Radiohalos And Earth History
                                       
RALPH E. JUERGENS

   Pleochroic halos are microscopic, ring-like discolorations observed
   when thin sections of certain minerals are examined by polarized
   light. They were first discovered some years before the turn of the
   present century and were named for their "pleochroism," a term
   introduced more than a century ago to denote "the property of
   exhibiting different colors in different directions by transmitted
   polarized light (Dana)."(1) But they remained an unexplained curiosity
   of nature for many years.

   It was not until 1907 that the mystery of their origin was cleared up.
   In that year, John Joly, an Irish physicist and geophysicist, and O.
   Mügge, a German scientist, almost simultaneously came up with the
   explanation: The discolorations are the result of radioactivity in
   tiny inclusions (impurities) at the halo centers; prolonged alpha
   particle emission by atoms undergoing radioactive decay produces a
   halo-like zone of damage surrounding each inclusion, disrupting the
   surrounding crystal structure and giving rise to the pleochroism.

   More recently, in recognition of the actual cause of the halos, the
   term "radiohalo" has come into use in place of "pleochroic halo."(2)

   Historically, radiohalos helped to put the science of geochronology on
   a quantitative footing. More recently, they have thrown the entire
   discipline into disarray.

   The idea of dating rocks radiometrically was first advanced in 1905 by
   Ernest Rutherford.(3) He reasoned that the helium found in radioactive
   minerals must come from the decay of radium and other radioactive
   elements. He wrote: "If the rate of production of helium from known
   weights of the different radioelements were experimentally known, it
   should thus be possible to determine the interval required for the
   production of the amount of helium observed in radioactive minerals,
   or, in other words, to determine the age of the mineral."

   Considering the possibility that helium, a gas, might tend to escape
   from a source mineral over long periods of time, Rutherford also
   suggested that lead, should it indeed prove to be an end-

   product of radioactive decay, as suggested by some then-recent work
   reported by B. B. Boltwood,(4) might better serve as an indicator of
   age for radioactive minerals. The role of lead as a final descendant
   in several chains of radioactive decay was later firmly established.

   So it was only a matter of a year or so between Rutherford's first
   proposal for radiometric dating and the recognition of radiohalo
   origins by Joly and Mügge. And as early as 1909 Joly further suggested
   that the progressive nature of halo discoloration might also provide a
   way to measure the ages of certain minerals. Half a century was to
   pass before techniques sensitive enough to test this idea were
   perfected, and then the results were disappointing: Different
   crystals, even from the same rock, showed different sensitivities to
   alpha-particle darkening; and it was found that discoloration proceeds
   only up to a saturation point, beyond which the process tends to
   reverse itself.(5)

   But during this period when radiohalos were still untested as
   time-keepers, they came into their own in a much more fundamental way.

   In some of his earlier papers on pleochroic halos, Joly argued that
   halos of varying sizes indicated that decay rates for uranium had not
   been constant throughout geological time. But later he reversed
   himself and insisted that pleochroic halos actually proved what
   everyone else had always assumed - that radioactive decay rates have
   always been constant.(6)

   As presented some years later by astronomer Otto Struve, the argument
   goes like this: ". . . a uranium atom of atomic number 92 and atomic
   mass 238 ([92]U^238) successively releases eight alpha particles
   (helium nuclei) to become lead of atomic number 82 and atomic weight
   206 ([82]Pb^206 ) [See Figure 2]. Similarly, another isotope of
   uranium, U^235, loses seven alpha particles and decays to

   Pb^207. The disintegration of thorium ([90]Th^232) follows a like
   pattern, forming Pb^208. In all three cases, the end products are lead
   and the gas helium.

   "There is excellent evidence that the rates of radioactive processes
   measured in the laboratory at the present time are valid also for the
   remote past. If a radioactive element and its decay products are
   imbedded in a crystal, each alpha particle emitted during
   disintegration travels a certain distance that depends only on the
   rate of that particular decay step. The more rapid this rate, the
   greater the energy of the alpha particles, and the farther they go
   before being stopped and producing a color change in the crystal.

                      RADIOACTIVE DECAY OF URANIUM-238

   Nucleus      Particle
   Emitted Half-Life
   [92]U^238 alpha (helium nucleus)   4.50 x 10^9 years
   [90]Th^234 beta (electron) 24.1 days
   [91]Pa^234 beta 1.18 minutes
   [92]U^234 alpha 2.50 x 10^5 years
   [90]Th^230 alpha 8.0 x 10^4 years
   [88]Ra^226 alpha 1620 years
   [86]Em^222 (Radon) alpha 3.82 days
   [84]Po^218 alpha 3.05 minutes
   [82]Pb^214 beta 26.8 minutes
   [83]Bi^214 alpha 19.7 minutes
   [81]Ti^210 beta 1.32 minutes
   [82]Pb^210 beta 22 years
   [83]Pb^210 beta 5.0 days
   [84]Po^210 alpha 138.3 days
   [82]Pb^206 stable - - - - -

   Emission of an alpha particle decreases the electric charge on the
   nucleus (subscript) by two and the mass number (superscript) by four.
   Emission of a beta particle (negative electron) increases the charge
   by one and leaves the mass number unchanged. This list omits several
   branch reactions. After Struve, Reference 7.

   "Suppose a speck of U^238 has remained undisturbed since the formation
   of a mineral containing it. Then, because the rate of disintegration
   at each successive alpha-particle emission is different, eight
   concentric rings of mineral discoloration will be found surrounding
   the particle of uranium. These rings, known as pleochroic halos, have
   been found in many rocks of different geological ages, and the
   diameters of the respective rings are always the same.

   "Thus, it can be concluded that the rates of disintegration of uranium
   and thorium are constant ... "(7)

   The first premise of this argument may seem strange when first
   encountered. Is it true that the energy of an emitted alpha particle
   depends on the rate of decay? Apparently so. This relationship was
   discovered experimentally in the early years of radioactivity studies,
   and for a long time it constituted something of a paradox -- not only
   for the regularity of the increase in alpha-particle energy with
   increase in decay rate (or decrease in half-life; see Figure 1), but
   especially for the fact that none of the observed energies was
   sufficient to explain how the alpha particles escaped from radioactive
   nuclei in the first place. It would not be until the late 1920's that
   quantum theorists would claim to have dispelled this mystery in terms
   of probabilities.(8)
   [*!* Image] Figure 1 -- Relationship between particle-emission
   energies and half-lives of alpha-emitting radionuclides.

   But does an observed relationship between alpha-particle-emission
   energies and rates of nuclear decay prove anything about decay rates
   in the distant past? Not directly, of course. Thus it was that Joly
   suggested examining ancient minerals, or minerals of presumed
   antiquity, to see whether or not their radiohalos exhibited dimensions
   -- indicative of emission energies -- predictable on the basis of
   modern decay rates.

   Early investigators reported that some of the radiohalos indeed showed
   rings in proper sequences and of the expected sizes.(9) And when a
   theoretical explanation for the relationship between emission energies
   and decay rates emerged, it was generally assumed that the case for
   decay rates never wavering down through geological time was at last
   ironclad.

   But recent work on radiohalos has again cast this premise into doubt.
   The man responsible for most of this work, Robert V. Gentry, is
   understandably cautious in discussing its broadest implications, but
   on one point he stands firm: Radiohalos do not support the idea of
   constant decay rates.

   If this is so, the findings of geochronology, to the extent they are
   based on radiometric dating, are clearly questionable.

   In the early 1960's, Gentry, now of the Chemistry Division of the Oak
   Ridge National Laboratory, found himself wondering: "Can the earth's
   age be measured by radioactive dating of its rocks, as most geologists
   and geochemists believe? For some time I had been intrigued with the
   thought that certain scientists were using the terms 'age of the
   universe' and 'age of the earth' quite freely in conjunction with each
   other. How did they know, I thought. Was the earth actually as old as
   the universe? Were the earth's elements in fact synthesized in some
   gigantic primeval nuclear event?"(10)

   Noting that radiohalos "provide the only means for studying the
   radioactive transformation of elements in the earth," Gentry set out
   to review previous work on the subject, then began his own painstaking
   study of thousands of halos in rocks from around the world. Almost
   immediately he found that all was not in order in this long neglected
   field.

   Gentry discovered that, although uranium halos, for example, are
   readily identifiable by the number and relative rough diameters of
   their rings, their actual dimensions often vary substantially, even
   within a single crystal.(11) While explanations might be contrived to
   account for such variability and thus seemingly preserve the idea of
   invariant decay rates, the evidence, on its face, denied the idea of a
   decay "constant" valid for all time.

   As Gentry explains in a more recent paper, "experimental uncertainties
   in measuring U halo radii preclude establishing the constancy of [the
   decay constant] to within 35 percent, and under certain assumptions U
   halos provide no information at an in this respect . . ." In a
   footnote, the author elaborates by pointing out that if alpha-decay
   energies do not vary for given decay rates, while radiohalo radii do
   vary (which they do), then there must also be some variation in the
   decay constant. "In such a case," writes Gentry, "halos furnish no
   proof that [the decay constant] is constant."(12)

   Gentry's demonstration that Joly's conclusion about pleochroic halos
   proving the constancy of radioactive decay rates was overdrawn was
   only the beginning. Soon to be announced were findings even more
   disturbing.

   In 1966 Gentry reported "Abnormally Long Alpha-Particle Tracks in
   Biotite (Mica)."(13) He called attention to earlier investigations
   disclosing the existence of halo rings much larger than could be
   attributed to known alpha-emissions in the uranium and thorium decay
   chains. The largest ring to be expected in these series would have a
   radius of about 42 microns, due to 8.78-million-electron-volt alpha
   particles from polonium-212. Yet radii as large as 75 microns had been
   noted by others, (14) and now Gentry had similar findings to report.

   After examining and ruling out suggestions that the "giant halos"
   might be due to protons from atoms of low atomic number, or to
   extraordinarily large central inclusions, he pointed out that certain
   known alpha-emitters - actinium-213, radium-216, radium-217, and
   francium-215 might have given rise to the oversized halos. But these
   radionuclides are unrelated to the uranium and thorium decay chains.
   Gentry added: "This suggests the possibility of other decay series
   which may have existed in times past ... [Furthermore,] any attempt to
   trace the progenitors of At^213, Ra^216, Ra^217, and Fr^215 through
   the transuranium elements reveals a very interesting point: all
   possible precursors of these nuclides have fairly short half-lives.
   Since these halos would begin to form upon solidification of the host
   mineral, it is conceivable that further study of the giant halo parent
   nuclides (and their precursors) would establish a maximum time period
   between nucleosynthesis and crustal formation."

   This cautiously worded statement barely disguises the bombshell it
   contains. Nearly every modern cosmological theory assumes that all the
   heavy, radioactive elements were created "in the beginning" or at
   least prior to the formation of the Earth -- and were assembled as
   terrestrial elements as the planet formed. Gentry's studies seemed to
   indicate that radionuclide-creation in some instances occurred mere
   minutes before those nuclides became trapped in rocks solidifying to
   form parts of the Earth's crust. If so, they must have been created on
   Earth long after the planet itself was formed.

   In the years to follow, Gentry was to turn up much more radiohalo
   evidence pointing to this same conclusion. And most of this additional
   evidence is much more straightforward, not depending on speculative
   identifications of halo-inclusion nuclides belonging to unknown decay
   series.

   Early in 1967 Gentry reported his observations of certain
   intermediate-sized "Y halos" found in biotite of supposedly
   Pre-Cambrian age from Canada.(15 ) The most likely parent nuclide for
   these radiohalos, he concluded, was bismuth-211, an isotope with a
   half-life of only 2.15 minutes.

   In another paper that same year, Gentry described halos due to
   polonium nuclides of atomic weights 210, 212, 214, and 218, all of
   short half-lives.(16) Although these nuclides are ordinarily members
   of familiar uranium and thorium decay series, none of the halos
   reported gave any evidence that the usual polonium precursor elements
   had ever been present in their central inclusions, or "radiocenters,"
   as Gentry was later to call them.

   In a less-technical article published in Medical Opinion and
   Review,(17) Gentry discussed at some length the problem posed by the
   "parentless-polonium" halos. Earlier workers, in attributing the halos
   to polonium and noting the puzzling absence of uranium and thorium
   from the radiocenters, had speculated that polonium had precipitated
   from uranium-bearing solutions flowing in microscopic channels through
   the mineral grains; this neatly sidestepped the unthinkable idea of
   parentless polonium. But Gentry's examination of many of these halos
   had turned up no sign whatever, either of cracks or conduits in which
   solutions might once have flowed, or of the staining characteristic of
   such flow. More importantly, "the absence of uranium fission tracks
   [which are always present around uranium radiocenters] after the
   mineral was etched with hydrofluoric acid demonstrated that there was
   no uranium."

   The studies again had disclosed "overwhelming evidence for the
   presence of several different types of short-half-life radioactivity
   in crustal rocks around the world . . . Only elements with extremely
   long half-lives could have survived the time span from nucleosynthesis
   to a period several billion years later when the crustal rocks of the
   earth finally solidified. Yet, the polonium and other variant halos of
   very short half-life existed side by side with the uranium and thorium
   halos in the same piece of mica. . ."

   By 1970 Gentry could report finding additional halos that seemed to
   require explanation in terms of "unknown alpha radioactivity which may
   no longer be present in the earth's crust"(18) or perhaps even
   "superheavy elements."(19)

   New evidence that many polonium halos were "parentless" was reported
   in 1971.(20) This was the discovery that an overabundance of
   radiogenic lead Pb-206, which would be predictable for parentless
   polonium halos, was actually present in polonium radiocenters. When a
   decay series starts with U-238, a parallel decay series stemming from
   U-235 also gets under way: the two uranium isotopes are always found
   together in nature. The U-238 ultimately decays to Pb-206, while the
   U-235 decays to Pb-207. Thus, inclusions initially containing uranium
   should later contain the two leads, mixed in proportions that will
   depend upon how long uranium-decay has been in progress, as well as on
   the initial ratio of U-238 to U-235 in the inclusion. (Since this
   initial ratio for all occurrences of the two uraniums is assumed to be
   a known, fixed ratio,(21) geochronologists have come to put great
   faith in uranium-lead dating techniques.) Assuming that none of the
   daughter products of either decay chain is lost from the mineral under
   study, the ratio of Pb-206 to Pb-207 will vary from about 20 for a
   very young mineral to about 4 for a mineral more than three billion
   years old. Gentry points out that "the theoretical maximum possible
   radiogenic 206 Pb/207 Pb ratio, on the basis of an instantaneous
   production of Pb from U decay, would be 21.8."(22) Yet in polonium
   radiocenters Gentry found that the ratio ranges from about 20 to as
   high as 60.

   Such high values are explainable only if parentless polonium decayed
   to produce most of the Pb-206.

   Thus, in the course of research spanning little more than half a dozen
   years, Gentry had cast doubt on the theoretical foundations of
   radiometric dating by demonstrating that the constancy of decay rates
   cannot be proved by radiohalos, and he had turned up strong evidence
   that seemed to imply an inconceivable process -- the crystallization
   of terrestrial rocks within minutes of the creation of radioelements
   trapped within them.

   Such disturbing results could hardly be ignored or left unchallenged.
   In 1973, three Wayne State University (Michigan) professors sought to
   deflate Gentry's findings. (23 ) These investigators -- two physicists
   and a geologist - frankly stated what they saw as the need for their
   challenge: The existence of polonium halos, unsupported by
   uranium-decay, would cause "apparently insuperable geological problems
   . . ." But their effort was not up to the task, and Gentry turned
   their attack aside with little difficulty.(24)

   The problem remains. And again it seems, to judge from the silence
   that has settled over the subject, that another in a long list of
   geological "anomalies" is in danger of being swept under the rug.

   Can Velikovsky's work throw light on this problem? I believe so.
   Furthermore, it seems entirely reasonable to suspect that Gentry's
   studies of radiohalos have unearthed strong, new support for the
   thesis of Worlds in Collision.

   First, consider Velikovsky's conclusion that interplanetary electric
   discharges in historical times produced a certain amount of element
   building (nuclear fusion) on Earth. (The possibility that similar
   discharges to the Moon may be held responsible for concentrations of
   radioactivity on that body has been discussed elsewhere.(25)) Might we
   not imagine that new polonium (and uranium, too, for that matter) was
   created on Earth, and in place, by powerful thunderbolts?

   It seems unnecessary to speculate that all parentless polonium must
   date from recent (historical) electrical events. If fusion was
   achieved catastrophically in historical times, it undoubtedly was
   achieved in earlier times as well, perhaps under comparable
   circumstances or perhaps on vastly larger scales. The point to be
   considered is that electric discharges of cosmic proportions should be
   capable of creating new elements; even atmospheric lightning is
   credited with producing radionuclides,(26) and all artificial
   element-creation starting with the first fusion reaction ever achieved
   in the laboratory producing technetium from molybdenum, in 1937 -- has
   involved harnessing the forces of the electric discharge.(27)

   Of course, creating parentless polonium (or any other heavy element)
   is one thing; getting it into crustal rocks before it decays seems
   quite another. But here, too, we may be able to draw clues from
   Velikovsky. The same electrical disturbances that led to
   interplanetary arcing and sparking may have temporarily prolonged the
   half-lives of heavy elements that now decay in mere moments.

   All matter, as far as we know, is electrically constituted. Atomic
   nuclei may be said to be "constituted" in spite of electrical forces
   tending to disrupt them; but electrical forces are there to be
   reckoned with. If all this is true, what role might environmental
   electrification play in setting the rules for nuclear stability,
   radioactive-decay rates, and energies of particle-emissions in decay
   processes?

   "If, according to our present interpretation, the elements are made up
   of electropositive and electronegative particles, the combinations
   which these particles will form will depend upon the relative numbers
   of the two kinds. We suppose that every possible stable grouping of
   these ultimate (for our purpose) particles will exist. Some will be
   very stable and some will be upon the verge of instability. The most
   stable groups will be the most numerous. A relatively small change in
   the total number of either electrons or protons will cause some of the
   elements to become unstable . . ." [emphasis added].

   These words were written almost 50 years ago by Fernando Sanford, then
   professor of physics, emeritus, at Stanford University -- a highly
   respected physicist who happened to stray from doctrinaire paths
   thanks to a penchant for letting evidence take precedence over
   preconception. The quoted passage is part of an inquiry as to "what
   phenomena should be observed on an electrified planet which would not
   appear on an unelectrified one"; in this passage he is describing
   conditions that actually prevail on Earth today and help to
   demonstrate its intense electrification.(28)

   We may interpret Sanford's reference to the relative numbers of the
   two kinds of charged particles as a reference to the state of
   electrification -- the ambient electrical stress -- of the Earth.

   Now what if the Earth's state of electrification were altered, even if
   only temporarily? It would seem to follow that decay rates for
   radionuclides might well differ radically from today's norms. Polonium
   isotopes now exhibiting very little stability might then acquire --
   briefly, but long enough -- half-lives in keeping with the evidence of
   the Earth's crustal rocks.

   This is speculation, certainly, but speculation that might be checked
   experimentally by actually subjecting radionuclides to unaccustomed
   electrical stress and seeing whether or not they behave differently.

   It may also be highly significant that radiohalos are found only in
   plutonic rocks -- granites, pegmatites, and the like -- and in
   metamorphosed rocks in close association with plutonic rocks. These
   rocks are themselves the subject of a centuries-old debate as to their
   origin.(29) At issue is what used to be called "the granite problem,"
   an intriguing mystery much too complex to discuss here, but whose
   ultimate solution may also require consideration of physical forces
   well-known today but seldom, if ever, mentioned in the entire course
   of training of a professional geologist.(30)

   In their continuing searches for "the oldest" materials to be found in
   the crust of the Earth, the finding of which brings publicity and
   prestige, geochronologists ardently seek samples of rock of plutonic
   origin from every continent. Yet so long as the origins of such rocks
   evade understanding, so long as doubt remains as to the reality of
   decay "constants," so long as the evidence for element-creation on
   Earth is ignored, and so long as geophysicists fail to examine the
   full spectrum of physics, all announcements of "success" in this
   endeavor must remain questionable. And in the meantime, the
   explanation of discrepant radiohalos seems to require consideration of
   Earth history in terms of cosmic quietude interrupted ftom time to
   time by episodes of Velikovskian violence.

   Author's Note Added in Proof

   The conventional picture of the energetics of alpha-decay is shown by
   the heavy, solid lines in Figure 2. Inside the nucleus is a potential
   well -- a region in which particles can move freely without the action
   of forces, yet which they cannot climb out of so long as their
   individual energies are less than the height of the sides of the well.
   At the top of the potential well the vertically rising potential line
   reverses sharply and gives way to a curve, steeply descending at first
   but gradually leveling out with distance from the nucleus.

   This curve is a hyperbola, a form dictated by the electrostatic nature
   of the forces at work in this region; the curve is, in a sense, a
   curve of electric potential (multiplied by the constant electric
   charge of the alpha particle). The descending curve becomes flatter
   and flatter as it approaches (becomes asymptotic to) a horizontal
   datum line that is, by the same reasoning, essentially a
   representation of "zero" electric potential as well as potential
   energy.*

   [*Unfortunately, but unavoidably, the terms potential (energy) and
   electric potential appear repeatedly in this discussion; I have tried
   to clarify matters by using the full term, electric potential, in each
   instance where electric potential is meant except that---Earth
   potential- is used in the electrical sense to avoid an awkward term
   such as---Earth electric potential."]
   [*!* Image] Figure 2.

   According to experiments best explained by Gamow's wave mechanics, an
   alpha particle escaping from an unstable (radioactive) nucleus does
   not actually climb all the way over the potential barrier rising above
   the datum line. Instead, it tunnels through at some level below the
   top. For example, though the barrier at the boundary of the U-238
   nucleus rises past 9 million electron-volts (mev) above datum, alpha
   particles emerge from this nucleus with energies of only about 4 mev.
   And since their final (observable) energies are due entirely to
   electrostatic repulsion in the region outside the barrier, they
   evidently make their way through the barrier at a level corresponding
   to 4 mev.

   But what is the significance of the datum -- the "zero" of electric
   potential -- from which these energies are measured? Clearly, since
   the data dealt with are derived from terrestrial experiments, this
   "zero" can be nothing other than an arbitrary value assigned to the
   electric potential of the surface of our planet -- Earth potential.

   What, then, if this datum should be shifted - raised or lowered with
   respect to the nuclear potential well, whose dimensions are apparently
   unrelated to electric forces - by a sudden change in Earth potential?

   The Earth appears to be strongly charged with negative electricity, so
   that its surface electric potential is low, which is to say, highly
   negative. Suppose, then, that Earth potential is suddenly lowered by
   just 1 million volts - this, in all likelihood, an almost negligibly
   small fraction of the planet's "normal" negative electric potential.
   The potential (energy) curve outside our radioactive nucleus
   presumably must now change and take the form of the dashed curve in
   the figure. Staying with our example of an atom of U-238, we find that
   an escaping alpha particle (following the same tunnel as before)
   emerges to be accelerated through a voltage drop and to a final energy
   half again as great as before - to about 6 mev. Reference to Figure 1
   (main text) suggests that we should suddenly find that the half-life
   of every atom of U-238 at the surface of the Earth has been reduced
   from 4.5 billion years to something like 1 second! On this basis, any
   abrupt lowering of Earth potential by a mere million volts could be
   expected to produce rampant radioactivity, with consequent lethal or
   at least strongly mutational effects on all forms of life.

   But of course we are probably unjustified in assuming that Figure 1 is
   applicable to the postulated conditions; it may well be that changing
   Earth potentials also shift the curve of Figure 1 up or down, right or
   left, so that changes in half-lives are much less drastic than that
   just described. And it may be, too, that nuclear binding forces are
   not entirely insensitive to environmental electric potentials, and
   that the levels of escape tunnels also vary as datum levels change.

   Nevertheless, it would seem that Earth potentials must be taken into
   account in theories of radioactive decay. And we may be forgiven for
   suggesting here that parentless polonium, sometime in the past when
   the Earth's electric potential was higher than it is today, could well
   have been a radioactive element with a reasonably long half-life, such
   that it could survive periods of cooling and crystallization in
   once-molten rocks.

                            NOTES AND REFERENCES

   1. Glossary of Geology and Related Sciences (Washington: American
   Geological Institute, 1960), p. 225.
   2. In the late 1960's R. V. Gentry referred to pleochroic halos as
   radioactive halos, but by 1971 (Science 173, 727) he had simplified
   the term to radiohalos.
   3. E. Rutherford, Radioactive Transformations (New York: Charles
   Scribner's Sons, 1906); quoted here from excerpts republished in
   Source Book in Geology 1900-1950, K. F. Mather, ed., (Cambridge:
   Harvard University Press, 1967), 115-119.
   4. B. Boltwood (as cited by Rutherford), Philosophical Magazine, April
   1905; American Journal of Science, October 1905.
   5. Cf., H. Faul, Ages of Rocks, Planets, and Stars (New York:
   McGraw-Hill, 1966), pp. 21-22.
   6. J. Joly, Nature 109 (1922), 480.
   7. O. Struve, "Finding the Age of the Earth," Sky & Telescope 18 (June
   1959), 433-435.
   8. G. Gamow wrote in his book, A Star Called the Sun (New York: Bantam
   Books, 1965, p. 111): "Using wave mechanics, the author was able to
   explain the 'paradox' of alpha decay of radioactive nuclei, and to
   give a perfect [sic] theoretical interpretation of the dependence
   between the energies of the emitted alpha particles and the half-lives
   of . . . elements . .
   9. CL, 0. Struve, op. cit.
   10. R. Gentry, "Cosmology and Earth's Invisible Reahn," Medical
   Opinion & Review (October 1967), 65-79.
   11. R. Gentry, American Journal of Physics 33 (1965), 878.
   12. R. Gentry, Science 184 (5 April 1974), 62-66.
   13. R. Gentry, Applied Physics Letters 8 (1 February 1966), 65-67.
   14. (As cited by Gentry): E. Wiman, Bulletin, Geological Institute,
   University of Uppsala 23 (1930), 1; also H. Hirschi, ORNL-tr-702.
   15. R. Gentry, Nature (February 4, 1967), 487-489.
   16. R. Gentry, abstract in American Physical Society Bulletin 12
   (1967), 32.
   17. R. Gentry, Medical Opinion & Review (October 1967), 65-79.
   18. R. Gentry, abstract in EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical
   Union 51 (April 1970), 338.
   19. R. Gentry, Science 169 (14 August 1970), 670-673. Quite recently
   Gentry's name has been prominent in on again-off again reports of
   finding evidence for extinct superheavy elements; see, e. g., reports
   by A. L. Robinson, Science 193 (16 July 1976), 219-220 and Science 195
   (4 February 1977), 473-474.
   20. R. Gentry, Science 173 (20 August 1971), 727-731.
   21. The abundances of U-235 and U-238 are such that about 7 of every
   1000 uranium atoms found on Earth are U-235; the remaining 993 are
   U-238. TMs, within very narrow limits, is an observational fact.
   22. R. Gentry, op. cit.
   23. C. Moazed, R. M. Spector, and R. F. Ward, Science 180 (22 June
   1973), 1272-1274.
   24. R. Gentry, Science 184 (5 April 1974), 62-66.
   25. R. Juergens, Pensee, Vol. 4, No. 3, Summer 1974,4546.
   26. It has been suggested that lightning may be held accountable for
   the creation of carbon14 and introducing an unknown into
   radiocarbon-dating schemes.
   27. AR of man's devices for accelerating ions to fusion energies are
   basically modeled after the capabilities of natural electric
   discharges.
   28. F. Sanford, Terrestrial Electricity (Palo Alto: Stanford
   University Press, and London: Oxford University Press, 1931;
   reproduced in 1967 by microfilm-xerography by University Microfilms,
   Ann Arbor), Chapter III: "Electrical Charges of the Earth and the
   Sun."
   29. Cf., M. Walton, Science 131 (4 March 1960), 635-645; see also
   references cited therein. In the near future I plan to prepare a paper
   suggesting an answer to W. R Bucher's question ("The Crust of the
   Earth," Scientific American, May 1950): "Where did the granite come
   from, and where did the sediments [that formerly occupied regions now
   filled with granite] go?" The question is one that has never yet been
   answered satisfactorily, and I believe that the explanation for this
   puzzling situation, as well as for the fact that the Earth's
   radioactive elements are concentrated in granitic rocks, is to be
   found in granite origins as a result of electrical breakdown of
   pre-existing sediments during Earth catastrophes of the kind described
   by Velikovsky.
   30. I refer, of course, to the forces pertaining to electrical
   science.
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