The true origin of ice ages
Students Frustrated
Adhering to the theory of hydrospheric permanence, nobody has been able to solve the mystery of how ocean level, within recent time, has been 10,000 to 12,000 feet lower than it is now. The phenomenon of submarine canyon erosion, of submerged continental shelves and slopes, of concomitant drowning of mid-ocean ridges, sea mounts and islands, the source of waters which produced epeiric seas and “pluvial periods”—these and other geological mysteries still remain unsolved after a hundred years of study. Yet all students monotonously begin, pursue and conclude their efforts to solve the puzzles, still clinging to the obsession that the hydrosphere has always been the same in total volume as it is now. It is because of this one-track pursuit that they meet with frustration.
Is it not strange that assumed ocean permanence has never been questioned? Is there anything illogical, unscientific or incredible in the idea? Certainly many thalassic puzzles which have defied solution for a hundred years would be explained if it could be decisively shown that ocean waters have in fact been increased within geologic time. There is ample evidence that such increases have occurred, but the true meaning of the evidence has not been recognized because nobody has conceived that increases could have happened. Hence there remains only the need to disclose the possibility of increases and the manner in which they came about. The theory to follow will do both. Furthermore, it will prove that increases were inevitable due to inexorable functioning of natural laws of motion and gravitation.”
Inspiration From the Planets
In developing a theory of how hydrospheric increases could have come about, we are obliged, frankly, to start with assumptions. However, we do not have to postulate bizarre, fantastic ones, cut out of wholly imaginative cloth. Fortunately, we are able to base them upon logic, known facts, Nature’s laws and,
* As this book goes to press an announcement has just been made from Antarctica which proves that ocean level at the beginning of the Pleistocene ice age was thousands of feet lower than it is now. It has just been determined that Byrd Station in Antarctica, 5,000 feet above sea level, is situated on an ice sheet 10,000 feet thick. Thus the ice rests upon terra firma 5,000 feet below sea levell Hence sea level, before Pleistocene ice was deposited, must have been several thousand feet below the present level. The ice sheet would not have formed had the snow or ice fallen into ocean water several thousand feet deep. The weight of the ice probably depressed the land somewhat, but not to the extent of 5,000 feet. The foregoing discovery clearly disposes of the idea that former greatly lower ocean levels were due to sea water being frozen up in the ice sheets. Furthermore, it very definitely lends substantial support to the theories expounded in this book.
most inspirational of all, upon things and conditions we can actually see.
Inspiration is immediately forthcoming when we take our telescopes and look up into the sky at Earth’s sister planets— other worlds, if you will, but belonging to one and the same system, doubtlessly formed in the saine way of identical substances, floating majestically in plain sight for all to see—actual, visible, perfect examples of other worlds in various stages of exactly similar evolution. In any attempt to ascertain how Earth evolved, where could we hope to find more helpful, more trustworthy, more specific information that that supplied by other planets. No theory fabricated out of mere imagination could possibly hope to equal it. It is incredible that lessons clearly taught by conditions plainly visible on other planets have so completely escaped comprehension. Not only do those conditions inspire the true conception of how ice ages occurred and how oceans were augmented, but they also afford an explanation of certain mysteries about the accumulation of Earth’s super-crust.
Now what do we see when we look up at other planets? We see Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Venus completely shrouded by enveloping cloud mantles. We see Saturn not only similarly shrouded, but also surrounded by a system of several discs or rings. The outside diameter of this ring system is some 173,000 miles. The inside diameter is about 111,000 miles. The inner edge of the innermost ring is between 18,000 and 20,000 miles distant from the cloud envelope which obscures the planet itself.
It is conceded that we have never seen the solidified core of any of the above planets. Hence we cannot determine the diameters of the planets themselves nor the periods of their rotations. We know definitely that what we do see are tenuous, cloudlike, atmospheric masses of mineral matter. These cloud covers, at least of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, are striated with latitudinal bands from their equators both ways to the poles. There are apparent rifts, gaps or divisions between the bands. The atmospheres in all cases are visibly rotating.
Jupiter’s Atmospheric Envelope
In the case of Jupiter, which is near enough for accurate determination, we have been able to gather considerable detailed information. We have accurately measured the periods of rotation of its bands. We know that those near the equator complete a revolution in less time than do those toward the poles. We, therefore, know that the bands are rotating independently of each other and independently of the Jovian core. While Jupiter’s bulk is 1,300 times, its weight is only 317 times that of the Earth. The equatorial diameter of its cloud cover is nearly 87,000 miles. The clouds move with a velocity of about 27,000 miles per hour. It is thought that Jupiter must have a dense, solid core considerably larger than that of the Earth. We know that its cloud cover is tenuous.
It seems logical to assume, in accord with laws of momentum, that the core, being a great deal larger than Earth, Mars and Mercury, probably rotates more slowly, surely no faster, than do those three planets. The visible, outermost portions of the cloud cover complete a revolution in about ten hours, or perhaps two and one-half times as quickly as the core may be assumed to rotate. Their velocity is many times as much per hour as the equatorial velocity of the core probably is. Gravital computations and logic suggest that the clouds are not continuous in depth clear to the core. A hiatus is indicated between their innermost layers and the surface of the core. This probability is supported by ratios of weight to bulk and by ratio of density of outermost clouds to the core, assuming density of the core to approximate that of the Earth. It seems probable that the lowest layers of the clouds are thousands of miles above the core.