Pyramidal mountain, Wadi Rum, Jordan. Click to enlarge.
Oct 3, 2017
Is it erosion that carved these shapes?
Some scientists think that the Egyptians copied their pyramids from natural formations. The Black Desert, among other locations, provides evidence for that contention. In the image at the top of the page is a large pyramid-shaped monolith in Wadi Rum, a site made famous by the movie, “Lawrence of Arabia”. The layering within the structure (and elsewhere) might be where the ancients derived their concept of stepping their constructions for stability.
Pyramidal mountains are found all over the world. From the frozen desert of Antarctica, to the highest places on Earth, they all exhibit similar morphology. What causes three-sided formations in areas with such disparate climates?
In Peru, Nevado Alpamayo, located in the Cordillera Blanca region of the Andes Mountains, rises 6000 meters above the plain. In the Kinnaur Himalayas of India is a mountain simply known as The Pyramid, although it could be argued that nearly all Himalayan peaks are pyramidal. In Montana, near Yellowstone National Park in the Beartooth Mountains, is a pinnacle aptly named Black Pyramid Mountain.
When analyzing these shapes, an important fact is that they are not located on Earth, alone, they are also seen on Mars. Elysium Planitia, for example, is composed of fractured terrain with several polygonal landforms that planetary scientists find difficult to explain. When viewed as a three-dimensional anaglyph, the multiple terraces, steep-sided pits and sharp angles are clearly visible. There are 120 degree angles, an identifying characteristic of pyramids.
What can preferentially create those angles? On Mars, as well as the Moon and Mercury, it is thought that they come from the impact of multiple objects in a cluster. For example, so-called “crater doublets” display those angles when their shared ramparts are examined. It is suggested that larger bolides travel through space with companion objects, so when they strike another celestial body they punch-out a double, triple or even quadruple crater formation. Crater chains are another example of 120 degree angles in their sculpted walls.
Hexagonal formations are found on almost every planet and moon. It is significant that hexagons are polygons with 120 degree exterior angles. Perhaps the pyramidal peaks are partial hexagons.
Electric arcs are filamentary. Researchers find that beams of electricity flowing through plasma create a central column surrounded by concentric cylinders. As mentioned in a previous Picture of the Day, cylindrical discharges can form diocotron instabilities in the arc vortex. As the filaments rotate around one another, a hexagonal cross-section forms within the innermost column.
In electrical machining equipment, electric discharges stick to one spot for a split second, cutting microscopic craters as the main discharge rotates within a larger one. The typical shallow, flat floors of the craters, together with central polygonal bumps, are a match to patterns created by plasma physicist Cj Ransom in his laboratory arcing experiments.
If massive electric discharges, otherwise known as megalightning, are generated by some phenomenon in space near a rocky body, those electric arcs might cut into the topography. Since the bolts are filaments of electric charge flow, they strike together, moving across the terrain with greater or lesser strength, depending on the conductivity of the surface. Instead of shock fronts from blast effects, the partial hexagons are what remains when the rest of the material is electrically removed.
Electric discharges pull positively charged particles toward a point where the arcs meet downward negative leader strokes. Charged particles are yanked out of rocky strata with tremendous power, dragging neutral molecules along with them. That electromagnetic force disintegrates the rock, changing it into ultra fine dust, which follows the electric field toward a spot where the upward return stroke meets the leader coming down from above. The secondary electric arc leaps upward, completing the circuit with whatever initiated the primary. Neutral dust follows charged particles into the discharge vortex, so there is little (if any) debris left behind.
It is a fundamental tenet of Electric Universe theory that electricity rules the sciences. Whether it is fossilization, crater formation, climate, or astronomical observations, electromagnetism is the first force to consider. In consensus circles, it is the last.
Stephen Smith
