MORE ABOUT PLANETISSIMAL PANGAEA
The theory that supercontinent Pangaea is the remains of a crashed planetissimal seems to have attracted some attention in this forum and as originator of the theory I thought I ought to give more by way of explanation in response to some of the comments made.
To understand the origin and nature of this planetissimal we need to go right back to the formation of the Solar System.
It is widely accepted that the Solar System was formed from a cloud of gas and dust called the Solar Nebula. The origin and detailed characteristics of this nebula has however not received much attention. In my book Before the First Day I explain how this nebula was formed as the result of the collapse of a binary star in which one or both bodies of the system had already reached an advanced state in stellar evolution. Thus all the materials needed for the formation of the Solar System were contained within one or both members of the binary star system. Binary stars are the norm rather than the exception in the Universe. Collapse of these systems is a frequent occurrence and has become a subject of active research.
The collapse of a binary system results in the production of a very hot rapidly expanding nebula that rotates about the now central single body. In time this nebula cools and contract to leave a cold but still rotating cloud of particles of frozen gases and many trillions of tons of dust containing atoms and molecules of all the elements and their chemical compounds..
Magnetic, gravitational and radiation and centrifugal forces then play their part and some sorting of the gas and dust cloud takes place which basically means heavier particles ‘sink’ towards the coalesced bodies and lighter ones are propelled outwards and a grading process of separation and concentration takes place.
From this cloud the particles would begin to clump together to form bigger particles. In time particles ranging in size from a few microns to may metres and even kilometres form. Out of all this debris planetissimals and eventually planets take form as the dust clears.
Hence at a fairly late stage in the development of our Solar System there would have been billions of asteroids of all sizes and thousands of planetissimals among about a dozen or so almost completed planets.
The planetissimals and the planets and most of the other debris would have shared the same now crowded elliptical plane but al would enjo an orbit of their own for a short while..
But as there was still much debris to gather up none of the bodies in the planetary disc would have been able to retain their orbits for long but would have continued inwards in spiral orbits.
So at one stage of this process we would have Earth in an orbit at say 94 million miles from the Protosun, a large planetissimal at say 0.5 million miles further out and the Moon at a safe distance away
of say 2 million miles further out.
Because of the continued accretion of matter by all three bodies it is not difficult to see why a sizeable planetissimal would come within the grasp of the Earth’s gravity and be captured by it. But the collision between the Earth and the planetissimal would be a ‘side by side’ one rather than a head on one.
In my theory for the formation of this particular planetissimal I explain how it would have been would
have been completely encapsulated by three different spheres. An outer sphere of ice several hundreds of
metres thick, a middle sphere of essentially basaltic rock and an inner sphere of essentially granitic rock.
This planetisimal would have had a small core of iron/nickel covered by a a mantle of water, hydrocarbons
and sediments layered to an extent.
When Planetissimal Pangaea collided with the Earth it had to be a gentle touchdown for two reasons.
Firstly its own gravity was able to suck up great volumes of water from the global ocean which had a
‘drag’ effect and impeded it in its flight.
Secondly when it landed in the Pacific Ocean area it made a huge dent on the ocean floor and cracked
It in the process thereby losing some of its energy. But it bounced off and came to rest on the other side of the globe again in a deep ocean of water. Its three protective layers helped to
cushion the impact with limited success thankfully.
Thus four shells of protection allowed a good proportion of the material from the crashed planettismal to form a huge near circular mound with an average thickness of 20miles and a diameter of 8500miles.A planetissimal 1300 miles in diameter would contain enough material for this.
For this reason the Earth only has a substantial land surface on one side of the globe and this land mass
has a basaltic base but a generally granitic body with billions of tons of sorted and unsorted sediments.
Much of the sediments have become metamorphosed into rock by the heat of the impact. Life on the planetissimal may have been a possibility before the crash.
The huge quantity of sediments now on the sea floor is most probably the remains of the sediments that did escape one way or other but other small planetissimals which had a more disastrous landing on
the earth can also account for the tremendous quantity of sediments in the ocean bed.
By way of a final note let me say all this is offered as a theory although I have probably explained it as fact to make the reading easier.It is a theory in accordance with my understanding of the various sciences and it has good biblical support which I like about it but others may oppose it for this very reason.
Like any theory it can never be proved to be correct but it can easily be proved to be wrong.
Can someone in this forum venture to knock it down in its overall concept? Or better still is there anyone out there who has facts in support of it. Good to hear from you either way.
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