|
|
PREFACE
This book is an
updated and revised version of a book that I wrote in 2010 with an almost
identical title.
The original version, entitled "Solving the Major
Extinctions," contained several geologically impossible errors. After reviewing
the comments of several members of the Geology2 group at Yahoo.com, I found
that I needed to completely revise my mechanism for impact energy transfer. I
also found that I had to revise my understanding of the geological
characteristics of the earth's surface.
This new book, now entitled
"Solving the Mass Extinctions," incorporates these revisions, as well as new
statistical evidence that I developed during the past few years.
This
new book is now divided into two sections of evidentiary text. The first
section deals with solid, conservative evidence backed by statistical analysis.
The second section deals with speculative insights that extend the
scope of the theory and apply it to impacts and extinctions over the past 250
million years.
The third section of the book draws conclusions from the
evidence presented in the book. The original book can be viewed at
www.solvingthemajorextinctions.com.
CLARIFICATION NOTES
This book has been written
and amended over the course of six years. During that time, I have added key
insights and modified some of the concepts. However, some of the original
writing does not fully reflect those changes. The purpose of the following
paragraphs is to highlight the major differences that have evolved over the
past six years. In this way I hope to clarify some confusion that earlier
wording might cause for a reader.
One major change in concept is the
realization that the large impacts that cause mantle plumes actually penetrate
the Earth's crust and travel into the mantle. Furthermore, really large impacts
will travel all the way through the mantle and cause uplift on the other side
of the Earth's crust at an attempted (but failed) exit location (e.g. the
Chicxulub impact and the uplift of Zealandia). The early writing in the book
speaks to the transfer of high pressure shock wave energy as the major factor
in causing mantle plumes and antipodal continental uplift. I now realize that
it is the penetrating impact object, itself, that delivers the high pressure
wave energy.
Another possible source of confusion is the fact that I
now have strong evidence that the Chicxulub impact object actually hit the
Earth and penetrated the Earth in southern Georgia. Although I explain this in
detail in Chapter 2.5, throughout the book I still refer to the impact as the
Chicxulub impact. While this could lead the reader to think that I believe that
the impact occurred in Chicxulub, Mexico, I, instead, believe that the impact
occurred in southern Georgia and that the angled energy of the impact created
an impact landslide, moving a significant slab of the Earth's crust and the top
half of the crater to its present location in Mexico. |
|
