This is the fourth of six chapters with attention directed to the physical geography of Mars and its two satellites - the scars from Astra's fragmentation - the evidence.  This topic encompasses chapters 1 through 6.

Nothing would set off a cycle of magnetic surges, and an orchestra of volcanic activity more quickly than would a close planetary flyby.  A sudden, invading gravity such as the Earth would disturb and disrupt the molecules of the magma within Mars.  How much would the magma be disturbed and relocated?  For rotating planets, tidal forces respond according to the inverse cube law.  Tides vary according to the inverse of the distance cubed.

For planets like Mars and the Earth, this means that as the distance between the two is halved, the tidal surges therein, created by each in the other planet, are increased eight fold.

As distances were halved twice, tidal volumes proportionately increase 64-fold.  As distances were halved three times, as from 240,000 miles to 120,000 to 60,000 to 30,000, tidal volumes respond by increasing (8 x 8 x 8) 512-fold.  From 240,000 miles, the distance of the Moon to 15,000 miles, tidal forces would have increased 4,096 fold (512x8).  These conditions would produce massive magnetic surges.

The momentary subject is magnetic tides within Mars, not within the Earth.  Mars has an estimated crustal thickness of about 20 miles, twice the thickness of the Earth.  Also its radius of curvature is greater, making its crust more rigid.

The crust of Mars has very little flex, or elasticity in contrast to the Earth's crust.  Therefore, for Mars, with no crustal elasticity, its primary mechanism was to relieve internal distress through volcanism.  This, plus the probability that Mars suffered several hundred Earth and Venus flybys, is why the volcanoes of Mars are so gigantic.

By the consensus of geologists, there have been 170 paleomagnetic polarity reversals recorded in Earth lava flows.  A foundation will be laid that each flyby produced a geomagnetic field polarity reversal.  Therefore there is some evidence that Mars-Earth flybys repeated, and recurred perhaps 150 to 200 times.  There is reason to assume that Mars-Venus flybys were similarly numerous.  Therefore there might have been 350 planetary flybys involving Mars all together.

On Mars, its gigantic volcanoes are all located in its Serene Hemisphere, just like the two bulges, the Tharsis Bulge, the Elysium Bulge and gigantic rift system, the Valles Marineris.  These are all indications that the Martian crust is somewhat thinner in its Serene Hemisphere.  On Mars, 90% of the volcanoes are located on the huge Tharsis Bulge, and 10% are located on the Elysium Bulge.

Basaltic traps occur when there are one or two vast bleedings of lava on a planet's crust.  Basaltic traps are generally flat, and like lakes, sometimes are very broad.

On the other hand, volcanic cones occur when there have been many dozens, perhaps hundreds of successive lava outflows out of one caldera, or volcanic crater.  They build up by repeated eruptions.  Volcanic cones typically have gradients of 5%, 6% or even 7%.

In the Serene Hemisphere of Mars, gigantic volcano cones occur whereas very little ones are found on the Earth.  The size of the Martian volcanoes is a reflection of how many and how close its ancient flybys were of the Earth and Venus.

In the Serene Hemisphere of Mars are found the loftiest, broadest dozen volcanoes in this Solar System.  They are few in number, and that is a reflection of how thick the crust of Mars is.  But their gigantic sizes are a reflection of how many spasms of catastrophism the red planet experienced.

Vast volcanism is a reflection on which planet experienced the most internal distress, and which planet suffered the greatest number of crustal/magma squeezes.  During those repeated squeezes, magma gushed out of its vents or calderas in vigorous volumes of white hot gushing lava.

BASALTIC TRAPS.  The Columbia Plateau of Washington-Oregon-Idaho is such a basaltic plateau, covering 150,000 sq. miles of surface, including minor parts of Southern British Columbia and Northern Utah in addition.  The vents were many and the bleeding was simultaneous.  The basaltic Deccan Plateau of India is an even bigger example, and its genesis will be discussed in Volume III.  Vents such as this are found in Arizona also.  A basaltic trap, formed by one vast bleeding of magma, is not to be confused with a volcanic cone.

VOLCANIC CONES.  In contrast, single, individual volcanoes are built up slowly and regularly by numerous layers from repeated eruptions of lava and ejecta from the same caldera.  Volcanoes require multiple dozens, if not hundreds of eruptions and outflows of magma, to gradually build up their cones.

Two or three eruptions do not produce sufficient ejecta for a volcanic cone.  Two or three dozen eruptions might create a small volcanic cone.  A hundred eruptions from the same crater will build a volcano on the Earth; it was the same on Mars.  As was mentioned earlier, volcanoes have steep gradients, with slopes having angles typically ranging around 6%.  On the other hand, basaltic plateaus are flat, like lakes.

Volcanoes have deep vents, where lava outflows, or flows out at temperatures ranging between 2,000 and 3,000° F.  In time, the magma cooled, hardened and became black.  Volcanoes build up slowly, by repeated spasms, and by repeated up thrust flows through unplugged vents.  When a vent becomes plugged with cold, solidified lava, it is called a “pipe.”  Sometimes volcanic pipes contain a sprinkling of diamonds.

CALDERAS (BLOW-HOLES).  On the Earth, calderas, craters in the cone of a volcano, are usually but a fraction of a mile or two in diameter, though some have diameters up to three miles.  Crater diameters are one indication of how much ejecta was expelled through its vent (or vents).  Nothing on the Earth's surface compares to the caldera size of Martian volcanoes.

The caldera of Olympus Mons is measured at 50 miles in diameter.  The caldera diameter another huge giant, Arsia Mons, is even wider at 65 miles. The caldera diameter Pavonis Mons is estimated at 20 miles.  That of Ascraeus Mons is estimated at 24 miles.  The caldera of Ulysses Patera is about 20 miles in diameter as is the caldera of Biblis Patera.  Alber Tholus has a crater diameter estimated at 15 miles.  Tharsis Tholus is estimated at 12 miles wide.  By Earth standards, all of these calderas are immense vents, indications of vast volumes of lava outflows.

One could stuff all of metropolitan Los Angeles into the caldera of Arsia Mons.  New York City and most of its suburbs could be stuffed into the caldera of Olympus Mons.  Chicago, including all of Lake County and Du Page County also could be stuffed into the caldera of Olympus Mons.  Two Philadelphia’s or ten San Francisco’s could be stuffed into the caldera of Pavonis Mons.

By contrast, on the Earth, the Mauna Loa caldera on Hawaii averages only three miles in diameter, and this is the Earth's largest volcano, rising from 20,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean to 13,700 feet above sea level.

The caldera of the famed Kilimanjaro is 1.5 miles in diameter.  This volcano is only 13,000 feet high, rising from a base on a 6,000-foot plateau to 19,324 feet. The caldera of the famed Ararat is one mile in diameter.  Ararat rises only 12,000 feet above the highlands of Eastern Turkey.

Compared to the volcanoes of Mars, volcanoes such as Kilimanjaro, Ararat, Etna, Popocatapetl, Shasta and Rainier are just five widely scattered pimples on different continents.  The vast volcanoes of Mars, on the other hand, are much larger and are clustered into only two regions.

ELEVATIONS ON THE EARTH.  Huge volcanoes on the Earth typically rise 6,000 to 10,000 feet above the surrounding terrain.  Examples are the fore mentioned Kilimanjaro and Ararat.  Other well-known examples include Rainier, Popocatepetl, Etna, Shasta, Hood, Baker and Cotopaxi.  Mauna Loa-Mauna Kea on Hawaii, rising some 30,000 feet from an oceanic floor, is not typical.

ON MARS.  On Mars, the highest volcano is Olympus Mons.  Its elevation is estimated at 82,500 feet, or 15.6 miles.  The height of Olympus Mons is measured from the surrounding plain; there is no such thing as mean sea level on Mars.

Ascraeus Mons is the second highest volcano in our Solar System, and has a crater rim about 50,000 feet above the surrounding plain.  There is 5% to 7% grades for the slopes of Martian volcanoes.  Arsia Mons is estimated at 40,000 feet, as is Pavonis Mons.  They are third and fourth highest and widest in the Solar System.

CONIC BASES.  Olympus Mons has a conic base with a diameter of 325 miles, and an area of 101,000 sq. miles.  Its volcano base area compares to the area of such states as Arizona, or Colorado or New Mexico.  On the basis of conic volumes, Olympus Mons contains 525,000 cubic miles of ejecta materials, largely lava.

Ascraeus Mons has a volcanic base of 50,000 miles, more area than the state of Ohio.  Its area also compares well with the areas of Pennsylvania or Bulgaria.  Ascraeus Mons, at 50,000 ft., has a volume of nearly 150,000 cu. miles.

The cone of Arsia Mons has an area of some 29,000 sq. miles, and is 40,000 ft. high.  Its volcanic base area is about equal to that of South Carolina.  Arsia's volume is estimated at 73,000 cu. miles.

Pavonis Mons has a volcanic cone base area of 38,000 sq. miles, much like the areas of Hungary or Indiana.  At 40,000 ft. high, its volume is 76,000 cu. mi.

The volume of these four giants totals some 825,000 cu. mi.  If this volume of basalt were used to pave the state of Illinois, from Chicago and the Wisconsin line down to Cairo, the entire state of Illinois would be paved 14.5 miles high.

Figure 7 is a photo of Olympus Mons, in the “Serene” Hemisphere of Mars.  It is the serene side of Mars only for craters, but not for rifting or for volcanism.  For comparisons in both height and breadth, Figure 8 compares the sizes of Olympus Mons on Mars, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and Mt. Ararat in Turkey.

By contrast the following table shows the volumes for some of the best known volcanoes on the Earth:
 
 

Ancient Greeks reported sighting and also, perhaps, the timing the orbits of tiny Deimos and Phobos.  The three diameters of the fragment, Phobos, average 14.7 miles.  Three of the diameters of even littler Deimos average 7.90 miles.  Tiny or otherwise, nevertheless, the ancient Greeks did report seeing them, and apparently they (or more likely their Sumerian predecessors) named them.  Whether or not someone in ancient times observed and sketched their orbits is a topic for Chapter 11.

Those furious, fiery eruptions on Mars, glowing in the dark, were perhaps a mile or two wide and were scores of miles long; some were over 100 miles long.  The flowing rivers of lava on Mars were longer if not wider than Deimos and Phobos.  And they started out white hot, and changed to yellow, orange, red and reddish black.  Deimos and Phobos are low in albedo (reflectivity).  Those rivers of lava probably glowed brighter than did the two satellites of Mars.

The caldera of Olympus Mons is 50 miles in diameter.  The diameters of Deimos and Phobos are 10 and 15 miles in diameter.  The caldera of Olympus Mons is almost 2,000 sq. miles in area.  This is three times the diameter of Phobos and five times the diameter of Deimos.  As the rivers of lava were longer than Deimos and Phobos, the calderas of the big four on Mars were wider also.  If Deimos and Phobos could be seen by Greek eyes, so could they.

On Olympus Mons, those glowing rivers of lava began at the caldera, the crater.  Rivers of hot, incandescent lava flowed for up to 180 miles apparently in all directions down its sides and onto the plain beyond.  If they were seen by ancient Greek eyes, were they also reported?

Hesiod saw the final flyby in 701 B.C.E. from Greece.  He saw it in its celestial splendor, and in its frightful context also.  He penned the following:
 

There grew a hundred snake heads, those of a dreaded dragon,
and the heads licked with dark tongues, and from the eyes on
the inhuman heads fire glittered from under the eyelids;
from all his heads fire flared from his eyes' glancing; [n1]

On manslaughtering Ares, as he came onward, keeping his dread eyes upon him,
Like a lion that has come on a victim, and with his strong claws, violently tears up the hide. [n2]

In Theogony, another work of Hesiod, he endeavored to put down the cosmic history of Mars scenes for perhaps 1,500 years.  The following passage is about Thyphoeus (Typhoon), an archetype of Mars.  This is the origin of our word “typhoon.”
 

The hands and arms of him are mighty, and have work in them,
and the feet of the powerful god were tireless, and up from his shoulders,
there grew a hundred snake heads, those of a dreaded dragon,
and the heads licked with dark tongues, and from the eyes on
the inhuman heads fire glittered from under the eyelids;
from all his heads fire flared from his eyes' glancing;
and inside each one of these horrible heads there were voices
that threw out every sort of horrible sound, … [n3]

At least seven times in Theogony, Hesiod referred back to the earliest times in Greek collective memory, which were the times of one “Iapetus”.  Iapetus has long been identified as the Hebrew Japheth of Genesis 8, a grandson of Noah.  One of Japheth's sons was Javan, from which is derived “Ionian.”  And one of Javan's sons was Elishah, or Hellas.  Greeks prefer to call themselves “Hellenes”, after Hellas, a great grandson of Noah. “Hellas” is also the name of the largest asteroid crater in the Solar System.

Other families related to the Hellenes include Tarshish (Trojans), Kittim (Cypriots) and Dodanim (Dodecanese).  Clearly, Hesiod assessed a historical era for the Greeks that was parallel to that of the Hebrews as occurs in early Genesis.

Job lived during a serious Mars flyby time, he also probably saw the rivers of lava flow from the calderas of Olympus Mons, Arsia, Ascraeus and/or Pavonis Mons during the devastating flyby of his era, so damaging to his land of Uz.  The Book of Job describes an October case Mars flyby.  Mars was the celestial dragon of the cosmos, going by the nickname of Leviathan, the serpent of the cosmos.  It was during the October Mars flyby of the 18th century B.C.E.
 

They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.
By his sneezings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.
Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or cauldron.
His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.   Job 41:17-21

Apparently Job saw the volcanoes of Mars “awaken, like eyelids in the morning.  When viewed from the Earth, and through the Earth's ashy, hazy, smoky atmosphere, those flows of hot lava may have taken on a reddish hue, due to the vast volume of contaminants beclouding our planets’ atmosphere.  People who have fought forest fires have observed at noontime a blood-red Sun and/or Moon.

Out of the caldera of Olympus Mons, over its active life, bled an estimated 525,000 cubic miles of lava and ejecta.  Geologists estimate 170 paleomagnetic polarity reversals - their estimate may or may not be correct.

Geologists, gradualists in principle, despite all evidence to the contrary, do not realize that it was Mars flybys that caused paleomagnetic polarity reversals.

Even more important, they have failed to realize the collective Mars flybys were the ancient generator (dynamo) of the Earth's geomagnetic field, a field now dead.  As a result of no more flybys, the Earth's geomagnetic field is dead with a residual decay rate of a half life of 1,350 years.  A foundation for this knowledge will be laid in Volume IV.

Perhaps there were 350 Mars flybys of the Earth, some very close, some not as close to the Earth and Venus.  A “close” flyby is considered to have been under 75,000 miles, planet center to center.  To be discrete, 20% of the ancient Mars flybys were “mega-catastrophes”, but the majority of 80% were in the 35,000 to 65,000 mile range.  The position and resulting influence of Saturn, for instance, could readjust how close Mars came from flyby to flybys.  A foundation for this conclusion will be laid in Volume III, entitled The Flood of Noah.

This estimate of flybys indicates that there were 350.  Divide 525,000 cubic miles of lava by 350.  Thus, during an “average” flyby of Mars, of either Venus or the Earth, 1,500 CUBIC MILES OF LAVA flowed out of the caldera of Olympic Mons alone.  Flows from Ascraeus Mons, Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, etc. were in addition.  What Job saw was an average flyby; what Hesiod saw was a mega-catastrophe.

The streams of lava on Olympic Mons may have been gushing in a stream 150 miles long before they began to cool down and ceased to flow during those frigid Mars nights, normal temperatures below -150° F.  Beginning as white hot, cooling while flowing, they glowed at colors successively from white to yellow, orange, red, dark red and black.

Consider what kind of a river of lava would be made by a 1,500 cubic mile flow, or even 15 cubic mile flow.  Consider what an impressive visual a reproduction of a flyby scene would make.  If Phobos and Deimos were seen by ancient Greeks and their predecessors, it is probable that those streams of glowing, reddish, orange lava also were seen.  Seen also were the eruptions preceding the lava flows.  They were seen flowing down the sides of Olympus Mons, Arsia, Ascraeus, Pavonis and other Martian volcanoes.  Lava must have flowed down the sides of Olympus Mons at velocities of 20, 30 and even 35 mph.

What does the Book of Job mean when it describes Leviathan: “Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.  His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.  Job. 41:21.  ... “out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.”  Translators and Bible readers have puzzled for a couple of millennia.

The distance between Mars and the Earth for the Final Flyby that Hesiod reported was much closer than an the average flyby.  In chapters 9 and 10, an estimate is made of the Final Flyby, 27,000 miles from the Earth's center, and 21,000 miles from closest surface to closest surface.  In Chapters 9 and 10, a method is developed for estimating the distances for the final flybys by Mars of both Venus and of the Earth.

Volcanic outflows comprise a measure of how much internal distress Mars experienced from flybys of the Earth and Venus.  Paleomagnetic polarity reversals and 108-year cyclicism suggest how intensely and often Mars was squeezed?  The astronomical history of Mars has been one of repeated, massive cosmic squeezes.

Perhaps the best comparison is the repeated firing of blast furnaces, daily producing fiery iron ingots.  The difference between our blast furnaces and pouring of fiery iron and these blast furnaces of Mars is that on Mars, the magma was squeezed out of huge vents into huge rivers flowing up to 150 miles long across its cold surface.  At blast furnaces, liquid iron is poured into small heat resistant molds, a little at a time.

The vast, vicious, violent, voracious, volcanic flows from Mars (Olympus Mons, etc.) are testimony as to how energetic and also how numerous those planet skirmishes were.  The dating of the literature by Abraham and Job are testimony as to how repeated they were.  A close analysis of chronological dates and flyby scenes can yield a 108-year cyclicism.  Testimony by Hesiod and Isaiah indicate how remote they were in time .... billions of minutes ago, 14.2 billions of them to be more or less precise.  .

Earlier, a foundation was laid to understand that the crust of Mars is somewhat thicker than the Earth's crust, being colder and being made of lighter materials.  It is more rigid, less elastic.  During Mars flybys, the Earth's crust could absorb some of its internal distress merely by elastic flexing of its crust (earthquakes).  But the primary mechanism of relief of internal distress was different for Mars; it was volcanism.

The sizes of the volcanoes on Mars indicate how dreadful was the internal distress which Mars suffered in the Catastrophic Age.  Job, Hesiod and other ancients merely caught glimpses of Mar’s volcanism as it was erupting.

Story 8 of the catastrophic skyscraper is that during the Mars-Earth Wars, SUDDEN, MASSIVE INTERNAL DISTRESS WITHIN MARS WAS RELIEVED LARGELY THROUGH VOLCANISM.  Olympic Mons was the primary vent.  Ascraeus Mons, Arsia Mons and Pavonis Mons also were contributing vents, as were a dozen lesser volcanoes.  Once again to paraphrase Guthrie, the volcanoes of Mars are definitely high, wide and handsome.  In comparison to them, Kilimanjaro and Popocatapetl, Etna and Ararat, are next to nothing.

There are numerous aspects to scenes painted by the ancients who saw the flybys and left records of their views.  Words were used describing aspects of planetary catastrophism.  For instance, there are the eyes of Ares, red and bloodshot, flowing and glowing in the dark, spewing out clouds of smoke and streams of fiery fluid.  Those red “eyes,” glowing in the dark, probably were the calderas of Olympus, Arsia, Ascraeus, Pavonis, etc.

A review of Greek cosmo-mythology provides the one-eyed Cyclops, the evil Medusa, the speedy Perseus, the ugly Gorgons, the devastating Typhon, the swift Pegasus, the bloody Chrysaor, etc.  All were among the Greek archetypes of Mars.  The Greeks had many nicknames for Ares for its various flybys.

The genesis of the massive volcanoes of Mars were planetary flybys of the Earth and Venus.  These ordeals of Mars were repeating, and as shall be demonstrated in Volume III, were cyclic in 108-year cycles.  It was the long series of squeeze plays put on Mars by its two neighbors, the Earth and Venus.

Story 9 is that, just like Deimos and Phobos, while these Martian volcanoes were near the Earth, erupting, THOSE ERUPTIONS WERE VISIBLE TO THE ANCIENTS.  They were described, albeit in horrible, ugly terms, in the literatures of the ancients.  Those scenes they described were not very pretty, but they were painted fairly accurately - often by eye witnesses.

With story 9, the reader is now 37% of the way to the penthouse of planetary catastrophism.