Poleshifts
Quote #1
These repeated irruptions and retreats of the sea have neither
been slow nor gradual; most of the catastrophes which have occasioned them have
been sudden; and this is easily proved, especially with regard to the last of
them, the traces of which are the most conspicuous. In the northern regions it
has left the carcasses of some large quadrupeds which the ice has arrested, and
which are preserved even to the present day with their skin, their hair, and their
flesh. If they had not been frozen as soon as killed they must quickly have been
decomposed by putrefaction. But this eternal frost could not have taken possession
of the regions which these animals inhabited except by the same cause that destroyed
them; this cause, therefore, must have been as sudden as its effect. The breaking
to pieces and overturnings of the strata, which happened in former catastrophes,
shew [sic] plainly enough that they were sudden and violent like the last; and
the heaps of debris and rounded pebbles which are found in various places among
the solid strata, demonstrate the vast force of the motions excited in the mass
of waters by these overturnings. Life, therefore, has been often disturbed on
this earth by terrible events - calamities which, at their commencement, have
perhaps moved and overturned to a great depth the entire outside crust of the
globe, but which, since these first commotions, have uniformly acted at
a less depth and less generally.
Georges Cuvier
(1769-1832), "Revolutions and Catastrophes in the History of the Earth"[1]
Quote
#2
"The fact of the bones occurring
in great caches or deposits in which various species are mixed pell-mell is
very important, and it is a fact undenied by geologists that whenever we find
such a locality in which animals have suffered together in a violent and instantaneous
destruction, the bones are invariably mixed and, as it were, 'deposited' in a
manner which could hardly be explained otherwise than by postulating the action
of great tidal waves carrying fishes and all before them, depositing them far
inland with no respect to order."
Howorth, Sir
Henry, The Mammoth and the Flood: Uniformity and Geology, London, 1887,
p.180.
 This
is just a small portion of my online book, Survive 2012 - a look into possible
ways our world might end, and how to survive. Available in bookstores sometime
before 2012, fingers-crossed... |
Opposing
Views
Not everyone aggress on the processes at work upon
our planet. The new theory of uniformitarianism currently prevails, but the ancient
concept of catastrophism is still alive and kicking.
- Uniformitarianism/Gradualism:
A theory that says the natural processes that change the Earth in the present
have operated in the past at the same gradual rate, and that geological formations
and structures can be interpreted by observing present-day actions.
- Catastrophism:
A theory that says the geological features of the Earth were formed by a series
of sudden, violent catastrophes rather than a gradual evolutionary process.
Since
the 1830s conventional geological theory has revolved around the concept of uniformitarianism
(or gradualism) - that the processes of the Earth have always been the same as
we can observe today. The originator of these ideas was Scottish geologist James
Hutton (1726-1797), although it took the efforts of Charles Lyell (1797-1875)
and his Principles of Geology (1830) to enable the theory to become widespread.
This new gradualist viewpoint, involving time-spans of millions of years, gave
rise to the modern ideas of continental drift, the ice ages and Charles Darwin's
theory of evolution.
Gradualism
is obvious with any visit to a beach or canyon - the actions of nature changing
the face of the planet. Waves gently move grains of sand about, and rivers slowly
but surely carve great gashes into the earth. Although gradualism is forced to
permit small-scale catastrophes such as volcanoes and hurricanes that we can easily
witness, larger activities such as continental drift, the formation of mountains,
and ice ages are judged to be non-catastrophic, and must happen gradually
over many millions of years. The strength of the uniformitarian convictions can
be seen in the words of James Hutton:
As
it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Not only
are no powers to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be
admitted of except those of which we know the principle, and no extraordinary
events to be alleged in order to explain a common appearance, the powers of nature
are not to be employed in order to destroy the very object of those powers; .
Chaos and confusion are not to be introduced into the order of nature, because
certain things appear to our partial views as being in some disorder. Nor are
we to proceed in feigning causes when those seem insufficient which occur in our
experience.[2]
In
my opinion, this is as preposterous as a child who closes his eyes, and declares
that what he cannot see, cannot exist!
Popular for
the millennia prior to the 1830s, is the more obvious idea of catastrophism. Unfortunately
it has been discounted by modern scientific techniques, which require processes
to be recreated in a laboratory, or at least viewed in nature within a recent
timeframe. The art of making educated guesses based on the physical remnants
of ancient disasters is no longer acceptable.
Even
Charles Darwin, a staunch uniformitarian, upon his visit to South America, noted
how global catastrophes appear to have occurred previously..
"The greater number, if not all, of these extinct quadrupeds
lived at a late period, and were contemporaries of most of the existing sea-shells.
Since they lived, no very great change in the form of the land can have taken
place. What then, has exterminated so many species and whole genera? The mind
at first is irresistibly hurried into the belief of some great catastrophe; but
thus to destroy animals, both large and small, in Southern Patagonia, in Brazil,
on the Cordillera of Peru, in North America up to Behring's Straits, we must
shake the entire framework of the globe."[3]
Note
to self - add quotes from each side & my idea that both can co-exist???
In
the 1800s, when scientists changed allegiance from the old theory to the new,
an important consideration was neglected - that extraterrestrial agencies could
affect changes upon the Earth. Interaction between our planet and the heavens
was unheard of. A classic example comes from one of the early American presidents,
Thomas Jefferson, in 1807. When told that two Yale scientists were claiming that
meteorites had recently struck the ground at Weston, Connecticut, he replied:
"It
is easier to believe that two Yankee Professors would lie, than that stones would
fall from heaven."
Similarly, the meteor crater
of Arizona, with a width of 1.2 kilometers, was only determined to be created
by a meteor in the last century. In the 1800s, it was considered to be a volcanic
remnant. It is apparent that the new theory of gradualism was formed without
consideration of extraterrestrial agencies, and may never have developed at all
if meteors and supernovas had been taken into consideration.
The
hypothesis of Luis Alvarez and colleagues, that a large asteroid wiped out the
dinosaurs, has recently been accepted by academia. This is obviously catastrophism,
yet it survives the tests of uniformitarianism due to two facets: it is a brand
new idea (untainted by previous arguments), and we can observe asteroids on a
regular basis.
Old ideas, previously rejected, are
very rarely, if ever, successfully brought back to life. Yet in recent times
the Catastrophists have staged a comeback, due in part to the works of
Immanuel Velikovsky, author of three controversial science books in the 1950s.
Discuss Survive
2012 at our forumGive the author your thoughts, and discuss any 2012
ideas with others, at 2012 Forum |
Comments from Visitors
Anon:
wow the unifromitaryian scientist seem real childish and stupid, the catastrifiym makes allot more sense
(16.04.2004, 10:20)
G:
I think this article sort of disproves the pole shift theory...but maybe the time frames from this project should be compared to Mayan dates.
-
- "Dome C (Antarctica) contains 800,000 years worth of snowfall, allowing Epica to obtain a climate record two times longer than its nearest ice core rival."
- news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3792209.stm
(10.06.2004, 02:10)
Steven Lagavulin:
Here's a quote and further reference I ran across recently in the excellent and well-researched "Revolt Against the Modern World" by Julius Evola (p189):
-
- "We know that owing to an astrophysical cause, that is, to the tilting of the terrestrial axis, in every era there has been a change in climate. [...] When Lieh-tzu described the myth of the giant Kung-Kung who shatters the "column of heaven," he was probably referring to such an event. In this Chinese tradition we also find other concrete references, such as the following one, though it is mixed together with details that describe later cataclysms:
-
- 'The pillars of heaven were shattered. The earth shook at its foundations. The northern skies descended lower and lower. The sun, the moon and the stars changed their course [their course appeared changed as a result of the tilting of the terrestrial axis]. The earth's surface cracked and the waters contained in its belly gushed forward and inundated various countries. Man was in a state of rebellion against Heaven and the universe fell victim to chaos. The sun darkened. The planets changed their course [because of the abovementioned shift in perspective] and the great harmony of heaven was destroyed.'"
-
- Evola gives no reference to the text of Lieh-tzu quoted above. Enjoy the site :-)
(24.08.2004, 12:26)
Chris Phillips:
Craters are now presumed to be caused solely by impacts; with meteors, etc seen as the agents. I believe that we should look outside the mechanical boundaries of modern astrophysics and consider possible electrical causes.
- Wal Thornhill of "Electric Universe.com" fame has some interesting suggestions for many electrically 'machined' craters - throughout the solar system :http://www.holoscience.com/
(05.09.2004, 15:59)
D.R. Elliott:
Hurricane Ivan formed closer to the equator than any other tropical system in history, this alone should start ringing alarms. There also seems to be a significant flux in the electro-magnetic field in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America. Most scientists agree that the magnetic field has been degrading for the past 300 years. Could this be the beginnings of the shift? Our own Roman/Gregorian calendars are so flawed that we have to add 24 hours every fourth year, so does that make 2012 a solid date or maybe it's somewhere in a window that we can only estimate because of our inaccurate calendar. Either way it seems to me that this planet is it's own living organism and the main population is no more aware of it than fleas are of the dog. Meaning the flea doesn't know the difference between a dog or cat it just knows it can live there. However, we are not fleas and this is the only planet we have so we'd better pay attention to what the Earth has to say or we may go by way of the dinosaur. Love the site have visited many times and told anyone who would listen to do the same. Can't wait for the book!!:-)
(22.09.2004, 15:06)
Colin Burnett:
The Asian tsunami caused a 1 degree pole shift - or a 1 degree pole shift caused the Asian tsunami?
(22.03.2005, 08:03)
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Script by Alex
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[1] Sourced from A Source Book in Geology,
ed. K. Mather (New York and London: Hafner Pub. Co. 1964)
[2] James Hutton, as quoted in J. Bowles'
The Gods, Gemini and the Great Pyramid, from Theory of the Earth (1788)
[3] Charles Darwin, The Voyage
of the Beagle, entry dated Jan 9 1834, p178.
