Tree Root on Mars?
The magnificent Mars Opportunity Rover has discovered something really new at a location designated ‘Homestake’. This is currently described as a ‘vein’, which is very bright in contrast to the surrounding rock. Quoting from the November 2011 Rover Update referring to chief scientist Steve Sqyres:
“While Squyres, not surprisingly, wouldn’t “hazard a guess” as to what they may find in that vein, he did say this: “These are different than anything from anything we’ve ever seen with either rover, a completely new thing on Mars, never seen anywhere. And we’re pretty charged up about it.””
NASA is noncommital, but the conjecture in related forums is that it is a layer of magnesite, which forms by carbonization of olivine or magnesium serpentine in the presence of water and carbon dioxide. This would probably satisfy Squires and the entire planetary science ‘community’ by not violating their current ideas about Mars. But what if it is something else?
Petrified Wood
Petrification of wood occurs when the wood soaks over a period of time in ground water containing various minerals. The atoms in the wood are replaced one-by-one with those of quartz, forming a crystalline (SiO2) material, the atoms of which form a perfect replica of the original structure except that its coloration is dictated by the minerals present. Yellow, the color of the Homestake formation, can be formed by the presence of iron which is omnipresent on the surface of Mars. The crystal quartz is very hard and would explain its structural integrity as compared to the surrounding rock. Opportunity’s microscopic imager took the photomosaic shown in Figure 2. The fine structure resembles that of a root to my untrained eye.
Petrification can occur very rapidly, even in a hundred years, but some on Earth are thought to be quite old. Logs found in Petrified Forest National Park are dated at 160 million years. If this proves to be a petrified root, you can be sure that the scientific community will claim that it is billions of years old. In fact, if it is so proved, the entire incident will probably be covered up because it violates of the currently accepted ‘Standard Model’ and would be an unacceptable embarrassment.
Regardless of the age of such a petrified root, the very existence of trees would prove that Mars was not always out in the freezing, lifeless part of the solar system. Sorry, but the usual excuse, i.e. ‘greenhouse gases’ just doesn’t cut it out there. I have been waiting for one of the rovers to find roots, because the entire southern hemisphere of the planet was covered with vegetation 6,000 years ago. The Egyptians called it ‘the great green (body)’ and it is artistically shown by the deity Anubis (Mars during the cyclic catastrophism), the back of who’s head is painted green. All vegetation was gradually lost between 3700 and 700 BC as its water, atmosphere and innumerable seeds in the manna or Soma were transferred to the Earth by thousands of convulsions within the ‘Red Planet’. These covered the entire surface with rocks and red dust, originally in the form of tiny iron spheres (condrules) shot from every volcano on the planet. Dust storms continue to recover the surface to this day and ultraviolet and particulate radiation has long since destroyed all organic material on the surface due to the lack of any protective atmosphere and magnetic field. It’s a shame that the rovers were not given larger ‘shovels’.
Time is on my side.
Thanks for your encouragement. I try to remain ‘faithful’ to my original premise and not stretch too far.
Of course the scientists already think I’ve gone too far. I have always felt that the firm base of my work was in the
ancient texts, but unlike yourself, this is beyond most reader’s interest or knowledge. Not surprisingly, the
humanists, professors of ancient texts and mythology, are also not able to see my ‘new’ view of their field of knowledge –
remaining just as frozen in their current views as are the scientists. Although publicly attacked by established astronomers,
at least Immanuel Velikovsky’s ‘Worlds in Collision’ was a world-wide best-seller. I think the ancient ‘world’ I have discovered
is so fantastic that no one can believe it – but it was necessarily so in order to rejuvenate the Earth.
Angiras said this on November 14, 2011 at 7:11 pm
John: I am more of a skeptic, but I like your work, mainly because you have cited a lot of ancient legends and literature to back it up…I would not reccommend becoming like Hoagland, he is wrong most of the time, and just becasue he spots a crinoid fossil, that does not justify the rest of his works….As to publicity, I am at a loss to explain his fame, althugh lately he has come a little un-hinged on C2C and on his FB page…Do not wind up like him, is all I can say, regardless of his being right once in a while…
vonmazur said this on November 14, 2011 at 3:08 am
Dale,
Thanks for the reminder. I found Hoagland’s paper at http://www.enterprisemission.com/articles/03-08-2004/crinoid_cover-up.htm
Also found some more rover images that look like crinoid stems. Enough for another post.
I wonder how Hoagland got so much publicity?
John
Angiras said this on November 11, 2011 at 3:04 pm
Did someone not point out some crinoid fossils once?? I think it might have been RC Hoagland.
Dale
vonmazur said this on November 11, 2011 at 5:31 am