How High's the Water Mama?

Sometimes the best intentions come to naught. Take all the recent fuss over global warming. Even if everyone came together to prevent cars and cows from giving off greenhouse gases, it may not help, due to an interesting fact uncovered in February 1993.

At that time a team of geophysicists led by Donald Blankenship (University of Texas) and Robin Bell (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) were flying over the Antarctic ice sheet south of Marie Byrd Land. Three hundred miles in from the Ross Ice Shelf, they noted a four-mile-wide depression. They flew back, using radar to penetrate the ice, and discovered a 2,100 foot mountain. They measured the peak's magnetic field and found "the strong signal characteristic of iron-rich volcanic rock." In other words, there was an active volcano beneath the Antarctic ice -- probably more than one, as the area is a rift valley, like the infamous Atlantic Ridge.

Oddly, the problem is not that the icecap might melt. Not even a volcano could do that. But it could melt the lowest layer of ice, which would then mix with the sediment base, which would erode away. The western ice sheet might then collapse into the sea. According to science writer Robert Naeye, "if it did, the global sea level would rise about 20 feet, and coastal cities will be flooded."

This is not to say we should let greenhouse gases spew into the atmosphere at our hearts' desire, but . . . Someday I intend to move from my apartment of ten years habitation, and when I do, it will be to someplace inland. And high.


Naeye, Robert, "The Strangest Volcano," Discover vol. 15, no. 1, January 1994.

I brought 15 copies of I Heard of That Somewhere to my book signing last Saturday.  The event was to last from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM., and I sold the last one at 4:59 PM. Good timing!

An amazing number of people showed up despite the cold and wind and rain, which started off gale-strong and just kept getting worse as the day wore on. I'd like to take credit for that, but it was probably just the luck of the draw.

With the possibility of more people checking my blog, I'd better produce some new material -- specifically, a glimpse of my next book, tentatively entitled Other Realms, about mysterious disappearances of people, animals, and vehicles, unexplained appearances of strange creatures, and the possibility of other dimensions impinging on this earth:

THE FOG OF VANISHING

            Many cases of disappearances and appearances prominently feature a strange fog or mist gathering about the vanishing/appearing object.  This mist has parallels in old legends.  “Manawydan, Son of Llyr,” a tale found in The Mabinogion, tells the story of Manawydan, his new wife Rhiannon, her son Pryderi, and Pryderi’s wife Kigva.  Upon marrying Rhiannon, Manawydan becomes lord of Dyved in southwestern Wales.  After riding out from their castle at Arberth, the foursome encounter a curious phenomenon:

            “As they were sitting on the mound they heard thunder, and with the loudness of the thunder a mist fell, so that no one could see his companions.  When the mist lifted it was bright everywhere, and when they looked out at where they had once seen their flocks and herds and dwellings they now saw nothing, no animal, no smoke, no fire, no man, no dwelling . . . They returned to the hall, but no one was there; they searched the chambers and the sleeping quarters but found nothing, while the kitchen and the mead-cellar were equally desolate.”  [Jeffrey Gantz translation, 1976]

            An unknown fate supposedly befell Romulus, the legendary co-founder [with his brother Remus] of Rome.  Romulus mysteriously vanished in 714 BC.  (The mention of a solar eclipse during the event would set the date as May 26 of that year.)  The Roman author Livy (Livius Titus) wrote, in The Early History of Rome, that “One day while he was reviewing his troops on the Campus Martius near the marsh of Capra, a storm burst, with violent thunder.  A cloud enveloped him, so thick that it hid him from the eyes of everyone present; and from that moment he was never seen again upon earth.”

For those of you who will be in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area in the near future: It's official! Michael D. Winkle will be signing (and hopefully selling) copies of his book I Heard of That Somewhere at Gardner's Used Books, 4421 South Mingo Road, Tulsa, OK, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturday, April 13, 2019!

Unless the signing is called due to Spontaneous Combustion or asteroid strikes.

Read of Astounding Wonders of Time and Space, such as the Subterranean Heartbeat!

Mrs. Massey's Migrating Mice!

The Devouring Vine and the Snake-Tree!

The Portal in the Desert!

And Many Other Miracles Never Before Exhibited in any North American County Fair!