From: Subject: THE OCEAN Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 18:12:55 +0300 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="windows-1255" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: http://localhost:8780/pubs/journals/kronos/vol0504/019ocean.htm X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198 THE OCEAN

The Ocean

IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY

Copyright (C) 1980 by the Estate of Immanuel Velikovsky

Editor's Note: The material presented here constitutes one = of the=20 chapters in a forthcoming book by Velikovsky titled The Test of=20 Time.

SEDIMENTS

Poseidon, lord of the Ocean, was the first to come to my defense.

A basic assumption of geology for the past century has been that, = though the=20 sea may encroach on land by covering coastal areas with shallow water, = the=20 continents and the oceans are primeval; what is now ocean was always = ocean and=20 the continents were always land masses, independent of whether they do = or do not=20 move slowly, as a certain theory (continental drift) proposes.

In Worlds in Collision, the permanency of land and sea was = denied.=20 In the presence of external forces, with attendant pulling and shearing, = land=20 submerged into the depths of the sea, and sea bottom rose to become = land. Prior=20 to certain catastrophes, earlier than those described in Worlds in=20 Collision, the highest mountain ridges of the Himalayas must have = been=20 under sea, as the fossil content of their rock formations testifies.

Stupendous meteorite showers occurred in the past, and the red clay = on the=20 bottom of the sea must have iron and nickel content of meteoric origin. = Speaking=20 of the cataclysm that closed the period known as the Middle Bronze II = (Middle=20 Kingdom in Egypt), I wrote in Worlds in Collision (p. 48):

"One of the first visible signs of this encounter was the reddening = of the=20 earth's surface by a fine dust of rusty pigment. In sea, lake and river = this=20 pigment gave a bloody coloring to the water. Because of these particles = of=20 ferruginous or other soluble pigment, the world turned red."

In paroxysms of nature, especially during the catastrophe of the = fifteenth=20 century before the present era, ash fell on land and sea.

"Following the red dust, a 'small dust,' like 'ashes of the furnace,' = fell=20 'in all the land of Egypt' (Exodus 9:8), and then a shower of=20 meteorites flew toward the earth. Our planet entered deeper into the = tail of the=20 comet. The dust was a forerunner of the gravel" (Worlds in = Collision,=20 p. 51).

The ash must be still found on the bottom of the ocean, its final=20 repository.

The Earth was "in a vise" -- in the grip of external forces, which = altered=20 the terrestrial rotation; the sphere was twisted, and the Atlantic ridge = and=20 African rift are only two of the visible signs of the strain to which = the Earth=20 was subjected.

"The earth groaned: for weeks now all its strata had been = disarranged, its=20 orbit distorted, its world quarters displaced, its oceans thrown upon = its=20 continents, its seas turned into deserts, its mountains upheaved, its = islands=20 submerged, its rivers running upstream a world flowing with lava, = shattered by=20 meteorites, with yawning chasms, burning naphtha, vomiting volcanoes, = shaking=20 ground, a world enshrouded in an atmosphere filled with smoke and = vapor.

"Twisting of strata and building of mountains, earthquakes and = rumbling of=20 volcanoes joined in an infernal din" (Worlds in Collision, p. = 97).

In Earth in Upheaval, I discussed the problem in two = chapters,=20 "Poles Displaced" and "Axis Shifted". In "The Bottom of the Atlantic" = and "The=20 Floor of the Seas" I discussed sedimentary rock: it was not deposited = evenly=20 through the geological ages but erratically, most rapidly following = natural=20 disturbances on land. Further, the sedimentary layers were displaced in = global=20 catastrophes. Thus, it follows that the relative thicknesses of the = sedimentary=20 layers are not true indices for measuring the age of the oceans.

With such heretical ideas, my work flew in the face of accepted = notions in=20 oceanography and marine geology.

The book, Worlds in Collision, though already three years in = the=20 hands of Macmillan, was not yet off the press when Maurice Ewing, the = Columbia=20 University marine geologist, published an account of an expedition to = the=20 Atlantic Ocean and the mid-Atlantic ridge. This ridge runs north-south = the=20 entire length of the ocean. More than one surprise was in store for the=20 expedition.

Whereas its members expected to find a uniform layer of sediment, the = bottom=20 of the ocean revealed no such uniformity, and I quoted from the record = of the=20 finds (Earth in Upheaval, p. 101: M. Ewing, "New Discoveries on = the=20 Mid-Atlantic Ridge," National Geographic Magazine, Vol. XCVI, = No. 5=20 [November 1949]):

"Always it had been thought the sediment must be extremely thick, = since it=20 had been accumulating for countless ages.... But on the level basins = that flank=20 the Mid-Atlantic Ridge our signals reflected from the bottom mud and = from the=20 bedrock came back too close together to measure the time between = them.... They=20 show the sediment in the basins is less than 100 feet thick.

The absence of thick sediment on the level floor presents 'another of = many=20 scientific riddles our expedition propounded'." The bottom of the = Atlantic Ocean=20 on both sides of the Ridge must have been formed only in recent = times.

But even more unexpected was the find of beach sand at a great depth = and far=20 away from any land. "One [of the 'new scientific puzzles'] was the = discovery of=20 prehistoric beach sand . . . brought up in one case from a depth of two = and in=20 the other nearly three and one half miles, far from any place where = beaches=20 exist today." One of these sand deposits was found twelve hundred miles = from=20 land.

Ewing recognized the uncomfortable dilemma: "Either the land must = have sunk=20 two to three miles, or the sea once must have been two to three miles = lower than=20 now. Either conclusion is startling. If the sea was once two miles = lower, where=20 could all the extra water have gone?" I shall return to the problem of = the=20 fallen ocean level, which I consider to have been the result of rapid=20 evaporation due to catastrophic heating.

Five months after the publication of Worlds in Collision, = another=20 marine expedition -- led by Professor Hans Pettersson, director of the = Goteborg=20 Oceanographic Institute (Albatross Expedition of 1947) -- made a = preliminary=20 report of the findings of its fifteen month exploratory voyage. Writing = in=20 Scientific American (August 1950: "Exploring the Ocean Floor"), = Professor Pettersson spoke of evidence of "great catastrophes that have = altered=20 the face of the earth".

"Climatic catastrophes, which piled thousands of feet of ice on the = higher=20 latitudes of the continents, also covered the oceans with icebergs and = ice=20 fields at lower latitudes and chilled the surface waters even down to = the=20 Equator. Volcanic catastrophes cast rains of ash over the sea." Also, = "tectonic=20 catastrophes raised or lowered the ocean bottom hundreds and even = thousands of=20 feet, spreading huge 'tidal' waves which destroyed plant and animal life = on the=20 coastal plains". Pettersson also found, in addition to the ash, a "lava = bed of=20 geologically recent origin covered only by a thin veneer of = sediment".

In the red clay on the bottom of the ocean Pettersson found "a = surprisingly=20 high content of nickel" (Pettersson, "Chronology of the Deep Ocean Bed," = Tellus I, 1949). Nickel is not present in sea water and = therefore could=20 not have been deposited by water. "Nickel is a very rare element in most = terrestrial rocks and continental sediments, and it is almost absent = from the=20 ocean waters. On the other hand, it is one of the main components of=20 meteorites." But the quantity of nickel in the clays in the bottom of = the ocean=20 was prodigious. Pettersson assumed very copious falls of meteorites in = the=20 geological past. He wrote in his account of the expedition, Westward = Ho with=20 the Albatross (1953), p. 150:

"Assuming the average nickel content of meteoric dust to be two = percent, an=20 approximate value for the rate of accretion of cosmic dust to the whole = Earth=20 can be worked out from these data. The result is very high -- about = 10,000 tons=20 per day, or over a thousand times higher than the value computed from = counting=20 the shooting stars and estimating their mass."

In other words, at some time or times there was such a fall of = meteoric dust=20 that, apportioned throughout the entire assumed age of the ocean, it = would=20 increase a thousandfold the daily accumulation of meteoric dust since = the birth=20 of the ocean based upon the estimated present potential rate of = accretion; but=20 since the shower of meteorites was most likely an event of short = duration,=20 measured in days or weeks only, the "thousandfold" must be changed to = some=20 astronomical figure -- a figure also dependent upon ascertaining the = correct age=20 of the ocean.

In a subsequent publication ("Manganese and Nickel on the Ocean = Floor" in=20 Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 1959, Vol. 17), Pettersson = wrote: "Of=20 all the elements found in deep-sea deposits few have a more puzzling=20 distribution than the two ferrides, manganese and nickel." Not only = their high=20 concentration, much higher than in continental rocks, but especially = their=20 vertical distribution appear "most enigmatic". Pettersson concluded that = "the=20 former being largely due to sub-oceanic volcanic action, the latter = [was] due to=20 contributions from the cosmos". It must have occurred by "an unusually = heavy=20 incidence from the cosmos".

In a still more recent paper, Professor Pettersson discussed "The = Accretion=20 of Cosmic Matter to the Earth" (Endeavor, July 1960): "We found = surprisingly large numbers of typical cosmic spherules in deep-sea = sediments."=20 These magnetic particles (in diameter between 0.03 to 0.25 mm.) were not = only=20 found in very great numbers in the red clay of the oceanic bed, in the=20 equatorial region of the Pacific, but also all over the world. In the = Pacific,=20 "their number varied from about one hundred up to several thousands per = kilogram=20 of sediment". "In general the number of spherules is greatest in the = more recent=20 sediments."

Pettersson observed ash on the bottom of the ocean, and such ash had = already=20 been observed by the famous expedition of the last century, that of H. = M. S.=20 Challenger (see Sir C. Wyville Thompson, Voyage of the=20 Challenger) between the year 1873 and 1876. However, Pettersson = failed to=20 observe that the layer of ash is not just distributed here and there on = the=20 bottom of the oceans and therefore possibly attributable to volcanic = eruptions,=20 but is spread quite uniformly -- and the account of an expedition led by = J.=20 Lamar Worzel, of Columbia University's Lamont Geological Observatory, = brought=20 out this fact. The expedition of the vessel Vema, made in 1958, covered = 500,000=20 square miles of the southwestern Pacific and found white ash between = about 750=20 miles north and 850 miles south of the equator.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of = Sciences in=20 its March 15, 1959 issue (vol. 45, pp. 349-355), Worzel made the = surmise:

"Since the layer is fairly near the surface and is not discolored and = contains nothing but the glassy ash material it must have been laid down = fairly=20 quickly." It must have been deposited in a single act, over a short = period,=20 "perhaps within a year or so".

"The white ash immediately suggests a volcanic origin and the = proximity of=20 the Andes suggests the source. However, the great extent of the ash and = its=20 shallow cores would imply such a great amount of recent activity for a = short=20 time that it may be difficult to ascribe it to the Andes." ". . . It may = be=20 necessary to attribute the layer to a world-wide volcanism or perhaps to = the=20 fiery end of bodies of cosmic origin."

Maurice Ewing, as director of the Lamont Geological Observatory, = joined=20 Worzel in describing and evaluating the layer of ash; and on the basis = of the=20 random detection of similar ash in other parts of the oceanic world, he = wrote=20 (pp. 355-361):

"A single ash layer of 5 to 30 cm. thickness over such a wide area = must=20 record a notable event in the history of the area. It could hardly be = without=20 some recorded consequence of global extent.

"A re-examination of the file of Vema echograms is now in progress. = It shows=20 that sub-bottom echoes, similar to those found in the eastern Pacific, = have also=20 been recorded in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, [as well as] the = Gulf of=20 Mexico.

"The remarkable uniformity of thickness of the Worzel ash layer = within the=20 large area which has been cored is additional evidence suggesting that = the layer=20 may well have great extent.

". . . The total volume of ash must be so great and the mechanism of=20 dispersal so effective that the possibility of world-wide coverage must = be=20 considered.

". . . Such an event could hardly fail to produce a variety of = significant=20 effects global in scale .... conceivably a cometary collision."

In the New York Herald Tribune of March 31, 1959 Dr. Worzel = was=20 quoted as saying that this ash may represent "the remains of a fantastic = collision of heavenly bodies from outer space".

A collision of the Earth with a huge comet was postulated or, at = least,=20 preferred to a huge and simultaneous eruption of a multitude of = volcanoes,=20 because of the evenness of the layer of white ash. Its position, very = close to=20 the surface, almost touching the water layer, makes it appear that the = time=20 elapsed since the deposit is very short, geologically speaking.*

[* See also E. Anders and D. N. Limber, "Origin of the Worzel = Deep-sea Ash"=20 in Nature 184 (1959), pp. 44-45.]

But only five or six years earlier, the consensus of scientific = opinion --=20 and it was expressed in no indefinite terms by my critics insisted that = there=20 never was any collision of the Earth with a comet; furthermore, if such = a=20 collision were to occur, there would be no noticeable results. After = all, the=20 Earth passed through the tail of Halley's comet in 1910 and there was no = major=20 phenomenon to register, not even flashes of shooting stars (e.g., I.=20 Asimov).

In order to cover the expanse of the oceans with Worzel ash -- this = is its=20 given name -- some more significant collision must have taken place than = that=20 which occurred during the approach of Halley's comet in 1910. A = phenomenon=20 observed in the bottom of the oceans bespeaks a collision in which the = Earth=20 would have hardly proceeded undisturbed on its path.

RIFTS

In Worlds in Collision, it is claimed that the terrestrial = sphere=20 underwent great stresses -- with resulting rifts and mountain formations = --=20 during the global catastrophism that occurred 3400 and 2700 years = ago.

Professor T. Y. H. Ma of the National Taiwan University in Formosa = published=20 an article in the journal Oceanographia Sinica (Vol. II, No. 1, = September, 1955), in which he claimed a sudden shift in the oceanic = bottom=20 several times in the geological past. He found that changes in the = sedimentary=20 strata on the sea bottom must be attributed to "changes in latitude due = to the=20 sudden total displacements of the solid earth shell and the intermittent = readjustments". The last disturbance of the ocean bottom "ended only = 2,600 years=20 ago", judging from the cores taken at the bottom of the Atlantic, while = samples=20 taken in the Pacific allow the displacement to be estimated at about = "2,800=20 years ago". These figures closely resemble the date of the last cosmic=20 catastrophe fixed in Worlds in Collision as 27 centuries = ago.

In 1960 Bruce C. Heezen of the Lamont Geological Observatory made = known the=20 results of an expedition that, in the previous months, had traversed all = the=20 longitudes and, going up and down the latitudes, had discovered a huge = and=20 strange formation twice encompassing the globe.

The structure has the form of a large and high ridge, split along its = length=20 by a deep canyon.

In a preliminary report published in Scientific American of = October=20 1960, Heezen described it thus:

"It is a submarine mountain ridge that runs for 40,000 miles across = the=20 bottom of all the oceans and covers an area equal to that of all the = continents.=20 The existence of the mid-ocean ridge is a recent discovery of = oceanography, and=20 the mapping of it still far from complete. But the stretches that have = been=20 charted show a most curious aspect. Down most of its length the ridge is = split=20 by a deep canyon, or rift, in which many earthquakes originate. The = ridge is=20 apparently the locus of a crack in the crust that runs nearly twice = around the=20 earth. The discovery at this late date of the mid-ocean ridge and rift = has=20 raised fundamental questions about basic geological processes and the = history of=20 the Earth and has even had reverberations in cosmology."

The Earth was, for some agonizing moments of its past, in a vise; and = its=20 coupling action wrenched the Earth and welled up the ridge and split it = with a=20 deep rift. The mid-Atlantic ridge known from before is but a segment of = the=20 entire serpentine formation. The area of the ridge is so great that it = was=20 estimated to equal the area of the five continents.

In Earth in Upheaval (1955), I wrote of the shearing action = to which=20 the Earth's crust was subjected when caught in force fields of = extraneous=20 origin. In Worlds in Collision (1950), I described the same = occurrence=20 as reflected in the sundials and water clocks of antiquity that certify = to a=20 changed length of the day on solstices, and thus to changed latitudes = and a=20 changed inclination of the terrestrial axis to the plane of the ecliptic = (Chapter 7). The fact that the Moon does not circle the Earth on its = equatorial=20 plane and that this plane is inclined by over 23 degrees to the plane of = the=20 ecliptic -- whereas the plane of the lunar orbit almost coincides with = the plane=20 of the ecliptic -- made H. Jeffreys (The Earth, 2nd ed., 1929)=20 speculate that the Earth was once, or several times, in a vise that = turned its=20 axis in a new direction; and I quoted him in the chapter "Axis Shifted" = of=20 Earth in Upheaval.

THE OCEAN LEVEL

The stress which resulted in the formation of the immense undersea = rifts must=20 have been accompanied by widespread volcanic activity, irruptions of the = sea,=20 and changes in the level of the land and in the bottom of the sea. The = level of=20 the ocean must have also changed suddenly as a consequence of such = upheaval; and=20 in Worlds in Collision (Chapter 4), I cited various sources in = support=20 of the fact that the sea bottom was heated and rivers and parts of the = ocean=20 evaporated ca. 1500 before the present era.

Professor Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer of Harvard University, = wrote:=20 "There is no evidence of a wholesale disturbance of the ocean level near = 1500 B.=20 C.", or 3500 years ago (The Reporter, March 14, 1950). However, = Professor Reginald Daly, geologist of the same university, had claimed = since the=20 1920's that "a recent worldwide sinking of ocean level" of twenty feet = occurred=20 "about 3500 years ago" (Daly, Our Mobile Earth, 1926, pp. = 177-179).

Subsequent to the publication of Worlds in Collision and = this first=20 of a series of articles by Gaposchkin on the book, Professor Philip H. = Kuenen of=20 Leyden University made the following statement: "In thirty-odd years = following=20 Daly's first paper many further instances have been recorded by a number = of=20 investigators the world over, so that this recent shift is now well=20 established." As to the time of this sudden drop of the ocean level, = Kuenen=20 wrote: " . . . the time can be fixed at roughly 3000 to 3500 years ago"=20 (Marine Geology, 1950, p. 538).

In a paper that Dr. Rhodes Fairbridge of Columbia University read = before the=20 International Oceanographic Congress on September 7, 1959, he brought = evidence=20 from many parts of the world that 6000 years ago the oceans rose = forty-five=20 feet; he even expressed the belief that the Great Flood described in=20 Genesis is an echo of that oceanic rise.

Dr. Fairbridge found in many places along the eastern coast of the = United=20 States, from Maine to North Carolina, drowned forests which had lived = 2830 years=20 ago, with a possible error of 200 years. This points to the 8th century = before=20 the present era. In Worlds in Collision, Part 2, are described = global=20 catastrophes of the eighth and beginning of the seventh centuries ( -- = 776 to --=20 687) which, while being worldwide, were less violent when compared with = the one=20 that occurred in the middle of the second millennium, ca. 3500 years = ago, or=20 earlier ones. Such submerged forests are found all around England and = Wales and=20 are described in Earth in Upheaval (1955), pp. 185ff.

Volcanic activity on the bottom of the oceans and seas must have been = stupendous; likewise island building. On the latter we have the = testimony of=20 earlier centuries passed on in the writings of classical authors. For = example,=20 the origin of many islands as well as changes in the coastline of the=20 Mediterranean are recorded in Pliny's Natural History. But, in=20 Worlds in Collision I did not cite this and many other ancient=20 chronicles, having presented only a fraction of the historical material = I had=20 before me; and again, the material I had before me and left unused is = but a=20 fraction of what is to be found in the ancient literature of the world. = In=20 Earth in Upheaval, however, I was careful not to include any = historical=20 or literary material at all, the work being built on the records of = modern=20 geology and paleontology.

CONCLUSION

The oceans as we know them are not tens of millions or hundreds of = millions=20 years old, as the accepted view assumes. In a sequel to Worlds in=20 Collision, dealing with the catastrophic events preceding the = second=20 millennium before the present era, I shall discuss the origin of the = oceans and=20 shall try to show that their expanse grew greatly after the event known = as the=20 Universal Deluge, when cosmic water descended on Earth following the = disruption=20 of Saturn.

If this unsupported statement sounds unbelievable, the reader may = rest=20 assured that I shall underpin this thesis with as much essential = documentation=20 as I did my thesis of the youthful Venus, a newcomer to the planetary = family.=20 The provenance of the water will also explain the origin of chlorine in = sea=20 water -- a problem that plagues marine geologists. For, while the land = could=20 provide sodium through erosion by rain, terrestrial rocks do not contain = the=20 requisite quantity of chlorine and are quite poor in that element. Some = chlorine=20 could have been added from volcanic eruptions but not as much as is = needed to=20 form the salt content of oceans and seas. The source of the greater part = of the=20 chlorine in oceans is of cosmic origin, and a few more words on this = subject are=20 contained in the pages of my book dealing with Saturn.

To the claims in my published work, the ocean responded with = invariable=20 support: the sediment on the bottom was not formed uniformly; the nickel = content=20 of the red clay in the sediment is of meteoric origin -- cosmic dust = that rained=20 furiously on the Earth; the Worzel ash also came from cosmic sources; = the Heezen=20 ridge and rift are signs of the external torque applied to the Earth, = probably=20 more than once; the violent displacement of marine sediment layers, the = changing=20 level of the sea, coastal beach at great depths -- all speak of = catastrophic=20 events temporally so close to us that our minds refuse = comprehension.

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED READING

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