Science Frontiers
The Unusual & Unexplained

Strange Science * Bizarre Biophysics * Anomalous astronomy
From the pages of the World's Scientific Journals

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About Science Frontiers

Science Frontiers is the bimonthly newsletter providing digests of reports that describe scientific anomalies; that is, those observations and facts that challenge prevailing scientific paradigms. Over 2000 Science Frontiers digests have been published since 1976.

These 2,000+ digests represent only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The Sourcebook Project, which publishes Science Frontiers, also publishes the Catalog of Anomalies, which delves far more deeply into anomalistics and now extends to sixteen volumes, and covers dozens of disciplines.

Over 14,000 volumes of science journals, including all issues of Nature and Science have been examined for reports on anomalies. In this context, the newsletter Science Frontiers is the appetizer and the Catalog of Anomalies is the main course.


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Compilations of back issues can be found in Science Frontiers: The Book, and original and more detailed reports in the The Sourcebook Project series of books.


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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 77: Sep-Oct 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Anthracite man?It is not surprising that the discovery described below has not made its way into mainstream scientific literature. Most mainstream anthropologists would shy away from human bones reputed to come from anthracite coal measures hundreds of millions of years old! Our source is a small newspaper in eastern Pennsylvania. Scientifically acceptable hominid fossils are no older than a few million years at most. So, when anyone cognizant of prevailing paradigms enters the Greater Hazelton Historical Society Museum, he is astonished to find an: ". .. elaborate display of rock-like objects found in the anthracite region by Ed Conrad who insists, based on his 10 years of exhaustive research and scientific testing, that he possesses undeniable evidence that they are petrified bones. "Society officials undoubtedly are impressed because a small sign displayed on a front window carries some very large words: ' This is the only museum in the world where petrified bones, found between coal veins, are on display .' " The photos accompanying the newspaper article certainly portray objects that "look like" human skulls. E. Conrad also asserts that he had also found hominid jawbones, teeth, a femur, and even a petrified brain! (Anonymous; "Bone Display Draws National Interest," Hazelton Standard Speaker , December 8, 1990. Cr. L. Farish.) Comment. From the newspaper article it is impossible to learn what professional geologists and anthropologists think about these purported ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 5: November 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fire-walking: anyone can do it San Pedro Manrique, Spain, 1969, the annual fire-walking ceremony. Arriving too late for the official ceremony, the author and his friends find a bed of coals too hot to stand near. Two members of a French TV crew remaining behind walk across the coals with no adverse effects. A Spanish companion does, too. Thus encouraged, the American takes off his shoes. He is advised: Make sure your feet are brushed free of grass and twigs; Place your feet firmly and with force; and Never hesitate, keep moving. The author walked across the coals without the slightest hint of burning. It was, he states, a "spiritual experience!" (McElroy, John Harmon; "Fire-Walking," Folklore, 89:113, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #5 , November 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 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. 28: Jul-Aug 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Alaskan Jigsaw Puzzle Alaska seems to be plastered together from bits and pieces that originated far from the present position of this state. The units that now make up southern Alaska, for example, started north of the equator 250 million years ago, crossed into the southern hemisphere, and started back north about 160 million years ago. However, the itinerary of northern Alaska cannot even be guessed at. Present thinking is that this portion of the state was close to the geographic north pole during the late Cretaceous. But this is the period when the huge coal deposits were formed on the Arctic slope. Much of this coal comes from evergreens, which could not have survived in high latitudes due to the lack of sunlight. So, the pieces of the puzzle are at hand, but their travels are a mystery. (Anonymous; "Fragmented Alaska," Open Earth, no. 17, 1982.) Reference. For more on exotic terranes, see ESR9 in our Catalog: Inner Earth. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #28, JUL-AUG 1983 . 1983-2000 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. 103: Jan-Feb 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Stythe = choke damp This, according to an unabridged dictionary. Looking up "choke damp", it is found to be "a suffocating gas, chiefly carbon dioxide, found in wells, coal mines, and other pits, also called "blackdamp." Evidently, in the quotation in SF#102 describing the death of one Donald Tollett due to a stythe, the word "stythe" was used for the meteorological event itself rather than -- correctly -- for the gases sucked out of the coal mine by a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure. (Stepp, Richard; personal communication, November 26, 1995) Comment. Changes in atmospheric pressure are also the causes of "blowing caves" and "weather wells". See GHG2 in Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds. To order, visit here . Incidentally, blowing caves were used in the very early days of aernonautics for testing aircraft models due to the lack of wind tunnels. From Science Frontiers #103, JAN-FEB 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 121: Jan-Feb 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fused Ancient Garbage Dumps When a geologist discovers naturally formed glasses, he can explain them in several ways. When an archeologist finds the contents of ancient garbage dumps (" middens") fused into a glassy slag. he has to ponder a bit longer. First, a bit of background. Natural glasses can be created in several ways. Impact-heating by meteorites or asteroids probably fused the famous slabs of Libyan Desert Glass and also the Darwin glass found in Australia. More curious are the peculiar glassy clinkers of fused wood ash found in hollow snags in trees after intense forest fires. This is called "combustion metamorphism." Combustion metamorphism is also common where undergound coal seams have caught fire and burn for decades. Humans get into the act, too. The ancient Scots piled up trees around their rock forts and fused the stones together with fire. (Why they bothered is unknown.) However, a different sort of natural glass has been found in east-central Botswana. There, archeologists have found 5-inch-thick layers of glassy slag interleaved with ashy soil in ancient middens (garbage dumps). These middens are not associated with pottery kilns or iron smelting. It is hard to imagine what could have melted layers of garbage, including pottery, plant material, and other biomass. Analysis of the slag indicates that temperatures of 1155-1290 C were required to fuse the garbage. Open fires could not have attained the necessary temperature ...
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... Giants Pygmy Reports [MAA] Eden Story Maori-Origin Legends South Americans on Easter Island Prehistoric Whites in West Virginia MAP PLANTS, ANIMALS, DISEASES Elephantitis in Polynesia Diffusion of Plants and Animals throughout Oceania Maize in Old World Potatoes in Oceania Old World Shells in New World Cocaine, Tobacco, Other Drugs in Old World Oceania in New World Old World Cotton in New World Precolumbian Horses New World Shells in Old World Old World Chickens in New World Early Agriculture Easter Island Decline: Plant Evidence Sunflowers in Old World New World Hybrid Cotton Cowry Shell Diffusion Dyes, Diffusion of Coconut, Bottle Gourd, Sweet Potato Diffusion MG GRAPHIC ARTIFACTS MGC COINS IN UNEXPECTED PLACES Egyptian in Australia Egyptian in Martinique Roman in North America Roman in Iceland Chinese in North America Carthaginian in United Kingdom Hebrew in North America Coins in Coal Deposits Phoenician in Bahamas MGG GEOFORMS Effigy Mounds, Emblematic Mounds Boulder Mosaics Serpent Mounds, Wide Distribution Blythe Ground Figures British Hill Figures Nazca Lines Gravel Effigies Santa Valley Geoglyphs Georgia Eagle Mound Australian Ground Figures Panamint Valley Ground Figures [MSH6 Stone Meanders] Candelabra of the Andes South American Ceques U.S . Giant Circles [MSE8 Geographical Zodiacs] MGK CALENDARS AND ZODIACS Calendar Mosaics Lozenge Calendars Lunar and Solar Notation on Bones and Stones Karanouo Zodiac Mayan and Western Zodiacs Are Alike [MSE Geographical Zodiacs] MGM MAPS Turin Papyrus Vineland Map Stick Maps of Oceania Piri Re'is Map Carthaginian Maps Tibetan Maps of New World Ancient Atlantic Maps, Disappearing Islands Zeno maps Chinese Maps of America, Fusang Claim MGP ROCK ART, PETROGLYPHS, PICTOGRAPHS Tattoos Australian Bradshaw Paintings Paisa Petroglyphs Maze Stone Viking-Boat Tablet ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 94: Jul-Aug 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Beware the ides of june -- and the rest of the month, too!Three astronomical events, all within the short span of written human history, lead J. Hartung to warn us that June is a dangerous month for earthlings. June 18, 1178. On the moon. ". .. just after sunset, it was reported by at least five men that the 'upper horn of a new moon split and from the division point fire, hot coals, and sparks spewed out.'" These observations have been interpreted as eyewitness accounts of the impact on the moon that gouged out the crater named Giordano Bruno, 20 kilometers in diameter. June 30, 1908. Siberia. "On the morning of June 30, 1908, a tremendous explosion deep in the Siberian taiga near the Tunguska river caused trees over an area of 40 km in diameter to be flattened in a radial pattern and produced a pressure wave in the atmosphere which circled the Earth." June 17-27, 1975. On the moon. ". .. an unusual meteoroid 'storm' was detected by the array of seismometers placed on the moon during the Apollo missions. The peak impact rate on the moon of 0.5 -to-50-kg objects was about 10 times the normal background during this interval. Such a high rate was not recorded at any other time during the 8-year operation of the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 77: Sep-Oct 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Methane hydrate: past friend or future foe?What looks like a grayish ice cube, fizzes at its edges, and soon wastes away to a puddle of water? If you wish, you can accelerate the substance's demise by touching a match to it; it is packed with potential energy. The substance is methane hydrate, and it is found in prodigious quantities in oceanic sediments. Each cubic centimeter of methane hydrate contains about 160 cubic centimeters of methane at standard conditions; it is a concentrated source of natural gas. In fact, methane hydrate deposits in the world's oceans hold twice as much carbon as all the coal, oil, and gas reserves on land! But methane hydrate may be much more than a future fuel source; it may have been humanity's savior in eons gone by; it may be our future nemesis. You see, methane hydrate is very unstable; changes of temperature or pressure on a global basis can trigger the release of immense volumes of this greenhouse gas from oceanic deposits. For example, when the Ice Ages lowered ocean levels by locking up water in the advancing ice caps, pressures on ocean-bottom methane hydrate lessened and, according to some speculators, released enough gas so that the increased greenhouse heating turned back the Ice Ages. (Was Gaia at work here?) On the other hand, if present human activities are truly stoking the greenhouse effect, ...
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11. STYTHE?
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 102: Nov-Dec 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Stythe? Has anyone heard of "stythes" before? "Donald Tollett, 60, died from suffocation after a freak weather phenomenon called a stythe caused a drop in air pressure, sucking carbon dioxide from a disused coal mine. He was walking through the Karva Woodcrafts factory unit in Widdrington Station, Northumberland, on 11 February, on his way to feed his neice's horse, accompanied by a family friend, David Wind, 8, and a pet dog when he and the collie were overcome." (Anonymous; "Strange Deaths," Fortean Times, no. 82, p. 20, August-September 1995. Sources cited: London Times and the Daily Telegraph .) From Science Frontiers #102 Nov-Dec 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... quantities of methane and higher hydrocarbons locked up in frozen hydrates around the edges of the continents. Actually, the small methane burps are minor problems compared to the catastrophic climate changes that could be forced if just a small portion of the gases frozen under the sea floor were released into the atmosphere. Gas-hydrates are unimpressive when brought to the surface -- just dirty, fizzy ice. However, taken together, they contain more carbon than all the world's oil fields, perhaps much more. Most estimates fall between 1,700 and 11,000 billion tons, but there is one scientist who pegs these cold-storage carbon deposits at 4,100,000 billion tons. In comparison, human releases of carbon to the atmosphere via the burning of wood, gas, coal, and even the collective flatulence of all the planet's animals are trivial. Geological evidence confirms that past climate swings were associated with large injections of carbon into the atmosphere and oceans. A major contributor to these "carbon burps" may be decomposing methane hydrate. Until recently, climatologists have questioned the sizes of gas-hydrate deposits, but cores extracted from the Blake Ridge off the Carolina coast confirm the immense amounts of gases precariously locked up in sea-floor sediments. The stratum of gas hydrates in the Blake Ridge alone covers 26,000 square kilometers -- enough gas is there to supply the U.S . for 107 years. In biological terms the Blake Ridge's carbon is equal to 7% of the carbon locked up in all terrestrial biota -- ...
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... Organisms Found Far Inland ESB6 Living Organisms and Recent Fossils at Very High Altitudes ESB7 Growth Structures on Marine Organisms and Their Fossils ESB8 Animals Entombed in Rocks ESB9 Living Organisms at Great Depths ESB10 Fossils of Warm-Climate, Light Dependent Organisms Found in the Polar Regions ESB11 Time-Wise Anomalous Fossils ESB12 Skipping in the Fossil Record ESB13 "Special" Nature of Fossils ESC ANOMALOUS CHEMICAL PHENOMENA IN GEOLOGY ESC1 Chemical Anomalies in the Stratigraphic Record ESC2 Chemical Anomalies in Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks ESC3 Surface Films on Rocks ESC4 Spontaneous, Rapid, Exothermic Reactions in Nature ESC5 Death Gulches ESC6 Violent Lake Turnovers ESC7 Petrifactions and Lignifications ESC8 Geological Effects of Natural Combustion ESC9 Rocks and Sediments of Controverted Origins ESC10 Unusual Growth Structures ESC11 Possible Extraterrestrial Origin of Ocean Water ESC12 Chemical Anomalies of Lakes and Ground Water ESC13 Petroleum Anomalies ESC14 Coal Anomalies ESC15 Outgassing of Radon-222 ESC16 Methane Anomalies ESD DEPOSITS OF REMARKABLE SIZE ESD1 Bone Caves, Bone Caches,... ESD2 Bone Beds, Fish Beds,... ESD3 Sedimentary Deposits of Exceptional Volume ESD4 Historical Evidence for Large Scale Flooding ESD5 Recent Large Reductions of Polar Ice Cover ESD6 Giant Basalt Flows and Traps ESD7 Giant Accumulations of Oil ESD8 Giant Erratics and Megabreccias ESD9 Deposits of Great Areal Extent ESI INCLUSIONS ESI1 Inclusions in Crystals ESI2 Microdebris ESI3 Erratic Boulders, Stones, and Mineral Patches ESI4 Anomalous Amber Inclusions ESI5 Microfossil-Like Inclusions ESI6 Oil in Fossil Cavities ESI7 Carbon Dust on Fossil Plants ESI8 Great Rarity of Fossil Meteorites and Tektites ESI9 Stretched Pebbles ESM ANOMALOUS SUPERFICIAL GEOLOGICAL MATERIALS ESM1 Unusual Superficial Aggregations of Rocks ESM2 Strewn Fields of Natural Glasses ESM3 Tektite and Microtektite Paradoxes and ...
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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 Fossil Meteorites Over a century ago, astronomer H.W .M . Olbers (of Olbers Paradox fame) remarked that meteorites are extremely rare in the fossil record. While meteorites are found in profusion in some specially favored surface deposits (Antarctica and Australia's Nullarbor Plain), there are very few records of any being found in the immense volumes of coal, gold ores, and other geological materials that have been mined down the centuries. Of course, many meteorites escaped the notice of miners who were looking for something else. Nevertheless, few have been reported from strata more than a few thousand years old. (See ESI8 in Neglected Geo logical Anomalies.) It is therefore surprising that a veritable lode of fossil meteorites has been found in a limestone quarry at Kinnekulle, in southern Sweden. "During the sawing of a few thousand cubic meters of Ordovician limestone into 2-3 cm thick slices, 25 fossil meteorites have been found. All meteorites, except, four, have been found in a 60 cm thick bed called the Archaeologist. This bed represents a few hundred thousand years and contains several hard ground surfaces...Many of the Archaeologist meteorites are prominently angular in shape whereas others are round. This seems difficult to reconcile with an atmospheric breakup of a single large meteorite." B. Schmitz and M. Tassinari, the authors of this paper, suggest that this rare concentration of fossil meteorites ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 145: Jan-Feb 2003 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Viking-introduced biological diversity in North America Who first mapped the West Coast of South America Astronomy Venus: telescopic shape-shifter Do some comets just go "poof" Cosmological voyeurism Biology Eyes: Adaptable, multimasked, and untasked Sperm transporters Knee light not effective? Geology Tunguska Confusion Mining for cosmic coal Geophysics Giant Australian marine incursions Amomalous Geysers Psychology Mind over blood Physics Element 0 ...
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... grass. During the past 12,500 years, a deep accumulation of exceptionally dense peat has formed. The basal peat is lignitic, but is several hundred times too young to be a true lignite. This peat does not decay as rapidly as it should, given its populations of bacteria, yeasts, and other fungi. The peat accumulates about ten times faster than in other peat-forming regions. The authors conclude that the peat-forming process is poorly understood. (Smith, R.I . Lewis, and Clymo, R.S .; "An Extraordinary Peat-Forming Community on the Falkland Islands," Nature, 309:617, 1984.) Comment. If we do not understand how present-day peat forms, how can we be so dogmatic about coal-forming processes millions of years ago? From Science Frontiers #35, SEP-OCT 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... , and Rich, Thomas H.; "The Dinosaurs of Winter," Natural History, 100:33, April 1991.) That the polar regions were once covered by lush forests has been underscored by recent discoveries in both polar regions. Stumps of huge trees 45 million years old dot the now-bleak landscape of Axel Heiberg Island far north of the Arctic Circle. In Antarctica, heaps of 3- million-year-old fossil leaves have been found within 400 kilometers of the South Pole. (Francis, Jane E.; "Arctic Eden," Natural History, 100:57, January 1991. Also: Peterson, Christian; "Leafing through Antarctica's Balmy Past," New Scientist, p. 20, February 9, 1991.) Comments. Coal beds are also known from Spitzbergen and Antarctica. The vision of dinosaurs roaming polar Edens evokes many questions. If the polar regions were indeed 10-20 C warmer than now, what could have survived at the Equator? The dates given above (3 and 45 million years ago) for polar heat waves are well after the 65million-year demise of the dinosaurs. This suggests that the biosphere recovered very well from the KTB catastrophe. Why, then did the dinosaurs succomb so completely? From Science Frontiers #75, MAY-JUN 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... JUN 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects From Nature's Atelier One of geology's more fascinating mysteries concerns the formation of concretions. Concretions are structures within rock that differ in form and/or composition from the matrix. Often, they form around an impurity of some sort, say, a tiny fossil. If concretions were all nicely spherical or crystalline in shape, we might be able to explain them as we do with the oyster's pearl and winter's snow-flake. Unfortunately for the theorists, concretions usually come in bizarre shapes -- shapes an avant garde sculptor might appreciate. Not only do concretions come in weird geometries but they may be replicated in prodigious numbers, like the famous Kimmeridge "coal money." Additionally, some flint concretions are arrayed in thick chalk beds in amazingly regular three-dimensional arrays that tax the ingenuity of any theorist. To illustrate the extremes of nature's inorganic-chemical imagination, we now provide some illustrations from a recent two-part article in Rocks & Minerals and one of our catalog volumes. (Dietrich, R.V .; "Carbonate Concretions,' Rocks & Minerals, 74:266 and 74:335, 1999. ESA3 in Neglected Geological Anomalies.) Carbonate concretions (" imatra stones") from Finland. Virtually identical concretions occur in the Connecticut River Valley. Vertical lines of flint concretions in chalk cliffs near Norfolk, England. Presumably the 3-dimensional array continues in the unexposed matrix behind the visible lines. ...
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... slow global warming. At least, this is how the Kyoto logic went. More trees may be good for the environment in the tropics, but the reverse is true in lands that are covered with snow most of the year. This is be-cause snow reflects much of the impinging solar energy back into space. If these northern lands were heavily forested, much of the solar energy would be absorbed and converted into heat. Climate-modellers confirm that sunlight-reflecting snow is better for the environment than trees. (Anonymous; "Reflect on It," New Scientist, p. 19, May 13, 2000.) Hydroelectric power is clean . Although widely proclaimed to be among the cleanest energy sources available, some hydroelectric powerplants actually con-tribute more greenhouse gases than large coal-fired plants! Submerged vegetation is the problem. When it decays, it releases greenhouse gases---in quantity. The forests first submerged by the reservoirs behind the dams contribute gases for only a few years. Most of the troublesome biomass is fed into the reservoirs from upstream. Compounding the problem are the vast areas of stagnant water behind many hydroelectric dams. There, in the absence of dissolved oxygen, the rotting vegetation generates methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. (Pearce, Fred; "Raising a Stink," New Scientist, p. 4, June 3, 2000.) From Science Frontiers #131, SEP-OCT 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 71: Sep-Oct 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Pennsylvanian time-scale problems The advent of radiometric dating seemed to solve once and for all the problem of assigning dates to the key events in the earth's history. Indeed, all of the reference books confidently label charts with firm dates for the appearance of fishes, the demise of the dinosaurs, and so on. Alas, things are not quite as certain as they appear. Radiometric dating is not all that precise; errors may be large indeed. Take the Pennsylvanian period for example. It is part of the Carboniferous period, when many of the great coal deposits were laid down. The classical duration of the Pennsylvanian -- used in many texts -- is 34 million years. A meticulous new study of central European stratigraphy now pegs the Pennsylvanian as spanning only 19 million years. Now that's a 44% change! This new figure for the duration of the Pennsylvanian has already cast doubt on the origin of the famous Pennsylvanian cyclothems (repetitive strata) in North America. It had been thought that these seemingly cyclic deposits were correlated with sea level changes forced by variations in the earth's orbit (the Milankovitch periods). With this substantial compression of Pennsylvan-ian time, this correlation falls apart. The cyclothems, which are of impressive area and thickness, now seem to have been created by some other, still unrecognized phenomenon. (Klein, George deV.; "Pennsylvanian Time Scales ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 8: Fall 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Rings of uranus: invisible and impossible?Now that they have discovered nine rings around Uranus, astronomers are having trouble explaining them. First, if they are made up of small chunks of matter, the laws of celestial mechanics dictate that they should quickly spread out radially into much wider rings in just a decade or two. In other words, if the rings are ancient they should not have maintained their present form. Second, the rings are invisible when one would expect them to be bright like Saturn's . Yet, they reflect less light than the blackest coal dust. T.C . Van Flandern proposes that each ring is actually a single satellite, so small that we cannot see it, and that it sheds gases as it orbits. This small solid body would make the celestial mechanics people happy, and the gases would be invisible to the eye but still absorb light, making the ring of gases detectable when Uranus occults a star. (Van Flandern, Thomas C.; "Rings of Uranus: Invisible and Impossible?" Science, 204:1076, 1979.) Comment. An alternative explanation is that the rings are recently acquired and will soon disappear. An 1847 observation of a ring around Uranus exists, but a datum this old carries little weight. See our Catalog: The Moon and the Planets for this old sighting. This book is described here . From Science Frontiers #8 , Fall 1979 ...
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... * Submarine canyons [Picture caption: Pyramid of frozen foam on the Bozenkill, New York State] Comments from reviews: ". .. enough terrestrial intrigue to keep us thinking for years", Pursuit. View Cart Buy online via PayPal with MC/Visa/Amex 245 pages, hardcover, $17.95, 84 illustrations, 5 indexes 1988, 682 references, LC 87-63408, ISBN 915554-22-4 , 7x10 format. Anomalies in Geology: Physical, Chemical, Biological; A Catalog of Geological Anomalies Sorry: Out of Print. No longer available. Journey here into ice caves, exhume Siberian mammoths, see animals perish in gas-filled valleys -- a little media hype is justified here. But more serious questions involve the origins of oil, coal, and natural gas. Typical subjects covered: Biological extinction events * Musical sands, ringing rocks * Anomalies of oil's origin * Ice caves, frozen wells * Natural fission reactors * Marine organisms and fossils found far inland * Siberia's frozen mammoths * Radiometric dating problems * Anchor ice, frazil ice * Violent lake turnovers * Flexible rocks * Origin of ocean water * Skipping in fossil record * Valleys of death * Prismatic sandstone from Missouri 335 pages, hardcover, $18.95, 55 illustrations, 5 indexes 1989. 1260 references, LC 89-90680, ISBN 915554-23-2 , 7x10 format. Neglected Geological Anomalies: A Catalog of Geological Anomalies Sorry: Out of Print. No longer available. Neglected but far from insignificant are the anomalies cataloged here ...
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