Evidence on Earth
Prior to the time of capture, a look into the Earth’s past gives us a picture of life, which was stable, yet slowly evolving. There is a general principle of geography which says that given a lack of uplift, ultimately through erosion, the landmass will level itself toward sea level. These were the predominant environments of the early age. This was a primordial world of low energy with little tectonic activity and a fixed set of continents with all the land concentrated in one large continent. (26)
The pre-capture world was one of broad flat plains with sluggish rivers and large coastal/estuary environments. As the world evolved toward the end of the Paleozoic, great forests and swamps became the standard environment of the carboniferous period. Mountains are apparently few, lost either to erosion or isostatic equilibrium (27). This is the period from which much of our carbon based energy system comes; oil gas and coal are all important deposits of this period. Huge quantities of carbon rich organic material were taken out of the atmosphere and placed into storage in the planetary crust. Tectonic activity as we now know it did not exist (28).
The environment evolved fairly steadily over long epochs of time from the Pre-Cambrian era in which life first evolved throughout the Paleozoic era (590-245 million years ago) up to the end of the Permian period (the last period of the Paleozoic era). A general age of 284-245 million years ago is accepted for the Permian. Thus the Paleozoic period represents the pre-capture world, a primordial time and the Mesozoic represents the post-capture world.
A Cataclysmic Event
Then something happened. Something big. The modern world, as we know it, of active geologic uplift, earthquakes, ice caps, tides, and seasons are the direct result of the Earth capturing the Moon. The shifting of the Earth’s axis and the commencement of continental drift are a major long-term outcome of the lunar capture process. Upon capture of the Moon, the climate and structure of the Earth began a long term irreversible trend toward the modern world.
Today we still have a very active planet and all this activity is the final stage of what began hundreds of millions of years ago with the capture of the Moon. The future of the Moon is uncertain and gives us cause to also question the destiny of our own planet. A modern capture model causes a re-evaluation of our many fundamental beliefs of the geophysical nature of the Earth and Moon and prompts further research in the fields of the geo-sciences and the evolution of life on Earth.
The capture of the lunar planet by Earth caused the greatest change in the Earth’s history. A presumed change in the tilt of the Earth, caused by the transfer of orbital energy from the Moon’s orbit to the body of the Earth had startling effects on the environment and climactic zones of the Earth.
The energy associated with an event of this scale is difficult to imagine. The Moon absorbed this energy as internal heating and heating of its crust (29). The Earth was also taking on energy, funneling it into dynamic energy. This manifested itself in two primary ways. The first was a tilting a precession of the Earth’s axis, which is still wobbling today. The second was the gravitational heating dynamic which energized plate tectonics and began the reorganization of the Earth’s landmasses at unprecedented speeds.
From a human perspective, this is possibly the greatest single event in the solar system since its formation. The capture in a geocentric orbit, of the Moon, generated our seasonal world and set plate tectonics in motion, thus creating the continents as they exist today.
Tilting of the Axis and Seasonality
The spinning of a well-balanced top or gyroscope is analogous with planetary rotation. The natural position of planetary rotation, within the context of the nebular hypothesis, is in the vertical position. This of course is dependent on the mass of the planet and its distance from the Sun. All variations of planetary rotation are assumed to be the result of tidal interaction with other objects or from off-centered impacts.
The first two terrestrial planets, Mercury and Venus both stand straight up. The strong graviational pull of the Sun is expected to cause this vertical axis of rotation. However, Earth and Mars both have tilts of 23 1/2 degrees. This is an interesting coincidence since it would be expected that the Earth should stand more vertically than Mars given Mars’ much greater distance from the Sun and much smaller mass. Assuming that Mars has an undisturbed rotational axis, then the Earth should have a more vertical stance between 11 and 12 degrees during Paleozoic time, as postulated by Darwin in 1881.
The Moon actually wanders above and below the line of the equator (non-equatorial revolution) by a total of some 11 degrees. An interesting point is that this is about half of the 23 1/2 degree tilt of the Earth’s axis. The melding of the Earth and Moon’s orbits has caused the Earth to tilt upon its axis. This change began at the Permian-Triassic Boundary. Our modern seasons are primarily caused by the tilt of the axis.
A minor component of season is the elliptic orbit of the Earth, which brings us closer or further from the Sun. These two factors work in conjunction to cause seasonal fluctuations, which the Earth experiences over time.
Fossil records indicate that the trees of the carboniferous age lacked the seasonal growth rings of modern trees. The absence of annual rings in the trees of the coal forests permits the conclusion that the plants experienced no annual rhythm. Evidently there was no occasion for this adaptation in the coal forests, on account of the unusually uniform climate.
In connection with the growth-rhythm, particularly indicated by the formation of annual rings, W. Gothan refers to the “resting buds.” “The leaf- and needle-trees display them, for example, in the present-day temperate zones. They remain closed for a period just shorter or longer than the stopping of vegetation, and unfold at the start of a new growth-impulse. Sleeping buds are not indicated in the coal formations, contrary to evidence from the Tertiary. This can be explained by assuming a greater uniformity in the Carbon climate than in the tropical to subtropical Tertiary climate.” (30) Seasonal effect may also be confused with extreme wet/dry periods, which appear to be a standard “savanna” environment of the primordial age of the Paleozoic period. Not until after capture, did we see evidence of the beginning of a trend toward seasonal “tendency” on land.
The Breakup of Pangaea
The rapid development of the tectonic system on Earth literally tore continents apart and sent them spreading around the globe. Landmasses radiated from a central equatorial point, still represented today by the continent of Africa. Antarctica was perpetually captured in a polar vortex as such; its former neighbor India was wrenched loose and sent hurdling North to slam in to the Asian continental mass.
Typical dating of plate movement begins somewhere in the Permian-Triassic time frame and the rate of spreading is generally assumed to be constant. By the observed distances between known rifts on opposite sides of mid-ocean ridges a rate of 2″ per year is found.
Conversely a modern capture model proposes that initial spreading started rather suddenly and later than is commonly assumed. Once it started, it increased in pace until achieving a maximum and has since slackened to the pace we see today. This has significance in regards to precise dating of species separation and explaining some biological diversity questions related to species that were separated by continental movement yet seem to be relatively similar. (31)
Continents were actually connectd much more recently than is now presumed. The rapid initial movement cuts into the generally accepted length of time since initial separation of the continents. The actual beginning of plate separation started later than generally accepted, but rose to a pitch only to begin a slow windings down until the present. (32)
This allows for a shorter actual time of separation between related species, which were divided into two distinct populations by the opening of seaways. A rapid break up of the landmasses with eventual slowing to today’s observed rates, allows for better correlation of observed duration of time in which animals evolved independently of their ancestors upon the resulting continents.
“The world was changing of that there could be little doubt. The end of the Triassic very probably marks the beginning of the end of Gondwanaland and Laurasia, with the inauguration of physical changes of overwhelming importance that were to determine the evolutionary directions that would take place among the Earth’s living inhabitants.” (33)
Did Land Bridges Exist?
The fact that the continents were in contact with each other later than commonly believed answers a thorny problem. A hypothesis was developed prior to the tectonic revolution, which accounted for this situation with long land bridges across the oceans. This model shows, however, to what extent science would go to try and overcome this anomaly. A modern lunar capture model can account for this situation with a simple answer. The rate of energy funneled into the system has changed with time. The time of continental separation can be reduced on account of the faster rate of spreading. Thus, there is no time scale problem with the evolution of species and the drift of continents.
Ironically, the land-bridge hypothesis has some merit in this new model. Since landmasses separated later than typically believed, rising sea levels caused the first observed separation of species. Some form of land bridge contact may have existed initially, since a bridge system, of sorts, would remain along existing mountain chains. These flooded mountain chains would remain above the rising ocean as it crested the continental shelf. Not until later when the continental mass separated and true ocean basins formed did the separation become complete. These bridges would not be the great ocean-spanning land bridges, but an isthmus, which was a lasting link prior to the complete separation, similar to the Isthmus of Panama today.
The Siberian Traps
Volcanically speaking the impact of the capture event was of staggering long-term proportion. Even today the volcanic activity cause by capture of the Moon is a substantial part of our dynamic biosphere. During the terminal Permian this activity led to the beginning of a series of massive flood basalts and laccolith intrusions (34,35). These flood basalts are often compared to the mare on the Moon (36). (The timing of crustal extension and the eruption of continental flood basalts)
Traps is a Swedish term used to describe the stair stepped appearance of continental flood basalts. Continental flood basalts cover huge areas and can be thousands of feet deep. They are different than the lavas associated with Earth’s volcanoes. Flood basalts form large flat “floods” of basalt which build on top of each other building layer upon layer. The Siberian Traps, the greatest known flood basalt on Earth, was unprecedented. The Siberian traps and Permian extinction essentially happened at the same time
The flood basalts mirror the pattern of dissipation of capture energy. As capture energy waned the heat source for flood basalts slackened as well. Through the Mesozoic Period, flood basalts continued on Earth but at a decreasing rate.