pic of the day
  archive
  subject index
  abstract archive

Links:

Holoscience

Electric Cosmos

The Universe

Plasma Cosmology

Society for
Interdisciplinary
Studies

educational
resources

Thunderbolts of the Gods is a 108 page 8-1/2 x 11 full color monograph based on the life work of the two authors--a revolutionary synthesis of comparative mythology and the newly-discovered "Electric Universe".

The Monograph includes an hour-long DVD introducing various aspects of the Electric Universe explained by members of the Thunderbolts Group.

More Information

Book Synopsis

If the channels on the slopes of Mars’ “volcanoes” aren’t collapsed lava tubes, the “volcanoes” must not be volcanoes. As the channels look more like plasma discharge scars, the “volcanoes” look more like fulgamites—blisters raised on a surface by lightning strikes.

Previously, we took a skeptical look at the lava tube theory of the channels around Ascraeus Mons. The channels were too wide for rock to span. There was too little debris on the floors for collapsed roofs. There were no apparent outflows. The ends of the channels and the pits were too circular for the random process of collapse. There were no “caves” or even depressions at the ends to indicate continuity of a tube. The pits were spaced too regularly for random collapse. The sides of the channels were too parallel for flowing liquid. And the merging of channels didn’t result in wider channels as would be necessary for merging lava flows.

Our skeptical look prompted a skeptical suspicion: If the channels and pits weren’t lava tubes, perhaps Ascraeus Mons wasn’t a volcano.

Ascraeus Mons is the northernmost mountain of the three large mountains on the Tharsis bulge immediately west of Valles Marineris. It rises about 10 miles above the surrounding plain.

The middle mountain, Pavonis Mons, is somewhat lower, rising about 6 miles above the plain. It, too, has channels and pits on its flanks. And its channels and pits also reward a skeptical look with the same critical divergences from what would be expected of lava tubes.

And then it adds another divergence: a “dogleg” channel (image above). The summit of the mountain is just outside the top of the image. If we disregard issues of width, debris and circularity, the radial channel might have been the result of lava running down the mountain. But the “dogleg” channels joining from the right at exact 90-degree angles would have been the result of lava running around the mountain.

Where the channels join, the downhill corner is not eroded significantly more than the uphill corner. The bottom “dogleg” has a slight downward turn as it joins the radial channel, but the next “dogleg” up turns the other way. And the channel below the junctions doesn’t get bigger.

Perhaps the channels were formed by two different types of lava: normal lava, which obeys the laws of gravity and addition of volumes, and “dark lava,” which doesn’t. Furthermore, the wall of the radial channel exactly opposite the second-from-top “dogleg” channel has a half-circle “bite” taken out of it. The “dark lava” tube apparently crossed the normal lava tube without being affected by the cross flow.

Or perhaps the channels weren’t formed by lava at all. The characteristics that are so difficult to reconcile with lava are the common characteristics of plasma discharges: constant width and depth, circularity, intermittent action, chains of regularly spaced pits, merging and diverging without changing width...and 90-degree junctures.

A primary discharge channel may have coronal streamers surrounding it—short filaments extending at right angles from the sides. The secondary streamers may develop coronal streamers of their own, resulting in a grid-like or web-like pattern.

A strong vertical discharge may raise a blister or “fulgamite” on the surface, and the secondary discharges will scavenge electrons from the surrounding region. They may leave a pattern of radial and concentric channels or pits. This pattern is especially pronounced in a dense atmosphere, and we see it in the “arachnoid” scars on Venus.