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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 58: Jul-Aug 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Preternaturally rapid development of photosynthesis?" An increased ratio of 12 C to 13 C, an indicator of the principal carbon-fixing reaction of photosynthesis, is found in sedimentary organic matter dating back to almost four thousand million years ago -- a sign of prolific microbial life not long after the Earth's formation. Partial biological control of the terrestrial carbon cycle must have been established very early and was in full operation when the oldest sediments were formed." (Schidlowski, Manfred; "A 3,800-MillionYear Isotopic Record of Life from Carbon in Sedimentary Rocks," Nature, 333: 313, 1988.) Comment. Photosynthesis is not a simple biological process. To discover that it and life forms using it developed so quickly on the primitive earth is surprising. Did this complexity and "biological control" arise so quickly: (1 ) by chance; (2 ) by inoculation from extraterrestrial sources (See Astronomy above.); (3 ) by act of God; or (4 ) by Gaia in nascent form? (Note that Gaian overtones emanate from the "Biological control" phrase above.) From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 7: June 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects White Area In Bottom Of Martian Crater Near the Martian equator, in the bowl of a 58-mile-diameter crater, Viking Orbiter snapped a peculiar white region. Called the "White Rock," the formation is 8.5 x 11 miles in size and possesses an unusual grooved surface. White Rock is too close to the equator to be ice or snow. It is a unique and unexplained feature. (Anonymous; "A Martian Mystery," Astronomy, 7:64, January 1979.) Comment. White Rock looks a bit like an eroded salt plug! If so, the history of Mars will have to be rewritten. White Rock from 707 miles above Mars (NASA photo) From Science Frontiers #7 , June 1979 . 1979-2000 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 Spooky Spike The readers of New Scientist continue to supply delightful observations of Nature's quirks. The following is from J. Turner, in Warwickshire: I have in my garden a round red plastic container which holds water for the birds. In last winter's first hard frost, I found an odd ice formation in the bowl. Although the weather the previous day had been clement and the water was fluid, we had that night a sharp frost down to about -4 C. The following morning I noticed what appeared to be something sticking up out of the frozen water in the dish. On closer examination, it proved to be a solid 'spike' of ice, ending in an arrowhead. The ice was solid and came out of the side of the frozen water at an angle of about 45 . It was about 9 inches long and solid throughout." (Turner, Judy; "Spooky Spike," New Scientist, p. 54, November 2, 1991.) Two weeks later, the same journal published two radically different explanations of the ice spike. G. Lewis called the spike an "ice fountain" and stated that it is due to the well-known expansion of water as it freezes. R. Blumen-feld, on the other hand, attributed the growth of the spike to the fact that water molecules on the surface and in surrounding air are electrical dipoles. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 12: Fall 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Little big bangs!The photographic enhancement of plates taken by the UK Schmidt and Anglo-Australian telescopes has revealed that several normal elliptical galaxies are surrounded by shell-like structures. D.F . Malin and D. Carter report that these envelopes are vast -- up to 180 kiloparsecs in diameter. Furthermore, some galaxies are wrapped in a series of thin shells. Malin and Carter believe that the colossal shells are really thin layers of stars either created by a powerful shock wave during galaxy formation or comprised of a debris layer of old stars blown out of the galaxy during some cataclysmic event. (Malin, David F., and Carter, David; "Giant Shells around Normal Elliptical Galaxies," Nature, 285:643, 1980.) Comment. This article typifies the emergence of "catastrophic astronomy" which contrasts sharply with the older vision of a leisurely evolution of stars and galaxies. From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The new holism -- but is it whole enough?In the short space of two weeks, the New Scientist printed two articles that confront the obvious complexity of nature. Not only is this complexity persistent under the attack of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but it seems to actually increase with time. Do formative or guiding principles exist that science does not take into account? The two articles have very different answers. The creative cosmos. "Most people accept without question that the physical world is coherent and harmonious. Yet according to the traditional scientific picture, the Universe is just a random collection of particles with blind forces acting upon them. There is, then a deep mystery as to how a seemingly directionless assembly of passive entities conspire to produce the elaborate structure and complex organisation found in nature." The author of this introductory paragraph, P. Davies, asks, as we all do, "What is the origin of this creative power?" In groping for an answer, he presents first a common example of "blind" organization: the hexagonal convection cells in a pan of heated water. Using for a stepping stone the cooperative action of atoms in a laser, he leaps to the development of an embryo from a single strand of DNA! All such systems are "open"; that is, energy can flow in and out. They are also nonlinear, which means that chaotic, unpredictable action ...
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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 Earth-moon fission: a slight hint Although the Sm/Nd isotope ratios of the earth and the chondrites (a type of meteorite) seem pretty close in value, the possibility of a slight but significant discrepancy remains. If this small difference is confirmed, it would strongly imply that the earth's Sm/Nd ratio was shifted after the planet's formation. The most reasonable event that could shift this ratio is an long-debated earth-moon fission, wherein the earth's lighter surface material was somehow torn off to form the moon. (DePaolo, Donald J.; "Nd Isotopic Studies: Some New Perspectives on Earth Structure and Evolution," Eos, 62:139, 1981.) Comment. The moon's density is markedly less than the earth's , so the idea is not as wild as it seems. The hypothetical fission of Earth-Moon could have shifted the Nd isotope ratio in relation to that of the chondrites. From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... ONLINE No. 59: Sep-Oct 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects "? " ! ?Photographs of Comet Bradfield taken on October 10, 1987, show an odd kink in its tail that does not appear on photos taken the nights before and after. This kink was shaped like a backwards "? ". Kinks in the tails of comets are well known phenomena. A comet's tail is electrically charged, and it flaps in the solar wind like a flag on a gusty day. So why run this observation up the anomaly flagpole? First of all, the Bradfield kink is 10 million kilometers long; second, it appeared and disappeared in a matter of hours. Both size and speed-of-formation are difficult to explain in terms of existing solar-wind velocity and the shifting interplanetary magnetic field. (Anonymous; "Did Anyone Photograph This Comet?" Astronomy, 16:16, July 1988.) Reference. Similar cometary anomalies are cataloged in ACO in: The Sun and Solar System Debris. For information on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #59, SEP-OCT 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 88: Jul-Aug 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Early Life Surprisingly Diverse The three life forms sketched below are tiny microorganisms, not the worms they appear to be. They are thought to be bacteria, for they closely resemble modern cyanobacteria. What is most important about these fossilized micro-organisms is that they were found in the Apex chert of Western Australia. The Apex chert is designated Early Archean and assigned an age of 3.465 billion years [Four significant figures!]. It is rare to find any fossils at all in rocks this old, but apparently the Apex chert escaped most of the fossil-destroying metamorphism afflicting most Precambrian formations. Even more remarkable is the diversity of these suspected bacteria. J.W . Schopf reports finding no less than eleven different kinds so far--and our planet was only a few hundred million years old at the time the Apex chert was formed. Schopf's discoveries generate at least three questions: How could life have originated and diversified to such an extent in just a few hundred millions years? Why after such rapid diversification did these microorganisms remain essentially unchanged for the next 3.465 billion years? Such stasis, common in biology, is puzzling. If these microorganisms are really cyanobacteria, they would have released oxygen to the atmosphere. Is the standard assumption that the earth's atmosphere lacked oxygen until 2.2 billion years ago correct? (Schopf, J. William; "Microfossils of the Early ...
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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 The Burgess Shale Puzzle In British Columbia, a middle Cambrian (550 million years BP) formation called the Burgess Shale has miraculously preserved a vast assemblage of soft-bodied sea creatures, especially arthropods. Does this rich and unusual deposit help elucidate arthropod evolution? No, it has complicated the problem. Few of the fossil arthropods can be easily related to groups now living. The Burgess Shale arthropod population is primitive in some ways but remarkably specialized in others. Some of the fossils have body segments like those in one recognized arthropod group but display limbs resembling those of an entirely different group. (Fortey, R.A .; "The Burgess Shale: A Unique Cambrian Fauna," Nature, 293: 189, 1981.) Comment. It appears that Nature was shuffling the gene deck, or that there was rampant hybridization, or that confusing programs for evolutionary change were drifting in from the cosmos a la Hoyle and Wickramasinghe! From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Subjects Whales And Seafloor Pits Typical sizes, shapes, and disposition of whale-excavated pits in the Bering Sea. The focus of a 1987 paper in Scientific American, by C.H . Nelson and K.R . Johnson, is the northeastern Bering Sea, where sensitive side-scanning sonar has sketched large numbers of pits and furrows in the shallow sands. The pits range from 1-10 meters in length, 0.5 -7 meters in width, and 0.1 -0 .4 meters in depth. No known geological processes seem responsible. Farther east, in Nor-ton Sound, methane eruptions from buried organic matter do blow out circular craters; but the elongated pits investigated by Nelson and Johnson are gouged in sand considered too permeable for gas-crater formation. Rather surprisingly, the gray whale has become suspect as a pit excavator. They feed in the area of the pits; and the pits, before enlargement by currents, are just the size of the whales' mouths. The whales apparently dredge up sediment and, with their baleen, strain out amphipods (shrimp-like crustaceans) from the sand. The coexisting narrow furrows turn out to be the work of walruses digging for clams. (Nelson, C. Hans, and Johnson, Kirk R.; "Whales and Walruses as Tillers of the Sea Floor," Scientific American, 256:112, February 1987.) Comment. The whale tale seems a reasonable explanation of the pits described by Nelson and Johnson, but how far in time and space can it be ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 20: Mar-Apr 1982 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A Recently Discovered "book" of Petroglyphs Astronomy A Big Void in Space Or A Defective Yardstick? Something Hot Beneath Small Saturn-satellite Surfaces A Couple Venusian Curiosities Biology Heads Or Tails? A Tale of Two Ecosystems -- or Maybe Many More Missing Links: the Big Ones Still Elude Us Puzzling Group Behavior of Sharks Geology Gravity Anomaly Ripples Centered in Canada Subterranean Petroleum Factories? Geophysics A Most Peculiar Cloud Arch Whirling Crescents Move with Ship Psychology The Mystery of Spontaneous Visions ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 20: Mar-Apr 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Something hot beneath small saturn-satellite surfaces Crater-density studies of the small, icy Saturn satellites Rhea, Dione, Mimas, and Tethys reveal important non-uniformities in crater distribution and age. The anomalies are so large that astronomers have concluded that these objects must have undergone considerable evolution after they were formed by accretion (the currently accepted mode of formation). Unfortunately these four satellites are so small that they could not have accommodated any reasonable energy source capable of causing the observed crustal evolution. The authors suggest strong local concentrations of radioactive heat generators rather than uniformly distributed radiogenic substances, such as those that helped mould the earth's surface. (Plescia, J.B ., and Boyce, J.M .; "Crater Densities and Geological Histories of Rhea, Dione, Mimas and Tethys," Nature, 295:285, 1982.) Comment. Interestingly enough, local concentrations of radioactivity have been discovered on the moon. From Science Frontiers #20, MAR-APR 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Parasites may reprogram host's cell The long, segmented filament shown in the illustration consists of the cells of a parasite that preys on the cells of red algae. Two such cells abut the parasitic filament. The small black circles are parasitic cell nuclei which, when confronted with a red alga cell, become wrapped in small "conjuctor cells" which are then somehow transferred to the host cell on the right. The actual transfer involves the formation on the host cell wall of a sort of dimple called a "secondary pit connection." (Why this forms is not known.) Once inside the host cell, the parasite nucleus and/or the cytoplasm transferred with it dramatically reprograms host cell operations. The host cell shifts into highgear food production, enlarging up to twenty times its normal size. The host cell wall thickens, its nuclei (large black circles) and chloroplasts multiply. Adjacent cells (left) remain unaffected. (Lewin, Roger; "New Regulatory Mechanism of Parasitism," Science, 226:427, 1984.) Comment. It is one thing for external stresses to stimulate cell reprogramming, but quite another when another species inserts its programs into those of the host. Is this another way of producing "hopeful monsters?" A parasitic filament growing between host cells, showing how parasite nuclei are first enclosed in bud-like conjunctor cells and then inserted into the host cell. From Science ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 28: Jul-Aug 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Land animals: earlier and earlier Two biologists looking for plant fossils in the Catskills found instead the remains of ancient centipedes, mites, and spider-like creatures -- a classical case of serendipity. These animals were in a Devonian formation dated at 380 million years. It turned out that they were the oldest fossils ever found of purely land animals. (Some fossil animals of about the same age are known in European rocks, but in semiaquatic environments.) Two aspects of the fossils are of special interest: The animals found were already well-adapted to terrestrial life, inferring that the (assumed) invasion of the land from the sea has to be pushed back much farther in time; and Many of the fossil animals are essentially identical to modern forms, suggesting that little if any evolution has occurred in 380 million years. (Anonymous; "Fossils found in N.Y . Alter Scientists' View," Baltimore Sun, May 29, 1983. Comment. Note the sudden jump from no land animals to well-developed, frozen-in-time land animals. From Science Frontiers #28, JUL-AUG 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 29: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sedimentary rocks on venus?The Soviet spacecraft Veneras-13 and 14 took photos of the hot surface of Venus from their landing spots beneath the planet's thick cloud cover. The rocky debris surrounding the spacecraft shows, to nearly everyone's surprise, strong evidence of sedimentary, layered structure. The rock formations display ripple marks, thin layering, differential erosion, and even hints of cross-bedding. The vision of ancient seas on Venus leaps to the mind, but according to the Russian scientists, it is far more likely that the sediments were created by winds, episodic volcanism, or repeated meteor strikes. (Florensky, C.P ., et al; "Venera 13 and Venera 14: Sedimentary Rocks on Venus?" Science, 221:57, 1983.) Reference, Venus harbors many anomalies. See our Catalog: The Moon and the Planets. This book is described here . Two pictures of the surface of Venus taken by the Russian space probe Venera 14. From Science Frontiers #29, SEP-OCT 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Nether Universe Of Life Bacteria well-adapted to high temperatures have been brought up from oil wells thousands of miles apart. All indications are that these bacteria are indigenous to the wells; that is, not introduced by the drilling fluids. What is most interesting is the fact that these bacteria are all closely related despite their remoteness from each other. They not only look and behave alike, but they also share 98.2 % of their 16S ribosomal RNA sequences. M. Magot asks what an anomalist would ask. "For example, where are these bacteria from? How did they succeed in colonizing these habitats?...Are these microorganisms directly descended from bacteria that were trapped during the formation of the oil, or accompanied its migration through tens to hundreds of millions of years? Did they arrive in the oil field later as a consequence of aquifer activity? What is their mode of maintenance and development in their environment?" (Magot, Michel; "Similar Bacteria in Remote Oil Fields," Nature, 379:681, 1996) Comment. Bacteria have also been extracted from mineral-charged fluids circulating in drill holes over 12 kilo meters deep and also in deep aquifers. There must be an unexplored universe of life thriving not only beneath our feet but also - quite possibly - beneath the forbidding surface of Mars. Reference. Examples of life thriving at great depths in the earth may be found in ESB9 in our catalog: Anomalies in Geology. For a description ...
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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 The Arctic Womb "Magnetostratigraphic correlation of Eureka Sound Formation in the Canadian High Arctic reveals profound difference between the time of appearance of fossil land plants and vertebrates in the Arctic and in mid-northern latitudes. Latest Cretaceous plant fossils in the Arctic predate mid-latitude occurrences by as much as 18 million years, while typical Eocene vertebrate fossils appear some 2 to 4 million years early." (Hickey, Leo J., et al; "Arctic Terrestrial Biota: Paleomagnetic Evidence of Age Disparity with Mid-Northern Latitudes During the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary," Science, 221:1153, 1983.) Comment. The anomaly here is in the vision of the high Arctic lands basking in the warm sun busily evolving new life forms well in advance of their appearance in lands closer to the Equator. What happened to the earth's axial tilt. These fecund polar territories should have been engulfed in darkness almost half of the year -- hardly an environment for precocious plant evolution. Further, trees found buried in the Arc-tic muck could never have grown where found due to the long polar darkness. From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Phoenix vs. The Hohokam Astronomy Mercury's Orbit Explained Without Relativity The Sun As A Scientific Instrument What Causes the Sunspot Cycle? There Are Cold Anomalies "out There" An Orphan Superluminal Glob? Biology Cancer Even More Insidious Hearing Via Acoustic Holograms Ri Seen The Hypothesis of Formative Causation Lives! Geology The Rise of Astronomical Catastrophism Wanted: Disasters with A 26-million-year Period Thin-skinned Tectonics Early Life and Magnetism Geophysics The Min Min Light Are Nocturnal Lights Earthquake Lights? Three Anomalies in One Storm Mystery Spirals in Cereal Fields Unidentified Phenomena Psychology The Kaleidoscopic Brain At Last: Someone Who Can Predict the Future! Unclassified Reciprocal System Avoids Taint of Reductionism ...
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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 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 ...
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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 Unidentified Phenomena September 17, 1982. South Atlantic Ocean. 2103 GMT on a clear dark night. "The first thing noticed was the formation of a bright patch of white light in the general area between Rasalhague and Alphecca. Gradually a dark eye formed in the centre of the patch in which shortly afterwards a very bright object appeared like a star of magnitude -2 . After one or two seconds this object appeared to undergo a tremendous explosion and became a large bright orange gaseous fireball, which appeared to be hurled earthwards directly down the observer's line of sight, growing constantly larger and larger. One witness described the fireball as resembling rolling orange smoke. The ball then ceased to increase in size, giving the impression that it had stopped. Its orange colour rapidly gave way to rainbow colours which gradually gave way to white and faded in brilliance until all that remained were several patches of luminous white light, although these were impressive in their own right." A similar phenomenon was noted the following night, although the ship was 7 farther south. September 18, 1982. South Atlantic Ocean. From a different ship in the same area as the one above. "The altitude of the first sighting was approximately 24 , level with the planet Jupiter and offset to its right. The six subsequent bursts were above the first, and slightly to the right, leaving a fantail of purple/white lenticular clouds which leaned ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 110: Mar-Apr 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Did a methane burp down twa800?The potential for methane eruptions from offshore sediments to sink ships and down aircraft was proposed by W.D . McIver way back in 1982, in the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. (SF#25/208) 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 - ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 110: Mar-Apr 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unusual Circulating Cloud Object July 24, 1996. Malborough, South Devon. About midnight on this date, E. Netley and his wife observed a most peculiar cloud formation. It was so well-formed and precisely organized that Netley felt that the term "cloud object" was appropriate. Even so, he was confident that the apparition represented a natural phenomenon. "Natural" probably, but certainly the strangest cloud we have encountered in 30 years of literature research. The evening of July 23 was warm and a bit humid, with a modest breeze blowing in from the ocean. Netley and wife first saw the "cloud object" from a distance of about a kilometer; they eventually walked to within 400 meters of the phenomenon. The "object" consisted of a slowly rotating ring of thin, vertically oriented clouds. (See figure.) The cloud ring was 80-100 meters across and seemed to rotate in a horizontal plane at the rate of about one revolution per minute. As though this were not strange enough, the rotating "cloud object" itself moved in a larger circle 8-10 times the diameter of the "cloud object." The "cloud object" took 4-5 minutes to complete a trip around the larger circle. The phenomenon lasted for about an hour before dissipating. (Netley, Edward; "Unusual Circulating Cloud Object," Journal of Meteorology, U.K . ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ancient Egyptians in Hawaii Sinister Development in Ancient Greece Man the Scavenger A Different Way of Looking At the Universe Astronomy A Quick Quasar Monster Star Lurks Nearby Halley's Comet is Winking At Us Galactic Radiation Belt? Biology Dolphins to the Rescue -- again! Gravity and Going Around in Ellipses Getting the Pouch Right Are Bluebloods More Often Type A? Mind Before Life Caenorhabditis Elegans The Chinese Wild Man Geology An Extraordinary Peat Formation Confusing Seismic Data From the Deep Continental Crust Geophysics Infrared Atmospheric Waves Burning Mass Falls in B.C . Psychology The Immune System As A Sensory Organ Parapsychology: A Lack-of-progress Report Chemistry & Physics Blooms in the Desert? ...
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... THE GRAINS? Scientific creationists often come up with fascinating minor phenomena in geology, which, as far as most geologists are concerned, have already been satisfactorily explained and are now forgotten. Creationists exhume these tidbits because they can sometimes be interpreted as support for a "young earth" or some other cornerstone in creationist thinking. Of course, the true anomalist has a broader appetite, savoring any unexplained phenomena, regardless of which theories they support or undermine. But that is enough palaver, creationist D.E . Cox has resurrected the quartz-sand-grain anomaly: "Uniformitarian geologists, and many creationist geologists as well, interpret sandstones as sedimentary or aeolian accumulations of sand grains. Quartz arenites, for example, are supposed to be detrital accumulations of quartz grains derived from pre-existing formations. The source rocks may have either been igneous or sedimentary, but ultimately most quartz grains in sediments must have an igneous parent rock, probably granite, since this is the most abundant igneous rock on the continents. The quartz derived from granite is characterized by the presence of tiny mineral inclusions. Crystals of mica, rutile and tournaline are common. In sandstones formed from granite-derived quartz grains, mineral inclusions should be evident, but they are rarely present in sand-stones." The accepted explanation of this apparent anomaly is that the inclusions in fresh, granite-derived quartz grains so weakened the grain structure that the flawed grains are quickly broken up during weathering, transportation, and deposition. By the time any sandstone is formed, only flawless bits of sand remain. Case ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 36: Nov-Dec 1984 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Who Mapped Antarctica in Pre-medieval Times? The Mallia Table The Great Wall of the Incas Astronomy Galactic Shell Game Order From Disorder? Biology Four 'Clever' Adaptations Brains Not Hardwired Evolution of Man and Malaria Is A Dog More Like A Lizard Or A Chicken? Geology The Case Against Impact Extinctions Subterranean Electric Currents The Magnetic Jerk Problem Geophysics Spiked Ball Lightning Whirlwind Spirals in Cereal Fields: Quintuplet Formations More Mysterious Hums Psychology Hypnotically Accelerated Burn Wound Healing Mental Control of Allergies Why Most People Are Right-handed Chemistry & Physics Zeta Not A Higgs: Too Bad! ...
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... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Surface life (us!) only a "special case"T. Gold is again challenging our most cherished ideas about geology and life's domain. In the subject article -- his latest paradigm-shaker -- he first reviews the abundant evidence for the existence of large quantities of primordial hydrocarbons deep within the earth and (probably) many other planets throughout the universe. Associated with these hydrocarbons is a "deep, hot, biosphere." By "deep" Gold means 100 kilometers and more. It is this combination of a deep reservoir of hydrocarbons and life forms (probably mostly bacteria) that can account for (among other things): The fact that all helium comes from oil and gas wells The fact that the composition of petroleum is not what one would expect from the decomposition of plants and animals. It is really a mixture of primordial hydrocarbons with some added biochemical by-products; that is, products of that "deep" biosphere. Since carbonaceous material is now known to be common in the solar system (comets, carbonaceous chondrites, etc.), it is likely that many other planets also possess deep stores of hydrocarbons. In these deep, warm, protected, energyrich "wombs," complex biospheres might readily evolve. In Gold's view, deep biospheres may be the rule and surface life the exception! Finally, Gold sees life as merely a natural process with no more meaning and purpose than accelerating the breaking of chemical bonds and thereby increasing entropy! "It has been said that ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 66: Nov-Dec 1989 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Found: the lost pyramids of rock lake DOUBTS ABOUT TWO RITUALLY RECITED THEORIES Astronomy GLOBULAR CLUSTERS UPSET THEORY OF GALAXY FORMATION Down with the big bang NEPTUNE SPINS TOO FAST AND ITS MAGNETIC FIELD IS AWRY Biology The bird that smells like cow manure Army ants: a collective intelligence? The babirusa: a quasi-ruminant pig A BAT FALL Care for a cup of viruses? Geology DRUMLINS MAY RECORD CATASTROPHIC FLOODS STRANGE BLUE POOL FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF CRATER LAKE Biogenic minerals Geophysics Rogue waves Psychology MEMORY STRUCTURE OF AUTISTIC IDIOT SAVANTS Was burt stitched up? General Cold fusion died only in the media ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 117: May-June 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Rare North Atlantic Light Wheel April 30, 1981. North Atlantic Ocean. "At exactly 2155 GMT, a white seasmoke type mist was observed glowing white between 2 and 5 metres above the sea surface. Further observation revealed that we were entering a large area of circulating bioluminescence of defined spiral form which appeared to be a pale emerald green in colour. Although the direction of rotation and the centre hub of the wheel could not be determined, the bands appeared to be of great dimension. While still proceeding through the bioluminescence and observing astern, it was noted that the formation of the bands became disrupted and seemed to diffuse a ragged appearance at the perimeter of the wheel to the port side of the vessel. Judging by the distance of the vessels close by -- which were being tracked by radar -- the extent of the rotating bands to the west could not be determined but they were estimated to be between and n. mile. The duration of the phenomenon was 4 minutes from entering to leaving the bioluminescence." (Lehepuu, K.; "Bioluminescence," Marine Observer, 52:76, 1982.) Comment. Bright marine bioluminescence is not uncommon in the Atlantic, particularly in warm waters, but it is very unusual to find geometrically organized displays. The light wheels seen in the Persian Gulf and South China Sea are more frequent and more highly structured. No one has ever come up with a ...
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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 When Mars Had Lakes Rhythmic layered deposits can be seen in the Valles Marineris, a large Martian valley. The strata are erosional remnants up to 5 kilometers high, with individual layers 170-220 meters thick. They can be traced on spacecraft photographs for some 50 kilometers. The material making up the strata is clearly different from that of the valley walls. After the layers were deposited, they were deeply eroded by some event in Martian history that seems related to the formation of the great outflow channels associated with Valles Marineris. The author of this American Geophysical Union paper concludes: "The morphology and history of the sediments are consistent with deposition in standing bodies of water early in Martian history." (Nedell, Susan S., and Squyers, Steven W.; "Geology of the Layered Deposits in the Valles Marineris, Mars," Eos, 65:979, 1984.) Comment. The "event" that deeply eroded the Martian deposits may have been similar to the catastrophic emptying of Lake Missoula, which carved out the Channelled Scablands of eastern Washington state as the Ice Ages waned. From Science Frontiers #37, JAN-FEB 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 67: Jan-Feb 1990 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology New world culture old Fantastic claim by explorer Archeological riddle The ancient-humans-in-europe controversy Astronomy Direct observations of hyperion's chaotic motion A NEW QUASAR DISTANCE RECORD: A NEW EMBARRASSMENT Explaining lunar flashes with life-savers Astronomers up against the "great wall" Biology Dna on cell surfaces Really-deep rivers Geology We live atop a chemical retort Australasian tektites coughed up by a moon of jupiter? Microorganisms complicate the k-t boundary Continuity at the conrad discontinuity Geophysics Eyewitness account of cropcircle formation Possible ball lightning in ankara Psychology Solar activity and bursts of human creativity Geomagnetic activity related to mental activity Psychotherapy may delay cancer deaths Physics A WATCHED ATOM IS AN INHIBITED ATOM General A HUNGARIAN UFO ...
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... example of "morphic resonance," as he relates in the New Scientist: "Ranchers throughout the American West have found that they can save money on cattle grids by using fake grids instead, consisting of stripes painted across the road. Real cattle grids, known as cattle guards in the U.S ., are usually made of a series of parallel steel tubes or rails with gaps in between, which make it physically impossible for cattle to walk across them. However, cattle do not usually try to cross them; they avoid them. The illusory grids work just like the real ones. When cattle approach them, they 'put on the brakes with all four feet,' as one rancher expressed it to me. .. .. . "According to my hypothesis of formative causation..., organisms inherit habits from previous members of their species. This collective memory, I suggest, is inherent in fields, called morphic fields, and is transmitted through both time and space by morphic resonance, a process which takes place on the basis of similarity. From this point of view, cattle confronted for the first time by grids, or by things that look like grids, would tend to avoid them because of morphic resonance from other cattle that had learnt by experience not to try to cross them." Sheldrake follow these two paragraphs with an examination of more conventional explanations. He is wise to do this because morphic resonance does seem pretty farfetched. Do new naive cattle somehow acquire this aversion to cattle grids, real or fake, from an experienced member ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 129: MAY-JUN 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects From Nature's Atelier One of geology's more fascinating mysteries concerns the formation of concretions. Concretions are structures within rock that differ in form and/or composition from the matrix. Often, they form around an impurity of some sort, say, a tiny fossil. If concretions were all nicely spherical or crystalline in shape, we might be able to explain them as we do with the oyster's pearl and winter's snow-flake. Unfortunately for the theorists, concretions usually come in bizarre shapes -- shapes an avant garde sculptor might appreciate. Not only do concretions come in weird geometries but they may be replicated in prodigious numbers, like the famous Kimmeridge "coal money." Additionally, some flint concretions are arrayed in thick chalk beds in amazingly regular three-dimensional arrays that tax the ingenuity of any theorist. To illustrate the extremes of nature's inorganic-chemical imagination, we now provide some illustrations from a recent two-part article in Rocks & Minerals and one of our catalog volumes. (Dietrich, R.V .; "Carbonate Concretions,' Rocks & Minerals, 74:266 and 74:335, 1999. ESA3 in Neglected Geological Anomalies.) Carbonate concretions (" imatra stones") from Finland. Virtually identical concretions occur in the Connecticut River Valley. Vertical lines of flint concretions in chalk cliffs near Norfolk, England. Presumably the 3-dimensional array ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hold that Mega-Megalith Those huge standing stones (the tombs of the Genii), located in a remote region of eastern Asia ( SF#131 ), just might be natural after all. We have found a copy of the original 1860 source, and its author does not claim them to be artificial. In fact, his accompanying illustrations of some of the rock formations in the area indicate regular patterns of jointing that could yield blocks similar to the mega-megalith. The Genii, it turns out, were "powerful spirits". More of this later as investigation proceeds. (Atkinson, Thomas Witlam; Travels in the Region of the Upper And-Lower-Amoor, New York, 1860.) From Science Frontiers #132, NOV-DEC 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
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... Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Strange Snow Sculptures The most familiar snowflakes are those feathery, six-armed dendritic crystals. However, snow sometimes falls as needles and plates. In GWP3 in Tornados, Dark Days..., we also catalog three observations of conical snow. These conical forms seem to be aggregates of tapered needles of ice. However, none of the foregoing shapes can surpass in strangeness the "snowflake" in the accompanying illustration. Here we see the hexagonal symmetry retained in column form and again in the plates at each end of the icy dumbbell. What those peculiar iceworms projecting from the plates are is anyone's guess. (Kaiser, Jocelyn; "Snow Up Close," Science, 289:503, 2000. Comment. It is difficult enough to explain the formation of the common six-armed flakes; the worm-terminated dumbbells are even more puzzling. What sort of mechanism in the atmosphere can scuplt such complex shapes in prodigious quantities? From Science Frontiers #133, JAN-FEB 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 134: MAR-APR 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Missing Martian Meteorites Scientists scouring the Antarctic snowy wastes have collected 13 so-called SNC meteorites, which by virtue of their compositions are likely from Mars. These tiny chunks are believed to have been blasted off the Martian surface by five or six impacts of much larger meteorites. All save one of these Martian meteorites have formation ages of about 1.3 billion years. The only part of the Martian surface believed to be 1.3 billion years old is the TMOM (Tharsis Montes and Olympus Mons) region. The rest of Mars -- about 90% of it is much older. To have 12/13ths. of the Martian meteorites originate from 1/10th. of the planet's surface is highly unlikely. Something is wrong somewhere; probably a bad assumption. And what about that 13th. meteorite that did not get ejected from the TMOM region? This is ALH 84001, the controversial meteorite that contains strange worm-like structures resembling terrestrial bacteria. (See SF#130, #116, #110, #108, and #101.) (Taylor, Richard L.S ., and Mittlefehldt, David W.; "Missing Martian Meteorites," Science, 290:273, 2000.) From Science Frontiers #134, MAR-APR 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . ...
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... are diminished; it is very vulnerable. Neither is there any provable biochemical value to sleep. (See BHF31 in Humans II) Yet, a large fraction of an animal's life is spent in this apparently useless and hazardous condition. Why, then, did sleep ever evolve? But with sleep, come dreams, and maybe an answer is to be seen in them. Cats establish long-term memories during sleep. First, it is relevant that an animal's brain (a cat's brain here) seems to be active even when an animal is sleeping deeply but not dreaming. It seems that during an extremely quiet phase of sleep, when researchers thought that nothing much was happening in the [cat's ] brain, groups of cells involved in the formation of new memories signal one another. The signals, discovered only a few years ago, allow cells in many parts of the brain to form lasting links. Then, when a few cells are stimulated during waking hours, the links are activated and an entire memory is recalled. Deep, dreamless sleep has long been thought to be of little value to an animal. Apparently this is not the case. Deep sleep seems to be valuable in memory activation. Score one for sleep. (Blakeslee, Sandra; "Researchers Link Deep Sleep to Memory Recall," Austin American-Statesman, December 2000. Cr. D. Phelps.) Rats rerun mazes in their dreams. Rats apparently can't escape the rat race, even when they're sound asleep. Research at ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Multiple Whirlwind Patterns English meteorologists are spending some of the lazy summer days out in the countryside tracking down whirl wind patterns engraved on fields of wheat and other crops. One eyewitness account of the formation of a single spial pattern has been found. However, the multiple spiral patterns excite the most interest because of their geometric regularity. Between 1980 and 1984, eight quintuplet patterns have been found consisting of a large central circle and four smaller satellite circles. Triplets were also discovered. Although the origins of the multiplet patterns are still unexplained, some interesting generalizations have emerged: 1. The whirlwinds responsible for the flattened circles of crops have lifetimes of only a few seconds, whereas dust devils may persist for many minutes; 2. These whirlwinds seem to occur around evening time instead of during the heat of the day; and 3. They are all anticyclonic, while tornados are almost all cyclonic and true heat whirlwinds are split about evenly in their spin direction. (Meaden, G.T .; "Advances in Understanding of Whirlwind Spiral Patterns in Cereal Fields," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 10:73, 1985.) Quintuplet circles found in a grain field near Cley Hill, England. From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... scientific papers are still being written on this singular period in the earth's history, and the situation is no longer so clear-cut. We select for brief review four papers, each with a different perspective. Occurrence of stishovite. Stishovite, a dense phase of silica, is widely accepted as an indicator of terrestrial impact events. It is not found at volcanic sites. Now, J.F . McHone et al report its existence at the K-T boundary, at Raton, New Mexico. (McHone, John F., et al; "Stishovite at the CretaceousTertiary Boundary, Raton, New Mexico," Science, 243:1182, 1989.) A plus for the pro-impact side. The impact of an asteroid can initiate basaltic flooding and trap formation. Evidence of a global fire. Soot appears at the K-T boundary at many sites, but where did it come from? Chemical analyses of these soots show an enhanced concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons over soots above and below the boundary. This is strong evidence of pyrolytic action at the K-T boundary; i.e ., widespread fires. (Venkatesan, M.I ., and Dahl, J.; "Organic Geochemical Evidence for Global Fires at the Cretaceous/Tertiary Boun dary," Nature, March 2, 1989.) Fire could have been initiated by either volcanism or impacts. The evidence of the traps. Traps, like India's famous Deccan Traps, are extensive flood basalts. In this paper, basalt flooding has been correlated with ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 53: Sep-Oct 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Strange Craters We have just found the following item from the Australian Post . Can any of our Australian readers elaborate? "For more than 10 years, scientists and geologists have been baffled by the discovery of some 30 strange craters between Bundaberg and Gin Gin (Qld.). Made of sandstone, siltstone, and red ochre, and at least 25 million years old, the craters contain unidentifiable markings which could be manmade! "The holes were discovered by a farmer clearing his land and they have now been opened to the public who offer a multitude of theories about their origin, ranging from natural formations -- although the craters are not of volcanic origin -- to the work of visitors from outer space." (Anonymous; "Strange Craters," Aus tralasian Post , July 31, 1986. Cr. R. Collyns via L. Farish.) From Science Frontiers #53, SEP-OCT 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 3: April 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Stone Circles In Saudi Arabia Enigmatic circular stone formations reminiscent of those in Europe are found on remote hilltops and valleys throughout Saudi Arabia. The rings are 5 to 100 meters in diameter and are surrounded by stone walls a foot or two tall. Some of the rings have "tails" that stretch out for hundreds of meters. From the air, the patterns have a striking resemblance to designs etched in Peru's Nazca plateau. Little is known about the circles and virtually nothing about their purpose. (Anonymous; "Saudis Seek Experts to Solve a Desert Mystery," Kayhan International, p. 7, January 1, 1978.) Reference. Additional African megalithic sites are described in Ancient Man. This Handbook is described here . From Science Frontiers #3 , April 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Enough high-resolution photos have been taken to prove that these grooves emanate from the large crater named Stickney and run around the satellite to its opposite side where they die out. This suggests that the origin of the crater and the grooves are related. Further, the widest and deepest grooves (700 meters wide and 90 meters deep) are located close to Stickney. On the other side of Phobos, grooves are consistently less than 100 meters wide. Despite these hints of impact origin, the grooves are not quite what one would expect from simple fracture by collision. Some show beaded or pitted structures. Other grooves are composed of irregularly bounded segments. Finally, some of the straight-walled sections seem to have slightly raised rims. Evidently, some internal forces, perhaps stimulated by the formation of Stickney, also played a part. (Thomas, P., et al; "Origin of the Grooves on Phobos," Nature, 273:282, 1978.) Reference. The grooves of Phobos and its other anomalies are catalogued at ALL2 and ALL3 in The Moon and the Planets. To order this book, go to: here . Map of the strange grooves on the Martian moon Phobos From Science Frontiers #4 , July 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... that assume water to have been the eroding agent encounter difficulties, because Martian gravity is too weak to hold the hydrogen when water is dissociated by solar radiation. A better bet, say Y.L . Yung and J.P . Pinto, is liquid hydrocarbons; i.e ., petrol. Starting with a methane atmosphere, at 0.1 earth's atmospheric pressure, the natural loss of hydrogen would lead to the polymerization of hydrocarbons and eventual condensation. "Petrofalls" from this atmosphere could cover the Martian surface to a depth of one meter and lead to heavy erosion. (Anonymous; "Martian Surface in Good Spirits," New Scientist, 79:19, 1978.) Comment. There is an obvious connection here to the long-debated origin of terrestrial petroleum and, to be complete, Velikovsky's ridiculed claim of ancient terrestrial "petrofalls"! From Science Frontiers #5 , November 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 8: Fall 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Old tektites in young sediments?A curious little geological debate now going on concerns the Australian tektites. The age of formation for these tektites, as determined by both fissiontrack and potassium-argon dating lies between 700,000 and 860,000 years. Geological evidence, however, suggests that the tektites fell only 7,000 to 20,000 years ago -- a substantial discrepancy. Surely, say some, these old tektites were washed out of some equally old deposits and transported to the young strata where they now reside. Not so, say Australian geologists, because most of these tektites are found in areas devoid of outcroppings 700,000 years old. Furthermore, the rather fragile tektites show little signs of wear, as they should if transported by flood waters for long distances. These and other geological facts militate against the 700,000-year date. Geologists have questioned the two dating techniques, while geophysicists think the geological evidence is shaky. (Chalmers, R.O ., et al; "Australian Microtektites and the Stratigraphic Age of the Australites," Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 90:508, 1979.) Comment. It is important to resolve this issue because the dating methods employed are crucial to the now-dominant theory of plate tectonics. In particular, the 700,000-year figure seems to represent a major crisis in biological and geological history. Reference. We expand on the ...
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... terminal Eocene event 34 million years ago. The sudden change in the abundance of forest plants suggests that the winters became much more severe while the summers remained about the same. At about the same time, the radiolaria were devastated by some sort of disaster. This was also the time when the North American tektite strewn field was deposited -- a field that stretches halfway around the world. John O'Keefe hypothesizes that some of the tektites and microtektites that rained down during this period missed the earth and went into orbit around it, forming an opaque Saturn-like ring. This ring might have lasted a million years or more; and its shadow could have caused the extrasevere winters postulated from botanical data. (O 'Keefe, John A.; "The Terminal Eocene Event; Formation of a Ring System around the Earth," Nature, 285:309, 1980.) Comment. Many who have previously speculated about terrestrial ring systems, such as I.N . Vail, were called pseudoscientists! Reference. The North American tektites are the subject of Section ESM3 in our Neglected Geological Anomalies. Ordering information here . Earth's ring shadow From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 17: Fall 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Too Many Pages Missing The geological record has often been likened to pages in a book, each rock formation being a page, etc. The problem is that this book is not even close to being complete over most of the earth. Woodmorappe has examined the massive geological literature and drawn an extensive (and most impressive) suite of world maps showing just where the ten major geological periods are represented and where they are absent. The statistics are disturbing. Two thirds of the land surface display five or fewer periods; 15-20% of the earth's surface has three or less periods appearing in the "correct" order. Where are all the missing pages? Why, missing pages mean only that no deposition occurred in an area during the period in question or, if it did, erosion wiped it off the record. The "book" of strata forming the vaunted geologic column is really a composite of a few scraps from here and there. The enormity of what is missing is made all to clear by Woodmorappe's maps and statistics. (Woodmorappe, John; "The Essential Nonexistence of the Evolutionary-Uniformitarian Geologic Column: A Quantitative Assessment," Creation Research Society Quarterly, 18:46, 1981.) Comment. Do missing geological pages constitute anomalies? Not when taken one by one, for occasional lapses are to be expected. But taken en masse, the record seems so skimpy that one wonders ...
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... accepted belief that the pyramids were built from natural stone obtained from quarries and laboriously moved to the site on wooden rollers. "Dr. Joseph Davidovits said that the synthetic pyramid stone was made with cement far stronger than modern portland cement, which binds together the rock and sand in concrete. Portland cement has an average span of about 150 years, he said, but cements like those used in the pyramids last thousands of years. .. .. . "Davidovits said that a new deciphering of an ancient hieroglyphic text now provides some direct information about pyramid construction and supports his theory that synthetic stone was the construction material. .. .. . "Davidovits said the cement used in the pyramids binds the aggregate and other ingredients together chemically in a process similar to that involved in the formation of natural stone. "Portland cement, in contrast, involves mechanical rather then molecular bonding of the ingredients. Thus, pyramid stone is extremely difficult to distinguish from natural stone. "He cites a number of other pieces of evidence to support his theory. Chemical analyses of stone from the pyramids, for example, show it contains minerals not found in Egyptian quarry stone. "Laboratory analyses have also revealed indications of organic fibers -- possibly human or animal hair -- inside the stone used to built the pyramids. Davidovits said he believes the materials accidentally fell into the forms when ancient Egyptians were casting the stone." (Anonymous; "Pyramids Made of Synthetic Stone, Researcher Reports," Orange County Register , April 11, 1987. Cr. S. Yaple via L ...
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... route, and reach the surface as a huge upwelling of frothy, low-density fluid. A ship cannot float in such low-density fluids. If a large plume rose above the sea's surface, aircraft passing through it would lose engine power. Quoting the final paragraph: "Intermittent natural gas blowouts from hydrate-associated gas accumulations, therefore, might explain some of the many mysterious disappearances of ships and planes -- particularly in areas where deep-sea sediments contain large amounts of gas in the form of hydrate. This may be the circumstance off the southeast coast of the United States, an area noted for numerous disappearances of ships and aircraft." (McIver, Richard D.; "Role of Naturally Occurring Gas Hydrates in Sediment Transport," American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin, 66:789, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #25, JAN-FEB 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 265 atmospheres of pressure. What a surprise! Quoting a concluding sentence from this article: "This greatly increases the number of environments and conditions both on Earth and elsewhere in the Universe where life can exist." (Baross, John A., and Deming, Jody W.; "Growth of 'Black Smoker' Bacteria at Temperatures of at Least 250 C," Nature, 303:423, 1983.) Comment. Ignoring for the moment the extraterrestrial possibilities, the earth is riddled like a Swiss cheese with hot, fluid environments, which we may now consider potential abodes of life. Subterranean life represents a new biological frontier. Who knows what kinds of organisms have developed to feed upon the planet's heat? Could they have con-tributed to our supplies of petroleum and natural gas? From Science Frontiers #29, SEP-OCT 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... layers of older rocks were thrust parallel to the bedding planes over the top of the layers of younger rock, sometimes for hundreds of miles. So numerous are these instances of inverted strata that a new branch of geology called Thin-Skinned Tectonics is arising to handle them. The present article deals with the complex stratigraphy in the Western Arbuckle Mountains in southern Oklahoma. Here are located many examples of old-on-young rock as well as completely inverted stratigraphic members. Much at-tention is paid to the evidence of sliding between beds (breccia, small overfolds, etc.). Some excellent photos of these contact planes are presented. (Phillips, Eric H.; "Gravity Slide Thrusting and Folded Faults in Western Arbuckle Mountains and Vicinity, Southern Oklahoma," American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin, 67:1363, 1983.) Comment. Some extensive thrust faults do not show as much evidence of horizontal sliding as those in the Western Arbuckles. Scientific creationists use such examples as evidence that the geological time scale, as determined by the fossil contents of the rocks, is all mixed up. From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Highlands Mima Mounds are rarely reported outside the western United States. But Kenya has them, too. At elevations of 1500-3600 meters on Mt. Kenya, fields of mounds up to 6 meters in diameter and 1.5 meters high have been described. Cox and Gakahu have studied some of these African mounds and find them much like the North American Mima Mounds. They are found well above the range of the rhizomyid mole rat, a rodent similar to the North American pocket gopher in size and behavior. Quantitative measurements indicate the mounds to be constructed from dirt immediately surrounding the mounds. In short, the African mounds and probably those of North America seem to be the products of industrious rodents. (Cox, George W., and Gakahu, Christopher G.; "The Formation of Mima Mounds in the Kenya Highlands: A Test of the Dalquest-Scheffer Hypothesis," Journal of Mammalogy, 65:149, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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