mars.

As the cloud comets passed through the quadrants of Sun’s encompassing magnetosphere, with its alternating polarities, they changed their shape as each magnetic-sector boundary was crossed. One iconic image, seen around the world and appropriated by North American natives and Hindu religious followers alike, was the swastika. Another “…took the striking form of a woman wearing a pointed hat, riding on a broom…” (“Worlds in Collision” Page 305).

For hundreds of years, these electrically charged clouds of ice crystals drifting in space were a familiar sight. Several could often be seen simultaneously, some bright enough to be visible throughout the day. Countless written reports of them still exist! Julius Caesar even retained a seer whose duty it was to predict events, based upon interpretations of these enigmatic omens in the sky which dramatically altered their shapes from time to time.

Velikovsky’s explanation of the swastika was criticized by some because they didn’t know that some ‘comets’ do not have a solid core. We don’t see comets as they occurred in Julius Caesar’s time because they have been swept away by the Solar Wind. Already, their ices, together with remnants of the regolith of Venus, may have been added to nucleate comets of the Oort Cloud.

Proofs

Critics were dismissive of the wealth of historical reports from around the world that Velikovsky had meticulously collected, substituting claims of their own instead. Nowhere is the ‘Old Boys’ Network’ more in evidence. People who lived around 4,000 years ago weren’t much different from us, and they recorded their observations by every means they could.

If uniformism is to be replaced by catastrophism, and I believe I have made a strong case for exactly that, numerous aspects of geology and astronomy will have to be reconsidered. The scientists are not going to like this much — they never do, but they’ll get over it. Ultimately science, which belongs not just to them but to all of us, stands to be enriched beyond present belief. Scientists must be challenged wherever they have ignored or denied the work of historians and archeologists and substituted a cult all their own.

CHAPTER 8

The K-T Boundary

Most fossils are formed by an oceanic flood. New species evolve
and form fossils at the next major flood. This is why the
paleontological record is so discontinuous.

A Major Catastrophe

The end of the Cretaceous Period, followed by the Tertiary Period, is best known for the extinction of the dinosaurs. The “K-T Boundary” uses the letter “K” for “Kreide”, which is German for Cretaceous since “C” had already been used for Cambrian. The relatively minor Chicxulub impact site on the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, often quoted as being the third largest on Earth, did not bring the Cretaceous Period to a close. Much effort, however, went into dating this site at 66 million years, which was the date the scientists required.

The sedimentary record is a record of catastrophes. One oceanic flood after another has added to the record, sometimes removing a part, or all, of what was deposited before, so that nowhere is the record continuous and complete. Catastrophes brought geological periods, and also their divisions, and smaller divisions in turn, to a close, although there is no evident periodicity to them. Sediments are deposited on the continents by oceanic floods and contain fossils of life forms living at that time. New life forms then evolve and are included in sediments deposited by the next major flood. Very few fossils are made between major floods. This is why the paleontological record is so discontinuous, which has been used by Creationists to support claims about the absence of missing links between species.

Some catastrophes are of a different order of magnitude than the rest, and what is possibly the fourth most destructive of life on Earth occurred at the K-T Boundary, which is thought to have made 80% of all species on the planet extinct. A major impact was responsible, and the Himalaya mountain range follows the arcuate limb of a major impact site that may be the one that brought the Cretaceous Period to a close. This major site probably generated a triple junction, as have other major impacts, with the Ninetyeast Ridge constituting one of the two major faults. The ridge lines up well with the center of the arc and extends south for about 5,000 miles (8,000 km). Its orientation along a meridian of longitude is a temporary coincidence.

Australia and India are often represented as sharing the same tectonic plate, the Indo-Australian Plate, even though it is crossed by the Ninetyeast Ridge. Recent earthquake activity along this ridge, where it comes closest to Sumatra, suggests a pending breakup of the plate. Several published interpretations, based on geophysics, have a possible division occurring along an east-west trend rather than north-south.

The Himalayan impact influenced the movement of India which, until then, had been moving toward the huge Indonesian impact site, which may have been the one responsible for terranes traveling across the entire Pacific Ocean to accrete onto the west coast of the Americas. The impact caused India’s path to rotate by more than 55^o, as the sea floor west of Ninetyeast Ridge turned abruptly toward Asia.

The ridge has been dated as 30 million years at the south end, and 80 million years at the north end, neither age corresponding with the expected age for an impact of 66 million years. Younger or older dates, however, can be due to any number of reasons, and incorrect dates have often persisted in the geological literature until a reason was recognized to investigate further. An assumed relationship between the Ridge and the Kerguelen hotspot, in the southern Indian Ocean, may have some bearing on the present acceptance of age dates.

The Deccan Traps

As India started on its course toward Asia another phenomenon commenced. A basalt flood, which has been estimated to exceed a volume of half a million cubic kilometers, occurred over western India. Uniformist scientists have claimed that these basalt flows took “hundreds of thousands of years” to accumulate, but I was unable to find evidence to support this claim.

Fossil soil horizons, called paleosols, occurring within the sequence could constitute proof of long intervals of non-deposition, but flood deposits containing fossils do not. Layers of sediment between lava flows reflect flood deposition, but not necessarily long interruptions in volcanism. That such a layer may contain dinosaur remains does not prove dinosaurs of the types represented were alive at the time, or that they ever lived in the area. The basalt flows have been dated to around 66 million years.

Magnetic reversals have also been offered as proof of extended periods of time, but all they reveal is that certain magnetic mineral crystals were orientated toward whichever magnetic pole happened to be closest to the volcanic eruption at the time. The best defined large impact sites on Earth are younger than Permian, so if a very large impact was responsible for the K-T Boundary event, some evidence of it must have been retained. The Himalayan impact is posited as the one that brought the Cretaceous Period to a close (See: #4. Atlantis).

The Tibetan Plateau

Probably every major impact site develops shatter cones, both small (down to hand-held) and large (up to entire mountains). Different rock types, however, vary in the degree to which these structures are developed. The Sierra Nevada, the Alps and the Carpathians all provide excellent examples, but what may be the most distinctive examples of large shatter cones on Earth occur on the Tibetan Plateau. Mountains which were sculpted by the shock-metamorphic effects of the huge Himalayan impact have formed these almost perfect conical shapes along the course of the Baltoro Glacier.

The Iridium Conundrum

Origins

‘The Iridium Conundrum’ could be the title for an episode of the popular American television comedy series ‘The Big Bang Theory’, but instead describes a debate among scientists about the origin of a layer of iridium-rich sediment occurring around the world at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) sedimentary contact. Geological hotspots are thought to be connected to the lower mantle, and elements that are rare in the crust are exuded from these hot spots.

One such element is iridium, which is one of the least abundant stable elements in the Earth’s crust. Because iridium has an especially high affinity for iron, it is concluded that Earth’s core, which is accepted as being largely iron, must contain iridium as well. Deep-sourced (hot spot) volcanos are known to exude iridium. Iridium is also known to be present, at higher concentrations, in a class of meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites. Iridium is one of the platinum group metals, and it is commonly found alloyed with small amounts of platinum.

In 1979 a team of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley, led by Louis and Walter Alvarez (father and son), announced the discovery of high concentrations of iridium within a narrow band of shale outcropping on an Italian mountainside. As shown by fossil evidence of rocks above and below the contact, the shale occurs at the K-T boundary. Soon after, it was discovered that K-T boundary shale is enriched in iridium around the world, sometimes by more than a hundred times the normal amount. Allan O. Kelly had sent a copy of his book ‘Impact Geology’ to Louis Alvarez at Berkeley and this may have contributed to Alvarez’s viewpoint when he attributed the extinction of the dinosaurs to the impact of an asteroid.

The high iridium values touched off a debate between scientists favoring a terrestrial origin for the iridium, and those supporting a cosmic one. Meteorites known as chondrites are rich in iridium, but most asteroids of this type orbit further from Mars, and closer to Jupiter. Most stony and metallic asteroids are found toward the inner edge of the main asteroid belt, which is closer to the orbit of Mars. The suggestion that moons of Mars have impacted Earth is explored later. (See: #10. Venus, & #12. Mars).

Both present moons of Mars are of the stony type and follow orbits that are almost perfectly circular. (Such orbits could not result from the effects of gravity alone so that electromagnetism must have influenced their capture.) Iridium is rare in Earth’s crust, implying that Mars tends not to bring carbonaceous chondrite asteroids to Earth. Rich nickel deposits associated with impact sites such as the Sudbury basin, are also uncommon, suggesting that most moons of Mars are of the stony type, as are its present moons, Deimos and Phobos.

Meteor Crater in Arizona was caused by a meteorite composed largely of iron and nickel, and which did not provide enough energy to form a convection cell. Not every asteroid is brought here by Mars, for Apollo asteroids occasionally impact Earth randomly. It is plausible, however, that most of the largest ones were brought to Earth as moons of Mars. Concentrations of iridium that can be ascribed to hotspot volcanism are probably adequate to account for anomalous amounts of iridium occurring at the K-T boundary. If this is so, iridium anomalies should occur at other contacts at the end of geological periods.

Other elements associated with iridium at the K-T contact tend to support a terrestrial origin for it. Researchers from Dartmouth College reported in ‘Science’ finding significant amounts of arsenic and antimony at the contact. A cosmic origin for the iridium may have been promoted, in part, to support the claim that the catastrophe at the K-T contact resulted from a large asteroid impact. That concept was less acceptable to scientists in 1979.

Anomalous iridium at the K-T boundary would have been due to volcanism, especially from hot spots, following the impact of a large, stony asteroid. At that time, many volcanos were erupting all over Earth. Evidence for the impact, consisting of shocked quartz grains, as well as basaltic spherules, has been found worldwide. The spherules have been termed ‘microtektites’, although they have a totally different origin from ‘tektites’. Their close association with the impact of a large asteroid in no way requires the iridium to have a cosmic origin as well.

The iridium content of carbonaceous chondrites may be a thousand times the average content of Earth’s crust. This composition has been claimed by some as “…indicative of the average concentration of iridium in the solar system.” (Scientific American, August 1980, p.86B). What it really tells us is something quite different, which is explained in #15: Cosmic Rays.

Other Major Impact Sites

It is interesting to see how the Himalayan impact site compares in diameter with some other sites that can be interpreted on Earth’s surface. In order to make these comparisons, it is necessary to employ a physical globe to avoid distortion away from the equator. An almost indispensable aid is a piece of transparent photo-overlay material. One side of this material can be drawn on in pencil, and if a number of concentric circles at even spacing are established with a compass, an arc on the globe can be fitted along one of the inscribed circles, or else between adjacent circles. The distance from the center can then be determined by the scale on the globe.

The measurements presented above are approximate, but provide a good idea of the scale of some larger impact sites compared to the Venezuelan Basin site. (See: #3: Impact Geology). Considering the effects of the impact that occurred about 10,500 years ago, one might ponder the effects of even the next largest in the list above, which has an area 16 times as great, a convection cell volume many times as great, and an energy level comparison at least in the hundreds.

Our ancestors, human and pre-human, must have come close to being wiped out time after time as they experienced repeated bottlenecks. Far from following a straightforward evolutionary path, let alone a predetermined one, fate played its part at every turn. It is fascinating to consider if things had followed a slightly different course, how differently the world might have ended up.

The asteroid that crashed in the Venezuelan Basin (in fact, formed the basin) totally changed the local physical geography of the Caribbean region. It ripped terranes out of Central America and moved them as much as 1,500 km (more than 900 mi.) to the east. The catastrophe also moved mantle currents to the mid-Atlantic Ridge, as well as along it, for I believe the ‘legendary’ country of Atlantis was much more than that. It was real, and its people with their sophisticated culture experienced their own bottleneck, but enough survivors may have continued on as the Pharos’ people in Egypt.

If the most recent major impact could result in geographical changes on such a scale and result in the annihilation of species from North America to Australia, consider what the effect was from even the next larger impact down the presented list. Furthermore, Earth had been impacted by another only 63,000 years earlier, and, I suspect, a larger one roughly 66,000 years before that. While our busy scientists go about their task of learning all about the Universe and cultivating their ‘Theory of Everything’ perhaps they could spare some time to look into this.

Uniformitarianism, to give it its full, disheartening name, constitutes one of the greatest debacles in all of science. While we might be willing to trade catastrophism for it in a heartbeat, now that we have benefited from it, the fact remains that we are not in control of our destiny. In all probability, Mars will continue in the role it has occupied since at least the end of Precambrian time, and if Mars should take an asteroid as large as Vesta for a moon life on Earth could eventually receive a major reset, as it did at the end of the Permian Period.

Ceres, which is another world, is several times more massive than the asteroid Vesta, but may not present a similar threat to Earth. Venus didn’t physically crash into Earth, and neither would Ceres, even if it should be brought here by Mars. As for Vesta, I couldn’t begin to compare the effects of an impact by it with what ended the Permian Period on Earth. It is categorically surreal to ponder the ultimate demise of one’s own kind and to muse upon whether the next dominant species, during its time of authority, might be less destructive of the biosphere than we have been.

CHAPTER 13

The Martian Flood

If Earth is our mother then Mars is our father, without whom we would
not be here. Mars is a stern father though, and may ultimately
expunge our species from the Earth.

“This surface geology is trying to tell us a story, a surprising story, and we might not be ready to accept it.”  

David Pieri, scientist at NASA’s JPL (quoted in “Mars Beckons”, page 115).

The claim that there are fossils on Mars will continue to be denied by most until some are stumbled upon by chance. I presented a paper on this topic at NASA’s JPL in 1994 and it didn’t convince anyone there either. The technology to enable Martian rovers to recover microfossils of Protozoa such as Foraminifera and Radiolaria from the sand dunes and send their images back to Earth is already available. The only reason for not doing so is an absence of belief.

The Space Router

The last time Earth shared its ocean with Mars may have been considerably less than two million years ago. In a significant event, during one extended and especially close encounter, the two worlds moved to within a few diameters, Earth’s atmosphere distended until it reached the Martian surface, while Earth’s ocean arose in a peak. Then the sleeve of atmosphere connecting both planets constricted to a tube. Just as a tornado conserves its energy, it tightened as it rotated.

The sleeve narrowed until it was completely occupied by the peak of water at the Earth end. The atmospheric pressure in the sleeve was that of space itself so that a giant drinking straw now existed between the two planets. Water traveled along it, preceded by a vast quantity of air. Even with a perfect vacuum, water on Earth at sea level can normally rise to only about 10.3 meters, less than 34 feet, above the surface. But this involved an almost perfect vacuum in a closed system. Given the gravitational attraction at the Mars end the system may have worked more like a siphon than a drinking straw.

It would have presented an awe-inspiring sight—a slender waterspout of prodigious proportions arcing through space from one planet to the other. Sunlight flashing off its mirrored surface and through its enveloping sheath of atmosphere, rotating as it approached Mars. A silver filament kilometers across, and thousands of kilometers high smashing onto the Martian surface.

Molecules of a fluid cease to flow when its shear limit is exceeded, and upon impact, this water was as solid as the surface it encountered. Spinning onto a surface that was itself moving laterally due to the planet’s rotation, the waterspout had become a monstrous router, blasting away the crust to a depth of several kilometers. The surface of Mars offers clear evidence to indicate water fell from above, and Noctis Labyrinthus exhibits erosional features that do not occur anywhere on Earth.

The router divided and roamed about until it arrived at longitude 53 degrees. Then the system stabilized and the stream became concentrated into two principle routers, accompanied by several subsidiary routers, as the great canyon Coprates was blasted out of the Martian crust. With an eerie degree of precision appropriate to some feat of human engineering, but on an incomparable scale, excavation proceeded at a rate that could have exceeded 100 cubic kilometers of Martian crust every second.

One might suppose that rates of water erosion on Earth have exceeded those on any other planet. It is interesting then, to consider that the greatest rate of erosion by water anywhere in the Solar System could have been attained on Mars. The water was assisted in its work by sediment from the ocean floor of Earth. Sand grains from Earth became cutting tools, and later formed the fields of sand dunes left by the ensuing flood. Remember, basalt does not contain visible quartz, so what kind of sand forms the sand dunes on Mars? It looks like quartz to me (and to Carl Sagan, evidently.)

The extensive Martian sand dunes suggest that the standing wave feeding the space router passed over a continental shelf as Earth rotated beneath it. Perhaps those who ridiculed Velikovsky’s account of Earth’s encounters with Venus and Mars would care to explain how Mars suddenly acquired and then lost, an ocean. Uniformism loses again. I hope planetary geologists, or at least everyone else, will come to understand that large fields of sand dunes on Earth are deposited by water. Later, modification of the surface may then be made by the wind. This knowledge will prove useful when the question arises as to how fields of sand dunes formed elsewhere.

The canyon named Valles Marineris spans 78^o of longitude, suggesting a plausible timeframe for its development. At the present rotational speed of Mars, a point on the equator requires 5 hours and 20 minutes to rotate through 78^o of longitude, while at the Earth end the water source behaved as a standing wave, with Earth rotating beneath it. The transfer of ocean water may have ended when the standing wave on Earth that was feeding the waterspout encountered land. Then, after the land had been passed by, the system proved unable to re-establish itself.

Valles Marineris displays a gentle S-curve, suggesting changes to the tilt of the rotational axes of the planets during their close encounter. Furthermore, neither of the geographic poles is well centered on its respective ice cap. In fact, the South Pole is situated outside of its ice cap. This is an additional sign of a tilting of the Martian axis while Earth and Mars occupied their conjugal state.

As the space router distributed material from the canyons over millions of square kilometers of the Martian surface a flood began to ravage the planet. There wasn’t enough water to call it an ocean, but it flowed over the planet from pole to pole. In the absence of mountain ranges and in gravity that is only 38% as strong as that on Earth even when no other world is nearby, water encircled the globe without pause. It smoothed out the surface, especially in the northern hemisphere, depositing sediment until only the largest craters remained.

The polar ice caps rotated beneath the flood, and sediment-laden water cut terraced canyons completely through them to the underlying surface in concentric spirals. Views of both polar ice caps show that the direction of the eroded channels is opposite, as seen from above, due to the rotation of the planet. As water slowed coming off the ice caps, sand settled out to form dune fields similar to many on Earth, while silt remained in suspension and was carried away.

While the major canyons were being cut by the space router, others formed by more familiar processes. Beginning at the source end, the main channel is joined by several tributaries so that the overall form is similar to that of many flood channels on Earth. Some small channels have braided forms, while the smallest are often dendritic (tree-like). Along canyons and channels of all sizes, sandy beaches formed in sheltered coves, just as would occur on Earth. The flood channels lead directly to the canyon Coprates, which continues westward for thousands of kilometers.

The canyon complex terminates in an area of broken ground, at the apex of the Tharsis Dome, called Noctis Labyrinthus. This raises a matter that cannot be lightly dismissed: If water flowing from the “source area” resulted in the channels and canyons, by what means did it reach Noctis Labyrinthus, which is ten kilometers higher? Does water flow up-hill on Mars? And how much water would it take to erode a canyon two thousand kilometers long, a hundred kilometers wide and 5 or 6 kilometers deep, on a world whose gravity is only a fraction of that on Earth?

Water was able to erode the Tharsis Dome because the water fell from above and so was unaffected by topography. This is somewhat analogous to the erosion of the Grand Canyon across the Colorado Plateau. In this case, the water didn’t actually fall from above, but the oceanic flood was so deep that density currents at its base were not diverted by the higher elevation of the plateau. Scientists unaware of repeated axis changes resulting in oceanic floods have claimed that the Colorado River managed to keep pace as the plateau rose slowly over millions of years. Geologists like things that take millions of years.

Noctis Labyrinthus

The space router became unstable as its source of water on Earth was cut off, and the reduced flow divided into several smaller routers wandering aimlessly about. Crenulations (arcuate bites) taken out of the cliffs of mesas and buttes by these smaller routers at Noctis Labyrinthus produced a type of landform that has no equivalent on Earth. Sometimes, a router cutting a stream course would double back, momentarily keeping pace with the surface and boring a pothole into the stream bed. It wasn’t only water doing this work. The fluid was a slurry of water and sand, together with larger particles of rock.

Splosh Craters

Craters on Mars that are surrounded by lobed, outward-spreading mudflows frozen in place are called ‘splosh craters.’ They resulted from the impact of ejecta from the space router onto the wet ground. Their smooth crater floors do not consist of lava (as some have been described), but of fine sediment. Most splosh craters were formed within the same few hours in which Valles Marineris was formed. Crater frequency reflects history, but not necessarily age.

Craters 50 km (30 mi.) in diameter, almost 8,000 km (5,000 mi.) away from Valles Marineris, indicate that large masses of debris from the space router went sub-orbital before impacting at low and mid-latitudes. Some small craters formed after the flood had abated, suggesting that not all of the debris returned immediately to the surface. The largest of all craters on Mars are not associated with the space router but, plausibly, could have resulted from a former moon falling out of orbit to impact the Martian surface. Just as Martian moons cause axis changes to Earth, they could result in axis changes to Mars.

The Repudiation of Uniformity

It would have been impossible for a significant volume of Earth’s ocean to be removed without including some of the myriad life forms within it. Protozoa such as Foraminifera and Radiolaria (micro-fossils) would have been present in great numbers, while not all higher forms of life could possibly have been excluded. Fish are known to move toward areas of low pressure, which sometimes results in fish falling from the sky when a storm passes by. Dolphins, whales, and even primitive rafts loaded with terrified pre-human refugees, our ancestors, fleeing flooded island or coastal homes, may all have made the trip to Mars.

This is the third reason for the title ‘Martian Grandpa’

Since Earth entered into a cooler phase at the beginning of the Pleistocene Epoch, it may have taken up an orbit further from the Sun. This could have resulted from entanglement with another world. Thus, it is possible that the prolonged encounter with Mars that generated the Space Router took place as recently as the start of the Pleistocene Epoch, which may have been between 1 and 2 million years ago. The discovery of fossils on Mars that came from Earth will constitute proof that Earth has shared its ocean with our sister planet, and the very last vestiges of that decrepit old doctrine of uniformitarianism will have been put to rest forever.

Flood Effects

Water flowed over Mars from pole to pole. The flood eroded the flanks of Olympus Mons and the other shield volcanos, as well as the walls of the great canyon Coprates. After its momentum had been spent, water flowing from highlands to lowlands cut meandering channels similar to those on Earth.

A geologically young age for the Martian ice caps is indicated by the scarcity of impact craters upon their surfaces. Ice caps are vulnerable to destruction by various catastrophic influences. The vapor pressure of ice is dependent upon temperature, so that ice caps tend to be transitory when they are closer to the Sun than the Main Asteroid Belt, and without any ocean providing precipitation to sustain them.

Along with the loss of a significant part of Earth’s ocean was the loss of air, so atmospheric pressure dropped on Earth as well. Some birds could have become flightless as a result, while back in the Mesozoic, pterodactyls would have experienced no difficulty flying in the denser air. Cooler temperatures and thinner air meant that from then on, giants on Earth would live only in the sea.

In the face of evidence that Earth has shared its ocean with Mars on two occasions, the question arises as to whether those were the only times. The quantity of water involved each time was large enough that if many such transfers had taken place a requirement would have followed for Earth’s primeval ocean to have covered practically all of the land. Life on Earth would have evolved differently if there had been so much water that no substantial dry land was exposed. Therefore, instances of Earth sharing its ocean with Mars must have been few and may have taken place only twice.

The presence of the ice caps indicates that Mars received water from Earth during an encounter before the one which formed Valles Marineris. Polar-type sediments occur close to the equator, while distinctive, pitted terrain left by an earlier transfer occurs close to the present South Pole. It is not known whether the present ice caps and older pitted terrain resulted from the same event, but this could be the case. On Mars, as on Earth, ice caps form around the geographic poles, but Mars could have undergone an axis change between its encounters.

Scientists have attributed the pitted terrain to collapse from the melting of ground ice, or (wait for it!) “…to the wind”. The pits are so similar in their distinctive form to parts of Noctis Labyrinthus that they must have resulted from a similar process. As to what might have happened to all the water and air once held by Mars, there are several processes that may have been responsible.

Atmospheric Effects

The atmosphere is readily attracted away to a close-by massive body, as we have seen. Water vapor dissociates under intense ultraviolet light into hydrogen and oxygen, and oxygen combines with iron-rich minerals in surface rocks, to form oxides. Water must be especially vulnerable in the absence of an ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. Hydrogen is too light to be retained even by Earth so that Mars would have no hold on it. Since Mars has practically no magnetic field, any atmosphere would be vulnerable to being stripped away by the solar wind.

In the explanation of cloud comets, I included this quote from ‘Worlds in Collision’: “A few Greek philosophers were aware that planets, on close contact, are greatly disturbed, and that out of their agitated atmospheres comets are born.”  Those planets were Venus and Mars, and I believe the icy tail of Venus provided the material for cloud comets known from Roman times. In addition, Mars may have contributed the atmosphere that it had once received from Earth.

Some of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere could have resulted from the chemical dissociation of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). Extensive dune fields suggest that the space router carried sand from Earth (grains of quartz from the breakdown of granite). That sand may have come from a continental shelf, which would typically be accompanied by calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). If CaCO₃ dissociates under Martian conditions, calcium oxide (CaO) may constitute some of the fine dust occurring all over the planet.

The Search for Fossils

Sand dunes constitute the most obvious and easiest target to investigate for fossils. If the sand is unconsolidated, which is indicated by the finely sculpted dune surfaces, a fine-grained fraction favoring the size range of certain fossil protozoa on Earth could be readily investigated. Separations based on specific gravity within a narrow size range could be further concentrated by additional means if necessary. There is no shortage of sand dunes on Earth to practice on that were similarly deposited by salt-water, although they have been attributed to wind.

Scanning with a low power microscope would be conducted in a search for evocative patterns such as circles, or more complex shapes, and the images transmitted to Earth. The system required is well within the ability of present technology to accomplish and should be given priority over all other NASA and E.S.A. missions. Otherwise, perhaps the rapidly advancing China National Space Administration (CNSA) would like to take it on.

Sand fractions could yield sponge spicules, fish teeth, and other small fossils. Even just determining the composition of the sand grains on Mars could provide food for thought for planetary geologists. Remember, basalt cannot produce quartz grains by weathering.

A search for microfossils could also be carried out along stream beds. Cores of sediment obtained with a vibrating drill would be scanned to identify sections yielding anomalous gamma radiation. (Gamma radiation is produced by the Potassium isotope ⁴⁰K, which is common in clay). Clay-rich zones containing potential biogenic material would be separated for analysis. Samples would be washed and centrifuged, and then applied to slides for scanning under a microscope. Again, evocative patterns would be selected, and their images transmitted to Earth.

Teeth and splinters of bone must exist along natural riffles on Mars, and a promising search area could be along channels within the complex known as Noctis Labyrinthus. As riffles are chanced upon, shallow material behind them could be raked onto a vibrating sieve equipped with an air or liquid sprayer and examined. A search for fossils, especially micro-fossils, must precede any consideration of development on Mars.

There are fossils on Mars, of life forms that lived on Earth.

It is inevitable that bacteria and viruses in the water accompanied more advanced life forms. Some bacteria and viruses have probably persisted around volcanic vents or other favorable locations, and their discovery would not be especially meaningful. There would, however, be interest in determining differences they may show now compared to their kin that remained on Earth.

If any more of the advanced life from Earth should have survived, tardigrades are by far the most likely. Now numbering more than 1150 recognized species on Earth, they have been found in the deep sea below 4,000 m (below 13,000 ft.) and survived all 5 major extinction events. It would not be at all surprising if some are living in carbon-rich buried sediments on Mars.

An Israeli Moon lander which crashed on our Moon in 2019, was reportedly carrying live tardigrades, which probably survived, so tardigrades could be the very first permanent space ambassadors from Earth.

King Sennacherib’s Defeat (after ‘Worlds in Collision’)

As had once been the case with Venus, traditions of a day or night of unusual duration came to be associated with Mars in the seventh and eighth centuries B.C., for some encounters were evidently close enough to cause Earth’s axis to tilt temporarily. According to Velikovsky, the final encounter between Mars and Earth took place on the night of March 23, 687 B.C. which was the first night of the Hebrew Passover. A powerful invading army led by King Sennacherib of Assyria had bedded down for the night outside the walls of Jerusalem, prior to launching an attack. That night, most of the army was wiped out by ‘a blast’ as Mars passed close overhead. (Isaiah 37:36).

Mars evidently has a lesser electrical potential than Earth, for the lightning bolt jumped from Earth to Mars, and numerous sources are in agreement that it was by “a blast”, accompanied by a terrific noise, that the Assyrian host was destroyed. “Their souls were burnt though their garments remained intact.” (‘Worlds in Collision’) On the Martian surface, close to the face that Mars displays to Earth at its closest point, there should be a ray crater from when King Sennacherib’s army was wiped out. On our Moon ray craters, the product of electrical discharges, have irregular, rounded outlines with very steep walls, significant rock glazing, and rays made of excavated material. Some of these were visited by Apollo astronauts, but all were regarded as impact sites.

Livestock in a pasture standing aligned with the direction of current flow through the ground are sometimes killed during electrical storms, even when those with a different alignment are not. This can occur when a sufficient potential difference develops between their front and hind feet, as current flows through the ground. An animal’s body provides a path of less resistance than the ground on which it is standing, and the resultant flow of electricity can result in fibrillation of the heart. Sennacherib’s soldiers lying on the ground as Mars passed close overhead would have been especially vulnerable.

“And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: (5,180 dead) and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.”
II Kings, 19:35

Velikovsky wrote (Worlds in Collision’) that this passage “…is described laconically in the Book of Kings…” (My emphasis). Perhaps, but the first “they” (…when they arose…) would refer to the Israelites behind the city wall, while the second “they” (…they were all dead…) would refer to the Assyrians. The threat to Jerusalem had been removed in an instant by Mars “…the perfect warrior…who brings defeat”. These words were written years later by a grandson of King Sennacherib. This was the most recent encounter between Earth and its neighbor, for Mars then retreated to the orbit that it has followed for the past 27 centuries.

Brave New World

The ‘Terraforming’ of Mars

As a brave new age of exploration is promoted by some of our most intrepid scientists they claim that humankind “must seek greater challenges”. Earth’s present problems have not yet, evidently, become sufficiently noticeable to interest them, and some of them dream of the ‘terraforming of Mars’. This fascination with Carl Sagan would entail nothing less than the transformation of that planet’s atmosphere to a ‘shirt-sleeve’ environment in order to provide a second home for humankind. After Earth has been completely desecrated we, or at least the scientists (in their dreams), could all move to Mars.

One could look far before finding a better example of foolishness to confirm my claim that much of modern astronomy constitutes a cult. Only if the planets resided in permanent orbits could the terraforming of Mars make the slightest sense. Given the incredible cost of taking even the first tentative steps towards such a program, an unmanned probe to confirm that Mars holds fossils of life forms that developed on Earth should be especially attractive. It is practically assured that the next time Mars moves from its orbit any development there will be adversely affected, and probably destroyed, including any hapless human inhabitants.

So much about our Solar System is misunderstood that it constitutes virtual proof that our species lacks the competence to enable it to spread throughout the Galaxy. If Carl Sagan had been aware that Mars does not occupy a permanent orbit he might have been less seduced by his fantasy of terraforming Mars. If those now lining up to start a permanent colony on Mars knew that in the future Mars will leave its orbit and interact violently with other worlds, including a trip to the Main Asteroid Belt, one supposes that some might be less eager to go. I have been asked if I would personally volunteer to travel to Mars. Although I would not, there are a few special people whom I would be pleased to recommend for the trip.

Epilogue

Will Mars ever make close approaches to Earth in the future? Yes. The first sign will be a comet approaching Jupiter. Then, if a Galilean moon is displaced toward the Sun, the inhabitants of Earth can expect to encounter challenging times once again. Perhaps the Galilean moon Io, or Europa, will interact with Earth, as Venus did approximately 3,500 years ago. Perhaps the planet Venus will return to once more become a moon of Jupiter, and Mars will pass close to Earth. Even our own moon could depart Earth’s company. Whenever Mars loses one of its present moons (most likely Deimos first, the outer one) to strike Earth, the present geological epoch will come to an end and there is nothing we can do about it.

This does not portend the end of humankind, but a reset in human society. My guess is that it would be comparable to the second-last catastrophe of 74,000 years ago, but this would be dependent upon many variables. Mars brings asteroids, as its moons, close to Earth orbit and Earth’s gravity attracts them down upon us. While we regard Earth as our mother, Mars is equally our father, without which we would not be here. Mars is a stern father though, and may ultimately expunge our species from the living record.

In the meantime, it is our sacred obligation to every generation that will follow, to treat our planet Earth with more love than we are demonstrating at present. Pollution of our atmosphere may be put right with relative ease. Human overpopulation and pollution of our oceans, however, provide challenges incomparable to any that humankind has ever faced. As for Earth’s climate, it will continue to change as it always has. The only difference this time is that a natural warming trend happened to coincide with an increase in atmospheric CO₂ caused by industrialization, and its effects have been misunderstood.

The scientific breakthrough in astronomy probably won’t come until the presence of fossilized life forms from Earth is confirmed on Mars. As a first step, I would like to see the sand dunes investigated because they should be easy to sample. There is something else we can do, and that is to reconsider ancient records. Perhaps those smug specialists who dismissed Velikovsky’s claims because he approached science in a different way to them, would learn something. Why is a wealth of records of the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese, Mayans, and others, accepted by our Historians, Teachers, Writers, and Philosophers, yet summarily dismissed by Astronomers, who have substituted a cult of their own?

CHAPTER 20

Catastrophic Minerals

Coal is said to require 5 to 10 times its volume of trees to form, so
what process produces a coal seam more than 300 feet thick
from trees that grew on dry land?

Coal

During an axis change, movement along the meridian of maximum change proceeds in excess of the speed of sound (in the air at sea level) and although water lags behind, the soil is removed down to bedrock. It is then replaced, or not, according to topography and the whim of the tides. Coal beds are formed from trees that may be piled more than a thousand feet high, and as the flood returns from the sea, sealed off with clay from the ocean depths. Methane (CH₄) from the wood itself then converts the wood and other vegetable matter into coal. Most tree species that have been identified in coal beds grew in forests on dry land. Few grew in swamps.

Black or bituminous coal is made of trees and other plants that have been buried and sealed off from the atmosphere. In addition to methane that is generated by the wood itself, additional methane coursing through permeable sedimentary formations at times of catastrophe may be a factor in going beyond the formation of brown coal toward bituminous. Methane bubbles up from the mantle all the time, all over the world, and it floods through sedimentary formations during catastrophes.

Brown coal has a lower ‘rank’ than black coal, meaning it has less carbon content. It reflects a less complete alteration process which could be due to a less effective seal, less available methane, or a lower temperature as the chemical process progressed. Some brown coal is described as the end product of peat accumulations in muskegs or bogs, but material with this origin should be called lignite. The oldest coal deposits were formed from ferns.

Anthracite is the result of the alteration of bituminous coal by heat and pressure. It is the highest rank coal, with a carbon content as high as 98% and contains the lowest content of volatiles. This makes it favored for the production of steel. Original vegetation has a carbon content of around 50%. Bituminous (thermal) coal can be heated to produce coke. This increases the carbon content so that it can also be used for the production of steel. Volatiles driven off during the production of coke may be burned as heating gas.

The depth of vegetation required is said to amount to 5 to 10 times the thickness of the resulting coal seam. Some coal seams exceed a hundred meters (well over 300 ft.) in thickness, and only oceanic floods are able to produce accumulations of trees and other vegetation on such a stunning scale. When water returns to the land during a flood it brings clay from the ocean depths, which can seal vegetation away from the atmosphere. It is interesting that some coal seams lie directly upon the bare rock, which tends to rule out development from a wetland.

Sedimentary characteristics can provide additional evidence for the ways in which coal deposits are formed. In some cases, a thick seam of coal will split into thinner ones separated by sediments, and then join up again into a single seam. Vertical tree trunks (now turned to coal) sometimes extend above a horizontal coal seam. Some of these trunks are inverted, with the roots at the upper end, indicating chaotic deposition.

Coal changed our world, for it provided the energy required by the industrial revolution, transforming industry and transportation. Today we have more choices and must recognize the environmental costs of strip mining and particulate air pollution. Huge reserves of bituminous and brown coals remain untapped, but it would be desirable to replace most thermal coal with natural gas, or other types of less polluting energy.

Even though our thermal coal deposits may be sufficient to last us for more than a thousand years, there are good reasons against the ecologically destructive strip mining of bituminous and brown coal. The underground burning of thermal coal to generate coal gas offers one solution, utilizing coal seams that are too thin, or too deep, to be mined.

Crude Oil

Biogenic residues, such as fragments of kelp, are distributed widely throughout marine sediments, and physical and chemical changes by heat and pressure yield a mineraloid substance called kerogen. (Mineraloids are minerals that lack a precise chemical composition or crystal structure.) Destructive distillation of kerogen by a hypothetical thermal process that geologists call catagenesis is commonly claimed to be the process by which crude oil and natural gas are formed.

Sir Robert Robinson, a renowned British chemist, wrote in ‘Nature’ in 1963: “Actually, it cannot be too strongly emphasized that petroleum does not present the composition picture expected from modified biogenic products, and all the arguments from the constituents of ancient oils fit equally well, or better, with the conception of a primordial hydrocarbon mixture to which bio-products have been added”.

That would be Methane (CH₄). I propose that all oil and deep source gas deposits are derived from methane released from the mantle. All original carbon on Earth may have come from comets, and much of it could have accompanied our primeval ocean. Carbon may persist in the mantle as the thermally stable mineral graphite, and this may be altered into methane under heat and pressure in the presence of water. Furthermore, biogenic carbon that is buried in subduction zones is known to be released into the atmosphere by volcanic activity, while large amounts of carbon remain tied up in coal deposits and limestone formations.

Methane is commonly released by earthquakes and volcanic activity. It floods through sedimentary formations where it may encounter kerogen, especially at times of catastrophism. If the encounter takes place within the oil window, a range of temperature and pressure that is well known to geologists, the methane is catalyzed and polymerized by the kerogen to produce longer hydrocarbon chains, and this is how oil is formed. The new oil tends to migrate toward the surface, with some of it being consumed by microbes along the way. Some oil will reach the surface, while some will have its journey interrupted by traps so that economic deposits of oil, often accompanied by natural gas, may be formed.

The most productive traps are associated with sub-sea ‘diapirs’ (salt domes), because there are no continental rocks to get in the way of or deflect ascending methane, and with anticlines (folds bowed upward) as in Arabia. Another common sedimentary trap is where upward trending formations ‘shale-out’ so that oil and gas are trapped by reduced porosity and permeability. Other traps commonly associated with changes to these parameters occur along former shorelines. To borrow from a first-year geology text, an incandescent light bulb has infinite porosity and zero permeability.

All crude oil tends to be chemically complex, with biomarkers retained from geological formations through which it has passed. An important consideration is the claimed ‘source rock’ where the methane was polymerized to oil. Geology books inform us that this is where oil is formed directly from kerogen, but this cannot be what occurs.

In most cases, there is not enough kerogen available, and no relationship exists in any case between the abundance of kerogen and the quantity of oil. In Arabia, large anticlines contain huge reserves of oil and are so completely full that overflow has evidently been lost to the surface. The kerogen content of the sediments, however, is less than that of many fields elsewhere.

Oil Sands and Oil Shales are made up of oil that has been degraded by contact with water, together with sand or mud. Tar pits at La Brea in California have been dug on a sub-cropping formation of salt water-degraded oil from a major oil spill along the coast. A large number of animal bones are included at La Brea because oceanic Flood waters swept away so many animals from the continent, 10,500 years ago.

Natural Gas

Methane from the mantle continually percolates upward along continental shelves to form methane hydrate, consisting of an icy slush. It is technically a clathrate, which is a lattice structure of one molecule containing molecules of another molecule. In this case, the lattice structure is formed of water, containing just over 4% methane. The sea-bed temperature tends to maintain itself within a narrow range which is below the freezing temperature of fresh water and above that of salt water. Methane hydrate is kept solid by temperature and by hydrostatic pressure.  The hydrate, which acts like ice, forms an impermeable seal close below the seabed, trapping rising methane gas beneath it. This can be hazardous to drilling operations being conducted before blowout protectors have been installed. Any sudden release of methane gas could result in a fire, or destroy the buoyancy of a drillship, causing it to list or even sink. Ships have sunk from loss of buoyancy due to gasses released from the sea-bed. Blowout protectors enable a drill crew to ‘shut-in’ a well and control any gasses encountered.

Some stories from the Bermuda Triangle, and elsewhere, involving ships sunk at sea and pilots disorientated from faulty magnetic compass readings, are attributable to releases of methane. A landslide on the continental shelf, which is a common occurrence, may destroy a methane-hydrate cap so that a cloud of methane gas is suddenly released. As the gas escapes it reduces buoyancy in the water and creates random local magnetic fields due to static electricity.

Methane deposits occur in combination with salt water, and with gasses including carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide (which is a deadly poison) and sometimes helium. Helium results from the decay of radioactive minerals such as uranium and potassium in granitic basement rocks, below the sediments. Some wells, such as in Saskatchewan, contain enough helium to be drilled for its production. The most common constituent of natural gas is usually methane, but processing of natural gas by fractional distillation may yield ethane, propane and many heavier components. These products are used for heating, transportation, electricity generation and manufacturing feedstocks, especially for plastics.

A deep source of methane is indicated by peaks of short-lived, radioactive radon gas emanating from the ground during earthquakes. Radon arrives just ahead of methane peaks, and it is concluded that the deep-sourced radon, some of which has an extremely short half-life, has been swept ahead by methane. This could provide warning of an impending earthquake. Fires can erupt at the surface along faults during earthquakes, as in California, and the sea has been observed on fire off the coast of Chile after an earthquake. This would be the result of methane mixed with air, set on fire by static electrical discharges.

Since some lubricating fluid must be present to enable earthquakes to occur at depths where rocks have a plastic quality and would otherwise slowly deform, liquid methane is a prime suspect. Compressed gas under intense pressure can escape along a fault. Rapidly expanding gas from beneath the sea can displace a great volume of seawater, which can result in a tsunami. This may be the way in which most tsunamis form, as some faults concluded to have been the cause of earthquakes have been found on examination to have undergone little or no vertical displacement.

I am proposing that economic gas deposits form as a result of methane percolating up from the mantle, without any relationship to kerogen. This is despite the release of biogenic methane often observed in wetlands, where rising streams of methane bubbles burn readily. In winter, biogenic methane may accumulate beneath ice formed on ponds.

Most carbon on Earth may reside in the mantle, from where it is released directly, while biogenic carbon that has been subducted also recycles back to the atmosphere. In either case, carbon can become trapped on its way to the surface. Thomas Gold promoted the investigation of deep gas deposits which promises a practically inexhaustible source of energy. Natural gas and its derivatives have been generally transported in (relatively) low-pressure pipelines, but are increasingly shipped overseas as liquefied natural gas (LNG) in pressurized containers on dedicated tanker ships.

Fossil Fuel

Fossil Fuels are a favorite topic for climate-change alarmists these days, especially regarding how quickly we are using them up and what a threat they present to our environment. Their origin is taken for granted to be decayed plant and animal matter. Since ‘Wikipedia’ can generally be taken as an example of accepted orthodoxy, let’s see what it has to say.

Wikipedia informs that “A fossil fuel is a fuel formed by natural processes, such as anaerobic (out of contact with free oxygen) decomposition of buried land organisms containing energy originating in ancient photosynthesis.” Photosynthesis is the process employed by plants to use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars essential for their growth.

I think there would be full agreement that “… originating in ancient photosynthesis” applies to coal, but if this is the definition of fossil fuels that we are required to accept, then coal is the only fossil fuel. Granted, we would have to include some natural gas from plant material that has been buried. Otherwise, coal is it!

I accept the belief of the late Thomas Gold that Earth’s mantle contains an immeasurable quantity of dissolved methane. This is the source of methane that constantly bubbles up to the surface all over the world. It is the source of methane that becomes trapped in rock strata and salt domes all over the world, and it is the source of methane that is catalyzed and polymerized by the mineraloid kerogen into crude oil all over the world.

Since the only part played by photosynthesis in this process is in the formation of the kerogen, which is simply a catalyst (a substance that induces a chemical change without itself undergoing a permanent change), to call either natural gas or crude oil a “fossil fuel” is inappropriate. Furthermore, to base a carbon-tax scheme on such a flimsy political premise as this is an example of how our society frequently functions out of contact with reality. I think I have made it abundantly clear that we have to become better stewards of the Earth, but an important part of this is going to require getting the science right.

Older Australians will recall an award-winning program aired on ABC-TV in the early 1970’s called ‘The Aunty Jack Show’, which attained instant cult status. One episode included a group of teenage girls whose repeated mantra was “Thirteen high-school girls can’t be wrong!” This sometimes comes back to me as I ponder the scientific wisdom of some of our political leaders.

Base Metals

The richest massive-sulfide deposits containing copper and zinc, with gold and other useful metals, began at thermal vents along a mid-ocean ridge. There, bacteria are the first step in concentrating trace amounts of metal that are leached out of volcanic rocks by circulating hot acidic water. After successive episodes of geological activity, which include burial, concentration, and uplift, accessible deposits occurring on land may form and be mined. Some of the world’s richest ore deposits were formed in this manner, as a distant result of the energy imparted by the impact of asteroids.

One of the world’s richest nickel deposits, occurring within an impact site at Sudbury in Canada, may have been the result of a nickel-rich asteroid, with metal sulfides now intruded into the rocks as veins by post-impact mobilization.

Placer Gold

Even alluvial (placer) deposits can be enriched during a catastrophe, as in the Klondike, where a gentle jigging action, as water sloshed back and forth in the Arctic Basin following an axis change, may have been responsible for a fabled paystreak of gold along Eldorado Creek. In fact, there is no type of mineral deposit on Earth that has not resulted, either directly or indirectly, without catastrophic involvement. This means either asteroid impact or from the close proximity of another world.

The Matson Creek gold deposits in the Yukon are of particular interest to me. From my own work there, I know that visible gold in quartz veins does not occur. Most gold in the bedrock occurs as a few parts per million in small crystals of pyrite (FeS₂), disseminated through a common type of metamorphic rock called schist. This rock is made up entirely of mica flakes and quartz grains, and can often be scuffed away by a boot, indicating how susceptible it is to erosion.

The schist may have been altered from shale that was formerly mud, with the gold being disseminated throughout the mud. In turn, the mud may have resulted from weathering of igneous or volcanic rock, as one geological cycle followed another. Under a fairly arid climate, pyrite breaks down and the contained gold is taken up by acidophilic (acid-loving) bacteria and deposited deeper, at the limit of oxidation, as native (visible) gold for the first time. Nuggets of placer gold typically contain roughly 90% gold and 10% silver, with up to 1% copper.

The gold is washed into streams, and in the famous case of Eldorado Creek, appears to have been concentrated into the fabulous paystreak by a jigging action of the Arctic Ocean as it sloshed back and forth within its basin. That was before permafrost conditions descended on the region. At Matson Creek, which is underlain by permafrost, an east-west trending stream in a broad valley has migrated northward from differential melting along the south-facing (sunny) bank. Gold once widely dispersed across the north-facing slope had been concentrated into economic deposits by normal stream action.

Diamonds in Kimberlite

Diamonds occur in vertical pipes, from deep within the crust. This raises the question of how the diamonds formed, and what force drove them up to the surface through several miles of solid rock. The richest diamond pipes consist of kimberlite, which is an uncommon rock type rich in carbonates and ultrabasic minerals, especially olivine. The green gemstone, peridot, is the gem version of olivine.

When Earth comes into close contact with another world, its continents are attracted upward and weigh less than usual. This provides opportunity should the right materials accumulate beneath the continent. When the other world has passed by, the weight of an entire continent is brought down upon this material which is driven vertically through miles of solid rock to the surface.

The pipe structures tend to be carrot-shaped because they encounter water close to the surface which produces steam, and may be accompanied by significant amounts of other gasses. They burst with great force as they reach the surface, considerably enlarging their diameter. Once again, catastrophism is the reason.

If the material beneath the continent is rich in carbon, diamonds may form, to be carried up rapidly with the kimberlite to reach a cooler environment before they can revert to graphite. In one instance, two broken diamonds were found on widely separated levels of a South African mine and were found to fit perfectly together, having been broken during their passage. Most known kimberlite pipes are very old and date back to Precambrian times.

One aid in prospecting for diamonds is a small number of ‘indicator minerals’ which always accompany the diamonds. The most important of these is a red garnet containing chromium, called pyrope. Since diamonds have been found containing inclusions of pyrope, their conditions of formation must be very similar, with the pyrope forming first. In certain environments, ants have been known to carry small garnets up from underground, thereby assisting in the prospector’s search.

Kimberlite pipes would normally provide an intense magnetic expression, but this can be reduced by deep weathering into clay called blue ground. Above the blue ground, a water degraded clay zone called yellow ground may be present, frequently mixed with alluvium.

Diamonds in Lamproite

Other pipes, some of which also contain diamonds, are made of a rock called lamproite, which is typified by a characteristic suite of minerals. In this case, the minerals are rich in potassium and magnesium and again include olivine. Like kimberlites, lamproites weather into soft secondary minerals, including talc, chlorite and serpentine.

Lamproite is notable for containing a wide range of metals, together with some quite unusual minerals. These pipes tend to be younger, from shallower depths, and have attracted considerable interest by geologists in recent years. While the emplacement of lamproite formations appears to lack the extreme violence of kimberlites, they have many attributes in common.

Sapphires

Gemstones are naturally attractive to most of us, and just as diamonds form under catastrophic circumstances, so do sapphires. One reason for including sapphires here is because I was involved with mining sapphires in the state of New South Wales in Australia. The deposits we mined were all alluvial and typically consisted of cobble-sized (fist-sized) granitic rocks, termed “wash” by the miners, with thick sandy clay containing loose sapphires. The most productive areas are close to contacts between the granite bedrock and overlying volcanic basalt.

The reason for this is that the sapphires were introduced in explosive volcanic activity (which geologists call “phreatic events”) and covered by thin flows of basalt lava which are now weathering away. The depth of origin was much less than that of kimberlites, but similarly, groundwater turned to steam contributed to the violence of the event. Unusual occurrences like this don’t just happen. Volcanic activity increases greatly at times of catastrophe and produces results that cannot be explained within uniformism.

The wash was mined along present, and former, stream courses using backhoes and passed through trommels (rotating screens with water spray bars), and jigs, which use water in a pulsing action to concentrate minerals by their higher specific gravity. In northern New South Wales, almost all sapphires are blue, being darker than those from Sri Lanka due to higher trace iron content. In central Queensland, to the north, many sapphires are particolored, meaning blue, yellow and green.

Sapphires are dichroic which means the color varies depending on whether light is traveling parallel to, or across, the long axes of the hexagonal crystals. Whenever significant quantities of a gemstone are discovered that fail to meet the norm for color or other properties, marketing initiatives generally follow to convince buyers that the new type is just as desirable, or even more so than the accustomed ones. Although I have sold only blue sapphires, I have to agree that particolored sapphires can be beautiful.

Red sapphires are rare, and any with the appropriate hue would be classified as rubies, while all other colors are called “sapphire”. Sapphires and rubies are the gem version of the mineral corundum (Al₂O₃), which is second in hardness to the diamond on Mohs’ scale, which is an empirical scale of hardness, from 1 to 10, known to every geologist and prospector. The specific gravity of sapphires is about 4, which is 1 ½ times that of quartz sand, explaining why jigs are an effective means of recovery. Sluice boxes require a greater difference in specific gravity except for feed with a narrow size range and closely controlled water flow.

Evaporites

Salt (i)

Salt in the form of common table salt (NaCl) is the most common evaporite. It settles out of boiling brine over the lava pool of a major impact site when there is limited access by the sea. A huge volume of seawater can be evaporated over a lava pool, resulting in a thick deposit of pure salt. This salt is coarse-grained, clear and crystalline. At Prince Edward Island, where Shell Oil Company drilled vertically through 3 kilometers of salt, the question arises whether this represents the thickness of the original bed.

Allan O. Kelly, writing in ‘Impact Geology’, explained how Prince Edward Island has been formed out of four major pieces that drifted onto the lava pool from the south rim of the impact site. A salt layer could have been disturbed by the movement of overlying formations by this action, and a diapir (salt dome) may have resulted. This could explain the great thickness of salt encountered by Shell. Perhaps P.E.I. will again present an inviting target for oil exploration.

The Magdalen Islands, not far north of P.E.I. but part of the province of Quebec provides another example of a small archipelago that floated upon the same lava pool. That lava pool resulted in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Magdalen Islands are also underlain by massive deposits of salt. This archipelago displays similarities to the Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay, and may similarly represent a portion of the crater rim that floated upon the lava pool.

Salt (ii)

Other salt deposits form on the surface under much cooler conditions, from evaporation by the sun. These deposits display horizontal bedding, and in a climate that is sufficiently warm and arid, and a coastal lagoon that has just the right geometry (requiring a shallow sill at the entrance to restrict the entrance of sea water) the salt beds may alternate with thinner beds of potash. Potassium is the sixth most abundant element in seawater, and most potash evaporites form simple compounds as chlorides and sulfates. These commodities are valuable to agriculture as well as to industry.

As studies by the U.S. Department of Mines have shown, basin shape and size can be critical. Under certain circumstances, a range of evaporites will form within the same long and narrow basin, from limestone, then gypsum, and then salt. When the brine has been sufficiently concentrated by evaporation, potash will form. The very last fluid concentrate from the sea water consists of bitter salts, which include elements such as iodine and bromine, which are so resistant to evaporation that they are rarely incorporated into deposits.

Catastrophism might appear at first to have played no role here. In the formation of basins and variations in sea level, however, and in the determination of latitude by axis change, so that deposits may persist at latitudes where they could not have formed, catastrophism is always there in the background, making a difference.

Minerals and Evolution

Every point on Earth’s surface must have existed in the Tropics and in the Polar Regions repeatedly, and after every axis change our planet sought to regain its preferred form. As it did so rocks were squeezed and stretched and folded and fractured, and mobile rock intruded into less mobile rock. Hot, aqueous solutions dissolved minerals from the rock and concentrated them into mineral deposits with the active assistance of bacteria. The means by which the intrinsic mineral wealth of our planet has become available to us is through asteroid impact and bioactivity.

The influence of impacts exceed even that, for every major impact has turned over another leaf in the book of evolution on Earth. Biologists consider that 99% of all the species that have ever lived on Earth no longer exist. Many became extinct as a result of an oceanic flood from an axis change, brought about by the impact of a large asteroid. Extinction provided the opportunity for new species to evolve, including us.

Every continent developed from the accumulation of smaller parts: volcanos generated along subduction zones, volcanic flows and granite batholiths, sediments deposited by oceanic floods, and terranes from afar. Asteroid impacts have formed almost entire continents and made their minerals available to us. Oceanic floods produced our topsoil, but elsewhere removed it so that minerals in the rocks would be more readily discovered. As the major driving force of evolution, asteroid impacts have made Earth unique within our Solar System, and perhaps anywhere.

Gift of Catastrophism

Our Earth has an oblate form, which means that it is flattened at its geographic poles. The amount of flattening is considerable, amounting to 21 km (13 mi.) at each pole. With every axis change, Earth seeks to return to an ideal form for its speed of rotation, and in doing so rocks are fractured and melded so that most outcrops anywhere in the world have been extensively fractured. Volcanos become active at such times, while deep beneath the surface hot liquids and gasses surge through permeable formations.

When continents plunge beneath the oceans, water scours their surface down to bedrock, river valleys are deepened, and ice caps that terminate within a continent are destroyed. Methane from the mantle flows through sedimentary rocks, and deposits of coal and crude oil and natural gas are formed. Hot liquids, often acidic, are on the move, dissolving metals at one place and depositing them elsewhere when a change in the chemical environment is encountered.

Metals disseminated in the rocks are influenced by electrical gradients as well, causing rich concentrations of metallic minerals, such as gold, to be deposited in quartz veins. It is during catastrophes that most geological activity takes place. Then, things quieten down until the next time. Between catastrophes, the most intense geological activity is volcanic.

One cannot bring to mind a useful mineral or rock that has not been made available to us through catastrophism. Deposits of petroleum, base metals, industrial minerals, gemstones and placer gold, and rock mined in quarries, and sand, are either formed directly or influenced in some manner by the processes of catastrophism.

CHAPTER 17

Cosmology II

If thermonuclear fusion was occurring in our Sun’s core
it would have blown up long ago.

Stars

If stars are not powered by thermonuclear activity then another internal force supports them, or else they don’t require support, in which case the scientists’ gravity calculations are all wrong. I accept the scientists’ gravity calculations, but I also accept that stars are supported by an internal force other than that resulting from thermonuclear activity.

It is widely supposed that stars collapse when they have exhausted their supply of nuclear fuel, but it is my claim that stars collapse when they become ‘unplugged’ from their source of electrical energy. There is no evidence that only old stars collapse. That is conjecture promoted as fact to support the speculations of cosmologists.

Stars become redundant from time to time when structural changes take place as a galaxy evolves or when a disruption occurs in the Oort Cloud. The flow of electrical current is reduced until the star’s electromagnetic field can no longer support the star against the force of gravity and it collapses. Small stars may well collapse into white dwarfs as orthodoxy maintains. Much larger stars, however, behave quite differently.

The collapse of stars having more than a certain mass produces sufficient pressure for thermonuclear fusion in the core of a star to momentarily occur. A supernova is a thermonuclear explosion in space resulting from the gravitational collapse of a massive star that lost its electrical power. If thermonuclear fusion were actually taking place in the core of our Sun, it would explode as well.

A minimum mass must be required for a star to be able to form a supernova. If sufficient mass were added to a white dwarf, it could form a supernova as well. Well known physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, however, didn’t see things this way. He proposed that a large enough star would shrink to zero size while retaining its mass, meaning it would become a black hole. This was a serious mistake which was to have far-reaching implications for cosmology. Albert Einstein disagreed with Chandrasekhar’s conclusion and wrote a paper in which he showed that “stars cannot shrink to zero size”, while the British astronomer, Sir Arthur Eddington, supported Einstein’s position.

In considering the explosion of stars having masses above the Chandrasekhar limit, Hawking wrote (page 84) “…it was difficult to believe that this always happened, no matter how big the star.” To my way of thinking, if a collapsing large star ever explodes it is difficult to believe that this does not always happen no matter how big the star. It appears Hawking came to believe in black holes only because he found the concept seductive.

First, we are supposed to accept that stars release energy as a result of a consistent thermonuclear process in their cores. Next, we are supposed to accept that large stars explode sometimes, and don’t explode sometimes when their fuel runs out. Then, we are supposed to accept that those which don’t explode shrink to zero size but retain their mass. Common sense should count for something, even in cosmology.

Every high school student is familiar with the principle behind a thermonuclear bomb. That it is more difficult to construct such a device than to understand the principle is something for which we can all be thankful. The principle is simplicity itself; squeeze enough of the right kind of matter with sufficient force and it will explode. In the case of a star, the force is supplied by gravity, with the mass of the collapsing star determining the force that is applied at its core. When the power source breaks down the star collapses.

Gravity is reliable. Gravity never varies. Gravity is immutable. Collapsing large stars, however, sometimes explode and sometimes shrink to zero size. Why should they? No evidence suggests the laws governing nuclear physics are variable. Unstable isotopes decay, but they do so according to constant laws. Some results might not be predictable but this is due to a deficiency of knowledge rather than to an inconsistency in physical laws.

If the mass of a star is sufficient for it to explode it must explode without fail when it collapses. Stars having similar mass should not explode into a supernova on some occasions and shrink to zero size on others. Supernovas have been observed while black holes have not. I have to conclude, therefore, that just as supernovas are real, black holes are not. Black holes are dependent upon the same scientific revisionism that is required of all science fiction, and as Einstein and Eddington recognized, black holes are imaginary.

Quasars

Faith in the Big Bang led cosmologists to conclude that the massive body at the nucleus of a galaxy must be a black hole and that the surrounding stars and gas are destined to be consumed by it. Cosmologists maintain that a quasar (quasi-stellar radio source) contains a black hole because it is the only way they can explain the amount of energy these bodies emit. Every galaxy should have a quasar at its nucleus. Little is known about quasars because they tend to be shielded by a myriad of stars and clouds of gas, but it is known that they are very dense and very energetic and are variable sources of radio waves.

Quasars, I believe, are the fundamental engines of our Universe, and it is their role to convert energy into matter. Quasars produce matter which forms galaxies, and without them, there would be only energy and space. Quasars do not occur only at the cores of galaxies. Many occur in groups, apparently in the vicinity of galaxies, and often along lines that imply an ejection process from the galaxy, as proposed by the American astronomer Halton Arp (1927-2013). Current orthodoxy continues to maintain that wherever the redshift of the quasars exceeds that of the galaxy, the quasars must be further away. Evidence continues to accumulate, however, that quasars are ejected from galaxies and go on to grow into new galaxies by converting the energy they collect from their surroundings, into matter. Their energy has been interpreted as indicating distance which, it is claimed, is proven by their redshift.

One objection to the Steady-State Theory is based upon the amount of helium present in the Universe. That determination, however, included data obtained from studying the spectra of a large number of stars. When it becomes accepted that a proton-proton reaction takes place only in the coronas of stars and not in their cores, so that the spectra of stars are not directly related to their composition, this objection may be reconsidered.

The Steady-State Theory could have met with resistance because it failed to provide the excitement of the Big Bang while lacking the entertainment value of black holes. The prospect of traveling backward in time promised the ultimate journey; past generations had to be content with searching for the Fountain of Youth. Reality makes its own demands, however, and quasars and the Steady-State Theory provide the most plausible explanation of our beginning.

Cosmic Strings

Cosmologists believe that immediately following the Big Bang, invisible threads that they call ‘cosmic strings’ were created. These were to provide the gravitational attraction responsible for the formation of galaxies. Remember, gravity is the only long-range force that scientists recognize. If you can visualize a vacuum that has been damaged by undergoing phase transitions then you shouldn’t have any difficulty visualizing cosmic strings. That could be a good thing because scientists have predicted that cosmic strings “are going to be difficult to detect”.

Cosmic strings are said to be one of three types of defects that afflict a damaged vacuum. Called ‘walls’, ‘strings’ and ‘monopoles’, they possess 2, 1 and 0 dimensions respectively. It’s hard to say why strings were chosen to represent the group but it doesn’t matter much. According to one published source, cosmic strings have a thickness of 10^-30 centimeters, and each centimeter weighs 4 million billion tons. They travel at almost the speed of light and have no ends although they may form loops. The loops wiggle violently, but only for about 10,000 times, regardless of their size. Large loops live longer than small loops because of their longer periods of oscillation.

I have recounted how scientists seeking to confirm the Big Bang discarded a variation in wavelength of the cosmic background radiation because it wasn’t what they had been looking for. The anisotropy was treated as a Doppler effect, but this introduced mystifying movements to the Local Group of galaxies. The Local Group now seemed to be moving rapidly toward a point in the constellation Virgo and this, naturally, was attributed to gravity.

Scientists speak reverently of the ‘Great Attractor’ although nothing unusual can be seen in that direction. Since it is invisible to us, speculation suggests that the Great Attractor is a cosmic string. It has been claimed that cosmic strings can deflect light, resulting in double images of distant stars. As a result, every pair of similar stars or galaxies is now seen as the potential double image of a gravity lens formed by a cosmic string.

The excitement continued with the incorporation of superconductivity. It has been proposed that charged particles which have mass outside the string may have no mass when they are inside it. As a result, they would be unable to get out of the string and would travel along it forever at the speed of light, as an electric current. This was followed by radiation pressure, blowing bubbles which result in galaxies. We are forewarned by cosmologists that a cosmic string could travel through our Solar System “at any time”, annihilating it. Gratefully, we learn that the probability of this happening is slight.

Superstrings

It may have been written in the stars that Strings would be followed by Superstrings. This theory deals, in a refreshingly original way, with additional dimensions. The three dimensions that are conventionally used to describe orientation in space, plus the fourth dimension of time, were deemed to be no longer sufficient, so several more were added. As with that missing dark matter, however, the extra dimensions haven’t yet been recognized.

The theory of superstrings could become famous for introducing us to yet another cosmic threat, one which cautions us that the relationship between any of the dimensions “…could suddenly break down and a new Universe could come into being, having an unknown form of reality”. As Dave Barry, former humor columnist for the Miami Herald used to say: “I am not making any of this up.”

Particle Physics

One area of study that is intimately associated with the Big Bang hypothesis is Particle Physics. It is generally understood as being the study of the constituents of atoms and radiation within the Standard Model. The topic has increasingly been involved with speculations about the Big Bang, and this has increased following completion of the multi-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider. String Theory and Dark Matter, as well as experiments designed to model the Big Bang itself, indicate the direction Particle Physics is presently taking.

A large part of the time on the Large Hadron Collider is dedicated to modeling the Big Bang. This is so that physicists can understand what took place in the fractions of a second immediately following that event. Some of them imagine that it will lead them to the ‘Holy Grail’ of science, which is the ‘Grand Unified Theory’, or the ‘Theory of Everything’.

It isn’t all bad news, however. Electrons have been determined to transmute into protons at sufficiently high levels of energy, at a ratio of 1,836 electrons to one proton. This, I posit, is what takes place in the interior of our Sun and within every star (not that the particle physicists are likely to recognize this anytime soon). Once they have run out of experiments that can be performed on the Large Hadron Collider you can be sure they will be agitating to have an even larger one built. The unrecognized reason has less to do with providing answers to questions than to be able to ask bigger questions. Practitioners of particle physics claim to be unlocking the secrets of matter but increasingly, they pursue their experiments for a fundamental reason: This is what they do.

Their futile quest for the ‘Grand Unified Theory’ results in particles such as axions being imagined which, the theory posits, constitute dark matter. This attempts to explain the cohesiveness of galaxies by replacing the electromagnetic force with the gravitational force. The only difficulty this causes is that up to 99% of all matter that makes up the Universe must be invisible. Hmmm…all this is represented to the public, which is paying the bills, as ‘cutting-edge science’.

Fantasyland

Cosmology is based upon a remarkably small number of topics, and without those provided here, the science would not exist. I have considered each of them and disagreed with the theory in every case.

The Red Shift of Galaxies and Quasars is regarded wholly as a Doppler Effect; Dark Matter and Dark Energy are absurd solutions to a non-problem; explanation of Cosmic Rays began with a misunderstanding of the origin of certain elements; Cosmic Background Radiation denotes the misinterpretation of a particular observation; Black Holes exemplify vivid imagination outside of any sense of reality; and the Big Bang is a fable of creation.

I would compare this fable to another, from the Aboriginal culture of Australia, about how the crow got its black plumage. Back in the Dreamtime, the Creator was sitting before a fire, fashioning out of clay the birds and animals that were to inhabit Earth. The Creator formed a crow and dropped it into the fire so that its feathers were entirely singed. That is why the crow has black plumage. The Creator then formed another bird, the currajong, and dropped it at the edge of the fire. This bird’s feathers were only partly singed so that the currajong’s plumage is a mixture of black and white.

Leaders in science, religion, and politics provide explanations they hope their followers will accept. Should an explanation be rejected, another will be offered in its place. Modern science has more in common with earlier cultures than its leaders are prone to admit, and widely held beliefs about the origin of the Universe and our Solar System share their essential character with the Aboriginal account of why the crow is black.

Cosmology has attracted huge public interest and Nobel Prizes have been awarded in the field. (At least one was awarded for the development of equipment, but most were given for unsubstantiated imagination.) Most people are not sufficiently well versed in this sort of thing to bring critical thought processes to bear. When science writers report on discoveries made by PhDs from prestigious research institutes, using equipment and facilities costing hundreds of millions of dollars, carried in respected journals, as well as having the approval and support of governments, most people will believe them.

‘Scientific American’ prides itself on being America’s longest continuously published scientific journal, and has brought some excellent articles to the public for well over a century and a half. A major miscalculation, however, has been to accept cosmology as a real science, instead of recognizing is as modern mythology. If it sounds like exciting science fiction, which is what it is, people will still accept it. Whether it involves the Big Bang or black holes where space travelers may journey into the past, or multiple Universes where nothing is as it seems, much of the general public will accept it all.

In a recent book, ‘Brilliant Blunders’ by Mario Livio, astrophysicist Fred Hoyle is denounced for dismissing the idea of the Big Bang. But it was Fred Hoyle who was right, and to call him “…an increasingly embarrassing crank.” (Carl Zimmer in ‘The Times’ ) is shameful. Similarly, Einstein is rebuked for seeing his cosmological constant as an error. Einstein had been misled by the interpretation of Hubble’s work on the red-shift of galaxies.

Livio’s book ‘Brilliant Blunders’ includes so many blunders of its own, including an expanding Universe, and nuclear fusion powering the stars, that it cannot be accepted as an authority on astronomy, or cosmology, or most likely on very much else. Its weakness throughout is that it parrots current orthodoxy, and there is no shortage of books that do that.

My Proposed Steady-State Theory

In my Steady-State Theory new matter is created from energy by quasars, stars, and other processes, while space is not expanding. When cosmic background radiation was discovered in 1963 it was accepted as evidence against the Steady-State Theory because the radiation was accepted as a vestige of the Big Bang. This interpretation was flawed, however, and the Big Bang must be taken as an article of faith, as for any cultist claim.

Quasars are the fundamental engines of our Universe for it is their role to convert energy into matter, which is the same process taking place in our Sun and in every star. Charges of electromagnetic energy may course endlessly through space, and from time to time one energy field encounters another. Occasionally, a certain energy threshold is reached, sufficient for the field to maintain itself, drawing upon the energy of its environment to provide the start of a new galaxy. While this might strike some as less than convincing, it is supported by the concept of the electric star, which requires a certain level of electromagnetic energy to maintain its function.

The Steady-State Theory proposed by Gold, Hoyle, and Bondi failed because they tried to accommodate an expanding Universe, and there is no proof of that. Today, cosmologists like to quote Hubble’s Law, which states that the recession velocities of galaxies are directly proportional to their distance from us. Something that has been overlooked, however, is that Edwin Hubble himself cautioned against this.

Writing in ‘The Electric Sky’, Donald E. Scott recounts how when astronomer Halton Arp (1927-2013) confronted the astronomical community with observations that contradict the Big Bang Theory he was denied access to any major telescope in the U.S. Later, he encountered difficulty in even getting published in American journals. Eric J. Lerner in his book ‘The Big Bang Never Happened’ offers a perceptive rejection of the Big Bang. Fred Hoyle, who was the one to actually coin the term ‘The Big Bang’ (in a disparaging context), has come to be viewed as an embarrassment by many who should be ashamed of themselves.

Cosmology represents a significant tax on our society. High intelligence and mathematical ability are absolute requirements for practitioners in this field, resulting in some of our brightest young people being seduced into a fantasyland providing minimal opportunity for making any contribution to humanity beyond entertainment. If the talents of these gifted people could be employed limiting the world’s human population, recycling garbage instead of producing more of it, and preventing pollution of the oceans and the tragic disappearance of species, taxpayers could be getting a positive return on the tax money that presently goes toward supporting their parasitic existence.

As Big Science becomes less and less real, and increasingly a type of entertainment, cosmology is the engine that is taking it to Fantasyland. Those working in the field claim that this is the golden age of cosmology. But cosmology is being developed at a frenetic pace by specialists who are out of contact with reality. Yesterday’s theories are replaced by today’s and none regrets their passing in the excitement of developing a science that is all their own.