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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
geology and the axis of rotation, 5 Mar 2006
Readers will be attracted by different aspects of this book but what caught my fancy was the implications it had for geology. The idea that the axis of rotation can shift, and has shifted on more than one occasion, provides the perfect mechanism to explain the Ice Ages - but not only that, a wobble in the axis of rotation in conjunction with Clube and Napier's hypothetical comet that broke up in the solar system over the last ten thousand years provides the dust in the atmosphere to explain the Oldest, Older, and Younger Dryas Event. A change in the axis of rotation could also explain the Mid Holocene warm event and let me explain how this might be. The climate in northern Europe became warmer and the treeline extended further north than it does now, and to a greater altitude on northern Europes mountains. Indeed, it is reckoned that the tundra shrank in Siberia, or at least the Siberian temperature was warmer. It did not of course unfreeze the mammoth remains in the far north, on the coastline of the Arctic Ocean. However, in conjunction with ample evidence the Sahel (savannah) moved northwards so that what is now the Sahara desert became attractive to human settlement, in the period preceding the Old Kingdom of Egypt, one might say the latitudes changed for a period of roughly 2500-3000 years. This is in contrast to global warming sceptics who use the Mid Holocene warm period to claim there has been far higher global warming in the past history of the earth. We may also note that in Australia the Mid Holocene warm period was in contrast, cool. There is also ample evidence of the growth of glaciers in the mountains of Patagonia and New Zealand's south island. This is a necessity, it may be noted, if the axis of rotation had shifted, as Australia and New Zealand would be situated south of where it is today. Paul Dunbavin provides the date, around 3000BC (C14 dates are imprecise at this particular point in time) for the final wobble in the axis of rotation. However, he leaves open a certain amount of wobble at other points in time afterwards - but without the necessary shift in the axis of rotation. These occur towards the end of the third millennium and second millenniums BC, coinciding with prominent tree ring dates that also intrigued Clube and Napier in their book 'The Cosmic Serpent'. This book is treated with considerable respect by the astronomical community but is ignored by geologists and archaeologists. I wonder why. Its a bit like the treatment of Alexander Thom who uncovered a fascination of the Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples of Europe with the motions of the moon, especially the extremes of its orbit. This is explained by Paul Dunbavin in a quite succinct way, a wobble in the axis of rotation caused the moon to appear to behave erratically. This in turn explains why megaliths became a focus of interest at certain points in time, and those certain points coincide with prominent tree ring low growth events, namely around 3500-3000BC, 2345-2000BC, and around 1700-1600BC. Another major tree ring event at 1159-45BC coincides with the collapse of dynasty 19 in Egypt, the disappearance of the Hittites in Anatolia, the demise of Mycenaean Greece etc. There is also an Egyptian text, from the reign of Merenptah, that claims the 'star of Anath' has fallen on Libya. Shortly afterwards the western delta was invaded by large numbers of Libyan refugees. A similar thing happened a few decades later, in the years preceding Ramses III. This led to large numbers of refugees from Anatolia and the Aegean entering Cyprus, and the Levant. They were defeated and settled by Ramses III in territory nominally Egyptian, and became known to history as the Philistines - giving their name to Palestine. Clearly a link exists between the destructions at towns and cities across Anatolia and the Aegean and the arrival of refugees in Cyprus, Cilicia, and the Levant etc. It is also a fact that if you key in sea level changes to your search engine you will find that in Britain drowned forests and estuaries are dated consistently to these low growth tree ring events so something was happening geologically, and very quickly too. Paul Dunbavin has provided the mechanism to explain a whole raft of anomalies orthodox science does not as yet adequately explain, and this is particularly true of worldwide sea level changes.
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