. . . e v o l u t i o n e m . . .

 

         taking a fresh look at evolution

Planetary Metamorphosis

This article launches the concept that planets around a star have a life-cycle of birth, development, ageing and final destruction. During these stages their structure varies considerably in terms of state and composition.

 

Within our Solar System I believe we have planets which illustrate these various stages. We are gathering more information about them  through space exploration, but our own Earth tells us a considerable amount about this phenomenon.

 

By examining the concept of a planetary lifecycle, we may come to a clearer understanding of the inter-relationship between energy and matter. In fact a similar (scaled-down) relationship may exist between protons, neutrons and electrons. At the other end of the scale we may also be able to interpret more clearly the relationships of stars to galaxies and galaxies within the universe.

 

This concept originates from an intuition that our planet has been slowly increasing its diameter. An increase in diameter would elegantly explain the nature of the land masses and why we have plate tectonics. It cannot be just a coincidence that all existing land masses fit neatly together on a smaller diameter globe. The theory of a uniform expansion of the Earth has been around since the 1970’s but  my ‘Clam-shell’ expansion theory, however, is a new interpretation which explains the origin of the super-continents  - Laurasia and Gondwanaland.

 

This article is relevant in today’s debate over global warming. If this Theory of Planetary Metamorphosis is correct then global warming is inevitable as our Earth is drawn closer to the Sun. It could be that we are doomed to the inferno which exists on Venus. If we look at Mars, theoretically one step behind in the lifecycle, perhaps we should start thinking about seeding photosynthetic organisms on its warmer regions so that they will create a habitable new World for us in the future!

 

So let us start looking at this theory of Planetary Metamorphosis - while we still have time!

 

Stage 1. Gas Clouds and Proto-planetary Rings

 

The planetary life cycle could begin as a gas cloud.

This could be like a ring of hydrogen gas gathered up and held by the gravitational pull from a star, in our case the Sun. Is there any evidence of a gas cloud or ring on the outer edge of our solar system?

 

There is a disc shaped ring named the Kuiper Belt on the outer side of the orbit of Neptune and it extends some 50 Astronomical Units further outwards (1 A.U. is the distance between the Earth and Sun). Similar discs have been observed around several young stars in our galaxy, notably Beta Pictoris, first seen in 1984. Their discs have been estimated to extend out 10,000 Astronomical Units from the star.

 

Gas clouds already formed as flat rings begin to seed as ‘knots’ when hydrogen gas forms around dust/debris. After reaching a critical mass, these embryo planets (planetesimals), probably no more than a kilometre in diameter, appear to mop up more ice and hydrogen as they very slowly migrate inwards on their stellar orbit. This inward spiral migration could be driven by an increased gravitational pull due to the planetesimal’s increasing mass. As all material/debris on the same radius is orbiting at the same velocity, coalescence with more material can only come about by positional (radial) change.  

 

Once we accept that inward spiral migration is occurring, then the theory of Planetary Metamorphosis is merely a manifestation of this phenomenon. Inevitably all planets will increase their mass as they move in towards the star. Cresswell and Nelson have documented that new planets accrete within proto-planetary discs around new stars and migrate inwards in  ‘lockstep’ towards the star. I presume the term lock-step - refers to inter-gravitational effects between planets, and the maintenance of a distance between them.

The general consensus at the moment appears to be that planets only form when stars are young, and hence the number of planets is fixed from the beginning. This may be due to an assumption that planet-forming material becomes depleted after star formation. However, Jan Oort (1950) was of the view that there is a vast cloud on the edge of the solar system (some 50,000 A.U) in which comets reside - and this has come to be known as the Oort Cloud. If this is the case - then there still remains considerable planet-building material.

 

 

 

Objects in the Kuiper Belt

 

It is estimated that there are at least 35,000 objects in the Kuiper Belt which are greater than 100 km in diameter. These are mainly icy structures.  One object, discovered in 2002, and designated 2002 LM60 is thought to be more than one thousand kilometres in diameter. More recently, an object designated as UB313 (Eris) is considered to be larger than Pluto. We will disregard these rocky objects for now as they could just be debris from asteroids - old  and spent material. What we are looking for is new planet forming material - of a ‘young’ nature, such as hydrogen.

 

 

Neptune The Embryo Planet?

 

Neptune is a large ball of hydrogen and helium gas - so it could be considered to be a planet at the embryo stage of our proposed life-cycle. It resides at the outermost position of the Solar System. Inward gravitational compression of its gases must cause intense heat energy generation, because Neptune radiates twice as much heat as it receives from the Sun. This heat generation could emanate from a small core. The core could be the result of an accumulation of cosmic dust mopped up in the early stages of  its development.  

 

 

 

Neptune is nearly 50,000 Kilometres in diameter and its orbit is thirty times the distance of the Earth from the Sun. So in Neptune we see a large mass of gas and an inward gravitational pull perhaps creating a very small hot core.

 

 

Uranus

 

Uranus is  slightly larger than Neptune. Its orbit is some two-thirds the distance of the orbit of Neptune from the Sun. The composition and structure of Uranus is likely to be very similar to that of Neptune; its colour and outward appearance are much the same.

 

Uranus differs in its rotational behaviour and its axis of rotation is perpendicular to that of Neptune. Hence Uranus’ poles receive more energy from the Sun than the equatorial region. Despite this, Uranus’ equator is warmer than its poles. This suggests that the heat is coming from the core region in a similar fashion to that of Neptune.

 

So the properties of Uranus are similar to Neptune even though it is much closer in towards the Sun in its orbit. It probably has a slightly larger core and has mopped up more hydrogen and cosmic dust than Neptune.

 

Uranus’s atmosphere, like that of Neptune, comprises of mainly Hydrogen with some Helium.

 

 

Saturn

Saturn is yet another gas planet and its orbit is nearly ten times the distance of the earth from the Sun. Its diameter is more than twice that of Uranus.

 

It has a distinct disc with two rings. The colour of its outer atmosphere has changed from the blue to a tan colour. Like the other planets discussed so far  it could have a small, hot core and there could be considerable volcanic activity at the cooler crustal surface. The ejecta from  this powerful volcanic activity could perhaps be responsible for the characteristic colour of its atmosphere. As with the other gas planets, high speed winds will disperse this particulate contamination evenly throughout the atmosphere.

 

The ring structure of Saturn could be the debris from moons orbiting very closely to Saturn (satellites such as captured asteroids orbit closer  to fast rotating planets than slower ones). Saturn’s powerful forces of tidal gravitation could have led to the disintegration of  satellites. Roche limits would describe how the rings form on a planet.

 

Jupiter

 

Jupiter is larger  again than Saturn. It has a dense atmosphere of brown twirling clouds of hydrogen gas. Water, methane, and carbon dioxide are also present in small amounts. The colour of these dense clouds - particularly the Great Red Spot - may also be due to contamination of ejecta material from very violent volcanic activity on the crustal surface of its small core. There are many other smaller spots which could signify other volcanic activity. The magma ejecta could now have an iron content, giving a red tone. Jupiter has a very strong magnetic field - even more powerful than Earth’s and this suggests an abundance of iron in its core. This suggests that cosmic dust and debris which has been captured by central core will have been rich in Iron.

 

Let us pause to compare these four gas planets.

Comparative data on the gas planets is as follows.

 

 

 

Planet    Equatorial Diameter  Orbital dist.

 

Neptune          49500 km                30 AU

Uranus            51100 km                19 AU

Saturn          120,500 km                  9.5 AU

Jupiter          143,000 km                  5.2 AU

 

Note that these planets are increasing in diameter as their orbits get closer to the Sun. Remember 1 AU is the distance of the Earth from the Sun. This is in line with the laminar theory of dust accretion over time. This theory is discussed in a separate article.

 

So the the planets Neptune to Jupiter are all in the same first stage of metamorphosis and by and large resemble each other. They all have rings, and hydrogen and helium are the predominant elements. Gravitational  forces will have compacted ( and accreted) cosmic dust at their cores. This core material will reflect the relative abundance of the elements in the cosmic dust.

 

Davison E Soper describes the Model for Jupiter’s interior as comprising of three zones, a central rocky core, enveloped by a Metallic Hydrogen Zone which in turn is surrounded by an outer Molecular hydrogen Zone. This could be low energy hydrogen.

 

At some point during the Jupiter-like phase, if the Theory of Planetary Metamorphosis is correct, planetary form changes profoundly. This change may come at a critical  distance point from  the Sun. The resultant form - a denuded Jupiter -like core would resemble Ceres, the next planet in the sequence. Perhaps by this stage the hydrogen molecules have been displaced by heavier gases to the outer edge of the Jupiter-like atmosphere where they release themselves from the inward pull of gravity and float away on the solar wind.

 

Hydrogen and helium appear to defy gravity. Think of those helium balloons that float higher and higher into the sky. It is just that the specific gravity of these gases is lower than the other atmospheric gases such as oxygen and nitrogen. In the same way that oil floats up on to the surface of water, even if it is injected into the lower levels, hydrogen and helium make their way upwards.

 

 

The diameter of Ceres is less than five per cent of that of Jupiter’s - but could be the size of its small rocky core.

 

The diameters and distances of the Planets are as follows:-

 

Ceres      950 Km       2.8 AU from the Sun

Mars       6794 Km     1.52  AU

Earth    12756 Km      1.00 AU

Venus   12103 Km      0.72 AU

Mercury   4880 Km     0.38 AU  

 

Ceres - you may ask.? I include Ceres as a significant planetary body in the Solar series.  Hidden in the asteroid belt among irregular shaped asteroids, the spherical Ceres  is of particular significance in Planetary Metamorphosis - in that it represents the early stage of a growing ‘rocky planet’. Of great interest too - is the fact that it is covered by a deep ocean of ice/water.

 

 

 

As the planets approach the Sun, they continue to enlarge incrementally until they get within 0.85 AU, after which they start to reduce in size and this is probably by the process of sputtering/ sublimation.

 

 

 

Mars will in time expand its size some 88% to arrive at the size of planet Earth.

 

Mars has an  enormous bulge known as Tharsis, 4000 km long, and this could be the first part of this expansion process. We infer from data that Planet Mars is of a similar structure to Earth with regard to crust thickness, molten rocky mantle, and core properties.

 

There are also signs of a first rupture line at the Valle Marinaris which stretches some 4000 km long and is up to 7Km deep

 

The Theory of Planetary Metamorphosis explains many aspects of our Planet Earth.

 

 

As all the Continental land masses fit together on a smaller globe, it must mean that these land masses were an original integument of the planet and the Earth was at one time

only 50% of its present size.

 

The following shows a model of how all the land masses fitted together and which Continents were were adjacent to each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used Google Earth to determine the proportion of each Continent to avoid the distortion inherent with atlases. From a thin sheet of moulding clay, I cut the shape of each continent and laid it on the surface of a sphere which was some 50% of the diameter of the one represented on Google Earth. The various pieces of continents fitted together surprisingly easily, particularly with respect to the increased curvature of a smaller sphere. It appears that continental fragments have not changed their shape a great deal in the last billion years or so. The top of the of the northern continent of America needed the most adjustment to fit in properly, but this was merely because it has become splayed out and fragmented somewhat to form the great lakes and bays. The State of Quebec tucks back nicely into the Hudson Bay area and the Baffin Islands and Greenland also easily re-attach.

 

The model also suggests that the western side of North America (west of the Rocky Mountains) was much further north in relation to the land mass east of the Rocky Mountains.  In other words the northern part of Mexico was up near the Canadian frontier. These two parts of North America have sheared in different directions and are still maintaining this movement today. The mobile belt west of the Rocky mountains is being dragged southward by the Pacific Ocean bed formation, while the central and Eastern side of North America is being pushed north-westwards by the spreading of the Atlantic Ocean bed. There are several shear-faults which produce a complex pattern of rock movement - not all in   parallel - but some rotating into oblique angles.

 

From the model it appears that Central America was originally attached to the Californian coast on one side and Antarctica on the other side.

 

The most surprising discovery of all was the position of Antarctica - sandwiched between Eastern Asia (China) and South America.

 

While making the model, I found that it was best to fit Africa alongside South America rather than South America alongside Africa - as it is apparent that Africa’s lower three-quarters has been skewed clockwise somewhat. Incredibly, this torsion  of Africa’s landmass accurately explains the opening up of the Great Rift valley in its north eastern area!

 

The landmarks of modern cities would have been as follows:

 

The  tip of India next to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)

 

Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Orange River (S. Africa)

 

Jacksonville (USA) next  Dakar (Senegal) West Africa

 

Boston (USA) next to the southern coastal border of Morocco

 

Anchorage (Alaska) next to the Kola Peninsula, (north-west Russia)

 

Brisbane  in Australia where the southern tip of South America joined the tip of the Thailand Peninsula.

 

New Zealand was sandwiched between Patagonia (South America) and the lower eastern coast of Australia.

 

From this model it can be imagined how the Super Continents of Laurasia and Gondwanaland initially formed; through a long rupture line, which began at the Horn of Africa and extended along the  north-west coast of India, and along its northern side. Then the rupture line followed the top of New Guinea (still attached to the top of Australia) down the west coast of the Thailand /Myanmar Peninsula, along the coastal tip of Chile and then followed the Antarctic coast around to the Colombian coast of South America. From here it followed the north side of South America until it reached  West Africa and it then followed the African coast up to the Mediterranean .

 

This initial fracture line would separate the Pangean Super-continent into two components., Laurasia and Gonwanaland .

 

So the first significant new ocean bed material to be laid down will have been in the Pacific Ocean area, built from magma from the East Pacific Ridge. This Pacific Ridge is now equidistant between the Chinese coast and Antarctica but it originally lay between the Chinese coast and  Antarctica.  The gradual formation of this new ocean-bed crust led to the lop-sided growth of the Earth because the opposite side - the Mediterranean area - did not form any new crust but acted more like a hinge between Africa and  Euro-Asia. Here came the analogy with the way the clam shell  opens up.

Here the top component of the bivalve clam is represented by Laurasia while the lower component is represented by Gondwanaland.

 

The analogy with a clam shells is useful in that the separation of the two parts increases directly with the distance from the hinge.

 

The continents would separate by the issue of magma from the rupture line to progressively lay down an ocean bed. Water would gravitate into the rupture line and its sheer weight would prevent the magma from building upwards as a series of volcanoes.

 

The Mediterranean Area as a hinge-point is consistent with its geographical history and its active volcanism. At a hinge-point one would expect buckling of the crust (as in Alps, and other Mediterranean mountain ranges), volcanism from crust fracture points (three volcanoes on the Italian Peninsula area) but little lateral movement between continental plates.

 

The Rock of Gibraltar is a huge fragment of sedimentary rock which has been pushed upwards and flipped over on its side. The effect of buckling at a hinge-point is one of the few explanations for this unusual geological formation. Gibraltar was formed relatively recently (within the last 100 million years) perhaps when the hinge line angled slightly from  one position  to another.

 

The gradual opening up of the the Pacific Ocean  in a clam-like way would bring about distortion of the planetary sphere. The pull of gravity, however, would correct any out-of-roundedness before it manifested itself.

 

Earthquakes, a sign of sudden crust adjustment, have taken place regularly throughout the hinge point area of the Mediterranean since history was first recorded. Notable ones were in Greece (425 BC), Ephesis in Turkey (AD 17), Pompei (AD 63), Constantinople (557), Aleppo, Syria (1138), Lisbon, Portugal (1531) Gibraltar (1765), Turkey and Iran (more recently).

 

Mountain ranges like the Alps, the Sierras of Southern Spain, the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, the Zagro Mountains of Iran, and the Taurus Mountains of Southern Turkey are all products of buckling of the Earth’s Crust at this hinge-point times during the past hundreds of millions of years.

 

If the Clam Shell Theory is correct, we would expect the edges of the continents which are furthest away from the hinge-point to separate most from their former attachments. This is so. We decided that the uppermost component of the clam-shell was the continent of Europe and Asia. Its distal edge from the Mediterranean hinge-point is the coastline between North Korea and the Kamchatka Peninsula, including the Russian part. My model shows this was attached to t Antarctica. If you look at the globe on Google Earth, fix on the far east Coast near South Korea, and then roll the globe round to Antarctica; you will note that, surprisingly, the attitude of Antarctica has stayed  the same. It has followed a vector, consistently. Antarctica has the widest separation distance from the Asian far East with total distance of roughly 15000 Kms. If this ocean bed floor grew at the rate of only one centimetre per year it would take 1.5 billion years to create an ocean floor the size of the Pacific between Asia and Antarctica. Ocean beds do form much faster than this - up to 6 cm per year but much of it is eventually pushed down below the continent plates in a process known as sub-duction.

 

 

 

Pangea, when we look at it in this light is the integument of a smaller planet. It may have been entirely covered by an ocean. The west coast of the United States and Canada, being originally attached to the north Russian coast, has been displaced by more than its entire length, in its own continental drift.

In placing the continents on a smaller globe I ensured that they all had plausible positions regarding their vectors for subsequent separation. Land masses will not have rotated significant amounts. Three major expansions lines caused separation of the continents. The first, the clamshell one as described, the second, down the east African Coast, and the third and most recent, the Atlantic split, between America and Europe and Africa. The present positions of all the continental fragments has to be consistent with these compounded vectors.

Australia attached to South Western United States

 

The SWEAT hypothesis first described by Borg in 1990 suggested that  South Western Unites States was conjoined at one time with Eastern Antarctica.

 

Independently, this hypothesis has been supported by a  research team (US-Australian) led by John Goodge (2008). They found a granite boulder atop of Nimrod glacier which on subsequent chemical and physical analysis showed similar properties to igneous rocks from California.

 

My Small Earth Model, does not place Antarctica in direct contact with California but has the narrow peninsula of East Siberia  in between.

 

More details about John Goodge can be found at :-   http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111911&org =OLPA

 

 

Water on the Surface of Planet Earth.

 

At this point we need to discuss the levels and amount of water that existed on the planet in its early phase. It is not clear whether the vast amount of water on the Earth is a result of the presence of microbial life during the last three and a half billion years or whether it was there originally.  

 

The photosynthesising organisms along with those that reduce metal oxides and sulphur oxides have profoundly altered the atmosphere. They have brought about the depletion of carbon dioxide and caused the accumulation of gaseous oxygen in vast amounts. Before the advent of photosynthesising life, the atmosphere of the Earth could have been similar to that which exists on Mars today.

The atmosphere on Mars is as follows

 

Carbon dioxide       95.3 %

Nitrogen                  2.7%

Argon                      1.6%

Oxygen                    0.15%

Water vapour            0.03%

 

The Atmosphere on Earth is as follows

 

Carbon dioxide        0.003%

Nitrogen                 77%

Oxygen                   21%

Water vapour           0.05%

 

In comparing these figures it must be borne in mind that the atmospheric pressure on Mars is less than a tenth of that on Earth.

 

We can explain the high levels of oxygen and water vapour and the low levels of carbon dioxide but we have no suggestions as yet as to where the large quantity of nitrogen has come from. Nitrogen may have been abundant as a nitrate (a compound of nitrogen and oxygen) and this may have been reduced to nitrogen by anaerobic bacteria. Or simply, it may have out-gassed from volcanoes which were previously active.

 

Oxygen is formed during the process of photosynthesis:

 

6 Carbon dioxide + 6 Water + light energy =  Carbohydrate + 6 Oxygen

            

 

Many land mass areas on the Earth are covered with sedimentary rocks which suggests that the Earth was entirely covered with water around 1 - 2 billion years ago. A planet which was increasing in diameter would have a gradually increasing surface area for the fixed amount of water to spread over. From  this it follows that at some point the land emerged from the waters, defining the oceans as separate entities.

 

This critical point in the relation of surface area of the planet and its water volume likely occurred around 450 million years ago in the Ordovician Period, because the first land plants - mosses emerged around this time. These were the plant equivalent of amphibians in that they depended upon considerable moisture for their survival. The first land animals also appeared at this time and these were ancestors of the centipedes, scorpions,  spiders  and insects. At that time, these creatures probably looked very much like crustaceans. The most primitive insects, the Thysanura such as silverfish, still look like crustaceans.

 

Various reefs had formed by this stage at the edges of the emerging land masses. Tidal effects will have left reefs exposed for long periods and so it follows that many of these first land plants and animals got their ‘grounding’ on these reefs, evolving the ability to survive out of water for longer and longer periods.

 

At this time fish had not evolved but their predecessors - jawless fish (lamprey like in form) were beginning to flourish in what is now defined as the Silurian Period (434-408 million years ago).

 

The northern and central regions of the Asian land mass, together with parts of North America, may have been the last areas to emerge from the global seas as the surface area of the planet increased. This would explain why we have ancient fish such as sturgeon (Acipenser, which have been around for 200 million years ) in land locked lakes such as Lake Baikal. Lake Tanganyika, too, has its own derivations of ancient fish - not present anywhere else in the World.

 

Continued in Planetary Metamorphosis Part 2  ........

Saturn

Jupiter

Uranus

Neptune