Introduction
It has become more fashionable these days to talk in terms of geological and astronomical catastrophes. Of particular interest to astronomers is the role played by impacting comets and/or asteroids. One major segment of current geological enquiry concentrates on on life-form extinctions at the geological boundaries, plus the evidence of simultaneous major earth movements. A brief overview of one model explaining these events is given below. It is based on the evidence for changing light-speed as presented in The Atomic Constants, Light and Time, Creation and Catastrophe, and a series of later, related scientific papers now online.
A Clue from Meteorites
Meteorites are the left-overs from the creation of the solar system. Those from the inner solar system contain up to 19% water locked up in their mineral structures. For example, the beautiful mineral serpentine contains some 13% water in its composition. Upon heating, this water is given up, and the mineral turns to olivine. Interestingly, the earth's mantle is largely composed of olivines. The following scenario therefore bears examination.
The Role of Radioactive Decay
After creation week, the interior of the earth began to heat up due to the rapid decay of short half-life radioactive elements as a result of high light-speed values. This radioactive heating drove the water out of the minerals in the mantle towards the earth's surface. Through pores in the crust, this water came to the surface as springs and geysers and watered the ground. Indeed, the Septuagint (LXX) translation of Genesis 2:6 says that the "fountains" sprang up from the ground and watered the earth. In the ocean, this continuing water supply is called "the fountains of the deep" in the Bible.
Forming the Tectonic Plates
As this radioactive heating continued, more and more super-critical water built up beneath, and exerted pressure on, the crust. This pressure was increased by the expansion of mantle rock through heating. Eventually this pressure split the crust, forming the tectonic plates, and allowed the built-up quantity of water to out gas to the surface. The Bible says the fountains of the deep burst out. That event was Noah's Flood. Studies by Dr. Walter Brown, at the Center for Scientific Creation reveal that about half the present volume of the oceans was extruded from the earth's interior in that episode.
The Flood Layer in Geology
Geologically, this event dates from the infra-Cambrian around 600 million years ago atomically. This converts to 3536 BC when the atomic clock is corrected for light-speed variation. There is a debris layer on all continents on earth followed by massive quartzite rock sequences near the boundary between the Proterozoic and the Cambrian. This quartzite resulted since the water in the earth's interior was rich in silica.
The Second Catastrophe
The Paleozoic Era that followed saw rising land-forms, and a deposition around the edge of the super-continent. The humid atmosphere and large bodies of warm water favored algae, mosses, ferns, insects, and amphibians. Meanwhile, the radioactive heating of the earth's interior continued. Eventually the stage was reached when significant portions of the mantle became molten. An episode of rampant volcanism followed. It produced the Siberian flood basalts, while associated earth movements produced massive tidal waves that swept huge quantities of vegetation into fault-controlled troughs. This event dates around 230 million atomic years ago, or 3301 BC on a light-speed correction, the time of the Babel crisis.
The Age of the Dinosaurs
The change in atmospheric conditions brought about by volcanism produced a dry and windy climate generally. This decimated the amphibians, and spore-bearing plants, and favored the reptiles, the palms,. and pines (gymnosperms) which propagate by wind-blown pollen. These forms dominated in the new Mesozoic Era. Meanwhile, heating by the mantle continued and it became increasingly mobile. This allowed the first movements of the tectonic plates, delineated at the Flood, and the Mid-Atlantic ridge began to slowly unzip. During the Mesozoic Era active deposition of sediments took place around the rim of the super continent.
The Asteroidal Planet Break-up
Meanwhile events were happening out in space. The original planet that inhabited the region of the current asteroids was undergoing a similar process to the earth. Radioactive heating of its interior caused this body to explode with the pressure of super-critical water and expanding rock. The planet's iron core, stony-iron mantle, chronditic upper mantle and crust, and ice-covered surface gave rise to the various classes of asteroids, meteorites, and comets. The break-up of this planet occurred sometime immediately prior to 65 million years ago atomically, or 3005 BC on the light-speed correction. A series of impacts on these bodies on other planets and moons in the solar system has been noted. On earth the massive series of impacts closed the Mesozoic Era. The dinosaurs were decimated. Wild fires destroyed most vegetation. The layer of Iridium from the asteroids and soot from the wild fires is virtually global. This was the time of Peleg when the continents were divided (Genesis 10:25). The Deccan Traps in India were outpoured.
The Continents Divide
The major impact of the series of the Yucatan (near the mid-Atlantic rift) accelerated the rate of continental drift. Tectonic plate movement was also enhanced by very low mantle viscosities due to peak temperatures and high light-speed values. The impact appears to have increased the axis tilt to something of the order of 28 degrees or more. Furthermore mountains were being upthrust by the tectonic forces now acting. Annual extremes of climate resulted. These conditions favored the mammals with their stable body temperatures, and the angiosperms with their seasonal flowering and fruit-bearing., From a study of shells in the Atlantic, we know that ocean temperatures dropped progressively from the close of the Mesozoic throughout the Cenozoic Era that followed. When the snow started falling, the ice-age began.
The Ice-Age and Abraham
The ice-age was brought to a close by another impact event that changed the axis tilt from more that 28 degrees, back to the present 23.5 degrees. This moderated the climate and warmer conditions assisted the human race to set up city-states that grew into nations. The date of this impact has been focused by the late Government astronomer for South Australia, George Dodwell, and US researcher N. M. Mandelkehr. Both conclude that the date was close to 2345 BC in the days of Pharaoh Pepy II. This is very close to the time Comet Hale-Bopp first appeared.
Reference:
Setterfield, Barry, Creation and Catastrophe, 80-page monograph plus color wall chart, 25 x 36 inches. Set available for $30 US postpaid from the author. Barry Setterfield, Box 318, Blackwood SA 5051, Australia. March 31, 1997.
It's a Young World After All, by Paul Ackerman with Chapter on George Dodwell's study of an earth axis shift in 2345 BC.