William sent in the link to https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/did-earth-once-have-a-ring-like-saturn-geologists-find-evidence-for-a-halo-of-orbiting-space-rocks-466-million-years-ago-180985098/ …. and William adds, Donald Patten said something similar, dating a ring around the earth a few thousand years ago. Obviously, this is much closer in time than envisaged by modern geologists. At the link above we are told that around 466 million years ago, Earth was battered with meteorites and rocked by huge tsunami waves. Geologists, it seems, have discovered some strange goings on in a remote period of history, from a human perspective, but to a geologist, all grist to the grind stone. However, it is interesting how they assemble their case – and I am not disputing the idea of a ring around the Earth. Firstly, they say that sediments from that time, dated by the uniformitarian model of earth history, have a high content of meteorite debris. Then around several million years later, they add, Earth experienced the Himantian Ice Age, one of the coldest episodes in the last 500 million years. This, of course, means there were other very cold episodes. How many of them could have been caused by space rocks. Cosmic objects are part of the puzzle as the geologists began to do their research as some 21 craters are associated with the event. In other words, a catastrophic event. Catastrophes occur suddenly – and in the aftermath, global temperature plummets. Hence, one might suspect the sedimentary layer in question was laid down fairly quiickly – and not over a period of millions or thousands of years. Why would the Ice Age kick in a million years after the bombardment?
The geological team say this may all be explained by a single theory – a ring around the Earth. Too long ago to have lodged in the minds of humans – but where did the idea of the Lord of the Rings come from? The ring, in question, we are told, persisted for about 10 million years. All this was preceded by what is known as the Ordovician impact spike. Some scientists, in the past, have previously suggested, the debris originated in the break up of a large asteroid between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Over millions of years material from the ring qradually fell to Earth. It sparked the spikes in meteorites observed in the geological record. Within the sedimentary layer. In addition, the ring of material may have shielded the earth from the full force of sunlight and warmth. Lower temperatures would gradually have led to the Ice Age. The whole theory seems to be based on the geochronological timeline in that the sedimentary layer was formed over millions of years. If those sediments, mud, sand, gravel, or whatever, were all part of a single catastrophic event the whole timetable comes tumbling down. Are they ignoring the ability of tsunamis to shift soil and rocks. Do they think an extremely cold period takes a very long time to form rather than instantaneous climate change. You know, the sort of thing favoured by Al Gore in his film. If it takes millions of years why is everybody frightened of climate change? We might be all incinerated in the meantime. You only have to think of the sort of rulers who are seeking their own nuclear arsenals.
In the pages of C&C Review, Len Saunders suggested Earth picked up what he called moons but were in effect, small space rocks that began to orbit alongside the Earth – somewhat like our Moon. A week or so ago the media were reporting the earth was going to have a second moon – so this idea is not way out. Then we had Moe Mandelkehr in C&C Review 2001:2, ‘The Ring Around the Earth at 2300BC‘, page 8-17. He visualised Earth’s orbit passing through a dense stream of meteors that led to the formation of a ring of dust, debris and ice encircling our planet. His ring formed quickly – and did not last too long, possibly only weeks or months in duration. The meteor stream, he thought, was part and parcel of the Taurid complex, as popularised by Clube and Napier in the 1990s. There is in fact a lot of myth or legend about what could be construed as a ring about the earth. It is variously described as resplendent, gleaming, bright, brilliant etc. Von Dechend and Santillana [Hamlet’s Mill, 1969] made the observation that in ancient times ‘fire was thought of as a great circle reaching from one pole to the other pole. Isaac Vail, in 1921, was talking about an ice canopy surrounding the earth, not too different to the theory of Donald Patten [1966] or Dolph E Hooker, ‘Waters above the Firmament‘ [1885]. Isaac Vail was a Quaker. His ideas don’t seem to chime with modern Quaker thinking.
The theme that intrigues me is the legendary material that gave Tolkien the idea of writing a book with the title, ‘Lord of the Rings‘ – books and films. David Day wrote a book about the possible sources, as he saw it, of Tolkiens hobbits and the dwarfs, elves, and others. Bilbo Baggins found a gold ring in an Orc cave. His book was called ‘Tolkien’s Ring‘ [Harper Collins:1994], a popular but extensive search for the sources used by the author. These include the idea of a ‘ring quest’ – a search for a lost ring or rings that appears to have had a wide following, from Laplanders to obscure Siberian tribes people, to the Norse Volsunga Saga, the myths surrounding Odin, and Woden, Wagner’s opera cycle, The Ring of Nebelung, and parallels that exist with legend surrounding the likes of Charlemagne, King Arthur, Dietrich Von Berne, even Solomon and his seal on a ring, or the magic rings in One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Then there is the idea of a ring associated with authority – such as kings and emperors. Even pharoahs and their scarab rings. Solomon was not just a mortal king but also a god, and a temple of that god stood in Jerusalem in the Bronze Age. Therefore, an association of gods with rings – which pops up in the Ring of Wayand the Smith, Beowulf, the dragon slayer, as well as the Greek Titans. Hence, the idea of a ring as a symbol of kingship may have an older pedigree – in the physical presence of a ring around the Earth at some point in the Holocene. If such could occur 466 million years ago one can imagine it could also be a byproduct of catastrophic events much closer to our own time.