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*CATASTROPHISM AND ANCIENT HISTORY*
*VOLUME XIII Part 1*
*January 1991*
*A Journal Of Interdisciplinary Study*
*Marvin Arnold Luckerman*
*Executive Editor*
*Catastrophic Theory of Mountain Uplifts*
*(A Crustal Deformation Theory)*
by
*DONALD W. PATTEN and SAMUEL R. WINDSOR*
Introduction
Astronomers, geographers, geologists and others search for theory that
addresses the causation of mountains. Mountain ranges, mountain
systems, mountain cycles, volcanoes, and basaltic outflows all cast
shadows over a culture unable to explain their existence. The origin of
mountain ranges, mountain systems, volcanoes, etc., comes under the
general term "crustal deformation". Other like terms are "mountain
uplifts," and "orogeny "
Most of the ideas suggested for crustal deformation over the last 150
years offer explanation for only one type of deformation They cannot
address the variety on our planet These crustal deformations include
upthrust, shear, stress, compression, tension, tilting, dip or slip, and
riding. Even of greater importance is the basic underlying question,
"What is the source of the energy and force causing change?"
The following ideas have been advanced over the years, sometimes only
tentatively, other times with more conviction (alphabetically):
Convection currents of magma;
Differential rotation;
Planetary Contraction (and crustal shortening);
Planetary Expansion (and crustal stretching);
Plate Tectonics;
Polar wandering (and Equator bulge relocation)
Each of the above theories assumes the presence of only one important
planetary gravitational field, the Earth's. Of course, there is the
Moon, which creates a twice daily crustal tide of up to 1.5 inches in
addition, the Sun creates a twice daily crustal life of up to 1. 5
inches But the Moon is too small and the Sun is too distant to explain
mountain uplifting. When working together they can create a crustal
tide of only 4. 5 inches
A rational theory must provide for a massive uplifting force, a crustal
tide of thousands of feet, not just a few inches.
A Common feature of these theories is their dependence upon
"gradualism. " In the parlance of geology, the dogma of gradualism is
called "Uniformitarianism. " This eight syllable word embraces the idea
of millions of years for accomplishing anything involving crustal
deformation. Explanations based on gradualism always omit rigorous force
and stress analysis.
*Our Model of Planetary Catastrophism*
Close flybys of the planet Mars created on the Earth the following
phenomena:
IMMENSE SUBCRUSTAL TIDES OF MAGMA (of 6 hour duration);
Immense oceanic tides, flooding continents;
Earth spin axis "precessions" causing spin axis shifts;
Recharges of the Earth's geomagnetic field strength;
Paleomagnetic polarity reversals;
Orbit perturbations or ''warps" for both Earth and Mars;
Meteor-type impacts on Earth (since Mars had a rocky ring system, of
which only Deimos and Phobos survive).
This essay addresses primarily the first topic above, immense
Subcrustal Tides of 6 hour Duration. Geographically, the primary zone of
action (and damage) was hemispheric, that is, the side of the Earth
facing Mars, although other secondary effects were global in scope.
Our model of the Mars-Earth Wars extends geographical techniques to
astronomical scenes, well beyond the Earth's surface, including to the
orbit and to the surface of Mars. Figure I illustrates our model in
astronomy.
1. Mass of Mars. Mars is 11 percent of Earth's mass.
2. Geometry and Harmony. In our model, Mars, when close, always made an
''inside flyby,'' that is, it followed a path between the Earth and the
Sun . The Moon was always at or near full, and it was away from the path
of Mars. (Inside flybys by an outer planet, in celestial mechanics,
result in orbit warps for both planets that tend to be mutually self
perpetuating .)
3. Relative velocity. Mars approached and passed the Earth-Moon system
at a velocity of 28,000 mph. (This means that flyby upthrusts and
general damage occurred in a timeframe of under 250 minutes, not tens of
millions of years.)
4. Orbit crossroads placed in space. Each flyby distance of Mars
varied, because the planets Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune warped the orbit
of Mars in various directions and amounts from flyby to flyby. Thus,
these three planets altered the place in space where the two orbits
intersected. They could alter the orbit crossing place and the flyby
distance by an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 miles.
5. Resonance slot. In the Catastrophic Era, the Earth had a
92.25-million mile orbit radius, not today's 93.0 million miles. (This
"slot" in space puts the Earth's orbit in a 12:1 orbit timing resonance
with Jupiter and a 30:1 resonance with Saturn, also 85:1 with Uranus.
This explains the 360 day (not 365 day) ancient year and ancient
calendar; 360 day calendars were the norm in ancient societies.
6. Orbit Hot Spot. The closest point in a planet's orbit to the Sun is
its "perihelion'' (Greek, peri = near, helios = Sun). Mars had a
perihelion of 66 million miles in our model, and thus its perihelion was
well inside Venus' orbit space.
7. Orbit Cold Spot. The remotest point in a planet's orbit to the Sun is
its ''aphelion"
(Greek, ap = far from). Mars had a 225-million mile aphelion and when
there, Mars penetrated well into the region of asteroids.
8. Paired Orbit intersections. Since the orbits of Mars and the Earth
are, and were, coplanar, there were two orbit intersection locations,
not one. One orbit enossroads was October 24 and the other was March 21,
the historic Passover of Judaism. Early Romans of the 5th century B.C.
called March 21 their ''tubulustrium" (day of trouble), and they called
October 24 their "armilustrium" (day of alarms). The early Hebrews
called October 24 "The Day of the Lord,'' very much dreaded, like their
Passover.
9. Mars Orbit Period. The orbit of Mars required 720 days, while one
orbit of the Earth required 360 days in the Catastrophic Era. In
addition, the Moon's orbit at that time was 30 days, not the modern
29.54 days. This means the Moon, too, was in orbital resonance with Mars
at 24:1.
10. Alternating Geometries. Close Mars flybys alternated between the
ascending intersection (October 24) and the descending (March 20-21)
crossroads. Close flybys rocked back and forth in 108-year cycles,
<../yugas.html> like a rocking chair. This has several implications, one
of which is that Mars, in sequential flybys, tortured the Earth's
Eastern and Western Hemispheres alternately.
Figure I illustrates our model of the catastrophic orbit of Mars. Mars
began a rounding-out process, and Mars achieved its modern orbit in a
few decades. The Earth's orbit changed, or expanded, from a 360 day to a
365.25-day regime. The orbit of Mars contracted from a 720-day orbit to
the modern 687 day orbit. Reciprocally, the Earth's orbit expanded.
Energy was conserved, as was angular momentum. Nevertheless, both Venus
and Jupiter were involved in the energy/angular momentum exchanges.^1
*A Review of 150 Years of Thought*
We cite the observations and conclusions of two elder statesmen of
the last generation, Richard Hartshorne, a geographer, and Adrian
Shheidegger, a geophysicist.
*/Hartshorne/*
To sum up, it is almost inevitable to admit that the physiographic
evidence regarding features on the Earth's surface is such that it must
be assumed that some parts of the Earth's crust have been subject to
compression (crustal shortening), others have been subject to tensions
(mid ocean rifts) and yet others to shearing (fracture zones) ^2
* / Most theories have been proposed for the purpose of explaining
only one of these features and are therefore inadequate with regard to
the others. A theory of orogenesis to be acceptable must be flexible
enough to allow for compression tension and shear of sufficient
magnitude to be produced in the Earth's crust. . ./*^ 3 [emphasis added]
Is one to understand that minimal progress has been made over the
last 150 years in arriving at an understanding of why mountain systems
have been upthrust? To be certain we have caught Hartshorne's appraisal,
we quote him again: ^4
*/To the extent that the geomorphologist is primarily concerned to
use landforms as the means of studying geologic processes or determining
stages in geologic history, his explanatory description, as Kesseli
notes, is often "an explanation lacking a description. " Russell as well
as Kesseli concludes that a century of geomorphology, dominated by the
purpose of explaining genesis, has failed to produce comprehensive
representations of land forms for most areas of the world./* Emphasis
added]
These are strong words. These and similar protestations that geographers
have registered for more than a generation appear to run into a blank
wall of dogma. ^5 Another elder statesman, this time in geophysics,
has some interesting and similar conclusions:
*/Scheidegger/*
Thus, if the "deformation theory" applying to the Earth were properly
defined, it would be, in principle, a straight-forward (though not
necessarily an easy) matter to calculate the stresses from the (known)
strains and then to look for causes of the latter. */Unfortunately, it
is a fact that the deformation theory applying to The Earth is not
known/*, thus leaving the matter of finding the causes of its
present-day appearance wide open to speculation. ^6
More harsh words, but possibly they are an open door for new theory;
Scheidegger continues:
It is therefore neeessary to re-examine all theories of orogenesis
that have ever been invented, in order to determine what can be saved of
them in the light of presently available facts. If this is done, it
becomes immediately obvious */that something fundamental is wrong /*with
each and every one of the theories . . .^7 [emphasis added]
It appears, therefore, that the problem of finding causes of the
various geodynamic features must be regarded as still unsolved. ^8
In the 1790's, James Hutton, following Swedenborg and Kant, came
up with the idea of gradualism, or "uniformity" in geology. Opposing
catastrophism, he wrote:
No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no
action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle.
In great error, Hutton viewed the Earth in isolation from the rest
of the solar system. In this sense he was an Earth isolationist. He was
not concerned with either astronomical data or with catastrophic
heritages contained in ancient literatures.
In the 1830's Charles Lyell popularized the dogma of Hutton.
Lyell's, and Huxley's, popular "one-liner'' became ''The present is the
key to the past." In his */Principles of Geology/* Lyell attempted to
define geology as the following:
. . . Principles of geology, being an attempt to explain the former
changes of the earth's surface by reference to causes */now in
operation/*. ^9 [emphasis added]
Even as early as the 1730's, in the celestial realm, gradualism, or
uniformitarianism, was spawned in the mind of Immanuel Swedenborg,
although the term "uniformitarianism" was coined later. Swedenborg's
idea of the nebular hypothesis was accepted and was popularized by
Emanuel Kant in 1754. Their concept was that the Sun somehow extruded a
cometary tail from which gases cooled and condensed, with the
condensation forming the planets, satellites (moons), meteor streams, etc.
*A Capture Cosmology*
Today we know the nebular hypothesis to be theoretically
impossible. Further, space missions provide evidence of capture?rather
than homogeneous formation. We view the planets as ''recent captives,"
or as a newly adopted family of the Sun, arriving with pre-existent spin
rates, craters, etc. The flaws of the Swedenborg-Kant nebular hypothesis
are what we must ultimately confront; our thesis on this subject, "The
Catastrophic Origin of the Solar System," was published in */Aeon/* in
1989. ^10
All of the planets are seen as "recent captives," or an adopted
family, of the Sun. The Sun ripped them away, all in one flyby (and all
on one ecliptic flyby plane) from another nearby passing body, a dark
star. The dark star may be 10 percent as massive as the Sun. Capture of
the planets was recent, as astronomical time is measured. We model that
among that milieu of planetary captives was Mars, then with an orbit
eccentricity (a measure of roundness) of about .55. Its modern roundness
is .09 (a circle is .00).
Already possessing a long, narrow orbit, Mars then experienced one
more little bump before it fell into its Catastrophic Era orbit, modeled
in Fig. I. Once there, in a long, narrow 720-day orbit, Mars made many
"inside flybys" and finally executed one "outside flyby,'' the Final
Flyby. That final event was in the recent past, after which Mars began
to assume its modern orbit, a result of the ''slingshot effect'' of that
outside flyby.
We reject the idea of uniformity in astronomy as well as in
geology. The great pioneers of geology like Cuvier, Werner, Agassiz,
were catastrophists, They were on the nght track. The gradualists
(uniformitarians) are in error. However, the gradualists have come, via
Hutton and Lyell, to prevail by political processes, and have succeeded
in "selling" the dogma of gradualism for Earth history to scientists as
if it were scientific.
The ultimate question here is "Did Mars formerly have an orbit as
described in Fig. I or not?" If it did, how close did it come to the
Earth? And how often? How cyclic were those occasions? When did the
Mars-Earth Wars commence, and when did they cease? Moreover, in
performing close flybys, what kind of stamp or imprint would Mars flybys
leave on the Earth's crust? And of further interest, what kind of
imprint did flybys of the Earth leave on the crust of Mars?chains of
mountains? Volcanic cones? Basaltic outflows? Rift cleavages?
*Great Cirele Patterns of Mountain Uplifts*
A Great Circle is the name given to a straight line that crosses
our planet which ignores both longitude and latitude lines. There are
two types of Great Circle patterns: one is formed by pathways that are
near at hand, an intercontinental air flight, perhaps. The other
involves trajectories that are of astronomical distances and motions.
The most familiar Great Circle pattern for earthlings is the
pattern of an airplane flight, perhaps a polar flight such as from
Seattle via Greenland to Copenhagen. In this case the body in flight is
an airplane, insignificant in mass. It is constantly hovering 5 or 6
miles above the Earth's surface (except when taking otf and landing). A
similar Great Cirele is made by a line of spots on the Earth (the
''subpoints ") directly under the Moon as our planet rotates and as the
Moon revolves.
A less familiar Great Circle pattern is one drawn by a series of
spots, the series of subpoints directly under a speeding, passing
astronomical body, such as the ancient Mars or by a meteor. This type
involves several matters, such as (I) the pathway of the astronomical
body, in our case the pathway of Mars, (2) its velocity in space, and
(3) the Earth's spin rate during the time span of the flyby. A meteor
making a close flyby has insignificant mass, but Mars, with 11 percent
of the Earth's mass, would inflict sudden damage on a global scale.
In a Great Circle pattern made by the subpoints on the Earth
directly under Mars, Mars is at first distant, beyond the Moon. Within a
few hours the visiting body comes near?perhaps very near. And finally,
it recedes back beyond the Moon's orbit into space. In the case of Mars,
its mass was significant. However, its distance was variable, whereas
the path of an airplane in flight tends to be constant. Varying
distances mean widely varying intensities of damage on the Great Circle
paths.
Figure 2 illustrates the belt pattern of the Earth's two major
zones, or belts, of mountain systems. One belt is called the
Circum-Pacific Cycle and the other is known as the Alpine-Himalayan
Cycle. The Circum-Pacific Cycle could be comprised of uplifts during
several close Mars flybys. Those series of mountain uplifts tend to
"tail in" to each other, forming one very long string.
But most, if not all of the Alpine Himalayan Cycle is the product
of just one Mars flyby, horribly close?the closest of them all?at 14,500
to 15,000 miles distant. Measurement is planet center to center. (Mars
has a radius of 2,100 miles and the Earth's is 3,950 miles.)
Thus, when Mars was that close, the closest surfaces of the two
planets would have been 14,500 minus 6,000 miles, or some 8,500 to 9,000
milcs apart. It was a frightening sight?recorded in the flood story of
the Epic of Gilgamesh, an Assyrian record on clay tablets discovered in
the 19th century.
A series of examples will illustrate the effects involved.
*/Example 1: The Pear-shaped Earth/*
Our first example concerns the nature of bulging on the Earth's
hemisphere facing Mars during the very closest Mars flyby, one with a
perigee of 15,000 miles (core to core). Our illustration uses a pear:
flat bottom, bulging round middle, and roughly pointed top. The pear
shape portrays crustal expansion during a close Mars flyby; Figs. 3 and
4, allowing for exaggeration, illustrate the shape the Earth would
assume, very briefly, during a flyby event.
1. The Flat Side. A flat side formed on the dark side of Earth,
opposite to both Mars and the Sun. First, during a close flyby the
opposite hemisphere would be pulled generally in the direction of the
Earth's core by both the Earth and the visiting Mars on the other side.
The crust directly opposite, away from Mars, would be pulled (downward)
to the Earth's core at a force of 100.1047 percent of normal
gravitational pull, according to our calculations. Thus the Earth's
bottom side would flatten while its sides would bulge somewhat, much
like the pear.
2. On the other hand, the sun-lit ''Facing Hemisphere," facing both
Mars and the Sun, would be pulled inward toward the center of the Earth
minus the effect of the gravity of Mars. Mars of course was pulling in
the opposite direction of the Earth's center.
*/Example 4: The "N-U" Factor and Orbit Warping/*
The ''N" and ''U'' factors refer to the planets Neplune and
Uranus. The orbit of the Earth in the Catastrophic Era was 92.25 million
miles in radius. The modern orbit is 93.0 million. As we model it, the
orbit of the Earth was 92.25 million miles in radius not the modern 93
million. The ancient year for the Earth was 360 days, not 365 or 365.25.
All ancient calendars were based on a 360-day year, calling for the
obvious 92.5-million mile Earth orbit radius.
In this ancient orbit the Earth circled the Sun in 12: 1
resonance with Jupiter, in 30:1 resonance with Saturn, and in 85:1
resonance with Uranus. Mars had an orbit of 720 days, in 1:2 resonance
with Earth's orbit. It was a symphony of motion. These ratios also mean
the orbit of Mars was in 6:1 resonance with Jupiter and 15:1 resonance
with Saturn.
In such a system, orbit warps rocked, back and forth; these warps
in astronomy are called perturbations. These oscillating Earth and Mars
orbit motions occurred in cycles, much as a rocking chair oscillates
back and forth in a rhythm.
Ancient literatures describe close Mars flybys as occurring
faithfully at both the October 24 and the March 20-21 locations, with
clock-like regularity. Our research includes a precision dating of a
series of flybys, catastrophes chronicled in the Old Testament. Our
study calls for Mars flybys in 108-year cycles." However, not all flybys
were equally close. Analysis shows that just one in every five flybys
(once every 540 years) there was an especially close flyby for each case
(March, October).
Thc research of Santillana and Von Deschend agree with our conclusions.
They find the numbers "108'' and "540" reappear repeatedly in the Vedas
of India, in the Germanic Grimnismal, in Egypt, in Angkor of Southeast
Asia.
*/Grimnismal/*
Five hundred gates and forty more are in the mighty building of
Walhalla. Shall one add Angkor to the list? It has five gates, and each
of them has a road, bridging over that water ditch which surrounds the
whole place. Each of these roads is bordered by a row of huge stone
figures, 108 per avenue, 54 on each side, altogether 540 statues of Deva
and Asura, and each row carries. a huge Naga serpent with nine heads.
Only, they do not "carry" that serpent, they are shown to ''pull" it,
which indicates that these 540 statues are churning the Milky Way...^12
Nine was the number of orbits of Jupiter in the 108-year cycle of
catastrophism. Five was the number of close Mars flybys of either case
(October or March) in a 540-year great cycle of megacatastrophism. 108
was the number of Earth years between same case events; 54 was the
number of years between either case events. 540, the number of Earth
years between megacycles, was "the great year" to the ancients.
Again, when one finds numbers like 108, or 9 x 13, reappearing
under several multiples in the Vedas, in the temples of Angkor, in
Babylon, in Heraclitus' dark utterances, and in the Norse Valhalla, it
is not accidental. ^13
That Ogygian Kronos is unmistakably the planet Saturn is not to be
overlooked by anyone who reads Plutarch. He describes the "servants" of
Kronos who?every 30 years, when Saturn is in Taurus?sail to Ogygia to
remain there in service for thirty years. . .^14
And just as the Persian Shahs held their royal jubilee festival,
after having reigned thirty years (which is the Saturnian revolution),
so the Egyptian Pharaoh also celebrated his jubilee after 30 years, true
to the "inventor'' of this festival, Ptah, who is the Egyptian Saturn. ^15
The number 108 is also detected in the Rig Veda with 10,800
stanzas and in the 10,800 bricks of the Indian fire altar, Agnicayana. ^16
The modern orbit of Saturn is 29.46 years, not 30. However, if the
Earth had an ancient 360 day year, 30 would be the correct year count
for Saturn's orbit. Plutarch's account, along with Persian and Egyptian
festivals for Saturn, specified 30 years, not 29.46 or 29.5 which would
be right today. The ancients could count very well.
The orbit of Jupiter is 11.86 years, not 12; however, if the Earth
had a 360 day year in ancient times, and a 92.25-million mile radius, 12
years would have been correct for the Jupiter year. Folklorists
including James Frazer have recorded tribal traces of Jupiter worship
dating back to ancient times involving twelve-year rites. Frazer, for
instance, found ancient tribes of India that had?and have?Jupiter
festivals every twelfth year.
Saturn, if in a 30: 1 resonance with Earth's orbit, would have
been found in one or the other of only five zodiacal zones during
ancient flyby years. Those zones would have been Scorpio, Pisces, Leo,
Gemini, and Capricorn, and no others. We know also that in the October
flybys the giant Jupiter, in 12:1 resonance, was always in Cancer. When
Saturn was 180 degrees opposite from Jupiter, in Capricorn, the two
giants caused the maximum warping of Mars' orbit.
Saturn in Capricorn could warp the Mars orbit 30,000 miles closer
to the Earth than Mars' average pathway (our estimate). This provides a
basis for understanding ancient cosmic fears and their tracking of
Saturn which is, after all, a rather remote, tiny point of light in the
heavens. This 360-day Earth orbit also provides a rationale for tracking
Jupiter as well, plus the tracking of Mars across the Milky Way,
Moreover, this scenario allows us to understand the reason ancient
astrology developed such a widespread grip on ancient cultures.
The perturbing effects of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune on
Mars' orbit varied according to the */mass/* of each planet divided by
its */distance squared/* times */the time/* that each planet was in any
zodiacal zone. Saturn, for example, was in each zodiac zone 2.5 years
(multiply its effect by 2.5). Uranus was in each zodiacal zone For 7. 1
years, and Neptune for 13.5 years. For their influence on Mars, multiply
by 7.1 and 13. 5 respectively .
Thus the effect of Uranus was 7.1 times what one would normally
expect if merely considering its mass and distance from the ancient
catastrophic Mars orbit. Moreover the Neptune effect was 13.5 times what
otherwise might be expected. Surprisingly, both planets were
significant: it appears that Uranus had 10 percent of the warping
potential of Saturn, and Neptune was 9.5 percent as significant a factor
as Saturn, even though both may have been nearly invisible for the
ancient Chaldeans and Sumerians.
One begins an investigation supposing the orbit-warping effects of
Uranus and Neptune can be disregarded, because of their remoteness. The
time factor, however, makes them rather significant; one must not make
the mistake of figuring orbit warping over just a one-year period.
Add to this the interesting vignette that the ancient Hebrews named
their calendar month, roughly our October, "Marchesvan," for Mars.
November was named Kislev (or Kheciyl) for Jupiter. And their December
was named Tebat for "the ringed one." Like the Phoenicians, the Hebrews
derived their calendar month names from the Chaldeans. Interestingly,
Saturn's rings are visible only with a telescope (and both the Sumerians
and Chaldeans are known to have ground glass for lenses, possibly for
astronomical use).
Saturn by itself, could move Mars as much as 30,000 miles to either
side of the centerline of its pathway. We view the pathways of the Earth
and Mars as roads, and the centerline of the road was the average, not
the individual flyby case. Either extreme shoulder of the road could be
30,000 miles from the average.
Similarly, Uranus could shift the orbit of Mars an additional
3,000 miles to either side of the centerline. Neptune could shift Mars'
orbit an additional 2,850 miles if working in alliance with Saturn.
Working together, they could potentially shift Mars 5,850 miles in
addition to the 30,000 mile Saturn shift.
Saturn was positioned in Capricorn, 180 degrees opposite to
Jupiter, in a Mars flyby only once every 540 years. The result was that
Mars' flybys were about 20,000 miles distant, instead of the 50,000 mile
average. At 20,000 miles Mars flybys were dangerously close to the
threshold of 19,000 to-19,500 miles for crustal bulge ballooning.
Sometimes, Uranus was in alliance with Saturn in Capricorn in a
catastrophic flyby year, or perhaps it was in a nearby zone, say
Sagittarius or Aquarius, in partial alliance. This happened in 25
percent of the Mars flybys. At other times Neptune was in alliance or
partial alliance with Saturn or near Capricorn. If all three (Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune) were in Capricorn during a flyby year, the cumulative
warping might make Mars' flyby 5,850 miles even closer than 20,000. Such
is the potential in our model as illustrated in Fig. 1.
In 2484 B C., a flyby year, it happens that (a) Saturn, (b)
Uranus, and (c) Neptune were in alliance, all in (d) Capricorn, while
(e) Jupiter was 180 degrees opposing in (f) Cancer. This combination
could occur once every 77,760 (540 x 12 x 12) years. We have made the
calculations, using an ephemeris and converting to a 360-day year in 701
B.C. We have also adjusted for the four-year error made by medieval
monks in sequencing years. It turns out that the year 2484 B.C. was not
only a flyby year, it was a triple alliance year as well.
We suspect, therefore, that the year 2484 B.C. involved the closest
flyby ever made by Mars. It was the time when Mars was 15,000 miles from
the Earth?conservatively. It might have been the beginning of the end
for the Catastrophic Era of the Mars-Earth Wars.
*/The Dating of the Mars-Earth Wars/*
How long did this entire catastrophic scenario last? First, we are
not sure; one's analysis is no better than are his assumptions. An
assumption on which there is some consensus is that there were some 170
paleomagnetic polarity reversals, as recorded by ancient suboceanic
basaltic outflows. "170"- may or may not be correct, but it will suffice
for the present. ^17
Our second assumption is that close Mars flybys were the dynamo
that created the Earth's geomagnetic field. We know the geomagnetic
field strength in our modern, uniformitarian era is decaying. That decay
rate has a half life of 1350 years, a rapid rate by uniformitarian
standards. ^18 By deduction then, with Mars' flybys functioning as
ancient generator of the Earth's geomagnetic field, we can explain the
presence of geomagnetism that otherwise would have decayed completely
millions of years ago.
Our third assumption is that in the Catastrophic Era Mars had a
planetary magnetic field with a strength of about .3 Gauss. Today, the
Earth's geomagnetic field strength has decayed to .3 Gauss and is
declining 4 percent per century. This rate should shock a
uniformitarian. However, the Earth's field strength (as mentioned above)
is decaying at a rapid pace.
Thus our planet's magnetic field strength, now .3 Gauss, in 700
B.C., then, was 1.2 Gauss (.3 x 2 x 2). Moreover, our field strength in
4700 A.D. will be .075 Gauss, providing there are no further planet
wars. The Earth's geomagnetic field is its "umbrella, " a protective
plasma against the Sun's alpha particles. (Some of the Earth's
geomagnetic field?we estimate .01 Gauss?obtains from ongoing lunar and
solar tides.)
Geographically, we are certain that during close Mars flybys of
the October case, in nearby space the Earth's Magnetic North Pole
united, or coupled, with the Martian South Pole. The result was that for
a brief four- or five hour penod there was a tripole field. That tripole
field included (a) the Earth's Magnetic South Pole, (b) the coupled
field, Earth's North and the Martian South "sandwiched" in the middle,
and (c) the Martian Magnetic North Pole field on the other outside.
(During the March cases the opposite geometrics held.)
In such a scenario in space it is easy to conceive how the Earth's
coupled magnetic field was wrapped and twisted around our planet by Mars
as it whipped by at its 28,000 mph velocity. The swishing electrical
havoc caused the two magnetic poles to reverse (both planets). Mars
flybys were the cause of ancient paleomagnetic polarity reversals, which
were cyclic. They alternated, even as the Mars flybys were cyclic and
alternated between March and October cases. (This explains how Etruscan
pottery can appear to have been fired "south" of the equator.)
The gradualists allege that there were paleomagnetic polarity
reversals for "unknown reasons," averaging one about every 1.5 million
years: that is, 250 million years for 170 reversals. They do not
understand the unscientific shortcomings of their theory.
What we are not sure of, however, is the strength (and hence the
spread in space), the dimensions, and the intensity of the Martian
planetary field during the Catastrophic Era. (Our guess is Mars had a
planetary field stnength of .3 Gauss.) It could be that a paleomagnetic
polarity reversal occurred only when Mars came within 30,000 miles of
the Earth, rather than our preferred 90,000 miles. If so, polarity
reversals would occur only twice in the 540-year cycle. In that case,
the Catastrophic Era would have lasted 46,000 years, rather than 9,200
years. Perhaps polarity reversals occurred just once every 270 years.
*/The Beginning of the Mars-Earth Wars/*
Mars has 91 percent of its craters on one side. In addition, its
ancient aphelion was c. 225,000,000 miles from the Sun, according to our
model, where the asteroids roam. It is easy to speculate as to why Mars
dropped into the catastrophic orbit described in Fig l. Near its ancient
''cold spot" (its aphelion) Mars encountered a smaller planet, smaller
than the Moon, as close as its Roche Limit. For Mars the Roche Limit is
5,200 miles from its core and 3,100 miles above its surface. The tiny
planetary visitor fragmented.
Those fragments that hit Mars?tens of thousands of
them?especially the larger ones, slowed Mars down a little and caused an
energy drop in its orbit. We suggest from the evidence of the
fragmentation that the tiny planet (which should be called Astra, since
it produced the asteroids) was the "bump" to Mars' orbit that started it
all.
We point to the "N-U' effect as causing Mars to penetrate the
19,OOO-mile elasticity-plasticity threshold, where crustal deformation
starts to bulge and then balloon. Saturn by itself could cause gigantic
Mars-generated oceanic tides, but it was not sufficient alone to trigger
balooning bulges. Alone, Saturn could not warp Mars' orbit within the
critical 19,000-to-19,500 mile zone. However, on those occasions when
Salurn was in Cancer, and when either Uranus or Neptune was also
involved, Mars did come sufficiently close to create a ballooning bulge.
On the one occasion when both Neptune and Uranus were in critical
alliance, it was devastating.
*/The Other "Nu" Effect: 2484 B.C./*
The "Nu ' effect has overtones that are cultural. In the Egyptian
Book of the Dead the name of the builder of the Ark and the leading
survivor of the blood was "Nu. " in the Vedas of India his name was
"Manu," the great "Nu." In the Epic of Gilgamesh the Ark's builder was
"Na,'' with a few prefixes and surtaxes?"Utnapishtim." The Hebrew
account calls him "Noach," today's ''Noah.''
The remains of Noah's Ark have been identified at a formation two
miles from the Iranian border, barely inside Turkey, at the 6,300-foot
level. The site is 19 miles south of the famed Mt. Ararat. Several
explorers have reached the ruins, including David Pasold who with metal
detection equipment in 1985 and 19S6 established the presence of iron
apparently ship
fittings. ^l9 Thus there was a "N-U effect" (Neptune and Uranus) and
there was a "Nu" factor, in this closest of all Mars flybys. It was in
year 2484 B.C.
*/Example 5: Strings of Sausages/*
Figure 5 is a diagram of the alignment of the mountain arcs of
Eastern Asia Many of them are partially submerged mountain chains. They
align, as J. Tuzo Wilson pointed out, like sausages on a string, like
several strings of sausages hung or strung out across the Eastern Pacific.
One string is the Ryukyu Arc. Another is the Japanese Arc,
followed by the Kurile Arc, the Kamchatka Arc, the Aleutian Arc, etc.
These arcs in series are merely deformed and reformed Earth crust, like
sausages of reformed meat. It took one or more close Mars flybys,
penetrating the Earth's elastic-plastic threshold at 19,000 miles, to
string out thesc arcs. It is easy to understand.
*/The Arc-Like Patterns of Mountain Ranges/*
Earlier, we noted that mountain systems lie in patterns along
great circles that are flyby pathways. But the development of ballooning
bulges requires Mars to be within 19,000 miles. During occasional
catastrophic days, Mars was indeed that close, but only for short
timespans, sometimes only 10 or 20 minutes (up to 50 minutes on the
closer occasions). it was a short period, but very damaging.
The advancement of the subpoint on the Earth's crust, directly
under Mars, where the bulging and ballooning occurred, was the sum of
two factors. One was a combination of Mars' trajectory and velocity; the
second was the Earth's rotation, spinning at 1037.6 mph at the equator.
The rotational factor in the ballooning bulge's "velocity
advancement package" is the easiest to calculate. It is 1037.5 mph
divided by 60 (for minutes), resulting in mph; it was 17.3 mph at the
equator. Adjusted to the 30th latitude, which we consider was opposite
to Mars, the subpoint advanced at a velocity of about 14 to 15 mph, due
to Earth rotation.
The changing angle of Mars to the Earth, and Mars' velocity, also
resulted in an advancement of the subpoint directly under Mars, and
hence the ballooning bulge. This factor ranged from 40 to 60 mph when
Mars was making a close flyby. The rotational velocity factor and the
trajectory velocity factor add, for a combination of roughly 55 to 75
miles per minute. In miles per second the advancement was about one mile
per second across the Earth's surface.
In one hour, the ballooning bulge would have moved across the
Earth's face a distance of about 3,500 miles. The echelon of the East
Asian arcs, in Fig. 4, is almost 3,500 miles long from Taiwan through
Kamchatka. We calculate that this particular cycle of mountains was
uplifted in about 60 minutes. The uplifting of arcs in the Japanese main
island of Honshu occurred in the middle, when Mars was closest (in
perigee).
Then there occurred the collapse of the bulge, during the next few
hours, as the planet radius contracted and "normalcy" resumed. To
maintain that this cycle of mountains, or any such cycle, required 50 to
100 millions of years to be uplifted is a display of nonsense and a
failure of objective analysis. Honshu, the largest and most central of
Japan's islands, 800 miles long, was uplifted in perhaps 800 seconds?14
or 15 minutes, or 20, to be generous
This information allows us to understand the time needed to uplift
the mighty Himalayas, the Earth's highest. With its parallel range, the
Trans Himalayas in Tibet, the Himalayas comprise a beautiful arc about
1,700 miles long, a sector of a circle. The chain was uplifted during
the closest of all flybys, requiring 25 to 30 minutes, or perhaps 35
minutes.
In Fig. 1 the general pathway of the Alpine-Himalayan cycle was
portrayed . In 1917 Alfred Wegener, the "uncle" if not the father of
Continental Drift claimed that this pathway was the dividing line
between "Laurasia" and "Gondwanaland," his two protocontinents before
continental drift. But this is not so. This line describes the pathway
of Mars during its passage. Wegener was looking in the wrong direction.
Wegener thought in terms of a single gravity (Earth's only); we
think in terms of a pair of gravities, one whizzing by the other.
Wegener thought in terms of millions of years; we think in terms of
thousands. Wegener thought horizontally; we think vertically. Wegener
thought of drift--inches per year for tens of millions of years; we
think in terms of 25,000 to 30,000 ton-acres of uplift per second.
Wegener was a gradualist; we are planetary catastrophists.
Observe in Fig. 4 that most individual mountain ranges are 100 to
150 miles long, yet all fall into one grand great-cycle pattern. These
are essentially wrinkles, a result of a few minutes of local but severe
subcrustal bulging, produced by sudden subcrustal up-welling, ballooning
tides of magma. The collapse followed rapidly.
Further, observe in Fig. 4 that there are some 69 or 70 of these
individual mountain ranges in this single cycle. Nine, or 15 percent,
are convex-shaped. About 50 percent of the individual ranges are
concave-shaped, with reference to the centerline of the pathway.
All the convex mountain ranges happen to be north of the centerline and
all of the concave ranges happen to be south of the centerline.
Perhaps this bulge pathway was between the 30 degrees north to 35
degrees north of an ancient equator. Within the Earth's crust 20 percent
of the Earth's mass is north of the 30th latitude north "slice", and 80
percent of the Earth's magma mass is south of the 30th latitude north.
The convex versus concave ranges arc respectively proportional to the
position of the uplift between spin axis poles. This is significant only
to a two gravity theory of mountain building. Such is due not to chance
but to distribution of the Earth's subcrustal mass and upwelling magma.
These patterns of convex and concave mountain ranges recur in
North America, in South America,in Europe, in the mid-Pacific drowned
ranges, in Indonesia, in Southern Asia, in Melanesia, and in Antarctica.
Taking a global view, this convex-concave pattern recurs both across
continents and across ocean bottoms. Convex arcs occur above the pathway
and concave arcs below, to the equatorial side This principle is
world-wide in mountain building; it is merely a reflection of many Mars
flybys.
*/Example 6: The Right-Arm Elbow-Bend in Mountain Systems/*
We discussed the pathway and centerline of a string of
sausages?actually a string of mountain uplifts draped across Eastern
Asia. Now, if we examine this series and other series elsewhere, we
discover that the mountain systems are both higher, wider, and more
rugged in the central region than they are toward either of the ends.
Toward the ends mountain ranges taper in width as they diminish in
height. They also become straighter, that is, less curved, less "arcuate."
When Mars approached, its distance (unlike the airplane, whose
altitude is somewhat constant) changed radically and rapidly. At 20,000
miles Mars caused eight times the damage as at 40,000 miles. At 15,000
miles, however, Mars caused perhaps 15 times the damage at 19,500,
because the elastic-plastic threshold was crossed at about 19,000. Thus
most of the deformation (by far) occurred in the central portion of the
pathway.
Those mountain ranges located toward the ends of the cycle are
lower, narrower, and straighter than those in the central zone.
Moreover, those ranges in the central part of an uplift zone somtimes
take a sudden change in direction, a shift always toward the southwest.
This is because there occurs a spin axis precession that includes a
sudden relocation of the spin axis.
The spin axis tries to tilt perpendicularly to the path of Mars.
Perpendicular is the most restful angle; 45 degrees is the most violent
angle for a torque on a gyroscope If one extends the shoulder-to-elbow
part of his right arm straight west, and then bends the elbow, the
elbow-to-wrist direction is to the southwest. This is the same angle
that the mountain ranges shift when a Mars flyby was close enough to
cause a spin axis shift.
The Andes are an outstanding example of this right-arm elbow-bend
observation. Bolivia is at the center zone of the Andes uplift.
Antarctica and Chile represent the sunrise, or easterly wing of the zone
(as directions were at that time). The Peruvian and Colombian Andes
represent the westerly, or sunset wing. Observe on a map the shift in
direction.
Notice that at the center zone there is a sudden shift in
direction, a shift of some 30 degrees to the southwest. This is again a
right-arm elbow-bend. It was caused by a gyroscopic procession during
the height of a flyby, a close one. The spin axis shifted and seemingly
was relocated, virtually in 15 or 20 minutes (The Earth rotated
axially.) The Andes involved one of Ihe closest of all flybys, perhaps
at 16,500 miles.
In the heart of the "Bolivian Knot'' of mountains, surrounded by
ranges on all sides is Lake Titicaca, at 12,506 feet above sea level. It
is large?3,261 square miles. It contains sea horses, suggesting that
this region or its water were once below sea level. On the mountain
sides abutting Lake Titicaca are terraces of ancient corn fields going
up to 17,000 feet. Yet corn will not germinate above 11,500 feet! Thus
the Andes must be the product of at least two uplift eras, one on top
of the other.
Another right-arm elbow-bend can be seen in Alaska's Range. Yet a
third shift in direction?a most radical shift amid the uplifting
process?can be seen in the Burma-Tibet sector. This is the pivot portion
of the Alpine-Himalayan cycle, a right-arm elbow-bend once again. The
uplift belt seems to have been located in the 30 degree to 35 degree
latitude zone above an ancient equator position at the time they were
raised.
A third right-arm elbow-bend occurs in thc Alpine-Himalayan cycle
of mountains where Burma and India meet and where the Himalayas begin.
See Fig. 6.
Three right-arm elbow-bends have been cited, reflecting three
major spin axis shifts. A fourth citation of a minor spin axis shift
occurs after the observation of the final flyby recorded in Isaiah
(chapters 38, 39). The shadow of the sundial, an Egyptian obelisk
perhaps 80 feet tall, relocated (shortened) about 10 handspans?perhaps
70 inches. Thus Jerusalem moved closer to the equator perhaps 1 to 2
degrees.
During a close Mars flyby many processes occurred simultaneously:
oceanic deformation and continental flooding, crustal deformation and
mountain uplifting, electrical generation (recharging) and paleomagnetic
polarity reversing, gyroscopic precession, and spin axis relocation.
In addition, there was orbital warping or perturbation occurring
to the orbits of both planets. Thus it takes very little imagination to
understand why the ancients who lived in the Catastrophic Era feared
the flybys, pleaded with the gods, trembled with the tremors, honored
the planets with fire worship, idol worship, and cosmic themes, and in
general quaked with apprehension.
Astrologer-astronomers made a good living; they sat next to kings
and emperors as exceptionally high caste characters who might have some
influence with the planetary deities. Ancient literatures, folklores,
calendars, archilectural sundials, five-avenue cities with 108 idols per
avenue, etc., widely attest to periodic celestial catastrophes.
*/Example 7: Mountains on Venus/*
Our model of Mars catastrophism has the orbit of Mars in its hot
spot (perihelion) at 65 million miles, slightly inside Venusian orbit
space. Mars may well have made many Venus flybys also. Recent
information from the Maggellan probe indicates that mountains on Venus
are rugged and recent-looking. Our model suggests that the Venus
mountains should be found in long, lineal ranges with patterns in great
circles, similar in height, breadth, and age to the Earth. After all,
Venus is very similar to the Earth in mass, crustal, and subcrustal
composition.
In addition, the winds on Venus, though only about 5 mph, are so
forceful they rival the Earth's hurricane winds. Moore and Hunt indicate
the surface atmospheric pressure on Venus to be about 90 times the
pressure on Earth. ^20 One would think that such hurricane-type
pressures, in one or two million years, would erode mountains down to
mere sand dunes. We propose that Venusian mountains were formed by the
same mechanism as the Earth's?close Mars flybys. Moreover, large lava
flows are reported uncratered and recent, just like lava flows on Mars.
*/Example 8: Mountains and the Crust of Mars/*
One might expect mountain systems on Mars to be even more numerous
and higher than mountain systems on the Earth. After all, didn't Mars
come 15,000 miles above Earth, and isn't Earth's mass 9.3 times greater
than Mars'?capable of churning up massive tides of Mars' magma?
A review of Mars' geography reveals that the planet has a high
density of craters of all sizes up to 990 miles in diameter. Moreover,
91 percent of the Martian craters are in one hemisphere, centered at 45
degrees south latitude. Mars has rifts and two bulges, the latter
opposite the huge Hellas and Isidis craters. Mars has dry river beds
indicating that the planet, with a thin atmosphere, nevertheless once
had running water?a hemispheric flood. Some of its rivers were 400 miles
long and gushed along at speeds of 20, 25, and 30 mph. ^21
Without clouds or water vapor, or even an atmosphere, Mars has
nevertheless had a flood, more recent than its acquisition of craters
(rivers ran into the craters and out the other side). These rivers were
not meanders; they were torrents, and judging by their speed, they raced
for 15 to 20 hours before cooling and icing over. The surface of Mars is
?170 degrees F. in a 12-hour 19-minute day. Mars' period of rotation, at
24 hours 37 minutes, resembles the Earth's spin.
However, one looks in vain for as much as a single mountain system
on Mars. Why? Mars may have a much thicker crust than the Earth's, and
during the flybys only one sixth or one seventh as much magma to
experience tidal motion. Too, Mars' crust is made of lighter stuff; the
density of the Earth is 5.52, of Mars, 3.93. Because it is farther from
the Sun, Mars is colder than the Earth. Many other physical features,
which we know with some reliability but cannot introduce here, also have
a bearing. Nevertheless, during close Earth flybys Mars logically must
have suffered immense internal magma tides and consequent upthrust
pressures. Volcanoes may explain the puzzle.
*/Olympus Mons/*
Olympus Mons is the largest of the Martian volcanoes. It has a
caldera 50 miles in diameter, almost 2,000 square miles in area. The
volcano's base is 360 miles in diameter, covering 102,000 square miles,
and its altitude is 16.2 miles. Kilimanjaro, Africa's largest volcano,
contains perhaps 1,100 cubic miles of basalt lava Olympus Mons contains
500 times as much.
In addition, on Mars are Arsis Mons, Ascria Mons, and Pavonis
Mons?plus eleven other volcanoes, smaller but still larger than anything
on Earth. Each of these largest three is about half as high as Olympic
Mons The four largest ones vented a total of almost 800,000 cubic miles
of basalt, lava, ejecta, and vapors, if not more. It becomes clear that
internal stresses on Mars were relieved exclusively by volcanism rather
than crustal deformation.
All in all, our model encompasses the evidence. To the
uniformitarian, of course, such matters are unthinkable. James Hutton,
Lyell's mentor, had written: "No powers are to be employed that are not
natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we
know the principle". It is unfortunate that Hutton and Lyell had to
limit their thinking to nineteenth-century Earth science; that they
chose to ignore the great catastrophic themes of the world's literatures
In the early 1800's two groups of thought in geology were the
"Neptunists," who believed massive, watery upheavals were the primary
agent sculpturing our planet, and the "Plutonists." who thought that
basaltic outflows with volcanism were the pnmary agent. (These schools
of thought were named after the Greek deities; the planets were not
discovered until 1846 and 1930.)
It appears that both schools had some validity. Massive tides of
oceans swept across continents and massive upthrusting bulges of magma
littered the landscape. While their concepts were mostly figurative,
they were luckily pertinent. But where does the Lyell-Hutton school of
thought fit in? Nowhere. The sooner it is discarded, the better.
*/The Nagging Relics of Astronomy/*
Dictionaries define "relic" as an object or custom that has
survived wholly or partially from the past; something that has historic
interest because of its age and associations with the past. Relics of
the Catastrophic Era, the Mars-Earth Wars, are numerous, and they are
systematic and patterned. In understanding them we will better
appreciate our cultural roots and ongins, the conditions under which
early man lived, and why he thought?as revealed (often not without
confusion) in ancient literatures?as he did .
Relic No. 1. */The Earth's Two Perihelions./* The Earth's
perihelion, the hot spot in a planet's orbit, where it is closest to the
Sun, in the Catastrophic Era was halfway between the October 24 and the
March 20-21 intersections. Using the old 360-day calendar, this was
early in the day of January 7. In the modern era the perihelion is on
January 4, clearly a result of the Mars-Earth Wars,
Relic No. 2. */The Ancient 360 day Calendar./* The ancient
calendar derives from the ancient orbit radius, 92.25 million miles; the
modern figure is 93.0 million miles. The orbit of Mars contracted from
720 to 687 days, and at the same time the Earth's orbit expanded from
360 to 365.25 days.
Relic No. 3. */The Moon's Ancient 30-day Orbit./* Ancient
calendars reveal nothing of a 29.53 day Moon orbit. They count the Moon
orbit as 30 days. Hence we believe the Moon's orbit radius was about
241,100 miles in the Catastrophic Era. Today it is 238,900 miles.
Relic No. 4. */The Perpendicular Alignnment of Jupiter./* When
orbits are in resonance the long axes align geometrically. Earth's long
axis, parallel to Mars, was perpendicular to the long axis of Jupiter's
orbit; both axes were perpendicular. Today, the Jovian axis is at a
celestial longitude of 13.6 degrees, its perihelion location. The
Earth's long axis is at 102.2 degrees (the January 4 position); the
difference is 88.6 degrees. The modern geometry of Jupiter-Earth is
virtually perpendicular (perfect perpendicular geometry is 90 degrees).
What the gradualists would call "chance" is really a relic of the
Catastrophic Era when the relationship was a perfect 90 degrees.
Relic No. 5.- */The Twin Spin Axis Tilts of Mars and Earth./* Once
again, gradualists suppose the Earth's spin axis tilt of 23.44 degrees
and Mars' of 23.98 degrees is "coincidence." When flybys occur
repeatedly at the same orbit location a planet will try to align its
spin axis to the perpendicular of the ongoing torque applied by the
approaching body. After a long series of encounters, the two planets
achieved the above spin axis tilts. They are not chance; they are relics
of the Mars-Earth Wars.
Relic No. 6: */The Location of Earth's Vernal Equinox./* On the
vernal equinox (the first day of spring for the Earth's northern
hemisphere) both hemispheres have days and nights of 12 hours each; this
is March 21 (except leap years). This date was also the Hebrew Passover,
the Roman "Tubulustrium," and the "First point of Aries" a famous
ancient constellation. The spin axis aligned on this catastrophic site,
in all probability, because the first Mars-Earth Wars skirmish occurred
here.
Relic No. 7. */The Relocation of the Martian Perihelion and
Autumnal Equinox./* In 701 B.C. Mars went out of resonance, taking a new
location for its perihelion at the celestial longitude of 335.2 degrees;
the old perihelion was at 105 degrees This difference was 230 degrees
(measured counterclockwise from Polaris). We can place the Mars autumnal
equinox, during the Mars-earth Wars, at the same site as the Earth's
vernal equinox, but today the autumnal equinox is at the 49th celestial
longitude. But calculating counterclockwise, the 49th longitude is also
the 409th (adding 360 degrees). Subtracting 179, the result is 230,
strangely the same for both bodies.
Relic No. 8. */The Volcanoes of Mars./* The magnificent volcanoes
of Mars are evidence of great internal distress; they are relics of the
Mars-Earth Wars and Mars-Venus flybys.
Relic No. 9:*/ Mountain Ranges and Patterns on Earth./* These
mountain ranges were uplifted relics of the Mars-Earth Wars scenarios,
as indicated by their distribution and pattern .
Relic No. 10: */The Earth's Volcanoes./* Volcanoes on the Earth
are not nearly as numerous or as high as the mountain ranges, although
they are found among the mountain ranges where the Earth's crust cracked
and rifted, allowing the escape of magma. They too are relics of the
Catastrophic Era.
Relic No. 11: */The Sidewise Slipping Stars./* Before
understanding this relic we must discuss a somewhat similar problem,
"The Case of the Half-filled Bathtub."
A sleuth knocked at the door of a residence at precisely 2:30 p.m.
one afternoon. Nobody
was home, yet he heard running water. He entered and found the house
empty, but the bathtub's spigot was full on and the drainplug was in
place The tub's overflow drain was 20 inches above bottom. The water was
10 inches high, and rising.
The sleuth sensed that someone just minutes earlier had left
without turning off the water.
He found identifiable fingerprints.. He calculated how fast the tub
was filling: one inch per minute, and concluded that someone had turned
the spigot within 30 seconds of 2:20 p.m.
Next, the fingerprints were identified as "Momma's"; she had been
there as recently as
2:20. Checking the neighborhood, he found another house had caught fire
about 2:15. He now had the who, what, when, and why: Momma had turned on
the water at 2:20 but ran to the nearby fire.
Our sleuth now turns to "The Case of the Sidewise-Shifting Stars."
He knows that the fixed stars all appear to be moving in unison in a
circle that takes 25,800 years to complete. This appanent rotation
(called precession) equals 1 degree every 71.67 years. He turns to
Bowditch ^22 to read that the Earth's equinoxes slipped backwards
(clockwise) in their orbit precisely 50.27 seconds of an arc in 1958, as
it does every year.
There are 3600 seconds in a degree of celestial longitude (60 x
60), just as there are 3600
seconds in an hour of time. 86,400 seconds (60 x 60 x 24) complete a
day, but 1,296,000
seconds (60 x 60 x 360) are needed to complete a 360-degree circle. This
is achieved in
25,780 years. The early Sumerians divided the circle into 360 degrees
and into 1,296,000
seconds; the reflected the 360-day year of that age. The Sumerians also
divided the fixed
stars into 12 distinct zones (or houses), each, with their
constellations, given names like Aries the ram, Taurus the bull, Cancer
the crab, Leo the lion, etc. From this collection of life forms came
the Greek word */zoo/*, the root of "zodiac "
Our sleuth notes that a certain fixed star, Mesartim, in ancient
times was found consistently on the horizon at dawn on the vernal
equinox, March 21( Bowditch): "When the names were assigned more than
2,000 years ago, the Sun entered Aries at the vernal equinox even though
this is no longer true because of the precession of the equinoxes " Our
sleuth wondered why Mesartim is no longer on the horuzon at dawn of the
vernal equinox; more importantly. he wondered how far (in degrees) it
had "slipped sideways. "
Mesartim is a relatively dim star and for that reason is not
listed in Bowditch. It is actually a double star but appears as one to
the naked eye. It is part of a six-star constellation named "Aries " on
the edge of the 30 degree zone also named "Aries " The Sumerians had
made Aries the ram the first of their twelve houses, because it rose at
the dawn of the spring equinox.
Our sleuth finds that Hamal, a brighter star (and hence more
useful for navigators), just 3 degrees away from Mesartim, was at
celestial longitude 329 degrees in 1958. This tells him that Mesartim
was at 326, and indicates that Hamal's sidewise slippage (precession)
was 31 degrees (360?329) and Mesartim's, 34 degrees (31 + 3) He deduces
(after reading Patten and Windsor) that the modern perihelion on January
4 is 3 degrees offset, or slipped backward, from the ancient perihelion
of January 7. This 3 degrees must be added to the 34 degrees already
calculated for Mesartim ("Mesartim" comes from an Arabic word for "the
sign"; it was the "First point of Aries ") it had slipped 37 degrees.
As the fixed stars appear to slip 50.27 arc-seconds per year, our
sleuth concludes that estimating the length time Mesartim has been
slipping should be no more difficult than estimating how long it took to
fill the bathtub to 10 inches. 37 degrees x 3600 (the number of
arc-seconds in ? degree) = 133,200 seconds of slippage. 133,200 divided
by the annual rate,
50.27, is 2649.7 years. From 1958 (Bowditch) our sleuth subtracts
2649.7 (and an additional 4 years for medieval errors), to get 695.7 B.
C, or roughly 700 B. C.
Our sleuth now recognizes that some event "turned on" precession
about 700 B. C. Here is the */why /*of the case: it was the path, a
unique "outside" or "nightside" or "dark side'' geometry of that final
flyby. The wrong-side flyby led to the circularization of Mars' orbit.
It meant the end of the Mars-Earth Wars era.
Astronomers have often wondered why precession has been so
limited. One need only resort to planetary catastrophism. Continuous
precession before the Mars-Earth Wars era could not have occurred.
Mesartim was always the First point of Aries before 700 B. C.
Precession was consumed (or negated) amidst the general planetary chaos
involving resonance and close flybys at a pair of orbit locations.
The limited precession of Mesartim is thus another relic of
catastrophism. The Greeks were right after all. Zeus-pater (Jupiter) was
indeed the controller of the cosmos in that era in Greek mythology,
Aries was the ram with the Golden Fleece. From our view as planetary
catastrophists Aries was the zodiacal zone featuring interplanetary
electrical displays?golden celestial fireworks. Mars' evaporating ices
furthermore produced a cometary tail of golden, fluffy, fleecy splendor.
Relic No. 12: */The Astronomical Zodiac of the Sumerians./* The
Sumerian zodiac is a relic of the Catastrophic Era (The Chinese had a
similar zodiac with 24 zones and a 360-degree circle; when the year
shined to 365 days they changed both calendar and circle to 365?in the
6th or 7th century B. C. ). Showing Mesartim as the First point of
Aries and once in alignment with the vernal equinox, the zodiac is also
a relic of the catastrophism described here.
*/Conclusion/*
A variety of unigravitational (one gravity) concepts have
developed over the last 150 years in geology. All have fallen very short
of explaining the massive manipulation of the Earth's surface, as
Hartshorne, Scheidegger, and others have commented.
Further unfolding evidence of recent catastrophism is arriving
almost daily from the various space probes now speeding toward the ends
of the universe, from sophisticated computer modeling once thought
impossible, and from archaeological and geological discoveries around
the world. Readers are urged to follow these exciting developments.
The two-gravity hypothesis presented above has been jointly
conceived and created by Samuel R. Windsor, a marine engineer, and
Donald W. Patten, a geographer and businessman. The cultural impact of
the ancient Mars flybys, in particular, has been set forth in the
latter's */Catastrophism and the Old Testament /*(Seattle: Pacific
Meridian Publishing Company, 1988).
NOTES
I . For an analysis of angular momentum exchanges and simultaneous
energy exchanges, see "A Special Debate?The Mars-Earth Wars Theory, " by
C. Elroy Ellenberger, Donald W. Patten, and Ronald R. Hatch. C&AH, XII:l
(January 1990), pp. 79-90.
2. Richard Hartshorne, */A Perspective on the Nature of Geography/*.
Chicago: Rand McNally, 1959, p. 106.
3. Idem.
4. Ibid., p. 9t.
5. Ibid. pp. 91-92.
6. Adrian E. Scheidegger, */Principles of Geodynamics/*. Berlin:
Springer Verlag, 1963, p. 148.
7. Ibid., p. 289.
8. Ibid., p. 291.
9. A. Hallum, */Great Geological Controversies./* Oxford: Oxford
University Press. 1983, p. 48.
10. Donald W. Patten and Samuel R. Windsor, "The Catastrophic Origin of
the Solar System." Aeon, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 77-88; Vol. 1, No. 5, pp.
97-114.
11. Donald W. Patten, "The 108-Year Cyclicism of Ancient Catastrophes."
Aeon, Vol. II, No. 2, pp. 82-107.
12. Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, */Hamlet's Mill./*
Boston: Gambit, 1969, pp. 162-63.
13. Ibid., p. 7,
14. IPbid., p. 419, citing Plutarch, Oelaric qute in orbs lunae apparel
Y41.
15. Ibid., p. 129.
16. Ibid., p. 162.
17. Ronald T. Merrill and Michael W. McElhinny, */The Earth's Magnetic
Field/*. London: Academic Press, 1983, p. 153.
18. Donald W. Patten and Samuel R. Windsor, "The Origin and Dccay of the
Earth's Geomagnetic Field.'' C&AH, IX:2, p. 98.
19. David Fasold, */The Ark of Noah/*. New York: Wynwood Press, 1988,
pp. 312-19.
20. Patrick Moore and Garry Hunt, */Atlas of the Solar System./*
Chicago: Rand McNally, 1983, p. 104.
21. Ibid., 212-13, 224-25.
22. U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office, */Bowditch's American Practical
Navigator./* Washington: 1966, pp. 373, 774.
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