91 results found.
... 95, 240 illustrations, index. 1978 references. LC 77-99243, ISBN 915554-03-8 , 6x9forrnat. Ancient Infrastructure: Remarkable Roads, Mines, Walls, Mounds, Stone Circles Sorry, Out of print Ancient people raised standing stones on all continents save Antarctica. The dug canals 50 miles long and erected even longer walls. Gleaned from hundreds of volumes of Science, Nature, Antiquity and other science journals, this massive collection of archeological puzzles will keep researchers digging for decades. Costa Rica's enigmatic stones spheres Peru's Intervalley Canal Iraq's 100,000 miles of subterranean tunnels (the qanats) Nova Scotia's "Money Pit" Egypt's canal to the Red Sea North America's Calendar sites Medicine Wheels and woodhenges Sculpted hills and mountains Chaco Canyon's curious roads The puzzling East Bay walls Lake Superior's copper mines Stone arrays and meanders Florida's shell keys Poverty Point and Watson Brake Malta's strange "cart ruts" View Cart Buy online via PayPal with MC/Visa/Amex 412 pages, softcover, $21.95. 255 illustrations, 3 indexes, 2006. 855 references. LC 99-94987, ISBN 0-915554-49-6 , 7 x 10" Hardcover edition, 1999, ISBN 0-915554-33-X : Out of print Ancient Structures: Remarkable Pyramids, Forts, Towers, Stone Chambers, Cities, Complexes Sorry: Out of Print. No longer available. Ancient astronomical observatories Vitrified forts Ancient furnaces, smelteres and hearths The Newport Tower New Grange ...
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... human ears during periods of intense activity. Another natural infrasound, weak but continuous, is the "voice of the sea." These sound waves, called "microbaroms," have periods in the 5-7 second range (0 .20-0 .14 Hz), well below the range of human ears. Such low-frequency sounds travel great distances with little attenuation. It is thought, therefore, that the "voice of the sea" is an extended source -- perhaps the collective acoustical signature of all the storms from all the world's oceans. But this is surmise. Actually, the air is full of infra-sound emanating from still-unidentified sources, as indicated in the figure. Humans may not hear infrasound, but a form of "mountain music" seems to have a mysterious, depressing effect upon some of us. Some infrasounds that last for as long as several days have been triangulated to distant mountain ranges and tend to occur when winds blowing over them exceed a certain speed. This effect may be a low-frequency version of the aeolian tones produced by the cyclic eddy shedding that occurs when wind flows around obstacles. The reported increase in the incidence of suicides during episodes of warm downslope mountain winds (called Chinooks in the western U.S . and the Fohn in the Alps) may be due to some as yet unknown pressure fluctuations with 20-to-70 second periods. (Bedard, Alfred J., Jr., and Georges, Thomas M.; "Atmospheric Infrasound," Physics Today, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 134: MAR-APR 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Bigfoot Mile-high, But Light-years From Acceptance Colorado is not prime Bigfoot country. Most Bigfoot reports come from the Pacific Northwest. Nevertheless, enough Bigfoot sightings, hearings, and footprints have accumulated in the Rockies for the Denver Post to print a lengthy review of the Bigfoot phenomenon. The article identifies three Colorado hotspots: (1 ) Leadville, where the Little Creek Monster was reported as early as the 1880s; (2 ) the southern San Juan Mountains; and (3 ) Pike National Forest. A few reports even come from the plains east of the Front Range. Coloradans have reported seeing the animals walking along a stream below Loveland Pass, drinking from a pond in the Lost Creek Wilderness, running after deer in the Roosevelt National Forest, chasing cars near Gypsum and roaring at hikers, campers and fishermen in various locations. The reports have come from scientists, wildlife biologists and elk hunters. Surely, this enough to convince everyone of Bigfoot's reality. Not so! To recognize Bigfoot officially scientists must have a living specimen, a corpse, or at least an good skeleton. They do not. Even though there are thousands of Bigfoot sightings recorded continent-wide plus hundreds of casts of huge footprints, these are not enough. Just as with UFOs and sea monsters, fraud and misidentification abound in that field of endeavor called "cryptozoology." However, bigfoot researchers do have one advantage over ...
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... and geoforms constructed by the Inca, the Nazca, the Tiahuanacans, and other ancient cultures. Many coffee-table-type volumes are filled with glorious color photos resulting from such research. Much-too-neglected is the Amazon Basin. The belief is widespread that there is nothing of great archeological importance there -- just oppressive jungle, biting bugs, and primitive tribes. That there is much of scientific significance hidden under the lush greenery is just now being realized. For example, A.C . Roosevelt has already proven that surpringly advanced cultures did inhabit the Amazon Basin for thousands of years. ( SF#71 ) We are now learning that some of these Amazon peoples were extraordinary earthmovers. Having little stone to work with, they matched the achievements of the Inca in the mountains just to the west with many miles of earthen causeways. Canals just as long were dedicated to fish-farming. Huge mounds rising above the flood plains supported villages. Even the mounds hold mysteries. One of them, named Ibibate, has been described by anthropologist W. Balee as being: .. .as close to a Mayan pyramid as you'll see in South America.... Beneath the forest cover is a 60-foot [18-meter] human-made artifact. Ibibate is only one of many such mounds in the Bolivian Amazon. Called "lomas", they are obviously quite distinct from any Mayan pyramid we know of. Rather, the lomas are enormous islands of pottery sherds mixed with black soil. Hundreds of these mounds prove that a ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Stonehenge in the 1990s: a mainstream view In a recent number of Nature, C. Ruggles reviewed the present status of Stonehenge as mainstream archeologists now see this world-famous monument. oThe construction of Stonehenge began a bit earlier than previously thought: 2950 50 BC. But beneath the present parking area are post holes dated 4,000 years earlier! They are apparently not related to the Stonehenge we know. oThe idea that Stonehenge's bluestones, which originated in the Preseli Mountains of southwest Wales, 200 kilometers distant, were carried to Salisbury Plain by glaciers has been emphatically disproved by geologists. These 4-ton stones were transported by people! This great effort required precocious social organization, communication, and some kind of psychological impetus. oThe sarsens -- those even bigger stones that define Stonehenge in our mind's view -- evoke the same sorts of questions as this issue's eccentric flints: Why? and How? Ruggles writes: "Why it was important to bring stones from so far away is an open question, as is the issue of how people achieved the almost unimaginable feat of hauling the sarsens, weighing 25 tonnes or more, over 30 km from the Marlborough Downs in the north." oNew studies of the other ancient monuments in the vicinity of Stonehenge have revealed that they were not placed at random. Many are visible from Stonehenge. Stonehenge is at the center of a number of ...
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... peaks that poke over 10,000 feet into the Pacific airstreams. These long streaks on the ocean surface are called "wind wakes." The wind wake leeward the Hawaii is spectacular. These islands are swept by steady northeast trade winds. Mauna Kea (4201 meters), Mauna Loa (4201 meters), and other Hawaiian peaks penetrate high above trade inversion. Together they create a visible wind wake some 3,000 kilometers long to the west -- many time-greater than any other island wind wakes to be seen on the planet. The effects of these soaring peaks are more than visual. Their wind wake drives an eastward ocean current that, in turn, draws warm water away from the Asian coast 8,000 kilometers distant from Hawaii. Thus, a few island mountains affect the climate of a continent a fifth of the way around the globe! (Xie, Shang-Ping, et al; "Far-Reaching Effects of the Hawaiian Islands on the Pacific Ocean-Atmosphere System," Science, 292:2057, 2001.) Comment. The Hawaiian wind wake is not anomalous but it is surely interesting. From Science Frontiers #137, SEP-OCT 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ...
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... way violent, but its continuance at last consumed everything that opposed it. Those few scientists who have mused over this curious old account have concluded that the "fiery exhalations" resulted from the spontaneous ignition of marsh gas; that is, the flames were will-o '- the-wisps, albeit relatively powerful ones. Will-o '- the-wisp theory states that marsh gas (mostly methane) also contains phosphane and traces of diphosphane (P2H4). The latter gas reacts spontaneously with air and ignites the methane, creating weak blue flames. The New Scientist article mentioned a parallel modern occurrence that is new to us and worth recording here. In 1997, a dramatic series of spontaneous fires burst forth in the town of Moirans-en-Montagne located in the Jura mountains of France. No details were presented although emanations of natural gas were suspected. (Pentecost, Allan; "From the Deep," New Scientist, p. 89, August 26, 2000.) Comments. We classify will-o '- the-wisps along with other nocturnal lights in GLN1 in Lightning, Auroras...., where one can find doubts about the standard explanation of these phenomena that was presented above. The region of Wales that experienced the fiery exhalations in 1693-1694 also saw another "flap" of less-destructive luminous phenomena in 1904-1905. These were the Egryn Lights, which were concentrated along the active Mochras Fault and might, therefore, have been earthquake lights, which have been officially named but not authoritatively explained. Even ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 104: Mar-Apr 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Magnetic Mountain To find the "magnetic mountain," you must venture out into the Gulf of California about 15 miles east of the Baja Peninsula. Out there, beneath the boat, you can find a basaltic mountain named Espiritu Santo. Next, you don your face mask and descend toward the submerged peak. At about 70 feet, you will likely find yourself surrounded by scores, possibly hundreds, of scalloped hammerheads, some as long as 13 feet. They will ignore you and the teeming fish as they slowly wheel passively around the submerged mountain. Why do these big sharks congregate in this spot? Marine biologists have been asking this for years. (SF#20) A.P . Klimley and his colleagues decided to find the answer. First, by direct observation, they determined that the sharks' main purpose was not pro-creation, although some mating did occur. Mainly, the hammerheads just idled away the daylight hours. At dusk, they disappeared. Klimley et al next implanted some sharks with transmitters and followed them at night. This was their feeding time, they swam 10-15 miles to deep waters where they gorged on squid. At daybreak, they were back drifting around Espiritu Santo. Apparently, the mountain was just a place to rest. But how did the hammerheads find their way back so unerringly? Furthermore, by tracking the tagged fish, the researchers found the sharks often ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 80: Mar-Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Steens Mountain Conundrum The layered lava flows of Steens Mountain, in southeastern Oregon, have preserved video-like records of the earth's magnetic field as it switched from one polarity to another about 15.5 million years ago. The scientific "instruments" here are the cooling lava flows. As they solidify from the outside in, a process taking about 2 weeks for a 2meter-thick flow, the lava is magnetized in the direction of the field prevailing at the moment of solidification. We would thus have a 2-week continuous record of the behavior of the earth's field. Ordinarily, we would not expect to see very much change in 2 weeks; even a reversing field is thought to take thousands of years to complete its flip-flop. However, at Steens Mountain, when the field reversed 15.5 million years ago, the lava flows suggest that the field's axis was rotating 3-8 per day -- incredibly fast according to current thinking, in fact a thousand times faster than expected. The conundrum (one might call it a scientific impasse) arises because the flowing electrically conducting fluids that supposedly constitute the earth's dynamo would have to flow at speeds of several kilometers/hour. No one has ever contemplated molten rock moving at such speeds in the core! (Appenzeller, Tim; "A Conundrum at Steens Mountain," Science, 255:31 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Orbiting Mountains Below Two years ago a Russian scientist suggested that tiny black holes orbiting within the earth might trigger volcanic activity. Now, he has extended the idea to earthquakes. "A .R . Trofimenko of the Minsk Department of the Astronomical-Geodesical Society of the USSR believes that all cosmic bodies, including the Sun and the Earth, are riddled with "mini" black holes left over from the big bang. Though much smaller than atoms. such black holes would each contain as much mass as a mountain, up to about 2 x 1020 grams. "Trofimenko originally suggested that energy radiated by these mini black holes could make hot spots that produce volcanic outbursts. Now he has investigated the way in which such objects, by orbiting about the Earth's core, would distort the gravitational field at the surface of our planet." Each time a mini black hole passes beneath a spot on the surface, there would be a "gravitoimpulse" too short to be detected by current instrumentation but sufficient to trigger earthquakes. (Anonymous; "Baby Black Holes Blamed for Earthquakes," New Scientist, p. 18, September 19. 1992.) From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . The Saratoga display is a bit eerie but not at all mysterious, according to HAST. The Marfa Lights turned out to be more impressive and, in consequence, quite a tourist attraction. The favorite viewing site is on Highway 90, 9 miles east of Marfa. HAST logged a total of 9 hours of observation there on three successive nights. All of the lights observed were easily attributed to cars traveling north from Presidio to Marfa. People at the viewing site who knew of the Presidio-Marfa road had no trouble identifying the lights as those of automobiles. But those unaware of the road called the lights mysterious. As for the frequent reports of Marfa lights cavorting and executing strange maneuvers, HAST thought they were probably due to low-flying aircraft in the neighborhood of the Chianti Mountains some 40 miles away. In fact, just such a plane was observed during a daylight trip to Shafter, a town near the mountains. Admitting that the Marfa Lights are indeed entrancing and even mildly mystical, the report closes (rather incongruously for an admittedly skeptical writer) with: "A reminder that caution must be taken. Because what we saw four nights in Saratoga and three nights in Marfa did not go out of the bounds of the ordinary does not mean that the extraordinary has never occurred in either place." (Lindee, Herbert; "Ghost Lights of Texas," Skeptical Inquirer, 16:400, 1992.) Comment. Previous descriptions of the Marfa lights in Science Frontiers (# 34 and #51) seem to portray phenomena much more "extraordinary" ...
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... Plumes Natural But Still A Bit Anomalous During the mid-1980s, satellites photographed strange cloud plumes that stretched hundreds of kilometers downwind of some nothern islands, especially Bennett Island, in the Soviet Arctic. Some wondered if perhaps the Soviets were conducting tests of some new type of weapon in these remote locations. With the end of the Cold War, flights of instrumented aircraft over the islands were permitted. Data from these flights support the idea that the mystery cloud plumes are formed by air currents passing over the islands. In other words, they are only orographic or mountaincaused clouds, like those sometimes seen over the Rockies. But puzzles persist: Why are the plumes so long? Why do they form at such high altitudes -- more than 3 kilometers above the tops of the relatively small mountains on the islands? (Monastersky, R.; "Mountains Give Rise to Perplexing Plumes," Science News, 141:422, 1992. Also: Fett, Robert W.; "Major Cloud Plumes in the Arctic and Their Relation to Fronts and Ice Movements," Monthly Weather Review , 120: 925, 1992.) From Science Frontiers #86, MAR-APR 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Animals Attack Human Technological Infrastructure We are accustomed to termites feasting on our homes' timbers and mice gnawing in the walls, but in recent years many species have developed a taste for more sophisticated fare: Pine martens are chewing through the electical wiring of Swiss cars. Mammal repellents popular there. British dormice seem to enjoy the electrical fittings of Rolls Royces. The keas (mountain parrots) of New Zealand have an innate urge to strip out the rubber gaskets around car windows. Land crabs on Tahiti bite through the electrical cables of film crews. Rarely are they electrocuted. New Zealanders have to put metal collars on telephone poles to prevent bushy tailed possums from getting at the cables. Squirrels, rabbits, langurs, and others species are also on the attack in all countries. (Ager, Derek; "Unwary Animals and Vicious Volts," New Scientist, p. 47, January 9, 1993.) Comment. We mustn't forget that sperm whale that got tangled up in an undersea cable over a mile down! From Science Frontiers #87, MAY-JUN 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Whence the earth's pulse?Geological history records a restless planet subject to a succession of chemical and physical upheavals. Have these great paroxysms been random in time? M.R . Rampino and K. Caldeira do not think so: Number of geological events during geologic time "Published data sets of major geologic events of the past 250 Myr (extinction events, sea-level lows, continental flood-basalt eruptions, mountain-building events, abrupt changes in sea-floor spreading, ocean-anoxic and blackshale events and the largest evaporite deposits) have been synthesized (with estimated errors). These events show evidence for a statistically significant periodic component with an underlying periodicity, formally equal to 26.6 Myr, and a recent maximum, close to the present time. The cycle may not be strictly periodic, but a periodicity of 30 Myr is robust to probable errors in dating of the geologic events." The obvious question is: What could cause a 30-million-year periodicity? Internally, the earth's innards might be periodic, possibly in terms of plume eruption, mineral phase changes, core convection, etc. Externally, comets and asteroids are cyclic. Rampino and Caldeira point out that the solar system crosses the heavily populated plane of the Galaxy every 30 million years. (Rampino, Michael R., and Caldeira, Ken; "Major Episodes of Geologic Change: Correlations, Time ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 90: Nov-Dec 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Dune Circles Of Sossusvlei The Dead Pan of Sossusvlei lies in the Namibian Desert some 50 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean. It is a 5-hour drive from Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. Geologically, this feature is a clay pan in the flood plain of the Tsauchah River, which flows on the average only once in a decade. Towering above the clay pan are sand dunes that reach 350 meters elevation above the river bed. They are veritable mountains of sand and the tallest dunes in the world. The potential anomaly at Sossusvlei is not the size of the dunes but rather the mysterious circles of grass that grow upon them. All we have to go on is a photograph showing a dozen or so of the circles situated at some unspecified distance from the photographer. Somewhat irregular in shape, the circles seem to be on the order of 100 meters in diameter. No grass at all grows within the rings of thick grass, but outside grow sparse, evenly distributed grass clumps. The writer of the Sossusvlei article labels the circles "unusual phenomena." (Pupkewitz, Tony; "Sossusvlei," Optima , 36:136, 1988. Cr. P.A . Hill. Optima is a South African publication.) Comment. Are these circles akin to the "fairy rings" found in moister climates? Perhaps also pertinent are the clones of creosote bushes which grow outwards in expanding circles, as mentioned in ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Permian Polar Forest "An in situ Upper Permian fossil forest in the central Transantarctic Mountains near the Beardmore Glacier includes 15 permineralized trunks in growth position; the paleolatitude of the site was approximately 80 to 85 south. Numerous leaves of the seed fern Glossopteris are present in the shale in which the trunks are rooted. The trunks are perminealized and tree rings reveal that the forest was a rapidly growing and young forest, persisting in an equable, strongly seasonal climate -- a scenario that does not fit with some climate reconstructions for this time period." Some models of the Permian climate, based on astronomical and meteorological parameters, have winter temperatures at the site averaging -30 to -40 C, with the average summer temperature at merely 0 C. This fossil forest is clearly at odds with these models. (Taylor, Edith L., et al; "The Present Is Not the Key to the Past: A Polar Forest from the Permian of Antarctica," Science, 257:1675, 1992.) From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mysterious Smoke In Sri Lanka "Mysterious smoke exuding from a dry river bed has produced the highest temperature ever recorded in Sri Lanka, and geologists said Friday they are baffled by the phenomenon. "The 300-degree ground temperature has caused plants to wither in the mountainous region of Diyatalawa, a tourist resort in central Sri Lanka, said D.A . Kathriarachchi, the deputy director of the Geological Survey Department. "He said scientists were puzzled because there is no volcanic activity in Sri Lanka, which lies outside any volcanic zone. "The area, about 75 miles southeast of the capital, Columbo, is 9800 feet above sea level. The villagers have been told to report any other signs of smoke in the area, but no one has been evacuated." (Anonymous; "Hot Smoke Baffles Geologists," Panama City News Herald , p. 1B, September 5, 1992. Cr. L.B . Peirce) Comment. Category ESC4, in Anomalies in Geology, describes the "Smoking Hills" of the Canadian Arctic, as well as several other places where the oxidation of iron pyrite and other exothermic chemical reactions create very hot areas in non-volcanic regions. To order this catalog, see: here . From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 86: Mar-Apr 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Precariously Balanced Rocks As Earthquake Detectors PBRs, such a this "rocking stone" near Peekskill, NY, signify a lack of recent quakes in the area Precariously balanced rocks (PBRs) are rather common where earthquakes have never occurred. In this sense, balanced rocks are measures of seismic stability. For example, says J. Brune, you won't find PBRs within 10 miles of spots where quakes have shaken the ground over the past few thousand years. To illustrate: "Rocks stacked in piles and balanced on their narrow ends on Yucca Mountain near the Nevada border with California, he said, have not moved in at least 10,000 years and perhaps as many as 100,000 years, judging from the depth of "rock varnish," or weathering, on their exposed surfaces." Looking for PBRs is not really as useless as it sounds, for they are indicators of stability to construction engineers planning nuclear waste disposal sites and similar projects requiring long-term seismic quiet. (Petit, Charles; "Seismologist Studies Precariously Balanced Rocks," San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, 1992. Cr. J. Covey) Comment. How do rocks become "precariously balanced" in the first place? Melting glaciers and snow packs are known to ease their cargos of rocky debris gently down into unstable configurations. From Science Frontiers #86, MAR-APR 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Knowing that animals often communicated with one another employing chemicals called pheromones, Berliner suspected that the flasks had been releasing odorless human pheromones. Sure enough, analysis of the skin-derived materials proved him correct. Next: A Look Up the Nose. Biologists have long realized that animal noses actually contain two sensory channels. The first is the familiar olfactory system, which humans also possess. The second channel is the vomeronasal system. In animals, each system has its own separate organs, nerves, and bumps in the brain. The function of the vomeronasal system is pheromone detection. It was widely believed that humans had long ago discarded this sensory system along evolution's trail. But a closer look at the human nose by B. Jafek and D. Moran, affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center at the University of Colorado, revealed that all humans examined displayed two tiny pits on both sides of the septum, just inside the the opening of the nose. Behind the holes were tubes lined with unique cells that could well be pheromone detectors, since they responded positively to puffs of air laden with pheromones. In conclusion, we humans actually do have a sixth sense, and we are all enveloped in an aura -- not the luminous aura of the mystics but a cloud of pheromones. Somehow, our attitudes towards others are likely affected by these pheromones. (Blakeslee, Sandra; "Human Nose May Hold an Additional Organ for a Real Sixth Sense," New York Times, September 7, 1993. Cr. P. Gunkel) From Science Frontiers ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 104: Mar-Apr 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A METEORITIC EVENT LAYER IN ANTARCTIC ICE "Where the East Antarctic icesheet meets the Transantarctic Mountains, old, deep glacial ice is tilted upward and exposed. Within this visible cross section of the icesheet, layers of dark volcanic tephra serve as stratigraphic markers and datable age horizons. Systematic sampling of these layers at a well-known meteorite collection site (the Allan Hills Main Icefield) has revealed a band consisting of unusually dark and rounded particles, many of which are spheroidal. This debris layer (BIT-58) extends parallel to the stratigraphy of the ice established from the tephra bands, and thus apparently marks a single depositional event. Several kilograms of ice from two sites along this band were subsequently collected and melted, yielding a few grams of sediment for further study." Microscopic examination and microprobe analysis led to the following conclusions: "Although direct evidence of an extraterrestrial origin for this debris layer (such as the presence of cosmogenic 10 Be and 26Al) has not yet been obtained, the available data strongly suggest that this sediment originated as meteoritic spallation debris. This debris is distinct from other Antarctic 'cosmic dust' collections by virtue of its uniform, recognizable, ordinary chondrite composition and the consistent relation shown between grain size and texture. The BIT-58 layer probably originated from a single transient event, the passage and/or impact of a single large meteorite over the East Antarctic icesheet." (Harvey, ...
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... Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Voyages Of The Imagination We would be remiss if we did not record here an article by F.J . Frost, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Frost proceeds to shoot down all claims, save one, of Precolumbian contacts with the New World. He accepts only the Viking signs found at L'Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland, dating back to about 1000 AD. Everything else: Roman amphorae in Brazil, Japanese pottery in Ecuador, Egyptian architecture in Mesoamerica, Celtic inscriptions in New England, etc.; is the product of hoaxes, misinterpretations, and sloppy archeology. Frost has no patience with the (mainly) amateur archeologists; he is not impressed by all the mountains of evidence they have collected. (Frost, Frank J.; "Voyages of the Imagination," Archaeology, 46:46, March/April 1993.) Comment. Frost's stonewalling reminds one of other negative pronouncements, such as: "Stones cannot fall from the sky"; and "Continents cannot drift." From Science Frontiers #88, JUL-AUG 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 80: Mar-Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cricket Coordination In the August 31, 1991, issue of Science News, there appeared an item on the famous synchronously flashing fireflies of Southeast Asia. W. Clements, writing in response to the firefly story, asserts that Indian crickets chirping in unison are much more impressive. He wrote: "I once rode on the back of a truck at night along mountain roads in India. There the crickets sound out quite loudly. The sound swells and diminishes with a persistent beat. As we drove along mile after mile, there was not the tiniest perceptible change in the rhythm. In other words, the insects we listened to at any point were modulating their sound at exactly the same frequency, if not phase, maintained by their contemporaries many miles back. Considering the vast areas that must be represented wherever it occurs, the phenomenon must involve unimaginable millions of insects all acting in concert. This is vastly more impressive than the spectacle of fireflies performing together in a single tree." Picture, if you will, millions, perhaps billions, of crickets all moving their limbs together in unison over many square miles! (Clements, Warner; "Flashy Displays," Science News, 140:323, 1991.) From Science Frontiers #80, MAR-APR 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 70: Jul-Aug 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Antarctic ice sheets slipping?Geologists have generally assumed that the ponderous Antarctic ice sheets do not change their behavior rapidly. But, according to NASA's R. Bindschadler, an ongoing study of the Antarctic coast near the Ross Ice Shelf casts doubt upon this assumption of long-term stability. Measurements of one ice stream flowing down from the mountains to the sea in dicate a sudden unexplained, 20% reduction in speed over the past decade. Perhaps even more significant is that, even with this reduction in flow velocity, this particular ice stream carries ice into the sea 40% faster than ice accumulates up in the mountains. The sudden, rather large velocity change is alarming because it may signify widespread instability in the continent's icy mantle. Researchers state that there is even a chance that much of the Antarctic ice cap could collapse into the sea in the next few centuries -- a catastrophic event that would raise global sealevels by 6 meters! (Anonymous; "Antarctic Ice Potentially Unstable," Science News, 137:285, 1990.) Comment. In addition to looking at future consequences of collapsing Antarctic ice sheets, we should mark that what might happen in the future might also have happened in the past. Obviously, we refer to the often-discussed speculation that the Antarctic was nearly ice-free within historical times. In this connection, we cannot escape mentioning that remarkable ancient map of Piri ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 75: May-Jun 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unusual electrical (? ) phenomena November 24, 1975. Tendele Hutted Camp, Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa. The following observations were made during violent electrical storms. "Around 10pm, WN observed a luminous vertical column in an easterly direction which appeared suddenly at a location low on the hillside on the far bank of the Tugela River at a distance of about 1km. This stationary light column seemed to have the dimensions of a pencil stub (approx. 50mm x approx. 7mm) held vertically at arm's length. The column, which had a bluish glow like a fluorescent tube, was visible for about 5 to 10 seconds. .. .. . "At 11.15pm, when the intensity of the storm had abated and the sky was lit intermittently with flashes of sheet lightning, the writer saw a luminous spherical object, seemingly of golf to tennis ball size, moving rapidly with an apparently vertical undulating motion from left (northeast) to right (southwest) on a horizontal course in the general direction of Mont-Aux-Sources (3282m) where the Tugela River has its origin. This sighting lasted 2 to 3 seconds. About 3 minutes later, another similar object crossed the field of view, following the same course as the first object and showing about 2 or 3 undulations in its passage. At midnight, a third object was seen having the same characteristics as the first two objects. ...
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... This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ball Lightning Studies The April 1990 issue of the Journal of Meteorology, some 63 pages of it, presents us with a wonderful compendium of ball lightning observations. It is un-fortunate that we have room for only a few of the many fascinating descriptions. Giant ball lightning. "The following display of ball lightning was observed by an officer at the coastguard station at Fishguard, Dyfed, West Wales, on 8 June 1977. The occurrence was at 0227 GMT, grid reference SM(12)895389. "The ball lightning phenomenon was very large and estimated to be about the size of a bus. It was described as a brilliant, yellow green, transparent ball with a fuzzy outline which descended from the base of a towering cumulus over Garn Fawr Mountains and appeared to 'float' down the hillside. Intense light was emitted for about three seconds before flickering out. Severe static was heard on the radio. The object slowly rotated around a horizontal axis, and seemed to 'bounce' off projections on the ground. It was noticed that cattle and seabirds in the immediate vicinity became disturbed." (Jones, Ian; "Giant Ball Lightning or Plasma Vortex," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 15:178, 1990.) Reference. Eighteen varieties of ball lightning are cataloged in section GLB in Lightning, Auroras. For more infor mation on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #71, SEP-OCT 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... "An image of an unusual luminous electrical discharge over a thunderstorm 250 kilometers from the observing site has been obtained with a low-light-level television camera. The discharge began at the cloud tops at 14 kilometers and extended into the clear air 20 kilometers higher. The image, which had a duration of less than 30 milliseconds, resembled two jets or fountains and was probably caused by two localized electric charge concentrations at the cloud tops." (Franz, R.C ., et al; "Television Image of a Large Upward Electrical Discharge above a Thunderstorm System," Science, 249:48, 1990.) Comment. Note that the above discharges were diffuse and quite unlike most cloud-to-ground lightning discharges. They were, in fact, much like the mountain-top glows seen along the Andes. Also, one should ask where those "localized electric charge concen trations" came from and why they did not disperse. Reference, Upwardly directed "rocket lightning" is cataloged in GLL1 in our catalog: Lightning, Auroras. Fuller description here . From Science Frontiers #72, NOV-DEC 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Artifacts Of The Auriferous Gravels Now dismissed entirely and even ridiculed by establishment archeologists is the evidence of ancient human activity found in California's auriferous gravels. R.E . Gentet sets the geological stage in the following paragraph. "The 1849 gold rush to the state of California was the beginning of some of the most unusual reported finds of early man in North America. The gold-bearing gravels of California are recognized as being Tertiary in age, ranging from oldest to youngest Tertiary, depending upon the exact geological setting. At the time these gravels were deposited, volcanic eruptions also laid down lava beds, often tens or scores of feet thick. This occurred a number of times, and together with much erosion since then, have now resulted in table mountains, that is, lava-capped hills where the harder lava has better withstood erosion stresses while surrounding softer material has been swept away. It is under the hard lava beds, in the gold-bearing (auriferous) gravels, where the reported human bones and artifacts were found, not just once or twice, but hundreds of times by miners during the span of time from the 1850s through the 1890s while engaging in mining operations. Findings were spread over a wide geographical area." During the late 1800s, several books and many papers recorded the discoveries. Some of the finds were made by respected scientists of the day. Human skulls were found embedded over 130 feet below the surface underneath thick lava beds. Also retrieved were many mortars and pestles, stone sinkers, strange double ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 61: Jan-Feb 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Chaos Below "In a dive on the submersible Alvin just west of the Mariana trench, scientists discovered a cache of unusual features, including chimneys spewing out mineral-laden cold water on top of submerged mountains that rise 2,500 meters from the seafloor. While volcanic eruptions form most sea-mounts, these mountains consist of a nonvolcanic rock called serpentinite, and oceanographers are not entirely sure how the serpentinite mountains formed." The theory of plate tectonics has the Pacific plate diving under the Philippine plate along the Mariana trench. It may be that water trapped in the downgoing crust leaks out, rises, and serpentinizes the crust above. This altered rock, being lighter than that surrounding it, may slowly rise through it, eventually forming undersea mountains. (Monastersky, Richard; "Novel Mountains and Chimneys in the Sea," Science News, 134:333, 1988.) Comment. This all sounds pretty speculative, but those mountains had to come from somewhere. Perhaps the serpentinite mountains are just one manifestation of a larger phenomenon: the chaotic slithering and popping up and down of crustal material. The following is from New Scientist: "Geophysicists in California and Illinois say that they have found the Earth's "missing" crust by analyzing shock waves from earthquakes to determine the chemical composition of the Earth's interior. If the researchers are correct, then the view of the interior of the Earth that scientists ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mysterious Stone Rings After worrying so much above about possible scientific blunders, it is pleasant to relax with a minor geological (perhaps "archeological") anomaly. In Green Ridge State Forest, in Western Maryland, are found 150-200 annular piles of sandstone rocks. All lie on the western slope of Polish Mountain. No one seems to have a good explanation of their origin. Archeological digs have not unearthed any human artifacts. From a photograph of one ring, we estimate an outer diameter of 15 feet, and an inner hole 5 feet in diameter. The height of the rock ring is perhaps 2 feet. The sandstone rocks are generally slab-like. A popular theory states that the rocks were piled up to protect apple trees. (Anonymous; "Rings of Stone Pose Mystery in Md.," Washington Post, June 26, 1988. Cr. J. Judge.) Comment. We have classified this item under GEOLOGY because these rings could be periglacial phenomena; that is akin to patterned ground. Periglacial structures are occasionally found in the Appalachians. From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... ,000-YEAR-OLD SITE IN BRAZIL "Central, Brazil -- Archaeologists excavating a cave in Brazil's remote northeastern backlands say that they have found evidence that man has lived in the New World for at least 300,000 years. "If confirmed, it would be the first proof of pre-Neanderthal man in the Americas and a severe blow to current theories that the first humans came here from Asia during the last Ice Age, only about 35,000 years ago. "The scientists also report that they have discovered what may be the world's oldest astronomical observatory. .. .. . "The signs of man were found in a cave called Toca da Esperanca (Grotto of Hope), deep in the black limestone cliffs of the Serra Negra mountains, 1,100 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro. "The site caught the interest of the scientific community after archaeologist Maria Beltrao reported finding a stone implement and the cut bones of an extinct species of horse in the dig last year. "The bones were so old that they could not be dated by carbon-14, which can measure about 40,000 years. The Weak Radiation Laboratory in France tested them by a more sensitive uraniumthorium method, and came back with a staggering date of 300,000 years. .. .. . "A cave called Grotto of the Cosmos at nearby Xique-Xique contained paintings of suns, stars and comets, and this is what archaeologists believe is the oldest astronomical observatory in the Americas. "' There probably were at least ...
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... ground. Neverthe-less, a few pilots and aircraft passengers have encountered them. In February 1988, R. Weidig was flying at about 8000 feet, some 20 miles from Alpine, Texas, when he noticed white lights in motion around the Alamito Tower's red beacon light. "We noticed white lights coming up... I don't know how high, but it seemed like several hundred feet. Then the lights would just dissipate .. . They moved around that tower for some reason. They'd get on the right hand side of it, the left hand side of it, and go just straight up." In June 1988, a stranger case was reported by E. Halsell, who was a passenger on a plane flying toward the Chianti Mountains. "' Suddenly a bright light came toward them rapidly, seemingly from a great distance. "It came straight at us til it got to the hood of the plane....It was engulfing us, larger than the plane.' It seemed as though they were inside the light. 'We couldn't see to fly. It scared us.' According to Halsell, as they tried to turn away from it, it moved in front of them. 'Always it moved around us, like it was observing us....We made right turns and left turns and it stayed right with us, like it was playing a game.' The light was very bright, but 'It was kind of fuzzy, like a halo or aura ...
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... day of the week for any date in the past or future, taking into account leap years and calendar changes. She never attended school or had any formal mathematical training! (Young, Luther; "Numbers Whiz Takes Delight in Beating Computers;" Baltimore Sun, January 21, 1988, p. A1.) Comment. Such prodigies have appeared regularly down recorded history. What is the meaning of the phenomenon? Why does evolution produce talents that far exceed the "need" of the species? Is there a "need" that we are not aware of? It could be that prodigies are precursors of new evolutionary developments, which will leave poor homo sapi ens in the intellectual dust. Surely, science fiction has a story about a secret society of transcendent geniuses living under some mountain or even on some planet! Maybe that's how "the face on Mars" got there! From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... scientist, has reacted to the recent discussions of Soviet plume events as follows: "I believe that these clouds are naturally occurring, orographically-induced formations. When winds blow perpendicular to the 2,500-plus foot glacial ridge, along the northern portion of the island, a long gravitywave pattern is established downwind, on the lee side. The cases collected by Matson show sharp boundaries conforming to the contour of this glacial barrier." The Matson reference is Science News, March 28, 1987, p. 204. (Parmenter-Holt, Frances C.; "Plumes and Peaks," Science News, 131:403, 1987.) Comment. Parmenter-Holt could well be correct in some cases, for wave-like orographic clouds often form in the lee of mountain ranges, such as the Rockies. Some of the plumes, however, extend for 175 kilometers, as described above. This is pretty long for a glacial ridge. Then, too, one should inquire whether such plumes occur near similar ridges in northern climes and not just over Soviet territory. From Science Frontiers #53, SEP-OCT 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Immense Complex Of Structures Found In Peru The well-known explorer, Gene Savoy, has discovered a "lost" city some 120 square miles in area in the jungle-covered mountains of Peru. This citadel, called Gran Vilaya, is located about 400 miles northeast of Lima on a 9,000-foot mountain ridge. Savoy said: ". .. the city's buildings ran along the ridge for at least 25 miles. He said the expedition calculated that there were 10,350 stone structures in the defensive network along the ridge and 13,000 other stone buildings in three major city layouts. The stone structures, some measuring 140 feet in length, were built atop terraces that go up the mountain slopes like stairs, he said. He described them as 'complex units of circular buildings with doorways, windows, and niched walls.' The walls, he said, 'soar up as high as a 15-story building." The city was built by the Chachapoyas Indians about 1,000 years ago. The Chacahpoyas empire is dated at 800-1480 AD. The Incas, who finally conquered them, told Spanish explorers that the Chachapoyas were tall, fair-skinned people! (Anonymous; "Ruined City Found in Jungle in Peru," New York Times, July 7, 1985. Cr. M. Hall via L. Farish.) From Science Frontiers #42, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 46: Jul-Aug 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Tree-toting extraordinaire We quote first an abstract from an article appearing in American Antiquity. "Identification of spruce (Picea) and fir (Abies) construction timbers at Chetro Ketl in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, implies that between A.D . 1031 and 1120 the Anasazi transported thousands of logs more than 75 km. These timbers came from high elevations, probably in mountains to the south (Mt. Taylor) and west (Chuska Mountains) where Chacoan interaction was well established. Survey in these mountains might disclose material evidence of these prehistoric logging activities." The article proper contains even more startling statistics. The ten major pueblos in Chaco Canyon alone consumed an estimated 200,000 trees. The average primary beam was 22 cm in diameter, 5 m in length, and weighed about 275 kg (600 pounds). Since these logs show no transportation scars, they were probably carried rather than dragged or rolled. Such labor required a large, complex sociocultural system. (Betancourt, Julio L., et al; "Prehistoric Long-Distance Transport of Construction Beams, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico," American Antiquity, 51:370, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 41: Sep-Oct 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Anatomy Of A Magnetic Field Reversal "A highly detailed record of both the direction and intensity of the Earth's magnetic field as it reverses has been obtained from a Miocene volcanic sequence. The transitional field is low in intensity and is typically non-axisymmetric. Geomagnetic impulses corresponding to astonishingly high rates of change of the field sometimes occur, suggesting that liquid velocity within the Earth's core increases during geomagnetic reversals." The time period required for the field to reverse was about 4500 years, as measured at Steens Mountain, Oregon. There were three periods of very rapid change (impulses), which hint at radical changes in the core. The average magnetic field at the earth's surface decreased to 20% of normal during the reversal. (Prevot, Michel, et al; "How the Geomagnetic Field Vector Reverses Polarity," Nature, 316:230, 1985.) Comment. The illustration reveals that the reversal was far from a clean 180 flip; there was much meandering. Just what was happening in the core during the reversal is a mystery. When the magnetic field dropped to low levels, flux of cosmic rays and other radiation at the earth's surface probably increased drastically. Terrestrial life might have been adversely affected. The Steene Mountains directional record. The numbers refer to the samples used from the volcanic sequence, in order of increasing age. Dotted lines represent field directions in the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 45: May-Jun 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects When Antarctica Was Green Something is wrong with our recent history of Antarctica. Conventional wisdom insists that the continent has been ice-covered for over 15 million years. But now Peter Webb and his coworkers have found pollen and the remains of roots and stems of plants in an area stretching some 1300 kilometers along the Transantarctic Mountains. The Antarctic wood is so recent that it floats and burns with ease. Webb's group postulates that a shrub-like forest grew in Antarctica as recently as 3 million years ago. The dating, of course, is critical, and is certain to be subjected to careful scientific scrutiny. Nevertheless, these deposits of fresh-looking wood do suggest that trees recently grew only 400 miles from the South Pole. Also of interest is the fact that the sedimentary layers containing the wood have been displaced as much as 3000 meters by faults, indicating recent large-scale geological changes. (Weisburd, S.; "A Forest Grows in Antarctica," Science News, 129:148, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #45, MAY-JUN 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 49: Jan-Feb 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Slice Of Ocean Crust In Wyoming Tucked among Wyoming's Wind River Mountains is a region of exotic crustal rocks. The best explanation conventional geology has come up with is that they were formed some 2.5 billion years ago by geological processes not in operation today. G. Harper, however, thinks that these Wyoming rocks look very much like some of the slices of ocean crust (terranes) that continental drift's conveyor belt has plastered against North America's west coast. The conveyor belt is, of course, the ocean floor that dives under the continent. The more he looked, the more Harper was convinced that there, in the middle of the continent, was a substantial chunk of ancient ocean crust. The implications: continental drift and terrane plastering have been in operation for billions of years: ". .. from their very beginnings continents have been built up from the bits and pieces of plate tectonics." Some other geologists concur and point to similar rocks in northern Canada and around the Great Lakes. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Plate Tectonics Is the Key to the Distant Past," Science, 234:670, 1986.) Comment. If the continents have been slapped together in such a disorganized manner, have stratigraphy and geological dating been compromised? Reference. "Exotic" terranes are discussed in ESR9 in Inner Earth. Information on this catalog here . Pangaea circa ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 46: Jul-Aug 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Moon And Avalanches The moon is blamed for many things from earthquake triggering to human crimes of passion. Until now, no one seems to have studied the lunar effect on avalanche frequency; even though avalanches are obvious trigger-type phenomena. We find the following para-graph in an article on snow avalanches in general: "Another precipitating factor may be the gravitational pull of the moon. In research published last year, Peter Lev of the Utah Highway Department found that based on a statistical study of moon and avalanche cycles in the Wasatch Mountains during the past 20 years, the chance of an avalanche's occurring on a full and new moon was 100 times greater than it is during other days in the lunar cycle." (Anonymous; "Full Moon May Contribute to 'Loose' and 'Slab' Avalanches," San Jose Mercury News, December 3l, 1985. Cr. Bartindale) From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... inundation Science, quite wisely, places little value on legend and tradition. The authors of this article stess the pitfalls of using data handed down verbally from generation to generation. With these caveats, they reproduce an Indian tradition originally set down by Judge James Swan back in 1888: "' A long time ago,' said my informant, 'but not at a very remote period, the water of the Pacific flowed through what is now the swamp and prairie between Waatch village and Neeah Bay, making an island of Cape Flattery. The water suddenly receded leaving Neeah Bay perfectly dry. It was four days reaching the lowest ebb, and then rose again without any waves or breakers, till it had submerged the Cape, and in fact the whole country, excepting the tops of the mountains at Clyoquot. The water on its rise became very warm, and as it came up to the houses, those who had canoes put their effects into them, and floated off with the current, which set very strongly to the north.'" The authors of the present article wonder if the above could be an account of a massive tsunami! They admit that the 4-day recession is inconsistent with tsunami action and that the warm water is hard-to-explain. The height reached by the inundation -- some 400 meters -- is also incredible. (Heaton, Thomas H., and Snavely, Parke D., Jr.; "Possible Tsunami along the Northwestern Coast of the United States Inferred from Indian Traditions," Seismological Society of America, Bulletin ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 45: May-Jun 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Bubonic plague as an indicator of diffusion?Every year a few people in the Arizona New Mexico region contract bubonic plague. Where did this persistent pocket of infection come from? One school of thought has the germ arriving with the rats on ships docking in California during the Gold Rush of 1849. But how could the plague have crossed the mountains and across several radically different ecosystems? One would anticipate finding records of the plague as it made its way into the Southwest. It is true that a less virulent disease, the sylvatic plague, transmitted by similar mechanisms, does exist in the Pacific Coast area; but the bubonic plague does seem highly localized in Arizona and New Mexico. Perhaps another explanation can be discovered in the history of the bubonic plague and the settlement of the Southwest. The plague seems to have commenced in Athens about 430 BC. More or less isolated epidemics followed, but from 1334 to 1351 the disease decimated most of the known world: Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Of course, the American Southwest was not part of the "known world" of 1334-1351. But, coincidentally (? ), this was just about the time that the Hohokam and Anasazi cultures began to decline rapidly in the Southwest. Link this observation to the purported Roman and Hebrew artifacts in the region (SF#43), and one sees the possibility that Old World travellers brought the bubonic plague to the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 49: Jan-Feb 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Moho Vicissitudes For a long time the Moho (Mohorovicic discontinuity) has been considered a stable plane dividing the crust from the mantle. It is at the Moho that seismic wave velocities change abruptly. There is something there, but no one knows just what. At the recent Second International Symposium on Deep Seismic Reflection Profiling of the Continental Lithosphere, a lot of doubts about the stability and character of the Moho surfaced. Under the North American Cordillera, which runs from Alaska to Mexico, the Moho is flat, continuous and oblivious to the faults, terrane plastering, mountain "roots," and the geological phenomena above it. In other areas, though, several Mohos are stacked up. Some Mohos are discontinuous, jumping from one depth to another. Others are strongly influenced by overhead geological structures. Gone is the neat, so simple Moho figured in all the textbooks. (Barton, Penny; "Deep Reflections on the Moho," Nature, 323:392, 1986. Also: Weisburd, S.; "The Moho Is Immutable No More," Science News, 130:326, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... may have once had a volume of surface water comparable to that of the terrestrial oceans. We propose that the evaporation of this putative ocean may have yielded residual salt deposits that formed various terrain features depicted in Venera 15 and 16 radar images. "By analogy with models for the total evaporation of terrestrial oceans, evaporite deposits on Venus should be ar least ten to hundreds of meters thick. From photogeologic evidence and insitu chemical analyses, it appears that the salt plains were later buried by lava flows. On Earth, salt diapirism leads to the formation of salt domes, anticlines, and elongated salt intrusions -- features which have dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 km. Due to the rapid erosion of salt by water, surface evaporite landforms are only common in dry regions such as the Zagros Mountains of Iran, where salt plugs and glaciers exist. Venus is far drier than Iran; extruded salt should be preserved, although the high surface temperature (470 C) would probably stimulate rapid salt flow. Venus possesses a variety of circular landforms, ten to hundreds of kilometers wide, which could be either megasalt domes or salt intrusions colonizing impact craters. Additionally, arcuate bands seen in the Maxwell area of Venus could be salt intrusions formed in a region of tectonic stress. These large structures may not be salt features; nonetheless, salt features should exist on Venus." (Wood, C.A ., and Amsbury, D.; "Salt Structures on Venus," American Associa tion of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin, 70:664, 1986.) Comment. Perhaps ...
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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 Experiments On Brown Mountain Brown Mountain, in North Carolina at the end of the Blue Ridge Mountain chain, is famous for its enigmatic nocturnal lights. In this article M.A . Frizzell summarizes the most important attempts to come to grips with this phenomenon during the past 70 years. He concludes by describing recent experiments conducted by The Enigma Project and the Oak Ridge Isochronous Observation Network (ORION). Rather than repeat once again the older published observations, let us concentrate on the Enigma/ORION work. In May 1977, ORION placed a 500,000 candlepower arc light in Lenoir, 22 miles east of Brown Mountain. Simultaneously, a group of observers gathered on an overlook on Route 181, 3.5 miles west of Brown Mountain, a favorite spot for watching for the Brown Mountain lights. Brown Mountain itself was inter-posed between the arc light and obser-vers. When the arc light was switched on, the observers saw an orange-red orb hovering several degrees above the crest of Brown Mountain. Conclusion: the majority of the so-called Brown Mountain lights, particularly those seen above the crest, are refractions of artificial lights. The real Brown Mountain lights, the mysterious ones, are those that flit through the trees well below the crest. These lights are extremely rare. Typically, they commence as a brilliant blue-white or yellow light, which tapers off to dull red before disappearing ...
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... 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 Aggressive Ball Lightning August 17, 1978. Caucasian Mountains, Russia. Victor Kavunenko and four other mountaineers were camped for the night at an altitude of 3900 meters. He reported as follows: "I woke up with the strange feeling that a stranger had made his way into our tent. Thrusting my head out of the sleeping bag, I froze. A bright yellow blob was floating about one metre from the floor. It disappeared into Korovin's sleeping bag. The man screamed in pain. The ball jumped out and proceeded to circle over the other bags now hiding in one, now in another. When it burned a hole in mine I felt an unbearable pain, as if I were being burned by a welding machine, and blacked out. Regaining consciousness after a while, I saw the same yellow ball which, methodically observing a pattern that was known to it alone, kept diving into the bags, evoking desperate, heart-rendering (sic) howls from the victims. This indescribable horror repeated itself several times. When I came back to my senses for the fifth or sixth time, the ball was gone. I could not move my arms or legs and my body was burning as if it had turned into a ball of fire itself. In the hospital, where we were flown by helicopter, seven wounds were discovered on my body. They were worse than burns. Pieces of muscle were found ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Thin-skinned tectonics In many regions of the world, older rocks are superimposed on top of younger rocks, just the opposite from what is expected. The usual explanation is that the layers of older rocks were thrust parallel to the bedding planes over the top of the layers of younger rock, sometimes for hundreds of miles. So numerous are these instances of inverted strata that a new branch of geology called Thin-Skinned Tectonics is arising to handle them. The present article deals with the complex stratigraphy in the Western Arbuckle Mountains in southern Oklahoma. Here are located many examples of old-on-young rock as well as completely inverted stratigraphic members. Much at-tention is paid to the evidence of sliding between beds (breccia, small overfolds, etc.). Some excellent photos of these contact planes are presented. (Phillips, Eric H.; "Gravity Slide Thrusting and Folded Faults in Western Arbuckle Mountains and Vicinity, Southern Oklahoma," American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin, 67:1363, 1983.) Comment. Some extensive thrust faults do not show as much evidence of horizontal sliding as those in the Western Arbuckles. Scientific creationists use such examples as evidence that the geological time scale, as determined by the fossil contents of the rocks, is all mixed up. From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 A RUSSIAN PALUXY "This spring, an expedition from the Institute of Geology of the Turkmen SSR Academy of Sciences found over 1,500 tracks left by dinosaurs in the mountains in the southeast of the Republic. Impressions resembling in shape a human footprint were discovered next to the tracks of the prehistoric animals." Professor Kurban Amanniyazov, leader of the expedition, elaborated: "We've discovered imprints resembling human footprints, but to date have failed to determine, with any scientific veracity, whom they belong to, after all. Of course, if we could prove that they do belong to a humanoid, it would create a revolution in the science of man. Humanity would 'grow older' thirty-fold and its history would be at least 150 million years long." (Anonymous; "Tracking Dinosaurs," Moscow News, no. 24, p. 10, 1983. Cr. V. Rubtsov.) Comment. Strata along the Paluxy River, Texas, contain a similar mixture of dinosaur and human-like tracks. From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The solar-system dust bin For hundreds of thousands of years, miscellaneous rocky debris swirling around the sun has been falling upon the icy wastes of Antarctica. The motion of Antarctica's ice sheet carries these meteorites conveyor-belt fashion out towards the encircling seas. But where Antarctic mountains get in the way, the rocky cargo tends to get concentrated. Several thousand meteorites have already been picked up at these favored spots. In just a 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 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Chinese Wild Man The Chinese Wild Man seems to have much in common with the North American Sasquatch or Bigfoot, if we are to believe all the reports coming out of China these days. From western Yunnan and northwestern Hubei provinces come hundreds of recent sightings. Since 1976, four Chinese scientific expeditions have concentrated their attentions in the mountainous, thickly forested Shennongjia region of Hubei Province. So far, though, there are no specimens or even good photos. The major evidence for the existence of the Wild Man consists of anecdotal reports, many casts of footprints (18 inches long), hair (reddish), and samples of feces. The same situation prevails in North America as far as Sasquatch evidence is concerned. Summarizing recent sightings, the Wild Man is a bipedal creature, seven-feet-plus in height, usually covered with reddish hair, possessing human features, with no tail, having the ability to laugh and cry, capable of weaving bamboo sleeping couches, and with no fear of fire. The Wild Man eats fruit and small animals, but has also been known to steal small pigs and corn from farmers. An anecdote from the 1940s: a band of hunters killed a Wild Man with a machine gun and cooked it in a pot. The taste was so foul that no one would eat it! (Wren, Christopher S.; "On the Trail of the 'Wild Man' of ...
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... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Phoenix vs. the hohokam Rapidly expanding Phoenix is gobbling up the vestiges of the Hohokam. Archeologists are striving to save as much information as possible before the bulldozers destroy the best artifacts left by this remarkable Indian civilization. This beautifully illustrated article touches on several of the precocious and puzzling features of the Hohokam Period, circa 0-1 ,400 AD. (1 ) The Hohokam apparently employed acid-etching to produce designs on shells. Acetic acid from fermented cactus juice was use to eat away portions of the shell not protected by tar. (2 ) Four-story Casa Grande, which seems to have been an astronomical observatory, required at least 600 big wooden beams, all of which had to be transported over 50 miles from sources in the mountains. (3 ) The Hohokam built an elaborate, well-engineered system of irrigation canals. (4 ) Unexplained are many flat-bottomed oval pits up to 182 feet long, 55 feet wide, and 13-18 feet deep. Some surmise they were ball courts. (5 ) Also puzzling are rectangular earthen mounds, 75 x 95 feet at the base and 12 feet high, with flat adobe-covered tops. (Adams, Daniel B.; "Last Ditch Archeology," Science 83, 4:28, December 1983.) Reference. The Hohokam canals and those built by other ancient peoples are presented in our Handbook Ancient Man. For details on this book, visit: here . Section through two Hohokum canals, showing original canal profile (bottom) ...
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