According to the Earth's stratigraphic record, of both the Eastern and the Western Hemispheres, it has experienced numerous and repeated floods.  The flood in the time of Noah was the most remarkable event to the ancients of the Eastern Hemisphere, but it was by no means the only celestial event.

The Earth also has experienced at least one ice age - possibly two or, less likely, three according to planetary catastrophism, but five or six according to gradualists.  But what about the surface of our neighbor, Mars?

The atmosphere of Mars is unlike the Earth's in all ways.  Mars has very little atmosphere.  At its surface, atmospheric pressure is less than 1% of the Earth's pressure.  Further, of what thin atmosphere Mars has, it contains only tiny percentages of water vapor (0.03%) or oxygen (0.13%).  There are no oceans, lakes or seas on Mars.  Therefore, how likely is it that the surface of Mars should show evidence of water activity?  Of rampaging water action?

Perhaps the most controversial of all Martian surface features are the channels.  Did they form as a result of the action of running water or not?  ...

It is possible to recognize three kinds of channel; (sic) runoff channels, outflow channels and fretted channels. [n1]

In viewing the early photos of the surface of Mars from Mariner 4, 6 and 7 in the 1960's, astronomers and geologists were astounded at the seemingly impossible.  Numerous dry river beds were found, some once containing water flowing at speeds at velocities estimated from 25 mph to 40 mph.

This is on a planet whose normal surface night time temperatures approach -200° F.  The longest of the Martian dry river beds is 400 miles, which is long enough for 16 hours of rampaging waters, flash flooding at 25 mph.  It would seem that Mars had rampaging rivers, but those rivers did not rampage for as long as two 24-hour days.  The waters soon froze in the coldness of their first Martian night.

All of its dry river beds but one are in what has been designated as the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars, 0° to longitude 180 W.  The one dry river bed which is in the Western Hemisphere is at its extreme eastern edge.

Thus, like its asteroid craters, its dry river beds have a one-hemisphere preference, in this case its Eastern Hemisphere.  It was found that the craters of Mars have a one-hemisphere preference; now its dry river beds do also.  However, the two hemispheres do not share the same centers either in latitude or longitude.

It was found that the asteroid fragments hitting Mars arrived suddenly.  Since the rivers have a one-hemisphere preference, and since they rampaged, but only for a dozen or so hours, it is concluded that the waters of Mars, like the fragments of Astra, arrived suddenly, from space.

Water, in immense volumes (like a flash flood) once flowed on the surface of a planet with no water clouds, no oceans, no rain, no rivers, no canals and no snow falls - at least from water-based snow.  (Mars does have some carbon dioxide snow and concentrated carbon dioxide ice in its polar regions.)

There is ample evidence on Mars of the work of a fluid agent.  There are numerous examples of what appear to be ancient stream beds and other water-sculptured terrain. [n2]

The atmospheric pressure on Mars is less than one-hundredth of what it is on Earth.  In effect, this means the air is as rarefied on the Martian surface as it is at the height of 30,000 m on Earth.  At pressures such as this and at Martian temperatures, liquid water becomes unstable and freezes on the surface.

Another effect of such a rarefied atmosphere is that the transportation of material along the surface (saltation) and the raising of fine material to form dust clouds are a conspicuous characteristic of the Martian landscape. [n3]

Its surface temperatures almost always are subzero, often far subzero.  Occasionally, in equatorial zones, in its summertime, in the middle of its 24-hour day, surface temperatures may rise to 50° F., some 20° above freezing, for a few hours.  But when the middle of the night comes, temperatures again plunge to -150( or -180° F., even in summer time.

On the Earth at night time, due to radiation, with no wind, temperatures may drop as much as 3° per hour.  Temperatures during a Martian night can drop from +50° F. to -190° F. in twelve hours.  This 240° in twelve hours is an average drop of 20° F. per hour during the Martian night.  What an unlikely place is the surface of Mars to expect evidence of onrushing rivers, sudden lakes or as some have said, water-carrying canals, involving life and civilization on Mars?

Among planets and their atmospheres, there is a phenomenon known as “escape velocity.”  It relates to the energy of motion of various molecules.  Different gases have different escape velocities, with lighter gases having lower escape velocities.

The more massive a planet is, the more easily its gravity retains all molecules that can comprise an atmosphere.  Conversely, the smaller a planet is, the harder it is for it to retain the lighter gases that could compose an atmosphere.
 
 

The small mass of Mars is the reason Mars has so little atmosphere, but there is some.  Mars neither presently has nor ever has had much oxygen or water vapor in its atmosphere.  In fact by Earth or Venus standards, MARS IS EXTREMELY DRY, AND HAS NEVER HAD MUCH ATMOSPHERE AT ALL.  All astronomers and most physicists realize this.

Therefore, when scientists suggest that there “might be” or “might have been” fossils of ancient life on Mars, it is contrary to the logic of escape velocity for O₂, N₂ and H₂O.  It is also contrary to the logic in the photographic evidence from the Mariner 6, 7 and 9 missions.

Some scientists who so speculate are merely posturing, needing some basis for favorable project grants from legislative bodies that are unaware of these troubling realities.  Yet, such allegations do help to convince Congress to appropriate billions of dollars for Mars projects.  Such allegations, if in concert with a supportive press, does help to drum up support.

However, there are valid reasons for funding missions to Mars.  One reason is to search the debris of, reportedly, a former ring system.  A second reason is to search its lava outflows for evidence of paleomagnetic polarity reversals.

A third reason is to determine the isotopic nature of any former ice that is locked in subsurface soils.  Does Mars ice lack the oxygen 18 isotope and the deuterium mixture that characterizes Antarctic ice, 4,000 feet below sea level, resting on bed rock, today?  Or is Martian ice similar in character similar to water and ice on our planet?

Gases in rarefied atmospheres such as that of Mars escape at different rates.  Free hydrogen (H₂) and helium escape first.  Water vapor escapes second, atomic weight 18, H₂O.  Third fastest is nitrogen, atomic weight 28.  Fourth fastest is oxygen, atomic weight 32.  These gases cannot be retained by Mars at either its present or its ancient mass.

Argon, atomic weight 40, can be retained by Mars.  Carbon dioxide, CO₂, atomic weight 44 can be retained also, as can some other exotic gases like neon and krypton.  This being said, the surface of nearby Mars is indeed a most unlikely place to find much in the way of usable water, with its deep subzero temperatures at night.

Thus, on Mars there is no growing season, no running water, no irrigation districts, no water-filled canals, no hydraulic engineers, no siphons, no flumes, and no farmers irrigating their fields on the red planet.  But what has the literature of astronomy had to say on this before the Mariner 6, 7 and 9 missions, 1969-1971?  The fact is that idea of life on Mars has fascinated scientists and non-scientists alike for the last two centuries.

William Herschel (1738 - 1822)

William Herschel was an amateur astronomer who built the finest reflecting telescope of his time, in his back yard.  Using it, he became a professional astronomer.  With his telescope, he discovered the planet Uranus, two satellites of Saturn and the rate of rotation of Mars.  Herschel hoped that what he was seeing on the surface of Mars was a primordial ocean.  He became the first president of the Royal Astronomical Society in London.

By Herschel's time, astronomers, looking at poorly defined images of Mars, were speculating that Mars was a planet that was much like the Earth, perhaps brimming with life.  Herschel supported such speculations, adding that on the surface of Mars, dark spots were Martian oceans.  Escape velocities for gases at that time were not understood.

But to Herschel, this meant water “must be” abundant on the surface of Mars.  He also considered that the polar ice caps that he saw were evidence of water snow and ice; white carbon dioxide ice didn't occur to him.

Herschel, like Swedenborg, was one of the earliest examples of astronomers wanting to believe there is or was life on other planets.  The wish for life to be found elsewhere in the Solar System has not vanished with adverse evidence.  It continues but is located elsewhere; merely the distances from the Earth have been extended from 150 million miles to other galaxies thousands of light years distant.

In the first half of our century, the popular wish or yearning for this legend supported Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon comic strips and sold countless tabloid newspapers.  Planet wars was the theme in a few movies of the 1930's, usually featuring Mars inhabited by men made of clay.

More recently, this yearning has supported some popular movies and television series.  Necessarily now, the region for life on another planet is far away in the Milky Way or in another galaxy.  No longer is it the nearby planets, the evidence now being so adverse.  As has often been the case, wishful thinking runs ahead of evidence.
 

Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835 - 1910)

Giovanni Schiaparelli was an excellent astronomer, and he rose to be the director of the Brera Observatory in Milan.  He made some important discoveries relating to asteroids, comets and meteor streams.  He also determined the axis of rotation on Mars, and devoted himself to writing a series of essays on the surface of Mars.

Occasions occur once every 15 years when, in their orbits, Mars and the Earth are particularly close - at distances of 40,000,000 to 45,000,000 miles.  The summer of 1877 was such an occasion.  The weather was favorable.  Schiaparelli had a new, fine 8-inch refractor telescope.  He focused it on the surface of Mars.  He saw numerous lines, and reported them, in Italian naturally, as “canali.”

Schiaparelli's report of “canali,” or lines on Mars by telegraph was transmitted to New York.  The Italian word “canali” could have been translated equally well as “canals,” “channels” or “lines.”  Schiaparelli meant “lines.”

But in boisterous New York City, this most exuberant of cities in l877, as either chance or “excessive optimism” would have it, “canali” was translated as “canals” - with all that canals imply in the English language.  Canals imply metering equipment, siphons, ditches, surveys, hydraulic engineers, artificial reservoirs, irrigation, flow gates, flumes, farmers, agriculture, cities, etc.

Schiaparelli's report, as translated in New York, became sensational.  In cities up and down the Eastern Seaboard, newspapers containing mistranslations of Schiaparelli's account sold in record numbers.  Canals meant life was indeed on another planet, and a neighboring one at that.  “Life” included irrigation works, oases, engineers, farmers, perhaps even cities, universities and other astronomers!

Canals also imply intelligent engineering, surveys, major construction projects and an intensive agriculture.  Probably Mars had intelligent engineers, brawny farmers, fragrant fields, overflowing oases, and perhaps even avid astronomers with their telescopes, watching our planet.

The theories of Charles Darwin, seemingly, had been right; moreover, confirmation of Darwin's theory now had surfaced in record time, less that thirty years.  The speculation developed in a carnival atmosphere.
 

Percival Lowell (1855 - 1916)

Lowell, a member of a brilliant, New England family, was educated at Harvard but not in science.  His studies were in business, literature and the arts.  He spent several years in the Far East, including Korea and Japan.  There, he had written “Choson” (Korea) (1885), “The Soul of the Far East” (1888) and “Occult Japan” (1895).

In the mid 1890's, inspired by the translation of Schiaparelli's “canals” on Mars, Lowell determined to devote his energy and his inheritance to this popular matter.  He took up the pen and went on a well paid lecture circuit.  He wrote “Mars and its Canals” (1906), “Mars as the Abode of Life” (1908), “The Evolution of the Worlds” (1910) and in the year he died, “The Genesis of the Planets” (1916).

Lowell became a popular public lecturer and received numerous scientific honors.  He associated with astronomers.  He was instrumental in the choice of a site for a new astronomical observatory, near Flagstaff, Arizona.  It was over 7,000 feet above sea level.  There, skies were usually clear at night, and there were no glaring city lights.  The atmosphere was thinner, and there was no smog.  Now famous in science, and a leading proponent for this new observatory, he was honored by having this new observatory named in his honor, the Lowell Observatory.

Lowell, among others, came to suspect the existence of at least one Trans-Neptunian planet.  Tiny perturbations in the position of Neptune pointed in that direction.  At this observatory, a fifteen-year search project was instituted to find one.  Fittingly, it was at this observatory where the planet Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh.

Tombaugh was accorded the privilege of naming the new planet; he chose the Greek name “Pluto.”  Pluto was the Greek deity of the underworld.  And not coincidentally, its first two letters, “P” and “L”, were the initials of his mentor, and his observatory's founder, Percival Lowell.  It was all quite fitting.

Lowell inspired much new and burgeoning interest in astronomy.  His books inspired comic strips of the 1920's and B-rated cinemas of men on other planets in the l930's and l940's.  In his wake, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers became household words.  More recently, this widespread yearning, partly from his heritage, has inspired Star Trek and other television programs.  But they are about intergalactic travel, not Martian adventures.

In the years following Lowell's death (1916), every time there was an “opposition” (near approach) of Mars, once every 15 years, telescopes would be turned toward Mars, with the big question being asked, “Is there life on Mars?”  The telescopes were not good enough to resolve the question.  About 50% of the astronomers said they didn't see lines on Mars, and the other half affirmed that lines seemed to be there.

Sketches of those legendary lines were made by astronomers at various locations, independently.  Next they were collected and were compared.  Collusion between sketchers was out of the question.  When some of those sketches more or less matched, they were used by the “Life on Mars” proponents to announce that here was additional proof; indeed, there was life on Mars.

The non-matching and blank sketches were ignored.  The astronomers who didn't see lines on Mars, and were more skeptical, also were less vocal, or else they weren't nearly as good copy for the newspapers.  And so the issue continued, basically unresolved, after Lowell's death for another 48 years.
 

The Pickerings

Edward Charles Pickering (1846-1919) was a famous American astronomer of the early 20th century, among other positions, was director of the southern station of Harvard College Observatory, at Arequipa, Peru.  His brother, William Henry Pickering (1858-1938) cooperated with him, and discovered another satellite of Saturn and predicted the ninth planet, Pluto.
 

He made careful studies of Mars, claiming that the canals crossed the dark areas as well as the other tracts, and that where two canals crossed there was usually a dark, circular path or “oasis.”  Eventually he proved that the dark areas on Mars were not aqueous. [n4]

James S. Pickering wrote about life on Mars as late as 1959 as follows:
 

What is the green on Mars?  Probably vegetation.  There is a seasonal change in the color of the green regions in general, which follows to some extent the pattern of the seasonal color change in vegetation on the Earth.  The green areas on Mars are faint and delicate during the Martian spring; they grow much darker and, in some cases, almost blue-green in the Martian summer; yellow and brown in the fall, and a rather lifeless gray in winter.  The green regions are probably not covered with grass or trees, because they do not show the same sort of reflection of light that is produced by a chlorophyll plant.  The vegetation, if such it is, is likely to be a sort of lichen which can grow in little or no soil, with a minimum of moisture and can withstand extremely cold temperatures. [n5]

So the issue continued, probable according to many authorities, but unresolved, ... until the 1960's.

Early in 1959, Pioneer 4 discovered the Earth's planetary magnetic field in space.  Later that year, Luna l, 2 and 3 (Russian) and Pioneer 4 all made flybys orbiting the Moon.  Vanguard 3 studied solar radiation in space.  An exciting era for astronomy had just opened.

In 1960, Atlas 4 and 5 failed to reach the Moon, and Pioneer 5 sent data back of the solar wind in space.  In 1961, the Soviet Venera 1 came within 6,000,000 miles of Venus.  In early l962, Ranger 3 and 5 missed the Moon, but Ranger 4 landed on the Moon, but its cameras failed.  The USSR’s Cosmos 3 and 7 studied solar flares.  Mariner 2 made a flyby of Venus at 20,000 miles.  Mars 1 (USSR) missed Mars.

In 1963, Explorer 18 orbited the Earth at 150,000 miles, monitoring solar flares.  Two more USSR space probes missed the Moon.  In 1964, Ranger 6 landed on the Moon but again the systems failed.  Next, Ranger 7 and 8 landed on the Moon and also sent over 11,000 photographs of its surface.

Russia's Zond 1 approached Venus.  Zond 2, sent to Mars, failed in 1965.  In November, 1964, Mariner 4 finally succeeded in making a close flyby of Mars and transmitted 21 pictures of its surface before contact was lost.  More data was needed.  As to the question of life on Mars, the results became increasingly unpromising.

In February 1969, Mariner 6 was launched and made a successful flyby of Mars, transmitting 75 pictures.  It approached within 2,100 miles of its surface.  A month later, Mariner 7 transmitted 126 pictures also from 2,100 miles of the Martian surface.  The technology was exciting but it was a bad year for those yearning for life to be found on Mars.  Later that year, Armstrong walked on the Moon and brought back some samples of Moon rocks.

1971.  Two years later, Mariner 9 flew within 2,100 miles of Mars and transmitted returned 7,326 images of the surface of Mars.  These images revealed unimaginable scars of catastrophism, indicating a surface of Mars tortured by craters, racked by rifts, battered with bulges, tried by extreme temperatures and with wild volcanism gone amok.

And further, mysteriously, most surprising all, its two tiny satellites, Deimos and Phobos, were badly poxed with pitlets.  As was mentioned earlier, there was inadequate theory as to why Mars had these two satellites.  But for their both being poxed with tiny pitlets, there was no theory.  All this was unforeseen.  For those yearning for life on Mars, it was a horrible year.  The legend was over.  Almost.

In 1976, Viking 1 and 2 landed on Mars, and returned more data.  Its data underscored how inhospitable, cold and dry is the surface of Mars with respect to water-based life, as it is known on our planet.

Nevertheless, the latest page in the story of the surface of Mars is not yet written.  In 1996 or 1997, Mars Pathfinder will enter the red planet's thin atmosphere, and parachute an instrument package toward the surface.  Close to the ground, air bags will inflate around the package, insuring a soft landing.

What is the purported purpose of Mars Pathfinder - the big reason for its funding?  It is to lay the groundwork for future efforts to find FOSSIL REMAINS OF LIVING THINGS.

Scientists in 1996 are somewhat shifty on the topic of life on Mars because there is so much wishful thinking, but so little (no) evidence.  But there are scientists who want to promote space exploration and badly need a reason for massive funding for this and other projects.  Space mission research is an industry, and it needs a flow of projects, and reasons for more funding.  But alleging there are fossils of former life on such an inhospitable planet is troubling.

Well, yes, and most scientists today believe that Mars is barren of life.  But that doesn't mean that there was never life there.  And if life was there once, there's always a chance that we'll be able to find traces of it. [n6]

First of all, astronomers need to understand planetary catastrophism.  The theory of Astra's fragmentation, 75,000,000 miles from the present orbit of Mars, also predicts that there is some residual debris still in orbit near its Roche Limit.  This is 2,500 miles and more above its surface, and on a plane that is an extension of its equator.  With poor routing, a multi-billion dollar Mars mission could encounter that expected debris and be destroyed.

Second, NASA officials fail to understand how recently were the Mars-Earth Wars, and before that, the delivery of Mars and other planets to the realm of the Sun.  They fail to understand the evidence as to how recently the Sun experienced a nova, or why.  Mars missions should be funded, but only when sound reasons are forthcoming.

Investigating paleomagnetic polarity reversals on lava flows in Mars could be a reason Mars Pathfinder should be funded.  As was mentioned earlier, another reason is to analyze ices yet remaining in the subsoil’s, in places in the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars.  The Martian ices need to be assayed to determine if they also lack the oxygen 18 isotope, and the deuterium form of hydrogen.

In 1996 AD, ice still exists, 3,500 feet thick, all below modern sea level, resting on Antarctic bedrock.  It is intermixed with volcanic ash, has a uniform crystalline axis, and is a strange, unearthly type of ice.  Its oxygen lacks the oxygen 18 isotope.  Its hydrogen contains no deuterium, much different from water in the Earth's oceans and snows in its polar regions.  Perhaps a similarity will be found between Mars ice and the deep sub-sea level Antarctic ice.  Perhaps such an investigation would help groping geologists form a clear, consistent ice age theory.

Astronomers and geologists wonder how Mars could have possibly had a sudden, widespread flood if there is no oxygen, no water vapor and only a tiny bit of nitrogen there.  Isn't a planetary flood a kind of topic, a tradition, or perhaps even a legend or myth that applies only to the Earth?  And hasn't that flood tradition, involving Noah, or Utnapishtim, however widespread, been widely discredited as “impossible” according to gain sayers in gradualist geology?

NO IRRIGATION DISTRICTS. In February, l969, Mariner 6 made a flyby of Mars at 21,000 feet and transmitted 75 pictures of its surface.  It was followed by Mariner 7 a month later, which sent 126 pictures.  Later, in 1971, Mariner 9 sent over 7,300 pictures of the surface of Mars.  No canals were found.  No running rivers.  No reservoirs.  No flumes or siphons.  No oases.  No irrigation district headquarters.  No water ice.  No liquid water.

MISDIRECTED PUBLICITY AND CLAMOR.  It turns out that for the first 60 years of this century, those scientists who viewed Mars and didn't see lines, or canals, or oases, had been the less vocal.  Or perhaps they just got very little press.  But they were the ones to whom the ears in astronomy and journalism should have been attuned.

At the surface of Mars, gravitational attraction is only 30% of what it is at the Earth's surface.  On Mars, an earthling might high jump 20 feet high, and a pole-vaulter 50 feet.  Now dry ancient river beds are in evidence across the cold surface of only one hemisphere of Mars.
 

Drainage networks.  Dense, dendritic networks of channels such as this are a common feature of the southern highlands of Mars.  Dendritic patterns do suggest a fluvial origin of the channels ... [n7]

It is possible to recognize three kinds of channel: (sic) run-off channels, outflow channels and fretted channels.  Run-off channels typically have a V-shaped cross section, start small and increase in size downstream, and have well-developed tributary networks.  The large branching channels Nirgal and Ma'adam Vallis can be assigned to this group, but more typical are large numbers of smaller networks that incise the ancient cratered terrain. [n8]

POST ASTRA IN TIMING.  The timing of the Astra fragmentation has not been tied down, yet prospects are good that it can and will be done.  Whatever the timing of Astra's demise, the icy fragmentation causing these flash rivers was later.

The later dating is established because a dry river bed is found where its ancient river flowed into one side of an older crater, filled it up, and then flowed out the other side again, same flow volume.

TWO ICY FRAGMENTATION’S.  If the hemispheric geography of the dry river beds is correctly understood, and if the suddenness in the appearance and outflow of those rivers is correctly understood, the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars suffered a sudden icy spray from space.  Recently, in terms of astronomical time, that is.

This means our Solar System has experienced not just one, but two icy fragmentation’s.  One on the Roche Limit of Saturn, and one near Mars.  One resulted in Saturn's icy rings, which are at its Roche Limit.  The other produced the dry river beds of Mars.

This duet of icy fragmentation’s accompanies a quartet of rocky fragmentation’s, the dark ring systems of Jupiter, of Uranus, of Neptune and the former rocky ring system of Mars.  Suddenly it appears that this Solar System has a history of no less than six “little bangs”.

Two of the Little Bangs, one icy in nature and one rocky, involved our close neighbor, Mars.  Astronomers may or many not be correct about the Big Bang theory.  But it is sure that they have missed both Little Bangs involving our close neighbor, Mars.

FLOWING WATER VELOCITIES.  Flowing water velocities of 20, 30 and 40 mph are in evidence.

A FLASH FLOOD.  Sudden catastrophic flooding is in evidence.  One outflow channel, Capri Chasma, is compared in its dimensions to an ancient flood across Eastern Washington.

That prehistoric outflow occurred when an ice lobe loped out of mountain valleys of Southern British Columbia, and into Northeastern Washington.  In so doing, the large ice lobe dammed up the combined drainage’s of the Columbia River, the Kootenai, the Clark's Fork, the Flathead, the Coeur d'Alene, the St. Joe and the Spokane Rivers.

The intermontane ice lobe that galloped out of a mountain valley from British Columbia dammed all drainage between Trail B.C. and Spokane.  Water was backed up some 250 miles, to within the shadows of the Continental Divide.  A lake with a surface area of nearly 20,000 sq. miles formed.  Its surface was nearly as big as Lake Michigan, another ice age lake.

When the ice began melting, the melting started from the bottom, where the ground had been warm.  When the ice dam broke, it was sudden.  Thousands of cubic miles of water gushed out and rampaged southwesterly across what are now called the scab lands of Eastern Washington.  They galloped at velocities of 60 mph and higher.

The prehistoric great glacial lake, known as “Lake Missoula”, drained in 48 hours.  Sediments, gravel, rocks and even boulders in this rampage were entrained and carried downstream.  Some of the boulders silted out as far away as 250 miles, near Portland.  Larger stones silt out first, as water velocities begin to ebb.  Lake Missoula was transformed into an “outflow channel.”  It also contributed to the silting of the Willamette Valley on Western Oregon.

Like Lake Missoula, Capri Chasma on Mars also was an “outflow channel.”  It was formed when a flash flood filled a huge lake, whose banks suddenly broke.  Chasma's waters rampaged 50 and 60 mph across the adjoining plain.  Outflow waters spread out, as waters tend to do when a dam breaks.

The width of Capri Chasma is defined as where it broke, and swept aside its dams walls.  It was 35 miles wide.  On the Earth, the widest river is the Amazon, 70 miles wide at its mouth.  It is rain fed and drains a humid tropical region of 2,000,000 sq. miles.  In comparison, at its widest, Capri Chasma was 35 miles wide.  Capri Chasma was, half the width of the Amazon, and wider than the mouth of any other river on the Earth.  This was “flash flood catastrophism.”

Another type of dry river bed is a “run-off channel.”  Run-off channels gather tributaries in their upper course and widen downstream, like the Mississippi River or the Danube.  Most rivers on Earth are rain and snow fed, annually, and are of this type.  Their currents are usually under 5 mph.

Ma'adam Vallis is also a “run-off channel,” about 400 miles long.  Its water velocities averaged 25 mph.  This velocity was achieved on a planet where the surface gravitational force is but a third of that force at the Earth's surface.

Being 400 miles long, with velocities of 25+ mph, it can be calculated that Ma'adam Vallis rampaged for some 16+ hours or so.  It is one of the longest dry river beds in the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars.  It rampaged across cold surfaces with deep sub zero temperatures, and apparently its waters, originally hot, cooled and shortly froze.  With deep subzero night time temperatures, and a cold surface, those waters, originally hot, seemingly froze their first night on Mars.

Night time temperatures on Mars frequently are around -190° F.  If ice fragments sprayed Mars, the energy of motion of the ice fragments would convert to heat the instant of crustal impact.  Those waters then cooled from near boiling on the surface of Mars to freezing in less than a day.  Like Chasma, Ma'adam Valles also was something less than a 24-hour affair.

A third type of dry river bed is the “fretted channel,” with a flat floor, steep walls, and frequent changes in direction.  One such fretted channel, is in the Ismenius Lacus region of Mars.  Details of Ismenius and the terrain it crosses, flowing into a crater and out the other end, same volume, 120 miles long, again indicates a flash flood.

As a collective show, the three or four dozen dry river beds of Mars indicate that the Flood of Mars was a sudden, sub-24-hour affair.  Their genesis was sudden and their freezing was quick.  In addition, the flood was spotty, and it was hemispheric in scope, not global.  The spotty hemispheric scope of this flash flood reminds one of the spotty geographical scope of the fragments of Astra, which also hit the Martian surface on one side only.

On the surface of Mars are found, alas, no canals, but it has ample indications of a hemisphere-sized flash flood.  To repeat, the fact that no river beds are longer than 400 miles, coupled with the fact that they rampaged at high velocities, indicate that these waters ran across the cold surface of the red planet until, the first night with surface temperatures below -150° F., they froze.

Percival Lowell predicted canals with slow-moving water, flumes, gauges, and reservoirs (or oases.) It would have been better had some 19th century newspapers reported catastrophists such as Louis Agassiz on the ice age.  Or on Baron Cuvier and the sudden sedimentation of the Paris Basin.  Or on George McCready Price and the velocities of water needed to entrain various sized erratic boulders up to 150 tons.

The evidence of flash flooding is there, but what was the sudden cause?  It was a sudden icy spray from space, by a fragmenting ice ball.

The Second Of Two Fragmentation’s Of Scar-Faced Mars

Old Scar face experienced a rocky fragmentation, that of Astra.  It was of the type of the fragmentation that produced rocky debris.  Other fragmentations at the Roche Limits of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune produced permanent dark rings.  But Saturn has an icy ring system, indicating its fragmentation was by a cold, straying ice ball.

THE SOURCE.  What fed the rampaging rivers of Mars?  The source seems to have been external; Mars cannot retain water vapor due to molecular escape velocities and due to its small mass.  The most likely answer is similar to what happened to Saturn.  It was another fragmentation of an ice ball on another Roche Limit, that of the red planet.

One difference is that Saturn has 885 times as much mass as Mars.  A second difference is that Saturn is more than four times as distant from the Sun as is Mars.  A third difference is that Saturn's perihelion is, and was 830,000,000 miles from the Sun whereas, in this model, the Catastrophic Third Orbit of Mars had its perihelion at a toasty 64,350,000 miles.  See Tables XI, XII and XIII.

The evidence is that an ice ball fragmented above the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars.  Its icy fragments sprayed a large part of one entire hemisphere of Mars.  Upon impact, the energy of its motion converted instantly to heat.  It vaporized and condensed.

A flash flood came to the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars.  (1) Its hemispheric scope suggests this.  (2) The scattered, or spotty distribution points to this.  (3) The velocity of the flowing water indicates suddenness.  (4) The minuscule atmosphere of Mars also points to space as the region of origin for its former ices.

THE ICE BALL'S NAME.  Astronomy traditionally accords to the discoverer the privilege of naming a new satellite, planet or star.  Our nomination of this second ice ball sprayed Mars with a spray of ice, is “Glacis”.  Glacis in French means “ice.”

Part of the evidence concerns the ice fragments that hit little Mars.  If their fragment velocities were in the tens of thousands of mph, there was very little atmosphere to create any friction during their brief descent.  Such is in contrast to the atmosphere of the planet Earth, and its atmosphere, 100 times thicker.  Due to friction created by our atmosphere, ice fragments will “burn”.  A similar spray for the Earth would produce a sudden, warm rain across one entire hemisphere.  It would also produce explosive fragmentations such as the Tunguska bolide, June 30, 1908.

For Mars, technically it cannot be said that ice can burn.  Ice fragments can suddenly hit its surface and come to an instant halt, convert the energy of motion into heat, which causes sudden vaporization, and next a sudden, massive condensation.  To the extent water can boil on Mars, this ice vaporized, condensed and began to rampage to lower elevations with velocities similar to a suddenly wounded, wild water buffalo.  Such is the direction in which the evidence points.

TIMING AND CAUSE.  It is of interest to evaluate to what kind of a timing gradualists attribute to the rampaging rivers of Mars.  It also is interesting to note their idea of the cause.
 

North of the canyons are numerous fascinating outflow channels which appear to have been produced during a period of catastrophic flooding 3,000 to 3,500 million years ago. [n9]

Gradualists assume 3 billion years ago, give or take a half billion years.  Imprecision.  Planetary catastrophists recognize that this was the second and the last occasion for a fragmentation to bother little Mars.  It was recent, although exactly how recent has yet to be established.

If the Greeks are to be understood correctly in that their ancestors saw Astra fragment, from a vantage point afar off, then the dating of the demise of Glacis is within the last 10,000 years, conservatively.  Moreover, if their earlier ancestors saw Astra fragment, their later ancestors quite probably saw both Mars approach and with it the Glacis ice ball approach.  Maybe it was together.  In the ancient account, it was frightening to say the least.

More evidence in projected Volume IV will discuss the flash flood of Mars in the light of our planet's greatest flood.  Thus both planets have had floods, hemispheric in scope.  Both were followed by ice ages, as is in evidence shortly.  That evidence will produce a better understanding of ice ages of both planets.

In general, planetary catastrophists require about one five hundred thousandth of the amount of time to lapse for the ancient icy spray of Mars as do the gradualists.  Seldom if ever contradicted, they assert with some confidence, three billion years, plus or minus a half billion.

THREE ISSUES.  One issue is WHEN Glacis fragmented.  A second issue is WHY.  A third issue is WITH WHAT OTHER EFFECTS.
 

The rapid release of water that could have produced such a flood channel MAY have resulted from melting of ground ice by volcanic activity beneath the Martian surface, or it MAY have issued from previously buried aquifers, although why this should happen has not yet been adequately explained. [n10] (Our caps.)

There is a troubling geographical question here that needs to be asked; and it is a simple question.  99% of the volcanism on Mars happens to have occurred in the Western Hemisphere of Mars, in the Tharsis Bulge region.  99% of the flash floods and the dry river beds of Mars are in its Eastern Hemisphere, with just one dry river bed being on the eastern edge of its Western Hemisphere.

On the surface of Mars, its dry river beds are 3,000 miles distant from the region of giant volcanoes, Olympus Mons, Arsia Mons, et al.  Are gradualists trying to offer up to sensible people that volcanic flows, 3,000 miles distant, were the cause for once rampaging, now dry river beds?  Apparently.  And are they saying the source was subcrustal ices, 3,000 miles distant?  And are they also saying “Suddenly” for this?  Any inspection of such an explanation is troubling.

Mars has 98% or 99% of its dry river beds in one hemisphere, and only 2% of its volcanoes.  And vice versa.  What kind of a geographical explanation is that?  What kind of a scientific explanation is it?  Gradualists are advised to rethink this entire issue and come up with something more realistic - or do the unthinkable alternative, become planetary catastrophists.

Since the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars was sprayed by icy fragments of Glacis from space, it is likely that most of the spray missed little Mars.  If so, the ice fragment would have proceeded out into space --- and the region of space which the old Mars orbited.  What became of those icy fragments that missed Mars?

SHORT TERM ICY COMETS.  Short term icy comets are tiny ice balls, usually dirty ice balls.  If they come close enough to the Sun, solar radiation RAPIDLY effervesces away their ices into long streams of glistening water vapors - cometary tails.

Their vapors, long cometary tails, are then bent into curved streamer shapes as they are left behind, only to be blown by the solar wind.  Thus, a comet's tail is formed.  Normally, one side of the tail of a comet mirrors the other side, as it is with bird wings.  There may be multiple mirrored streamers, or wings in a cometary tail.  The cometary ices trail, and to point back to the comet's tiny, icy nucleus.

Those icy comets that are nearer to the Sun effervesce away faster, and have higher attrition rates.  Comets farther out survive longer.  How many icy fragments have effervesced away in the last 5,000 years?  Nobody knows.  But it was many, based on modern comet attrition rates.

Even the last 150 years has demonstrated a high mortality rate among the short term icy comets.  Some are disappearing each decade.  The count of the short term icy comets, entirely within Jupiter's orbit, now number only about 100. [n11]

The genesis of the short term icy comets is disputed.
 

According to a theory developed by J. H. Oort in 1950, there is a diffuse cloud or reservoir of gas, dust and comets that is gravitationally part of the Solar System but about 40,000 a.u. distant from the Sun. ...

There are some astronomers, notably V. Clube and W.  Napier of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, who believe comets to be of interstellar origin, so they are captured by the Sun instead of being original members of the Solar System.  This remains at present a minority view, but cannot be discounted; there are many questions about the origin of comets that remain to be answered. [n12]

Short-period comets have characteristic lifetimes of between a few hundred and a few thousand years.  Not only do they break up, they also get driven away by planetary encounters.  There are at present approximately one hundred times too many short-period comets relative to the rate at which long-period comets are captured by Jupiter and fed into the observed stock of Apollo asteroids.  The present number is probably due to the burst of new short-period comets formed several thousand years ago as a result of a single large comet fragmenting during Jovian capture or perihelion passage. [n13]

Contrary to the cited explanation, the fragmentation of Glacis and the spray of icy fragments was not due to Jupiter.  Like the demise of Astra, it was due to the fragmenting of Glacis on the Roche Limit of an inner planet.  Glacis fragmented on the Roche Limit of either the Earth, Mars or Venus.

A pair of theories on the genesis of the short term icy comets was cited.  To this pair now a third theory is added.  It is more likely that the genesis of short term icy comets are, in a sense, second generation.  First an ice ball was imported into the inner region of the Solar system, and later it fragmented.  This analysis is that initially, the co-orbiting Mars-Glacis was delivered to the realm of the Sun by Little Brother (see Vol. I).

Next, the short term icy comets have been simply survivors of an ancient icy fragmentation of Glacis on the Earth's Roche Limit during the closest of all Mars flybys.  The genesis of the short term icy comets is that they are icy fragments that (1) missed Mars, (2) missed the Earth, and (3) have had enough icy mass to not yet effervesce away in the last 4,500 years.  No doubt the majority already effervesced away.  The surviving icy comets acquired new orbits, but from the energy of the old orbit of Mars.

When Glacis fragmented, it sprayed the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars.  Mars was in its old catastrophic orbit of the earlier age.  The Roche Limit of three planets are the three candidates, of (1) Venus, (2) the Earth and (3) Mars.  Of these, if two can be eliminated, then the remaining Roche Limit is the cause of the fragmenting of little Glacis.

THE ROCHE LIMIT OF VENUS.  A Mars-Venus flyby, with Mars towing the ice ball, is theoretically possible.  But the orbit of Venus is too close to the Sun for the remaining short term icy comets.  Venus in that era was 67,500,000 miles from the Sun.  Very few cometary orbits come close to Venus.

THE ROCHE LIMIT OF MARS.  If Mars was towing Glacis, Glacis would have had an orbit close in, something like Phobos at 5,700 miles.  Otherwise it would have been swept out and away from Mars by either the Sun, or by flybys of Venus and/or the Earth.

Were Glacis to come within 5,000 miles of Mars, as did Astra, it would produce an icy demise, like Astra.  Orbiting Mars and penetrating its Roche Limit are two different conditions.  Deimos comes within about 15,000 miles of Mars, and it appears that Mars almost lost it.  If Mars was co-orbiting with Glacis, and was in a sense towing Glacis, the Mars Roche Limit probably is not the cause for the shattering of Glacis.

THE ROCHE LIMIT OF THE EARTH.  Most of the evidence of which we are aware points to the Earth's Roche Limit as the cause for the shattering of Glacis.  It was during the closest of all Mars flybys, estimated at 15,000 miles.  A foundation for this distance will occur in Volume III.

This opens up the possibility that the shattering of Glacis sprayed the Eastern Hemispheres of both the Earth and Mars simultaneously.  This choice is attractive because it agrees with the bulk of the evidence of which we are aware, and it begins to answer (a) the sudden rain on the opening day of Noah's Flood, plus (b) ice age theory for the Earth.

The evidence for the third candidate, the Earth's Roche Limit, comes partly from space, the short term comets, and the dry river beds of Mars, and partly from the Earth's crust, from Antarctica, Siberia, and Alaska, and partly from ancient literature.

Some of the evidence from ancient literature comes from Hebrew Talmudic sources.  Those literary resources were gathered by studious Jews while during their Babylonian exile.  It was circa 550 B.C.E., almost 2,000 years after Noah's Flood.

Those Neo-Babylonian sources reflected both earlier Chaldean sources and earlier Sumerian sources, of which original writing, or copies thereof, was still available on cuneiform tablets.  That material relates to the topic of the cause of Noah's Flood.
 

The flood was produced by a UNION of the male waters, which are above the firmament, and the female waters issuing from the earth [OCEANS].  The upper waters rushed through the space left when God removed TWO STARS out of the constellation Pleiades.  Afterward, to put a stop to the flood, God had to transfer TWO STARS from the constellation of the Bear to the constellation of the Pleiades....

There were other changes among the celestial spheres during the year of the flood. [n14] (Caps ours).

One of those other celestial changes was a shift in the location of the spin axis, a precession.

Chaldean, Sumerian and Assyrian literature on Noah's Flood was still on clay tablets, probably in copies from the original accounts, second generation copies.  In the 19th century and early 20th century AD nine flood stories were discovered in cuneiform on clay tablets.  These included from a massive library of 20,000 tables, Assurbanipal's library.

Three flood accounts are in Assyrian cuneiform, three are in Chaldean and three are in the oldest language, Sumerian cuneiform.  Some accounts are incomplete because of damage to the tablets.  The Epic of Gilgamesh is the most complete of those ancient cuneiform accounts of Noah's (Utnapishtim's) Flood.

TWO STARS, NOT ONE.  Ginzberg's sources affirm that two stars, not one, approached the Earth on the day of the onset of Noah's Flood.  This model states that Mars was one.  So does the Epic of Gilgamesh.  The year was 2484 B.C.E.  It was on target for the 108-year cyclicism.  Evidence of the 108-year cyclicism is in Volume III.

There is other evidence one of the stars was Mars.  Sumerian commentary from The Epic of Gilgamesh expressly identifies Enlil (Mars) as THE CAUSE of Noah's Flood.  Gilgamesh's eleventh tablet is an extensive description of the onset of Utnapishtim's (Noah's) Flood.  It is four times as long as is the Genesis account of Noah's Flood.
 

(But) Enlil shall not come near to the offering,
Because without reflection HE BROUGHT ON THE DELUGE
And consigned my people to destruction!
As soon as Enlil arrived and saw the ship, Enlil was wroth;
He was filled with anger against the gods, the Igigi:
“Has any of the mortals escaped?  No man was to live though the destruction!” [n15]

In the Sumerian pantheon, Enlil was Mars.  Ea was the Earth.  Innanna was Venus.  Anu was Jupiter.  Ninurta was Saturn.

What was the other star that also approached the Earth?  Was it Glacis, an icy satellite with a diameter of 500 to 600 miles?  Was it shattered ice, coming in from a fragmented Glacis, that entered our atmosphere, burned, and recondensed into a hemisphere-wide warm rain?  Talmudic evidence points in this direction.

CLIMATOLOGY.  The Inuit, Eskimos of Alaska, remember in their lore a time when volcanism suddenly erupted, and the Sun went low in the sky.  This suggests a radical shift in latitude.  Before that, it was easy to make a living, but afterward, it was only with difficulty.  This makes sense if there was a sudden torque on the Earth's spin axis, and a radical shift in latitude resulted.

Hebrew Talmudic literature is as follows:
 

According to BR 32. 11, and the parallels cited by Theodor, Noah suffered very much from the cold, while the same source, 9, and Tehillim 1, 11, state that the ark, despite the mass of water, rested quietly “as a ship in port”.  ...  Zohar I, 68a-68b and 69a, states that Noah by hiding in the ark escaped the angel of death. [n16]

If this third candidate, the Earth's Roche Limit, is the best answer, it follows that the following sextet of topics as best being understood in tandem, and as being simultaneous.
 

1. The genesis of the dry river beds of Mars.

2. The genesis of the sudden rain in the Eastern Hemisphere of the Earth during Noah's Flood.

3. The genesis of the immense tides emerging out of the Indian Ocean during Noah's flood, floating the Ark but causing vast damage to Southern Asia.

4. The genesis of the Earth's last ice age, and perhaps its only ice age.

5. The genesis of the short term icy comets, icy fragments that missed both Ares and Hera, Mars and the Earth.

6. The genesis of ice found yet today 3,000 to 4,000 thick below sea level, resting on Antarctic bedrock.  This ice is deficient in the oxygen 18 isotope common to ocean water and clouds.  Also the ice is deficient in the deuterium form of hydrogen.

It has a uniform crystalline axis, pointing about 10° from vertical, suggesting it was related to, or directed in by magnetic field force lines.  It is also intermixed in the volcanic ash, 3,000 and 4,000 feet below modern sea level, indicating that the polar flat spot was not at Antarctica at the time of Noah's Flood.  As to volcanic ash, the deeper the ice core drilling, the thicker the ash in the mixture.

If this answer is the correct answer, ice in the nuclei and in the tails of short term icy comets should be found also with deficiencies in the oxygen 18 isotope and deuterium just like Antarctic sub-sea level ice.  In addition, if sub-surface ice on Mars is found and assayed, it also will contain these deficiencies.

If this is the correct answer, this also opens up the possibility that the ice, descending in vast volumes over the magnetic poles, was at temperatures close to -300° F.  It would be well to take another core drilling in deep sub-sea level Antarctic ice to have its temperature taken.  Some of it might still be surprisingly, even unearthly cold, like the ices of Saturn's Rings, Callisto, Ganymede, etc.

This chapter has introduced a new theory on the genesis of short term icy comets.  It has introduced evidence of flash floods, Lake Missoula and Capri Chasma.  The subject of the ice ages of Mars and the Earth is one of vast length, breadth and depth.

In Volume IV, a foundation, begun to be laid here, is hoped to be completed in three years.  The subject of ice age genesis is sufficiently massive and interrelated to require several volumes, partly involving geology, partly involving oceanography, and partly involving astronomy.

The first conclusion is that this sextet of “genesis issues” all originated and began to unfold on one day in late October in the year 2484 B.C.E.  The day of that month was the 24th on modern calendars.  It was the 17th of Marchesvan, “Mars' month”, on the ancient Chaldean calendar, the Tishri calendar.

Marchesvan is cognate with the Hebrew word for Mars, “'ma 'owr”, and with the Roman “Mars” and with the Greek “magna Ares.”  On the old Tishri calendar, the third month was Kislev, named after Jupiter.  The ancient Tishri calendar began on the new moon of September 7.

The second conclusion is that on the day of Noah's Flood, it featured a strange union of waters from below, which were monster tides from the Indian Ocean, and an abundance of warm waters from above.  They were warmed by friction in passing through the Earth's atmosphere, originally fragments from Glacis.

The “waters from below” were massive tides erupting out of an Indian Ocean.  It contains 28,000,000 cubic miles of water, about 25% of the water on the Earth's surface.  In the Book of Genesis the flood came from “the fountains of the great deep.”  Waters from the Indian Ocean and from the “fountains of the great deep” were the same thing.

With 500 to 600 miles as an estimate for the diameter of Glacis, it was similar in size to that of Saturn's Enceladus (320 miles) or Tethys (650 miles).  It also was much like the Uranian Umbriel (500 miles) or Ariel (650 miles).  And its ices may have been almost as cold.

The third conclusion is that indeed on this particular flyby, the Earth was assaulted by not one “star” [planet] but a planet and a satellite [Mars and Glacis.] Talmudic commentary is very clear on this count, whether correct or otherwise.

This particular flyby in October, 2484 B.C.E., was the closest of the long series of Mars flybys, for two precise reasons.  Those reasons are identified and are discussed in two chapters in the projected Volume III, entitled “The Flood of Noah”.  Meanwhile, the advice needed for groping gradualists is that one can delve deeper into Genesis, Job, Isaiah and Talmudic commentary with profit.
 

The view that the flood was brought about by a union of the male and female waters is found also in Enoch 54.  8-9, and goes back, as has already been remarked by others, to the Babylonian conception of Asp and Teammate.  Comp. Yerushalmi Berakot 9, 14a, Yerushalmi Ta'anit 1, 64b, Babli 6b; 6b Tosefta 1.4; Tehillim 42, 267; PRE 5; Koheleth Z., 87. [n17]

Obviously, Hebrew Talmudic commentary about conditions and events surrounding Noah's Flood came from much earlier sources.  It was from cuneiform tablets written in Assyrian, Babylonian, Chaldean, Sumerian and possibly Persian sources.

On the surface of the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars was added much surface ice by the fragmentation of Glacis.  Those waters collected in a spotty geographical pattern of river beds and lakes to be sure.  But for one day, and only one day, the rivers appeared, rampaged roughshod, and then promptly froze.  In their place on the surface of the Martian Eastern Hemisphere was formed frozen lakes, frozen ponds and frozen river beds.

Where did those ices dumped on the Earth go?  In the Earth's Ice Age, the ices descended from space and formed huge dumps, dumps close to the then magnetic poles.  From the Keewatin Node in Upper Manitoba outflowed a lobe so great it deposited vast volumes of fine Canadian soil across the American Midwest from Montana to Ohio.

The edges of the most advanced lobe formed the Missouri River Valley and the Ohio River Valley.  It formed Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and one lobe reached as far south as Cape Girardeau Missouri, at latitude 37.  There, the end of the ice lobe was well over half the way from our North Pole to the equator.

Another flow came down the Frazier River Valley.  It was a crunching flow, 2,000 feet deep on the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle, according to glacial striations.

Yet a third lobe formed on the surface of Labrador and Upper Quebec, the Labrador node.  It flowed across Quebec and across Upper New York State.  This lobe flowed not only around the Adirondack Mountains but also OVER THEM.  They are 2,000 and 3,000 feet above sea level.  Terminal moraines from the Labrador node were massive enough to form the Cape Cod peninsula and Long Island.

Other ice masses formed in Northern Europe and on the surface of Antarctica, then above sea level but now 4,000 feet below modern sea level.  New Zealand was dealt ice flows, but Alaska and Siberia, farther from the magnetic pole, largely escaped.

This model indicates that when these ices finally melted, the Earth's oceans increased in volume about 7%, and simultaneously the mean temperature of the oceans decreased some 10° F.  The Earth's last ice age was a big, cool case of catastrophism from the celestial region, a region where more ice exists, and it is both cold and abundant.

Ices effervesced off Glacis before 2484 B.C.E. and then off the surface of the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars after 2484 B.C.E.  Other ices effervesced from the nuclei of the short term icy comets, some of it continuing to this time.

The surface ices on Mars had nowhere else to go other than to effervesce and float off into space during the Martian orbits past perihelion.  Then, the distance at perihelion was a toasty 63,350,000 miles from the Sun.  As a result, there was a shift in location of the Martian ices. They left the surface of Mars' Eastern Hemisphere effervesce and floated off into space.  The effervescing ices from the surface of Mars was one of the Scars of Mars.  Such is the origin of what the Greeks called, “The Golden Fleece of Aries.”

Sometimes, Mars was 228,805,000 miles from Sun, at its ancient aphelion.  Temperatures were such that little if any of its ices effervesced there.  But when ancient Mars approached to 90,000,000 miles from the Sun, its visible cometary tail began to grow, and began to spread out, trailing Mars in its ancient orbit.

As Mars came in to 70,000,000 miles, solar radiation increased, and the cometary tail of Mars expanded in length and breadth.  The Earth's sunward side might well have been swept lightly by the icy gauze from Mars.  Figure 14 illustrates.

At 64,350,000 miles from the Sun, slightly inside the orbit of Venus, the rate of the effervescing of the ices doubled and redoubled, increasing rapidly, if briefly.  If Venus happened to be nearby, its face also might have been swept and rinsed by the icy gauze.  This was near the Mars perihelion, where maximum effervescing occurred.

But it was not where the maximum cometary tail of Mars fully developed.  That was weeks later as Mars was approaching its March 20-21 flyby site of the Earth.  A foundation will be laid in Volume III that once every 108 years, almost like clockwork, the Earth was close at hand.  The Jews called it “Passover”, the time of the destructive angel's Passover.  The Romans called it “Tubulustrium,” the time of trouble.

In this March crossing geometry, celestial mechanics and resonance orbit principles require that Mars always passed by the Earth on the sunward side, except the Final Flyby.  As Mars did so, its cometary tail swept across the face of our planet.  Visually, this is part of the reason that made the ancient Passover scenes and tubulustrium scenes so spectacular, so memorable, so frightful.

The ancient, magnificent cometary tail of Mars was called by the Greeks “The Golden Fleece of Aries” and it was for several reasons.  First, Ares was Mars.  Second its cometary tail was in full bloom as it swept across the face of the Earth, in the month of Ares.

Third, “Aries” or Ares was entering the first zone of the zodiac; it was a 30-degree zone also called “Aries.”  Fourth, the vernal equinox and the first day of spring always occurred on March 21.  On this day, the first star on the horizon at dawn appeared a small star, Mesartim, known to ancients as “the First Point of Aries.”  Mesartim is the lead star of the small, four-star constellation of Aries.  Mesartim's appearance on the horizon at dawn heralded a new spring and a new year.

Fifth, this was the location in space where the Earth's sunward face could be swept by the fullness of the effervescing cometary tail of Mars (Ares.)

In that age, Mars had a 720-day orbit and it made a biennial pass across the Earth's orbit whether or not the Earth happened to be there.  Once every 108 years on schedule, about 1% of the time, the Earth was close by when Mars also passed over.

In the Sumerian map of the heavens, the first 30-degree sector in space, their zodiac, was Aries.  Each sector had a symbol.  Usually symbols were animals but sometimes the sign of the sector was a pair of twins, a virgin, or a water bearer.  The sector beginning on March 21, the first sector of the twelve, was symbolized by a ram with fighting horns, Aries by name.

Sheep skins in that era could be bleached into an off-white color.  However, the “fleece of Aries” was not an off-white celestial fleece.  In some accounts it was golden; in other accounts it was “the color of electrum”, a pale yellow alloy of gold and silver.  Probably the “Fleece of Aries” appeared more the color of electrum.  There was the sunshine reflecting off it, and to some extent the Sun's rays shone through it.

It was this glistening gauze that trailed the chariot of Mars, wheels rotating, pulled by its [his] two trusty steeds, Phobos and Deimos.  Those close Mars flybys were fearful, inflicting mass damage by fire, flood and earthquake, throwing out high voltage lightning toward the Earth, causing volcanoes to erupt, causing earthquakes, causing radical tides and tidal waves at the sea side.

Dreadful as the occasions were, destructive as they were, ugly as the face of Mars was, its long, glistening cometary tail threatened to sweep across the face of the Earth.  To a neutral observer in space, it must have been a scintillating sight.  To an Earth dweller, the sight was far from funny.  Such was the terror of the ancient authors who saw the “fleece of Aries” and its associated nucleus, Mars.
 

It was he, Herakles, who killed Kyknos, high-hearted son of Ares, for he came upon him in the precinct of Apollo, who strikes from afar, himself and his father, Ares insatiable in battle, BLAZING BOTH OF THEM LIKE THE LIGHT OF BURNING FIRE IN THEIR ARMOR, ... [n18]

The following citation describes more the visage of Ares than its cometary tail:
 

In his hands he took up his shield, all-glancing, nor could anyone break it, either by cast or stroke, A WONDER TO LOOK AT.  FOR ALL ABOUT THE CIRCLE OF IT, WITH ENAMEL AND WITH PALE IVORY AND WITH ELECTRUM IT SHONE, AND WITH GOLD GLOWING IT WAS BRIGHT, and there were folds of cobalt driven upon it.  In the middle was a face of Panic ... [n19]

... and these were in silver, but the fir trees they had in their hands were golden, and they were streaming together, as if they were alive, and battering each other in close combat with spears and fir trunks.  And on it were standing the swift-footed horses of grim-faced Ares, IN GOLD, and he himself, the spoiler, the destructive, ... [n20]

Then the Earth shook and trembled; the foundation heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.
There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.
AND HE RODE UPON A CHERUB AND DID FLY: AND HE WAS SEEN UPON THE WINGS OF THE WIND.
AND HE MADE DARKNESS PAVILIONS ROUND ABOUT HIM, DARK WATERS AND THICK CLOUDS OF THE SKIES.
Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled.
The Lord thundered from heaven, and the most high uttered his voice.
And he sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them.
And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the Lord, at THE BLAST OF THE BREATH OF HIS NOSTRILS.   II Samuel 22:8-16 (Repeated in Psalm l8:7-15)

As was mentioned earlier, red was the color of the face of Mars especially when seen by Greeks through an Earth atmosphere, clouded with smoke from prairie fires, forest fires and volcanic ash.  On the other hand, black was the color of the backside of Mars, as it rotated into its night time posture.

Is it by chance that these two colors, red and black, were the traditional colors of the religion of Baal, the Phoenician belief system.  It was also the colors of the belief system of their colonists, in Carthage.  They, like many others in their different ways, were first of all, Mars-worshipers.  Second in their pantheon was Astarte, Venus.  Following those two was the host of heaven, including Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, the Sun and the Moon.

The Hebrews were otherwise, or at least they were supposed to be otherwise, non-conformists if they followed the messages of Moses and the prophets.  The Creator (and His creation), not the planets, were to be venerated.  On this particular point, Abraham's faith departed radically from his Chaldean civilization, and from the teachings of his forefathers.

As Mars approached the Earth in a March flyby geometry, its tail followed it.  Mars and its fleece looked like an approaching, onrushing whitish, yellowish, glistening pillar.  But after it passed the Earth, its tail appeared more like a cloud, from the rear, with its tail visually engulfing its nucleus.  This was the pillar of “fire by night” and the “cloud by day” of the Exodus catastrophe.

The Exodus story features both descriptions.  It was during just such a destructive flyby of Mars, a “Passover” (of Mars, the angel of death).  A careful reading of Exodus chapter 14 is instructive.  The appearance of the cometary tail of Mars shifted from a “pillar of fire” to a “cloud”.
 

And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them.   Exodus 14:19

On that night of March 20-21, Mars made a close flyby between the Earth and the Sun; the Moon was at full on the other side, out of the way.  Prime time that night was when the Western Hemisphere including the Mayans in Mexico faced Mars and the Sun.  For the Hebrews in Egypt, the crisis hour of the flyby was during the night of the Near East.

The timetable of the Exodus Catastrophe was roughly the following on that famous Passover night.  For the Hebrews, it was to be their last night of slavery in Egypt, and that next morning it was Independence Day for all the Hebrews that followed Moses.  In space, Mars was advancing on the Earth at a velocity of 30,000 miles per hour.

A MODEL OF ALL OF THE MARCH MARS FLYBYS.  All except the Final Flyby were sunny side flybys.  Mars, with its cometary tail flying, crossed the Earth's orbit some 30 minutes ahead of the Earth.  Its tail swept across Mexico and the Western Hemisphere; within hours it began to sweep the Eastern Hemisphere also.

In Egypt it was night time at the minute of the Mars perigee, estimated at between 30,000 and 40,000 miles.  Richter scale 15 earthquakes rattled the bulge spot, the crust of the Caribbean, while Richter scale 13 and 14 earthquakes rattled the flat spot on the opposite side, including the crust of Egypt.

The cosmic scenery was splendid, if one could view it from a neighboring planet.  Much structural damage and collapse occurred to Egyptian buildings.  The experience was frightful.  As Mars rose in the east on March 21, Moses gave the order to get going, now, Now, NOW.

They needed a head start, and somehow Moses knew it.  The Hebrews fled the land of Goshen, the eastern part of the Nile delta, as fast as their livestock would allow.  It was almost as if Mars was a sign to get going, high overhead in the otherwise dark hours of the night.

The next morning a few regiments of well-armed Egyptian chariots and cavalry set out to recapture the fleeing vassals, who had an eight or ten hour head start.  The Hebrews as a group were able to move perhaps 3 or 4 miles per hour; the Egyptian charioteers were much faster.

BUT, about the time of the perigee of Mars, in the middle of the Egyptian night, Thera, an underwater, sub-surface volcano 60 miles north of Crete went into a major league explosion and eruption.  It sent ash and cinders all over the Eastern Mediterranean.  Next, its walls collapsing back into the Mediterranean Sea, it sent tidal waves 600 feet high sweeping across nearby Anaphi Island.  Sixty miles to the south, the north coast of Crete and its Minoan Civilization suffered a 250-foot tidal wave, and the Minoan Civilization collapsed (never to rise again).

Some 450 miles away, on the coast of the flat, low Suez Isthmus, the tidal wave had abated to a mere 75 to 100 foot surge above sea level.  The pursuing Egyptian regiments with their chariots and cavalry were taking the low road, and were poorly positioned to cope with this sudden, watery envelopment.  Most of the charioteers were engulfed.

Moses, like Noah 1,000 years earlier, somehow foresaw something like this.  Hence his indomitable and timely leadership.  Like Noah, Moses credited to Ea, or Yawheh for the escape of the Hebrew slaves and their livestock.  On the other hand, the Egyptians suffered additionally to the night's earthquakes.

Egypt was downwind from Thera.  The next morning ash from Thera fell 10 or 20 inches thick across the delta, and this didn't help matters.  The Egyptians blamed Horus and/or their Phoenix bird.  The Greeks blamed Ares, and perhaps his offspring, Typhon, Perseus, Gorgon or Medussa.

The Phoenicians attributed this catastrophe to Baal, and sacrificed a special offering, a dispatch of an extra big batch of screaming infants to the fiery furnace of Baal, their idea of a propitiation.  It was a rough night in the Near East, and it was even a rougher day in the Caribbean.  An approximate time line is as follows.

6:00 p.m.  Mars 243,000 miles distant.  The Sun sets in March 20, 1445 B.C.E.  The incoming Mars did not yet set in the west until 9:00 p.m., and was brighter than the Moon.  The Moon was in full phase that night.  The Hebrews prepare to celebrate a Seder, and get set to hightail it out of Egypt, with possessions including livestock. Their carts were getting loaded.

9:00 p.m.  Mars 132,000 miles distant.  Mars sets on the western horizon of Egypt.  Earthquakes commence with increasing intensity.  The mostly submerged volcano Thera, 60 miles north of Crete, rumbles at an ominously level.

12:00 a.m.  PERIGEE.  Mars center is at 35,000 to 40,000 miles from the Earth's center.  Richter scale 14 and 15 damage the Western Hemisphere, closer to Mars.  Scale 12 and 13 earthquakes devastate Egypt, occurring especially severe about midnight, perigee for the angel of the Lord.  Electrical damage as well as heavier earthquake sweep across the Western Hemisphere.  Thera erupts in a major league eruption.  The wind is from the northwest, blowing toward Egypt.  Tides 100 feet high sweep many parts of the Caribbean Sea and the nearby Atlantic Ocean.

12:15 a.m.  Mars at 30,600 miles, and rises on Egypt's eastern horizon, and is perhaps 25 times brighter than the full Moon.  Earthquake and electrical damage wreak havoc in Mexico and the American Southwest.  Thera's volcanic crater walls collapse, creating seismic sea waves 600 feet high on nearby Anaphi Island.  Moses gives the order to go, now, Now, NOW. Arizona.  Putting as many miles as possible between his congregation and Egypt he deems essential.  Their route is out of the low lying Suez Isthmus and toward higher ground.

3:00 a.m.  Mars is leaving, now over 100,000 miles.  Mars-shine is still 20 times as bright as is Moonshine.  Earthquake activity is largely over in Egypt.  The Hebrew people, a mixed group, moves out at about 3 mph and now is 8 or 9 miles down the road to Elim.  Seismic sea waves from There smash 200 feet high across the northern coasts of Crete, destroying the Minoan civilization, which never rebounded.

6:00 a.m.  Mars is at 217,000 miles.  A smoky, ashy morning as ash from Thera, 10 to 20 inches thick, begins to fall across the Nile delta.  The Egyptians arise to assess the damage, and to bewail the dead, and find the Hebrews gone.  They are now about 15 miles down the road toward the wells of Elim.  Seismic sea waves 150 feet high in places begin to lash and pound the coast of Turkey and the coasts of the Greek mainland.  Mars is 10 times brighter than the full Moon.

9:00 a.m.  Mars at 301,000 miles.  Mars is 7 times as bright as is the full moon.  Pharaoh orders some regiments of cavalry and chariots to pursue the fleeing Hebrew vassals, vowing on them bloodshed and a heavier degree of slavery.  Thera's seismic sea wave spreads out across the Eastern Mediterranean at 50 to 60 mph, lessening in depth as it broadens.  The Hebrews are now weary and some 20 miles on their way to the wells of Elim as Egyptian cavalry and charioteers begin pursuit.

12:00 p.m. Mars at 390,000 miles distant, and showed a disc still somewhat larger and brighter than the Moon.  The Egyptian cavalry takes the low road across the Suez Isthmus.  Ash and cinders from Thera blot out direct sunlight throughout the Nile Delta, as volcanic ejecta compounds the recovery from the ruin and devastation across the Nile Delta.  The Egyptian cavalry and charioteers are perhaps five miles behind the fleeing Hebrews, and the seismic sea wave crashes across the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, now only some 80 to 100 feet high, but still advancing 50 or 60 mph.  The Hebrews are 5 to 10 miles ahead of the Egyptian army, and many were wondering about into what kind of a mess Moses was leading them.  The seismic sea wave now was about 5 to 10 miles behind the pursuing Egyptian charioteers, still taking the fast, low road across the Isthmus.  Show time was about to begin, and the armed forces of Egypt had forgotten to bring their swim suits.  Show time was only minutes away.

3:00 p.m.  The Hebrews breathe easier, and Moses gives a prayer of thanks to Yahweh.  Mars was about 550,000 miles distant, and was a disc slightly smaller than the Moon, but it was still brighter, being more reflective.  The Moon would appear on the eastern horizon in three hours, and Mars, departing with its splendid cometary tail in six hours.  The momentary safety of Israel was now assured, and the people were breathing much easier.  Moses and Joshua now looked like marvelous leaders.  It was Independence Day for Israel, a day to be remembered for many reasons. Illustrated in Figures 15 and 16 is the celestial geography of the occasion.  Mars and it cometary tail would rise across their eastern horizon in about six hours.
 

And the Lord went before them by day in A PILLAR OF A CLOUD, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night; He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.  Exodus 13:21-22

The cometary tail of Mars that night was among the scars of Mars.  The erupting volcanoes visible on the surface of Mars were scars of Mars, as were erupting volcanoes on the surface of the Earth, and the consequent fallout of cinders and ash.

Seismic sea waves and huge tidal waves, that day were another of the scars of Mars, as were the earthquakes.  The electrical damage that day was specific only to the facing hemisphere of the Earth, which happened to be the Western Hemisphere.  The watery destruction that destroyed the Minoan Civilization on Crete also was among the scars of Mars.

It had been the most dramatic of all Passover nights, and Mars passed over.  This angel of the Lord was physical, spherical, with a cometary tail of effervescing ices, and had a mass 11% of the Earth's mass.  Being the Roman tubulustrium, it was a night of troublesome events.  Being the Hebrew Passover, it was Independence Day.

Many scars are physical, and others are mental, or psychological.  Story 15 is THE FLEECE OF ARIES; it was one of the scars of Mars, with ices effervescing from its Eastern Hemisphere in the former age and in its former, catastrophic orbit.  The “WINGS OF THE ANGEL OF DEATH” were the same visual reality.

The angel of death, a very real angel, “Passed Over” the land of Egypt and lapped our planet.  The cometary tail of Mars, story 15, is another new perspective for good astronomers who aspire to become good cosmologists.

There is a logical explanation for the dry river beds of Mars.  Rampaging rivers once flowed there, but only for a day.  Story 16 is that THOSE RAMPAGING RIVERS WERE CREATED BY A SPRAY OF ICE FROM SPACE, FROM ICY FRAGMENTS OF GLACIS.  The spray was across only the Eastern Hemisphere of Mars plus a tiny wedge of its Western Hemisphere.

The icy spray on Mars was thousands of years after the rocky fragment spray by Astra, but not millions of years.  That the icy spray was later is proved by some of the Martian craters, some with rampaging rivers flowing in one side of the crater, filling it up, and then flowing out the other side, same volume.

Story 17 is that THE ICE BALL GLACIS FRAGMENTED ON THE EARTH'S ROCHE LIMIT, spraying both planets simultaneously.  Thus it is that the ices of the Martian lakes effervesced off into space.  Those effervescing ices formed the cometary tail of Mars.  Glacis was similar in composition and in size to the ice balls revolving around Saturn and Uranus, except it revolved around Mars.

The most recent ice age of the Earth and the dry rampaging rivers beds of Mars are related, both in cause and in timing.  The timing was simultaneous with the closest of the Mars flybys, and with the completion of the construction of Noah's Ark, 2484 B.C.E.

Story 18 is that the shattering of Glacis on the Earth's Roche Limit is also the most logical explanation for THE GENESIS OF THE SHORT TERM ICY COMETS.  Such a hefty, recent icy spray is the most logical explanation for the survival of some short term icy comets to this time, 4,500 years later.  In addition, it is the best explanation for the distribution of the short term comets in the Inner Solar System.  Those fragments maintained much of the energy Mars had in its catastrophic orbit, allowing them to go out to 225,000,000 miles from the Sun.

The genesis of the rampaging rivers of Mars, of the Earth's ice age and of the short term icy comets in space all occurred as products of one event on one day.  It was the day Glacis shattered, some 11,000 miles from the Earth's center, with Mars approaching nearby, very nearby.

Thus it is that six planets all have suffered “Little Bangs”, nearby fragmentations.  Four experienced rocky debris, Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars, and of these four, Astra's fragmentation was the biggest little bang.  Two experienced icy debris, Saturn being one and the flyby scene of Mars and Earth being the other.

Mars, our nearby neighbor, has suffered two fragmentations, one rocky and one icy.  Gradualist astronomers have missed the both Little Bangs for no good reason.  The Earth has suffered one, an icy one, less than 5,000 years ago, and gradualist astronomers have missed it also.

Story 19 is that THE COMETARY TAIL OF MARS EXISTS IN NUMEROUS ACCOUNTS IN ANCIENT LITERATURES.  The cometary tail of Mars was the basis of the Egyptian story of its Phoenix Bird, with fiery feathers flying.  It was also basis of the story of the Mayan celestial bird, Quetzacoatl, fiery feathers also flying behind.

It was the basis for the dragon-like writhing tail of the Chinese fire star, Mars.  Comparable mental scars have been left with other North American Indian tribes in their lores, as well as with the Vedic Indians of India.  All this is in addition to traditions of the Fleece of Aries and the Wings of the Angel of the Lord.

One potentially valuable lesson to be learned is that, based on escape velocities, Mars never has had life as we know it on its surface.  There is no water vapor, no oxygen and no growing season.  Using the premise of maybe finding ancient fossil life on Mars for a $4,000,000,000 grant for funding a space mission to Mars is a ploy.  It is a ruse, unworthy of use by scientists in getting funding for space programs.  Ruses often succeed in the short run, but they usually backfire in the long run.

Ruses are not needed; there are plenty of valid reasons for Mars missions, Mercury missions, Venus missions, etc.

The popular Oort model for cometary genesis requires that somehow, icy comets relocated from the edge of the Sun's domain, 2+ light years distant, to the inner regions of the Solar System.  It may be popular, but it is without evidence.  The more recent Clube-Napier model is somewhat better.  It suggests that icy comets were involved and caused Earth catastrophes in the era of recorded history.  But icy comets were products of planetary catastrophism, not causes.

In the Exodus catastrophe, it was Mars, not its cometary tail, that did the damage.  In the Clube-Napier model, they have the cart and the horse, and in that order.  This is much better than the Oort model, but yet has its deficiencies.

Ice balls were delivered to the Solar System by being towed satellites of planets like Jupiter and Saturn, which Little Brother delivered to the Sun.  One, Glacis, revolving around Mars, made it into the inner Solar System, co-orbiting with Mars until the day it fragmented.

The closest of all of the Mars flybys set the stage for seven events all at once.  They were:
 

1. The shattering of Glacis,

2. The rampaging rivers of Mars,

3. The sudden rain accompanying Noah's Flood,

4. The Earth's subsequent gathering of ices from space in two ice dumps over its two magnetic polar regions,

5. The genesis of the close in, short term icy comets,

6. The cometary tail Mars once had in ancient times,

7. Monster tides in the Indian Ocean which floated the Ark of Noah into the mountainous terrain of Inner Asia.

That is a lot of achievement for one small 500 or 600-mile ice ball.

Somehow, like Noah and Isaiah, Moses was prescient, and had foresight, omniscience with regard to the future.  This enabled him to be the indomitable, foresighted leader that, like Noah and Isaiah, he became.

PERCIVAL LOWELL.  Percival Lowell illustrates the power of wishful thinking, a hankering and yearning within the soul for life to be found elsewhere in the cosmos.  Many men find the prospect of life elsewhere in the Solar System a fascinating prospect, with or without solid evidence.  William Herschel, discoverer of the spin rate of Mars, was among the earliest.  Along with Percival Lowell were the Pickerings, William H., Edward C. and James S., and many, many others.

Percival Lowell serves for more than just an example of wishful thinking 90 years ago.  As he sat on the edge of the catastrophic World War I, he asked the wrong question, “Is there intelligent life on the planet Mars?”  Wrong planet.

Ninety years later, mankind is sitting on the verge of something potentially far worse.  Minor league dictators, lacking Christian ethics, are gathering arsenals of major league weapons, missiles, nuclear bombs, chemical warfare packages and biological warfare packages.  Some of them look upon Americans, Jews and their own women like donkeys.  The first one who triggers the delivery of a missile to Jerusalem or New York City gets to go immediately to paradise, where a harem of 70 attractive, anxious ladies await.  It is borderline madness.

The question Lowell ought to have asked is whether or not there is intelligent life on the planet Earth.  And if there is, for how long.

With story 19, the readers are 51% of the way to the penthouse of Mars planetary catastrophism.

Modern gradualists have now missed both little bangs, both “recent”.  The score now is ancient writers 2, modern 20th century gradualists 0.