Posted on 04/02/2006 2:13:59 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Did a planetary wobble kill the dinosaurs?Bruce Runnegar from the University of California at Los Angeles' Center for Astrobiology... and his colleagues used computer models to map out the Solar System for the past 250 million years. In particular, they looked at the perihelion of each planet - the point in its orbit where it is closest to the Sun. The perihelion of Earth rotates around the Sun with a period of hundreds of thousands of years. Because of subtle tugs and pulls between the planets, this period changes slightly with time... Their model suggests one of these blips significantly changed Mercury's orbit 65 million years ago. This wobble would have pulled at the asteroid belt, increasing the chances that asteroids in the Hungarias region would be knocked out of place. Now the researchers are running a fresh set of models to see how much the orbits of these asteroids changed. It wouldn't have been enough to send a shower of asteroids into the Earth, but Runnegar says the wobble could have sent a single asteroid onto collision course with our planet... Now he is planning to run his models forward in time, to see when the next potentially catastrophic planetary wobble will be.
by Nicola Jones
New Scientist
June 27 2001
Evidence for meteor in early mass extinction foundLSU geophysicist Brooks Ellwood is plumbing the geologic record, trying to correlate known mass extinctions to meteor strikes... Ellwood and four other researchers have just published an article in the journal Science in which they tie an early mass extinction to a meteor strike. This extinction happened 380 million years ago in what is called the middle Devonian. It was a time when only small plants, wingless insects and spiders inhabited the land and everything else lived in the sea. About 40 percent of all species disappeared from the fossil record at this time... What is unique about Ellwood's work, however, is the means he uses to identify the different layers in the geologic record: induced magnetism... Working with LSU graduate students Steve Benoist and Chris Wheeler; structural geologist Ahmed El Hassani of the University of Rabat, Morocco; and Devonian biostratigrapher Rex Crick of the University of Texas at Arlington, Ellwood was able to find high concentrations of shocked quartz, microscopic spherules and microcrysts in this layer, sure signs of a meteor impact. Benoist is a paleontologist and Wheeler is an isotope geochemist; both have since moved on.
Ronald Brown
LSU Media Relations
June 11, 2003
Tidal Waves Kill More Than 700 in Asia
yahoo/AP | 12-26-04 | LELY T. DJUHARI
Posted on 12/26/2004 1:18:45 AM PST by sully777
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308542/posts
Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3,200 in Asia
(Update: Death toll now tops 11,500)
AP | Sun, Dec 26, 2004
Posted on 12/26/2004 2:09:10 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308556/posts
Asian Tsunamis Surge Against East African Coast
Reuters | Dec 26, 2004 12:11 PM ET | C. Bryson Hull
Posted on 12/26/2004 9:53:01 AM PST by sully777
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308649/posts
Asian Tsunamis Kill at Least 20,000 People
AP | 12/26/04 | DILIP GANGULY
Posted on 12/26/2004 8:57:28 PM PST by TexKat
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1308840/posts
Southeast Asia death toll reaches 23,000,
fears grow for 540 Israelis missing in SE Asia
Jerusalem Post | Dec. 27, 2004
Posted on 12/27/2004 6:04:21 AM PST by IAF ThunderPilot
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308954/posts
Asia Struggles As Death Toll Hits 44,000
Yahoo! News | December 28, 2004 | ANDI DJATMIKO
Posted on 12/28/2004 9:51:55 AM PST by Kaslin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1309654/posts
related topics:
Aleutian finding topples [TSUNAMI] theory
Anchorage Daily News | December 25, 2004) | DOUG O'HARRA
Posted on 12/26/2004 10:56:24 PM PST by BenLurkin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308869/posts
Tidal wave threat 'over-hyped'
BBC UK | Oct. 30, 2004
Posted on 10/31/2004 9:35:18 AM PST by Company Man
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1263784/posts
Diego Garcia
"My son"
Posted on 12/27/2004 3:59:26 AM PST by margieelisabeth
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308925/posts
Tidal Waves Kill More Than 700 in Asia
yahoo/AP | 12-26-04 | LELY T. DJUHARI
Posted on 12/26/2004 1:18:45 AM PST by sully777
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308542/posts
Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3,200 in Asia
(Update: Death toll now tops 11,500)
AP | Sun, Dec 26, 2004
Posted on 12/26/2004 2:09:10 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308556/posts
Asian Tsunamis Surge Against East African Coast
Reuters | Dec 26, 2004 12:11 PM ET | C. Bryson Hull
Posted on 12/26/2004 9:53:01 AM PST by sully777
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308649/posts
Asian Tsunamis Kill at Least 20,000 People
AP | 12/26/04 | DILIP GANGULY
Posted on 12/26/2004 8:57:28 PM PST by TexKat
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1308840/posts
a selection of related topics:
Massive Tsunami Sweeps Atlantic Coast In Asteroid Impact Scenario
(Surf's Up)
UC Santa Cruz Press Release
May 27, 2003
UC Santa Cruz Press Release
Posted on 05/29/2003 9:57:14 AM PDT by Mike Darancette
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/919723/posts
Hollywood fantasy? Tidal wave disaster is just waiting to happen
The Guardian Unlimited
August 10, 2004
Ian Sample
Posted on 08/11/2004 5:57:52 PM PDT by pepsi_junkie
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1189804/posts
'Rogue waves' reported by mariners get scientific backing
yahoo news
7/21/04
unknown
Posted on 07/23/2004 1:25:25 AM PDT by Rebelbase
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1176910/posts
Ship-sinking monster waves revealed by ESA satellites
European Space Agency
7/21/04
Posted on 07/22/2004 10:25:27 PM PDT by uglybiker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1176837/posts
Ship-sinking Monstor Waves Revealed By ESA Satellites
European Space Agency.
21 July 2004
Posted on 07/25/2004 12:36:29 AM PDT by Yosemitest
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1178061/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1178061/posts?page=8#8
Books, Magazines, Movies, Music
Amazon
March 2004
Anatoly T. Fomenko
Posted on 07/11/2004 9:34:44 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1169550/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1169550/posts?page=50#50
Giant wave could threaten US
BBC
10 August 2004
Posted on 08/09/2004 8:34:11 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1188396/posts
Tidal wave threat 'over-hyped'
BBC UK
Oct. 30, 2004
Posted on 10/31/2004 9:35:18 AM PST by Company Man
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1263784/posts
Tidal Waves Kill More Than 700 in Asia
yahoo/AP
12-26-04
LELY T. DJUHARI
Posted on 12/26/2004 1:18:45 AM PST by sully777
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308542/posts
Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3,200 in Asia
(Update: Death toll now tops 11,500)
AP
Sun, Dec 26, 2004
Posted on 12/26/2004 2:09:10 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308556/posts
Asian Tsunamis Surge Against East African Coast
Reuters
Dec 26, 2004 12:11 PM ET
C. Bryson Hull
Posted on 12/26/2004 9:53:01 AM PST by sully777
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1308649/posts
Early Earth Not So Hellish, New Study SuggestsWatson claims there were oceans and continental crust similar to what we have today. "Our data support recent theories that Earth began a pattern of crust formation, erosion, and sediment recycling as early in its evolution as 4.35 billion years ago," he said. Even with the existence of water and crust, the Earth was not the friendly place we now know. The planet would still have been quite hot, and the atmosphere would have consisted only of carbon dioxide, water, and volcanic gases. But life may still have been able to exist in these types of conditions. After all, scientists today find bacteria and other microbes living in similarly hostile conditions.
by Bjorn Carey
5 May 2005New View of Early Earth: A Habitable PlaceA new study concludes Earth had continents and oceans 4.3 billion years ago, which is just a geological eyeblink after the planet is thought to have formed, in the wake of the Sun's birth 4.6 billion years ago. A separate study reported in May came to a similar conclusion, also suggesting that notions of a fiery, hellish planet back then have been overblown... A world with water and land and somewhat moderate temperatures and volcanic conditions would have been habitable. That does not mean there was life, but the conditions were in place... The conclusion is based on an analysis of hafnium, a rare element in ancient minerals from the Jack Hills in Western Australia. The rocks are thought to be among the oldest on Earth, dated to 4.4 billion years ago... The research, led by Mark Harrison of the Australian National University, builds on work Mojzsis and colleagues reported in 2001 that showed evidence for water on Earth's surface roughly 4.3 billion years ago... Scientists do not know exactly when life began or how it got started. If it did begin 4.3 billion years ago, it may have been wiped out by space rock impacts, only to start up again, other theorists say. At any rate, Earth was a treacherous place for the first billion years or so, until it had helped scoop up many of the asteroids and comets that filled the early solar system.
by Robert Roy Britt
18 November 2005
Hunt for Oil Leads to Crater Linked to 'Great Dying'The team, led by geologist Luann Becker of the University of California, Santa Barbara examined undersea drilling samples taken by oil prospectors in the 1970s and '80s and since held in an Australian lab. They also studied ancient layers of Earth now exposed on land Down Under and in Antarctica. Dated to the time of the mass extinction, they found breccia, a porous rock often linked to impacts. And they uncovered tiny glass beads and material known as shocked quartz, which has been fractured in several directions. These can be indicators of the extreme heat generated when a large, high-speed extraterrestrial object slams into the planet... The findings point to the existence of a 125-mile-wide (200-kilometer) crater called Bedout off the northwest coast of Australia. The ring-like structure had previously been identified as a possible impact crater by seismic data and a map of gravity variations in the area.
by Robert Roy Britt
13 May 2004
Chemical that could power microbesWhile scientists wait for direct proof of water and maybe even life beneath the frozen crust of Jupiter's moon Europa, new data shows it is coated with an acid that could power microbes... Sulfuric acid isn't plentiful on Earth, but on Europa the acid in frozen form covers large portions of its icy surface, he said. The findings were published in Friday's issue of Science magazine... Carlson, Anderson and their colleagues reported earlier this year finding evidence of peroxide at Europa's surface. The peroxide data pointed also to sulfur, and scientists believed that element could easily come to Europa from its neighboring jovian moon Io, which is highly volcanic and spews sulfur constantly. Scientists analyzing the Europa spectral data initially looked for sulfates, or sulfur salts. Carlson and Anderson were surprised when the best match turned out to be sulfuric acid.
is found at Jupiter moon
by Robin Lloyd
CNN Interactive
October 1, 1999
Retrograde satellites lose momentum to the parent body and slowly spiral inward, which puts an upper limit on the length of time the retrograde moons have spent as satellites, and obviously, will spend as satellites.Did Jupiter Bully Other Planets in Sibling Rivalry?One possible explanation, discussed in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, is that Uranus and Neptune formed much closer to the center of the action than their current positions might indicate. In this scheme, Jupiter and Saturn were bullies of a protoplanetary playground, shoving the other two future giants out of the way.
by Robert Roy Britt
8 December 1999Jupiter gave birth to Uranus and NeptuneNot too long ago, scientists regarded the orbits that the planets circle our Sun as being the ones they were born in. Now they are realising that this is not the case. Uranus and Neptune may have migrated outwards and Jupiter may have come in from the outer cold. Scientists have always been slightly puzzled by the positions of Uranus and Neptune because in their present locations it would have taken longer than the age of the Solar System for them to form. Scientists from Queen's University suggest that the four giant planets started out as rocky cores in the Jupiter-Saturn region, and that the cores of Uranus and Neptune were tossed out by Jupiter's and Saturn's gravity.
by Dr David Whitehouse
8 December 1999Jupiter's Composition Throws Planet-formation Theories into DisarrayExamining four-year-old data, researchers have found significantly elevated levels of argon, krypton and xenon in Jupiter's atmosphere that may force a rethinking of theories about how the planet, and possibly the entire solar system, formed. Prevailing theories of planetary formation hold that the sun gathered itself together in the center of a pancake-shaped disk of gas and dust, then the planets begin to take shape by cleaning up the leftovers. In Jupiter's current orbit, 5 astronomical units from the sun, temperatures are too warm for the planetesimals to have trapped the noble gases. Only in the Kuiper belt -- a frigid region of the solar system more than 40 AU from the sun -- could planetesimals have trapped argon, krypton and xenon.
by Robert Roy Britt
Nov 17 1999
While lead researcher Tobias Owen does not put much stock in the idea that Jupiter might have migrated inward to its present position, other scientists on the team say the idea merits consideration. Owen expects the probes will find similarly high levels of noble gases in Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Hints of these gases have even been found in the thick atmosphere of Venus, another planet now begging more study.Newfound Moons Tell Secrets of Solar SystemThe fact that most of the satellites' orbits are retrograde and eccentric speaks volumes about their origins: They had to have come from elsewhere, and been captured by the planets at some point. If they formed at the same time as the planets, from the spinning nebular disk, their orbits would be nearly circular and in the same direction as the planets' rotation, like the "regular" moons... In the case of the irregular satellites, they could not have shifted from an orbit around the Sun to an orbit around one of the giant planets without slowing down -- through friction in an atmosphere, perhaps; the influence of gravity; or a collision with another object... But there are two other possibilities for capture, Dr. Nesvorny said. One is that rapid growth of the core led to a corresponding increase in gravity, enough to pull down a nearby object. The other is that captured objects were a result of a collision between two planetesimals, the force of the collision being enough to dissipate the energy of at least one of them. Either of these two theories may be a more likely explanation for the satellites of Uranus and Neptune, which formed differently from Jupiter and Saturn, without the large amounts of gas.
by Henry Fountain
August 12, 2003
Planet Formation In Hundreds Of Years?The British astronomer W.H. McCrea concluded in the '60s, as others have since, that minor planets could not form by accretion inside the orbit of Jupiter because of its disruptive tidal effects, and R.A. Lyttleton showed in a fluid dynamic analysis of Jupiter's core that its rotation and accretion rates would cause it to become periodically unstable and fission to throw off excess mass. We're told that the gas giants don't have rock cores, but that has always struck me as preposterous, since even if they formed from pure gaseous concentrations initially, bodies of that size would surely attract heavier material thereafter. So conceivably gas giants formed rapidly in the way the Pittsburgh simulation depicts represent the first phase of a process that accumulates fast-spinning cores of heavier material that gets compressed down to rocky densities, and ejects them as a planet and comet factory.
Posted on January 27, 2003
Earth-like planets may be more rare than thought
Nature Magazine | 30 July 2004 | Philip Ball
Posted on 07/30/2004 2:12:50 PM EDT by PatrickHenry
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1181887/posts
OTOH...
Giant Kuiper Belt planetoid Sedna may have formed far beyond Pluto
Physics Org (http://www.physorg.com/) | January 24, 2005 | Southwest Research Institute
Posted on 10/22/2005 4:05:39 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1507383/posts
I attribute craters to the activity denoted by the biblical text as "in the beginning." I attribute volcanism on a catastrophic scale to the biblical text which states the "fountains of the deep burst forth" at which time a world-wide deluge also ensued. With the biblical text as guide, the next global catastrophic event will most likely entail disintegration and reconstitution of the basic elements as we know them through a process we generally call "fire."
and...
Far-out worlds, just waiting to be found
New Scientist | 23 July 2005 (issue date) | Stuart Clark
Posted on 07/21/2005 1:54:18 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1447339/posts
Lots of work but, lots of good threads saved. Thanks.
More to come. I'm not even at home right now. :')
Bottom line: how much of all this is Bush's fault?? Inquiring minds want to know!
Wow! Terrific resource. Thanks for all your efforts.
ping
My pleasure.
Catastrophism? Yes!In 1923 the independent-minded geologist Harlen Bretz described one of the most unusual landscapes to be found on the surface of our planet. Covering some 40,000 square kilometers in the southeastern region of the State of Washington (U.S.A.), it is characterized by a vast network of huge dry channels, sometimes many kilometers wide, forming a maze of buttes and canyons cut into stark, hard volcanic rock... In his first publication on this topic, Bretz did not express his suspicion about a major catastrophic flood, but only indicated that prodigious amounts of water would be required.(4) However, later in the same year, he published a second paper expressing his view that this landscape had been formed by a truly vast, but short-lived, catastrophic flood. This flood had scoured the area, eroded the channels, and deposited the immense gravel bars.(5) ...The geologic community had to deal with this young upstart Bretz, who was completely out of line. His heretical ideas were uncomfortably close to the rejected idea of the biblical Flood.(6) To adopt his theories, they thought would mean retreating into "the Dark Ages."(7)
by Ariel A. Roth
(beryllium "clouds" would be from impact events)Dodge that Hydrogen Oh, No! Killer Cosmic Clouds!Now along comes Gary P. Zank, a theoretical physicist with the Bartol Research Institute at the University of Delaware... Ice cores from the South Pole contain higher levels of a form of beryllium, a rare metal, which is created when cosmic rays strike Earth. "We find beryllium enhancements at 35,000 years ago, and possibly at 60,000 years ago," he says. "Nobody can explain why." He sees one possible explanation. If a cosmic cloud passed by Earth then, it could have weakened Earth’s cocoon enough to allow much higher levels of cosmic rays to reach the ground, producing the layers of beryllium.
Special to ABCNEWS.com
June 17, 1999
When large impacts happen on water, the blast wave will be worse than any kind of storm brewed up by it, it just won't last very long. And the impact itself WOULD put water into the atmosphere -- lots of it.Were Dinosaurs Blown Away?Unlike an asteroid, a hypercane would send into the atmosphere not dust, but large quantities of water. The model shows that the water would create sheets of new clouds, which would block out the sun, disrupt radiation patterns, and perhaps trigger ozone depletion.
Methane from cattle farts is meaningless, unless one is standing nearby. P, you. Decomposing organic matter in ocean sediments may actually be there, but the methane ices are from below, of abiogenic origin, and in huge quantities (50,000 years worth of natural gas at current rates of consumption).Methane Explosion Warmed The Prehistoric Earth, Possible AgainIn the last 200 years, atmospheric methane has more than doubled due to decomposing organic materials in wetlands and swamps and human aided emissions from gas pipelines, coal mining, increases in irrigation and livestock flatulence.
Greenbelt - Dec 10, 2001
load large graphic in this window
by Debbi McLean
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Multimedia Design Studio
However, there is another source of methane, formed from decomposing organic matter in ocean sediments, frozen in deposits under the seabed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.