Wednesday, July 8, 2009

FOUR: THE GLACIER GIRDLE

The Glacier Girdle undoubtedly eventually rose thousands of yards above the surface of the primitive oceans. Obviously the height of the Glaciers Girdle was dictated by the rate precipitation, snow accumulated, less the rate of melting that occurred where the base of the ice came in contact with the Earth’s primitive crust. The Continents, on our Earth today, pay mute evidence to the tremendous weight of the Glacier Girdle. For God did not created the dry land, which we now call continents, in place. Nor was there any super-continent In-the-Beginning which mysteriously broke apart, and sailed off half way around the Globe, to became the continents, we now know. It was the Glacier Girdle that encircled the Earth, which so deformed and reshaped our planet, that portions of the ocean-floor were thrust above sea level.

Let us suppose, that the Glacier Girdle reach the height of about 20,000 feet, [6,500 meters] above the surface of the primitive ocean. Now we can calculate, that the water escaping from between the ice and newly-formed land at sealevel, would escape with a pressure in excess of 7,900 pounds per square inch, [550 kilograms per square centimeter]. On the ocean-floor, at the base of the Glacier Girdle the pressures would reach almost 11,500 pounds per square inch, or over 800 kilograms per square centimeter.

And Billions would not number the cubic yards [meters] of ice that melted annually, where the Glacier Girdle came in contact with the primitive Earth's crust. Neither would billions even come close to numbering the barrels of water, which were jetted annually, under the tremendous pressures generated by the weight of the Glacier Girdle. Nor would hundreds of billions number the cubic yards [meters] of rock-flour that washed annually from under the Glacier Girdle, to be deposited in an ever thickening stratum stretching across the Sunny Hemisphere.

You, any thinking geologist, or any real scientist, will have to concede that In-the-beginning, had there been some great super continent, there would have to be abundant traces of ancient conglomerate alluvium, formations made up of rocks and sand, varying in size and color, which were washed from that great continent. There have not been any such ancient formations found. And there will never be any such ancient formations found. Except for the Ring Mountains which paralleled the Glacier Girdle, the first land to break the surface of the ocean, the first land on the Sunny Hemisphere appeared only shortly, on an evolutionary time scale, before the first amphibians crawled from the Sunny Ocean.

As explained in the illustration of an aqua planet, with one side continuously facing its sun, the Glacier Girdle accomplished what an equal quantity of ice covering the dark side of the planet could have accomplished. The Glacier Girdle shifted the Earth’s center of gravity, until the ocean floor was elevated above the surface of the Sunny Ocean.

Now, as you may have noted, the shores of the Pacific Ocean do not form a perfect circle. And granted, was the Pacific Ocean the product of the simple phenomena in the allegory, it should, would lie in the form of a near-perfect circle.

But, please also note the pictures of the Pacific Ocean, on Post #8, or on a globe, that the shores of the North Pacific Ocean do form the greater part of an almost perfect circle. And that furthermore the South Pacific Ocean covers an area almost identical, in size and shape, to that covered by the North Pacific Ocean.

The explanation is simple: The primeval Earth’s axis of rotation was tilted, relative to its orbital plane. You may further note, on a Globe, the North Pacific Circle does not lie directly north of the South Pacific Circle. A common-bisector of these two circles, indicates that the original location of the North Pole Axis, was in Siberia, about 30 degrees South of Magnetic North. Or, more precisely, by measuring from a common-center of the circles on the aforementioned bisector, we can place the original North Pole Axis near the Northwest corner the Sea of Okhotsk, or at a point about 143 degrees East Longitude, on the North, Sixtiesth Parallel. The South Pole Axis was located near the Geographical Co-ordinates, 42 degrees West Longitude by 60 degrees South Latitude, a site near the South Orkney Islands.

The original scope of the Glacier Girdle that encircled the Pacific Ocean for most of our Earth’s History can easily be ascertained today by simply tracing the “Ring-of-Fire” or following the various mountain ranges and oceanic trenches that encircle the Pacific Ocean.



Please note: I made two circles on a globe and roughed out the geometrics, therefore they are but approximations.


To trace the circle, of mountains that edged the Glacier Girdle, from America, follow the Rocky Mountains north, continuing along the Mackenzie Mountains, to the Brooks Range. Then cross over to the Koryak Mountain Range, and continue down the Kamchatka Peninsula, then follow the Kuril and Izu Trenches passed the Japanese Islands. Next head toward the Equator and New Guinea, and then follow the Great Dividing Range along the east coast of Australia, to Mount Kosciusko. From Mount Kosciusko, continue south to Tasmania, and head for the Trans Antarctic Mountains. Circle Antarctica by way of Marie Byrd Land, and the Antarctic Peninsula, and you are ready to head north, via the Andes, back to Rocky Mountain Country.

We can ascertain much more from the shape of the Pacific Oceans. The amount the intersecting circles overlap indicates the degree the primitive Earth’s Axis was tilted, relative to its orbital plane. Let me suggest you get yourself a globe, and as near as possible, reconstruct these geometric drawings.

From the position of the overlapping circles, we can calculate, that the Earth’s Axis was tilted during early Earth History at slightly less of an angle, relative to our Sun, than it is today. Or, more precisely, it appears the Earths Axis was originally tilted, a bit more than 19 degrees. Which of course, is somewhat less than 23.5 degrees, the Earth’s present orbit inclination. It may well be that our planets inclination has remained unchanged, the annual winter and summer at the Axis Poles, may have just failed to situate the Glacier Girdle, to perfectly indicate the exact degree of inclination.

You may have noticed, on the North American Continent, the Pacific Ocean no longer extends to the edge of the North Pacific circle. Nevertheless be assured that throughout most of Earth History the Pacific Ice Cap did extend to a position, just west of the Rocky Mountains. Only after the weight of the Glacier Girdle, by tilting the crustal plates, began to modify the shape of the Earth, did that portion of the Glacier Girdle covering Western America recede.

The Pacific coastal mountains, and oceanic trenches, mutely testify to a later phenomenon. That the Glacier Girdle did grow to near its original magnificence, in a new location, one paralleling the present coast of the North Pacific Ocean. The illustration [below] clearly outlines the remnants of the Ring Mountains, at the original site of the Glacier Girdle.

“General Geology,” by Robert J. Foster, and copyrighted in 1969 by “Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company” of Columbus, Ohio.
  THEIR CAPTION
Late Precambrian sedimentary rocks accumulated to thicknesses up to 50,000 feet in the basin shown here. Comparison with other maps in this chapter shows that younger structural elements cut across this trough. The location of this trough was reconstructed from extensive outcrops in the northern Rocky Mountains, and scattered outcrops in Arizona and Nevada. Other Precambrian sedimentary rocks are found in the oldest parts of the geosynclines. The western boundary of this basin is less well known than the eastern. End of Caption



The Mountain Ranges you know today, are not remnants of the ancient Ring Mountains. The Ring Mountains can justifiably only be called mountains, when we ponder their magnitude setting upon the ocean floor. The Ring Mountains continuously grew wider and wider, and sloped ever more slowly as they extended further and further into the Sunny Ocean. But, the Ring Mountains never extended but a few feet above the surface of the Sunny Ocean while the Glacier Girdle existed.

Once portions of the Ring Mountains emerged, grew above sea level, avalanches and glacier flows, no longer held in check by the warm waters of the Sunny Ocean, would move across those exposed crests, continuously leveling them. The incredible quantities of Water escaping from under the Glacier Girdle also tended to hold the height of the Ring Mountains in check by continuously washing across them wherever and whenever they become exposed.

Remnants of the Ring Mountains have been found in many locations. And those locations do roughly encircle the Pacific Ocean. But said remnants have often been erroneously identified, usually as the exposed roots of ancient mountain ranges, supposedly similar to those we know today, which have been eroded away. The Ring Mountains, in most cases have become, part of what we now call the Continental Shields.

On the other hand, all of the mountain ranges that we know today, all orogenesis, all mountain building episodes, are the result of the same simple phenomenon, the tilting of Crustal Plates. Yes Plate Tectonics is, or rather will one day become, a viable science. Even though I maintain crustal plates are not moved around over the Globe, periodically bashed into each other, nor or they ever slowly drug down into the fiery depths of Hell to be devoured by some mysterious omnipotent force, by some inanimate Devil.


Crustal Plates do not drift, are not subject to subduction, nor do they ever shift horizontally relative to one another. Crustal Plates do not even shift vertically relative to each other. Whenever a Crustal Plate tilts, up or down, the adjoining plates always moves with them.

Yes, many of us have seen where a crustal plate appears to have shifted horizontally relative to an adjacent plate. Please let me assure you that it was only a relatively small chunk of some of the upper strata on the plate that actually shifted. Crustal Plates are hundreds of miles thick, and do not shift horizontally, or vertically, relative to the other.

There is but one defined force within the realm of true physics, capable of so deforming Earth that the crust on our planet would crack. One force powerful enough to move, tilt, a crustal plate and that force is gravity. And gravity, directed by the accretion and then melting of the Glacier Girdle, is the godlike force singularly responsible for the present shape of our Earth.

To conclude that some alternative undefined infinite force is responsible for reshaping of our Earth, is but to invoke mysticism, in lieu of logic. No defined force, no observable, or otherwise detectable, credible mechanism has ever been postulated, that could motivate continental drift.

Now, I’m quite sure that you all have heard that ageless proverb which teaches; when it waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck, and as in this case, even smells a bit like a fish fed duck, then you are safe in assuming, that it is, in fact, a duck.

Well, any infinite, intangible force, accessible only via verbal projection, is similar to nothing but the Gods, past and present. Genuine logicians do not believe in Gods or Devils, neither animate nor inanimate. And this simple summation should incite grave ambivalence in any truly objective scientist, whom has heretofore believed in the Theory of Continental Drift.

I wish it could be that easy. Surely the most formidable task any man could charge himself with is that of reasoning away a universally acknowledged belief, in an intangible force, in some God, or Devil. Any educated person would know that history proves it, utter folly, to even attempt such an endeavor.

The illustrious, Harold Jeffreys, began expressing his opposition to the Theory of Continental Drift, and pointing out to his learned colleagues, that the force of gravity was by far, the mightiest force exerted upon the crust of the Earth, ten years before I was born. But alas, alas, his efforts were all to no avail. Even though, Sir Jeffreys was a World renowned, knighted astronomer, methodist of mathematical physics and geophysicist, on this issue he found himself in the same unenviable position that many other kindred logician has came to know and accept. That sterile position, from which not one word of reason can be heard above the clamorous baying of the edjuts, in hot pursuit of their mysterious, mechanical, Devil of the inner Earth. [Edjut is an oilfield, construction hand, term: Meaning educated idiot] Sir Jefferys, made much about the fact that even gravity, the mightiest force exerting itself upon the Crust of the Earth, was of insufficient prevalence to flatten the mountains. I wonder? If Sir Jefferys ever passed a deserted play ground, perhaps in the dead of winter, or in the wee hours of the morning. And noted, that neither does the force of gravity appear to be of sufficient prevalence, to render it capable of lowering, the light end of an abandoned teeter-totter.

Remember, what Archimedes boasted? “Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum strong enough, and single-handed, I can move the World.”

Obviously, the force of gravity acting upon the light end of the aforementioned teeter-totter is more than equaled by the opposing force of gravity acting upon the heavy end of the teeter-totter. Physically, a force equal to the weight of the light end of the teeter-totter is oppositely transposed via the teeter-totter board, or lever, from the heavy end to the light end of the teeter-totter. Similarly, in as simple a manner, leverage is the prime motivating medium of all orogenic forces. And therefore, understanding the awesome potential of leverage is an elementary prerequisite to comprehending the true physics of plate tectonics.

Actually, if you were to float a plank in a bath tub (lets say a plank which measures 2X thick, by 6X wide, by 36X long) and then you were to tack a piece of 1X quarter-round, 6X long, along the edge on one end of that plank, you would note that the quarter-round would have little effect upon the plank, or upon the level at which the plank floated. A rather childish experiment, don't you agree? But it does demonstrate, comparatively speaking, just about how much effect a mountain range has upon the crustal plate it edges.

Now, on the other hand, if you were to place a 5X beaker on the other end of our plank and began filling it with ice, you would soon note the effect. Not only would the end with the beaker on it begin to submerge, but almost magically the other end of the board would begin to rise. Of course it is because, like the teeter-totter, the force of gravity upon the added weight, ice, is oppositely transposed along the lever, or board. Crustal plates on our sphere, floating on a molten interior, respond to the same laws of physics, as did the board in our allegoric bathtub. There is but insignificant differences.

Think about it: The water in our bathtub was but a minute portion, of the same sphere. The water in the tub even arcs congruently, to the descending horizons of an ocean. Granted there are many other pertinent factors that must be considered, if we are to clearly understand what has taken place on Earth.

But no mysterious phenomenon, or forces, nothing incomprehensible to the common-intellect has ever played a role in forming the surface features of our planet.

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