In Chapter II, ten categories of words for Mars in the Old Testament were cited, plus an additional four in ancient Greek literature. This is a total of fourteen terms in two languages. In the next five chapters, a long series of thirteen catastrophes, largely from Hebrew literature, will be cited and discussed. The discussion will focus on the topic of "the fire of the planets," which was electricity flowing between Mars and the Earth as described in various ancient sources amid flyby scenes.

Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23 - 79) of Rome was among the foremost historians and natural scientists of the ancient world. So intense was his interest in natural phenomena, he died while observing the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius at too close a range; he was engulfed in sulfurous fumes. Pliny wrote 79 volumes entitled Historia Naturalis. Pliny's works were the closest thing in the Roman Empire to an encyclopedia of science. For instance, Pliny was aware of the sphericity of the Earth, and he observed that men on the opposite side must stand with their feet pointed toward Rome.

Pliny differentiated between two different kinds of lightning. One kind, seen during his era, was associated with clouds, thunder and rain, with which all were familiar. The other kind occurred only (for him) in ancient times, and that lightning was associated with the planets. He wrote as follows.

Most men are not acquainted with a truth known to the students of science from their arduous study of the heavens, that thunderbolts are the fires of the three upper planets. ¹

The three upper planets were Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. He added:

Heavenly fire is spit forth by the planet as crackling charcoal flies from a burning log. If such a discharge falls on the Earth, it is accompanied by a very great disturbance in the air. ²

The great disturbance in the air no doubt was a shock wave, produced at the site of a celestial lightning strike where, for a fraction of a second, temperatures may have risen to a million degrees. The ensuing shock wave would have been very loud, capable of being heard for thousands of miles. It is with the greatest respect for Pliny's arduous research and study that we have entitled this 3rd chapter, "The Fire of the Planets."

Seneca of Rome (B.C. 54 -39 A.D.) added that during the ancient times (to him), there was a difference between the "lesser bolts, which struck houses and the lightning bolts of Jupiter:" ³,⁴ Like Seneca, Pliny wrote that when a cosmic discharge fell from a planet to the Earth,

... it was accompanied by a very great disturbance of the air...by birth-pangs, so to speak, of the planet in travail. ⁵

Birth-pangs, as a figure of speech, was used by more than one ancient writer to describe catastrophic crises. Birth pangs are very painful. During them, the belly heaves (like the Earth's crust) with pulsations or rhythm, and they are over in l or 2 days, again paralleling catastrophic experiences. Isaiah, writing just before the flyby of 701 B.C., used the same descriptive phrase.

Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand;
it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Therefore shall all hands be faint,
and every man's heart shall melt:
And they shall be afraid:
PANGS AND SORROWS SHALL TAKE HOLD OF THEM;
THEY SHALL BE IN PAIN AS A WOMAN THAT TRAVAILETH:
they shall be amazed one at another;
their faces shall be as flames...
Isaiah 13:6-8 (Caps ours)

During a celestial discharge, like during a nuclear explosion, there is a flash of light.

The Psalmist wrote in a similar vein:

The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness;
the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve
Psalm 29:7-9a

It is conceivable that, during the extra gravitational and magnetic activity, a rash of births coincided with the havoc wrought by flybys.

ELECTRICITY, IO and JUPITER

Having cited Seneca's discussion of lightning bolts of Jupiter, it may be that he confused Jupiter with Mars for certain understandable reasons. Seneca wrote some 700 years after the last catastrophe, and if he got the planetary father (Zeus-pater to the Greeks) and the planetary son (Ares to the Greeks) confused, such would not be particularly surprising. He was not alone in an occasional confusion of planetary identifications.

Zeus-pater in Greek converted into Latin and became Jupiter; its "nickname" was Jove. Some brief attention needs to be paid to certain electrical aspects of Jupiter in order to better understand Earth history. We shall survey Jupiter not like the ancient star-gazers with their eyes and not like the modern astronomers with their telescopes. Rather we shall view Jove and its satellite Io in some detail as did the cameras of Voyager during its flyby in 1979.

Jupiter is the largest of the planets. It is 320 times as massive as the Earth. However it is of light consistency; its density is 1.32 compared to water which is 1.0 and to the Earth's density which is 5.52. Thus, Jove requires about 1300 times as much volume as the Earth. Jupiter is probably comprised of a super-heated metallic liquid core with a radius of perhaps 15,000 miles. Overriding that hot, metallic core is some 30,000 to 35,000 MILES (not feet) of atmosphere. Jupiter's hot and deep atmosphere is perhaps 100 million times as massive as the Earth's relatively thin and cool atmosphere. This perspective is important because it is essential to understand how much atmosphere there is on Jupiter which can be stirred by tides generated by Jupiter's four satellites. Its planetary magnetic field may be generated from the friction in its atmosphere, as will be discussed in a later chapter.

Our own moon creates minute tides in our atmosphere plus some significant oceanic tides, as well as some tides under the crust in the region known as the "mantle." The crustal tides caused by the Moon are about 3.1 inches high. Our Moon happens to be almost an identical sister to Io, Jupiter's inner- most moon, in size as well as in distance from the home planet. In fact, Io is 2270 miles in diameter compared to the Moon's diameter of 2170 miles, a difference of only 100 miles. In addition, Io orbits Jupiter at a distance 10% farther away, at 261,000 miles. Io is 21% more massive than the Moon. If Io orbited around the Earth rather than around Jupiter, at that distance the tide lo would cause on the Earth would be within 2% of the same amount as the Moon causes.

Jupiter has 4 moons, (1) lo at 261,000 miles, (2) Europa, somewhat smaller at 415,000 miles, (3) the giant Ganymede at 665,000 miles and another giant, (4) Callisto, at 1.17 million miles. Each of these satellites creates tides in Jupiter's massive atmosphere. Tides vary with the mass of the satellite but also with the inverse of the distance to the cube power. When calculated out, Jupiter's inner moon, Io, generates 80% of all of the Jovian tides, while the other three satellites, due to their farther distances, generate a combined total of 20% of those tides. Thus, tides in Jupiter's giant atmosphere are primarily due to Io, a virtual duplicate of our Moon in density, in diameter and in distance from the home planet. It must be realized that the Io-created tides in such a deep atmosphere as Jupiter has must be immense atmospheric tides indeed. So is the immense resultant friction created therein.

When Voyager made its flyby of the gigantic Jupiter (in 1979), it recorded much data concerning Jupiter's electrical field. Jupiter's field is shaped much like that of the Earth's. Jupiter's planetary magnetic field has two poles (not four or eight), a north magnetic pole and a south magnetic pole just like the Earth. Jupiter's magnetic field strength was greater than the Earth's magnetic field strength by a factor of fourteen times. Jupiter's field was found to be 4.2 Gauss compared to the Earth's field strength of .3 Gauss and to Saturn's field strength of.2 Gauss. Our initial observation is that the Earth's geomagnetic field strength ranks right up there with the giants, Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter's mass is 320 times the Earth's, and Saturn's mass is 92 times.

The biggest surprise (which was totally unexpected) was that there is a constant loop of photographable electricity flowing between Io and Jupiter. In technical terms, it is known as a "flux tube of ions and charged particles." Its shape is not a bee line; its shape is a 360° loop with electricity flowing outward to Io on one side of the loop and with electricity flowing back to Jupiter (looping across a vacuum 260,000 miles long as the bee flies). A vacuum happens to be an extremely poor conductor of electricity, which makes the presence of such a lengthy, immense current flow all the more "shocking." See Figure 4 for the "local scene" and then Figure 5 for the over all picture.

The following are features of the aurora or flux tube of current flowing between Io and Jupiter. Its length is about 800,000 miles, which is 260,000 miles times Pi. It is photographically visible, and a section 13,000 miles long of this current of flowing electrons and ions was photographed by cameras on Voyager: Its brightness was found to be about 40,000 Rayleighs in the visible range and 60,000 Rayleighs in the ultra-violet range. This compares to our own planet's northern lights, auroras which are barely visible when at 1,000 Rayleighs.⁶

The voltage of this flux tube or aurora has been estimated at 400,000 volts.⁷ The amperage has been estimated at 5 million amps.⁸ And its wattage has been estimated at 2 quadrillion watts.⁹ All of the man-made generators of electricity on the Earth, including hydroelectric, natural gas, oil, coal, nuclear, steam, wind and what not, total less than 30 trillion watts. This single loop of Ionian-Jovian electricity is 70 times greater in power than all of the man-engineered generators combined. Man-made electricity flows in wires, usually in copper or aluminum wires. The Io-Jupiter electricity flows in no wires at all and across a terrible conductor, the vacuum of space.¹⁰

THE FLUX TUBE OF ELECTRONS AND CHARGED PARTICLES
FLOWING BETWEEN JUPITER AND ITS INNERMOST MOON "IO"

This aurora of electricity discharges on Io's crust. Its discharges are associated with vaporized silicon, sodium and sulfur. Sands containing silicas melt at about 3100 E, and the sand grains vaporize at about 4700° F. Temperatures of this range occur outside of the laboratory, in nature, only in nuclear explosions and in celestial lightning discharges. These extreme temperatures, melting and vaporizing silicons and sulfurs, are achieved from Jupiter at a distance of 260,000 miles.

IO'S TORUS AND ITS FLUX TUBE OF ELECTRONS
FLOWING TO JUPITER AND BACK

Therefore, wherever vitrified sands (glass in nature) are found on the Earth (except at Hiroshima and Nagasaki), that location is a prime suspect as having been the site of an ancient electrical discharge, one of Seneca's "bolts of Jupiter;" which was really a bolt from Mars. Perhaps Seneca reviewed the writings of Apollodorus when Apollodorus pictured bolts from "Jupiter" chasing Typhon, as has previously been cited.

We have reason to believe that there were approximately 170 close flybys of Mars in ancient times between 9900 B.C. and 701 B.C.. In addition, those flybys occurred in cycles of 54 years, like clockwork in timing. Furthermore, since there is no similar flux tube of electricity from Jupiter to Europa at 415,000 miles, our analysis is that during the Mars-Earth catastrophes, a similar flux tube of charged particles formed at a distance of 85,000 miles, the minimum, but more likely at a distance of about 125,000 miles as Mars approached the Earth. The ancient Mars flux tube, in our theory, also lasted until Mars diverged a similar 125,000 miles. Our calculations indicate Mars advanced at 27,000 m.p.h. Therefore, the flux tube (also known as the Silver Bowstring of Apollo Shootafar in Greek and the Sword of the Lord in Hebrew literatures), formed and persisted for a time period of up to 7 or 8 hours, once or twice per century.

The astronomical world was astounded at this flux tube discovery by Voyager. (See Figures 4 and 5.) The astronomical world has not been reading Apollodorus or Hesiod, Isaiah or Amos, and it has not been perceiving the electrical aspect of ancient Mars catastrophes. Most, if not all astronomers, now think the Ionian-Jovian flux tube is the only one that exists, or has ever existed in our solar system. We suggest there have been two other flux tubes to consider. Secondly, there was the ancient Mars-Earth series of flux tubes. We believe this phenomenon occurred about 170 times across nine millennia, ending in the 8th century B.C.

Thirdly, there is the scene of Neptune and its innermost satellite, Triton. Voyager will photograph this scenery in February, 1989. The planet Neptune is 17 times as massive as the Earth, and therefore it has more material wherein tides might be caused. Its inner satellite, Triton, is the largest in the solar system. Triton is clearly bigger than Mercury. It probably has a diameter of 4,000 miles, which compares to the Moon's 2,200 miles and the Martian diameter of 4,200 miles. (The Earth's is 7,900 miles.) Triton could be even bigger than Mars. Even as Io is the twin sister to the Moon in terms of dimensions, so Triton can be considered the twin brother of Mars in size and in mass, although it is not a planet.

The Moon orbits at 239,000 miles. Io orbits at 261,000 miles. The giant satellite, Triton, orbits at a distance of only 220,000 miles from Neptune. Triton has 20 times the tide-raising ability as compared to Io or the Moon. Neptune is 17¼ times as massive as the Earth. Thus, Triton should cause massive tides within the large planet, Neptune. We believe that tides are the generators of all planetary magnetic fields and those of the Sun (the sunspots) in addition. Our calculations, if correct, predict that the Neptune-Triton scene will furnish a third flux tube of planetary electricity, and furthermore, its strength will be found in the range of 2.8 to 2.9 Gauss, about 65% as strong as the Ionian-Jovian flux tube. Predictability is one trait of solid scientific theory. Our Mars-Earth catastrophic theory, and its accompanying geomagnetic theory, makes such a prediction. Verification or contradiction will occur within a half year as Voyager will pass over Neptune and Triton in February, 1989.

We are now mentally prepared to understand and to recognize in ancient literature occasions when celestial lightning discharged on the Earth's crust, amid mankind, amid frightful geomagnetic conditions when one planetary field passed through that of the other planet. Celestial blasts or discharges occurred, creating momentary temperatures perhaps ranging up to 1 million degrees, which in turn created lethal shock waves, capable of being heard half way around the Earth.

Mars flybys apparently tortured the Earth (and vice versa) from about 9900 B.C. to 701 B.C. We have no significant historical records from the pre-flood era. Noah's Flood can be dated by catastrophic cyclicism at October 24, 2484 B.C., and it can be dated by Biblical literature and Josephus at the 24th or more likely the 25th century B.C. In 2484 B.C., Saturn was supporting and adding to the Jovian influence in narrowing the orbit of Mars and thus narrowing the gap and intensifying the flyby cataclysm. Noah's Flood will be the first of 13 examples to be cited and analyzed in the next four and a half chapters.

Just before beginning our discussion of a series of 13 Mars-Earth catastrophes, we are presenting Table I which will categorize and classify various specifics of each flyby. In Table I, names have been given to each of the 13 catastrophes, twelve from the Old Testament and one from Greek literature of the Heroic Age. From our cyclic analysis, dates are also given and are to be considered as firm and as faithful as are orbits in our era.

The first 169 of the 170 flybys in each case was a sunward side flyby. This has been learned from a computer program where the endurance and behavior of a variety of orbits were assessed. The final flyby, the 170th, was a night-side or nocturnal flyby, when Mars was actually passing over the Earth on the outside, not between the Sun and the Earth.

The position of Jupiter was always significant; "Jove" was the leader of the celestial ensemble. It maintained Mars in the catastrophic orbit until the last flyby. Figure 1 in the first chapter gave the general relationship of the catastrophic orbits of Mars and the Earth to each other. But, a broader view is needed. Figure 6 illustrates how the Mars-Earth system related to the orbit of Jupiter. Figure 6 has a 1-billion mile scope of view since the radius of Jupiter's orbit is about a half billion miles. But, an even broader perspective is needed, a 2 billion mile perspective. This is provided in Figure 7, which portrays how the Mars-Earth orbital system and the orbit of Jupiter related to the orbit of Saturn. These orbits, like a good quartet, were all in harmony. Thirty earth orbits (of 360 days, not 365¼) equalled fifteen Mars orbits, two and a half Jupiter orbits, and one Saturn orbit.

From Table I, it should be noted that there were regular catastrophes and there were mega-catastrophes. The mega-catastrophes occurred when Jupiter was in the zone of Cancer and when Saturn was 180° opposite, in Capricorn, or vice versa. What was the proportion of influence on Mars by the gravities of Jupiter and Saturn? As discussed later, it was about 4½:1 in favor of Jupiter.

Saturn in either Cancer or Capricorn was 800 million miles distant from the Earth, and it was 700 million miles distant from Mars. How is it possible that Saturn could be a factor? Figure 8 illustrates the "a" axis, the long axis of an ellipse, and the "b" axis, the short axis. The short axis was about 15,000 miles at the closest to our estimate of 60,000 or perhaps 70,000 miles at the most distant. The difference, while mathematically subtle, was also of enormous effect. If Saturn could narrow the orbit of Mars by 25,000 miles, which was one part in ten thousand, it would be the difference between a flyby at 25,000 miles versus 50,000. See Figure 13. Since we know that the intensities of electromagnetic induction and tides on spheres both vary with the cube of the distance, a flyby at 25,000 miles was 8 times intense as one at 50,000 miles. More specifically, a flyby at 15,000 miles (like our estimate for Noah's Flood) was 8 times as intense as a flyby at 30,000 miles (like the Long Day of Joshua), and it was 64 times as intense as one at 60,000 miles such as the Philistine Phalanx flyby of 1080 B.C. or Sisera's Celestial Centennial (a flyby of 1296 B.C.). Figure 8 illustrates the "a" axis and the "B" axis of the catastrophic orbit of Mars, an orbit which was subject to warping by both Jupiter and Saturn.

From Table I, it should be noted that Saturn's position was noted only if it were 180° opposite to Jupiter. Never in a catastrophic year were they in the same zone. It can be noted that mega-catastrophes occurred once every 540 years, which is something like the 500-year time period which Josephus discussed for the great cycle between catastrophes. It should also be understood regular catastrophes occurred once every 108 years, both in October and mid-March. For instance, there were 108 years between the mid-March catastrophes of 701 B.C. and 809 B.C. And also for instance, there are multiples of 108 years between the catastrophes of 1296 B.C, 1080 B.C. and 864 B.C. Apparently a Mars flyby occurred in October 1188 B.C., but it wasn't recorded in the Old Testament. The same is true for a mid-March flyby in 1025 B.C.

There is another perspective. Both the flux tube of electrons and charged particles and the magneto-tail of the magnetic field of Mars raked the sunward side of the Earth on each flyby but did not rake the opposite or dark side. In every case in the Old Testament where an October flyby is mentioned, it was in the daytime and usually in late morning. This means that the Eastern Hemisphere suffered far worse than the Western Hemisphere. However, in the mid-March flybys, it was the opposite situation; the Western Hemisphere suffered particularly on those occasions.

One more perspective needs to be portrayed before we go to a specific analysis of Noah's Flood. Based on paleomagnetic reversals, there seem to have been about 170 of them, creating 85 magnetic north poles in Canada and 85 magnetic north poles in the region of Antarctica. We believe each Mars flyby, once every 54 years (counting both October and mid-March cases), created a paleomagnetic polarity reversal. This means by extrapolation that the Mars-Earth Wars" began about 9881 B.C., since they ended in 701 B.C. (54 times 170 is 9180 plus 701 produces 9881 B.C.) Accordingly, around 10,000 B.C. is our estimate for the onset of the Mars-Earth catastrophes.

Table I describes catastrophes based only on extant literature. No literature exists describing catastrophes before Noah's Flood. During the 1783 years sketched on Table I, our model says there should have been l6 mid-March flybys and another 16 October flybys, a total of 32. We find literature describing only 13, or about 40%. This includes only one of the first ten, but it also includes the final four and five of the last six.

Based on paleomagnetic reversals, there seem to have been 170 or so flybys, of which the time in Table I accounts for only 1783 years out of a total of 9200 years. This is less than 20%. And 20% of 40% is only 8 %. The thirteen catastrophes about to be described represent about 8% of all of those flybys going back to 9900 B.C. Yet, they are a representative sample. The Noah Flood flyby at 15,000 miles (core to core) is believed to have been the closest, but there were probably five or six that were nearly as close in the pre-historical era.

Our combination of astronomical analysis and literary analysis indicates that Mars varied up to 3 or 4 hours in its flyby timing from orbit to orbit and from cycle to cycle. The great majority of the mid-March flybys are noted to have occurred during the middle of the night, roughly the midnight hour, as reported in Old Testament eye witness cases. By the same token, the great majority of the late-October flybys will be noted to have occurred during the mid-morning, Palestine time, plus or minus a very few hours. This perspective suggests that the mid-March flybys raked (electrically) the Western Hemisphere, the Americas, while the late-October flybys raked the Eastern Hemisphere, including Eurasia.

Our dating of The Noachian Flood is October 24 (the 17th day of the 2nd month of the Hebrew civil calendar). This was close to "Halloween Time" for the ancient Celtics of Northwestern Europe, who also had traditions of astronomical catastrophism. The year of The Noachian Flood is considered to be 2484 B.C. This is based on analysis from the Book of Genesis, from the Works of Josephus, and from cyclic analysis. The flyby of 2484 B.C. was, as we shall see, a mega-catastrophe, with Saturn appearing ominously in Capricorn, further shrinking the "b" axis of the Martian orbit.

EXAMPLE #1 - October 24, 2484 B.C. UT-NAPISHTIM'S FLOOD

Accounts of the Flood of Noah occur in many ancient cultures across Eurasia. In Sanskrit, the ark landed in the Himalaya Mountains, and its builder was one "Manu." If "ma" is a Sanskrit adjective for great" or "large" as it is in Latin and in Hebrew, "Manu" breaks down into "the great Noah."

In the latter part of the 19th century, excavations were made at various sites throughout the Middle East by German and English archaeologists. At Nineveh was found a library of clay tables, known as Assurbanipal's library. The tablet script was first deciphered and read by George Smith, an archeological amateur, a banknote engraver by profession, who was self-taught in Assyriology and in cuneiform characters. In his translating of the clay tablets, Smith came upon and translated a story in the Assyrian language recounting the flood, the ark and one Ut-Napishtim who built the ark and who (with his family) survived the watery inundation of that ancient world. The "Na" in Ut-Napishtim once again may be the core word for Noah, after the prefixes and suffixes are factored out. This is conjecture.

In the Genesis or Biblical account of Noah's Flood, we find an occasion of a massive rain, coupled with an occasion of immense tides, the "The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up." See Genesis 7:11. These were massive tides of oceanic dimension, sweeping inland (and northward) from the Indian Ocean. The calendric dating is given according to the old Hebrew civil calendar, on the 17th day of the 2nd month. That calendar had its New Years day on September 7, and thus the day of The Flood was October 24.

In the Genesis account, there is no mention about approaching stars. However, such celestial discussion does exist in Talmudic material. This material may have been incorporated into Judaica during the period of their Babylonian exile, and if so, this description m"ay have Neo-Babylonian roots.

The flood was produced by the union of the male waters, which are above the firmament, and the female waters issuing from the earth. The upper waters rushed through the space left when GOD REMOVED TWO STARS out of the constellation Pleiades ... There were other changes among the celestial spheres during the year of the flood.
(Our caps.) ¹¹

As previously mentioned, the second month in the ancient Hebrew civil calendar was known as "Marcheswan" or the month of Mars.

When one views Noah's Flood as an astronomical catastrophe, additional information, very interesting in detail, occurs in the clay tablets from Assurbanipal's library, translated by Smith. This part is known as the Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh seems to have been one of the earliest monarchs of the land, of a city state known as Erech. As the story is told, Gilgamesh is brought in contact with Ut-Napishtim, who was saved along with his family from a destructive flood by his miraculous escape by boat. We suppose that Gilgamesh was a fifth to seventh generation descendent of Noah. It is to be noted that the story of The Flood in the Book of Genesis is in the third person singular; however, in the Epic of Gilgamesh the story is told in the first person singular, as if it were from the diary or from the lips of Noah himself.

Several things should be noted in the Epic of Gilgamesh in addition to the information given in the Genesis account.

The account is as follows.

Whatever I had put aboard it.
Whatever silver I had put aboard it.
Whatever gold I had put aboard it.
Whatever living creatures I had put aboard it.
I made all my family and relatives board the ship.
The domesticated animals and the wild.
THE FIXED TIME ARRIVED...
With the first glow of dawn, a black cloud rose
up from the horizon. (Note from the east)
Inside it the storm-god thunders...
The god of the underworld tears out the posts of the dam.
The warrior-god leads the waters on. (Perhaps the rain)
The gods raise THE TORCHES,
SETTING THE LAND ON FIRE WITH THEIR BLAZE.
(Perhaps the flux tube and electricity)
The fearful silence of the storm-god reached the heavens,
And turned everything bright to darkness.
[...] of the land shattered like a pot.
FOR ONE DAY THE TEMPEST [raged]. It blew hard...
Like a battle the divine might overtook the people.

([...] designates obliterated section of the clay tablet)
(Parentheses and Caps ours) ¹²

One thing to note is that the catastrophe arrived on schedule. "The fixed time arrived." It is our perception that the fixed time was October 24, on the 108th anniversary of the previous flyby. It is our additional perception that Noah knew something of the cyclicism of catastrophes. After all, (1) the large boat was well-built and it was complete, (2) the large boat was stocked with sufficient provisions for a long, hard journey, and (3) the fixed time arrived. Noah apparently was not taken by surprise.

A second thing to note is that the "warrior god" (Mars) approached from the east, from the horizon at the hour of dawn. Previously it was mentioned that Apollodorus had the picture geographically correct. Typhon swooped from east to west, and such is entirely logical since the Earth's spin direction is from west to east. And after first being sighted, it (the planetary warrior god) arrived quickly. As previously mentioned, our geographical/astronomical analysis is that the subpoint directly under Mars advanced 1700 m.p.h., partly due to the Earth's speed of rotation and partly due to the velocity of Mars.

A third thing to note is that the land was set ablaze, as if there were widespread lightning strikes. It was achieved by the celestial torches of the warrior-god. If there were no understanding of the Ionian-Jovian flux tube, this portrait would be difficult to understand. However, in the light of that flux tube, this picture of the region being set on fire is consistent. Usually ice and fire do not mix; however on October 24, 2484 B.C., they did mix, and on a hemispheric scale. Thus, it would seem that "the present is the key to the past" is a geological motto containing truth limited only to the last 2700 years of Earth history.

Fourthly, observe that the "god of the underworld" tore out the posts of the dam. We know that there was gravitational conflict. Sea level suddenly was no longer stable. Our theory is that the Indian Ocean, presently containing 75 million cubic miles of water, rose up in tides 1 to 1½ miles deep broadly across Southern Eurasia. Perhaps 4% to 6% of that water temporarily rushed in and over the landforms. "The warrior god leads the waters on." This is precisely the picture of a passover planet uplifting the oceans.

Fifthly, note that the action all occurred in a one-day tempest. In a Mars flyby diagram to be presented in Chapter V, it will be seen that Mars advanced some 500,000 miles between 1 a.m. and 9 p.m. according to our analysis of celestial mechanics and of this particular case. One day was more than enough for Mars to make a flyby from out beyond the Moon's orbit, past the Earth, and out again beyond the Moon's orbit.

Sixthly, note that the land shattered "like a pot." Our analysis of subcrustal tides indicates that if Mars were as close as 14,500 miles, there would be subcrustal tides in the mantle, uplifting and deforming the crust in the range of 10,500 feet or two miles. Mountain systems (in a swath-like arrangement or in a flyby pattern) were uplifted that day, including the entire Alpine-Himalayan cycle, some 12,500 miles long. This cycle of deformation shall be discussed in geographical detail in a future chapter. See also Chapter VII.

Seventhly, note the general observation that there was little time to lose, once the black cloud (of Mars) was seen in the first glow of dawn. The frightening sight of Mars occurred, we sense, at around dawn. There had been a sleepless night, the animals having earlier boarded the Ark in whatever numbers. At least by 9:00 and perhaps by 8:30 a.m., the Ark was afloat. There were 2 or 2½ hours for all final activities, including loading the gold, silver, and other family valuables and bolting and sealing the door tight. There was no time available for seeking out or persuading the doubting, the reluctant, or the slow.

Eighthly, note that the account says the wind suddenly began blowing hard. The Genesis account says the same thing. Strong winds usually are a result of a sudden and sharp change in temperature. In climatology, temperature differentials (on a global scale in our age) cause the planetary wind systems. We think that late in this day, a deep subzero freeze began to descend over the magnetic polar regions. Ice particles the size of flour, at temperatures of -300° E and -250°F began sifting down the spiral vortex over each magnetic pole.

For a parallel account on this theory of cold, we cite Ginzberg and Talmudic material.

According to BR 32.11, and the parallels cited by Theodor, Noah suffered very much from the cold, while the same source, 9 and Tehillim 1, 11, state that the ark, despite the mass of water, rested quietly as a ship in port. ¹³

A sudden hot rain seems to have been followed by a deep cold front. Mars also received a sudden spray of juvenile ice on this day, as was discussed in Chapter I. Thus were formed the dry river beds on that planet, now so distant.

It is our conclusion that this was the closest of some 170 cyclic flybys. The oceanic tides were the highest and deepest. Silts, sands, debris and other precipitates were gathered.

Strata is seldom found over the ocean bottoms, but is often found across the continents. Also, as flowing water doubles in its velocity, its silt-carrying capacity increases to the power of 6; it carries 64 times as much silt. By the same token, when those oceanic silt-laden tides began to slow down over the continents, they began to drop their contaminants and precipitates very rapidly, as in hours, less often in days.

Many other kinds of things occurred during the day of The Flood or during its aftermath. A glacial ice dump over the two magnetic poles is one affect. Crustal deformation is another. The formation of strata, often rich in fossils, is a third aspect. A recharge of the geomagnetic field is a fourth aspect. A fifth change was a change in the location of the two spin axis poles, including a relocating of the equator, possibly as much as 3,000 miles. The Earth's spin axis precessed as Mars put a torque on it. Sixthly, there is indication that there was a crustal slippage, when the thin crust wanted briefly to follow Mars in an easterly direction in direct conflict to the normal rotational direction of the underlying mantle. Seventhly, there is abundant indication that there was a magnetic polarity reversal on this day, leaving the Magnetic North Pole on the ledge of Antarctica, not in Canada. To develop these aspects of The Flood Catastrophe is important, but they shall be discussed in more detail in later chapters.

Our general points on Noah's Flood bear reiterating. First, as recorded by the author of Gilgamesh and according to our theory of cycles, The Flood event happened on schedule. Hence, Noah, his boat, his family, the animals and the food provisions were ready. Mars approached from space, but also from an easterly direction as seen by an Earth viewer. Usually, fire and ice don't mix; on that day they did. The fire was by celestial lightning. The ice was from the icy satellite of Mars which fragmented and sprayed both planets simultaneously. Loud shock waves were heard, and the Indian Ocean overflowed the building site of the Ark.

After that destructive day, very few people were left on the Earth. The few survivors gathered and related stories of the day of the flood and their survival. Versions began to change slightly. Pictographic scripts were developed, which eventually gave way to the more efficient alphabetic scripts. The Flood Story survived more often in folklore than in written form. Third, fourth and fifth generation descendants of Noah began to worship the planets, Mars above all, but that also extended to Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and even to Mercury.

Some of the ancients may have noted that Jupiter was in Cancer every time there was an October flyby. Later, others calculated that there was a Mars flyby every 9th occasion that Jupiter passed through Cancer or every 108 years. Some believed they saw "eyes" and eyelids" of Mars. Others saw spiral hair. Yet others saw flaming tongues. And others saw two celestial steeds, faster than horses, as the celestial mode of transportation. Those who saw eyes and hair as part of the Mars scenery also began to attribute some measure of intelligence to the red planet. Thus opened the era of astrologers, stargazers, zodiacs, ziggurats, planet deities, celestial horses, mathematicians, prophets and seers. This culture (interested in the movements of the planets) was well along in development by the 540th anniversary of The Flood. Talmudic information indicates that astrology was rampant by 2000 B.C., and the zodiac, the 12-zoned map of the fixed stars, was among the most ancient of cultural ideas.

Example #2 - October 24, 1944 B.c. THE TOWER OF BABEL DISCHARGE

As just mentioned, it was the day of star gazers and seers. Zodiacs were in vogue, as was the 360° circle and the 360-day year. Planets were being feared, revered, studied and worshipped. It was Nimrod's heyday. In modern terms, Nimrod had become the dictator of the central Mesopotamian Valley. He appreciated astrological charts and fortune tellers, it would seem. He also was fond of ziggurats, temples which were massive buildings that were circular but had a spiral, terraced walkway to the top. Some of these were 200 feet in diameter, and over 200 feet high.

Nimrod established a state construction project requiring some 20 or 30 years, including forced or drafted labor in large volumes. The building project has since become known as the Tower of Babel. It is treated very briefly in Genesis. However, in other literature, the Tower of Babel and its subsequent fate is a topic for more dramatic discussion.

The Sibyl also makes mention of this tower, and the confusion of the language, when she says thus: "When all men were of one language, some of them built a high tower, as if they would thereby ascend up to heaven; but the gods SENT STORMS 0F WIND AND OVERTHREW THE TOWER.
(Our caps.) ¹⁴

Louis Ginzberg, an editor of rabbinical source materials, adds some further information, possibly of Neo-Babylonian origin.

As for the unfinished tower, a part sank into the Earth, and another part was consumed by fire; only one-third of it remained standing. ¹⁵

The Tower of Babel was a "circular pyramid" of a certain sort. How high was it? According to C. W. Ceram, it was over 290 feet high, towering above the flat Tigris-Euphrates plain in its latter stages.¹⁶ By the time the catastrophe arrived, it was yet unfinished. Perhaps the blueprints of the job were too optimistic. Perhaps there were bottlenecks in supplies or labor.

But when the year 1944 B.C. arrived, things were not exactly the same as on the previous flyby. Jupiter was once again in Cancer. Mars was once again coming in. But this time, Saturn was 180° opposite to Jupiter, in Capricorn, and it also was extending the ends and compressing the sides of the orbit of Mars, adding perhaps 20% to 25% to the influence of Jupiter. That was not sweet news. Mars approached this time perhaps as close as 25,000 or 30,000 miles.

The Tower of Babel was an elevated promontory arising amid a flat, wide floodplain. It was perhaps between 280 and 290 feet high at that point in time. There may have been a rush among the construction crews to complete it before the fixed time arrived. But they couldn't. Possibly they left some iron bracing laying around. Perhaps they were using large numbers of iron ladders and scaffolding. The higher the Tower rose, the more likely it was to attract a celestial discharge. We do know that it was nearly complete according to ancient accounts.

ZAP. One million volt zap. Ten million ampere zap. The celestial lightning struck. It produced enough power to vaporize a part of the Tower. The explosion produced massive shock waves which worked in consort with earthquakes to topple part of the structure. With Mars at 30,000 miles, subcrustal tides, shook the crust like a blanket, such shakings would have been 1300 feet (not inches) high, at least in the central zone directly under the subpoint of Mars. Earthquakes of this dimension would spin a marker on the Richter scale around two or three times. Certainly, the Tower of Nimrod had been a breath-taking architectural project from its inception. Its silhouette began to slice the evening sky line a sparkling gem. As it turned out, a celestial bomb shelter would have been a better architectural project and far simpler.

EXAMPLE # 3 - March 20/21, 1877 B.C. THE SODOM - GOMORRAH CATASTROPHE ¹⁷

Very little is said about this catastrophe in the Book of Genesis. However these two cities were located in a geological rift valley which extends from Syria in the north, through the Jordan Valley, the Red Sea, the Ethiopian highlands, through Kenya, Tanganyika (Tanzania) and Malawi, and into Mozambique. The Great Rift Valley extends on a north-south axis for 50° latitude, a distance of 3300 miles.

Our understanding of the origin of this Great Rift Valley relates to The Flood. We suspect that the location of the North Pole to the South Pole spin axis was relocated about 3,000 miles. If so, the equatorial bulge was also necessarily relocated, as were the two polar flat spots. Today the equatorial diameter of the Earth is 27 miles longer than the polar diameter. This greater distance is due to centrifugal force derived from the Earth's rotation.

One logical response of the Earth to a new bulge zone would be two or three rifts, or tears, perpendicular to the new equator. This would allow for expansion for the new bulge location. Two such tears, or rifts, are The Great Rift Valley just described and the Mid-Atlantic Rift, which is also perpendicular to the equator and straddles the equator much like The Great Rift Valley.

According to our model, there were October flybys in 2376 B.C., 2264 B.., 2156 B.C. and 2048 B.., each preceding the Tower of Babel Discharge. The Genesis account cites an apparent rifting during that early post-flood era.

And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided...
Genesis 10:25.

Peleg is recorded in Genesis as one of those among the fifth generation after The Flood. Our estimate for this splitting of the crust., or rifting, is 2264 B.C., two cycles after The Flood. Once formed, like a small rip in a garment, the rift widened and lengthened with the next several close, stressful flybys, including the Tower of Babel Discharge of 1944 B.C. There is evidence on the sides of the Dead Sea that, formerly, its ancient shoreline had several higher levels than the current level, almost 1300 feet below sea level.

This geological setting is important because the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are recorded as having been founded 52 years before their destruction, which implies also 2 years after the Tower of Babel Discharge. It would seem that the rift valley was widened and deepened on that occasion, among others.

CALENDARIC TIMING. The timing of the catastrophe is given by Ginzberg in his compendium of Talmudic material.

The destruction of the cities of the plain took place at dawn of the 16th day of Nisan ... ¹⁸

This is close enough to the date of Nisan 13/14 (March 20/21) to qualify as being the same place in the orbit where other catastrophes overtook the Earth.

CYCLIC TIMING. With respect to cyclicism, it is of interest to note that there is recorded a 52-year span of time between the Tower of Babel Discharge and the Sodom-Gomorrah Catastrophe. We think that the time span of 52 years is exclusive of the 2 years of the catastrophes themselves. When writing about the ill-fated cities, the material Ginzberg cites points out that,

For fifty-two years God had warned the godless; He had made mountains to quake and tremble... ¹⁹

ANGELIC TIMING. Angels (of the destructive type), it was pointed out earlier, were associated with three other mid-March catastrophes. Those were The Exodus Catastrophe (1447 B.C.), the Gideon Midnight Bash (1241 B.C.), and the Sennacherib-Isaiah Catastrophe (701 B.C.). This is yet a fourth case where destructive angels are perceived among chaotic, celestial and crustal crises.

As a rule, angels proclaim their errand with the swiftness of lightning, but these were angels of mercy, and they hesitated to execute their work of destruction. ... With nightfall, the fate of Sodom was sealed irrevocably, and the angels arrived there. ²⁰

At the same time the rain that was streaming down upon the two cities was changed into brimstone. ²¹

Whether the brimstone was volcanic ash or whether it was meteoritic is not mentioned, but we surmise it was volcanic. There are numerous indications of basaltic outflows on the edges and ledges of The Great Rift Valley, both in Palestine and elsewhere. Though irrigation water for agricultural purposes had been abundant and the warm, frost-free climate in the valley was also outstanding, but the geological instability of the region was a greater negative than were the total of the two positive aspects of that location.

EXAMPLE # 4 - March 20/21 1447 B.C. THE EXODUS CATASTROPHE

This catastrophe occurred to the Earth, and to Egypt during the midnight hour, approximately. According to our model, Mars made one of some 169 sequential sunward side flybys. The part of the Earth which faced Mars and experienced the bulk of the gravitational and geomagnetic chaos was, in this case, the Western Hemisphere, the Americas and the Pacific Ocean.

It so happens that when any planetary body experiences tides, whether oceanic or subcrustal, that body becomes "egg-shaped." A geometrical adjective is "oblate." There are two bulges. One faces the Moon, or in this case Mars. The other is 180° directly opposite, and it is a smaller bulge (since it is farther away.) This night, the lesser of the two bulges of the Earth contained the Middle East. In fact, most of the March flybys were timed like this one, even as most of the October flybys were mid-morning events. This rather intense flyby included various features.

1 - CALENDARIC REFORM. Up to this time, the Hebrews had a calendar, a civil calendar, in which September 7 was the New Year Day and the new moon. September 21, the vernal equinox, was the middle day of the first month. The October flyby was the 17th day of the second month, just as it was recorded for the timing of The Noachian Flood. However, on an occasion following this flyby, Moses reorganized the calendar. The reorganized calendar is called the "religious" calendar.

This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Exodus 12:2

Calendaric reform was enacted following the Exodus flyby.

2 - EARTHQUAKES. Earthquakes were devastating to the land of Egypt on this night. The casualty list must have been appalling. The Book of Exodus indicates that "the first born" of every family perished. This was the tenth and most lethal of all of the plagues. Velikovsky, a Jewish catastrophist, interpreted the text as follows.

In Ages in Chaos (my reconstruction of ancient history), I shall show that "first-born" (bkhor) in the text of the plague is a corruption of "chosen" (bchor). All the flower of Egypt succumbed in the catastrophe. ²²

The flexing of the Earth's crust is also reported in one of the Exodus psalms, Psalm 114.

The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. THE MOUNTAINS SKIPPED LIKE RAMS, and the little hills like lambs.
Psalm 114:3-4 (Our caps.)

Most evolutionists and fiat creationists will consider this language to be poetic and figurative. If Mars were on a flyby 30,000 miles distant from Egypt, the tides in the mantle, upthrusting onto the bottom of the crust, would have been around 600 feet. The crust is considered to have flexibility similar in degree to a leather belt.

3 - THE APT TERM "PASSOVER." This occasion in mid-March of 1447 B.C. was the origin of the term "passover:" What passed over? It was midnight in Egypt. The issue is not what passed over Egypt. The issue is what passed over the Earth. It was Mars on the opposite side, the sunward side. Mars (and its satellites) was not seen until late the next afternoon, toward dusk.

4 - THE PILLAR OF FIRE BY NIGHT AND THE CLOUD BY DAY.

And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them.
Ex. 14:19

In the geometry of a mid-March flyby, sunward side case, the approaching Mars is best viewed in the early evening hours, between 5 o'clock p.m. and 9 o'clock p.m. On the other hand, when retreating from the Earth after March 21, the diverging Mars was best observed in the hours 5 o'clock a.m. to 8 or 9 o'clock a.m. The angel of God and the pillar or cloud of course moved together, for they were one. The shift in position from the evening sighting to early morning sighting of Mars is what this passage concerns. Such an observation presupposes a person must have been facing westerly.

5 - RENEWED VOLCANISM. In chapter II, the renewed volcanism of Mt. Sinai was reviewed. Another aspect of renewed volcanism needs to be mentioned. About 60 miles north of Crete is an island by the name of Thera, also called Santorin. This island is the remains of a collapsed volcano. Certain scholars such as Mavor, Luce and others have shown that that volcano erupted in the 15th century B.C.²³,²⁴ As it erupted, its cavity emptied out. That cavity was mostly below sea level. The sides of the volcano collapsed, producing an immense tidal wave. That tidal wave is cited by Mavor to have been almost 700 feet high on nearby Anaphi Island.

That tidal wave, created by the collapse of the walls of the volcano on Thera, was an estimated 200 feet high when it hit the beaches on the north side of Crete. The Minoan Civilization of Crete was destroyed suddenly in one hour. By the time the tidal wave arrived at the Suez Isthmus, it had traveled 600 miles in about 5 hours. The height of that tidal wave was perhaps 70 or 80 feet above mean sea level. It swept across the flat isthmus after the fleeing Hebrews had crossed hours before. It caught the pursuing Egyptian militia.

There is no good reason to doubt the history which Moses wrote about the Hebrews' flight out of Egypt to the Sinai Peninsula. It is more than good history; it is excellent history. The research on the Thera Volcano is supportive while it is also consistent. In addition to the point of being excellent history, the primary point is that the Thera Volcano, like the Mount of Lawgiving, must have ended its dormancy with this close Mars flyby. That it had erupted previously is in evidence, the volcanic cone. That it re-erupted is supported by our theory of Mars flyby cyclicism and by the relatively new data on the Thera eruption. If Mars was on a flyby as close as 25,000 miles, the flexing of the Earth's crust might have been as much as 1000 feet. Whatever the intensity was, it was sufficient to renew the volcanism of both volcanoes.

6 - THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SODOM-GOMORRAH CATASTROPHE. If the Exodus catastrophe happened to coincide with the anniversary of the Sodom-Gomorrah Catastrophe, such would help establish cyclicism. The Earth was being assaulted periodically at the same place in its orbit, the March 20-21 location. (See Figure 1.) Furthermore, if the Exodus catastrophe coincided with the anniversary of the Sodom-Gomorrah Catastrophe, it should be on the 108th, the 216th, the 324th or the 432nd anniversary if our model of cyclicism is correct.

The citation comparing the Exodus Catastrophe to the Sodom-Gomorrah Catastrophe is as follows.

And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, EVEN THE SELFSAME DAY it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
Ex. 12:41 (Caps ours)

The Traditional Evolutionist and the Fiat Creationist both will scan this verse and will perhaps miss the significance of the phrase "even to the selfsame day." If such an anniversary term is noted, it would be as another outworking of chance. It was not by chance. It was by periodic orbits.

However, the text indicates that the flyby was on the 430th, not the 432nd anniversary of the flyby. This is close, but it is not precisely correct. There is the possibility that some Hebrew historian of the 15th or 16th century miscounted two years. There is a second possibility also. The second possibility is that the first and the last years of catastrophism were purposely not counted. Thus there were 430 serene noncatastrophic years between these two flyby events. The 430 year time span recounted in this text is close enough to the model that it is viewed as supportive, though not perfectly so.

7 - INDEPENDENCE DAY. As the 4th of July is Independence Day in the United States, so the 14th of Nisan (March 21) was the ancient independence day for Israel. It was remembered in the Psalms. Psalms 105, 106 and 114 are examples of the works of God, miraculous and very great, during this Exodus catastrophic occasion. There was widespread death and destruction of buildings and crops throughout the delta of the Nile. The Egyptian cabinet was of a mind not to let the Hebrews go. The Egyptian army was the primary deterrent. Potential hunger and thirst were other deterrents.

Of interest to us is, first, that March 21 (Nisan 14) is the historic Hebrew Independence Day, commemorating the flight out of Egypt. Secondly, March 21 is the ancient date of the Roman tubulustrium, when Mars was feared and watched in Italy with its steeds. Thirdly, March 21 is the first day of spring or (in astronomical terms) the vernal equinox. The tilt of the Earth's spin axis is such that on this day and on only one other day in the year (the autumnal equinox) does the Sun shine equally on both hemispheres. It is as if March 21 had something to do with the tilting of the Earth's spin axis. Fourthly, March 21 is the point in the skyscape where the ancient zodiac began, the "First Point of Aries." All of these suggest some kind of a relationship with the tilt of the Earth's spin axis.

Fifthly, the Earth's closest point in its orbit to the Sun, its "perihelion" (at 91.5 million miles), is almost precisely half way between the two ancient dates of catastrophism, October 24 and March 21, on January 3. January 6th is the precise midpoint, but during the final flyby in 701 B.C., the perihelion was pushed back 2 or 3 days even as the perihelion of Mars was pushed forward 30 or 35 days. See Chapter VII, Figure l8.

The comfort zone for the trio, the Evolutionary Uniformitarians, the Fiat Creationists and the Theistic Evolutionists, is maintained when they are unaware or remain oblivious to such correspondences as these. Thus, whether these coincidences are viewed as by chance or not depends essentially whether one is a functional uniformitarian or whether he is a Planetary Catastrophist.

There are two axes of the Earth of which cosmologists need to be aware. One axis is the "line of apsides," which is the line drawn in the Earth's orbit between its closest position to the Sun and its furthest. This line always bisects the Sun, one of the two focuses (or foci) of the ellipse. The other axis is the spin axis. This chapter III, and more particularly the portion dealing with the March 21 and the October 24 catastrophic intersections, was concerned largely with the Earth's orbital axis. In Chapter IV, more attention will be given to the Earth's spin axis and what was involved in the Long Day of Joshua, a day which has been a puzzle for the aforementioned trio.

NOTES