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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.
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