Magnetic patterns in the ancient surface of Mars

The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft reached Mars in September 1997. Using aerobraking, it reduced its initial 45 hour elliptical orbit to a nearly circular 2 hour orbit. Aerobraking means that one end of the orbit dipped into the Martian atmosphere and this friction changed the satellite’s path. At its closest approach, MGS often dipped to just over 100 kilometers from the surface. These low altitude passes brought the craft's magnetometer close enough to detect the Martian subsurface magnetism. Mars does not presently have a global field which is why the spacecraft’s instruments could detect the magnetism of subsurface rocks. MGS detected wide, parallel magnetic stripes running east / west for thousands of kilometers. The magnetic stipes varied in intensity, shape and width. The magnetic bands varied from a 100 kilometers to several times that width. The magnetic field was strongest at about 180 degrees east longitude and 60 degrees south latitude. These stripes suggest Mars was once globally active. The Martian bands are more strongly magnetized and wider than bands in our oceans. Mars is rich in iron, which is evident from its rusty surface color. Perhaps this is why the Martian rocks are so strongly magnetized. The Martian magnetic bands do not spread out to both sides of a fault line like the bands in our oceans.

Magnetic bands detected by the MGS satellite during aerobraking. Dark reds and dark blues are the strongest residual magnetism. Weaker magnetic fields are pale blues and yellow. The strongest magnetism was in the southern highlands, at 180 degrees east longitude. Weaker extensions of these bands went completely around the planet.

Earth also has parallel magnetic stripes, but they do not cover most of the planet. They are found in bands surrounding an active volcanic rift in the bottom of our oceans. Each ocean has an active seam, a rift valley, where hot lavas are squeezed out to form new sea floor. The rift valley and the surrounding mountain chain follows the contour of the adjacent continents. Long ago the continents were apparently joined and have continuously spread apart. Earth’s magnetic bands alternate in polarity and are roughly symmetrical on both sides of the rift. The bands preserve the history of our primordial expansion and periodic reversals of Earth’s magnetic field. The magnetic stripes on earth are quite complex. They have irregular widths, contain islands of opposite magnetic polarity and even change sign at different depths. Our bands cannot be detected from space because of Earth’s strong magnetic field.

MGS map of Martian magnetic stripes. The magnetic peak areas are outlined with white dots as a global sinusoid. Four dashed arcs show the areas where the magnetic stripes have offsets. These areas coincide with major volcanos and fault systems.

The Mars Global Surveyor’s final orbit is polar and nearly circular at an altitude of about 400 kilometers. Even at this altitude, the magnetometer detected the surface magnetism on the night side of Mars. (The stream of charged particles from the sun complicates the measurement of a magnetic field from the daylight side). From this higher orbit, MGS mapped the entire surface during two full Martian years, almost 1400 days.

It is evident from the map that Martian magnetic stripes are GLOBAL - running completely around the planet. They run roughly east and west but the pattern of reversals runs perpendicular to this: north / south. The strongest magnetism is centered at 180 degrees east longitude and -60 deg latitude. It seems that the southern highlands have the oldest geology, dating from an era when Mars had its strongest magnetic field. Perhaps the southern highlands were formed by the same geological processes that created the magnetic bands.

The areas of high residual magnetism follow a quasi sinusoidal pattern that encircles the whole planet. This sinusoid undulates from +10 deg to -60 deg latitude . The northern peak is at 0 deg longitude and the southern peak is on the other side of the planet, at 180 degrees east longitude. The processes that caused the magnetic bands and the geology of Mars were apparently global, not just local convection forces.

1. Martian impact craters, such as Hellas and Argyre, have much reduced magnetism in their basins. Other larger circular basins associated with the northern “sea” also have reduced magnetism such as Utopia Planitia and Isidis. It is not as clear whether they are ancient impacts, but the topography of these large basins is outlined by surrounding magnetic stripes. (A strong shock reduces a magnet’s permanent magnetism.)

2. The areas that have been covered with several kilometers of lavas - the great volcanic provinces - also have minimum magnetism. (Intensely heating a magnet reduces its residual magnetism). Why do the volcanic upwellings in the bottom of OUR oceans retains a magnetic signature but not the great volcanic provinces on Mars? Ours happened under water - certainly not as hot as the magmas on Mars.

3. The striped bands reach almost to the Martian north pole at 0 degrees longitude, but in much of the northern plains the magnetism is undetectable from orbit.

4. When the bands are plotted, we see that in some areas the east / west pattern sifts north and south. These band-offsets are associated with visible surface faults and geological features. A plot of the magnetic offsets shows four long arcs that are quasi sinusoidal. Some of these arcs pass right through the greatest volcanoes in the solar system. Perhaps the faults opened fissures for magma to flow onto the surface. (One of these volcanos is over 20 kilometers high). The relationship between geological features and the magnetic bands implies that the Martian surface was affected by global causes, not just local upwellings.

Atlantic rift valley and transform rifts. The transform rifts point to the area where the two continents were once joined together. (e.g. East coast of North America to the north western coast of Africa and France to Newfoundland).

5. For most of its length, the Valles Marineris is perpendicular to three great volcanos that lie on an extension to a line of magnetic offsets. This great tear in the surface is 4000 kilometers long, has steep walls that drop down 7 kilometers, and, in some places, the parallel rifts are 700 kilometers wide. On earth we call gashes perpendicular to a major geological rift a transform fault. Our oceanic transform faults show that the floor of the ocean has expanded at different rates or changed direction. Our oceanic transform faults often point back to the continental margins from which that section was originally attached.

6. The global nature of these magnetic stripes suggests that ancient Mars was originally only a fraction of its present size.

Psalm 136:6 “To Him who spread out the earth above the waters. For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” There is only one Hebrew verb in this verse. It is the word raqa`. It means to beat out, stamp out, spread out or stretch out. This verb is an active participle that expresses an action in its unbroken continuity.

Isaiah 44:24b "I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone. . ." Again the spreading out of the earth is the same word and again it expresses a continuous action.

Isaiah 42:5 "Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring. . ." Again the action upon the earth is the word raqa`, to continuously pound, stamp, and stretch out the earth. In addition Isaiah uses the verb nathan about the produce of the earth or that which comes from it. This verb can also mean to extend or stretch out and again it shows continuous action.

In this last passage, Isaiah says that everything on the earth - all that comes from it - also stretches out. This is even more emphatic than just saying that the earth continually expands. This statement implies that the earth changes volume because matter itself changes volume. It is easy to verify that the Earth has increased in size. The only way our continents fit back together is on a much smaller globe. The bottom of the oceans is clearly younger with a great tectonic crack oozing out fresh sea floor.

The Apostle Peter predicted that in the last days mockers would come saying all things continue diamenei (Greek II Peter 3:3 - 4) Diamenei means to remain the same in being or relation. In the same verse Peter used a word very much in use in the educational system of that day: arche. An arche, when applied to understanding physical things, was a first principle, the fundamental assumption for a way of reasoning. Today no one seems to question that matter does not change. The idea that matter does not change in complex together-ways is our first principle. We can trace through history where this idea came from (Aristotle) and how it was crucial to scientific thinking.

We always accepts this little assumption as self evident. For example, we say a clock measures seconds that always have the same duration. The concept of linear time was an essential idea necessary in the development of higher mathematics (calculus) and the experimental system. Yet we cannot compare a past second with a present one without using this first principle that matter itself is unchanging. Nor can we compare the past weight of some object with its present weight, without relying on the assumption. If matter itself changed, the scale would remain in balance and the clocks stay in synch, because everything would change together, that is, as a relation. We even use this assumption to define our units, such as meters. The definition of a meter relies on the definition of a second and the first principle. If our first principle is false, we could not detect it locally with our mathematical, symbolical way of measuring.

We can verify that our first principle is false because we can actually see the past. No atom in distant galaxies beats to the same rhythm as local atoms. No galaxy in the distance has orbits that follow our laws of gravity. It is because they do not move according to our laws that astronomers invent invisible matter and place it around every galaxy. The most distant, dimmest galaxies are tiny and do not even have the extension or shape of local galaxies. Everywhere we look in the universe we see overwhelming evidence of change, but the Western system never questions this little arche, the first principle that matter is itself unchanging. This idea is so critical that astronomers invent a universe that is 99% invisible. They invent mathematical things, that could not even be detected if they existed, because they never question their first principle. Clearly we can see simple evidence that matter does indeed change as a relation. If it does, global magnetic bands on Mars would not be unusual because primordial Mars would have been much smaller. Perhaps God really expects us to interpret the Bible with grammar, in its historical context, not with our scientific culture. Think about it.