Essay 4

   
WHY THIS NEW THEORY FITS THE EVIDENCE
BETTER THAN THE CURRENT THEORY

by Ben Fishler

In order for a new theory to supplant the current theory, it has to explain the physical evidence better than the current theory does.
The purpose of this section is to identify those pieces of physical evidence that are better explained by the new theory. All of the references (seen below) to "chapters" are to my detailed book on an updated antipodal focusing theory, found at www.solvingthemassextinctions.com.

1. THE CAUSE OF VIRTUALLY ALL MAJOR EXTINCTIONS — The explosive volcanism at the antipode of a very large impact will cause decades, centuries, and even millenia of cold, sunless climate change, thus killing off vast numbers of species. There is enough evidence for this occurrance in EVERY major large mass extinction of the last 252 million years. There is no reason to assume that the past would have been any different … as opposed to the current theory, which posits a number of different possible causes. The new theory is simpler, more direct and better supported by the evidence (see Chapter 1.3).

2. THE CAUSE OF ACTIVE MANTLE PLUMES — They are the result of the impact energy of a large impact that penetrates the Earth's crust and enters the mantle according to the new theory. The cause is not just an accident of heat release from the Earth's interior, as the current theory states.

Large impacts can and do create contemporaneous volcanism at or near the antipode of the impact. If the impact is large enough, the plume head will include the actual physical antipode of the impact and create truly contemporaneous volcanism at the Earth's surface without the need for five to ten years of melting thruogh a stubborn crust that eventually domes and fails, releasing the lava. This contrasts with the current theory, which finds that contemporaneous antipodal impact volcanism to be impossible, because material can't move through the mantle any faster than one inch per year (see Chapter 3.3).

3. THE CAUSE AND SHAPE OF CONTINENTS — While the current theory has nothing to say about this feature, the new theory states that very large impacts will cause extreme pressure at the antipode, which may include elevation and separation of the surface contained within its pressure boundaries. Inevitably, the shape of this continent will be a "blob with a tail" (see Chapter 2.8).

4. THE LOCATION OF INDIA 66 MYA — The new theory locates India with Australia and Antarctica 66 MYA, far to the east of the location shown by the current theory, which posits that India stays behind when Australia and Antarctica leave from Africa 200+ MYA. The new theory locates India at 30° south latitude, the same latitude as the Deccan traps' volcanism 66 MYA, rather than the 21° south latitude of the current theory. The current theory has India passing over the Reunion Island hotspot and justifies the difference in volcanism latitude with 11° of "polar wander" (see Chapters 1.6 and 2.2).

5. EXPLANATION OF LAND FORMS BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND ASIA — The current theory has no clue … it is what it is. The new theory explains these islands and land forms and how they were shaped by the movement of India to its present location (see Chapter 2.2).

6. DECCAN TRAP HOTSPOT TRAIL & LACK OF DOMING — The current theory doesn't even recognize the huge Deccan trap volcanism as the result of a vigorous mantle plume, much less show the subsequent track of the plume and its telltale eruptions. The new theory not only explains the circular shape of the plume eruption, but also explains the lack of doming, due to the pulverized crustal area of the antipode where the earthquake waves would have been focused. Furthermore, the new theory traces the hotspot trail of this mantle plume down the western side of the Indian peninsula (the rivers of the peninsula ALL drain to the east, predating the rise of the Western Ghats) and then to the Indonesian Islands and the western side of Java and Sumatra. At this point, the serious volcanism of the most vlocanically active area of the world ends, even though the Sunda Trench (the supposed cause of the volcanism) continues. The current theory offers no explanation for this. The new theory views the area as created by an underlying hotspot, and the reason that the volcanism stops is because the hotspot hasn't gone any farther than that (now under Lake Toba and Mt. Sinabung) (see Chapter 2.3).

7. THE WESTERN GHATS — The current theory doesn't have much to say about why they exist, since India supposedly came out of the west and headed east. The new theory says that India curved north in an arc from the east. Then, when India met with too much resistance from the east, its northern momentum forced it to slide to the west, producing the Western Ghats and opening up the Bay of Bengal, some of which was filled in with silt from the Ganges. This is the reason why Bangladesh is so close to sea level (see Chapter 1.6).

8. THE NORTH AMERICAN CORDARILLERA MOVING NORTH — One unexplained aspect of North America is the northern movement by some 600 miles or so over millions of years of a western interior part of the continent known as the Cordarillera. Why is the middle of a continent moving in a separate direction from the rest of the continent? The current theory doesn't address this. The new theory sees this as part of the Siberian Tail moving northward and being sandwiched between the Pacific tectonic remnant and the Eastern North American plate (see Chapter 4.2).

9. THE RISE OF THE ROCKIES — The Rocky Mountains in the western US are located about 1,000 miles away from the subducting Farallon tectonic plate, which is the supposed cause of their creation, according to the current theory. In any normal situation, the subducting plate should be within a couple of hundred miles of the newly arisen mountains. The current theory has to rely on a special lighter-than-usual plate that extends hundreds of miles before subducting, in order to solve this. This lighter-than-normal plate occurs in NO OTHER place on Earth … not to mention the fact that it creates the volcanic Cascade Mountains along the way. The new thoery explains the Rockies as forming through subduction of the Eastern North American plate as it collides with th Siberian Tail. Thus we have normal subduction from the east, instead of weird, unnatural subduction from the west (see Chapter 2.5).

10. THE MARIANAS TRENCH — The current theory has to create a heavy, sinking slab to explain the Marianas Trench, with the slab getting heavier and sinking more to explain the Challenger Deep. However the slab miraculously recovers as soon as we move south of the Challenger Deep. It doesn't sink at all anymore. The new theory sees the Marianas Trench and the Challenger Deep as the back half of the imprint of an impact crater that was formed 132 MYA when the Valanginian-Weissert Oceanic Anoxic Event occurred and the South American continent was created out of the African landmass and some adjacent ocean floor. This crater was subducted some 50 MYA, but in the process its deep following edge took over the subduction function from the original shallower trench and line of volcanic islands behind it.

Since the deepest part of the annular ring of the former crater was at the Challenger Deep, the rest of the crater was already subducted, leaving only the curve of the Challenger Deep to reconnect with the previous line of subduction. Thus the new theory explains why the Marianas Trench exists, why it stops and reconnects with the previous line of subduction and why there is no deep trench to the south of the Challenger Deep … all without a strange heavy slab that loses its strangeness and extreme depth as soon as it moves to the south of the Challenger Deep (see Chapter 3.3).

11. ZEALANDIA — The current theory explains Zealandia as a portion of Australia that rifted off to the east beginning 70-80 MYA and then sank below the surface of the ocean later on. Other big islands like Greenland and Madagascar have rifted off continents, but they didn't sink. Why did Zealandia sink? The current theory has no idea.

The new theory explains that no rifting was involved. As the large asteroid that impacted the Earth 66 MYA tried to exit the mantle just to the southeast of Australia, it forced up a significant area of the Earth's crust. Later, it subsided. No rifting required. Subsidence expected (see Chapters 1.3 and 2.6).

12. VIDALIA ONIONS — There is an unusual band of sandstone located in southern Georgia. Part of this band is legally designated as the area where farmers are allowed to call their onions "Vidalia Onions." Other areas of this band to the southwest are not allowed to call their onions "Vidalia Onions." Why? Is the reason political or geological?

The reason is somewhat political (county boundaries define the area) but mostly geological. The area to the southwest, although it seems to have identical sandstone soil, contains sulfur, and, therefore, produces onions with strong piquancy … not the the mild, eat-it-like-an-apple Vidalia onion.

The current theory offers no clue as to why one area of the sandstone belt contains sulfur and the other area does not … it's just one of those mysteries. The new theory solves that mystery. It turns out that there is an "ancient volcano complex" beneath the southwestern portion of the sandstone belt, The current theory says that it probably dates to 200 - 250 MYA and the sandstone was gradually created by sand at the ocean's edge, when the seashore was farther inland. If we were to drill a hole, the sandstone should get gradually older until it reached we reached the volcanism, which would be older still.

The new theory says that the "ancient volcano complex," which is incidentally approximately the same size as the Chicxulub crater site, is actually the site of the dinosaur-killing asteroid's penetration 66 MYA … the Chicxulub site is the location of the top half of the crater that was pushed to the southwest by the angled force of the impact in an impact landslide.

The new theory says that the sandstone was all created from sand deposited by a giant tsunami 66 MYA when the asteroid hit … the shoreline wasn't farther inland … the ocean floor debris from the tsunami filled the crater left by the impact and the penetration. When the Earth's mantle attempted to fill the void left by the penetrating asteroid (creating a concentration of mass or a "mascon"), it was stopped by the thousands of tons of the tsunami"s sand, which gradually turned to sandstone.

Thus the foraminifera in the sandstone will all be of the same approximate age and NONE of it will be younger than 66 million years old. The volcanism below this sandstone will all measure in at 66 MYA or younger. Since the volcanism is younger than the sandstone on top of it, the volcanism had the opportunity to re-sulfurize the porous sandstone above, making it unsuitable for growing Vidalia onions.