There are two major events in Earth history that geologists have wrong. The first is “no flood, ever” – an indisputable mistake committed nearly 200 years ago, and the primary subject of this website. My peer-reviewed paper, “The Flooding of the Mediterranean Basin at the Younger-Dryas Boundary” begins the process of correcting that error.
The second major error deals with the instantiation of the planet’s tectonic plates, and it is the subject of the present post. My plan was to have The Worldwide Flood gain acceptance by the scientific community and then present this material. However, I might not live that long…. So, I’ve devoted portions of the COVID-19 quarantine period to re-working a paper I submitted to Geomorphology several years ago. The editor sent the paper our for “expert” review, but it was deemed too radical for publication.
Geology is fundamentally flawed. As such, we must forget most of what has been learned over the past 60 years and start over.
So, here’s how the plates were configured 63-65 million years ago. They continue to recover from the event.
Simultaneous Impacts Configured Earth’s Landforms
ABSTRACT
The simultaneous impacts of two eastward moving, immensely energetic objects configured Earth’s land masses and instilled its present rotational velocity (day) as well as its obliquity. The Simultaneous Impacts Hypothesis explains continental movement and positioning, as well as when Plate Tectonics began.
Keywords: simultaneous impacts; plate tectonics.
1. INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY
Modern geology follows two fundamental tenets, “no worldwide flood, ever” and Plate Tectonics. Each was conjured on incomplete data; that is, those responsible for the hypotheses did not have access to ocean floor bathymetry information available on today’s maps. The former, initiated by Adam Sedgwick in 1831, is indisputably wrong (Jaye, 2019), and the latter remains subject to controversies ranging from violations of spherical harmonics (Lyushkin, 1967) to the blueschist conundrum (Palin & White, 2016).
In this paper, we apply a first principle approach to continental positioning based on the new map information and basic physics. From them, we create a novel hypothesis that replaces presently accepted assumptions formed on incorrect interpretations of previous, less complete information. We conclude that a brief and energetic event configured the Earth’s continents, ocean basins, and major mountain ranges, and it instilled the planet’s present day and obliquity. The Simultaneous Impact Hypothesis retains the assumption that many of Earth’s large land forms were once connected.
2.1 SIMULTANEOUS IMPACTS
The energy required to configure Earth’s landforms to their current positions was delivered by the simultaneous impact of two eastward-moving, solid, massive objects whose remnants measure approximately 800 km in diameter. The objects struck at an angle nearly parallel to the planet’s surface. The northern object (1N) initial strike location was in the equatorial region northeast of Australia and the southern object (1S) strike location was southwest of New Zealand. Impact locations are identified by red X’s in Figure 1 where the red arrows indicate the impacting objects’ direction of travel. The objects’ shallow impact angles created troughs (rather than craters) that are easily detected in Google Maps (satellite view) or Google Earth. Remnant troughs are identified in red ovals in Fig. 1; they bound the northern and southern extents of South America forming the Caribbean and Scotia Seas, respectively. Impact antipode locations are identified by the yellow circles in Fig. 1. The 1S antipode is Iceland, and the 1N antipode is found in the equatorial region of the mid-Atlantic ridge. The antipodes were created by impact shocks passing through the planet. Iceland’s volcanic activity affirms it as the antipode of the 1S impact site; Africa’s transit, described below, cauterized the 1N antipode, though it remains seismically active (see Figure 6).
The origin and nature of the impacting objects is unknown. However, their shallow impact angles might indicate that the objects suffered decayed orbits.
Figure 1. Red X’s and ovals identify the simultaneous impact locations and remnant troughs, respectively. Yellow circles indicate impact antipode locations.
2.2 AFRICA AND INDIA
The simultaneous impacts severed and propelled formerly conjoined India and Africa from their original locations. By event termination the movement of these land masses would create basins for the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. India, immediately to the east of the 1S impact, acquired significant kinetic energy. Due to the impacting objects’ initial directions, the more massive and slower moving African continent slid eastward and northward (Figure 2a). India’s velocity would eventually cause it to shear off of Africa; as it proceeded northward (Figure 2b), India collided with a land mass and dragged it from its original location (Figure 2c), creating what is now Malaysia. This collision induced a torque to the moving Indian landmass that sheared Madagascar off of Africa as well as India (Figure 2d). (The approximate India-Malaysia collision location, identified by the yellow X on Fig. 2, has its antipode in central North America. This accounts for recent seismic activity in Oklahoma.)
Figure 2. Arrows indicate (a) Africa’s movement relative to South America; (b) India’s transit; (c) Malaysia’s creation by India’s impact and transit; (d) Madagascar is shorn from Africa and India due to torque induced by India’s impact with Malaysia.
India’s momentum carried it northward and into the Asian sub-continent, creating the Himalayan range. Land mass transits formed terrestrial wakes, scrapes, and gouges that remain as evidence on the ocean floors; Ninetyeast Ridge is one such remnant. India’s path follows a great circle route on the sphere, as shown on Figure 3.
Figure 3. The white arrow identifies India’s transit on the sphere, a great circle route.
2.3 NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA
The simultaneous impacts also compressed, severed, and released what are now North America and South America from their original locations and then dragged them across the Pacific Ocean basin, which their movements created. Outlines of the continents’ western boundaries remain discernable in the bathymetry (Figure 4). Forces from the dual impacts deformed and compressed terrain topographies, creating both the Andes and Rocky Mountain ranges, before impact forces released the continents on their eastward transits; landmass compression lasted until impact forces overcame the continents’ static friction forces. The Andes are tightly formed along South America’s western coast due to the influence of both 1N and 1S. However, North America’s western mountains, valleys, and faults were formed by a more complex sequence of events due to the influence of only 1N.
Figure 4. The simultaneous impacts severed and released what are now North America and South America from their original locations and dragged them across the Pacific basin. Outlines of the continents’ pre-impacts positions are identified in the bathymetry by NA and SA on the left of this Google Maps image. White arrows are of equal length to convey event simultaneity.
The Rocky Mountains were created by 1N initially tearing and compressing land from the western Pacific (white double arrows, Figure 5a). The landscape was compressed to a “release line,” now a series of volcanoes (Fig. 5b), most of which are now submerged; the northwest extent of the “release line” is in the Pacific Ocean near Kamchatka. 1N’s eastward movement eventually imparted sufficient force to overcome the continent’s static friction force; once released, the continent’s transit formed the northern Pacific Ocean basin. The latitude-like arc stretching from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Atoll to the Gulf of Alaska is a remnant of North America’s shearing at the onset of its release. This compression uplifted the formerly ancient sea beds that are found along North America’s west coast.
Figure 5. (a) White double arrows indicate North America’s land mass compression region, forming the Rocky Mountains; (b) North America’s release line; (c) scours created by (d) drag locations (white circles) which unfurled compressed landscapes during continental transit, creating valleys, gulfs, and faults along the western coast; prior to the simultaneous impacts, the red circled regions along the western Pacific boundary were connected to the white circled drag locations found along the west coast of North America. The Mexican Peninsula is particularly disfigured by North America’s transit; faults and consequent earthquakes persist due to landmass deformation; (e) black double arrows indicate the region unfurled by westward-acting drag forces during North America’s eastward transit.
Valleys, gulfs, and faults along the west coast of North America were created by drag mechanisms which unfurled compressed landscapes during transit. These drag locations (Fig. 5d) created a set of four essentially parallel west-to-east remnant scrapes in the Pacific Ocean floor (Fig. 5c). The Rocky Mountain chain was partially unfurled by the westward acting forces from these drag mechanisms (black double arrows, Fig. 5e), creating California’s Central Valley as well as the Gulf of California. The westward acting drag forces on the eastward moving continent weakened the compressed landscapes resulting in the faults found along North America’s west coast. Because of the drag locations, the west coast of North America halted while 1N continued eastward. This created southeasterly terrain elongations that formed the Baja Peninsula and produced the region’s faults that remain active to the present. It should be noted that the drag locations found along the western coast of North America correspond to their readily identifiable original locations now in the bathymetry of the western Pacific Ocean. Their locations are identified by red circles on the left of Fig. 5.
Thus, to summarize: the simultaneous impacts created the present configuration of the tectonic plates. Some landmass boundary regions remain seismically active, as shown on the USGS earthquake map on Figure 6.
Figure 6. Plate boundaries and recent seismic activity are shown on this USGS map.
2.4 INSTILLING THE PLANET’S DAY
The simultaneous impacts imparted sufficient energy to affect the rotation of the planet, resulting in the current day. We note on Figure 7 that the southern impact’s trough exactly coincides with lines of latitude (55o and 60o south). This indicates that the Earth’s rotation matches the direction of the 1S impact, meaning that the simultaneous impacts created the planet’s day.
Figure 7. The southern impact trough coincides with lines of latitude.
2.5 INSTILLING THE PLANET’S OBLIQUITY
India’s impact into the Asian sub-continent, or Africa’s halt, or both, induced the planet’s obliquity. Evidence remains in the 1N’s impact trough, which has a southern turn (or rightward turn relative to the object’s travel direction). This is understood as follows: as 1N traveled straight in its impact direction, India’s collision and/or Africa’s halt caused the planet to tilt northward while 1N continued to plow eastward. Thus, the 1N remnant trough bends southward, shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8. The white line is superimposed over 1N’s transit path. Note that the path curves southward.
2.6 OTHER EFFECTS
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, thought to be a mechanism causing continental separation, is instead the remnant of a compression wave that preceded North America’s and South America’s eastward transits over landscapes weakened by the impacts and continental transits. This accounts for the ridge’s nearly uniform bisection of the Atlantic basin.
Volcanic fissures that eventually would lead to the formation of the Hawaiian Island system were created by the movement of one of the drag locations. Evidence in the form of scrapes in the Pacific basin can be traced to major volcanoes in the Hawaiian Island chain, shown in Figure 9. Assuming that the deepest or largest fissure would be created nearest to 1N, then fissure dormancy time would be expected to increase as a function of distance northward. Thus, we find Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea presently active, whereas dormant islands (Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and Oahu) extend to the northwest in the island chain. The Hawaiian Islands are not migrating over some hypothesized hot spot.
Figure 9. Scrapes left by drag mechanisms correspond to volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands.
The dual impacts and their immediate effects took place over a span of time measured in minutes, and the mass extinctions they caused place the event on the order of 63-65 million years before present.
The planet’s increased rotational velocity and its newly induced tilt are likely to have created conditions resulting in the planet’s chaotic magnetosphere. Asymmetries in impact sizes, locations, and effects would be the source of Milankovitch cycles. Prior to the simultaneous impacts, the Earth’s axis would have been perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic.
3. CONCLUSION
The simultaneous impact of two massive and energetic objects configured the continents and tectonic plates, the ocean basins, major mountain ranges, and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Landmass movements also instilled the planet’s day and obliquity. The simultaneous impacts and their effects caused a mass extinction, which places the event somewhere between 63-65 million years before present. Thus, we understand the source of the tectonic plates, as well as when they were created.
REFERENCES
Earthquake map with tectonic plates from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map (2020).
Google Earth and Google Maps satellite view (2020).
Jaye, M. (2019) The Flooding of the Mediterranean Basin at the Younger-Dryas Boundary. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 19, No 1, pp. 71-83.
Lyustikh, E. N. (1967) Criticism of Hypotheses of Convection and Continental Drift. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 14, pp. 347-352.
Palin, R. M. & White, R. W. (2016) Emergence of blueschists on Earth linked to secular changes in oceanic crust composition. Nature Geoscience, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 60–64.
The Worldwide Flood 