moon could be ejected onto its surface, similar to kimberlite pipe on Earth. Finally, the existence of “ghost craters”, smaller craters within the maria that are mostly filled with lava, can be best explained with this hypothesis. These ghost craters strongly suggest that there were many craters being formed between the event that caused the “impact basins” and their subsequent filling with lava (Faulkner, 1999). While it could indicate a high rate of bombardment by meteorites, it could also suggest that craters were still forming due to heat from accelerated decay between the time of the “impact” basin explosion and its subsequent filling with lava. Thus, it is at least plausible that heat energy from accelerated radioactive decay could provide enough energy to form even the largest of the “impact” basins on the moon. D. Possible Explosion Mechanisms There seems to be a pattern of craters on the moon that are associated with lava flows. In each case, first there was an explosion forming a crater and then subsequently the newly formed crater was filled with lava to some extent. This is true in the cases of craters with irregular mare patches, craters with rilles, craters with volcanic central peaks, and “impact” basin craters. This patten hints at possible mechanisms for the generation of craters due to the heat of accelerated nuclear decay. The basic cause of volcanic explosions is the right combination of heat, pressure, and a volatile substance that can very quickly change from a supercritical fluid or liquid to a gas. On Earth, for acknowledged maar craters, this substance is usually water. The pressure is due to the weight of the overlying rocks. So as this heated water makes its way toward the surface, at some point the pressure from the overlying rocks becomes just slightly less than the vapor pressure of the water. As a direct result of this, it flashes to steam almost instantaneously. The amount of hot fluid will determine the size of the explosion and subsequent crater. If there is a large pocket of heated water, once the top portion of that pocket experiences an overburden pressure lower than its vapor pressure, that top part of the explodes. This removes the overburden for long enough for the entire pocket to experience a lower pressure, leading to the entire pocket exploding immediately. If there is a column of a hot volatile liquid, such as supercritical water, extending deep into the crust, then the explosive processes could well begin at the surface but continue down for quite a distance. Kimberlite pipes could be the result of exceptionally narrow and deep columns of supercritical water exploding in an instant. On Earth there is clearly enough water for it to be the pressurized fluid that causes phreatic explosions. There was likely also enough water on Mars as well. It is less clear that Mercury or the Moon would have had enough subsurface water. If they were originally formed cool, then there would have been more potential for their interiors to house water in liquid or solid form, and it may have been more prevalent as mineral hydrates like gypsum. A recent reanalysis of samples returned on the Apollo missions have found more water than previously reported (Hui et. al., 2013). It also may be possible that some percentage of the oxides on asteroids and the Moon (e.g. CaO) were created as carbonates (e.g. CaCO3) in which case the heat from the pulse of accelerated radioactive decay would have caused a chemical reaction releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide. Indeed, carbonates have been found on dwarf planet Ceres (DeSanctis et. al., 2016). Deep enough under the surface, the carbon dioxide would have been a supercritical fluid, which could then have exploded powerfully as it approached the surface. Furthermore, given the extremely high heat production that would have occurred during accelerated radioactive decay, especially for minerals with the highest concentrations of radioactive isotopes, it is possible that some minerals like silica may have been heated, under pressure, to a temperature that exceeded their unpressurized boiling point. Perhaps the rocks themselves were the fluid that flashed to vapor in an instantaneous explosion. It is possible that all of these fluids played a role in crater formation during accelerated decay. We do know that some of the basalts returned from Mare Imbrium on the moon contain many gas bubbles that were still present when the rock solidified, so even if we don’t know exactly which gas produced the bubbles, we do know that there was gas involved in the eruption. Figure 17 – Basalt rock returned from Mare Imbrium on the moon with many gas bubbles. If accelerated nuclear decay produced craters on nearly all rocky planets and moons, why don’t we see more large craters on Earth? On Earth, as well as perhaps on Venus, the whole mantle convection cycles that they experienced in part due to their large size and larger gravity field may have concentrated these explosive fluids at spreading zones, such as mid-ocean ridges on Earth, which would reduce their likelihood of causing massive explosions elsewhere. This may be part of the reason that we don’t see the same number and size of craters on Earth as we do on the Moon. Another reason is that the Flood on Earth would have buried or eroded many of the craters that might have formed. And some people have even questioned whether some of the large craters we do see on Earth are impacts at all, and have proposed unusual types of volcanism for their formation (Wieland, 2006). If this volcanic cratering hypothesis is correct, that heat from accelerated decay may have caused large pockets of superheated or supercritical fluids to form and then instantly flash to gas, then it seems possible that the majority of craters throughout the solar system may have actually been caused by this internal heat, and not by impacts. Perhaps the initial explosive fluid, hot molten temperature rock, supercritical water or carbon dioxide, was less viscous and less dense, so it would tend to rise more quickly. This hotter, lighter, less viscous material would create a diatreme which would then be followed later by cooler, more viscous and denser lava, which subsequently filled those newly formed craters. This pattern and its implied diatreme suggest a potential cause for the occasional crater found with concentric circles. It may be that an initially large explosion was followed by a smaller secondary explosion whose fluids travelled up the same diatreme at a later time. And again, this mechanism is consistent with the pattern mentioned earlier that seems to hold for craters with irregular mare patches, craters with rilles, craters with volcanic central peaks, and “impact” basin craters. E. Crater Explosion Hypothesis Compared to Impact Hypothesis From the standpoint of Biblical History and creation science, the crater explosion hypothesis seems more plausible than the impact STERNBERG Craters and cracks 2023 ICC 25
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