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The Earth currently spins on its axis once every 24 hours, or every 23.934 hours to be more precise. The gravity at the Earths equator is also roughly the same as it is at the Earths north and south poles. If however the Earth revolved in half the time, say 12 hours, then the gravity at the equator would be approximately half of what it would be at the poles. As gravity reaches near zero at the equator, the Earth would need to revolve about once about 7 hours.
This is not uncommon at all for a planetary mass, and many of the planets in our solar system spin at this rate. It is purely an indication of how long they have been shrinking and spinning in space, obeying the principles of CAM.
We can also calculate the size and mass of the missing SIAL that flew off into space. If you measure the average depth from the Earths surface down to the molten asthenosphere, it measures approximately 37 miles down. If you multiply this by the three fourths of the missing surface area you end up with a total mass that is approximately 1/50th the size of our planet.
So are there any floating bodies in space that match this dimension of 1/50th the size of Earth?
There is just one…
By staggering coincidence, or “not”, the volume of the moon is exactly 1/50th that of Earth. Yes that’s right, the missing SIAL from Earth flew off into space and formed our very own moon.
If this single fact isn’t enough, there is yet more evidence…
The principle of the Conservation of Angular Momentum states that even if a portion of the body separates and flies off, all of the angular momentum will “always” be conserved.
If you calculate the total angular momentum of Earth today, and that of the moon, and then add them together, you will find that the sum is exactly equal to that of a spinning mass the size of Earth rotating at a speed of 7 hours per revolution.
This crucial piece of evidence proves that Earth could not have been knocked off its axis by a large asteroid, or forced over on its side by volcanic explosions. If there had been an impact with a roaming asteroid, then the angular momentum from the asteroid would have also been transferred to the Earth or moon.
Since the total angular momentum of the present day earth and moon is exactly equal to the angular momentum of an oblate earth spinning rapidly at close to zero gravity, like our Earth 65 million years ago, then no other body could have possibly been involved in the process.
For those people still thinking this is wildly contrived, this is precisely how almost all of the moons in our solar system are formed around the planets they orbit. It is the natural process of planetary aging.
As a planet cools it spins faster and faster until it becomes unstable and ejects a moon which stabilises itself. This process can happen several times over in larger planets. They eject a moon, stabilise slightly, then continue to shrink and rotate faster until they release another moon, and so on.
Further mathematical evidence involves the observation of the Inverse Bode's Law. The Inverse Law shows that the spacing of each of the planets from the most outward one to the inward one is about 62 percent of the distance of the next outer planet. The Inverse Bode's Law also holds true for the major moons of the solar system, including the formation of asteroid systems.
Other smaller irregular moons give away the fact that they are randomly captured masses from space by the very fact that they don't follow these laws; they are typically very tiny and usually rotate out of the plane of the ecliptic, even rotating backwards sometimes.
Still want more evidence?
On July 20th 1969 man landed on the moon for the first time. The Apollo 11 mission brought back to earth 21.7 kilograms of rocks samples from the moons surface. Over the years extensive studies on these rocks, and rocks from the subsequent missions, have provided us with insight as to what material the moon is comprised of.
The answer…
Well surprise, surprise, its made out of exactly the same material as earth: Silicon, oxygen, aluminium, the same as the Earth's mantle. The composition of the rocks on the moon are that they are volcanic in origin. The rocks are basalts, the same kind of volcanic rock found on Earth. The lunar basalts are rich in iron and magnesium, and they also contain glassy structures that are indicative of rapid cooling. You could say, almost as if they had been suddenly plunged into the cold of space (wink, wink).
In fact the only difference between samples from Earth and samples from the moon is the distinct lack of water in any of the moon samples. When three fourths of the earth flew off into space, three fourths of the water, trees and animals went with it. However with no atmosphere the water quickly evaporated into space, and life immediately died leaving behind only the rock itself orbiting our planet in space, but evidence of rivers, deltas and oceans are still evident on the moons surface today and even the landing site of Apollo 11 itself is named “The Sea Of Tranquillity”.
So what happened to the rest of Earth after three fourths of its surface flew off into space? Well for those animals and plants living around the equator, they would have gone from a near zero gravity environment, to one much closer to that of present day.
In the zero gravity environment, the huge 60 ton dinosaurs could strut around comfortably, and the giant 5 foot dragonflies like the Meganeura depicted earlier, could fly through the air as easily as a butterfly.
In the new heavier gravity environment, these creatures were simply crushed by their own body weight. Only the smaller and lighter mammals and reptiles survived to re-populate the earth. That’s why no such large creatures exist today; our present day gravity and environment would simply not support such a creature's existence.
This also explains why only the large creatures where effected at the KT event. The largest of today’s land creatures are elephants weighing in at 6 tons, and our dragonfly friend, well even the very largest dragon flies today measure a poultry 5 inches.
When archaeologists and scientists first started piecing together the bones of dinosaurs, they assumed that the enormous tails of Sauropods like the Diplodocus and Brontosaurus were dragged along the ground behind them, or supported in large bodies of water. However modern opinion and evidence suggest that these “land” based creatures held their tails aloft, using them as a counterbalance to the rest of their huge frame; Even being able to crack them like an enormous whip. Fossilised footprints of these large creatures very rarely show tail tracks also supporting the modern day counterbalance theory. So there you have it. The real reason why Dinosaurs became extinct, how they managed to become so huge, and what happened to our planet 65 million years ago that brought about so many global and environmental changes. At the very least “It's Always An Alternative Answer”.
It is commonly accepted that life began in the ocean, but few ever note the reasons why. One of the big mysteries of palaeontology is why it took so long for life to emerge on land. Evidence suggests that life in our oceans dates back approximately 1,000 million years ago, when the first single celled phytoplankton formed the very first signs of life on planet Earth. Over the following 600 million years, life continued to evolve into ever larger and more complex life forms, until the oceans where literally teeming with a vast and diverse selection of plants and intelligent animals. It wasn’t until 400 million years ago, that life actually began to form on land itself, and this is somewhat of a puzzle.
Well if we just assume for a moment, that three fourths of the Earths crust was ripped away as suggested, then it's logical to conclude that the hydrosphere or ocean sitting on top of this crust would also have been taken with it.
The current depth of our ocean is approximately 2 miles in depth, however if we add the missing three fourths that disappeared with the Earths crust, the actual depth of our ocean would be closer to 8 miles deep.
“Why didn’t life develop on land?”… Quite simply put, there was no land for it to develop on!
To understand how life suddenly appeared on land 400 million years ago, we don’t need to analyse palaeontology, or even botany and biology. We simply need to have a basic understanding of planetary physics.
One of the principles of physics is the Conservation of Angular Momentum (CAM). The example most commonly used when explaining CAM, is that of an ice skater. Everyone is familiar with the image of a figure skater on ice spinning on the spot, getting faster and faster until they just become a spinning blur. If you watch them closely, you may also notice that they achieve this increased acceleration in speed by drawing their arms in closer and closer to the centre of their body. The CAM principle states, “As a rotating body reduces its distance from the axis of rotation, it must rotate ever faster to conserve angular momentum”. In our example, the spinning ice skater draws in their arms, reducing the distance around their axis, forcing them to spin faster and faster. At the end of the movement the skater flings out their arms bringing them to a sudden stop, or slowing them down.
This exact same principle holds true of planetary mass. When our planet was in its infancy some four and a half billion years ago, it was comprised mostly of molten rock and metal spinning around the sun in space. As this material began to cool, it also began to shrink in size, just as any cooling material does.
This cooling and shrinking effectively reduced the distance around the equator of our planet, and just like in our example of the ice skater drawing in their arms, the Conservation of Angular Momentum forced our planet to revolve and spin increasingly faster.
Over million and millions of years, this ever increasing speed at which the Earth was spinning, built up greater and greater centrifugal force, placing massive pressure around the equator of the Earth, rather like when you spin on a roundabout at the playground. The further to the edge of the roundabout you get, the greater the pressure is forcing you outwards.
This colossal pressure forced the Earth to become slightly oblate in shape and bloated around the middle. Other planets like Jupiter and Saturn and even the Sun itself are also oblate for the same reason, they spin extremely fast.
Baring in mind that the inner layers of the Earth are far denser than those towards the surface, the lighter layers on the outer surface of the Earth began to slide out towards the equator. As this happens, the crust begins to squash and crunch up as the pressure forces it outwards, forming a ridge of mountains right around the Earths fattest point. These types of mountain formations are known as geosynclines.
Example: Imagine if you will a large metal ball. If you were to cover the surface of the ball in an even layer of soft modelling clay, and then spin the ball on the spot at a very fast speed, the clay would begin slide out to the equator and form a ridge. Substitute the metal ball for the denser core of the Earth, and the soft clay for the Earths crust and the principle is the same.
As the Earths crust was forced further and further out the Geosyncline Mountains it created grew ever higher until the peeks, almost 8 miles high, began to emerge above the surface of the very deep ocean.
It was very soon after that land appeared above the waves, that an explosion of life began to emerge on land, ending the Devonian period and beginning the Carboniferous age. Giant redwoods, ferns and pines burst forth in wondrous variety, creating dense rain forests that literally covered this band of mountains around the equator.
As this vegetation grew and died, thick layers of peat formed on the ground, which over time became thicker and more compressed until eventually if turned into coal. In fact so much coal has formed since then that these rich coal deposits are today several miles thick.
This helps us piece things together very nicely, as today, wherever you find narrow strips of geosyncline mountains and large coal deposits, it marks the locations around the world were the original tropical rain forests first existed, i.e. along the true, original equator in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic periods.
Using this information it is then easy to see that modern day theories of the original position of Pangaea could quite easily be inaccurate. They don't tie in with the position of the geosynclines mountains and coal deposits as being along the equator at all. If however the maps of Pangaea are rotated clockwise 45 degrees as we have previously suggested, then not only do you patch the matching hole created by the Tethys Sea, but the geosyncline mountains and coal deposits begin to line up with what would have been the Earths true equator, and everything begins to make a lot more sense.
Another thing that happens as the Earth spins faster and faster, is that gravity at the Earths surface changes quite dramatically. Imagine a lady in a fancy ball gown spinning on the spot. As she spins the trim of her skirt floats upwards and outwards, almost as if it is lighter than air. Like with our roundabout example earlier, the further you get from the centre, the grater the force is pushing you away.
What this meant for life on Earth was that animals on the surface of our planet experienced less gravitational weight. Like superman they would have been able to leap buildings in a single bound, and lift huge boulders with relative ease, and because there was far less pressure forcing them back down to Earth it allowed them and the plant life around them, to grow to gigantic sizes.
Now coming back to our example of the steal ball covered in soft clay, if you spin the ball faster and faster eventually the clay will slide out to the equator so much that eventually a huge chunk will fly off, and like the skater flinging out their arms, the metal ball will suddenly reduce the speed at which it is spinning.
Remember the missing continental SIAL? Well if we refer back to our metal ball example we can see exactly where it went. As the Earth cooled down and shrank, it started to spin faster and faster. The Geosyncline Mountains forced out to the equator and rose up above the deep oceans. Life on land then began evolving over millions of years, until eventually the Earth span so fast that three fourths of its outer surface, the SIAL, flew off into space.
The Earths crust flew off into space with so much spinning energy, that the angular momentum would have soon shaped this mass into a spinning sphere of its own, spiralling outwards into space.Before we get too far ahead of ourselves at this point, it’s probably best that we substantiate some of these extreme theories with a little evidence.
You are probably aware that the Earth itself is made up of layers, rather like an onion. These layers formed naturally as part of the creation process of our planet.
As the Earth span and cooled, the heavier material was drawn to the centre to form the Earths core, and the lighter material was forced out to the surface, thus forming various layers of dense material.
The closer you get to the Earths core, the denser and hotter those layers of material get. In fact the gravitational pressure at the Earths core is so great, that if you were to suddenly find yourself their, the pressure of gravity would crush your body to the size of garden pea.
Above the earths core we have the mantle and asthenosphere which is where flowing lava comes from. This is comprised mostly of silicon-magnesium (named SIMA), and on top of this layer floats the crust, which is the outer layer of our planet that we live and build our houses on.
The crust, for obvious reasons, is the most widely studied and understood layer of our planet. It is made up almost entirely of silicon and aluminium atoms which are bonded with oxygen hence the name SIAL.
Above the SIAL we have the ocean or Hydrosphere, which takes up two thirds of the planets surface, and above that we have the various gasses that make up the air we breath or Atmosphere.
This diagram shows a cross section of the earth, to illustrate the various layers of our planet.
Our planet is not unique in its layered formation, and according to NASA, virtually all large planets and moons form layers this exact same way. But there is one thing that does make the Earth unique…
Almost three fourths of the Earths outer layer (the rocky SIAL or crust) is missing, it quite simply doesn’t exist! How could such a thing happen, and where did it disappear to?
In 1912 Alfred Wegener, the geophysicist who produced the continental drift theory, published a book detailing that three fourths of the Earths continental layer, the SIAL, is missing.
These facts came to light in the 1980’s, when a number of ships carried out extensive studies of the ocean bed in an attempt to locate new oil reserves and resources. The samples they retrieved from these expeditions revealed something extremely odd. They brought back SIMA from the ocean bed, not SIAL. Further studies on these samples revealed that these cooled lava samples were no more than 65 million years old.
In conclusion these findings would indicate that prior to 65 million years ago there was an even layer of SIAL covering our entire planet, just like all the other planets in our solar system. Then something happened which tore away three fourths of the Earth crust, revealing the hot SIMA and lava from the asthenosphere beneath. This material then cooled over time to form the new ocean bed as we know it today.
Another piece of important evidence that lends weight to what happened is the break up of the Pangaea, or continental shift, as published by Alfred Wegener himself.
When three fourths of the Earths crust was torn away, the remaining land mass was all in one chunk on one side of the planet (the Pangaea). Then over millions of years, our spinning planet forced this land mass to break apart and separate around the earth into a more balanced position, forming the continents we know today.
The above picture shows a text book impression of what the Pangaea looked like 225 million years ago. However as we will examine shortly, the top right section labelled the Laurasia, would fit more appropriately, if it were rotated clockwise 45 degrees. This would then fill the gap where the Tethys Sea is depicted.
You may also have noted that the above depiction dates the Pangaea back to 225 million years ago, not 65 million. However if you were to rotate the Pangaea 45 degrees as we have just suggested, then the Paleo-magnetic measurements that date the Pangaea back to 225 million years ago, would actually date Laurasia and Gondwanaland as being still together right up to 65 million years ago.
If the Earths crust had covered the entire planet up until 65 million years ago, and was then suddenly ripped away, this would certainly account for the samples taken from the oceans bed. What’s more, it would also coincide precisely with the sudden tilt of the Earth to 23.5 degrees, which forced the beginning of the seasons which we looked at, and the mass extinction of prehistoric life.To lend even further weight to this theory, there is even more geological evidence that we can look at in order to piece together the various parts of the jigsaw puzzle, and find the answers we are looking for.
The reason we have seasons on Earth, is due to the fact that the Earth sits on a 23.5 degree polar tilt as it orbits the Sun.
In order for the Suns energy to reach the surface of our planet and generate warmth, it needs to travel through the Earths atmosphere. The part of the Earth directly facing the Sun receives the most energy, because the Suns rays have less atmosphere to penetrate.
As light travels to the furthest perimeters of the Earth, the angle of the planets surface in relation to the Sun requires these rays to pass through far more of the Earths atmosphere, and thus much of the Energy if deflected away.
The light reaching the Earth is also far more concentrated at the point directly facing the Sun, and at the angled perimeter this energy is diluted over a larger area, as the illustration below demonstrates.
The 23.5 degree tilt, means that over the course of a year, as the Earth travels around the Sun, different parts of the Earth receive more direct exposure to the Suns rays than others, according with its orbital position and time of the year.
Click here for an animated example of how this works.
If it were not for this 23.5 degree tilt of the earth, the climate would remain the same all year round. Therefore, is it not possible, that before the KT Boundary event, the Earth remained steady on its axis, with an unchanging climate. Then something dramatic happened, forcing the Earth to tilt on its axis, and in turn give birth to the four seasons. These seasonal changes then lead to the extinction of the large cold blooded Dinosaurs.
You could of course argue at this point that the Earths tilt was caused by a huge asteroid smashing into the Earth, knocking it out of line, or that a huge volcanic explosion forced the Earth over on its side. But there is still the annoying point of why only large Dinosaurs were affected not smaller ones. So is there another explanation that explains things more clearly?
The difference between cold blooded creatures like reptiles, and warm blooded mammals, is not the temperature of their blood. In fact both cold and warm blooded creatures operate at a very similar blood temperature most of the time. It is the means by which these creatures regulate their body temperature that the terms ‘cold’ or ‘warm blooded’ refer to.
Cold blooded creatures maintain a constant blood temperature, by hiding in the shade when they get too hot, or basking in the Sun when they become too cool. This method of sunning and cooling keeps their blood at an even and steady temperature for the creature to survive.
Warm blooded creatures or mammals differ, in that they use some form of gland, similar to the human thyroid gland, situated near their throat. This gland keeps a constant check on the air temperature breathed in, and compares it directly with the temperature of the blood being pumped from the heart to the brain. It then releases a thyroxin (a hormone), into the body which affects the rate at which cell oxidation occurs, and through perspiration or raised energy levels, a constant and steady metabolism and blood temperature is achieved.
Whether a creature is cold blooded or warm blooded, the blood flowing to the creatures brain needs to remain a steady 100 degrees Fahrenheit. A drop in temperature by just a few degrees will induce coma, shortly followed by death.
This is precisely why mammals, such as polar bears, can survive in extreme climates, whilst reptiles are forced to inhabit areas of the planet that maintain a constant high temperature all year round.
Whilst a climatic change from a meteor explosion would certainly lower the temperature enough to kill off reptiles, it doesn’t explain why smaller reptiles survived, or why these same reptilian giants were able to survive globally around the world, before the meteor hit, in areas that exhibited extreme seasonal changes today.
Surely if these gigantic creatures were so affected by cold weather, they would not be able to survive a harsh winter either.
As well as this distinct and sudden change from cold blooded to warm blooded creatures, there was an equally dramatic change to the planets flora.
Before the KT event, the primary form of plant life and vegetation on Earth was gymnosperms such as ferns, pine trees, and other non flowering plant life. The term ‘evergreen’, derives from the apparent lack of change these plants or trees have all year round. Though they do not flower, these plants do produce spores or seeds. In fact the term ‘gymnosperm’ means ‘naked seed’, and as such they have no protective coating, and fail to thrive in harsh environments with dramatic seasonal change.
After the KT event, the change shifted dramatically to ‘angiosperms’, meaning ‘covered seed’. These forms of vegetation flower each year, then die, and grow anew from their protected seeds the following season. Similarly trees of this type will blossom, grow new leaves, which in turn die during winter, and completely re-grow the following year.
Angiosperms are a very good example of plant life that thrive in environments which exhibits seasonal change, and in fact rely on these seasons to prompt their life cycle. The hardened coverings of the seeds they produce enable them to withstand these climatic changes that occur all year round.
With this in mind, the conclusion from the KT event, should not therefore be the change from one species to another, but rather a global environmental change, from a temperate non-seasonal tropical climate, to one that cycles through spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The environment, atmosphere, and ecology of planet Earth changed from a steady unchanging climate, to one with diverse seasonal changes.
So how could this possibly be? Why was it that before the KT event we had no distinct seasons, the climate remained the same all rear round, and after the event we shifted through hot and cold periods throughout the year.
To answer this question, we first need to look at how the seasons work in the first place.
Probably the most popular theory is that a massive meteorite, estimated to be about 6 miles wide, crashed into the Earth with disastrous effect. The impact crater from a meteorite of this magnitude would be about 110 miles in diameter, and the debris from such an immense explosion would have blown up into the atmosphere, dramatically changing the climate and ecology of planet Earth. This in turn forced the mass extinction of over 75% of all living things including plant life, and a total extinction of those huge creatures we call Dinosaurs.
The theory of an asteroid disaster is best supported by a discovery made in the late 1970’s by Dr Luis Alvarez’s, who’s team of scientists discovered a thin white powdery layer in rock samples that date back 65 million years. This thin layer is believed by many to have been formed by the fallout of debris from the meteor explosion. Since its initial discovery, similar samples have been found all around the world to support this theory.
This thin layer of sediment is commonly referred to as the ‘KT boundary’ because it separates the Cretaceous Period from the Tertiary Period, however we will examine this defining statement in more detail later.
Interestingly enough, this rock layer also contains high elements of iridium, a compound more commonly found in asteroids than the Earths crust. This again lends weight to the theory of a meteorite disaster.
The most fascinating point of interest about the KT boundary is that below the thin sedimentary layer of rock there are plenty of fossilised dinosaurs, yet above the layer there are virtually none. This single fact alone categorically indicates that this is in fact the point at which Dinosaurs became globally extinct.
This theory whilst widely supported does not conclusively prove how the Dinosaurs became extinct, only when they became extinct.
Other common theories for dinosaur extinction run along a very similar vein, but substitute the meteorite strike for global scale volcanic eruptions. The fallout of which, causes both the extinction of the Dinosaurs and the sedimentary layer of the KT boundary. However what these theories fail to explain, is why these global climactic changes only affected large reptiles like the Dinosaurs, and not smaller ones such as lizard's crocodiles and turtles, and even less effected were the vast and diverse variation of small mammals which dominate the living planet on Earth today.
Coming back to our definition of the KT boundary. The mainstream experts note this change between the cretaceous period and tertiary period, as being a change from cold blooded creatures to warm blooded creatures, however this viewpoint is a little ambiguous and leading, as will now be explained in more detail.
Deus ex machina
Meganeura is the largest know flying insect, ever to have lived on Earth. It bares close resemblance to the modern day dragonfly, but with a massive wingspan of 2 ½ feet.
Though it lived in the carboniferous era between 350 to 280 million years ago, experts in the field today are still in a quandary as to how this creature could have even existed, let alone fly with wings and dynamics that size. French scientists Harlé and Harlé stated in 1911 that it would be physically impossible for such a creature to exist given what we know of today’s gravity and atmosphere.
Fossils of gigantic prehistoric dinosaurs have fascinated mankind for many years, and the debate over how these titans of the land and sea became extinct still exists today. But few if any, question ‘why’ or ‘how’ these creatures ever existed in the first place.
Admittedly, this is largely due to that fact, that fossils prove they existed, and that little further questioning is required. However, why then is it that no colossal beasts, like those from millions of years ago, exist today? And not just animals, but plants, trees and vegetation, which in prehistoric times were as gargantuan as the creatures inhabiting the Earth now seem diminutive in comparison with those of modern day.So why has everything become so small, and how did such huge creatures and plant life ever exist all that time ago?
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let's examine some of the more popular theories as to ‘why’ dinosaurs became extinct.
