flowed. (Figure 15) In response to this rille formation hypothesis, Jim Zimbelman of the Smithsonian Institution said, “I am quite sure that you are correct that the craters associated with rilles are somehow directly linked.…there is plenty of evidence in lunar soils of glass beads of different colors, with surface volatiles that suggest a pyroclastic eruption origin” (Zimbelman, 2014). (Figure 16) If these craters from which rilles originate were likely formed volcanically, then perhaps other craters were as well. 3. Off Center “Central” Peaks & Peaks With Summit Pits While central peaks in craters have been used to argue for an impact formation of craters, when the peaks are not found in the center of the crater, or when the peaks themselves have summit pits, the more likely origin of those peaks is a volcanic one. A survey of 580 lunar central peaks was done in 1975 that discovered that about half of all central peaks are off center, and about a quarter of the central peaks investigated have summit pits – several of which “have what appear to be flows issuing from them” (Allen, 1975). This paper by Allen concludes that volcanism played a more important role in central peak formation than previously recognized. And if a volcano formed the central peak, then perhaps also a volcanic explosion formed the crater in the first place, followed by the eruption of lava shortly thereafter, just like we saw with the lunar rilles and the irregular mare patches. Indeed, we find several steam explosion craters on Earth with central peaks that appear to have formed in just this way, including the Zuni crater in western New Mexico and an unnamed crater in northern Chad at the coordinates 20.974144, 16.570422. Of course volcanic craters can also have central peaks such as Crater Lake in Oregon. So again, these lunar craters with off center central peaks and central peaks with summit pits strongly indicate that those craters were also formed volcanically. Since it’s clear that many smaller lunar craters must have a volcanic origin, and none of the craters on the moon (given what we know about them) must be impact craters, it makes sense to consider the hypothesis that the vast majority of lunar craters are volcanic in origin. It could be, however, that some of the more “recent” craters that have long debris trails emanating from them, such as Tycho crater, were formed from impacts after the pulse of accelerated decay produced most of the other craters and the surface of the moon had some time to cool. Perhaps in that case the impactor was ejected into an unstable orbit around the earth or moon by a prior mega volcanic explosion on the moon. C. Mare Craters Likely Formed By Heat from Accelerated Nuclear Decay Could even the large “impact” basins on the moon instead have been caused by massive explosions driven by heat from accelerated decay? The size of a crater is roughly proportional to the energy needed to form that crater, and for a crater the size of Mare Imbrium, at 1146 km across, approximately 1026 J of energy would be needed (Hughes, 2003). This is nearly an order of magnitude less than the total amount of energy that would have been released in accelerated radioactive decay just by the isotopes now located in the mare basalts that fill the crater, assumed to be an average of 1.3 km deep (Thomson et. al., 2009), which would have released approximately 9*1026 J. This amount of energy is sufficient not only to form the crater but also to heat and melt the mare basalts themselves. (Appendix C) Further evidence that Imbrium and other “impact” basins were formed by rising magma causing massive explosions can be found in the detailed analysis of an unusual rock found on the moon. Although the rock has many indications that it is from the Moon, such as its iron content, lead isotope composition, and bulk geochemistry, its zircons and the presence of titanium within its quartz inclusions indicate that it was formed at a depth of more than 150 km below the lunar surface. (Bellucci et. al., 2019). This depth of formation is thought to be inconsistent with the impact formation hypothesis for the Imbrium “impact” basin. While the authors speculate that this rock may have a terrestrial origin, they note that it is plausible that this rock formed at the base of the lunar crust. Nevertheless, they fail to postulate any kind of mechanism for bringing such a deeply placed rock to the surface. The volcanic crater formation hypothesis proposed herein could explain how a rock from so deep within the Figure 15 . Taum Sauk Pumped Hydro Catastrophic Drainage (Before and After) STERNBERG Craters and cracks 2023 ICC 23
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