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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 18: Nov-Dec 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A CELTIC FRONTIER SITE IN COLORADO?In 1980, P.M . Leonard and J.L . Glenn, from the Hogle Zoological Gardens, Salt Lake City, visited a rock outcropping in Colorado that was reputed to be inscribed with 'peculiar markings.' The markings were peculiar all right, for Leonard and Glenn believe they are excellent examples of Consainne Ogam writing, a type ascribed to ancient Celts. Translation by B. Fell suggests that the Colorado site was a shelter for Celtic travelers long before Columbus! One of the many inscriptions was translated as: "Route Guide: To the west is the frontier town with standing stones as boundary markers." (Leonard, Phillip M., and Glenn, James L.; "A Celtic Frontier Site in Colorado," Epigraphic Society, Occasional Papers, vol. 9, no. 223, 1981.) Comment. Although the Colorado Ogam cannot be written off as plow scratches, as it is in the eastern states, one should be aware of the highly controversial nature of these claims for Ogam writing in North America. From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 18: Nov-Dec 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life's origin within the earth?Biologists usually hark back to warm, sunlit swamps and tidal pools when contemplating the origin of life. Lately, Hoyle has proposed a cosmochemical origin (see OR DID IT DRIFT IN FROM WITHOUT? ). Few look within the earth. Yet, when Mt. St. Helens erupt-ed it essentially sterilized all lakes and ponds in the immediate area as far as known life forms were concerned, and then introduced previously unknown chemosynthetic bacteria. At least, this is one interpretation. Scientists at Oregon State University found the waters around the volcano to be teeming with these bacteria, up to a billion per drop. The bacteria resemble nothing in the local soil but do seem related to bacteria existing around Precambrian volcanos. (Anonymous; "Secrets of Life in a Volcano?" Boston Globe, July 14, 1981.) Comment. Were the new bacteria in the volcanic ejecta or had they just gone unnoticed in the soil? Could the hot rocks, geothermal brines, and restless magmas beneath our feet be the real cradle of terrestrial life, with photosynthesis-dependent surface species being relatively unimportant to the big picture? From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Diffusion Of Science In Prehistoric Times In contrast to many archeologists who tend to play down the intelligence of prehistoric humans, B.A . Frolov insists that these "primitive hunters" constucted surprisingly sophisticated models of the natural world, especially the motions of celestial bodies. Many of these models seem to have been non-utilitarian; that is, built only to satisfy intellectual curiosity. Furthermore, some scientific notions were widespread geographically, indicating perhaps long lines of communication. To illustrate, Frolov cites the similar astronomical sophistication revealed by the Lake Onega petroglyphs in Russia and those at Stonehenge. He also points out that the aborigines of North America, Australia, and Siberia all called the Pleiades the "Seven Sisters." Coincidence is very unlikely here, he says. This and other notions must have existed before Australia and North America were peopled. The absence of writing as we know it would not have deterred ancient humans from developing and communicating mathematical and scientific skills and accumulating knowledge, possibly in the form of myth. (Frolov, B.A .; "On Astronomy in the Stone Age," Current Anthropology, 22: 585, 1981.) Comment. A passing thought: may not writing as well as today's omnipresent computers be crutches that permit our memories and mental skills to deteriorate? In our Handbook The Unfathomed Mind, we present many cases of remarkable memory and information-processing ability. Such skills ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Polyna Mystery "Polyna" is a Russian word meaning "an enclosed area of unfrozen water surrounded by ice." Polynas form for some unknown reason in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. These transient ice-free "lakes" may cover 300,000 square kilometers, inferring a substantial influx of heat countering the frigid polar temperatures. Although small coastal polynas can be blown free of ice by strong Antarctic winds, the open-ocean polynas are much larger and do not seem to owe their origins to wind. One suggested explanation is that warm subsurface water rises suddenly to the surface, but it takes a lot of heat to keep hundreds of thousands of square kilometers ice-free. The most recent polyna opened up a region of the Weddell Sea for about three years (1973-1976). (Simon, C.; "Polynas Surrounded by Ice and Mystery," Science News, 122:183, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Balls Of Fire Enter Room Through Metal Screens "Thunderstorms are frequent in the Entebbe Peninsula, Lake Victoria (Uganda). During one of these storms, which usually come at night time, there was a simultaneous flash of lightning and its associated clattering crash of thunder. A second or less later, several balls of brilliant blue light, about 4-6 cm diameter, entered the room through a window on the south side and 'floated' across the room to leave by a window on the east side. My wife and I were already awake (it would have been difficult not to be) and independently exclaimed aloud on what we had just seen." Both windows were open but had metal screens. The same phenomenon occurred again during the same rainy season. (Gillett, J.D .; "Balls of Fire," Nature, 299:294, 1982.) Comment. Ball lightning is fairly rare; repeat performances are virtually unheard of. For the many other varieties of ball lightning, see Section GLB in our Catalog: Lightning, Auroras. More information on this volume is located here . From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 26: Mar-Apr 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Maybe there's one stable particle!The new Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) of physics predict that the proton decays radioactively -- contrary to what you may have been taught in physics class. Several experiments in deep mines and tunnels seem to have registered proton decays. Is nothing stable anymore? There is hope. A huge cubical detector, 21 meters on a side, is now operating 2000 feet under Lake Erie in a salt mine. The water-filled cube is monitored by 2048 photomultipler tubes, and is serviced by divers! After 80 days of operation, no events resembling proton decays have been detected, whereas many would have been expected if the other reports were true. The GUTs may be in trouble; and there may be something stable in the universe that we can count on! (Thomsen, D.E .; "Decay-Resistant Protons in Ohio," Science News, 123:85, 1983.) Comment. See SF#14 for some of the strange particles detected in the Kolar Gold Fields, in India, where some of the supposed proton decays were reported. From Science Frontiers #26, MAR-APR 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Rock Lake Pyramids What Happened in 2345 B.c .? Astronomy Cosmic Rays Not Random Biology Cancer: the Price for Higher Life? The Problem of the Precocious Parr Hot Plants The Aortic Arch and Evolution A Weak Missing Link Geology The Arctic Womb Non-lethal Tektites Geophysics The Throbbing Earth Soil Temperatures Forecast Rainfall Patterns Giant Ice Block Falls in China Psychology Apathy and Cancer A Delusion of Doubles ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Spores still viable after 7,000 years Bacterial spores embedded in muds lining Minnesota's Elk Lake -- the muds were carbon-dated at 7518 years(!) -- grew vigorously when placed in a nutrient-rich solution. (Anonymous; "Spores Still Viable after 7,000 Years," Science News, 124:280, 1983.) Comment. Such long periods of suspended animation support the panspermia concept, which states that life can be transported through outer space on meteorites and other debris. From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 37: Jan-Feb 1985 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A Disaster-driven Early Civilization Another Remarkable Specimen of Ancient Man Astronomy The Puzzle of the Moon's Origin When Mars Had Lakes Why Aren't the Martian Craters Worn Down? Flip-flop Radio Jets? Biology The Genome's Responses to Challenges "hopeful Monsters" in Iceland? Parasites May Reprogram Host's Cell Geology More Doubts About Asteroids The Earth is Expanding and We Don't Know Why The Grand Canyon Conundrum Evidence for A Giant Pleistocene Sea Wave Recent Pulsations of Life Geophysics "Crystal" Ball Lightning The Big Divot! Shower of Coke Chemistry & Physics Squarks and Photinos At Cern? What Does it All Mean? The Secret of it All is in the Pi ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 37: Jan-Feb 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Another Remarkable Specimen Of Ancient Man In August 1984, Alan Walker, from Johns Hopkins, discovered near Lake Turkana, in Kenya, most of the skeleton of a 12year-old boy, which is estimated to be 1.6 million years old. Classified as a specimen of Homo erectus, the boy was 5 feet 5 inches tall and would probably have grown to 6 feet at maturity. Until this find, our supposed ancestors were generally thought to be small and puny; but here is a strapping fellow, looking much like a modern human, although his skull and jawbone resemble those of a Neanderthal. (Joyce, Christoper; "Now Pekin Man Turns Up in Kenya," New Scientist, p.8 , October 25, 1984.) Reference. Anomalies in the hominid fossil record are cataloged in Chapter BHE in Biological Anomalies: Humans III. Details on this book here . From Science Frontiers #37, JAN-FEB 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... sounds that shouldn't have been November 1984. Several Texas localities. The spectacular reentry of the Space Shuttle Discovery was observed by many Texans in the pre-dawn skies. Among these were Ben and Jeannette Killingsworth. As they observed the Space Shuttle streak across the sky, "they both heartd an unmistakable 'swishing noise' as it passed south of their rural Galveston County home. The sonic boom came several minutes later -- but the swishing sound occurred simultaneously with the visual apparition....Ben graphically described the sounds as 'like a skier coming down a slope,' but with a rapid fluctuation in loudness, 'about two or three hertz.' Jeannette compared the faint sound to the noise made by a fast boat as it slaps across waves on a choppy lake. 'But there was no motor noise,' she added, 'just a sound like repeated puffs of air through your mouth.'" Oberg points out that the mysterious Space Shuttle sounds are basically the same as the anomalous swishes and whizzes attributed by some to meteors. So far, few scientists have accepted meteor sounds as real, preferring to label them "psychological." But now that the Space Shuttles are known to generate similar anomalous sounds, perhaps scientists will install instruments along their well-known reentry paths and find out what is really happening. (Oberg, Jim; "Shuttle 'Sounds' May Provide Answer to Old Puzzle," Houstonian, January 1985, p. 4. A McDonnell Douglas publication. Cr. J. Oberg) Comment. One possible ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A True Fish Story "It happened during a smelt storm in early spring with the Rhonda K foundering dead in the icy water amid terrifying six- and eight-foot waves off Lake Huron's Thunder Bay light near Alpena." Wait a minute! A SMELT STORM? "' Spookiest thing I even saw,' Stiles said of the small fish carried from the water by the winds. 'Something I never heard of before. Smelt started falling from the sky. Thousands of smelt falling like a silver rain, and thousands of gulls going after them. The gulls were all around our heads picking up the smelt.'" (Barton, John; "A True Fish Story," Ann Arbor News, July 24, 1986. Cr. C.R . Engholm.) From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The mars-antarctica connection "A study of ice-covered lakes in Antarctica has provided scientists with clues as to what conditions were like on Mars billions of years ago. Sufficient heat and gas would have been trapped beneath the Martian surface to have generated living organisms, such and algae, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi. [What a leap of faith!] But life would have died out as the planet cooled and much of its atmosphere was dissipated. 'It is highly unlikely life could exist on Mars today,' [C .] McKay said. .. .. . "However some scientists have not dismissed the possibility that primitive life may still exist on Mars. 'The chances are remote but life may be located in slushy brines well below the surface, or even inside Martian rocks,' said Howard Klein, who headed the biological experiments on board Viking. Living microorganisms have been found just below the surface of rocks in Antarctica, Klein said." (Anonymous; Antarctica Hints at Why There May Be Fossils on Mars," New Scientist, p. 20, September 4, 1986.) Comment. It is curious that some of the meteorites picked up in Antarctica are thought to have originated on Mars and been blasted off by meteoric impacts. This observation leads to the speculation that terrestrial life might have been seeded from Mars -- meteoric panspermia! Are we all Martians? If you ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 55: Jan-Feb 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Ubiquity Of Sea Serpents Public interest is usually focussed (by the media) upon the supposed monsters in Loch Ness, Lake Champlain, the Chesapeake Bay, etc. Actually, an immense body of sea serpent reports also exists. B. Heuvelmans collected many of these in his 1965 classic In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents. P.H . LeBlond, a professor at the University of British Columbia, is extending Heuvelman's work, concentrating on the thousand miles of Pacific Coast between Alaska and Oregon. Since 1812, there have been 53 sightings of sea serpents or other unidentified animals along this narrow strip of ocean. Some of these are very impressive. Take this one for example: "In January 1984 a mechanical engineer named J.N . Thompson from Bellingham, Washington, was fishing for Chinook salmon from his kayak on the Spanish Banks about three-quarters of a mile off Vancouver, British Columbia, when an animal surface between 100 and 200 feet away. It appeared to be about 18-20 feet long and about two feet wide, with a 'whitish-tan throat and lower front' body. It had stubby horns like those of a giraffe, large (' twelve to fifteen inches long') floppy ears, and a 'somewhat pointed black snout.' The creature appeared to Thompson to be 'uniquely streamlined for aquatic life,' and to swim 'very efficiently and ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 73: Jan-Feb 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Piney Pitstop Of The Paranormal Evidently trying to inject some joy into our country's financial capital, the Wall Street Journal recently printed a story on Spook Hill, Lake Wales, Florida. Spook Hill is one of several spots in the U.S . where gravity seems to be defied. "Sue Robertson motors her maroon Ford Tempo to the white line painted across Fifth Street, shifted into neutral and slowly rolls backward up Spook Hill. "' Eerie, weird, and definitely strange," she says, finally easing to a stop near the top of the rise. "Hers is the same amazed reaction expressed by most tourists who discover this piney pitstop of the paranormal, 50 miles south of Orlando. On a typical Saturday, up to 30 cars an hour line up at the top of the hill for their turn to drive down to the white line and drift back up." Not only cars roll up the hill. Farmers had to stop planting oranges in the area because visitors pulled them off the trees so they could watch them roll uphill. Skateboarders and cyclists also feel the pull of gravity in the wrong direction. Scientists who deign to investigate sites like Spook Hill usually end up by claiming them to be merely optical illusions. "If it's an optical illusion at work here, it's an odd one; a reporter applying a carpenter's level at about the hill's ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 75: May-Jun 1991 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The grand lake stream enigma Artifacts of the auriferous gravels Astronomy The first food: tholin Halley reappears! OF IRON WHISKERS AND PARTICLES THAT INCREASE MASS WITH AGE! Biology CAN ORGANISMS DIRECT THEIR EVOLUTION? MONSTER SKELETONS FOUND IN UNDERWATER FIJI CAVE Platypus paradoxes Geology Looking for the smoking gun THE DINOSAURS OF WINTER AND THE POLAR FORESTS Geophysics Unusual electrical (? ) phenomena Crop circle roundup Psychology SLI: A SOMEWHAT AMUSING PSI PHENOMENON ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 72: Nov-Dec 1990 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The clovis police Birds of burden Astronomy Nature, hypothesis, and the big bang At last, a theory of everything! Biology 1989 SIGHTINGS OF OGOPOGO Hypermutation rather than Geology Baikal's deep secrets Is the arctic ice cover thinning? Impact crater beneath lake huron Wagnerian sands of the desert Geophysics Icy minicomets not so dead! CROP CIRCLE UPDATE: WHAT ARE "THEY" TRYING TO TELL US? UPWARDLY DIRECTED LIGHTNING FROM CLOUD TOPS Psychology HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION SUPERIOR TO SALICYLIC ACID General The belgian flying triangle updated ...
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... Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cold fusion: new experiments and theories Cold-fusion research continues in many labs, particularly outside the US, where minds seem more open. At a recent meeting in the Soviet Union, 45 coldfusion papers revealed intense foreign activity. The Soviets are spending 15 million rubles for further research. In Japan, a Japanese-American team has even set up an experiment a half-mile underground to cut out stray radiation. (R2) However, the US is doing something despite the ridicule from the popular and scientific media. B.F . Bush and J.J . Lagowski of the University of Texas in Austin and M.H . Miles and G.S . Ostrom of the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, Calif., say the helium levels they measured correlate roughly with the amount of heat generated in the fusion reaction. .. .. . Those who believe in cold fusion are quite excited. "It's a world-turning experiment, a lollapalooza," says John O'M . Bockris, a physical chemist who has researched cold fusion at Texas A&M University in College Station. (R1) According to Dr. Mallove of M.I .T ., another provocative set of experiments are those at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico where Dr. Howard Menlove has repeatedly detected bursts of neutrons, subatomic particles that are a fusion byproduct. (R2) In an interview, [Dr. R.I . Mills] said he had ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 79: Jan-Feb 1992 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A TERRESTRIAL RIDDLE A MARTIAN RIDDLE Astronomy MERCURY'S POLAR CAPS AND ICY MINICOMETS Memories of 1913 Whence the x-ray background? Biology The louse line Siberian lake monster Those slippery (adult) eels Geology Deeply-buried life Black gold -- again Spooky spike Geophysics The ups and downs of spook hill Milky sea Revolving sphere of light Man-killer lightning A LUMINOUS-TUBE PHENOMENON CROP CIRCLES: IF SOME ARE HOAXES, ARE THEY ALL HOAXES? Psychology Telepathic rabbits Chemistry & Physics New kind of cold fusion ...
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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 Florida's circular canals Circular canals up to 1,450 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep have been discovered in south central Florida. Dug in the savannas and flood plains around Lake Okeechobee, the man-made circles include gaps where drainage canals extend outwards. Forty of these circular earthworks have been located by R.S . Carr. Some are as old as 450 BC; others as recent as the 16th. century. Mounds and large plazas are also part of this impressive example of Precolumbian engineering. Carr supposes that the circular canals were fish traps, but no fish bones or other supporting evidence for this theory have appeared. Another thought is that the earthworks drained agricultural land, but no maize pollen has been found. Could they have been ceremonial sites. No one really knows. (Bower, B.; "Florida 'Circles' May Be Ancient Fisheries," Science News, 138: 6, 1990.) Reference. Other ancient Florida canals are described in our handbook Ancient Man. Ordering details here . From Science Frontiers #71, SEP-OCT 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 79: Jan-Feb 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Ups And Downs Of Spook Hill The appearance of an article on Spook Hill in the Wall Street Journal of October 25, 1990, induced G. Wilder to have a look for himself. After all, when the conservative Wall Street Journal admits to being "baffled," there must really be something to the phenomenon! Spook Hill is located on a section of road in Lake Wales, Florida. Here, at Spook Hill, the road "seems" to slope downhill, but yet cars in neutral apparently roll up the incline. Wilder, a member of the Tampa Bay Skeptics, made several pertinent observations during his investigation: "( 1 ) Although the phenomenon is striking when one approaches Spook Hill from one direction, if one gets out of the car and looks back, it is quickly apparent that one's senses have been deceived. Because the illusion fails when one looks in the opposite direction, the road has been made one-way, so that tourists will not be disappointed! "( 2 ) A storm drain is positioned at the true low point of the road, and cars seem to roll up to the drain. Water, in its gravitational wisdom, knows where to go! Neither were the city engineers fooled." Conclusion: Spook Hill is only an amusing illusion; there is no gravitational anomaly. (Wilder, Guss; "Spook Hill: Angular Vision," Skeptical Inquirer ...
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... auroral light sweeping up from the horizon and meeting at a focal point nearly directly overhead. As the sky blazed, with the blue waves and crimson streamers, she heard: ". .. a distant tinkling, like bells. It came again, louder, just as a curtain of green light swept the entire width of the sky from north to south. Each time green flushed the sky, the bells rang, the sound softening to a gentle tinkle as the light died." (Hasselstrom, Linda; "Night of the Bells," Readers Digest , p. 185, April 1992. Cr. J.B . Dotson.) Comment. Note the correlation of the sound with the green portion of the aurora. July 29, 1990. On Coll Island in Centennial Lake, 120 kilometers west of Ottawa. Watching an auroral display, L.R . Morris heard the sound of the aurora: "It was a faint but distant windlike sound; which, by process of elimination, could not be accounted for by any phenomenon other than the aurora." (Anonymous; "Auroral Sounds," Sky & Telescope , 83:105, January 1992. Cr. D. Snowhook.) Comment. Auroras have been heard for centuries, but they "shouldn't be." Current theory restricts auroral activity to altitudes above 50 miles, where a fair vacuum prevails, and sound generation and propagation are impossible. One explanation for auroral sounds is that intense electromagnetic waves created by the auroras sweep through the observer's brain and are rendered as ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 95: Sep-Oct 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects This was the big one, but where did it come from?October 15, 1991. American Southwest. Photomultipliers in the Fly's Eye telescopes 100 kilometers southwest of Salt Lake City recorded the havoc wrought in the upper atmosphere by the most energetic cosmic-ray particle ever measured. When this tiny subatomic particle slammed into air molecules, the ensuing debris caused the surrounding atmosphere to fluoresce. The amount of light produced indicated that this cosmic ray had an energy of 3 x 1020 electron volts -- that's equivalent to the energy of a bowling ball dropped from waist level. Now that's a lot of energy for a subatomic particle! Because cosmic rays normally lose energy as they collide with photons in their cosmic wanderings, astrophysicists believe that "the big one" had to have a recent, nearby origin in order to still be so energetic. But no one has any idea where it could have come from or how it might have acquired so much energy. Somewhere out there in nearby space there may be a natural particle accelerator orders of magnitude more powerful than our biggest earthbound atom smashers. (Anonymous; "The Deepening Mystery of Cosmic-Ray Origins," Sky and Telescope, 87:12, May 1994.) Comment. Actually, the source of "the big one" need not have been nearby and recent. All anomalists will recognize that this is an assumption based upon the particle ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 100: Jul-Aug 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Giant sea-bed pockmarks [The following long, initially dull (? ) discussion leads unerringly to the Bermuda Triangle via a Fortean phenomenon!] Unrecognized until just a few years ago (SF#100*), sea-bed pockmarks are remarkable geological features. They occur worldwide on the floors of all of the oceans and even some lakes. They are found in shallow waters and at depths of thousands of meters. In diameter, these roughly conical depressions may span 350 meters or more and be up to 35 meters deep. No trivial phenomenon, some pockmark fields exceed 1,000 km2. Like the curious abyssal ridges (SF#97), sea-bed pockmarks are rarely discussed despite their great geological and economic importance. Recent issues of Geology contain three fascinating papers relating to giant sea-bed pockmarks. In Ref. 1, J.T . Kelley et al describe a pockmark field in Belfast Bay, Maine. Here, the density of the pockmarks reaches 160 per km2, and they are apparently the largest pockmarks yet discovered. The Belfast Bay field is "fresh" and "active" in the sense that the pockmarks are sharply defined and methane bubbles still stream up from buried organic matter. Natural-gas plume rising from the sea-floor off the Carolina coast. Another pockmark field is the subject of P.R . Vogt et al (Ref. 2). It occupies a ...
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... All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Looking Up Into A Tornado Funnel January 21, 1992. Near Cripple Creek, Colorado. Shortly after 2 PM, while fishing at Skagway Reservoir, D. Mc Gown spotted an ominous cloud formation developing in the west. A horizontal, black cloud rolled toward him. Suddenly, it lifted to reveal a huge, twisting funnel advancing directly at him. He threw himself to the ground, but got a good look up into the interior of the funnel. "The outside of the tornado was spinning so fast my eye couldn't follow it, but the inside was rotating almost lazily. I could see a thousand feet up inside it. Tiny fingers of lightning lined the hollow tube." Passing over him, the funnel bounced across the lake, ripped up some trees, and was gone. (McGown, Dennis; "Letters," Time, 147: 8, June 10, 1996) Comment. The "tiny fingers of lightning" are of great interest to anomalists, because most meteorologists deny that electricity plays any part in tornado activity. Of course, there is often plenty of ordinary lightning in the accompanying storms. An observation very similar to McGown's occurred in Kansas, in 1928. (GLD10-X2 in Lightning, Auroras. For information on this book, visit here .) Today, American meteorological journals are mostly filled with articles on the computermodelling of weather systems, satellite-imaging, etc. Eyewitness accounts of unusual phenomena were common 100 years ago in the science journals. Now, we ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 107: Sep-Oct 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Who Built The Kaimanawa Wall?Some 30 kilometers south of Lake Taupo, in New Zealand, stands an enigmatic array of stone blocks. It "looks" like a wall; a human-built wall. It also "looks" old; perhaps 2,000 years old according to some. Who built it? Passions are running high in New Zealand, where three hypotheses are being advanced: The wall was built some 2,000 years ago by the first settlers of New Zealand, the Waitahas, who were subsequently nearly exterminated by the Maoris, who arrived only 800 years ago. There are political problems with this theory, for the Maoris insist they are the original New Zealanders and therefore are due compensation for lands expropriated by later Europeans. The wall is merely what's left of a sawmill built only 50 or so years ago. The wall is simply a natural rock formation that has happened to split neatly into rectangular blocks -- like those slabs of beach rock that comprise the controversial Bimini "road" in the Bahamas. Future study of the "wall" will doubtless narrow the list to one. Meanwhile, let's take a look at the wall itself. B. Brailsford, of Christchurch, has been the chief investigator of the Kaimanawa wall, aided by American D.H . Childress, and others. The stones that make up the wall are 4-ton blocks of ignimbrite, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 107: Sep-Oct 1996 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Who built the kaimanawa wall? The irish in iceland Astronomy An old galaxy in a young part of the universe Precocious structure in the cosmos "NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER" Biology Organ music High social order in a new order Subversive cancer cells Rock-based life Geology Antarctica's lake vostok revisited Geophysics More sparks on the beach Horizon-to-horizon bioluminescent bubbling band Tear of the gods? Psychology Did mozart use the golden section? The perils of dhmo Ten myths of science ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 108: Nov-Dec 1996 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology More evidence of precolumbian contacts from asia Deflating a paradigm: brazil's pedra furada Astronomy Life forms in meteorites? Sunspots and planetary alignments Biology Those selfish genes may also be intelligent! Lake victoria's cichlid fishes: can random mutations explain them? Hair rarity The glow below Geology Earthquakes and mima mounds The motor of the world* Geophysics Heard above cayuga's waters A BLUE FLASH Unclassified An innovative computer Are we reall robots? Nominative determinism ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects High-Flying Catfish Anomalies crop up in out-of-the-way places and unusual publications. A radio amateur (Dave, K1WHS) noticed that his 432-MHz beam was higher tha normal. Checking his tall antenna, he saw something dangling from the horizontal elements. It turned out to be a good-sized, desiccated catfish. Dave's antenna is 60 feet high and miles from any lake or stream. (Anonymous; QST , p. 21, February 1998. Cr. L.M . Nash) From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 121: Jan-Feb 1999 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Problems of aboriginal art in australia A CONTINENT LOST IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN Astronomy Oklo: an unappreciated cosmic phenomenon Is life a transitor phenomenon? Biology Acupuncture 5,200 ears ago? Imprison willy! Is intelligence a deadly pathogen? How homeopath might work October 5, 1998: dark day for homing pigeons Starlings fall out of the sky Geology An arkansas tsunami deposit? Fused ancient garbage dumps Geophysics Tunguska afterglow Lake champlain's two seiches B-24 SIGHTS "CIRCLES OF LIGHT" Psychology Are pets psychic? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The power of a paradigm Pre-columbiana Astronomy Ice-covered lake on mars? Leonid luminosity puzzle Biology Trannies of the tiny Snail-trail tale Dr. internet Geology Fossil meteorites The ups and downs of plate tectonics Geophysics Two down-falls Two non-falls Psychology Our untapped talents Sorrat Physics 10 YEARS OF COLD FUSION Unclassified More nominative determinism ...
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... Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Nuclear Catastrophe In Paleoindian Times?Introduction. We introduce here a remarkable theory of terrestrial catastrophism that seems to be supported by evidence that is equally remarkable. One of the authors of this theory (RBF) is identified as a nuclear scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Nuclear Laboratory. The second author (WT) is a consultant. The authors' credentials seem so good that we must take a close look at their extraordinary claims concerning a natural phenomeon that they believe reset radiocarbon clocks in north-central North America and -- potentially -- elsewhere on the planet. We will be most interested in the reception accorded these claims by the scientific community. The claims. In the authors' words: Our research indicates that the entire Great Lakes region (and beyond) was subjected to particle bombardment and a catastrophic nuclear irradiation that produced secondary thermal neutrons from cosmic ray interactions. The neutrons produced unusually large quantities of 239Pu and substantially altered the natural uranium abundances (235U/238U) in artifacts and in other exposed materials including cherts, sediments, and the entire landscape. These neutrons necessarily transmuted residual nitrogen (14N) in the dated charcoals to radiocarbon, thus explaining anomalous dates. Some North American dates may in consequence be as much as 10,000 years too young. So, we are not dealing with a trivial phenomenon! Supporting evidence. Four main categories of supporting evidence are claimed and presented in varying degrees of detail. Anomalously young radiocarbon dates in north-central North America. Example: the Gainey site in Michigan ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: Jul-Aug 2001 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Path of the Pyramids Were the First Americans Australians? Bacon Bits Astronomy Mirror Matter May Matter 2000 CR105 and Planet X Biology Grunting Transcends Biological and Geographical Boundaries Genome-Map User Beware Are We Merely Fancy Crystals? Geology An Ice Ring in a Canadian Pond The Stealth Catastrophe Geophysics Fiery Exhalations in Wales More Carolina Beach Booms Lake Michigan's Annual Silt Plume Psychology The Eclipsing of Innate Talents Songs in Your Head Astrobiology The Forests of Mars ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 62: Mar-Apr 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The cookie cutter strikes again -- four times - in norway The divot from an And va moor Yes, the cookie-cutter phenomenon has left its mark again: more mysterious divots and holes in the ground. T. Jo nassen has sent us a study of the phenomenon published in Ottar , a publication of the Tromse Museum, in Norway. Even better, he has provided a translation, from which we quote a few paragraphs: "About 1 km SE of Skogvollvatnet (a lake), at Skogvollmyra (a moor), a slab of turf 5.2 m long and 1.8 m wide, has, in an apparently inexplicable manner, torn itself loose from its 'mother turf' and placed itself 4-5 m away. The slab of turf is completely undamaged and is placed with the right side up. The piece of turf has rotated 20-30 degrees compared to the original hole. The hole in the moor is absolutely even at the bottom, and the angle between the bottom and its walls is 90 degrees. The hole is 30-35 cm deep, and its edges are nicely cut. "From the hole there is a crack running westwards for about 6 m. Close to the hole this crack is somewhat widened, and one side of the crack twists itself 25-30 cm above the other. This twisting decreases as one gets further from the hole. The ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 151: Jan - Feb 2004 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology 7,000-year-old circles in Modern Crop Fields Fingers Lost and Found Astronomy Not Enough TNOs (Trans-Neptunian Objects = KBOs Kuiper-Belt Objects) Was the Big Bang Dodecahedral? Biology Thickening the Ocean's Biomass Sponging on Sponges What else is Meant to Be? Geology Building a Fire with Wood 45 Million Years old The Shrinking of Chicxulub Geophysics The Deadliest Forest Fire in American History The Yellowstone-Lake Bulge Want Big Waves for Surfing? Forget Hawaii and Australia! Anomalous Auroral Flashes Psychology Why Sleep? If we must Sleep, Why must we Dream too? Chemistry Lab-made Microfossils ...
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... "' You will feel the house kind of shake and windows rattle,' said Walt Workman, assistant chief of police in Long Beach. 'It sounds a lot like a sonic boom type of thing.' "The rumbling boom with a sound like artillery fire is heard along North Carolina's southernmost beaches, sometimes as often as once or twice a week, and scientists can't explain the phenomenon. The sounds have been heard as far north as Fort Fisher, located just north of Cape Fear." (" Booms Keep Coastal Area Guessing," Charlotte Observer, January 26, 1987. Cr. G. Fawcett via L. Farish) Comment. The real Seneca Guns are, of course, in New York, where they have been heard for years about Lake Seneca. Category GSD, in Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds, provides numerous examples of such waterguns, from all around the world. Information about this book may be found here . From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... are appearing in many places about the dangers of the "killer" chemical dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO). The situation is serious enough to warn the readers of Science Frontiers. We quote from New Scientist, which got it from a notice on the Internet. "Dihydrogen monoxide is colourless, odourless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people each year," the notice warns. "Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance..." Contamination by DHMO is worldwide. It has been found in every stream and lake, even in the Antarctic. It is a major component of acid rain and contributes to the greenhouse effect. Yet, world governments refuse to take steps to ban its use in solvents, coolants, fire retardants, etc. (Anonymous; "Feedback," New Scientist, p. 96, May 18, 1996) From Science Frontiers #107, SEP-OCT 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 16: Summer 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Paradox Of The Drowned Carbonate Platforms The biological processes that build carbonate reefs and platforms are so efficient that platform growth potential is easily several times the rate of average geological subsidence or sea-level rise. Therein lies the paradox: the geological record is full of drowned carbonate platforms, inferring that the sea has frequently engulfed them in episodes that must be termed catastrophic. Since the usual long-term geologic processes are clearly inadequate, Schlager proposes several more violent schemes; including massive submarine volcanism (Middle Cretaceous) and extraterrestrial deterioration of the oceanic biological environment (Lake Devonian). (Schlager, Wolfgang; "The Paradox of Drowned Reefs and Carbonate Platforms," Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 92:197, 1981.) Reference. See Category ETE2 in our Catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, for more on drowned sections of crust. More on this book can be found here . From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Oil, oil: everywhere, every age Geologists have discovered a major deposit of oil in Precambrian rocks in Australia's Northern Territory. Precambrian oil does exist elsewhere -- around the Great Lakes, Russia, etc. -- but the Australian deposits differ in that they are economically attractive. The oilbearing strata are dated at between 1.4 and 1.7 billion years; and the oil itself is at least this old. Significantly, the oil contains extremely small amounts of steranes, which are thought to be derived from advanced organisms, but there were plenty of chemicals typical of primitive bacteria. The mere existence of commercially exploitable deposits of Precambrian oil implies that, far from being devoid of life, the ancient earth was host to immense accumulations of bacteria and other simple organisms. (Anonymous; "Ancient Oil in Australia: A New Bonanza?" New Scientist, p. 26, September 11, 1936.) Comment. As discussed above this Australian oil might have been produced abiogenically. The surface and near-surface Athabasca oil sands in western Canada constitute a well-known deposit of almost unbelievable size. Geologists have long speculated about where such an immense quantity of biological matter could have originated. (Few dare to suggest nonbiological origins!) Now, we learn that below the Cretaceous Athabasca oil sands lies a 70,000 square kilometer "carbonate triangle" estimated to contain about 2 x 1011 cubic meters ...
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... are merely lumbering life-support systems for our genes. In this view, genomes are the masters, controlling our evolution and behavior to ensure their own survival and multiplication. In short, our genes are "selfish." J. Shapiro, at the University of Chicago, has gone a step further and ascribed still another human attribute to genomes. "Genomes function as true intelligent systems, which can be readjusted when conditions require. We still lack testable theories to explain how this can be done. ( Genetica , 84:4 , 1991)" Perhaps we see evidence of this "intelligence" of genes when bacteria and other microorganisms rapidly accommodate to environmental challenges, as in the application of new antibiotics. In this context, read below about the fast-evolving cichlid fishes of Lake Victoria. These fish must have macho genes! From Science Frontiers #108, NOV-DEC 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 102: Nov-Dec 1995 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology ANCIENT ACOUSTICAL ENGINEERING THE CANDELABRA OF THE ANDES Astronomy HUGE FIREBALL EXPLOSION IN 1994 2,000,000,000 BC: THE EPOCH OF QUASARS Biology TWO POLITICALLY INCORRECT BIOCHEMICAL ANOMALIES FROM DUST UNTO ABYSSAL MUD PERFECT PITCH AND SUNDRY SYNDROMES KING CRAB CONGREGATIONS THE BIRDS Geology WARM LAKE FOUND UNDER ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET REMNANTS OF TUNGUSKA "WEIRD ICICLES" IN A REFRIGERATOR Geophysics A TUNGUSKA-LIKE BLAST IN BRAZIL IN 1930 STYTHE? ICE "METEORITES" FALL LONG-LIVED BUBBLE IN THE ATMOSPHERE Psychology UNCONVENTIONAL WATER DETECTION FUNGAL PHANTASMS Mathematics 1, 089, 533, 431, 247, 059, 310, 875, 780, 378, 922, 957, 447, 308, 967, 213, 141, 717, 486, 151 Physics SOUR GRAPES! ...
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... seismic profiles, and the like; but the reconstructions of the events are on the speculative side, particularly in matters of the magnitudes of the effects. Both events also purport to explain long-standing puzzles. Scenario #1 . The Bosporus silt plug blows. During the last Ice Age, sea levels dropped hundreds of feet exposing the continental shelves. The planet's great rivers cascaded over the edges in great waterfalls. The rocky sill at Gibraltar kept the Atlantic waters out of the Mediterranean, and this sea began to dry up. Farther to the east, the Black Sea was now cut off from the Mediterranean's salty water by the silt-choked Bosporus, that narrow strait separating Asia Minor from Europe. In consequence, the Black Sea became a vast fresh-water lake fed by Europe's rivers to the north. The Ice Age eventually waned, and the oceans and Mediterranean began to rise. About 7,000 years ago, the hydraulic pressure on the Bosporus silt plug became too great and it popped. Salty Mediterranean water poured into lowlands around the Black Sea. Scientists estimate that 50 cubic kilometers of water surged through the Bosporus each -- 200 Niagaras in one colossal waterfall. Falling some 150 meters, the thunder of falling water might have been heard 500 kilometers away! The Black Sea rose quickly, driving the shoreline and humans back a kilometer or two every day. The fleeing Neolithic farmers were forced up into the rich river valleys of Europe, carrying tales of the catastrophe as well as their culture and agricultural know-how into these ...
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... 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 200 million years ago. The stippled areas represent ancient terranes in the oldest parts of the continents. Containing greenstone belts, these areas are now thought to mark closures of ocean basins. From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: JUL-AUG 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Bog Breath Yes, bogs do breathe albeit rather erratically. The slow heaving of their surfaces is a poorly understood phenomenon as the following abstract demonstrates. The surfaces of bogs and fens in northeastern Minnesota may rise and fall by as much as 36 cm in a single day. This phenomenon, known as Mooratmung, or bog breathing, has been traditionally attributed to changes in water storage. However, the surface deformations recorded by static GPS [Global Positioning System] stations on bog and fen sites within the Red Lake peatland are more frequent and out of phase with precipitation events. These vertical fluctuations instead appear to be related to a complex interplay among climate, hydrology, and microbial gas-production. Climate-driven re-charge on bogs, for example, stimulates the production of biogenic gases by advecting root exudates deep into the peat profiles. Seasonal droughts, however, favor the formation of transient confining layers that trap biogenic gases into discrete pockets... Bog breathing may therefore be a surface manifestation of the accumulation and release of greenhouse gases in peat deposits. (Glaser, Paul H. et al; "Bog Breathing: the Curious Interplay of Climate, Ground-water, and Greenhouse Gases in Boreal Peatlands," Eos, 80:F47, 1999.) Spontaneously igniting, biogenic gases are found in many marshy places. These eruptions were observed on an English mud flat in 1902. Comment. When bogs breathe ...
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... extent. The main argument has been over whether the actual impact craters giving rise to the tektites might actually be on the moon instead of the earth. Looking over the literature, one sees that this debate has been characterized by much invective and scientific infighting. Today, most scientists concur that some tektite strewn fields are definitely associated with specific, although distant, meteor craters on the earth's surface. Unfortunately, the large separations of craters and strewn fields add a circumstantial flavor to the evidence. However, some tektite-like objects are to be found in the immediate vicinities of terrestrial craters, but not in far-flung strewn fields; viz., the Aouelloul Crater in Mauritania, and the Zhamashin Crater in the USSR. Another example has now come to light: the Lonar Lake Crater, a 50,000-year-old impact crater, in the Deccan flood basalts in India. From the paper's abstract: "Homogenous, dense glass bodies (both irregular and splash form) with high silica contents ( 67% SiO2) occur in the vicinity of Lonar Crater, India. Their lack of microlites and mineral remnants and their uniform chemical composition virtually preclude a volcanic origin. They are similar to tektites reported in the literature....Our geochemical data are consistent with these high silica glass bodies being impact melt products of two-thirds basalt and onethird local intertrappean sediment (chert). The tektite-like bodies of the impact craters Lonar, Zhamanshin, and Aouelloul are generally similar. Strong terrestrial geochemical signatures reflect the target rock REE patterns ...
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... , 1991. Minersville, Utah. About 9:30 PM, the skies of Minersville were filled with the cries of birds. According to V. Hollingshead "They were just falling out of the sky, hitting the church, cars, the ball parks. Hundreds of them fell all over the streets. You could hear them hitting each other in the air, and hitting the ground." Minersville Elementary School Secretary S. Taylor reported that the birds landed everywhere, including the roofs of houses; they even broke some automobile windshields. Hundreds were killed, but many survived their fall and were taken to bodies of water where they could rest and take off. (Grebes cannot take off from land.) The birds were identified as eared grebes, which were migrating from Great Salt Lake to Baja California. It was theorized that a snowstorm and fog had exhausted and disoriented them. (Christensen, Kathleen; "Thousands of Grebes Fall from the Skies," Spectrum , December 12, 1991. Cr. D.H . Palmer.) From Science Frontiers #80, MAR-APR 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... is life! Not so fast! says N. Hoffman from La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia. According to his hypothesis, water has had little or no importance in shaping the Martian landscape. Instead, his 'White Mars' model contends that the gurgling, frothing and sometimes explosive venting of carbon dioxide gas from beneath the surface created the features. Outrageous as Hoffman's hypothesis is, it is supported by several significant observations that seem to deny a watery Mars. The Mars Global Surveyor has not detected any carbonate minerals that should have been created when water interacted chemically with the planet's CO2 atmosphere. Surface photos fail to show the fine networks of tributaries that should have fed the larger drainage features if water were the agent of erosion. There is no evidence of large lakes or reservoirs at the heads of the so-called "flood channels." Except for a small amount of water ice at the poles, Mars is dominated by solid and gaseous CO2. One would not expect that carbon dioxide could mimic erosion features like those carved out by terrestrial water. However, Hoffman points to the devastating erosion caused by terrestrial volcanic explosions with their blasts of gases and ash, their mudflows, and their avalanches that gouge the terrain for many miles. (O 'Hanlon, Larry; "The Outrageous Hypothesis," Nature, 413:664, 2001.) Comment. See under GEOPHYSICS for a spectacular "dry" erosion event on Earth. From Science Frontiers #139, Jan-Feb 2002 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 67: Jan-Feb 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Archeological Riddle W. Elliott, of Grand Lake Stream, Maine, reports the discovery of some truly remarkable stone artifacts in eastern Washington County, Maine. These artifacts were extracted from a small cist, or tomb, constructed of slabs of slate laid over a hollow space between a ledge and a row of stones. As the following description attests, these artifacts are anomalous to Maine (and perhaps anywhere in the States.) "Elliott has three stone artifacts that he says came to light when he tilted two or three of the slabs covering one end of the tomb, which lies east-to-west. The grave items consist of a smooth rectangular green stone resembling a whetstone but bearing four letters or symbols; a four-inch pendant that is a flat stone oval bearing on one side and eye and on the other side a face of the sun with four rays, a crescent above, and six or seven letters in an undetermined script below; and a 15- inch ceremonial slate spear point showing on one side a bearded, trousered man in a hat or helmet with one arm severed and one foot missing, and on the other side a bear-like animal with two spears sticking out of him. In front of the bear are marks resembling the Roman numerals for eight, with the V tipped to one side." Members of NEARA (New England Antiquities Research Association) have visited the site; ...
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... excavation phenomena, all the material removed from the holes has disappeared instead of being translated intact and set down gently nearby. "The Swiss holes were first observed in 1972. They always occur at night and no one has ever seen them forming. They are circular, drilled deep into the earth, and are created by the total removal of vegetation and soil. A large fleet of lorries would be needed to move the quantities of earth involved, but there are no vehicle marks around the holes. The grass and plants around them exhibit none of the minor damage which would inevitable be caused by any normal process of drilling. The holes have all been excavated directly from above, at an angle of 90 degrees to the surface." Six Swiss holes have been reported from the environs of Lake Geneva. The two largest are at Begnins (December 17, 1982; 18 feet across, 24.5 feet deep) and Confignon (February 3/4 , 1990; 33 feet across, 40 feet deep). Obviously, we are not dealing with minor earth-moving operations here. (Anonymous; "The Gruyerization of Switzerland," The Cerealogist , no. 3, p. 26, Spring 1991. The Cerealogist is a British publication focussing on the crop-circle phenomenon.) Comment. Could the "force" flattening the crop circles also gouge out cookiecutter holes and the Swiss cavernous pits? Additional information on the Swiss excavations and similar events is certainly required. Anomalists know from experience that for every strange phenomenon there exists a hoaxer anxious to reproduce it. ...
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... Tertiary boundary some 65 million years ago. C.J .H . Hartnady believes he had found the culprit. It is somewhat larger than expected (300 kilometers in diameter instead of 100200), but it is of the right age. Supporting this notion is the observation that the Seychelles Bank and Madagascar suddenly shifted their locations at about this time. (Murray, M.; "Point of Impact: The Indian Ocean," Science News, 129:356, 1986.) The existence of another terrestrial cat aclysm at an earlier date is suggested by a layer of shattered crustal rock fragments stretching over at least 260 kilometers in South Australia. Folded within Precambrian marine shales, these fragments reach 30 centimeters in diameter and show evidence of vertical fall. Evidence points to an origin near Lake Acraman, about 300 kilometers west. (Gostin, Victor A., et al; "Impact Ejecta Horizon within Late Precambrian Shales, Adelaide Geosyncline, South Australia," Science, 233:198, 1986.) Reference. The subject of very large terrestrial craters is discussed in ETC2 in our catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds. Description here . The Amirante Basin (black circle) lies about 500 kilometers north-east of Madagascar. From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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