... 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---but a simultaneous outburst and detonation of natural gas from five closely spaced vents. The report continues with pro-andcon discussions, concluding that this outrageous hypothesis cannot be dismissed! (Kundt, Wolfgang; "Tunguska 2001," Meteorite, 7:25, November 2001.) Mirror matter is another new candidate as Tunguska's cause. This and other radical hypotheses, like the methane blowouts mentioned above, cannot be rejected perfunctorily because, even after 75 years and 35 expeditions ...

... Geomagnetic Storms Effects of Comets upon Geomagnetic Activity Effects of Lunar Eclipses upon Geomagnetic Activity Effect of Solar Flares upon the Potential Gradient Effect of Geological Features upon Geomagnetic Activity Effects of Earthquakes upon the Potential Gradient Effect of Volcanism upon Geomagnetic Activity GG GRAVITATIONAL PHENOMENA GGF VARIATIONS IN GRAVITY Nontidal Variations of the Gravitational Field Periodic Changes in Gravity GGH MAGNETIC HILLS Spook Hill and Kin GH PHENOMENA OF THE HYDROSPHERE GHC UNUSUAL PHENOMENA OF WATER SURFACES GHC1 Foam Strips on Inland Waters GHC2 Streaks, Slicks, Calm Patches GHC3 Stratified Typhoon Waves GHC4 Sudden Whitening of Dead Sea GHC5 Dead Water and Slippery Seas GHC6 Bulging River Surfaces GHC7 Swiftly Traveling Surface Disturbances GHC8 Honeycomb Appearance of Flowing Water Remarkable Convection Patterns in Ponds Long Lines of Microorganisms on the Ocean Surface Massive Foam Accumulations Storm Footprints on the Ocean as Seen from Orbit Remarkable Falling and Rising Lake Levels Parting of the Red Sea Reversal of Niagra Falls and Related Phenomena GHG GEYSERS, PERIODIC WELLS, BLOWING CAVES GHG1 Geysers at Sea GHG2 Geysers and Blowing Wells Correlated with Weather Phenomena GHG3 Geysers and Intermittent Wells Correlated with Tidal Forces GHG4 Cold-Water Geysers and Periodic Springs and Wells [GHQ6] Hydrothermal Earthquake Precursors Hydrothermal Explosions Effect of Earthquakes upon Geyser Activity GHS THE BEWILDERING VARIETY OF TIDES GHS1 Sun-Dominated Tides GHS2 Sea and Lake Seiches... GHS3 Spectacular Tidal Bores GHS4 Diurnal, Triple, and Quadruple Tides GHS5 Long-Period Tides of Unexpected Strengths GHS6 Tides That Precede the Moon Extraordinary Tsunamis Tsunami Cycles GHT OCEAN TURBULENCE AND CIRCULATION PHENOMENA GHT1 Extraordinary Deep Circulation Events GHT2 Sonar-Detected Subsurface Oceanic Structures GHT3 Nonvolcanic Underwater Eruptions GHT4 Anomalous El Ninos GHT5 The Guinea Tide GHT6 Energy ...

... No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fall Of Hot Globules January 6, 1909. Santa Cruz, California. "It rained hot bird shot at Santa Cruz today for nearly an hour, according to Mrs. W.H . Burns and her neighbors. Some of the shot has been preserved. "Mrs. Burns's curiosity was aroused yesterday by the peculiar antics of a number of barefooted children who were playing in front of her house. When she asked them what was the matter they told her that the air was full of electricity and that hot shot was falling from the clouds. "Then she heard a clatter on the housetop like hail and saw little white threads of steam rising from neighboring roofs. The steam was found to be the result of the dropping of little hot globules on the damp shingles. "This peculiar rain continued from about 3 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and varied in intensity. At one time the children, who were bareheaded and unshod, were compelled to take cover." (Anonymous; "Hot Shot from the Sky," New York Times, January 7, 1909. Cr. M. Piechota.) From Science Frontiers #124, JUL-AUG 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... 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 ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 100: Jul-Aug 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Another Starchy Anomaly Last issue it was uncooked spaghetti that insisted on breaking into three pieces instead of two. Now, we find that when a grain of cooked rice falls into a glass of fizzy lemonade, it first sinks to the bottom and, then, rises to the top. It sinks again, rises again, and so on. One of N. Hall's rice grains persisted in this yoyo motion for fully 10 minutes! Why? (Hall, Nicholas; "Bouncing Rice," New Scientist, inside back cover, May 13, 1995.) From Science Frontiers #100, JUL-AUG 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 103: Jan-Feb 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Subterranean Trombone In 1992, while making seismic recordings near Java's Mount Semeru, a German scientific team noticed that the seismic waves were much more regular than one would expect from deep volcanic activity. Their recordings revealed a series of evenly spaced harmonic frequencies. They likened it to a musical instrument emitting a fundamental note accompanied by overtones. Sometimes, the fundamental tone would rise and fall, as if the mountain were playing a tune for them. The Germans, V. Schlindwein et al, postulated that the vibrations originated in a gas-filled cavity, presumably cylindrical -- something like an organ pipe -- capped at the top, with a pool of molten magma at the bottom. Volcanic vibrations resonated in this chamber and, as the magma pool rose and fell, so did the fundamental tone. Rather than a fixed organ pipe, it was a natural trombone! Unfortunately, the "earth music" was always in the infrasound range, 8 Hertz and less, and could not be heard by the researchers directly -- only their instruments could "listen." (Schneider, David; "Country Music," Scientific American, 273:28, November 1995.) Comments. There is no physical reason why such a subterranean trombone cannot play in the audible range. Such a mechanism might explain some of the mysterious hums heard in various localities, such as the Taos hum. (SF#88 ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 102: Nov-Dec 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Perfect pitch and sundry syndromes Writing in response to a report in Science by G. Schlaug concerning the brain asymmetry observed in musicians with perfect or absolute pitch* (SF#99), O. Sacks expands the domain of the phenomenon to include other human talents. Sacks says that perfect pitch, though common in musicians, occurs only in about 1 of every 10,000 people. Among the autistic, however, the incidence rises to perhaps 1 in 20. He next moves on to "savants;" that is, individuals with exceptional mathematic, mechanical, musical, and artistic talents, but with serious deficiencies in other human attributes. Calculating prodigies and other "idiot savants" immediately come to mind here. Sachs claims that perfect pitch is is even more common among the savants. In fact, all muscial savants seem to have it. Perfect pitch is also common among those with Williams syndrome, which he defines as: "a -- syndrome which predisposes to hyperacusis and exceptional development of auditory, musical, and verbal skills, combined with striking visual and conceptual deficits." (Sacks, Oliver; "Musical Ability," Science, 268:621, 1995.) * A person with perfect pitch can identify a tone without needing a second tone for comparison. SF#99 = Science Frontiers #99. From Science Frontiers #102 Nov-Dec 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... C. Masthay writes: "In Science Frontiers 100, p. 2, Jul.-Aug. 1995, you have the article WEIRD ICICLES. Well I've just got to tell you about the icicle in my icecube tray. I went to Connecticut on vacation for 2 weeks the latter half of this June (1995). Sometime during that time the electricity was out for 3 ½ hours. When I opened my refrigerator for a drink, there was a weird stalagmitic icicle with a faint frostiness on the cystalline end. I left it alone for these 2 weeks to watch it recede with my frostfree refrigerator. When I saw your article, I regarded the explanation of a central channel as being inappropriate, for this one had to grow as a normal crystal in the unaccustomed rise in temperature. It too had a tipped angle of perhaps 10 to 15 . What is more is that this is the second time this has happened in a year. How many other refrigerators have done the same? Thus the birdbath crystal is not impossible." (Masthay, Carl; personal communication, July 17, 1995.) Questions. Why are all of these upwardgrowing icicles inclined slightly? Why are they all prismatic in contrast to those hanging from our eaves? From Science Frontiers #102 Nov-Dec 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... biologists put the number of species at about 1 million. Then, they started shaking and gassing rain-forest canopies. The rain of new insect species that fell to the ground made them revise the estimate to 30 million. The latest, long-unappreciated reservoir of undescribed species is mud -- oceanic mud. In particular, we know that the mud in the Rockall Trench off the western coast of Scotland teems with untold species of diminutive nematodes. Of course, nematodes are not as pretty as birds and fish, but they are nevertheless bona fide species of life. Examination of the Rockall mud and that from other seabed sites has convinced the nematode counters that there may be as many as 100 million nematode species on our planet. When other classes of life are added, the figure rises to at least 130 million. (Pearce, Fred; "Rockall Mud Richer than Rainforest," New Scientist, p. 8, September 16, 1995.) Comments. Lifeless molecules can apparently unite to form an almost infinite array of life forms! The next reservoir of unexplored biodiversity may be the crevicular realm -- all those fluid-filled crevices and channels that extend miles down into the earth's crust. They are full of bacteria and other unrecognized microscopic life forms. As for extraterrestrial habitats, who can even guess? From Science Frontiers #102 Nov-Dec 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Biological precursors of the 1995 kobe earthquake The Japanese are meticulous observers of animals. Many keep birds, insects, fish, etc. as pets. When scientists at the Osaka City University asked for reports of unusual animal behavior around the time of the great January 17 quake, over 1,200 people in the Kobe-Osaka area came forth with anecdotes. Some typical pre-quake observations were: Doves flying into walls. Caged birds (Chinese hawk-cuckoos) flying against the sides of their cages. Fish rising to the surface in great numbers. At the port of Shioya, "millions" of gizzard shad turned the surface of the water into silver. Captive stag beetles and turtles emerging from hibernation. And strangest of all, silkworms and fish in ponds orienting themselves in the same directions. (Minami, Shigehiko; "Creatures Went a Bit Batty, Maybe Knew Quake Was Coming," Asahi Evening News, February 25, 1995. Cr. N. Masuya) Cross reference. Many luminous phenomena were also seen. For descriptions of so-called "earthquake lights" refer to GLD8 in our catalog Lightning, Auroras, etc. It is listed here . From Science Frontiers #99, MAY-JUN 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 93: May-Jun 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Anomalous Horizon Glows Seen On The Moon The spacecraft Clementine , now engaged in surveying the moon from orbit, has apparently recorded once again a perplexing sky glow that precedes lunar sunrises and follows lunar sunsets. An astronaut standing on the moon watching the spot where the sun is about to rise would see first of all two well-recognized phenomena: the solar corona (even though the solar disc is still well below the horizon) and the zodiacal light (sunlight reflected from interplanetary dust). In addition, the astronaut would detect a glow along the horizon itself, as in the illustration. Since the moon is virtually airless, there should be none of those gas molecules and suspended dust particles that cause the sunsets and sunrises that we admire so much here on earth. Still, there must be something suspended above the moon's surface to scatter light from the sun still located just below the horizon. The best guess is that lunar dust particles are ionized by solar radiation and are repelled upwards from the surface and hang there suspended by electrostatic forces. But no one really knows for certain the cause of the glow. (Cowen, R.; "On the Horizon: Clementine Probes Moon Glow," Science News, 145:197, 1994.) Reference. Anomalous lunar horizon glows are cataloged in ALO11 in our catalog: The Moon and the Planets. For details, visit here . From Science Frontiers #93 ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects More On The Mekong Mystery Those basketball-sized lights erupting from the Mekong River, Thailand, (SF#114) turn out to be a well-known annual event. Their official name is: the Nekha Lights. They have even been filmed and shown on Thai TV. These weird luminous displays occur during the October full moon and last only about 30 minutes. The lights rise out of the river and nearby rice paddies, but only along a small stretch of the river straddling the Thailand-Laos border. (Anonymous; "Mekong Mystery," New Scientist, p. 109, December 20/27, 1997.) Comment. Some marine species, such as the paolo worms, rise to the surface annually to spawn under a full moon. Could the Mekong Lights have a biological origin? From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Ref. 1) "From head to toe, the bones were largely intact. The skeleton was that of a man, middle-aged at death, with Caucasian features, judging by skull measurements. Imbedded in the pelvis was a spearhead made of rock." Chatters initially thought he had merely a "pioneer" who had met an untimely death in the Wild West! "The real stunner came last month [June 1996], after bone samples were sent to the University of California at Riverside for radiocarbon dating. The conclusion: the skeleton of the 'pioneer' is 9,300 years old." (Ref. 2) Actually, the skeleton may well be that of a "pioneer" but one who came from the direction of the setting sun instead of the rising sun. Of course, it is perfectly all right for Asians to have crossed the Bering Strait into North America over 9,000 years ago, but a Caucasian raises scientific and emotional problems. "If Kennewick Man were actually Caucasian, it would be a startling discovery. So far, all of the oldest North American skeletons have been of Asian descent, although features on a few skulls have been controversially interpreted as Caucasoid. Another possibility is that the first Americans -- and their Asian ancestors -- had features that were Caucasoid. The real test of these theories would be DNA, which can pinpoint which modern populations are most closely related to the skeleton and so help identify the ancestors of early Americans and perhaps give clues to their migration patterns." (Ref. 3) ...

... magnitudes of the effects. Both events also purport to explain long-standing puzzles. Scenario #1 . The Bosporus silt plug blows. During the last Ice Age, sea levels dropped hundreds of feet exposing the continental shelves. The planet's great rivers cascaded over the edges in great waterfalls. The rocky sill at Gibraltar kept the Atlantic waters out of the Mediterranean, and this sea began to dry up. Farther to the east, the Black Sea was now cut off from the Mediterranean's salty water by the silt-choked Bosporus, that narrow strait separating Asia Minor from Europe. In consequence, the Black Sea became a vast fresh-water lake fed by Europe's rivers to the north. The Ice Age eventually waned, and the oceans and Mediterranean began to rise. About 7,000 years ago, the hydraulic pressure on the Bosporus silt plug became too great and it popped. Salty Mediterranean water poured into lowlands around the Black Sea. Scientists estimate that 50 cubic kilometers of water surged through the Bosporus each -- 200 Niagaras in one colossal waterfall. Falling some 150 meters, the thunder of falling water might have been heard 500 kilometers away! The Black Sea rose quickly, driving the shoreline and humans back a kilometer or two every day. The fleeing Neolithic farmers were forced up into the rich river valleys of Europe, carrying tales of the catastrophe as well as their culture and agricultural know-how into these areas. The Middle East was affected, too. The traumatic experiences of the survivors may have been the basis for the Sumerian ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 113: Sep-Oct 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Atlantic Wave Heights Increasing We have touched on this subject before. (SF#84/279) We now have more precise data. Wave-height measurements at the Seven Stone Light Vessel, anchored in the northeastern Atlantic, show that wave heights have increased 2.4 centimeters/year during the period 1960-1985. This is not a trivial amount. At this rate, waves a century from now would be 2.4 meters (about 8 feet) higher. Many existing coastal structures will be smashed to bits. All this is over and above any effects from rising sea levels. The records from the Seven Stone Light Vessel are corroborated by an analysis of more then 20,000 wave charts of the North Atlantic drawn between 1960 and 1988. It therefore seems clear that something unusual is going on in the North Atlantic. One would suspect increased winds, but velocities measured at Seven Stone have remained constant while wave heights rose. It is concluded that the bigger waves are not generated by local winds; rather, they are swells that have been created thousands of miles away. The cause of these larger swells now affecting the entire North Atlantic is not known. The authors of this paper are forced to conclude with: "It should be noted that so far it has not been possible to attribute the observed change to either an anthropogenic cause or to natural climate variability on decadal time scales." (Bouws ...

... 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 observations is presented. It hypothesizes an eruption of earth gases to create the crater, with the rising gas plume then interacting with atmospheric electricity to produce the propagating fireball that was observed." (Docobo, J.A ., et al; "Investigation of a Bright Flying Object over Northwest Spain, 1994 January 18," Meteoritics and Planetary Science , 33:57, 1998.) Comments. We cannot resist associating these strange "craters" with the even stranger "cookie-cutter" holes or shallow "craters" reported in SF#37 and in more detail in ETB7 in our catalog Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, etc. In a bizarre coincidence, the fireball item of SF#110 is immediately preceded by a suggestion by R. Spaulding that TWA800 was downed by a methane eruption from the sea which ignited, thereby leading to the several observations of streaks of ...

... figure by the thousands of mounds, and you begin to wonder about the gopher theory. Also counting against the gophers is the fact that no one has ever found gophers in the mounds, nor has a single gopher bone been found. Now Mima Mounds are found in great numbers in many other locations in North America. South America and Africa also have their "pimpled plains" as the early geologists called them. A. Berg has pointed out that Mima Mounds tend to be concentrated in seismically active areas, whereas pocket gophers and their kindred rodent excavators have a more general distribution. This observation has led Berg to theorize that earthquake vibrations rather than gophers raised the Mima Mounds. Indeed, if you sprinkle sand on a vibrating surface in the lab, you do see tiny mounds of sand rising mysteriously. (SF#69, SF#91, SF#108) Working against Berg's theory is the rather poor geographical match between the fields of Mima Mounds and areas of high seismicity. (Geiger, Beth; "Heaps of Confusion," Earth , 7:35, August 1998.) Comments. Some thirty theories have been advanced to explain the Mima Mounds from ancient fish nests to the flooding due to giant tsunamis raised by asteroid impacts at sea. Distribution of mima mounds and pimpled plains in the United States. The Mima Prairie is situated in Area #1 . From Science Frontiers #119, SEP-OCT 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... and luminous phenomena. First, we recall those curious pure acoustical tones that have recently been detected by seismic recorders in the ocean near French Polynesia. (SF#115) Geologist W.A . Charlie has associated these tones in the ocean with the strange but well-verified pure tones heard emanating from some waterfalls. Charlie recalls that the famous European geologist A. Heim observed that 15 Alpine waterfalls all produced two nonharmonizing groups of pure acoustical notes. These, a Zurich musician likened to the major-C triad and F. (Heim published his observations in a paper entitled: "Tone der Wasserfalle." Verhandlung der Schweizeren Naturforschung Gesellschaft, 8:209, 1874) In his letter to the magazine Earth (now defunct), Charlie wondered if the same resonant tonegenerating mechanism (rising clouds of bubbles) operated in both the oceans and waterfalls. (Charlie, Wayne A.; "Musical Monotones," Earth , 7:7 , June 1998.) Comments. In our catalog Earthquakes, Tides (GQV2), we recorded how waterfalls produce low-frequency terrestrial vibrations with one frequency predominating. This characteristic frequency is inversely proportional to the height of the waterfall. Just as fascinating are the remarkable flashes of light that emanate (rarely) from the bases of waterfalls. These may be due to sonoluminescence. (GLD14 in Lightning, Auroras) The predominant fequency in waterfall vibrations depends upon the height of the waterfall. (From: Earthquakes, Tides). From Science Frontiers #119, SEP-OCT 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 140: Mar-Apr 2002 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Drowing of Ancient Lands Shell Rings of Southeastern North America Astronomy Mars: the Land of Broken Paradigms Subject Closed: There are no other Galaxies out there! Biology The Bio-Curiosity Corner The Intracellular Railway Geology Target: Australia Geophysics Images of Diverse Phenomena? Or are they of the same Entity? Ghostly Flames Rise from Penrhyn Lagoon Psychology Triskadekaphobia and Quatrephobia Mental gymnastics Why Must we Sleep Physics The Greatest Unanswered Questions of Physics ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 71: Sep-Oct 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects ASTRONOMERS COPE WITH BOTH CHAOS AND TOO MUCH ORDER IN THE UNIVERSE The solar system . The recent advent and fast rise in popularity of chaos theory is destroying some favorite, long-sworn-to notions of astronomers. One in particular is solar-system stability. Could any of the planets pop out of their orbits and embark upon wild and unpredictable trajectories? "We can't rule it out," stated J. Wisdom, an MIT planetary scientist. (Freedman, David H.; "Gravity's Revenge," Discover, 11:54, May 1990.) Comment. Well, OK, there is a tiny theoretical chance that such an event might occur in the future, but it certainly never happened in the past. To admit such a possibility would open that Pandora's Box of vigorously suppressed catastrophic scenarios. Reference. More information on solarsystem instability may be found in ABB1 in the catalog: The Sun and Solar System Debris. Ordering details here . The universe as-a -whole . The disovery of the Great Wall of galaxies (SF#67) and the regular clumping of galactic matter (SF#69) has greatly surprised astronomers, who have been emphasizing how uniformly distributed galactic matter should -- according to theory, at least. Now, D.C . Koo, at the University of California at Santa Cruz, says, "The regularity is just mind- ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 1: September 1977 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cattle Mutilations Called Episode Of Collective Delusion During the past several years, farmers in the western states have been reporting dead cattle that seemed strangely mutilated. Soft, exposed parts, such as the ears and genitals, were apparently removed with surgical precision. Some corpses seemed bloodless. Local papers blamed satan worshippers and UFO occupants. This paper analyzes the 1974 mutilation "flaps" in South Dakota and Nebraska, with special attention to the rapid rise and equally rapid decline of public interest as measured by newspaper coverage. In the opinion of the author, these two episodes are classic cases of mild mass hysteria, similar to the occasional crazes of automobile window-pitting. In all cases where university veterinarians examined the corpses, the mutilations were ascribed to small predatory animals. The veterinarians also pointed out that blood coagulates in a couple days after death, accounting for the frequent "bloodless" condition. With such expert reassurances, the "mass delusions" subsided quickly. Cattle mutilation flaps are thus seen by the author as episodes when people interpret the mundane in bizarre new ways, due perhaps to cultural tensions. It is noted, however, that expert veterinarians examined only a few of the dozens of mutilations, and that some people rejected the above commonplace explanations. (Stewart, James H.; "Cattle Mutilations: An Episode of Collective Delusion," The Zetetic, 1:55, Spring/Summer 1977.) From Science Frontiers #1 ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 16: Summer 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Paradox Of The Drowned Carbonate Platforms The biological processes that build carbonate reefs and platforms are so efficient that platform growth potential is easily several times the rate of average geological subsidence or sea-level rise. Therein lies the paradox: the geological record is full of drowned carbonate platforms, inferring that the sea has frequently engulfed them in episodes that must be termed catastrophic. Since the usual long-term geologic processes are clearly inadequate, Schlager proposes several more violent schemes; including massive submarine volcanism (Middle Cretaceous) and extraterrestrial deterioration of the oceanic biological environment (Lake Devonian). (Schlager, Wolfgang; "The Paradox of Drowned Reefs and Carbonate Platforms," Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 92:197, 1981.) Reference. See Category ETE2 in our Catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, for more on drowned sections of crust. More on this book can be found here . From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... radically different explanations. A. Horvath and E. Illes wonder whether Phobos might not be a layered structure, having once been part of a larger stratified body. J.B . Murray thinks the families of grooves might have been scraped out by disciplined formations of meteorites that were launched into space by Martian volcanos. (Horvath, A., and Illes, E.; "On the Possibility of the Layered Structure of Phobos," Eos, 62:203, 1981. Also: Murray, J.B .; "Grooved Terrains on Planetary Satellites," Eos, 62:202, 1981.) Comment. It is not easy to conceive of such well-drilled formations of meteorites. Neither is it easy to imagine a large, stratified body that might have given rise to Phobos. From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... warning in the sedimentary record, and that the moment of extinction was coupled with anomalous trace element enrichments, especially of iridium and osmium. The rarity of these two elements in the crust of the Earth indicates that an extraterrestrial source, such as the impact of a large meteorite may have provided the required amounts of iridium and osmium." (Smit, J., and Hertogen, J.; "An Extraterrestrial Event at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary," Nature, 285:198, 1980.) "Evidence is presented indicating that the extinction, at the end of the Cretaceous, of large terrestrial animals was caused by atmospheric heating during a cometary impact and that the extinction of calcareous marine plankton was a consequence of poisoning by cyanide released by the fallen comet and of a catastrophic rise in calcitecompensation depth in the oceans after the detoxification of the cyanide." (Hsu, Kenneth J.; "Terrestrial Catastrophe Caused by Cometary Impact at the End of Cretaceous," Nature, 285:201, 1980.) From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... 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 The Rise Of Astronomical Catastrophism After being ridiculed for well over a century, astronomical catastrophism is now coming into its own. First, there was the admission that a few small craters, like Meteor Crater in Arizona, just might be of meteoric origin; then, more and bigger craters (astroblemes) were recognized; and, recently, the discovery of the iridium-rich layer at the Cretaceious-Tertiary boundary has made the subject very popular, as evidenced by the following three items: A long, very thorough and scientific review of geological and biological changes caused by meteor strikes throughout the earth's history. (McLaren, Digby J.; "Bolides and Biostratigraphy," Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 94:313, 1983.) A shorter, popular version of the above. (McLaren, Digby; "Impacts That Changed the Course of Evolution," New Scientist, 100:588, 1983.) Evidence is growing that the collision of planetary material with the Earth can profoundly affect local geology, and that impacts of very large meteorites may have influenced the evolution of the Earth and the life that exists upon it. This quotation is from the lead-in to the article references below, which also has a nice world map of major impact sites over 1 km in diameter. (Grieve, Richard; "Impact Craters Shape Planet Surfaces," New Scientist, 100:516, 1983 ...