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Gibraltar, as well). So the mid-Atlantic Figure 2: Australia's Killer Hills Network. Ridge must represent some completely different process associated with large- scale crustal melting. The central nervous system is the key to earthquakes, but there are many types of earthquakes. Without discovering the killer hills by independent means, most of them cannot be differentiated, except that, perhaps, killer hills produce the biggest killer earthquakes within conti- nents. The reason they produce very big earthquakes is that the compression builds up along them until it reaches breaking point at the weakest zone in the interlocking network, Then, a huge shock wave is emitted which radiates out, destroying everything close by. The shock is, of course, also transmitted pref- --erentially along the killer hills and thus causes a network reverberation across the entire surface of the Earth. Clearly, then, detonating a nuclear device will send shock waves over the entire global network of killer hills if the coupling between the blast and a nearby killer hill is rich. The energy of such a blast is dissipated rapidly in all direc- ZS x SATII nye “ill Ne | [TI] Elevated regions E J Eastern highlands tions. Moreover, because underground . tests have always been in the soft sedi- ERA Depressed regions ments of small basins between killer ‘i . : hills, these sediments have cushioned —=< Killer hills, heal paths of Compression and, hence, absorbed these blasts. In (zones of high free-air gravity anomaly) such cases, the coupling would have been poor. — — Crustal fractures The latest French tests in the Pacific have been relatively small and too shal- )] —$____—_—_—_—_————_ low to produce a rich coupling to the concept of a contracting Earth. If one accepts this as axiomatic, crust, but a large detonation deep within a killer hill could produce then one can see that the compression generated over the entire a powerful jolt which, in tum, could trigger a spate of earthquakes surface of this contracting planet behaves somewhat like the anywhere in the world. co enanae and nencril analaaw The cantractian aeneratec otrace laad_ Elevated regions HI) 8 E J Eastern highlands = 8 ERR Depressed regions —= Killer hills, or paths of compression (zones of high free-air gravity anomaly) concept of a contracting Earth. If one accepts this as axiomatic, then one can see that the compression generated over the entire surface of this contracting planet behaves somewhat like the sponge and pencil analogy. The contraction generates stress load- ings which must be distributed across a semi-compressible crust. The distribution of these compression stresses along somewhat equipotential lines generates the killer hills as a skeletal pressure- distribution system. Using special geophysical data, the killer hills have been mapped all over Australia (see Figure 2). The fact that they form a continuous, interlocking and bifurcating network is the key to the big discovery here. Much of the network can already be seen in ordinary topographical maps. It is particularly significant that the killer hills join large conti- nents together. Thus, North and South America are joined togeth- er at the narrow isthmus of Panama, and Africa and Europe are joined at Gibraltar. There are many other similarly narrow joins between land masses all over the Earth. The killer hills are the central nervous system of the planet. They lock the continents together, preventing them from drifting apart. The idea of ‘drifting continents’ was inspired by the fact that there is a narrow earthquake zone along the whole length of the mid-Atlantic Ridge, and that the northern and southern Atlantic Oceans are the same width. This even inspired the idea that the Earth is expanding, but, in recent years, new data has devastated the whole ‘drift’ concept because it now tums out that the northern Atlantic formed well before the southern part. The northern and southern Americas could not have drifted an equal amount in two separate episodes, nor could the drift have avoided breaking the join between these two large continents at Panama (and leaving Europe and Africa joined together at Reference: Anfiloff, V., "The Tectonic Framework of Australia", in New Concepts in © Global Tectonics (S. Chatterjee and N. Hotton III [eds.]}), Texas Tech. University Press, Lubbock, USA, 1992, pp. xii, 450. About the author: Vadim Anfiloff, B.Sc., worked for many years for the Geological Survey of Australia, producing studies on gravi- tational anomalies and plate tectonics. As long ago as 1976, he was heavily involved in producing the official gravitational anomaly map of Australia and surrounding land masses. He is one of the world's foremost experts in tectonic plate theory, and it has taken him 20 years to cor- rect a great error in the accepted or official concept regarding the dynamics of tectonic plates. Anfiloff has struggled against bureaucratic red tape, peer group pressure, and, worst of all, attempts to hide his find- ings by other Australian scientists who, believing their credibility might somehow be threatened, would not let him warn countries such as Japan long before the Kobe quake struck. Vadim Anfiloff is now a consulting geophysicist in the private sector, and can be contacted at GEO PROCESS, PO Box 774, Canberra City, ACT 2601, Australia; phone/fax +61 (0)6 258 7032. 14 * NEXUS —— Crustal fractures FEBRUARY-MARCH 1996