85 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 34: Jul-Aug 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Carbon Problem The "carbon problem" seems to hit the scientific creationists the hardest, but it also has interesting implications for today's earth. Consider first where the carbon in the earth's crust resides: Petroleum 201 x 1018 grams Coal 15 Limestone 64200 Biosphere 0.3 In this article, these figures are made more understandable by physical descriptions of some of the truly colossal deposits of oil, coal, and limestone. For example, in the Canadian Rockies, the Livingstone limestone was deposited 2000 feet deep on the margin of the Cordilleran geosyncline but thins eastward to about 1000 feet in the Front ranges. ". .. it may be calculated to represent at least 10,000 cubic miles of broken crinoid plates." Two implications are: Even if the earth's biosphere were completely converted into oil, coal, and limestone each year, the earth would have to be far older than the 6000 years desired by the creationists, unless most of the carbon deposits had non-biological origins, which seems unlikely. The immense inventory of carbon tied up in biologically produced deposits was originally abiogenic. Where did it come from? Abiogenic methane and carbon dioxide released from the crust seem the most likely sources. This means that the crust must have once had, and may still have, prodigious supplies of methane. T. Gold and S. Soter have long argued that the earth's crust still ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The moon's moonlets The great lunar basins are not arranged randomly. They occur in bands -- not one band but several. How can this geometry be explained. One hypothetical scenario has the primitive moon surrounded by many moonlets 60 miles and larger in diameter, plying equatorial orbits that are unstable. As the moonlets' orbits decayed, some crashed into the moon's equatorial regions, blasting out a band of huge craters. The force of the impacts also caused the lunar crust to slide over the still-liquid core by as much as 90 . When the next group of moonlets crashed, they gouged out a new belt of craters and shifted the crust still more. Magnetic measurements of lunar rocks tend to confirm that the lunar crust did indeed shift by large angles -- several times. (Anonymous; "Did the Moon Have Moonlets?" Science Digest, 92:20, January 1984.) Comment. Such events could also have happened on earth, which would account for tropical-zone fossils being found at the present-day poles. From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 28: Jul-Aug 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hope for atlantis?" That huge vertical movements in the crust occur is not in question. One could cite the deep sea oozes resting on coals of Tertiary Age in Barbados, for example. The coals represent a shallow water, tropical environment which sank to over 4-5 km depth for the deposition of the ooze and was then raised again, all in a very short period." (James, Peter M.; "A New Model for Crustal Deformation," Open Earth, no. 17, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #28, JUL-AUG 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 36: Nov-Dec 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Magnetic Jerk Problem We reported above that the earth's magnetic field "jerked" in 1969; that is, it suddenly accelerated its westward drift. The earth's core, which through dynamo action reputedly generates the magnetic field we detect at the surface, apparently does not keep pace with the outer crust. It is this sluggishness that produces the observed westward drift of the magnetic field of about 1 meter per hour. While most geophysicists acknowledge that something significant happened to the core in 1969, the geographical extent of the "jerk" is unclear. The acceleration of the field was clearcut in Europe but obscure or undetectable over much of North America. If the jerk was geographically limited, the core perturbation probably was, too. The earth's core may, in fact, eddy and swirl like the planet's atmosphere. Going over past records, geophysicists think they have spotted another jerk in 1912; only that time the field decelerated. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Magnetic 'Jerk" Gaining Wider Acceptance," Science, 225:1135, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #36, NOV-DEC 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... few brief summers of searching, these massive finds have posed unexpected questions. Here is a sampling. The terrestrial ages (times since arrival on earth) measure between 1,000 and 700,000 years, implying that the Antarctic ice sheet may be at least 700,000 years old. This is unfortunate for several proposed scenarios of recent catastrophism, which envision an iceless Antarctica. At least 20 amino acids appear in the more than 40 carbonaceous chondrites picked up with sterile equipment. These meteorites are dated as 4.5 billion years old, or 1 billion years older than the earliest terrestrial life found in the rocks. These finds highlight the old question: Did meteorites seed life on earth? The much-publicized "lunar" meteorite, supposedly blasted out of the moon's crust by asteroid impact, thence falling to earth, shows little evidence of mechanical shock. If this meteorite, with a composition so similar to the Apollo samples is not from the moon, where did it come from? (Marvin, Ursula B.; "Extraterrestrials Have Landed on Antarctica," New Scientist, 97:710, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #27, MAY-JUN 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... on other life forms based on solar energy. They employ chemosynthesis, and the hydrogen sulfide and other substances in the vented waters replace sunlight. Although there are no obvious vents at the Gulf of Mexico site, the waters there contain plenty of hydrogen sulfide, indicating seepage from somewhere. The life forms are all new to science, although they resemble those in the Pacific. (Anonymous; "Worms without Vents," Oceans, 17:50, September/October 1984.) Comment. Question: how do non-mobile life forms travel the great distances from one vent or seepage locale to another? It seems as if we are just beginning to appreciate life's colonizing capabilities. Who knows what life forms subsist in the hot geothermal fluids circulating deep in the earth's crust? From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 36: Nov-Dec 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Subterranean Electric Currents We have little appreciation of the immense electrical currents that flow through the rock formations beneath our feet. These "telluric" currents are primarily those induced by the earth's changing magnetic field, as it is affected by the solar wind. Telluric cur-rents do not flow uniformly through the earth's crust. Rather, they seek out low resistance rocks, in accordance with Ohm's Law. Such current concentrations can be detected at the surface with magnetometers. The present paper announces the discovery of a regional telluric current flowing in the vicinity of the San Francisco Peaks volcanic field in Arizona. The shallow part of the current flows in an unidentifiable "geoelectrical" structure not more than 10 kilometers below the surface. There are no surface hints as to what this geoelectrical structure could be. (Towle, James N.; "The Anomalous Geomagnetic Variation Field and Geoelectric Structure Associated with the Mesa Butte Fault System, Arizona," Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 95:221, 1984.) Comment. Similar anomalous magnetic fields exist in many areas, indicating a vast subterranean system of poorly understood geoelectrical structures. Some of the channeled earth currents are man-made, being the return paths in electrical power transmission systems. The return paths may be far-removed from the actual power lines because they tend to follow the geoelectrical structures. Reference. Other important subterreanean electrical currents are described in ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 20: Mar-Apr 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Subterranean petroleum factories?Sediment samples dredged up from the bottom of the Gulf of California near some hydrothermal vents contain petroleum similar in some ways to commercial petroleum. Apparently organic matter in the vicinity of the vent is thermally converted into oil, or at least something that, like wine, matures into something useful. (Simoneit, Bernd R.T ., and Lonsdale, Peter F.; "Hydrothermal Petroleum in Mineralized Mounds at the Seabed of Guayman Basin," Nature, 295:198, 1982.) Comment. The recently discovered hydrothermal vents are only the external manifestations of what must be extensive chemical factories beneath the crust. The rich assemblages of thermosynthetic life (not photosynthetic life) around the vents makes one speculate about what might be transpiring chemically and biologically in the hot, fluid-saturated crevices and pores of the earth's crust. Carbon dating of petroleum sometimes yields absurdly young ages. Could it be that all the natural gas and petroleum we could ever need is now being manufactured for us subterraneanly ? The Gaia hypothesis would lead us to expect just such a process. After all, humankind requires abundant fuel if it is to carry earth life out into the reaches of space! From Science Frontiers #20, MAR-APR 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 20: Mar-Apr 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Gravity Anomaly Ripples Centered In Canada When scientists recently examined gravity anomaly data for North America, strange circular ripples appeared to surround a point near Hudson Bay. These ripples seem to have spread out like those from a pebble dropped into a pond, but here the ripples are actually ancient density variations in the earth's crust, now covered over by thick sediments. One hypothesis is that a 60-90 kilometer meteorite smashed into the earth some 4 billion years ago, wrinkling the young surface for several thousand kilometers in all directions around a colossal crater. Magma welling up in the crater solidified creating the nucleus of the North American continent. It is quite possible that the other continents began their existences in this way -- meteor impact. The gravity data that led to this hypothesis have been available for some time but apparently no one ever looked at them with continental patterns in mind. (Simon, C.; "Deep Crust Hints at Meteoric Impact," Science News, 121:69, 1982.) Comment 1: John Saul has discovered surface indications of immense ring structures in the American southwest. See ETC2 in our Catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, which is described more fully here . Comment 2: If all our continents were initiated by meteor impacts, and if they were once clustered together in a supercontinent, as postulated by Continental Drift, then the incoming meteorites would have to have been focussed on ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 15: Spring 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is all natural gas biological in origin?T. Gold and S. Soter, from Cornell, have championed the theory that earthquake lights, sounds, and precursory animal activities may be due to abiogenic natural gases escaping from deep within the earth. Perhaps some petroleum and natural gas reserves have been created by primordial hydrocarbons working their way outward through the crust rather than by the geochemical alteration of biological materials. Perhaps almost all petroleum is abiogenic -- some Russian scientists hold this view! Western scientists are almost unani-mous that natural gas and oil are bio genic with maybe a touch of upwelling abiogenic hydrocarbons. A major reason given for this stance is that the biogenic theory has been so productive in locating hydrocarbon reserves. This, of course, leaves the earthquake lights and sounds still unexplained. (Anonymous; "Abiogenic Methane? Pro and Con," Geotimes, 25:17, November 1980.) Comment. The moral of this might be that seemingly inconsequential phenomena historically lead to wholesale changes in scientific thinking; viz., the insignificant advance in Mercury's perihelion. Reference. The possible abiogenic origin of natural gas is covered at ESC16 in Neglected Geological Anomalies. For a description of this Catalog, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #15, Spring 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... build carbonate reefs and platforms are so efficient that platform growth potential is easily several times the rate of average geological subsidence or sea-level rise. Therein lies the paradox: the geological record is full of drowned carbonate platforms, inferring that the sea has frequently engulfed them in episodes that must be termed catastrophic. Since the usual long-term geologic processes are clearly inadequate, Schlager proposes several more violent schemes; including massive submarine volcanism (Middle Cretaceous) and extraterrestrial deterioration of the oceanic biological environment (Lake Devonian). (Schlager, Wolfgang; "The Paradox of Drowned Reefs and Carbonate Platforms," Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 92:197, 1981.) Reference. See Category ETE2 in our Catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, for more on drowned sections of crust. More on this book can be found here . From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Of Cuvier Cuvier (1769-1832) was a catastrophist. To him, the record of death in the layers of fossiliferous rocks was obviously the consequence of terrestrial convulsions. But Cuvier's ideas were swept aside by the uniformitarians who saw the earth and its cargo of life unfolding with almost agonizing slowness. But Cuvier is making a comeback, as illustrated by the following back-to-back articles in Nature. We quote from the abstracts. "Closely spaced samples from an uninterupted calcareous pelagic sequence across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary reveal that the extinction of planktonic Foraminifera and nannofossils was abrupt without any previous warning in the sedimentary record, and that the moment of extinction was coupled with anomalous trace element enrichments, especially of iridium and osmium. The rarity of these two elements in the crust of the Earth indicates that an extraterrestrial source, such as the impact of a large meteorite may have provided the required amounts of iridium and osmium." (Smit, J., and Hertogen, J.; "An Extraterrestrial Event at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary," Nature, 285:198, 1980.) "Evidence is presented indicating that the extinction, at the end of the Cretaceous, of large terrestrial animals was caused by atmospheric heating during a cometary impact and that the extinction of calcareous marine plankton was a consequence of poisoning by cyanide released by the fallen comet and of a catastrophic rise in calcitecompensation depth in the oceans after the detoxification of the cyanide." (Hsu, Kenneth J.; "Terrestrial Catastrophe Caused by Cometary Impact at the End of Cretaceous ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 4: July 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is the earth a giant methane reservoir?T. Gold, of Cornell, theorizes that a vast reservoir of methane resides in the earth's crust -- a left-over from the formation of the earth. This accumulation of methane, he suggests, has been the major source of carbon at the surface throughout geological time. The existence of subterranean methane is manifested when flames shoot up during earthquakes. Tsunamis or tidal waves are probably caused by the release of immense bubbles of methane during quakes rather than by actual motion of the sea floor. (Lewis, Richard S.; "Is the Earth a Giant Methane Store?" New Scientist, 78:277, 1978.) Comment. Gold has also correlated offshore booms with sea-floor methane releases. More of his heretical thoughts on these matters are to be found in Section ESC in our Catalog: Anomalies in Geology. This volume is described here . From Science Frontiers #4 , July 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 113: Sep-Oct 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Earth's Shifting Crust Our title is identical to that of a book published by C.P . Hapgood in 1958. He also wrote The Path of the Pole (1970). Several other authors have also proposed that sudden slippages of the earth's crust caused wild climate fluctuations in the past with devastating biological consequences -- in particular, all those quickfrozen mammoths in Siberia. These poleshift scenarios coming from thinkers swimming far out of the scientific mainstream have been studiously ignored in a "new" and well-publicized pole-shift theory recently appearing in Science. The "new" theory relates to an old (534-millionyears-ago) crustal slippage, whereas Hapgood was talking about a cataclysm within the last 10,000 years or so. Nevertheless, it would have been nice to see Hapgood's earlier work acknowledged. Four features of this "new" proposal make it more palatable than Hapgood's to today's geologists and geophysicists: Two of the "new" authors, J. Kirschvink and D.A . Evans, are at the prestigious California Institute of Technology, while Hapgood was a PhD-less history professor at Keene State College. Status is important when theorizing. Kirschvink et al propose a scientifically acceptable mechanism for the onset of rapid crustal slippage. They visualize a huge chunk of the seafloor suddenly foundering and thereby changing the planet's mass distribution. This imbalance caused ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 108: Nov-Dec 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The motor of the world*The innards of our planet, as presently visualized, consist of an inner core of solid iron about 2,400 kilometers in diameter. Surrounding this is a fluid outer core, which in turn is wrapped onionlike by the mantle and outer crust. Earthquakes are always sending seismic waves through these regions and jostling seismometers installed all over the globe. From this wealth of seismic signals, geophysicists have found that the inner core, lubricated by the fluid outer core, rotates about 1.1 per year faster than the mantle and crust. The inner core interacts with the geomagnetic field and is, in effect, like the rotor of a slow, ponderous induction motor. Expanding upon this vision of the earth as a colossal electrical machine, E. Stokstad writes: "Electric currents of about a billion amps flow across the boundary between the solid inner core and the fluid outer core that lies around it. In the presence of the Earth's magnetic field, these currents generate massive forces that tug on the inner core. And because the outer core has a relatively low viscosity, the inner core can spin freely." (Stokstad, Erik; "Earth's Heart Is in a Spin," New Scientist, p. 18, July 20, 1996. The basic paper is: Song, Xiadong, and Richards, Paul G.; "Seismological Evidence for Differential Rotation of the ...
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... lithosphere is zero at a spreading oceanic ridge and increases with distance from the ridge. Thus the lithosphere of the central Atlantic, which current palaeogeographical reconstructions assure us began to open no earlier than 120 million years ago, has zero age at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and, supposedly an age of about 120 million years close to the land masses of Africa and South America at the appropriate latitude. Yet, Bonatti and others (Nature, v. 380, p. 518, 1996) have now recovered samples of 140-million-year-old pelagic limestones not even from the edges of the Atlantic but right in the middle of the ocean, close to the ridge. How can this be possible?" The only explanation (? ) seems to be that this errant chunk of crust got "trapped" in the middle of the Atlantic -- like a misdirected suitcase on an airport conveyor belt. (Anonymous; "Old Rocks near the MidAtlantic Ridge," Geology Today , 13:17, 1997.) Background. Ocean crust is presently being formed by upwelling molten rock at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and, consequently, has zero age. The oldest ocean crust is adjacent to the continents. From Science Frontiers #118, JUL-AUG 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 113: Sep-Oct 1997 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Triangular holes in boulders America b.c . and then some! Astronomy A VANISHED PLANET? An exploded planet and the "face on mars" Biology Who's in charge down there? Acoustical pipes in beaked whales? Sheep foil cattle guards Geology Earth's shifting crust Geophysics Green thunderstorms Ball of light clocked at 1,800 miles/second! Atlantic wave heights increasing Psychology Why are dreams always retrospective? A DREAM INVENTION The view from within Unclassified Where do all good deleted data go? Can computers have ndes? ...
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... Subjects Earthquake Weather Folklore reserves the term "earthquake weather" for the sultry, ominously uneasy period said to precede large earthquakes. Scientists have generally belittled suggestions that weather could have anything to do with the ponderous forces unleashed during a quake. Despite such authoritative pronouncements, many Californians, who have ample experience with seismic events, insist that quakes and weather are somehow connected. They may be right -- at least some of the time. In the five years following the 7.3 Landers earthquake of June 28, 1992, the frequency of smaller quakes has peaked reliably every September. However, before the Landers event, no such pattern is evident. One thought is that the average atmospheric pressure, which is lower in the summer months, reduces the downward pressure on the earth's crust enough to allow easier slippage along fault lines. This sounds reasonable, but why did this effect not occur before the Landers quake? The answer given is that perhaps the Landers event "sensitized" nearby faults! (Monastersky, R.; "California Shakes Most Often in September," Science News, 152:373, 1997.) Since the Landers event, Earthquakes in the weestern U.S . have been following an annual cycle. From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Exotic Seismic Signals Not all terrestrial tremors emanate from buckling crust and slipping tectonic plates. The crashing of large waves on a seashore sends "microseisms" to sensitive instruments hundreds of kilometers away. The bubblings of Old Faithful geyser give rise to an enduring and engaging "harmonic tremor." As for the more "exotic" sources of seismic signals, they had an entire session devoted to them at the Fall 1996 meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Here are two of the unusual seismic events presented there. July 10, 1996. Yosemite National Park. "At 6:52 pm PDT Wednesday, July 10, 1996, a large block of granite, with an estimated mass of 80,000 to 184,000 tons, detached from the cliff between Washburn Point and Glacier Point, in Yosemite Valley. The rock mass subsequently launched from the cliff and free-fell ballistically an estimated 550 m before impacting approximately 30 meters from the base of the cliff in the Happy Isles area of the valley floor in Yosemite National Park...This rock fall was well recorded by 3 UC Berkeley (BDSN) and Caltech (TERRAscope) broadband seismographic stations and 15 shortperiod seismographic stations (operated by the USGS in Menlo Park and the University of Nevada, Reno). In fact, it is the largest vertical rock free-fall ever recorded seismically and it registered on seismographs up to 200 km distant." (Uhrhammer, ...
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... pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Deep Quake Deepens Mystery Most earthquakes are shallow. They are concentrated no deeper than 20-25 kilometers down. However, a few extremely deep quakes rumble at depths of about 600 kilometers. On June 8, 1994, what may be the largest deep earthquake of the century -- magnitude 8.2 -- exploded 640 kilometers beneath Bolivia. "Exploded" may or may not be the proper word. Geophysicists are really not certain what causes the very deep quakes, because at 640 kilometers rocks are so hot that they flow rather than snap under geological stresses. The more common, shallow earthquakes are generally created when rocks snap and fracture. Since the deep quakes seem to be concentrated in subducted slabs of terrestrial crust that plunge down deep into the earth's mantle, geophysicists suppose that the increasing heat and pressure applied to the descending slabs may cause "explosive" phase changes in minerals contained in the slabs. Phase changes often involve volume changes that, if sudden, might generate seismic waves. Too, water of hydration in minerals may be explosively turned into vapor. But this is all surmise at present. The Bolivian quake also caused the whole earth to ring like a bell. Every 20 minutes or so, the entire planet expanded and contracted a minute but detectable amount. Another surprise: the Bolivian earthquake was felt a far away as Seattle -- the first time that a quake in that part of South America has been actually felt in North America. (Kerr, Richard A. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 96: Nov-Dec 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Two really deep oceans During our latest anomaly-collecting cycle, we came across two reports on apparently identical phenomena. Neither article mentioned the work of the other! Both groups of scientists processed massive quantities of earthquake records to form "seismic images" of structures deep in the bowels of the earth. (The technique is called "seismic tomography.") Both groups have discerned huge slabs of crust that were once on the planet's surface but were subsequently thrust (" subducted") down under the continents. These slabs are now hundreds of kilometers below the surface, and they have dragged water along with them. In fact, their water inventories may rival today's surface oceans; they may even have been surface oceans themselves millions of years ago before they descended into the infernal regions. Only a few years ago, all geologists maintained that all water in subducted slabs was squeezed out of the rocks by immense pressure and later reappeared at the surface as volcanic steam. Deep ocean #1 . G. Nolet and A. Zielhuis, Princeton seismologists, report a huge reservoir of water about 900 kilometers under present-day Europe. Some 400-500 million years ago, there was an ocean in this locale. (Zimmer, Carl; "The Ocean Within," Discover, 15:20, October 1994.) Deep ocean #2 . H. Wysession, Washington University, has located a water ...
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... to create all the offshore methane is staggering. Where did it all come from and how did it come to be buried at such great depths? Could some of the offshore methane be abiogenic? (6 ) Could the explosive decomposition of methane hydrate create giant bubble plumes that might engulf ships (in certain infamous "triangles") and cause them to sink like rocks in the low-density froth? (SF#25*) References Ref. 1. Kelley, Joseph T., et al; "Giant Sea-Bed Pockmarks: Evidence for Gas Escape from Belfast Bay, Maine," Geology , 22:59, 1994. Ref. 2. Vogt, Peter R., et al; "Methane-Generated (? ) Pockmarks on Young, Thickly Sedimented Oceanic Crust in the Arctic: Vestnesa Ridge, Fram Strait," Geology , 22:255, 1994.~ Ref. 3. Paull, Charles K., et al; "Methane-Rich Plumes on the Carolina Continental Rise: Association with Gas Hydrates," Geology , 23:89, 1995. SF#xx = Science Frontiers #xx. SF#25 and SF#73 are also printed in the book Science Frontiers. To order, see here . From Science Frontiers #100, JUL-AUG 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... , but is offset by some 15 , the other is approximately perpendicular to this trend. The first of these directions falls along a family of planes which parallel three extensive flat facets identified by Thomas et al. The occurrence of grooves on Gaspra is consistent with other indications (irregular shape, cratering record) that this asteroid has evolved through a violent collisional history." (Veverka, J., et al; "Discovery of Grooves on Gaspra," Icarus, 107:72, 1994.) Comment. The pits along Gaspra's cracks, as on Phobos, suggest the violent expulsion of gases. Where could these gases have come from? "Sandblows" are sometimes formed during terrestrial earthquakes as natural gases and other fluids are squeezed out of the earth's porous outer crust. Could Gaspra harbor primordial methane? If so, is it biogenic or abiogenic? Reference. An entire chapter on the anomalies of asteroids can be found in our catalog: The Sun and Solar System Debris. Details here . From Science Frontiers #94, JUL-AUG 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 101: Sep-Oct 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Alh 84001: a message from mars or perhaps some other planet ALH 84001 is a meteorite picked up in the Allan Hills of Antarctica a decade ago. Its composition and fused crust suggest an extraterrestrial -- origin probably Mars. Space scientists think ALH 84001 was blasted off the Martian surface by an impacting body 14-18 million years ago, based upon its exposure to cosmic rays while circling the sun, edging ever closer to earth. The composition of ALH 84001 tells us curious facts about its place of origin. First, it contains carbonate minerals deposited by water. Second, the carbonate grains are banded, implying the parent rock formation was washed by water more than once. Third, and most interesting, chemists have found traces of molecules called PAHs, based on interconnected benzene rings. Three sources have been proposed for these PAHs: Terrestrial contamination Prebiotic activity on the planet of origin PAH-bearing comets and/or asteroids impacting the parent planet. Terrestrial contamination has always been a problem in analyzing meteorites, but great care has been taken in recent years, especially with the Antarctic lode of meteorites. In view of these precautions, it seems rather likely that somewhere "out there" life is brewing. (Anonymous; "A Chip Off the Old Mars," Sky and Telescope , 90:12, July 1995.) Reference: See also: Incredible Life for the interesting history of past "discoveries of life ...
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... untold species of diminutive nematodes. Of course, nematodes are not as pretty as birds and fish, but they are nevertheless bona fide species of life. Examination of the Rockall mud and that from other seabed sites has convinced the nematode counters that there may be as many as 100 million nematode species on our planet. When other classes of life are added, the figure rises to at least 130 million. (Pearce, Fred; "Rockall Mud Richer than Rainforest," New Scientist, p. 8, September 16, 1995.) Comments. Lifeless molecules can apparently unite to form an almost infinite array of life forms! The next reservoir of unexplored biodiversity may be the crevicular realm -- all those fluid-filled crevices and channels that extend miles down into the earth's crust. They are full of bacteria and other unrecognized microscopic life forms. As for extraterrestrial habitats, who can even guess? From Science Frontiers #102 Nov-Dec 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... from the Shroud of Turin show that they, too, are coated with such varnishes. These biogenic varnishes may introduce carbon that has been recently fixed from the atmosphere and thus make the sample's age appear younger than it really is. (Travis, John; "Microbes Muddle Shroud of Turin's Age," Science News, 147:346, 1995.) Comment. More than the Shroud is at stake here. Bacteria contaminate just about everything, including wood and bone from archeological sites. Bacteria may, therefore, "rejuvenate" samples sent in for radiocarbon dating. The importance of this phenomenon is still unclear. Cross reference. Radiocarbon-dated samples may also appear erroneously "aged" by the uptake of primordial carbon (C13) present in the earth's crust. See SF#99. From Science Frontiers #100, JUL-AUG 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 63: May-Jun 1989 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Peruvian geoglyphs A NEW LOOK AT THE BAT CREEK INSCRIPTION Explaining the "artifact gaps" Astronomy A HEX ON SATURN The planets are unpredictable Comets and life Life currents in space Some editorial pedantry Biology Caterpillars that look like what they eat A MAGNETIC SENSE IN MICE Taking the radon cure Trees talk in w-waves The language of life Geology More confusion at the k-t boundary Where on earth is the crust? Physics Cold fusion and anomalies ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 49: Jan-Feb 1987 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Those Old Maps of Antarctica Inca Walls and Rockwall, Texas Astronomy Enormous Stellar Shell Raises Theoretical Questions Radar Glories on Jupiter's Moons Optical Bursters Halley's Confounding Fireworks Neptune's Strange Necklace Recent Explosion on Sirius? Biology Prebiological Chemistry in Titan's Atmosphere Million-cell Memories? Grounded Bats Nicheless Philosophical Confusion? Monarch Migration An Illusion Geology Moho Vicissitudes A Slice of Ocean Crust in Wyoming The NACP Anomaly Reversed Magnetization in Rocks Geophysics Geomagnetic Reversals From Impacts on the Earth Mystery Plumes and Clouds Over Soviet Territory Sailing Through A Waterspout Psychology Personality and Immunity ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ancient Egyptians in Hawaii Sinister Development in Ancient Greece Man the Scavenger A Different Way of Looking At the Universe Astronomy A Quick Quasar Monster Star Lurks Nearby Halley's Comet is Winking At Us Galactic Radiation Belt? Biology Dolphins to the Rescue -- again! Gravity and Going Around in Ellipses Getting the Pouch Right Are Bluebloods More Often Type A? Mind Before Life Caenorhabditis Elegans The Chinese Wild Man Geology An Extraordinary Peat Formation Confusing Seismic Data From the Deep Continental Crust Geophysics Infrared Atmospheric Waves Burning Mass Falls in B.C . Psychology The Immune System As A Sensory Organ Parapsychology: A Lack-of-progress Report Chemistry & Physics Blooms in the Desert? ...
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... not call itself a science if it permitted ideas like continental drift to run rampant. Of course, the situation has now been reversed as some scientists plead that data contradicting plate tectonics should no longer be accepted for publication! Happily, at least one publication is still open to heretics. In a 1997 number of New Concepts in Global Tectonics , we find S. Keshav, at Bombay's Indian Institute of Technology, asserting that plate tectonics is a "myth that has paralyzed our thinking." And he gives some reasons for his view: Plate tectonics incorporates many physically impossible processes, such as sediment subduction; i.e ., soft sediments should be scraped off plates as they dive beneath the continents. Plate tectonics does not completely explain the ophiolites (rocks resembling bits of ocean crust that are sometimes found in embarrassing places (far inland). Plate tectonics has difficulty accounting for some mountain belts; i.e ., those far from collisional sites, like Tibet's Kunlun mountains. Finally, Keshav observes: "On the continents this theory assumes mysterious character as many of the features go unexplained (as exemplified by inability to find a trace of the Asthenosphere/Moho) and truly depicts an act of escapism." (Keshav, Shantanu; "A Myth Called Plate Tectonics," New Concepts in Global Tectonics , p. 23, no. 3, June 1997.) Comment. Keshav's objections may be a bit technical, but they reveal cracks in the foundation of a major paradigm. From Science Frontiers #125, SEP-OCT ...
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... comets might fulfill Deming's requirements. Down the long eons of geological time, they could have filled the oceans and showered all that excess carbon onto the planet's surface. Deming ups the stakes in the icy-comet controversy when he links these fluffy snowballs to the well-known vagaries of life on earth. "The extraterrestrial influx rate may also act as the pacemaker of terrestrial evolution, at times leading to mass extinctions through climatic shifts induced by changes in accretion rates with concommitant disruptions of the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Life on earth may be balanced precariously between cosmic processes which deliver an intermittent stream of life-sustaining volatiles from the outer solar system or beyond, and biological and tectonic processes which remove these same volatiles from the atmosphere by sequestering water and carbon in the crust and mantle." (Deming, David; "On the Possible Influence of Extraterrestrial Volatiles on Earth's Climate and the Origin of the Oceans," Palaeo , 146:33, 1999. Cr. P. Huyghe) Comment. Need we mention the book Living Comets , by F. Hoyle and C. Wickramasinghe? Why stop at water and carbon? From Science Frontiers #126, NOV-DEC 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... ESM6 Elevated Erratics... ESM7 Anomalous Glacial Drift ESM8 Fluidized Debris Slides ESM9 Surging Glaciers ESM10 Driftless Enclaves within Glaciated Regions ESM11 Anomalous Rock Motion ESM12 Superficial Rocky Debris of Doubtful Provenance ESP ANOMALOUS PHYSICAL PHENOMENA IN GEOLOGY ESP1 Anomalous Radiohalos ESP2 Flexible Rocks ESP3 Unusually Colored Rocks ESP4 Noncrushing of Fossils in Sediment Compaction ESP5 Remarkable Polished Rocks ESP6 Ringing Rocks ESP7 Small-Scale Magnetic Anomalies ESP8 Frazil Ice, Anchor Ice,... ESP9 Long-Range Fine Structure In Strata ESP10 Jointing, Cleat, Crack Patterns ESP11 Shocked Mineral Grains at Geological Boundaries ESP12 Radiometric Dating Discordances ESP13 Natural Fission Reactors ESP14 Musical Sands ESP15 Luminous Rocks ESP16 Explosive Rocks ESP17 Dry Quicksand ESP18 Glacieres/Natural Refrigerators ESP19 Radioactive Fossils ESP20 Clustering of Mineralogical Dates in Time and Space ESP21 Random Cracking around Radioactive Inclusions ESR PHENOMENA OF THE OUTER CRUST ESR1 Incompleteness of the Stratigraphic Record ESR2 Lateral Variations in Strata ESR3 Apparently-Inverted Strata ESR4 Near-Global Unconformities ESR5 Rythmites and Cyclothems ESR6 Undisturbed and Unconsolidated Ancient Sediments ESR7 Vertical Stacking of Deposits ESR8 Continent-Type Rocks in the Ocean Depths ESR9 Exotic Terranes ESR10 Long Belts of Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks ESX PIERCEMENT STRUCTURES, INTRUSIVES, EXTERNAL IMPRESSIONS ESX1 Polystrate Fossils ESX2 Diapir Anomalies ESX3 Anomalies of Stigmaria ESX4 Perplexing Intrusives ESX5 Unusual Striations Attributed to Ice-Sheet Action ESX6 Anomalous Superficial Markings ET TOPOGRAPHIC ANOMALIES ETB BAYS, LAKES, SMALL DEPRESSIONS ETB1 Oriented Lakes and Depressions ETB2 Anomalous Features of Potholes ETB3 Fluid-Vent Craters ETB4 Gilgai Topography ETB5 Mountain-Top Depressions ETB6 Horseshoe-Shaped Depressions ETB7 Cookie-Cutter Holes ETB8 "Bottomless" Pits ETB9 Large Assemblages of Glacial Kettles ETB10 Depressions in Chalk Country ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Tyrannies Of The Tiny Because we cannot see them with the naked eye, we tend to forget that the earth's atmosphere, its oceans, and the solid crust to unknown-but-great depths are colonized in profusion by minute biological entities -- mainly bacteria and viruses. Only when we get the flu or infected finger do these entities impinge upon our consciousness. Below we will learn that there are many more of them than you think. Do viruses control the oceans? You may avoid the beaches after you learn that one teaspoon of seawater typically contains 10-100 million viruses and onetenth that many bacteria. Obviously, most are harmless to humans. However, the viruses do infect the bacteria and phytoplankton, destroying them, and thereby releasing their nutrients. By doing this, they keep the oceans' biological engines running. Further, the viruses act as genetic engineers as they transfer DNA from one individual to another. The oceans may be viewed as vast test tubes in which biodiversity is maintained by teeming, invasive viruses. (Suttle, Curtis A.; "Do Viruses Control the Oceans?" Natural History, 108:48, February 1999.) We are only 10% human! The average human body contains 100 trillion cells, but only 1 in 10 of these cells is your own. The remaining 90% are bacteria. These alien organisms coat your skin and pave your inner passageways from mouth ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Magnetic Stripes On Mars As the Mars Global Surveyor swooped down to altitudes between 100 and 200 kilometers above the Martian surface during its aerobraking orbits, magnetometers detected broad, parallel stripes with alternating magnetic polarity. These stripes across the planet's southern highlands are a great surprise to planetologists because they superficially resemble the magnetic stripes that parallel the rifts along the floors of the earth's oceans where new crust is forming. The obvious implication is that Mars once possessed drifting continents and a geomagnetic dynamo that occasionally reversed its polarity -- just as has supposedly happened and is still happening on earth. Prior to this discovery, Mars was deemed too small to have possessed a heat-driven geodynamo, and there is no obvious surface evidence of drifting continents. Easy as it is to conclude that Martian continents once sailed ponderously cross the planet's surface, the scientific jury is still out. First of all, the Martian magnetic stripes are substantially different from earth's in shape, pattern, strength, and, above all, size. The Martian stripes are about 200 kilometers wide and 2,000 long -- much larger than earth's . Their magnetic field strength is more than ten times that of the terrestrial stripes. Whatever magnetic phenomena occurred on Mars some 4 billion years ago must have been quite different from what happened on earth 200 million years ago. Yet, no other reasonable explanation has been found for the ...
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... collision. Known impact craters, such as that at Wabar in Saudi Arabia, are littered with bits of iron and other meteorite debris. Not so at the LDG sites. LDG is concentrated in two areas. One is oval-shaped; the other is a circular ring 6 kilometers wide and 21 kilometers in diameter. The ring's wide center is devoid of LDG. Could there have been a "soft" projectile impact; that is the detonation of a meteorite, perhaps 30 meters in diameter, 10 kilometers or so above the Great Sand Sea? The searing blast of hot air might have melted the sand beneath. Such a craterless impact is thought to have occurred in the 1908 Tunguska Event in Siberia. Another theory has a meteorite glancing off the desert surface leaving a glassy crust and a shallow crater that was soon filled in. But there are two known areas of LDG. Were there two cosmic projectiles in tandem? As of 1999, the origin of the beautiful green LDG remains an enigma. And of course deserts are dynamic places. How much additional LDG lurks beneath all that blowing sand? (Wright, Giles; "The Riddle of the Sands," New Scientist, p. 42, July 10, 1999.) Comment. In Tasmania, near Mount Darwin, is strewn the so-called Darwin Glass, which may be a distant relative of the LDG. Darwin Glass, however, exists in much smaller pieces and is strewn in a splatter pattern. A potential crater is nearby. For details on these natural glasses, see ESM2 in ...
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