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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.

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Nov 11, 2005
The Strange Lava Tubes of Mars

If Ascraeus Mons on Mars is a volcano, the channels on its slopes must be collapsed lava tubes. But a close look reveals characteristics that no lava tube possesses. The channels look more like the scars left by plasma discharges.

This false-color image of channels on the north slope of Ascraeus Mons on Mars shows warmer areas in red and cooler areas in blue. Ascraeus Mons is described as a volcano, and the channels are considered to be collapsed lava tubes. This explanation may sound plausible—if you’ve never seen a volcano or a lava tube.

Lava tubes on Earth form when flows of low-viscosity lava solidify on the outside but continue to flow inside the resultant “shell”. When the eruption stops, the lava may flow out of the shell, leaving a hollow tube. Often the unsupported roof will collapse in places, leaving a series of channels. If at this level of description we stop looking, the channels of Ascraeus Mons could be collapsed lava tubes.

But there is more to see. Lava tubes on Earth are only a few meters wide. The width of channels on Ascraeus Mons are measured in thousands of meters. Even with Mars’ lesser gravity, solidified lava is not strong enough to span such distances: None of the channels should be covered.

Lava tubes on Earth are only a few tens of kilometers long, and they end in the lobe of lava that poured from them. The channels on Ascraeus Mons, if they carried lava from the mountain to the plains, would run for hundreds of kilometers. But they have no obvious lobes of outflow to demarcate their paths or their function.

Lava tubes on Earth have floors covered with debris where the roofs collapsed, and at the ends of the collapsed sections they often have openings into the “caves” of the intact sections. The channels on Ascraeus Mons have very little debris on their floors, and the channels end in circular alcoves—many exactly circular—that give no indication of a continuing underground tube. The terminal sides—presumed to fill in the opening to the rest of the tube—are indistinguishable from the longitudinal sides—presumed to be talus that has piled up against a solid face: Some unspecified force must have moved debris along the channel to plug the openings.

Lava tubes on Earth have short sections of collapsed roofs that occur haphazardly. Many of the features on Ascraeus Mons are chains of circular pits that occur evenly. Some of these chains cross the other channels as if the channels weren’t there. Like the channels, they appear to have been scooped out of the landscape without disturbing the surrounding terrain or leaving debris.

Lava tubes on Earth seldom have parallel sides. Any flowing fluid will erode the outside of curves more than the inside. Most of the channels on Ascraeus Mons maintain a constant width over great distances.

Lava flows on Earth may join, producing a wider flow. Where the channels on Ascraeus Mons join, the downstream channel is often no larger—and sometimes smaller—than only one of the channels that merged.

Flowing lava—or any flowing fluid—on Earth does not behave in these ways. Only one known “fluid” has all these characteristics—the “electrical fluid”, better known as plasma. The characteristics of the channels on Ascraeus Mons, as well as those of the mountain itself and the surrounding terrain, are those produced by electrical discharges in plasma laboratories.

 


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