119 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Non-lethal tektites It is the fashion these days to blame the many so-called "extinctions" prevalent in the fossil record on extraterrestrial cataclysms. Some deposits of tektites and microtektites have indeed been correlated with the disappearances of some species. Since tektites are supposedly formed during meteor collisions with the earth, many scientists thought the evidence, circumstantial though it may be, very convincing. What has not been publicized as well is the fact that many microtektites, particularly in sediments 30-40 million years old, have no correlations whatsoever with any important biological extinctions. (Anonymous; "Non-lethal Tektites," New Scientist, 99:345, 1983.) Reference. The many paradoxes and anomalies associated with tektites are cataloged at ESM3 in: Neglected Geological Anomalies. Information on this book may be found here . From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Giant ice block falls in china April 11, 1983. Wuxi, China. In full view of passers-by, a 50-kilogram block of ice hurtled from the sky and splintered on the pavement. The ice was milky white (some say greyish), and apparently of roundish shape before breaking up. Chinese scientists hurried to the scene and were able to preserve specimens. Their study of the meteorological conditions and specimens led them to conclude that the ice was truly meteoric; that is, extraterrestrial. (Wei, Chen; "Giant Ice-Block Falls in East China City," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 8:188, 1983.) Comment. In the West, such ice falls are automatically attributed to chunks falling from aircraft overhead. From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Wanted: disasters with a 26-million-year period J. Sepkoskiand and D. Raup, two researchers at the University of Chicago, have drawn up graphs showing the numbers of families of marine organisms that have vanished from the fossil rec ord over the eons. From this overview of manifest mass extinction emerged a puzzling and potentially profound pattern. Roughly every 26 million years over the last 250 million years, the number of extinctions jumped well above the background level. Some cyclic phenomenon seems to have been killing off life forms on a systematic basis. But no natural 26-million-year cycles are known although meteors and comets are favored causes of mass extinctions these days, they display no such cyclic period. (Simon, C.; "Pattern in Mass Extinctions," Science News, 124:212, 1983.) Comment. Instead of looking outward to astronomical catastrophism, perhaps we should look inward. The earth itself may undergo cyclic paroxysms; or life might undergo intrinsic phases of decline and rejuvenation. Periodic events in the evolutionary time scale. The 300-million-year cycle shown involves alternations between "icehouse" conditions (O ) and "greenhouse" conditions (G ). These may be due to changes in heat convention within the earth. From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Two Remarkable Inscribed Stones Astronomy Thou Canst Not Stir A Flower, Without Troubling of A Star Natural Laser Beacons A Mysterious Object Biology Subtle is the Virus An Ocean Full of Viruses An Even Larger Ocean of Life Spores Still Viable After 7,000 Years Animals As Nutrient Carriers Geology Terranes Continue to Pile Up Grand Canyon Shamed Again When the Earth Shifted Gears The Oklo Phenomenon and Evolution Earth's Magnetic Field Jerks Osmium Isotopes Support Meteoric Impact Geophysics Incredible Phosphorescent Display on the China Sea Ball Lightning Splits and Recombines Inside Soviet Airliner Booms Startle Arkansas Psychology Mental Deflection of Cascading Spheres What Makes A Calculating Prodigy? False Pregnancies in Males Unclassified The 'Great Silence'; Or Why Aren't Aliens Landing on the White House Lawn? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 39: May-Jun 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Coming Revolution In Planetology "Current ideas about the moon appear to be mistaken on two fundamental points. First, at least within certain large classes of lunar craters, internal origin (i .e ., some form of volcanism) predominates over impact; this result raises questions about the reality of the 'era of violent bombardment.'Second, the origin of tektites by meteoric impact on the earth cannot be reconciled with physical principles and is to be abandoned. The only viable alternative is origin by lunar volcanism, which implies the following: continuance of (rare) explosive lunar volcanism to the present time; existence of silicic lunar volcanism and of small patches of silicic rock at the lunar surface; a body of rock in the lunar interior, probably at great depth, which is closely similar to the earth's mantle and which contains billions of tons of volatiles, probably including hydrogen; and the origin of the moon from the earth after the formation of the earth's core." " Editor's Note . This article by John O'Keefe puts forth a viewpoint with which most planetologists disagree strongly. On the ground that a fresh airing of the long-standing discussion on lunar volcanism is appropriate, Eos offers this article, untouched by editors or referees, and awaits reply by readers." O'Keefe's article reviews considerable evidence supporting his two points: for Point One; crater ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 44: Mar-Apr 1986 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology How the Incas Worked Stone Checking Out Those Australian Pyramids Astronomy Neptune's Partial Rings Space Spume Star Sludge Tunnelling Towards Life in Outer Space Biology Evolving on Half A Wing (And A Prayer?) Signals in the Night The Moon, the Stars, and Human Behavior Geology Squirrels As Measures of Geological Time Northwest Indian Tradition of A Large-scale Sea Inundation Of Dust Clouds and Ice Ages Geophysics Atmospheric Footprints of Icy Meteors Unusual Double Sun Unclassified Unidentified Flashing Object ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Costa rica's neglected stone spheres The calico debate, plus a little editorializing Astronomy Small icy comets and cosmic gaia Carbon in a new comet Meteorites also transport organic payloads Supernova confusion and mysteries "COMPACT STRUCTURES": WHAT NEXT? Biology Nose news Checklist of apparently unknown animals New vertebrate depth record Aggressive mimicry Parasites control snail behavior Geology Do large meteors/comets come in cycles? Complexities of the inner earth Geophysics Concentrated source of lightning in cloud More carolina waterguns More moodus sounds Inside a texas tornado Ship enveloped by false radar echo Psychology Dowsing skeptics converted Do dreams reflect a biological state? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 53: Sep-Oct 1987 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A TSUNAMI AND A PERUVIAN CULTURAL GLITCH Lenses in antiquity Strange craters Astronomy Hypnotic mars The perseus flasher: mystery solved! Three planetary notes Biology Has the second law been repealed? Human direction finding Magnetic "dead" reckoning Another tale of ogopogo Geology Meteor-impact winters, magnetic field reversals and tektites Tektite-like objects at lonar crater, india Geophysics Are the soviet plumes only orographic clouds? Lightning triggered from the magnetosphere Psychology Magnetic fields and the imagination Men in black (mibs) Folie a famille A "MAGICAL GENIUS" Pi and ramanajan A MODEST EXAMPLE OF THE LONG ARM OF SYNCHRONICITY ...
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... Telescope. Instead of ending with an exclamation point, a question mark would have been more appropriate. The Perseus Flasher, a recurring flash of light in Perseus described in SF#39 and #49, is a topic upon which astronomers also wish to "close the book." So, we must ask ourselves how accurate the above title is. Photographic records of the Perseus Flasher site show no flashes at all in 3,288 hours of monitoring. In fact, a Harvard plate, which was being exposed at the same time that a 0-magnitude flash was reported by naked-eye observers, revealed nothing! The passages of some artificial satellites through the Perseus site have been correlated with naked-eye-observed flashes, suggesting that the flashes are only sun glints. One meteor observer, N. McLeod, claims that there is a background level of flashes from other parts of the sky which can also be attributed to satellite glints. The Sky and Telescope item concludes: "So the mystery is solved!" (Anonymous; "The Perseus Flasher: Mystery Solved!" Sky and Telescope, 73:604, 1987.) Comment. So, science in its relentless, inerrant progress has positively solved still another mystery. (Triumphal background music here!) In case you haven't noticed, the three "exhibits" above do not hang together too well. First, it is implied that the Perseus flashes do not exist at all, since they have not been detected by photographic monitoring. Then, the flashes are said to be only sun ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 61: Jan-Feb 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sodium Surges Over Illinois An advanced lidar device, located at Urbana, Illinois, has been sending pulses of light up into the atmosphere and measuring the reflections from atmospheric atoms and molecules. To the researchers' surprise, this instrument detected sudden appearances of clouds of sodium atoms at about 85 kilometers altitude. The clouds quickly dissipate, but where do they come from? The best guess is that their source is meteors vaporizing in the upper atmosphere. (Raloff, Janet: "Sudden Sodium Surges Seen over Illinois," Science News, 134: 238, 1988.) Comment. Could these sodium clouds have any connection with the controversial icy comets? From Science Frontiers #61, JAN-FEB 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 64: Jul-Aug 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Libyan Desert Glass Pieces of Libyan Desert Glass weighing as much as 16 pounds are found in an oval area measuring approximately 130 by 53 kilometers. The clear-to-yellowish-green pieces are concentrated in sand-free corridors between north-south dune ridges. The origin of this immense deposit of glass has been attributed by some to ancient nuclear explosions and alien activities, but investigating scientists have always been satisfied with a meteor-impact hypothesis. A recent study (abstract below) also opts for this explanation, although no one has found a crater of suitable size or other supporting evidence. "Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) represents 1.4 x 109 g of natural glass fragments scattered over about 6500 km2 of the western Desert of Egypt. We made a systematic study (employing INAA, microprobe and mass spectrometry techniques) of several varieties of LDG and locally associated sand and sandstone to provide insight into the nature and formation of these enigmatic glass fragments. These studies indicate that: Although the LDG has restricted major element compositions (97.98 wt% SiO2 ; 1-2 wt % Al2 O3 ) their trace element contents (ppm) (Fe, 490-5200; Co, 0.2 -1 .2 ; Cr, 1.2 -29 and Sc. 0.462.5 ) vary by as much as a factor of 5 to 30. The LDG fragments exhibit a factor of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 69: May-Jun 1990 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The enigmatic "mooring stones" Astronomy Mystery of the missing comets Megawalls across the cosmos A TRIO OF STRANGE METEORS Biology Extinction countdown Extinction discounted New species emerging? Don't pet your house plants! Geology Deep-sixing another hypothesis? A CLASH OF HYPOTHESES Geophysics Machine-like underground noises Lightning in the family Physics Fracto-fusion? Gravity-defying gyros come down to earth Krypton-cluster magic numbers General Spontaneous order, evolution, and life ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 82: Jul-Aug 1992 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A CONNECTICUT SOUTERRAIN? Did the ancient egyptians sail up the mississippi Perhaps they even reached oklahoma! Astronomy The phobos mystery object Warm, wet, fertile mars Big-bang brouhaha Biology The humongous organism contest! For some, sex = death Efficacy of homeopathy Even today natural selection is molding human populations Can you guess where this quotation comes from? Geology Did a half million meteors fall on the carolinas Geophysics An unusually complex marine light Fluid injection causes luminous phenomena Crop circle found inside a fenced compound in japan Chemistry and Physics Japanese claim generates new heat Does nature compute? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 85: Jan-Feb 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Heavy traffic in near-earth space That region of outer space near the earth carries a heavier load of flotsam and jetsam than scientists expected. The devastation of the 1908 Tunguska impact in Siberia warns us that this space debris -- meteors, comets, asteroids -- is an active threat. A recent spate of articles paints an ominous future. The earth's retinue of mini-asteroids. "Asteroids as big as houses pass near the Earth 100 times more often than anyone suspected. On an average day, about 50 asteroids measuring at least 10 metres across come closer to the Earth than the Moon, and each year about five such objects may hit the planet." (Second reference below.) These startling data come from D. Rabinowitz and coworkers at the University of Arizona, who have been scanning nearby space with a telescope fitted with supersensitive charge-coupled devices (CCDs). They have picked up astronomical objects that have escaped conventional instruments. Several sources have been suggested for this unexpected, threateningly large population of small asteroids: (1 ) debris hurled earthward from collisions within the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter; (2 ) the breakup of a large object formerly in orbit about the earth; and (3 ) fragments blasted off the moon by impacts of large asteroids there. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Earth Gains a Retinue of Mini-Asteroids," Science, 258 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 86: Mar-Apr 1993 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The acoustics of rock art Where did agriculture really begin? Astronomy Meteoric "dust bunnies" Cosmic snowballs and magnetic asteroids Biology Must we die? the medfly's answer How a fly hears what a cricket hears Once more science fiction predicts the future! Rethinking aids Geology Geysers as detectors of distant earthquakes Precariously balanced rocks as earthquake detectors Geophysics An electrical virtuoso The milky sea a.k .a . "white water" A CURIOUS SIGHTING Cloud plumes natural but still a bit anomalous Logic and Mathematics Math's mystery All roads lead to 123 Psychology Hypnosis and skin temperature Hypnosis and basketball Physics Solar radiation and mental illness ...
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... Let Jupiter take care of itself! What about us -- Terra, the third planet? A February article in Sky and Telescope begins: "Military satellites have been watching huge meteoroids slam into the Earth's atmosphere for nearly two decades." Secret until recently, infrared scanner data from military satellites have detected 136 atmospheric explosions since 1975 with yields of 1 kiloton or more. There may actually have been as many as four times this number, because the satellites are programmed to look for unnatural events, such as nuclear detonations. They often ignore extraterrestrial projectiles. Why aren't earthbound observers aware of all these atmospheric explosions? Because most are infrared events; few emit enough visible light to attract the attention of ground-based observers. However, two of these "secret" meteoric events might explain some Fortean phenomena recorded over the last two centuries. April 15, 1978. Over Indonesia. A military satellite watched a colossal daylight fireball that, for one second only, would have rivaled the sun to anyone watching from the ground below and alert to such phenomena. The TNT yield was estimated at 5 kilotons. August 3, 1963. Between South Africa and Antarctica. A huge airburst equivalent to a 500 kilotons was picked up by a worldwide network of acoustic detectors. The cosmic interloper this time was believed to have been a small asteroid about 20 meters in diameter. (Beatty, J. Kelly; "' Secret' Impacts Revealed," Sky and Telescope, 87:26, February 1994. Cr. P. Huyghe. Also: Broad, William ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 104: Mar-Apr 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Puzzling Winds The Amazon jungle seems to be receiving more than its share of natural calamities. Remember the meteor-devastated swaths and strange "crater" reported in SF#103? Well, here's another phenomenon that may or may not be related. "Scientists studying weather patterns in the Amazon Basin have detected extremely powerful, sudden bursts of wind over the rainforest. The winds, which appear to be associated with thunderstorms in the northwest part of Brazil, blow downward with tremendous force. Satellite photos indicate that a single episode demolished 10 square miles of jungle in only 20 minutes." (Anonymous; INFO Journal, no. 74, p. 39, Winter 1996. INFO = International Fortean Organization. Source cited: Alexandria Journal, June 30, 1995) From Science Frontiers #104, MAR-APR 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 105: May-Jun 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Eight Little Craters All In A Row The recent impact upon Jupiter of a procession of chunks from Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 has encouraged geologists to look for crater chains here on earth. Such have been spotted on the moon, and it is unlikely the earth escaped such bar rages. Of course, older terrestrial craters are harder to identify due to the ceaseless geological activity here on earth. In the first 1996 number of Geophysical Research Letters, M.R . Rampino and T. Volk describe a possible swath of meteoric devastation across the North American Midwest. "Eight circular geologic structures ranging from about 3 to 17 km in diameter, showing evidence of outwarddirected deformation and intensive brecciation, lie within a linear swath stretching about 700 km across the United States from southern Illinois through Missouri to eastern Kansas. Based on their similar geological characteristics and the presence of diagnostic and/or probable evidence of shock, these structures, once classified as 'crypto volcanic' or 'cryptoexplosion' structures, are more confidently ascribed to hypervelocity impact. No other similar occurrence of aligned features is known, and we calculate the probability of a chance alignment to be less than 10- 9 ." The craters are all roughly the same age: 310-330 million years. Rampino and Volk suspect they were formed all at once by a string of asteroids or comets. (Rampino, Michael R., and Volk, Tyler; "Multiple Impact ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Impact craters: the party line revised and re-revised 100 years ago. Back in 1900, a geologist risked his reputation by suggesting that Arizona's Meteor Crater was an impact structure. It had to be volcanic or perhaps due to a steam explosion! 50 years ago. In 1950, a geologist risked his reputation by suggesting that large impact structures existed; that is, bigger than 10 kilometers in diameter. 0 years ago. Today, geologists converse blithely about 100-kilometer structures buried beneath the Yucatan and Chesapeake Bay. They are, however, exceedingly chary about long chains of impact structures. Those eight craters in a row. Geologists are questioning whether the eight structures stretching from Kentucky to Kansas (mentioned in SF#105) are all impactcaused. In a letter to Astronomy. A. Goldstein asserts that only three are impact craters; the other five are cryptoexplosion structures; that is, due to internal activity of some sort. However, Goldstein adds that there are actually three additional structures on this long line in Kentucky. (Goldstein, Alan; "Multiple Strike Stricken," Astronomy, 24:20, July 1996) Comment. Even if eight of the eleven structures on the line are cryptoexplosive in origin, one has to wonder why these are all lined up. A long line of weakness in the crust? Meanwhile, in Africa. 1994 radar images from the Space Shuttle have revealed a ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 110: Mar-Apr 1997 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Circles of contention A NAZCA ZODIAC? Cracks in the kaimanawa-wall story? Astronomy The crstalline universe Martian life: act ii Biology Nannobacteria: life on a different scale Is oliver a "humanzee"? Cichlids punctuate equilibrium Sparrows at play Geology Did a methane burp down twa800? A METEOR IMPACT OR EARTH SLUMP? Geophysics Unusual circulating cloud object Unidentified light Psychology "PLANETARY VISIONS" DURING NDEs Mathenatics http://www.aros.net/angio/pistuff/piquer Alphamagic squares ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 120: Nov-Dec 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Bright Flying Object And Another Enigmatic Crater The curious event described in the following abstract is eerily like the fireball and suspicious "crater" mentioned in SF#110. In that incident, which occurred November 22, 1996, near the HondurasGuatemala border, there was also a detonation. "On the early morning of 1994 January 18, a very bright luminous object crossed the sky of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. From visual sightings, it is concluded that the object wasn't a meteoric fireball (bolide). A surface "crater" in Cando (close to Santiago) with dimensions 29 x 13 m and 1.5 m deep was later discovered within 1 km of the projected "impact" point of the luminous object. At this site, in addition to the topsoil, full-grown pine trees greater than 20 m high were thrown downhill over a nearby road, leaving the downslope edge of the "crater" untouched and with a steep interior wall (this would not be the case if a regular landslide were responsible for the transport). Standing trees below the "crater" showed embedded soil and plant residues up to heights greater than 3 m. No strange materials (meteorites or artifacts) were recovered in or close to the "crater"; all materials belonged to the site and were not shocked; thus an impact is very improbable. "A possible explanation capable of reconciling all of the ...
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... -Global Unconformities ESR5 Rythmites and Cyclothems ESR6 Undisturbed and Unconsolidated Ancient Sediments ESR7 Vertical Stacking of Deposits ESR8 Continent-Type Rocks in the Ocean Depths ESR9 Exotic Terranes ESR10 Long Belts of Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks ESX PIERCEMENT STRUCTURES, INTRUSIVES, EXTERNAL IMPRESSIONS ESX1 Polystrate Fossils ESX2 Diapir Anomalies ESX3 Anomalies of Stigmaria ESX4 Perplexing Intrusives ESX5 Unusual Striations Attributed to Ice-Sheet Action ESX6 Anomalous Superficial Markings ET TOPOGRAPHIC ANOMALIES ETB BAYS, LAKES, SMALL DEPRESSIONS ETB1 Oriented Lakes and Depressions ETB2 Anomalous Features of Potholes ETB3 Fluid-Vent Craters ETB4 Gilgai Topography ETB5 Mountain-Top Depressions ETB6 Horseshoe-Shaped Depressions ETB7 Cookie-Cutter Holes ETB8 "Bottomless" Pits ETB9 Large Assemblages of Glacial Kettles ETB10 Depressions in Chalk Country ETC CRATERS, ASTROBLEMES, LARGE CIRCULAR STRUCTURES ETC1 Astroblemes (Starwounds) ETC2 Very Large Depressions of Probable Meteoric Origin ETC3 Hypothetical (and Still Undiscovered) Craters ETC4 Periodicity of Crater Ages ETE RAISED BEACHES, FOSSIL CORAL REEFS, TERRACES ETE1 Raised and Submerged Beaches ETE2 Fossil Coral Reefs ETE3 Terraces along Rivers, Submarine Canyons, Sea-Floor Channels ETE4 Inland, High-Level Terraces and Erosion Surfaces ETE5 Periodically Created Beach Terraces ETH GUYOTS, PLATEAUS, UNUSUAL MOUNTAINS ETH1 Flat-Topped Seamounts ETH2 Anomalous Oceanic Plateaus ETH3 Mountain Curiosities ETL PLANET-SCALE TOPOGRAPHIC ANOMALIES ETL1 Land-Water Distribution ETL2 Anomalies of Island Arcs ETL3 Patterns of Lineaments ETL4 Relative Velocities of Continents ETL5 Indications of an Expanding Earth ETL6 Continental Fits -- Good and Bad ETL7 Topographical Anomalies and Continental Drift ETM MOUNDS AND HILLS ETM1 Mima Mounds ETM2 Mounds in Gilgai Country ETM3 Mudlumps and Mud Islands ETM4 Drumlin Anomalies ETM5 Mounds of the Missoula Flood ...
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... Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Iridium And Mass Extinctions Alvarez and his colleagues at the University of California, while chemically analyzing a series of sedimentary strata from Italy, discovered that one layer had 25 times the concentration of iridium residing in adjacent strata. The iridium-rich layer forms the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, 65 million years ago. During that death-filled interval, 50% of the earth's genera were wiped out. Such are the two correlated facts: iridium increase and mass extinction. But do they have the same cause? Alvarez et al point out that iridium is rare on earth but much more common out in space. The anomalous concentration of iridium could have been injected by a massive solar flare, a big meteor impact, or come other extraterrestrial catastrophe. Thus is catastrophism being resurrected. (Anonymous; "An Iridium Clue to the Dinosaur's Demise," New Scientist, 82: 798, 1979.) From Science Frontiers #8 , Fall 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... evidence of this supposed strife, he reproduced a photograph of a plain in the Sinai Peninsula. Basically white limestone, the plain is thickly strewn with blackish, angular stones. Whence these immense quantities of incongruous stones? Sitchin proposes that they were created when an ancient spaceport was destroyed! (Sitchin, Zecharia; "The Wars of Gods and Men," Pursuit, 18:106, 1985.) Comment. Whatever one thinks of Sitchin's theory, the stones remain and must be accounted for. They are not the only such deposits in the Middle East. Velikovsky, in his Earth in Upheaval, states that 28 such rock fields are found in Arabia, some with areas of 6 or 7 thousand square miles. These are the "harras." Velikovsky thinks they are meteoric debris! Are there other explanations around? Reference. The blackened stones are just one variety of anomalous superficial aggregation of surface rocks. For more, see ESM1 in Neglected Geological Anomalies. Details here . From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 87, 1988. Cr. L. Ellenberger.) Drobyshevski's combustion theory assumes a "local" origin (within the solar system) for Halley. But measurements of the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13, made during the 1986 flyby, produced a ratio of 65:1 . This compares to 89:1 for solar system material. The 65:1 ratio, it turns out, is more typical of interstellar material. This datum seems to place Halley's birthplace somewhere outside the solar system. (Weiss, R.; "Carbon Ratio Shows Halley May be Alien," Science News, 135:214, 1989.) As if all this were not bad enough, calculations of the amount of matter expelled from Halley and incorporated in known meteor streams allow an estimate of Halley's residence time in the inner solar system. (One has, of course, Halley's present mass, but must estimate its original mass!) The conclusion is that Halley has spent only 23,000 years in its present orbit! (Maddox, John; "Halley's Comet Is Quite Young," Nature, 339:95, 1989.) Comments. Admittedly, this is a pretty shaky calculation, but it accords with the calculation that Halley had a close encounter with Jupiter about 20,000 years ago. The manifest contradictions in the inferences made above from recent observations of Halley mean that we still have a lot to learn about comets, Halley in particular. One should also recall that the solar system has other ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 61: Jan-Feb 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Terrestrial maria?Those dark patches that constitute the face of the man-in-the-moon are really huge outpourings of lava. Once considered real seas, they are called "maria." Maria like those on the moon also exist on the earth. This is a surprise because terrestrial maria were never mentioned in my college geology courses. But, in those days, the one-mile-wide Meteor Crater, in Arizona, was the largest accepted consequence of celestial bombardment. Deccan basalt flows (also called the Deccan traps) in Western India, shown before the formation of the Carlsberg Ridge and teh splitting off of the the Seychelles. D. Alt and colleagues, at the University of Montana, have identified four large basalt plateaus that might be terrestrial maria: "Notable examples of large lava plateaus that resemble lunar maria include, among others, the Deccan Plateau of India, the Columbia Plateau of western North America, the Parana Plateau of South America, and the Tungusska Basin of Siberia. All consist mostly of basalt lava flows; those on continents include minor quantities of rhyolite, and variable amounts of sediment. All seem to have appeared suddenly, within plates. No consistent context of plate interactions explains them. We suggest that large lava plateaus are indeed terrestrial maria." Alt et al go on to show that these lava plateaus seem to have initiated continental rifts and hotspot tracks where none existed before. ...
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... as they come." (A noted astronomer) ". .. a case of Halley's fever." (One geologist) ". .. his interpretation is preposterous." (Fred Whipple) Critical as other scientists may be of Frank's theory, they have no other explanation for the dark spots on the earth's dayglow images. Furthermore, scientists are far from united about how the earth's oceans really did form. As serendipity would have it, Frank's theory connects in an interesting fashion with the origin-of-life speculations in this issue. Frank remarks, in connection with organic sludge in comets: "These objects, because they are like a piston of gas, can bring organic material down without burning it up like a meteor does." (Huyghe, Patrick; "Origin of the Ocean," Oceans, 19:8 , August 1986.) From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... human genes on the average show far fewer mutations. Human DNA from Tokyo and London is more alike than that from two lowland gorillas occupying the same forest in West Africa. Harvard anthropologist M. Ruvolo has commented: "It is a mystery that none of us can explain." The clear implication is that humans recently squeezed through a population bottleneck, during which many accumulated mutations were wiped out. In a sense, the human race began anew during the last 400,000 years. Unfortunately, DNA analysis cannot say where the very grim reaper came from. (Gibbons, Ann; "The Mystery of Humanity's Missing Mutations," Science, 267:35, 1995.) Comment. The hand that wiped the slate clean, or nearly so, might have been a meteor impact, a pandemic, the Ice Ages, a flood, volcanism, etc. Whatever it was, it seems to have largely spared Africa. The chimps and gorillas there apparently did not pass through the bottleneck. Even more interesting is the observation that the DNA of Subsaharan Africans does shows more variability and therefore seems older than that from humans elsewhere on the planet. (See BMG9 in our catalog volume: Biological Anomalies: Humans III.) Or perhaps Subsaharan DNA only seems older because it was not forced through that bottleneck. There are implications here for the African Eve theory. From Science Frontiers #100, JUL-AUG 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... There was no visual aberration either in front, above or below the advancing line. "After crossing the field on a shallow arc the 'line' dropped to a position about 1 o'clock and radially described a circle 75 ft radius in about 4 seconds. The agency then disappeared." Meaden, a champion of the plasma-vortex theory, believes that the observation reported by Barnes is consistent with this theory. During a later interview, Barnes stated that a hissing noise accompanied the phenomenon. This, thinks Meaden, could be due to electrical discharges within the plasma cloud. (Meaden, G.T .; "Circle Formation in a Wiltshire Cereal-Crop -- an Eye-Witness Account and Analysis of a Circles-Effect Event at Westbury," Journal of Meteor ology, U.K ., 14:265, 1989.) Comment. Still at issue are the formation of a large, swirling mass of ionized air, its mysterious motion, the precision of the circles, and the diverse, almost too-neat geometrical patterns. From Science Frontiers #67, JAN-FEB 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Oil & gas from the earth's core In central Sweden this summer, drillers will be boring into the rocks of the Siljan Ring, Europe's largest known meteor crater. Oil and gas should not be down there in any quantities according to current theory, but that's what they are drilling for. Isn't it futile to fight such a well-established dogma that oil and gas have biological origins and therefore must be looked for only where life once thrived? Not any longer! Enough anomalies have accumulated to seriously challenge the idea that oil and gas are byproducts of ancient animal life. Here are a few of these anomalies: The geographical distribution of oil seems derived from features much larger in scale than individual sedimentary features. The quantities of oil and gas available are hundreds of times those estimated on the basis of biological origins. The so-called "molecular fossils" found in oil and claimed as proof of a biogenic origin are simply biological contaminants, particularly bacteria that feed upon the petroleum. Petroleum is largely saturated with hydrogen, whereas buried biological matter should exhibit a deficiency of hydrogen. Oil and gas are often rich in helium, an inert gas which biological pro cesses cannot concentrate. The great oil reservoirs of the Middle East are in diverse geological provinces. There is no unifying feature for the region as a whole and, especially, no sediments rich in biological debris that could have produced ...
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... ) and encounters with asteroids and cometary tails (too infrequent to account for the long periods of high dust levels). Rather, the dust source may have been the same event that created the recently discovered dust ring between Mars and Jupiter, which is believed to be only a few tens of thousands of years old. The nature of the "event" is not specified. (LaViolette, Paul A.; "Evidence of High Cosmic Dust Concentrations in Late Pleistocene Polar Ice (20,000-14,000 Years BP)," Meteoritics, 20:545, 1985.) References. See our catalog volume The Sun and Solar System Debris for more on the flotsam and jetsam of outer space. This book is described here . Also see the following item on "icy meteors" which is also pertinent. From Science Frontiers #44, MAR-APR 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... the sky and smashed into a backyard fence. David H. Menke, directory of the Copernican Observatory and Planetarium, said the ice was probably 6 feet long, 8 inches thick and moving at about 200 mph. 'It's unusual in the fact that it fell from the sky,' said Craig Robinson, curator at the planetarium. 'That does not happen often.' A 13year-old boy was in his backyard Monday with a friend when the ice came 'whirling' from the sky and smashed into the fence about 10 feet away from them." The remainder of the article gives the opinions of some scientists who were contacted about the fall. The director of the observatory thought the ice probably fell off the wing of an aircraft. The director of the American Meteor Society suggested a cosmic origin, providing the ice were pure. An astronomy professor assured everyone that it couldn't be cometary, because the sun would melt particles of ice in outer space. Instead, he opted for strong thunderstorm winds picking the ice up from "somewhere" and dropping it on Hartford! (Anonymous; "1 ,500-Pound Ice Chunk Falls from Sky," Manchester (NH) Union Leader, June 27, 1985. Cr. B. Greenwood via L. Farish) Reference. Anomalous ice falls are cataloged in GWF1 in our catalog: Tornados, Dark Days. For ordering information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 90: Nov-Dec 1993 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Missing: 500,000 tons of copper Ancient romans in texas? Astronomy A NEW CLASS OF SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS Einstein questioned Alien meteors Biology The shorter, the stranger A TALE OF TWO NOSES Smouldering corpse not shc Depths of ignorance Geology The ktb hole Geophysics Mystery light flashes above storms A PIECE 'A HEAVEN! Band of turbulence Can thunderstorms stall cars? Dune circles of sossusvlei General Is nothing certain anymore? Physics Lines of maser spots ...
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... -Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Collision/eruption/extinction/ magnetic reversal An increasingly popular scenario is: (1 ) Every 34 million years the solar system bobs up and down through the thickly populated disk of our galaxy; (2 ) The resulting encounters lead to showers of comets and/or asteroids on earth; (3 ) The mechanic trauma leads to basalt flooding; (4 ) Great biological extinctions occur in consequence; and (5 ) The terrestrial magnetic field reverses in step. Now, if scientists could show that all of these phenomena occur at the same frequency and are roughly in phase, it would constitute one of science's most important syntheses. The stratigraphic record and the estimated ages of meteor craters certainly hint at such synchrony. Recently, two more papers have appeared which support the above scenario. First, M.R . Rampino and R.B . Stothers show that during the past 250 million years, eleven episodes of basalt flooding have occurred with an average cycle time of 32 million years. Second, J. Negi maintains that the earth's magnetic record boasts a similar string of disturbances, with an average period of 33 million years. (Anonymous; "Regular Reversals in Earth's Magnetic Field A Fluke?" New Scientist, p. 32, August 25, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... The source of methane-gas releases (" burps") is the rapid decomposition of methane hydrate, which exists in prodigious quantities in offshore sediments. Some geologists have estimated that there is twice as much methane in methane-hydrate deposits as in all terrestrial natural-gas fields. What makes methane hydrate potentially lethal is its instability. Landslides and small quakes can release huge plumes of methane bubbles into the ocean and thence into the atmosphere. Ships might founder in the lowdensity froth of bubbles, and aircraft might be adversely affected, too. This is where TWA800 comes in. R. Spalding, a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories has been monitoring mysterious atmospheric explosions and believes that some of these detonations are consistent with the atmospheric ignition of huge methane plumes. (Other detonations are due to meteors.) Spalding proposes the following scenario: The ocean floor releases a massive methane gas plume, which rapidly rises to the surface and ascends into the atmosphere. The lighter-than-air methane cloud gains altitude, mixing with oxygen and thereby gaining explosive poten tial. An electrical disturbance -- possibly caused by the rising cloud itself or a lightning strike -- detonates the cloud. Awesome energy is instantly re leased in the form of a devastating shock wave and fireball that shat ters nearby TWA Flight 800. Supporting Spalding's theory are the many reports of light flashes, light streaks, and booming/rumbling sounds accompanying the disaster. But, methane burps are bizarre, and the properties of methane hydrate are so unfamiliar to most scientists and investigators of aircraft disasters that Spalding' ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Anomalous distribution of large, fresh lunar craters The overwhelming majority of astronomers favors a meteor-impact origin for the giant fresh lunar craters. (Here, "fresh" means post-mare formation.) Such an origin would seem to favor random distribution of these craters. "However, it appears that the distribution of these large, fresh craters is far from random, contrary to what would be expected if their mechanism of formation was by impact. Even the most casual observer of the Moon cannot help but note that the maria contain very few large craters. The more experienced observer will take note of several apparent anomalies. Six magnificent post-mare craters are almost fortuitously located immediately adjacent to mare regions, these being Langrenus, Theophilus, Cavelerius, Aristoteles, Aristarchus, and Copernicus" The author of these observations then buttresses them with a statistical analysis, which indicates a strong, nonrandom distribution of all of these fresh craters. Apparently, the volcano-meteorite controversy is not completely settled after all these years. (Kitt, Michael T,; "Anomalous Distribution of Large, Fresh Lunar Craters," Strolling Astronomer, 31:22, 1985.) Comment. Some of the fresh craters on the mare borders, such as Aristarchus and Copernicus, are well-known sites of lunar transient phenomena. Could they be analogous to the terrestrial volcanos constituting the "ring of fire" around the Pacific Basin? From Science ...
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... Blinded By The Night Ron Westrum is a sociologist who specializes in cases where scientific data are rejected out-of-hand because they challenge prevailing paradigms too strongly. In this article, Westrum describes several classical cases where science has ultimately admitted its errors and embraced the formerly rejected data: 1. The fall of stones from the sky; 2. The existence of thousands of parent-battered children; and 3. The reality of the coelacanth. In connection with meteorite falls, he provides a wonderful quote from James Pringle, of the Royal Society: "I venture to affirm that, after perusing all the accounts I could find of these phenomena, I have met with no well-vouched instance of such an event; nor is it to be imagined, but that, if these meteors had really fallen, there must have been long ago so strong evidence of the fact as to leave no room to doubt of it at present." Next, Westrum tackles spontaneous human combustion and ball lightning, neither of which have been assimilated by science. He closes with a very complimentary paragraph on the Sourcebook Project and our Catalog of Anomalies, for which we thank him. (Westrum, Ron; "Blinded by the Night," The Sciences, 25:48, May-June 1985.) From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... vacuum of outer space? Perhaps, thought Frank, they are protected by a thin coating of carbon. (Roylance, Frank D.; "Space Snowballs Theory Gains Credence," Baltimore Sun, May 29, 1997. Also: Monastersky, R.; "Is Earth Pelted by Space Snowballs?" Science News, 151:332, 1997. Thanks to all who sent in clippings. There are too many to mention here. Frank's photos also appeared on some national news programs.) Comments. We have already mentioned the minicomets several times in SF. See SF#60/275, for example. If verified, icy minicomets might well be the source of some of the earth's ocean water. Perhaps they are related to those strange "nebulous" meteors (SF#86/75) and noctilucent clouds. An intense 40day minicomet "storm" might be useful in accounting for certain historical floods!! From Science Frontiers #112, JUL-AUG 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... first observed at an altitude of 40 , bearing approximately 340 .It moved diagonally across the sky before disappearing behind low cloud at an altitude of 30 , bearing 310 . This time the duration was 1-2 seconds. In both cases the ship's radars were turned on but nothing was observed other than rain showers between 4 and 12 n. mile from the ship, mainly forward of the beam. Both flashes were of about the same brightness as that of lightning, the first being brighter than the second. In both cases it was difficult to judge the distance. The phenomenon was thought to have possibly been some form of lightning as its appearance was unlike that of any flare and in both cases the distance from the ship did not appear great enough to be compatible with a meteor or other object entering the earth's atmosphere." (Aston, A.; "' Green Flashes'"; Marine Observer, 55:30, 1985.) Comment. Probably low-altitude fireballs. From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... ). The object disappeared behind clouds, bearing about 170 (T ) at an elevation of approximately 35 , and lighting the edges of the clouds. The time taken for the passage was around 20 seconds. It was obviously a very large object, judging from its apparent size as seen from sea level. The impression given was that of an object within the atmosphere, easily showing around a one-penny piece held at arm's length." (Edwards, R.A .F .; "Unidentified Flying Object," Marine Observer, 54:82, 1984) Comment. This seems to be a description of a large fireball, but the direction of flight (north-south) is unusual and the time of passage (20 seconds) extremely long for a meteor. Large, very sluggish fireball trailing sparks over the North Atlantic. From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... fast and it also stopped dead a couple of times. "At one point, the light stopped and turned in the direction of the ship. The light no longer pulsated, and for about one second it was in the form of a spotlight lighting the surrounding area. The light then turned back again and moved very, very fast across the sky before it was lost below the horizon in a matter of seconds." (Ulrich, G.; "Unidentified Light," Marine Observer, 68:64, 1998.) Comment. The erratic motion and use of a searchlight are typical of some of the UFO reports seen in newspapers. However, the Marine Observer is a publication of the UK Meteorological Office. In the above "encounter," aircraft, satellites, and meteors do not fit the testimony of the observers. From Science Frontiers #118, JUL-AUG 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... single global fire. The soot layer coincides with the Ir layer, suggesting that the fire was triggered by meteorite impact and began before the ejecta had settled." The composition of the hydrocarbons in the sediments points to the earth's biomass (mainly surface vegetation) as the source of the soot. The total quantity of K-T soot is equivalent to that which would be produced by burning 10% of all present terrestrial plant material. (Wolbach, Wendy S., et al; "Global Fire at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary," Nature, 334:665, 1988.) Comment. Unmentioned in the above article is the possibility that extensive wildfires might have been generated by volcanic eruptions, perhaps accompanied by great electrical storms. The 1988 fires in Yellowstone needed no meteoric impact. Reference. Chemical anomalies in the earth's crust are cataloged in ESC1 in Anomalies in Geology. To order this catalog volume, visit: here . Concentration "spikes" of iridium, elemental carbon and soot at the KT boundary, Woodside Creek, New Zealand. (Adapated from Nature, 334:665, 1988). From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... aurora borealis, though personally I have not observed any colored streamers. "Following sunsets of exceptional beauty and twilight effects remarkable even in England, the northern sky at midnight became light blue, as if the dawn were breaking, and the clouds were touched with pink, in so marked a fashion that police headquarters was rung up by several people, who believed a big fire was raging in the north of London." (Anonymous; "Like Dawn at Midnight," New York Times, July 5, 1908. Cr. M. Piechota) Comment. Actually, all of northern Europe saw a succession of very bright nights beginning June 30, 1908. It was even possible to take photographs at midnight. The cause was not the aurora borealis but rather the Tunguska Event (Siberian Meteor) of June 30, 1908. Of course, Western Europe did not know what had happened in Siberia for years. Terrestrial dust from the Tunguska Event that was blasted into the upper atmosphere or perhaps particulate matter accompanying the impacting object (probably a comet) was apparently the cause of the nightime airglow. From Science Frontiers #121, JAN-FEB 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... rather than solar-) driven photosynthesis. Recent work on ambient light conditions at hydrothermal vents indicates that the photon flux generated by thermal radiation of 350 C water should be sufficient to sustain lowlevel photosynthesis, and there is at least one report of a faculative phototroph isolated from water samples taken near a deep-sea vent." A particularly important implication of this undersea light source is that the evolution of photosynthesis need not have been dependent upon the existence of life on land. Also, hydrothermal vents could have served as refuges for photosynthesizing life forms down the geological eons when: (1 ) ocean surfaces were ice-covered; (2 ) the terrestrial surface was exposed to deadly levels of radiation, as when the ozone layer was destroyed; and (3 ) when volcanism or dust from meteor impacts blackened the skies. (Van Dover, Cindy Lee; "Biology in Extreme Environments at Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents," Eos, 70:F54, 1998.) From Science Frontiers #124, JUL-AUG 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Evidence For A Giant Pleistocene Sea Wave On the Hawaiian island of Lanai, limestone-bearing gravel blankets the coastal slopes. Called the Hulopoe Gravel, it now reaches a height of 326 meters above sea level. Taking into account the 1000,000-year age of the gravel and the slow subsidence of the Hawaiian Islands, the deposit probably reached 380 meters when it was first formed. The big question is how it got deposited at such great heights. Highsea stands are rejected by the authors in favor of a single episode of catastrophic waves about 100,000 years ago. Earthquake-generated tidal waves are considered unlikely because of the great heights involved. (The highest tsunami ever recorded in historical times reach ed only 17 meters above sea level.) A great meteor impact or submarine volcanic explosion are good possibilities, but the authors favor a giant submarine landslide on the Hawaiian Ridge, noting that in 1958 a similar event off Alaska produced a wave that reached 524 meters above sea level. (Moore, James G., and Moore, George W.; "Deposit from a Giant Wave on the Island of Lanai, Hawaii, Science, 226:1312, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #37, JAN-FEB 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... .. .. . "These sky-lines were quite characteristic. There were a least half-adozen in the air, apparently starting close to the ground and fading away twenty or thirty feet up. They were all inclined slightly to the vertical, were of a dirty-brown colour, slightly blurred, roughly four inches wide, several feet apart, of some depth. This was apparent when I walked backwards and forwards across them because they appeared to move towards and also away from me, an event which seemed to indicate that they were slightly curved. If they were more than a hundred or so feet away, they were lost sight of." (Crowder, Robert; "The Strange Case of Angled Lines in the Atmosphere: A Thunderstorm Effect?" Journal of Meteor ology, U.K ., 24:220, 1999.) From Science Frontiers #127, JAN-FEB 2000 . 1997 William R. Corliss ...
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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 A Mysterious Object Winnipeg, Manitoba. "On January 14, 1983, I observed a perfectly round black orb crossing the sun. It started at 17h 54m 23s Universal Time and ended at 17h 54m 26s Universal Time and lasted three seconds. On a projected solar disk with a diameter of 18 centimetres, the object had a diameter of one-half centimeter." (Lohvinenko, Todd; "A Mysterious Object," Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, National Newsletter, 77:L19, 1983.) Comment. This object traveled too fast to be an intramercurial planet; too slowly for a meteor. Path taken by the black spot cross the face of sun. From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... for the concentration and propulsion of matter is the electrostatic force naturally present in lightning discharge channels; it functions much the same as the particle accelerators in the physics lab. The observations of hot air blasts and superhailstones collected by Crew to support his theory are indeed suggestive, but more are needed. Crew also feels that some UFO sightings may be produced by the same mechanism. (Crew, E.W .; "Meteorological Flying Objects," Royal Astronomical Society Quarterly Journal, 21:216, 1980.) Comment. Note also that the fall of thunderstones is usually coincident with lightning discharges; and that some high quality observations of thunderstone falls are on record -- despite the tendency of Science to relegate them to myth. One must also consider the possibility that the passage of a meteor or superhailstone through the atmosphere might trigger lightning, thus putting the cart before the horse. From Science Frontiers #14, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 139: Jan-Feb 2002 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Tunguska: An Inside Job?Virtually all speculation about the 1908 Tunguska Event assumes an external cause: a meteor, a comet, an asteroid, or even the accidental explosion of an alien spaceship. A recent meeting of Tunguska experts in Russia looked down rather than up for Tunguska's initiating phenomenon. In this open-minded review, two little-publicized but highly pertinent Tunguska observations were discussed. The catastrophe had five centers of destruction rather than one. At the Tunguska site are many large root stumps, not yet rotted away, that cannot be linked to any pits associated with their origin. These stumps were apparently blown out of the ground and hurled dozens of meters from where they stood prior to the Event. Next to be considered were the unappreciated similarities between the Tunguska Event and the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa. The four bright nights in Europe and western Asia, straddling 30 June 1908, are remimiscent of the 1883 Krakatoa outburst, they ask for transient scatterers in the upper atmosphere, above 500 km, at heights which only methane and hydrogen are light enough to reach in sufficient quantity. Fast-rising natural gas has been repeatedly detected in recent years, in the form of "mystery clouds"---by airplane pilots---and indirectly as pockmarks on 6% of the sea floor. In other words, Tunguska might well have been---not an extraterrestrial impact--- ...
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... along 50 kilometers. The scars are young, perhaps only a few thousand years old, well within the time of human habitation. Schultz and Lianza also found pieces of meteoritic rock and glassy fragments of impact melt. (Schultz, Peter H., and Lianza, Ruben E.; "Recent Grazing Impacts on the Earth Recorded in the Rio Cuarto Crater Field, Argentina," Nature, 355:234, 1992. Also: Monastersky, R.; "Meteorite Hopscotched across Argentina," Science News, 141:55, 1992.) Comments. Note the similarities to the much more numerous Carolina Bays. See ETB1 in our catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, Submarine Canyons. For ordering information, see: here . More recently, doubts have been raised concerning the meteoric origin of these scars. From Science Frontiers #80, MAR-APR 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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