- The greatest canyon in the solar system, Valles Marineris
on Mars, underscores the contrast between two interpretations of the planet's
history. Now, high-resolution images of the chasm cast new doubts on old
explanations.
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- In recent years, no planet (apart from Earth) has received
more scrutiny than our neighbor Mars. The "planet of a thousand mysteries"
is more than an unusual member of the solar system. It has emerged as a
laboratory in space for the exploration of solar system history. And the
story it has to tell is so different from the things we learned in school
that a retreat from all prior doctrines is now essential. Current geologic
concepts, based on terrestrial observations of volcanism, erosion, and
shifting surfaces, fail to account for the features of Mars, and the history
and geology of Mars that have been built on those concepts is incomprehensible.
But letting go of a cherished belief system often requires a shock.
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- Fittingly, it is the electrical viewpoint that provides
the required "shock to the system". The contributors to our Pictures
of the Day believe that on the objective test of "predictive ability"
-- the only legitimate test in the theoretical sciences -- the electrical
hypothesis will account for the dominant features on Mars, where popular
theory fails.
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- Often the simplest test of a new approach is to consider
its most extraordinary claim. Of all the enigmatic features on Mars, none
is more striking than Valles Marineris, the great trench cutting across
more than 3000 miles of the Martian surface. In our Picture of the Day
for April 08, 2005 "The Thunderbolt that Changed the Face of Mars",
we suggested that Valles Marineris was created within minutes or hours
"by a giant electric arc sweeping across the surface of Mars. Rock
and soil were lifted into space and some fell back to create the great,
strewn fields of boulders first seen by the Viking and Pathfinder landers".
- (Link: www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/050408marineris.htm)
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- But what will it take for planetary scientists to consider
a new way of seeing Valles Marineris? It will require a willingness to
reconsider all assumptions, without prejudice. A prejudice is an unfounded
assumption that leaves one in a state of partial blindness. On the matter
of Martian history in general, and Valles Marineris in particular, the
most powerful prejudice is an untested supposition, the bane of space age
science: the idea that planets have moved on their present courses for
billions of years. No one should have the intellectual privilege of asserting
such an idea as dogma. The idea originated as a guess and then, in the
absence of any definitive evidence, crystallized into a doctrine held in
place only by the inertia of belief.
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- The second requirement is to allow for the possibility
that the Sun and planets are charged bodies so that, within an unstable
solar system, electrical arcing between these bodies may have been the
dominant force that carved surface features. Yes, this is an extraordinary
possibility, but it is also supported by an immense library of evidence,
as we intend to show in these Pictures of the Day.
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- Forces external to the planet Mars have shaped its past
far more dramatically than any process in the toolkit of standard geology.
Look at the Valles Mariners as pictured above. The continental-scale chasm
lies on a bulge rising 11 km (6.8 mi) above the surrounding plains. Did
evolution of the planet in isolation produce this vast bulge? And what
of the trench itself? Traditional geology cannot explain in a plausible
way Valles Marineris. Here, for example, is the "explanation"
offered in a recent release by the European Space Agency:
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- "The whole canyon system itself is the result of
a variety of geological processes. Probably tectonic rifting, water and
wind action, volcanism and glacial activity all have played major roles
in its formation and evolution."
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- The anomalies and exceptions to this litany of standard
geologic processes reduce the applicability of standard theory to the point
of leaving nothing that it explains. In the electric view, the electric
force raised the Tharsis bulge, along with the surface "blisters"
of Olympus Mons and its companions to the west, and a planetary-sized electric
arc cut Valles Marineris into the bulge.
- (Link: www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/040705olympus-mons.htm)
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- Today all but a tiny minority of geologists have dropped
the idea of creation by flooding. The most common agent currently cited
is surface spreading. But higher resolution pictures lend no credence to
this concept as well, and many high-resolution views appear to categorically
refute it. To illustrate the point we offer a close-up view (lower image)
of a small section of the western end of the canyons of Valles Marineris
-- Tithonium Chasma and Ius Chasma (marked by the white box in the context
picture above). The second (lower) picture, with a resolution of 52 meters
per pixel, shows the neatly "machined" look predicted by the
electrical arcing hypothesis.
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- This is certainly not the appearance predicted by the
popular idea of a massive "rift" opening up on the Martian surface.
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- There is no evidence of lateral surface movement, and
the stubby, cleanly cut alcoves stand as clear witnesses to the removal
of material, as if by a router bit. So too, the sharply defined chain of
overlapping craters in the upper right speaks for the scooping out and
removal of material, not for rifting. Of this pattern, predictable under
the electric hypothesis, the Valles Marineris provides many instances.
We have placed two examples of this at the following links:
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- www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/images05/050516coprates-chasm.jpg
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- www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/images05/050516vmtributaries.jpg
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- For a time, the most plausible instance of surface spreading
was Labyrinthus Noctis, the chaotic region to the west (left) in the upper
picture. In particular, that explanation seemed plausible in the earlier
Mariner probe image seen here. Some scientists had compared this region
to the cracked surface of a loaf of bread as the surface is raised and
spread during baking.
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- But more recent pictures show something quite different.
Here we see the same indications of cleanly cut trenches or channels now
revealed throughout Valles Marineris, though the pattern is more chaotic
and the depressions more shallow. From an electric viewpoint, the stupendous
arc that cut Valles Marineris was diffused into secondary filaments before
being quenched. As seen in numerous counterparts on Mars, the depressions
of Labyrinthus Noctis appear as complexes of crater chains and flat valleys,
cut by the same force that created the overlapping craters elsewhere on
Mars. The surface areas untouched by the arc thus remain as buttes and
surrounding plains above scalloped cliffs. The smooth surfaces above the
valleys show no evidence of rifting or of the supposed stressed that are
claimed to have "torn" the surface, just a complex of even more
shallow, flat-bottomed and often parallel grooves, a recognized signature
of electric arcing.
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- For the mythology related to the VM see:
- Apr 12, 2005 Lightning-Scarred Gods and Monsters: (Link:
www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/050412scarface.htm)
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- Upper photo credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State
- Lower Credit: ESA
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