Monday, May 26, 2003
Earth’s core and Early 21st Century Outré Geoscience
Richard B. Cathcart
GEOGRAPHOS
rbcathcart@msn.com
Listening to university Geoscience department PR spokespersons, browsing the “hot” Geoscience websites, and attending the public cinema can lead to crowd-induced reactionary alarm or, privately, to severe psychological depression! The 20th Century could even be apprehended—by those ignorant or forgetful of Earth’s history—a halcyon period of Geological Time. The Holy Bible clearly reveals that the physical Earth will not be destroyed. Ecclesiastes 1:4: “One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the Earth abides forever.” In other words, no new globular mass of material will be revolving about the Sun in Earth’s stead. Geoscience, of course, has other visions of Earth’s far future. [See, for example, Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee’s THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PLANET EARTH, Henry Holt & Company, New York, 2002.]
Unconventional, eccentric, even somewhat bizarre macroproject plans for modifying the Earth are espoused by some internationally recognized Geoscience experts; 21st Century outré scientific social group culture paroxysm has had the interesting effect of stimulating the current outburst of filmic catastrophes. THE CORE, which premiered in American theaters on 25 March 2003, was soon followed by a 15 May 2003 NATURE trial balloon penned by Caltech professor Dr. David J. Stevenson enthusiastically suggesting America’s Federal taxpayers finance a gravity-powered data-broadcasting probe falling to our Earth’s core! That would be no easy macroproject to accomplish since 99% of Earth’s mass is 1,000+ degrees Centigrade.
Dr. Stevenson’s “modest proposal” succeeds the August 2002 cover story “Nuclear Planet” by DISCOVER magazine writer Brad Lemley, discussing the documented scientific views of Dr. J. Marvin Herndon, who has propounded a theory that Earth’s innermost core is a nuclear fission reactor, not solid iron. Dr. Stevenson has publicly opposed Dr. Herndon’s theory judging by quotations found in America’s printed mass media. Professional acceptance/adoption of Dr. J. Marvin Herndon’s site-specific Geoscience theory would cause a bouleversement in Geoscience.
The chance association of THE CORE movie’s release with the almost simultaneous publication of Dr. Herndon’s most recent theoretical calculations in the 18 March 2003 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES seems to have egged Dr. David J. Stevenson to virtually denounce Dr. Herndon’s association with similarly educated Geoscience professionals and, further, to purvey his own very dramatic, theatrical, “Mission to the Earth’s core” scheme—in effect, capitalizing on THE CORE! All of Science’s history, including that of Geoscience, is rife with suppression efforts. [See, for example, Brian Martin’s SUPPRESSION STORIES, 1997.] Outrageous hypotheses, “ideas without precedent are generally looked on with disfavor and…[powerful and influential professional persons] are shocked if their conceptions of an orderly world are challenged” says UK geoscientist Dr. R.J. Huggett in “Terrestrial Catastrophism: causes and effects”, PROGRESS IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY (December 1988). Dr. J. Marvin Herndon’s theory is not Catastrophism; however, Dr. Herndon still seeks a truly final proof-of-usefulness for his unique Geoscience concept.
GEOGRAPHOS today suggests such undeniable proof may eventually become evidential via future industrial activity, perhaps by actions conducted by heartless non-Homo sapiens sapiens, of busy mining macro-engineers. Not via panning, nor sluicing, or mere hydraulicking, but strip mining on a planetary scale would expose Earth’s inner-core to visual inspection and sampling! That scintillating, radioactive nugget would dazzle macro-engineers, produced by a brilliant outburst of crust and mantle material. The entire process of strip mining Earth down to its inner core—99% planet disassembly—is technically described in a January 2001 WWW-posted essay, “Earth’s Sequential Abandonment by Terra-creatures and Subsequent New Niche-creation (Space Habitats)”, by R.B. Cathcart Dr. Viorel Badescu.
GOTO:
http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/Authors/Evolution/Cathcart-RB/ESAbTcaSNNc.html
If Earth were spun up, the crust would shatter and the mantle would vaporize if exposed to Outer Space’s hard vacuum, while the inner-core most likely will stay intact. Dr. Freeman J. Dyson has freely outlined the globe-encompassing electric machine necessary to increase Earth’s axial rotation speed from 1675 km/hr to a disruptive 24120 km/hr. Discovery of Earth-core fission reactor by this means obviously just repeats human technological history; Africa’s famous, unquestionably natural, Oklo nuclear fission reactor geological formation was physically uncovered and recognized, during the 1970s, by earth-moving uranium miners! What a surprise provided humans by Earthly Geological Time!
[GEOGRAPHOS asks anyone with relevant technical expertise who cares to answer: (1) “Would the supposed natural Earth fission reactor continue to function as it previously had if it were totally exposed to interplanetary space in an unconstrained state of operation?” and (2) “Is it possible to encapsulate an artificially unshielded former Earth fission reactor, then use it subsequently as a convenient Nature-made compact nuclear power source for an exotic interplanetary and/or interstellar manned spacecraft?”]
Richard B. Cathcart
GEOGRAPHOS
rbcathcart@msn.com
Listening to university Geoscience department PR spokespersons, browsing the “hot” Geoscience websites, and attending the public cinema can lead to crowd-induced reactionary alarm or, privately, to severe psychological depression! The 20th Century could even be apprehended—by those ignorant or forgetful of Earth’s history—a halcyon period of Geological Time. The Holy Bible clearly reveals that the physical Earth will not be destroyed. Ecclesiastes 1:4: “One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the Earth abides forever.” In other words, no new globular mass of material will be revolving about the Sun in Earth’s stead. Geoscience, of course, has other visions of Earth’s far future. [See, for example, Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee’s THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PLANET EARTH, Henry Holt & Company, New York, 2002.]
Unconventional, eccentric, even somewhat bizarre macroproject plans for modifying the Earth are espoused by some internationally recognized Geoscience experts; 21st Century outré scientific social group culture paroxysm has had the interesting effect of stimulating the current outburst of filmic catastrophes. THE CORE, which premiered in American theaters on 25 March 2003, was soon followed by a 15 May 2003 NATURE trial balloon penned by Caltech professor Dr. David J. Stevenson enthusiastically suggesting America’s Federal taxpayers finance a gravity-powered data-broadcasting probe falling to our Earth’s core! That would be no easy macroproject to accomplish since 99% of Earth’s mass is 1,000+ degrees Centigrade.
Dr. Stevenson’s “modest proposal” succeeds the August 2002 cover story “Nuclear Planet” by DISCOVER magazine writer Brad Lemley, discussing the documented scientific views of Dr. J. Marvin Herndon, who has propounded a theory that Earth’s innermost core is a nuclear fission reactor, not solid iron. Dr. Stevenson has publicly opposed Dr. Herndon’s theory judging by quotations found in America’s printed mass media. Professional acceptance/adoption of Dr. J. Marvin Herndon’s site-specific Geoscience theory would cause a bouleversement in Geoscience.
The chance association of THE CORE movie’s release with the almost simultaneous publication of Dr. Herndon’s most recent theoretical calculations in the 18 March 2003 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES seems to have egged Dr. David J. Stevenson to virtually denounce Dr. Herndon’s association with similarly educated Geoscience professionals and, further, to purvey his own very dramatic, theatrical, “Mission to the Earth’s core” scheme—in effect, capitalizing on THE CORE! All of Science’s history, including that of Geoscience, is rife with suppression efforts. [See, for example, Brian Martin’s SUPPRESSION STORIES, 1997.] Outrageous hypotheses, “ideas without precedent are generally looked on with disfavor and…[powerful and influential professional persons] are shocked if their conceptions of an orderly world are challenged” says UK geoscientist Dr. R.J. Huggett in “Terrestrial Catastrophism: causes and effects”, PROGRESS IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY (December 1988). Dr. J. Marvin Herndon’s theory is not Catastrophism; however, Dr. Herndon still seeks a truly final proof-of-usefulness for his unique Geoscience concept.
GEOGRAPHOS today suggests such undeniable proof may eventually become evidential via future industrial activity, perhaps by actions conducted by heartless non-Homo sapiens sapiens, of busy mining macro-engineers. Not via panning, nor sluicing, or mere hydraulicking, but strip mining on a planetary scale would expose Earth’s inner-core to visual inspection and sampling! That scintillating, radioactive nugget would dazzle macro-engineers, produced by a brilliant outburst of crust and mantle material. The entire process of strip mining Earth down to its inner core—99% planet disassembly—is technically described in a January 2001 WWW-posted essay, “Earth’s Sequential Abandonment by Terra-creatures and Subsequent New Niche-creation (Space Habitats)”, by R.B. Cathcart Dr. Viorel Badescu.
GOTO:
http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/Authors/Evolution/Cathcart-RB/ESAbTcaSNNc.html
If Earth were spun up, the crust would shatter and the mantle would vaporize if exposed to Outer Space’s hard vacuum, while the inner-core most likely will stay intact. Dr. Freeman J. Dyson has freely outlined the globe-encompassing electric machine necessary to increase Earth’s axial rotation speed from 1675 km/hr to a disruptive 24120 km/hr. Discovery of Earth-core fission reactor by this means obviously just repeats human technological history; Africa’s famous, unquestionably natural, Oklo nuclear fission reactor geological formation was physically uncovered and recognized, during the 1970s, by earth-moving uranium miners! What a surprise provided humans by Earthly Geological Time!
[GEOGRAPHOS asks anyone with relevant technical expertise who cares to answer: (1) “Would the supposed natural Earth fission reactor continue to function as it previously had if it were totally exposed to interplanetary space in an unconstrained state of operation?” and (2) “Is it possible to encapsulate an artificially unshielded former Earth fission reactor, then use it subsequently as a convenient Nature-made compact nuclear power source for an exotic interplanetary and/or interstellar manned spacecraft?”]
Friday, May 23, 2003
David J. Stevenson, “Mission to Earth’s Core”: A Repeat of “The MOLE” Project?
Richard B. Cathcart
GEOGRAPHOS
rbcathcart@msn.com
During January 1998 the Space Shuttle Endeavor, at unreported expense to America’s taxpayers of ~USA$ 22,000/kg, conveyed a brittle 220 million-year-old fossilized dinosaur skull—Coelophysis—to the MIR Space Station (1986-2001). Why? Because Dr. Jay Apt of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, successfully purveyed a “modest” idea to “…marry Earth’s history with humankind’s future…” (GEOTIMES, 43: 10, April 1998). Huh?
Now comes Dr. David J. Stevenson with another inapt idea, a 15 May 2003 proposal for taxpayer funding of a deep-Earth probe. Some of us are already aware, from viewing a 1965 cinema, “Crack in the World”, that bad consequences for Earth are possible! Stevenson’s beggary is outlandishly Hollywood, and quite immodestly presented too. Since a nuclear explosion to commence his crack is not needed, Stevenson merely mentioned it for the controversy it would generate. Would it not be wiser to initiate his iron melt at the bottom of a deep, vertical mine shaft or bored hole, preferably below an automobile wrecking yard?
On 24 December 1963, Dr. William Mansfield Adams, was awarded USA Patent #3115194 for his “Nuclear Reactor Apparatus for Earth Penetration”, a needle-shaped device designed to descend under the influence of gravity. This unique device was to be a tele-mining nuclear reactor with a bulk density of 7.6 g/cm3. Such a thermal tool for the direct investigation of planet interiors, and the return to the surface of macroscopic material samples, is a developable means to search any rocky crust at a rate of ~7.8 km/yr. Theoretically, the W.M. Adams tele-miner could reach Earth’s Mohorovicic Discontinuity in ~6 yrs, or possibly quicker if the machine were adapted to become a self-propelled gadget.
Dr. Stevenson’s obvious Big Academic America attempt for general, even worldwide, public notice repeats a May 1958 publicity stunt attempted by a member-in-good-standing of Big Corporate America.
Dr. Willard Bascom, who died in 2000, was Director of the Mohole Project for the National Academy of Sciences. In his 1961 history, A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea: The Story of the Mohole Project (Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York) he described how a corporate publicity stunt nearly derailed the Mohole drilling scheme. In Chapter III, “Science Fiction and Pseudo Science Inside the Earth”, in the sub-section at pages 65-66 titled “The MOLE” he says:
“In mid-1958, about the same time that AMSOC formally became a deep-drilling committee under the National Academy of Sciences and the word Mohole had been coined, rumors of a project with similar-sounding name and destination began to circulate around Washington. There is no direct evidence that there was a confusion between the two but it is possible that after the story of the MOLE became known, some of those who might have supported AMSOC in the early days held back for fear of being taken in by another elaborate hoax. The story of MOLE is told by a series of excerpts from pseudo press releases in electronics trade journals which printed Washington date-line stories above the very tiny word adv.
May 19, 1958
An undisclosed source deep in the Pentagon today admitted that the Department is ‘becoming heavily committed to a radically new weapons system known as Project MOLE (Molecular Orbiting Low-Level Explorer).’
The MOLE should put an end to the threat of war. No place on earth will be secure from the MOLE.
June 2
Dr. Talpa, chief of SEA (Subterranean Exploration Agency) outlined the basic premise of the MOLE. Because conventional missiles are in danger of burning up when the missile reenters the atmosphere, the MOLE is conceived to avoid that problem. It is to be launched downward. Since its orbit is below ground, reentry at high velocity is no problem. To avoid high temperatures the MOLE will travel near the planet’s crust.
Aug 4
The MOLE which was successfully fired a few days ago is now in orbit at depths variously reported as from a few inches to 60,000 feet. Scientists have their ears to the ground listening to the steady ‘crunch, crunch’ signals from the new missile.
Aug 18
A senatorial security committee today declared there has been altogether too much publicity on the vital MOLE project and clamped on it the megasecret classification of DBR (Destroy Before Reading).
This signaled the end of an advertising campaign with phony news stories for a real company that makes potentiometers. It effectively accomplished its objective of spreading the company name through the electronics industry, but, to the surprise of the originators, it left a trail of people who actually believed the fantastic story. Letters and phone calls arrived from people wanting jobs and from companies seeking subcontracts to build parts and launching bases.
The increasingly frequent appearance and mushroom-like growth of new and secret government agencies with large sums to spend on ‘Buck Rogers’ projects had made industry jittery. Who knew which way science would go and what might follow?”
Dr. Stevenson’s 15 May 2003 “modest proposal” in NATURE (423: 239-240) ought to fall into the same defunct status as the MOLE. A Sputnik-size—“grapefruit”—Mission to Earth-core Probe” is ridiculous, although possibly doable. GEOGRAPHOS prefers Dr. Adams’ workable idea to Dr. Stevenson’s tricky proposal.
Richard B. Cathcart
GEOGRAPHOS
rbcathcart@msn.com
During January 1998 the Space Shuttle Endeavor, at unreported expense to America’s taxpayers of ~USA$ 22,000/kg, conveyed a brittle 220 million-year-old fossilized dinosaur skull—Coelophysis—to the MIR Space Station (1986-2001). Why? Because Dr. Jay Apt of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, successfully purveyed a “modest” idea to “…marry Earth’s history with humankind’s future…” (GEOTIMES, 43: 10, April 1998). Huh?
Now comes Dr. David J. Stevenson with another inapt idea, a 15 May 2003 proposal for taxpayer funding of a deep-Earth probe. Some of us are already aware, from viewing a 1965 cinema, “Crack in the World”, that bad consequences for Earth are possible! Stevenson’s beggary is outlandishly Hollywood, and quite immodestly presented too. Since a nuclear explosion to commence his crack is not needed, Stevenson merely mentioned it for the controversy it would generate. Would it not be wiser to initiate his iron melt at the bottom of a deep, vertical mine shaft or bored hole, preferably below an automobile wrecking yard?
On 24 December 1963, Dr. William Mansfield Adams, was awarded USA Patent #3115194 for his “Nuclear Reactor Apparatus for Earth Penetration”, a needle-shaped device designed to descend under the influence of gravity. This unique device was to be a tele-mining nuclear reactor with a bulk density of 7.6 g/cm3. Such a thermal tool for the direct investigation of planet interiors, and the return to the surface of macroscopic material samples, is a developable means to search any rocky crust at a rate of ~7.8 km/yr. Theoretically, the W.M. Adams tele-miner could reach Earth’s Mohorovicic Discontinuity in ~6 yrs, or possibly quicker if the machine were adapted to become a self-propelled gadget.
Dr. Stevenson’s obvious Big Academic America attempt for general, even worldwide, public notice repeats a May 1958 publicity stunt attempted by a member-in-good-standing of Big Corporate America.
Dr. Willard Bascom, who died in 2000, was Director of the Mohole Project for the National Academy of Sciences. In his 1961 history, A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea: The Story of the Mohole Project (Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York) he described how a corporate publicity stunt nearly derailed the Mohole drilling scheme. In Chapter III, “Science Fiction and Pseudo Science Inside the Earth”, in the sub-section at pages 65-66 titled “The MOLE” he says:
“In mid-1958, about the same time that AMSOC formally became a deep-drilling committee under the National Academy of Sciences and the word Mohole had been coined, rumors of a project with similar-sounding name and destination began to circulate around Washington. There is no direct evidence that there was a confusion between the two but it is possible that after the story of the MOLE became known, some of those who might have supported AMSOC in the early days held back for fear of being taken in by another elaborate hoax. The story of MOLE is told by a series of excerpts from pseudo press releases in electronics trade journals which printed Washington date-line stories above the very tiny word adv.
May 19, 1958
An undisclosed source deep in the Pentagon today admitted that the Department is ‘becoming heavily committed to a radically new weapons system known as Project MOLE (Molecular Orbiting Low-Level Explorer).’
The MOLE should put an end to the threat of war. No place on earth will be secure from the MOLE.
June 2
Dr. Talpa, chief of SEA (Subterranean Exploration Agency) outlined the basic premise of the MOLE. Because conventional missiles are in danger of burning up when the missile reenters the atmosphere, the MOLE is conceived to avoid that problem. It is to be launched downward. Since its orbit is below ground, reentry at high velocity is no problem. To avoid high temperatures the MOLE will travel near the planet’s crust.
Aug 4
The MOLE which was successfully fired a few days ago is now in orbit at depths variously reported as from a few inches to 60,000 feet. Scientists have their ears to the ground listening to the steady ‘crunch, crunch’ signals from the new missile.
Aug 18
A senatorial security committee today declared there has been altogether too much publicity on the vital MOLE project and clamped on it the megasecret classification of DBR (Destroy Before Reading).
This signaled the end of an advertising campaign with phony news stories for a real company that makes potentiometers. It effectively accomplished its objective of spreading the company name through the electronics industry, but, to the surprise of the originators, it left a trail of people who actually believed the fantastic story. Letters and phone calls arrived from people wanting jobs and from companies seeking subcontracts to build parts and launching bases.
The increasingly frequent appearance and mushroom-like growth of new and secret government agencies with large sums to spend on ‘Buck Rogers’ projects had made industry jittery. Who knew which way science would go and what might follow?”
Dr. Stevenson’s 15 May 2003 “modest proposal” in NATURE (423: 239-240) ought to fall into the same defunct status as the MOLE. A Sputnik-size—“grapefruit”—Mission to Earth-core Probe” is ridiculous, although possibly doable. GEOGRAPHOS prefers Dr. Adams’ workable idea to Dr. Stevenson’s tricky proposal.
