In the absence of a fully accepted theory to reliably account for the existence of the Earth’s Moon (01), a radical, new, fifth theory has emerged. This theory falls within the parameters that prevent the acceptance of the other four, and provides answers to other existing anomalies. It follows a combination of established mechanisms in a radical new sequence and does not require improbable intervention by any external agent.
VOLCANIC ORIGIN LUNAR THEORY (VOLT)
By this theory the Moon was formed from material ejected by a mega volcano on the early Earth (02) when its axis of rotation was in Planetary Capture (PC), or synchronous orbit (03) to the Sun .
Binary Origin Lunar Theory (BOLT)
In this theory the Earth and Moon formed as two separate bodies as part of the normal process of planet formation by coalescing condensates. This is the default type of theory, to explain the existence any planetary body. It is not favoured as evidence has suggested an exceptional Earth formation process.
Fission Origin Lunar Theory (FOLT)
The very rapid rotation of the early Earth caused a body of material to detach and go into orbit to form the Moon. This is discounted, as it is now known that the rotational speed of the Earth has varied very little.
Impact Origin Lunar Theory (IOLT)
A large body collided with the early Earth either detaching material or itself going into Earth orbit to become the Moon, either as a whole, or as the confluence of a ring of planetesimals. This is the most favoured type of theory, but unproven by the lack of any evidence of vaporized material.
Capture Origin Lunar Theory (COLT)
The Moon is caught by the gravitational field of the Earth and goes into orbit. This theory is undermined by identical isotope origin signatures of Earth and Moon materials.
VOLT presupposes that the expanding space in which the material from which the Solar System (06) formed (In The Beginning) existed at a temperature below the boiling point of water (07). In addition, that it was random in the distribution of the types of material. The proto-Sun formed at a location of relatively high density. As material came together, the combined mass and gravitational attraction would have increased at that location.
As the orbits of the in-coming materials decayed, their kinetic energy would be transferred to rotate the proto-Sun. As mass increased, so would temperature and pressure, to the point where the reactions that constitute the Sun’s present nuclear furnace (08) would begin.
As the Sun grew, its rotating gravitational field would drag increasingly distant material into its orbit. At the same time volatile materials, particularly water, would have been driven off as gas, to condense again at a distance where radiation weakened and temperatures were still low.
Precession of material in Sun’s orbit would have allowed it to coalesce to form planetary bodies, as the orbits rotated about the Sun. With growing Solar radiation, the water condensation zone would have moved progressively outward to reach an outer limit, now the orbit of the planet Neptune (09). It would therefore be most likely, that it was while the condensation zone was the distance of Earth's orbit from the Sun, that the proto-Earth gained its oceanic waters.
The proto-Earth’s precessing orbit (10) would have enabled it to attract the material in range of its growing gravitational field(11). As the orbits of the in-coming materials decayed, their kinetic energy would be transferred to increase axial rotation.
As the proto-Earth would have grown, so the pressure and temperature of the inner core would increase. Melted dense core material, particularly iron, would be subject to attraction by the gravity of the Sun. Under pressure from nuclear reactions at the centre, it would track toward the surface, causing the rotational axis of the proto-Earth to align itself radial to the Sun, not perpendicular as at present.
This would produce a hot, axial pole in constant sunlight, and the other, cold pole in continuous night. As the core temperature increased the axial, polar magma plume would produce volcanic eruption at the surface.
It is probable that, in the initial phase of vulcanicity, the material surrounding the core would be at lower temperature and therefore of a higher viscosity than today.This would result in a restriction in the bore of the vent which would have the effect of imparting linear regularity to the direction of material ejected from it, like the barrel of a gun firing material into space. Spin from the Earth’s axial rotation would provide a rifling effect to ejecta, also furthering directional stability. The core itself would initially be smaller, but more intense than today.
Because the Earth would show the same rotating face to the sun, the axis of this rotation itself rotated annually. This is similar to the condition, Planetary Capture (PC), which is operating today in the rotation of the Moon around the Earth, whereby only the same face of the Moon is ever seen from Earth.
Volcanic Origin Lunar Theory (VOLT) postulates that the proto-Moon was formed from material ejected by a mega volcano at a velocity which put it into geo-stationary orbit. This material then acted as a back stop for higher velocity material which would otherwise have continued on course for the Sun.
Energy from these and subsequent impacts would drive the emergent Moon into higher orbit, lessening as velocities declined, the Earth cooled, and volcanic intensity decreased.
While the magnitude of its gravitational field grew as mass increased, so that the proto-Moon would continue to attract lower velocity volcanic material which would not otherwise have reached Earth orbit.
This state would have existed over several geologic periods, so that the Moon grew by a process of accretion, resulting from increasingly sporadic, and less violent, times of volcanic activity, as the Earth cooled.
Planetary Capture of the Earth to the Sun was first considered, in this context, as the means by which the tectonic plates of the Earth would originally have existed as a single land mass, Pangea. This then developed into the full sequence of events which now constitute VOLT.
The extreme cold of the outer, dark axial pole of the Earth would enable the retention of oceanic waters in the form of ice, accounting for their survival in the acknowledged high temperatures recorded for the surviving land masses of the early planet.
In VOLT, the earliest formation of crust material on the planet surface were lava flows from the mega volcano. This material spread out radially to be subducted below the ice and solidified mantle layers of the dark side. The resulting minor vulcanicity, at the point of subduction, released water vapour into the atmosphere.
Precipitation, resulting from atmospheric moisture drawn up by the enormous cyclone surrounding the mega volcano, collected as lakes and seas on the newly formed terrain. This inundation began the process of weathering and deposit of sedimentary strata. In the constant daylight, simple life forms were able to emerge in long periods of stable conditions.
The cooling effect of the precipitation would speed the process of capping on the mega volcano during periods between eruptions. The resultant pressure build-up would lead to more explosive eruptions as the planet cooled, thereby extending the period of Moon formation.
As molten iron does not retain magnetism, the cooling of the crust with the accumulation of magnetic, iron bearing rock would have altered the magnetic disposition of the crust. The increasing field would reach an intensity where its reaction to the polarity of the Solar System (12) was at a tipping point in opposition to the gravitational attraction of the magma plume toward the Sun. The supremacy of the magnetic reaction would cause the realignment of the rotating crust to an axis perpendicular to the orbit of the planet, drawing the axis of rotation of the iron core with it by magnetic attraction. The newly formed iron core would not have had time to crystallize to a solid form that would retain magnetism.
The gravitational attraction of the Moon would cause it to start its rotation about the Earth, now spinning about an axis perpendicular to its orbit, and the break up of the single land mass, Pangea. The frozen waters of the dark side would be melted by exposure to the Sun. The resulting oceans would become tidal, reacting to the gravitational pull of the orbiting Moon. Some water would re-accumulate as ice at the poles.
As the tectonic plates spread apart an anomaly would have had to occur which resulted in the area which became Antarctica being pushed over the Southern axis of rotation, where it would remain in a state of perpetual magnetic balance. All the other plates would be distributed laterally, stacked up around the North pole, as they are today, attracted like lodestones to magnetic North.
Laboratory research shows that Lunar and Earth materials are so similar that their planetary origin must be the same. Lunar material temperature signatures are identical with those associated with terrestrial vulcanicity.
Because of the current lack of axial spin of the Moon the material from which it formed must have come from a source which imparted negligible rotational velocity relative to its position in Earth orbit. This indicates that the material must have come from the Earth with low velocity and mass over an extended period.
The earliest igneous rock formations in the history of the Earth are known to have been subject to, otherwise unexplained, glaciation.
Today the core of the Moon bulges toward Earth as the tidal, oceanic waters of Earth bulge toward the Moon in response to mutual gravitational attraction.
The power of the magnetic field of the Earth can be seen in the example of the Indian sub-continent which broke away from its original location as a part of Antarctica and tracked northward. The effect of its collision with the Asian continent we now call the Himalayas, a range containing the highest mountains in the world.
The most likely candidate for the original site of the mega volcano is Yellowstone Park in the USA.
The location of the diminished, mega plume, drawn by the gravitational drag of the Moon, would appear to have tracked across the Pacific Ocean, resulting in a chain of islands of volcanic origin, currently at Hawaii. The presence of the higher density material of the ancient mega plume is the reason for the lack of tectonic plates in the Pacific region, as this mass effectively counterbalances higher elevation, but less dense, plates on the opposite side of the planet.
Beds of flint in ancient chalk deposits, conventionally described as the fossil remains of sponges, VOLT identifies as meteoric mega volcanic ejecta, of lower than escape velocity, to account for its high silicate content.
None of the other types of theory can easily account for the presence of water in oceanic volume. Without PC, planetary water would have boiled off into space, given the acknowledged high temperatures of the early Earth. The enormous volume of oceanic water would therefore have had to arrive from somewhere else, once the Earth had cooled. This is not an event identified or recorded in geologic history.
By VOLT the observed magnetic anomalies associated with volcanic activity (13), resulting from the electric discharge of latent energy of solidification, cause polarity alignment with current flow at point of solidification. This provides the local coherent magnetic alignment of accruing lava fields required to react with the macro magnetic field of the solar system to cause the realignment of the Earth’s rotational axis.
The distribution of existing planets within the solar system is consistent with a history of undisturbed coalescing and condensation.
The identification of the three types of lunar material is consistent with VOLT: core, mantle and meteorite.
VOLT accounts for observed day length of the early Earth, by eccentricity in the axis of rotation of the Earth producing daily periods of darkness at the perimeter of the single land mass, Pangea, and also where the Sun was daily eclipsed by the Moon, closer to the centre. This would be similar to the inclination of the axis of rotation of the Earth to the Sun, which provides annual seasonal change today.
Reversals in the magnetic field of the Earth, which have been identified by extrapolation from polarity changes in later igneous rock formations, are contradictory to VOLT. However, by VOLT, these anomalies are accounted for by the latent energy of solidification, discharged as electrical energy released as rock changes from liquid to solid. This discharge would be possible only when the rock was unpressurized and molten. It would be the geological equivalent of atmospheric lightening, representing a local phenomenon where the current flow, at the moment of solidification, imparted its own magnetic alignment to the rock. It would therefore undermine the validity of this as a reliable record of the global magnetic field, making it more likely a record of electric potential between the N & S poles.
From this short exposition of VOLT, it might be inferred that the existence of the Moon is an entirely normal part of Earth-type planet formation, validating the original Binary Origin Lunar Theory by demonstrating the means of its fulfillment.
As VOLT provides a mechanism by which the early planet was able to retain water, it is crucial to the evolutionary journey of Life on Earth, and should therefore be given serious consideration.
It is not the purpose of this document to go into detail about the individual elements which constitute VOLT. The aim is simply to outline the novel sequence of events and radical combination of principles involved, in as clear and accessible a way as possible.
It might be used to provide a framework, should detailed scientific proofs be devised for individual elements.
For the purposes of VOLT, where the Macro Universe may have been created by a Big Bang, individual universes are re-creating themselves with Very Large Bangs (VLBs) at the centre, possibly every 420M years. Dense material of low velocity is unable to break free and is dragged back to the centre where it recombines to produce another VLB. Higher velocity material of lower density continues outward to produce an expanding a quickly cooling universe of essentially recycled material. This material recombines to form galaxies in concentric shells at roughly 130 Mpc intervals. Expansion in individual universes is accelerated by the gravitational attraction of the Macro Universe of countless other individual universes.
The centres of individual universes exist as nodes in a network of energy strings that replenish, combine and effectively create new material in each VLB event.
