Archived Articles

ADVANCED SUMMARY

First, a Couple of Cayce Reading Fragments

The Earth will be broken up in many places. The early portion will see a change in the physical aspect of the west coast of America. There will be open waters appear in the northern portions of Greenland. There will be new lands seen off the Caribbean Sea, and DRY land will appear......South America shall be shaken from the uppermost portion to the end, and in the Antarctic off of Tierra Del Fuego LAND, and a strait with rushing waters.

(3976-15)

As given, for a thousand years He will walk and talk with men of every clime. Then in groups, in masses, and then they shall reign of the first resurrection for a thousand years; for this will be when the {Earth} changes materially come.

(364-8)

We use the global network of magma surge channels as the center piece of our speculations on the nature of a new cycle of geophysical disturbances. Here are the generalized steps that might occur to bring on world-wide Earth changes.

• The greater portion of Japan will sink into the sea, acting as a piston to fluid magma in the surge channels. (Sinking will be due to pole shift or to ongoing cooling and shrinking of the upper mantle beneath the Japanese islands.)

• Pressurized surge channels will lead to mountain building in some places or to sinking of Earth's crust in others. Lands will rise in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Buckling will occur in surface rocks in many places as a result of altered stress distributions. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions will be commonplace for a thousand years.

• As support for our speculations that combine scientific data with Earth-change predictions in a Cayce psychic reading, we provide recently published evidence of magma flow in a surge channel that originates in the Canary Islands mantle plume and moves under northwestern Africa to the Mediterranean Sea.

SURGE CHANNELS

The subject of "surge channels" in the Earth was addressed in Chapter 10 of our book, when dealing with the causes of earthquakes. We mentioned there that the Cayce readings present a comprehensive view of the causes of earthquakes. This viewpoint -- in reading 270-35 -- leads directly to a consideration of surge tectonics. (Tectonics refers to a field of geology dealing with processes that shape the Earth's surface.

What is most interesting today is that, without using the term itself, a paper has just been published in the journal Geology, that describes the movement of magma through a surge channel under northwest Africa. We explain below by first giving the relevant sections of the text in our book, and then presenting the abstract of the paper in Geology, together with a figure that shows in 3-D a view of the active surge channel.

The Role of Surge Tectonics in Causing Earthquakes

Consider now the words in bold in reading 270-35):

The causes of these [earthquakes], of course, are the movements about the earth; that is, internally - and the cosmic activity or influence of other planetary forces and stars and their relationships produce or bring about the activities of the elementals of the earth; that is, the Earth, the Air, the Fire, the Water - and those combinations make for the replacements in the various activities.

If there are the greater activities in the Vesuvius, or Pelee, then the southern coast of California - and the areas between Salt Lake and the southern portions of Nevada - may expect, within the three months following same, an inundation by the earthquakes.

But these, as we find, are to be more in the southern than in the northern hemisphere. [emphasis added]

270-35; January 21, 1936

Just what was Cayce's source seeing when it referred to movements about the Earth, and asserted that greater activities in either of two volcanoes could be related to earthquakes and inundations thousands of miles away? To answer this question we will look at a new hypothesis of global geodynamics called surge tectonics. This hypothesis shows promise for explaining the potential volcano-activity and earthquake-response relationship of reading 270-35, as well as certain other puzzling statements related to Earth change predictions in the Cayce readings.

Surge Tectonics

Arthur Meyerhoff and seven coauthors published their surge tectonics hypothesis in a 1996 book entitled Surge Tectonics: A New Hypothesis of Global Geodynamics1. They marshaled an enormous amount of field and instrumental data to make their case. We will only skim off the cream to make their hypothesis intelligible and show its possible relevance to the Cayce pole-shift and Earth-changes readings.

The authors' hypothesis is that the lithosphere contains a global network of deformable magma chambers, or surge channels, in which partial magma melt is either in motion (active surge channels) or was in motion sometime in the past (inactive surge channels). They further propose that the presence of surge channels means that all of the compressive stress in the lithosphere is oriented at right angles to their walls. As this compressive stress increases during a given geotectonic cycle, it eventually ruptures the channels. This results in bilaterally deformed belts of folded rocks.

Three separate but interdependent and interacting processes are involved in surge tectonics. In the first process, cooling and contraction of the Earth provides varying compressive stresses. The second process involves the flow of fluid, or semi-fluid magma, through a network of channels in the lithosphere. The third process is the effect of Earth's rotation on the magma flow fields. It is the second process, that of magma flow through a global network of channels, which we will address now. What is the evidence for such channels?

Meyerhoff et al. present a preliminary world map (see Fig. 4) that shows their concept of the location of bands of high heat flow from the Earth. They provide evidence from a limited number of seismic studies of the crust that indicate that all active surge channels lie within these bands of high heat flow. The heat flow of the bands is higher than elsewhere because hotter (more mobile) magma lies beneath each band. Presumably, then, it is the movement of semi-liquid magma in these surge channels that causes earthquakes. Micro seismicity is indeed more intense in the crust above such bands of high heat flow.

As said in 270-35 above, earthquakes are caused by “the movements about the earth; that is, internally.” From this we conceive of a pressure impulse being transmitted throughout the channel system. But how exactly would a volcanic eruption above one surge channel cause earthquakes to erupt thousands of miles away, “within the three months following same”? Perhaps we have been looking too narrowly in trying to understand the relationship.

>Meyerhoff et al. describe the relationship in terms of the asthenosphere. The as-then´-o-sphere is a layer or shell of the Earth below the lithosphere which is weak and in which magmas may be generated and seismic waves are markedly attenuated. According to the Glossary of Geology, the asthenosphere is part of the upper mantle. That's why many geologists don't use the term, thinking that it provides a distinction without a difference. But Meyerhoff et al. do use the term and so will we, but only here. The asthenosphere is not present everywhere around the globe, as may be inferred from the distribution of high heat-flow belts on Figure 4.

Here's what Meyerhoff et al. have to say about surge tectonics and how a new cycle of tectogenesis comes about.

The Earth, according to our surge tectonics hypothesis, is a very large hydraulic press. Such a press consists of three essential parts, a closed vessel, the liquid in the vessel, and a ram or piston. The collapse of the lithosphere into the asthenosphere is the activating ram or piston of tectogenesis.*  The asthenosphere and its overlying lithospheric surge channels - which are everywhere connected with the asthenosphere by vertical conduits - are the vessels that enclose the fluid. The fluid is magma generated in the asthenosphere. The magma fills the lithosphere channels. When the piston (a lithosphere collapse) compresses the channels and the underlying asthenosphere, the pressure is suddenly transmitted rapidly and essentially simultaneously through the worldwide interconnected surge-channel network; the surge channels burst and the tectogenesis is in full swing.

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*Tectogenesis is the processes by which structures in fold-belt mountainous areas were formed, including thrusting, folding, metamorphism, and plutonism in the inner and deeper areas.

Fig. 4. Bands of global high heat flow. All active surge channels are said to lie within these bands. Adapted from Meyerhoff, et al., 1996, Fig. 2.26.28

So what examples do the authors cite for lithosphere collapse? None, directly. But in their description of the geotectonic cycle they say that the strictosphere, which lies below the asthenosphere, is always contracting (presumably at a semi-continuous rate) because the Earth is cooling. Note too, however, that the sinking of "the greater portion of Japan" (3976-15), a portion of the lithosphere, into the asthenosphere, could be the piston that begins a new worldwide cycle of tectogenesis.

The overlying lithosphere is already cool and does not contract,

"but adjusts its basal circumference to the upper surface of the shrinking strictosphere by (1) large-scale thrusting along the lithosphere's Benioff zones, and (2) normal-type faulting along the strictosphere's Benioff zones.

The Benioff zones are found in a discontinuous plane beneath the ocean trenches of the circum-Pacific belt, dipping toward the continents at an angle of about 45°. Earthquake foci cluster within these zones.

If now we consider archangel Halaliel's prediction:

As to the changes physical again: The earth will be broken up in the western portion of America. The greater portion of Japan must go into the sea. The upper portion of Europe will be changed as in the twinkling of an eye. Land will appear off the east coast of America. There will be the upheavals in the Arctic and in the Antarctic that will make for the eruption of volcanoes in the Torrid areas, and there will be shifting then of the poles….

(3976-15; January 19, 1934

One of the classic areas for study and analysis of the Benioff zone is off the east coast of central and northern Japan. If the greater portion of Japan suddenly goes into the sea - as a result of strictosphere cooling or a pole-shift - the piston will have been activated, pressurizing magma in the surge channels, and a new cycle of worldwide orogeny, or tectogenesis, will have begun.

Magma flows will begin to break out of surge channels in various places. During lithosphere collapse into the asthenosphere, the continentward side of the lithosphere Benioff zone overrides the ocean floor and the entire local lithosphere fractures and founders, producing enormous compressive stresses in the lithosphere.

The upper portion of Europe will be changed about as quickly as Japan sinks, either by sinking or rising catastrophically as a result of the pressurized surge channels running beneath that region. Indeed, two active surge channels at the 30-50 km depth lie beneath northern Finland and Norway. The authors conclude on the basis of earthquake epicenter distributions that "one or more laterally connected low [seismic P-wave] velocity zones underlies the entire region north and west of the Baltic Sea." These low velocity zones outline the active magma surge channels.

Then, what about land rising off the east coast of America? Two active surge- channel bands run east-west, north and south of Cape Hatteras, respectively. Any activation of the worldwide system of surge channels could cause the shelf off the U.S. east coast to rise. The compression of the crust along the East Coast Fault Zone would probably be buckled there, as implied in chapter 23 that discusses areas to rise and the favorability of dwelling in Norfolk, Virginia:

It's a mighty good place, and a safe place when turmoils are to arise; though it may appear that it may be in the line of those areas to rise, while many a higher land will sink. This is a good area to stick to.

(2746-2; November 11, 1943

Then there is the matter of the rising of the Bimini, Bahamas area, and sunken Atlantis near the Azores, at the beginning of the Earth changes. Once again, both areas lie over high heat flow bands, presumed to delineate active surge channels.

Finally, we may now seek an explanation for the following prediction from reading 270-35.

If there are the greater activities in the Vesuvius, or Pelee, then the southern coast of California - and the areas between Salt Lake and the southern portions of Nevada – may expect, within the three months following same, an inundation by the earthquakes. But these, as we find are to be more in the southern than in the northern hemisphere.[emphasis added]

270-35: January 21, 1936

Presumably, during and after Japan “goes into the sea,” the worldwide system of surge channels will be activated. Breakouts from the channels will occur at weak spots such as the volcanoes of Vesuvius and/or Pelée (or Kilauea, in Pele's realm on the big island of Hawaii). Then, sometime within a three-month period from the beginning of these breakouts, the magma surge channels under western America, and western South America, will start to become active. Very strong crustal-modifying earthquakes will then suddenly begin occurring over the surge channels in the Wasatch fault zone of Utah, in southern Nevada, along the southern coast of California, and along the west coast of South America.

Apparently, the psychically perceived geophysics of this train of events involves so many interactive mechanisms that something like an up-to three-month time window must be specified for its unfolding. Thus, activation of volcanoes and distant crustal responses related to surge channels can occur anytime up to 90 days later.

Summary

The causes of earthquakes as described in reading 270-35 are considerably more complicated than today's seismologists understand. The main, immediate terrestrial cause seems to lie in Earth's internal movements, such as thermal plumes, mantle motions, mountain building, subsiding sedimentary basins, and rocks undergoing folding. Beyond our planet, causes of earthquakes lie in a confluence of planetary and stellar forces that act upon Earth. By a mechanism only dimly perceived if at all, these "outside forces" activate the "elementals" of our planet, the earth, air, fire, and water. It is the interactions between these elementals and the existing states of stress in Earth's crust that largely determine the locations, magnitudes and timing of the earthquakes that are triggered.

Whether and how rising primordial gases may interact with pressurized surge channels to produce or facilitate historically unprecedented Earth changes is difficult to predict. The processes involved and their triggers will require considerable effort to unravel.

It seems that at present we have little chance accurately to forecast earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and crustal upheavals, absent access to reliable psychic sources like those channeled by Cayce. Indeed, all scientific attempts to forecast earthquakes have failed. Today, only the monitoring of known earthquake source environments near population concentrations can provide generalized warnings of impending earthquakes. These generalized warnings may be sufficient in some cases to save the lives of those willing and able to heed them.

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We turn now to a couple of extracts (an abstract and a figure) from the scientific paper mentioned earlier. The authors of the paper describe how they discovered and mapped an active surge channel that runs beneath Africa on over to the western Mediterranean. This channel is to be found in the area of NW Africa shown to lie in the band of active surge channels on Figure 4 above. Arthur Meyerhoff and his co-authors would be pleased to have had access to this paper when writing their book. The title for the paper speaks of a "subcontinental lithospheric corridor beneath Africa." This is none other than a Meyerhoff et al.'s "surge channel."

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Flow of Canary mantle plume material through a subcontinental lithospheric corridor beneath
Africa to the Mediterranean

March, 2009, v. 37, p. 283-286.

S. Duggen^1,2,*, K.A. Hoernle¹, F. Hauff¹, A. Klügel³, M. Bouabdellah⁴ and M.F. Thirlwall^2
1IFM-GEOMAR, Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, Research Division Dynamics of the Ocean Floor, Wischhofstrasse 1-3, 24148 Kiel, Germany
²Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX, UK
³Universität Bremen, Fachbereich 5, Geowissenschaften, Postfach 33 04 40, 28334 Bremen, Germany
⁴ Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, B.P. 524, 60000 Oujda, Morocco

We present geochemical data of lavas from northwest Africa, allowing us for the first time to carry out large-scale "mapping" of sublithospheric mantle flow beneath the northwest African plate. Our study indicates that Canary mantle plume material traveled laterally along a subcontinental lithospheric corridor (i.e., at depths that are usually occupied by continental lithospheric mantle) more than 1500 km to the western Mediterranean, marking its route over the last 15 m.y. through a trail of intraplate volcanism. A three-dimensional geodynamic reconstruction, integrating results from geophysical studies, illustrates that long-distance lateral flow of mantle material into and through a subcontinental lithospheric corridor can be caused by a combination of (1) deflection of upwelling plume material along the base of the lithosphere, (2) delamination of subcontinental mantle lithosphere beneath northwest Africa, and (3) subduction suction related to the rollback of the subducting oceanic plate in the western Mediterranean. Although the flow of plume material beneath oceanic lithosphere to mid-ocean ridges or along the base of continental rifts has been previously shown, this study demonstrates that plume material can also flow large lateral distances through subcontinental corridors from suboceanic to nonrifting subcontinental settings, generating continental intra-plate volcanism without the need for a plume to be located directly beneath the continent.

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Figure 1. Map of the northwest African plate (A) and flow of Canary mantle plume material under northwest Africa through a subcontinental lithospheric corridor in a three-dimensional model (B). A: The orange area displays the Canary hotspot track on the oceanic side of the northwest African plate with ages of the oldest lavas from each island (red areas) or sea-mount (gray circles), indicating a southwest-directed age progression and the location of the current plume center beneath the western Canary Islands (Geldmacher et al., 2005). Also shown are the Atlas Mountains (gray field), location of the northwest African subcontinental lithospheric corridor in green, inferred from profiles (A–F) based on geophysical data (Urchulutegui et al., 2006; Missenard et al., 2006; Teixell et al., 2005).

Also shown are the Atlas Mountains (gray field), location of the northwest African subcontinental lithospheric corridor in green, inferred from profiles (A–F) based on geophysical data (Urchulutegui et al., 2006; Missenard et al., 2006; Teixell et al., 2005), and northwest African Neogene continental intraplate volcanic fields. B: The three-dimensional model illustrates how Canary mantle plume material flows along the base of the oceanic lithosphere that thins to the east (Neumann et al., 1995) and into the subcontinental lithospheric corridor beneath the Atlas system, reaching the western Mediterranean. Plume push, eastward-thinning lithosphere, delamination of northwest African subcontinental lithosphere, and subduction suction related to rollback of the subducting slab in the Mediterranean are proposed to be the main mechanisms for causing Canary plume material to flow ≥1500 km to the northeast. Agadir had a huge earthquake and offshore upheaval (up to 1,200 ft) of the bottom in 1960, undoubtedly related to the active surge channel beneath.