- From the Hollow Planets website http://WWW.HollowPlanets.com/
- By Wayne Cosby
-
- One of the major difficulties in formulating a theory
of planetary formation is accounting for the very stuff that the earth
is made ofógranite rock. Granite is very complex, it is hard and
brittle, and it has a coarse crystalline structure. Current theories of
planetary formation assume a very long and slow cooling-off period for
an early molten mass that was to become a planet. However, the best
evidence
suggests that granite had to be formed very quickly. This plus various
other considerations makes it very difficult to imagine the process
occurring
at all without divine assistance.
-
- I will use two main sources in developing these ideas.
The first is an email to the Hollow Planets discussion group that
elaborates
on ideas proposed by British Col. James Churchwood ("Cosmic Forces
of Mu," Book One, Last Chapter: "Addenda"). Churchwood
appeared
to lay the groundwork for a reasonable scheme of planetary formation. The
second is the book "Creationís Tiny Mystery" by Robert
V. Gentry (Earth Science Associates, Knoxville, Tennessee, 1986). Gentry
is one of the foremost authorities on the subject of granite rock. It is
of interest that both Churchwood and Gentry conceived of planetary
formation
in creationist terms, but Churchwoodís perspective was Hindu and
Gentryís Christian.
-
- First, I want to emphasize that granite rock has never
been synthesized in a laboratory, and we never see it forming in nature.
The conditions required to form granite rock are not known, but we can
rule out several mistaken notions and narrow the range of choices.
-
- The following definition of granite from the
Websterís
New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (1983) emphasizes the great complexity
of granite rocks:
-
- "in geology, a very hard, igneous rock, composed
of quartz, feldspar, and mica, or at least of two of these minerals,
crystallized
together, varying greatly in texture and color.
-
- graphic granite; a species of granite called pegmatite,
containing no mica and having the crystals of quartz so arranged that the
face of a section of it resembles a tablet covered with Oriental
inscriptions.
-
- porphyritic granite; granite in which distinct crystals
of feldspar appear embedded in a matrix of finely crystalline
structure.
-
- syenitic granite; granite containing hornblende, the
chief constituent of syenite: called also hornblende granite."
-
- I had never heard of the Sacred Writings of Mu until
recently, but as I read the creation account there, I was struck with the
similarities with the Genesis account in the Bible. Both accounts
considered
the divine command to be agency of creation, and both contained many
similar
elements. However, the Hindu account contained more details. The following
quotation indicates the beginnings of the earth as envisaged in the Sacred
Writings of Mu:
-
- The first intellectual command was: "Let the gases
which are scattered throughout space be collected together, and with them
let worlds be formed."
-
- Then the gases were brought together into whirling
circulating
masses.
-
- The second intellectual command was "Let these gases
cool and solidify." Obeying this command, some of the gases cooled,
solidified and formed round worlds.
-
- It may very well be true that swirling gases were the
starting point for planetary formation, but this poses major problems.
First, what could cause gases in space to swirl in this manner? Gases can
swirl on the Earth where they are held together in an atmosphere, but in
the vacuum of space, they would simply scatter and become tremendously
dilute. Gases have strong kinetic energy, and molecules of gas repel each
other strongly. In order for gases to hold together in the vacuum of space,
it would be difficult to escape the conclusion that there was divine power
holding them together.
-
- Temperature poses another problem. Extremely high
temperatures
would be required to maintain the elements comprising granite rock in a
gaseous state. For example, uranium, one constituent of granite, has a
boiling point of 3927 degrees C. I work at the Hanford Site in Southeastern
Washington State where research is progressing to vitrify (convert to
glass)
the large quantity of radioactive waste that was generated at Hanford
during
the Cold War in weapons production. The melters for this process will be
required to heat the solution to more than 1000 degrees C. It will require
large amounts of energy directed into a closed and insulated container
to achieve such melting temperatures, and the temperatures that would be
required to turn the mixture into gases would be phenomenal. It is
impossible
to imagine gases reaching such temperatures in the vacuum of space where
the temperatures approach absolute zero. If the proto earth began as
swirling
gases, it would be difficult to escape the conclusion that we are looking
at divine miracle.
-
- But what if the proto earth were composed of swirling
dust particles rather than gases? Temperature would no longer pose a
problem,
but there would still be the problem of something to hold the dust
particles
close enough together to start swirling and finally to start compacting
together. Dust particles do not naturally pull togetheróthey
scatteróeven
on the Earth where we have the advantage of an atmosphere. Consider the
most intense swirling winds that we know on Earthóa tornado.
Swirling
atmospheric gases stir up dust particles in a swirling frenzy (but what
would cause dust particles to swirl in the vacuum of space where there
is nothing to push them along?). Also, even with the violent swirling of
dust particles in a tornado, none of those particles cling together. They
scatter as soon as they escape the pull of the gases that move them around.
There is no evidence that dust particles could ever cling together even
in an atmosphere, much less in the vacuum of space. Again, it would be
difficult to escape the conclusion that divine miracle had to be involved
if the earth started as a swirling cloud of dust particles.
-
- Now let us assume that the material comprising the crust
of the Earth somehow was forced together and began to compact and then
to heat up from the great pressures. The temperature of the entire mass
would have had to exceed 1132.2 degrees C (the melting point of uranium)
to melt the mixture. In reality, much greater temperatures would have been
required on the inside in order to achieve such high temperatures on the
outside because heat would be radiating out into space. I think we must
assume that such high temperatures were achieved, however, because granite
is in fact igneous rock.
-
- Let us now assume that somehow the proto Earth became
an extremely hot liquid that began to cool. James Churchwood became of
owner of a steel mill later in life, and he observed the cooling process
of mixtures of steel. Churchill observed that "The process of cooling
molten matter to the point where it becomes a solid is: first, a thin shell
of crystals is formed on the outside of the mass, thus forming a crust
or wall." Churchill also observed an interesting condition known as
"piping":
-
- "Quite often when casting steel ingots, a regular
hollow is formed in the ingot if the metal is poured too hot. This is
technically
called "piping." This condition only occurs when cooling metal
from a molten state, and occurs because in building up to the outside crust
all material has been drawn from the center, leaving it
hollow."
-
- This would be of great interest when considering the
possibility that the planets are hollow. I also find it of interest when
considering the formation of granite rock because the process of forming
granites would require extremely hot temperatures. The cooling of this
extra-hot mixture may have resulted in planet-sized piping.
-
- Problems arise, however, when we begin to consider
various
details in the formation of the granites. Current theory holds that the
original molten Earth cooled slowly and that the granite crust rocks formed
on the outside as the cooling progressed over millions of years. An initial
problem encountered is that crystallization does not even start unless
there are "seed" crystals to start the process (Gentry quoting
Dalrymple, p. 128). If the earth began as a molten mass, we would face
the problem of the origin of the seed crystals that were necessary to start
the crystallization process. But now letís assume that somehow seed
crystals were inserted (by a divine hand?), and the crystallization process
commenced.
-
- Gentry pointed out that a slow normal cooling process
will never form coarse granite rocks (p. 130). This can be seen in volcanic
flows. Volcanic flows never produce granite even though the content was
right because the source of the molten material was granite to begin with.
Volcanic flows produce solid basalt or porous lava, but never granite.
This is clear evidence that normal melting and cooling processes will never
produce granite rock. The crystals formed by normal melting and cooling
processes are small whereas the granites have very large crystals, thus
making coarse rocks. Gentry pointed out that certain regions within
granites
(pegmatites) sometimes contain crystals of biotite that are several feet
in length (p. 131). So how can we account for the very large crystals of
granite rocks? We cannot know the answer for certain because nobody has
ever synthesized granite in a laboratory or seen it form anywhere else.
However, since slow cooling will not produce large crystals, Gentry
proposes
that extremely rapid cooling was required.
-
- If granites could only be formed by extremely rapid
cooling,
then we face the problem of trying to account for a planet-sized molten
mass of minerals quickly cooling. In fact, Gentry developed other evidence
that the cooling literally happened within minutes. He studied polonium
halos within granites. Halos are formed when radioactive material undergoes
fission and ejects energy that forms a damage trail in the surrounding
rock. Different elements have distinctive signatures that can be recognized
by the size and strength of the halo. Polonium is an element in the decay
chain in the process of uranium decaying into lead. Gentry noticed that
granites are teeming with polonium halos that exist without any parent
uranium halos in the vicinity. A slow cooling process could not account
for this because parent uranium would have to be there in a case of slow
cooling. Some of the polonium isotopes only have a half life of 3 minutes,
so Gentry proposed that the molten liquid of the Earth was cooled in less
than 3 minutes.
-
- Clearly such rapid cooling could never have taken place
by natural means. However, the presence of very large crystals in the
granites
plus the presence of polonium halos without parent uranium halos argues
for an extremely rapid cooling. Such rapid cooling is another piece in
a long chain of evidence that argues for rapid divine creation rather than
uniformitarian processes in the formation of planets.
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