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THE HAMMER AND THE PENDULUM New Theories on Earth Catastrophes THE HAMMER AND THE PENDULUM New Theories on Earth Catastrophes Richard Noone, author of 5/5/2000 , explains two exciting theories that consider the fundamental forces that shape our planet's geology. Part 2 of 2 et's take a look at why the development of a unifying theory should be—or, more precisely, why it should have been—a major item on the discussion table of all universities and corporate boardrooms and in the minds of all Earth science researchers. The best means at hand for us to do this is to take a detailed look at the quandary we're in for not having done it years ago. The most obvious concern is that we can see the consequence of catastrophe but we can't explain it. There are many natural circumstances of catastrophic origin that are dis- cussed openly in our schools and appear in our books, that we can use as examples; how- ever, the feature that is common to them all is that there are no explanations! Let's con- sider a few, and examine them in light of the new theories that have been advanced that offer reasonable solutions. The origin of the heat within the Earth has been the subject of ongoing investigations for a long time. The German-born American seismologist Beno Gutenberg (1889-1960), who worked with Charles Richter in developing the Richter scale, is quoted by Charles Hapgood in his book, The Path of the Pole:* Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the origin of the earth's internal heat, but at present only two fundamental heat sources are postulated: radioactivity and gravitational contraction...a vast amount of research has been devoted to this subject, but the fact remains that the origin and maintenance of the earth's internal heat continues to be one of the outstanding unsolved problems of science. This is an excellent case in point. Here we have an outstanding, unsolved problem of science that has already consumed vast amounts of research time and money, and we are nowhere! We have nothing! The reason should be obviously clear. The current working theories simply do not embrace this circumstance. But I wouldn't want the question to go unanswered, so I want to give you an answer here. We've been talking about the Rotational Bending Effect (the RB-Effect) in terms of its candidacy as the unifying theory, and I see an opportunity for its application here. So while addressing the question of Earth's internal heat, author James Bowles uses the process by which we break a piece of wire as an example in his book, The Gods, Gemini, and the Great Pyramid? When we try to break off a piece of wire from a coat hanger we bend it back and forth, wanting to fatigue the wire so it will break, wear it out as it were. It doesn't work very well, not because that isn't a good way to go about it, but because bending the wire back and forth changes the structure of the metal, it work-hardens it. The hardening comes about because the internal friction from the bending heats the wire and hardens it in the process. We should keep this idea of frictionally induced heat from bending in mind, because it applies to the earth as well. [Author's emphasis.] The RB-Effect causes the Earth's crust to flex continuously (not unlike the wire exam- ple), day after day, year after year, millennium onto millennium, and the heat brought on by this continuous flexing heats the upper reaches of the crust, just as Bowles suggests. Another dilemma of science concerns the Hawaiian Islands chain. It breaks the surface of the Pacific Ocean in an apparent arc whose form has been variously described as the outgrowth from a volcanic hot spot moving beneath a stationary crust and, alternatively, as that from the crust moving across a stationary hot spot. We want to examine these respective theories for their analysis, but, before we do, we should give thought to whether these opposing views are reconcilable under a single unifying theory. Internet websites: http://rnoone.com - www.futurefate.com APRIL —- MAY 1999 NEXUS 29 A SOLUTION TO THE DILEMMA: A UNIFYING THEORY