FIVE: THE AMPHIBIAN ERA

that magical time when land first began to emerge from the center of the Sunny Ocean approached, some percentage, perhaps as much as 25 to 50 percent of the water that had originally blanketed the Sunlit Hemisphere, had frozen, and remained frozen, in the form of the Glacier Girdle. And the great weight of that unstable ice form commanded those geographical areas encircling the Earth adjacent to that great Glacier Girdle, to become the most geologically active regions that had ever come to pass on the Earth. Or at least, that had come and passed, since the Earth emerged from the throes of Creation.

Although undoubtedly, local thawing caused the Glacier Girdle to temporarily recede, for a certain time, in particular areas. The relentlessly advancing ice would inevitably return. And the slow moving Glacier Girdle continuously, abrasively, routed deeper and deeper into the primeval Earth’s crust, until eventually the eroding crust began to give way and a parallel crack opened under the Glacier Girdle, allowing ice and fiery lava to clash, repetitively, in violent, explosive confrontations of their antithetical characteristics.

Untenable pressures generated by those clashes, drove not only superheated water, but likewise molten lava to subterraneously intrude extensively into the Ring Mountains, and spawn a multitude of volcanic and steamy geyseric eruptions. Massive magma and water flows, soon encircled the Earth, paralleling the Glacier Girdle. But beneath the placid waters at the center of the Sunny Ocean, for the first time on Earth, light begin to illuminate a portion of the ocean floor. A portion of the ocean floor that would steadily grow larger and larger, until millions of square miles lay bathed in eternal sunlight.

Both primitive aqua flora and fauna, were quick to take advantage of this marvelous virgin Eden. They evolved like fruit flies, and multiplied like rats in a granary. There was, in a very short time on an evolutionary time scale, a very beautiful biological diversity thriving on Earth. And contrarily to what you have been taught, all this came to be long before there was any land that amounted to much, which was suitable for habitation.

But continents were truly in the making, as the final curtain began to slowly descend upon the weaning Aqua Era. The Glacier Girdle that encircled the Earth corseted it as snugly, comparatively speaking, as were the waists of America’s wealthy southern belles during those, gone but not forgotten, enchanting horse and buggy days. It should be added if I dare, (forgive me ladies) the Glacier Girdle moved mass much more effectively and permanently, than did the whalebone corsets worn by those aristocratic belles.

The Glacier Girdle was solely responsible for routing and washing the rock flour from the primeval Earth’s crust, which now constitutes much of the continental shields. And by directing the subterraneous intrusion of superheated water and molten magma into the Ring Mountains, and adjoining primitive strata, the Glacier Girdle was indirectly responsible for leaching and separating the various elements derived from that rock flour.

The Glacier Girdle wrought a great deal more. As said it was the Glacier Girdle which so shifted the Earth’s center of gravity that the sea-floor, the first land, slowly emerged from the center of the Sunlit Ocean. As central east Africa, the area surrounding the original site of the South Magnetic Pole, rose to emerge from the Sunlit Ocean, the force of gravity magnified proportionally, in its effort to maintain the Earth’s spherical form. And it was when those Crustal Plates began tilting in compliance with gravity’s spherical inclinations that the continents, much as we know them today, began to take shape. Since the Pacific Ocean was much narrower, east to west, than the distance across the Sunny Hemisphere, the Glacier Girdles probably oppositely transposed sufficient pressures to form an apex in the center of the Pacific Ocean and create one of the first great fissures at were to slowly encircle the globe.

The great fissure that separated Africa from Europe was undoubtedly one of the first, if not the first crack to appear on the Sunny Hemisphere. The shifting gravitational attraction of the Sun, as the Earth continuously tilted on its axis, from winter to summer and back to winter, probably accelerated that rifting. At this late date there is little evidence left of some of the fissures that played a major roll in initiating the crustal plates tilting that helped shape our continents.

Look at Antarctica. Maps of the Earth’s ocean floors clearly show the rifts that circled Antarctica. But there is no sign of the great rift that ripped the continent apart, as it's edges tilted down with the subsiding Atlantic-Indian Ocean and East Indian Ocean Ridges. It is obvious that it was once there, and was very active. The continent is in two pieces. Now, only a hot lake in a frigid country, a wisp of smoke from a volcanic mountain, and a few other similar hints, reminds us that a great crack still lurks under the continent.

A great many of the cracks in the Earth’s crust, which allowed crustal plates to tilt down to the ocean’s ridges, have never been found, much less documented, mapped. For example: The Owen fracture Zone extends on between Africa and Madagascar, to the Prince Edwards Fracture Zone. This Africa/Madagascar Fracture allowed The Madagascar Plate to pull away from Africa, as the East side of the plate subsided with the Indian Ocean Ridge. To explain the tilting of crustal plates, let us focus our attention on North America. In-The-Beginning, the Glacier Girdle that accreted in the area we now call North America, was situated just westerly adjacent of what is now the Rocky Mountains.

The depth of the strata, which formed the Ring Mountains in this area, leaves no room to doubt that the Glacier Girdle did remain at this location for millions of years, before it melted and reformed near what is presently the west coast of the United States. This change in North America probably came very gradually. Crustal plates move, tilt, very slowly, probably only inches per year, at most but a few feet. Therefore it probably took not only hundreds, or thousands, but perhaps millions of years for the Glacier Girdle to melt and reform on what is now the west coast of North America. But, what could cause thousands of feet, several kilometers, of ice that had remained stationary for millions of years to suddenly begin to melt? It was most likely a combination of events, all of which were the result of tilting crustal plates. On the world that I have described, all lines of force, namely the force of gravity attempting to flatten the Earth as it emerged from the depths, on the Sunny Hemisphere would have radiated from the original site of the South Magnetic Pole in Africa, out in a complete circle, to the Glacier Girdle.

And likewise, the lines of force, weight oppositely transposed, from the Glacier Girdle would have all pointed inwardly, toward the South Magnetic pole. Where these two powerful oppositely transposed forces met, at what is now the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, they caused the Earth's Crust to apex. Actually rock formations bend very little before they break. The combined forces bent the crust, and the rock cracked. Once the integrity of the Crust was violated, the Glacier Girdle was tilting a crustal plate that reach from the Rocky Mountains to the mid Atlantic, about 3,000 miles [4,850 kilometers]of plate. Remember the plank and beaker full of ice. That would be like submerging the end of a 40 foot plank. Something would have to give, and it did, the crust fissured along the Appalachian Mountains, the coast of Africa and Europe, and allowed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to settle.

As the Atlantic Ocean basin subsided, it drained an ocean of water from the land, lowered the horizon, and exposed millions of acres of land that had been covered by water, to a never setting Sun. At the same time the Appalachian Mountains were slowly rising, higher into the eternal sun, and collecting more solar heat. Eventually water and atmosphere may have both circulated around the Appalachian Mountains, and expedited the Glacier Girdle's receding.

The coal mines paralleling the East coast of North America, are the products of hot humid swamps, and pay mute testament to a climate that could have easily extended temperate conditions on passed the Glacier Girdle, and started the great thaw. Likewise the Rocky Mountain coal mines and millions of fossils, prove beyond a doubt that all the central United States periodically enjoyed a bountiful temperate climate for millions of years.

A sphere is the most capable of all geometric forms, at withstanding equally applied external pressures.

As [figure 1] crudely represents; whether its pressure on the Earth's Crust, or sea water on a diving bell, a sphere can withstand incredible pressures. Pressure on one area of a sphere is actually oppositely transposed to help the sphere withstand pressure on the adjacent areas.

But even the phenomenal strength of a sphere can be thwarted by what would be tenable external pressures, if those pressures are applied unevenly to different areas on the sphere. Uneven pressure like that depicted in [figure 2] above, which is supposedly representative of the weight of the Glacier Girdle and the strengthening force of gravity on the emerging terra firma, can oval a sphere and form a bulge, or an apex on the sides with less pressure. And any apex in a rock formation equals a crack, a fissure.

Similarly, once the integrity of the sphere, the Earth’s Crust, had been corrupted, had rifted, the crust had been robbed of much of its strength. And the force of gravity pressing down at the newly formed [North Atlantic Ridge] fissure had hundreds of miles of leverage to open fissures running parallel to the ridge. And thereby allow the newly formed rift to begin settling. [figure 3]

Once the rifts had opened and the Mid Atlantic Ridge began to settle, it continued subsiding for millions of years. Until, at the onset of the Mammal Era, the Atlantic Ocean was actually deeper than it is today. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is now slowly rising.

When land first appeared in the middle of the Sunlit Ocean, it was not just one small island that slowly emerged to dry in the sun, and become out of bounds to the aqua flora and fauna that abounded in the surrounding waters. Thousands of square miles, many thousands of square kilometers of the ocean floor, that had bathed in the penetrating rays of the Sun for an eon, and was teeming with aqua life, rose slowly to meet the placid surface of the Sunny Hemisphere.

Eventually plants grew up through the shallow water to reach the surface of the Sunny Hemisphere and adapted to absorb sunlit directly. Those first surface plants had many advantages over their ancestor’s strictly aqua existence. One of the greatest was they could fan out to shade the water and smother their competition.

But, evolution is a story of one-upmanship and soon the other plants that survived, just rose above the water, where there was an unlimited supply of sunlight. Once hardy plants were growing above the water, it was just one small evolutionary step, to step out onto dry ground. Of course many of the plants that had evolved in those shallow sunlit waters survived by moving into deeper water around the perimeter of the emerging land and lived on to eventually spread worldwide.

Animals found life, in the shallow water, on this emerging “Alphaland,” becoming more and more confining. Not only, was the water level falling, as the plants grew thicker, but the plant stems were steadily growing larger and stiffer. And when it rained hard, the water moved from the center of the emerging continent flowing centrifugally toward the perimeter and deeper water. This new moving water had properties foreign to the waters of the Sunny Hemisphere, and stirred up silt and debris, muddied the water, and made it hard for animals that had evolved in placid waters to see and breath.

Great trails and tribulations appear to be the mother and father of evolution.