Posted on 07/10/2014 12:35:30 PM PDT by BenLurkin
That part of the article was very unclear. The extent of the rainforest ebbs and flows with climactic conditions. The rainforest in Bolivia has been there for a few thousand years but the rainforest as a whole has been there for millions of years.
First Paragraph mentions: “A series of square, straight and ringlike ditches scattered throughout the Bolivian and Brazilian Amazon were there before the rainforest existed, a new study finds.”
This seems to indicate a larger area was previously not rainforest. The article is confusing.
Having studied the Sahara and Arabian deserts for a number of years now I can say with a good deal of confidence that no matter what you read on the internet the provenance of the quartz grains that form the deserts in unknown (the same would apply to the deserts, beaches, sandstone deposits, etc. worldwide). Pretty amazing given they both contain vast oceans of sand. Some say the underlying Nubian sandstone (almost pure quartz sand) may be the source but then they cannot say where this originated. Volcanism largely produces basalt which is mainly devoid of quartz altogether, so this cannot be the source.
I’m in the middle of writing my third book “Extraterrestrial Desert Sands” in which I proposed the deserts (& quartz sand globally) were formed VERY recently. In short: Cosmic chaos involving mainly Mars (once home to humans the same as you and I) created unfathomable quantities of vaporised rock - this condensed as it fell to earth, precipitating out of the atmosphere to form quartz crystals. In other words it rained sand! Vast swaths of it - this is the origin of the deserts (beaches, dune sand, etc.) of the world! All this occurred in the last few thousand years. Prior to this the Sahara was a green savanna, as too were vast regions of the Arabia peninsular.
I’m in favour of the ‘green glass’ the result of a bolide event... as follows.
“The latest research almost proves that Libyan desert glass is the terrestrial by-product of a massive bolide impacting in desert sands. Analysis shows rapidly quenched molten silica with signs of molecularly altered zircon crystals, shocked quartz and metals such as nickel and iron. The only force that can produce this material is really a cosmic impact. Nuclear blasts come close, but the material is very low quality and frothy. Fulgerites from lightning impact is even more frothy and grainy, and looks more like cemented sand.”
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread960470/pg2
But I would ignore any “gazillion years old” dates. Everything we see today in geological terms occurred mainly in the last few thousand years (catastrophist not creationist!). Earth is still simmering down as a result of recent planetary encounters.
Loads more on my web.
Apologies if I appear illusive, it’s all eyes down in trying to get book completed!
Turns out, sand formation may be more complex than one might originally suspect. And, after doing some more looking around I discovered there are actually several different types of sand that make up the Sahara itself. It's not uniform at all. Never thought about it but I suppose it makes sense.
I gather you're also a follower of many of Velikovsky's ideas and his interpretations of Biblical an other ancient scripts. Have you looked at the 9th plague, the plague of darkness in Egypt? Utter darkness, a darkness that could be felt??? A cloud of sand cold be felt. Not to mention it had to have been exceedingly thick. Lasted either three days or nine days depending on the source.
The rainforest/jungle I that area is young but that does not imply there was no existing rainforest or jungle species in adjacent regions.
In short, the jungle encroached when rainfall permitted it, and birds and other animals followed the advance of the plant growth.
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