Getting to India

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Kickstarter campaign. Although we did not reach our goal, awareness of our project is still growing.

While time is too short to have another go at Kickstarter, we've concentrated our efforts on getting to India. The Earth Dynamics, Perceptions and Deadlocks conference in India this September is a critical event that we need to attend to get this project on its feet.

We will be able to produce this film without going to this conference, but it will be the best opportunity to get the project off the ground. In addition to the interviews we have filmed, we will be able to produce a short promo version, likely ten minutes or so in length, to get the project on its legs.

The conference will be an opportunity not only to get interviews with relevant figures who can speak to the film's subject, but also a place to obtain additional funding from researchers sympathetic to our goal. Our ability to network with such individuals will go a long way towards bringing this project to life.

We are concentrating our efforts on getting to India for these reasons, and if you can help us in any small way to get us there, your support will be greatly appreciated.

To donate, use the Chipin link to the right. We will be able to cover the necessary travel expenses if we reach 30% of our goal. Every little bit helps. If everyone who visits this page between now and the conference donates $20, we will have enough to go to India and produce the kind of exclusive, good quality material that this project needs. We will also make sure to provide a downloadable copy of the finished film to anyone who donates.

Thanks again for the continued support, and if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to send them our way!

Our Kickstarter Project Is Now Online

If this is your first time here, scroll down to learn more about our film. In the future, we will be setting up a more formal website to house much of this information and use this blog simply for updates and for letting anyone know who wishes to help out how they can do so.

We shot our first interview on Saturday with Dr. Victor Baker at the University of Arizona, and we are very pleased with how it turned out. We will post a snippit or two here in the future, but it's suffice to say that we are off to a great start.

Our main objective now is to get to India and the few other places on our list. Here are a few ways you can help us to get there:

Donate. Travel is expensive, and right now getting to the places we need to go is the first necessary step toward making this film a reality. In a few cases, our room and board are taken care of and all we need to do is get there.

The best way you can donate right now is online through Kickstarter. There, a donation of $25 or more will ensure you a copy of the film when it is completed, as well as a credit in the film with a $50 donation. There are other potential rewards based on the amount, so check it out. It'll go to a good cause, but it will be worth it to you too.

Alternately, you may use Paypal, by clicking on the ChipIn link to the right and following the instructions. If you do not have Paypal, you can create one, or use a debit or credit card, but it may charge a fee.

As another option, you can check here to see if your bank offers PopMoney. It is a new service similar to Paypal that links to your bank account so you don’t have to put any of your bank account information online. If you do not have a Paypal account but your bank offers Popmoney, this may be the best option. To send money this way, ask your bank how to send money using Popmoney. The email to use to send it to me is altgeologydoc@gmail.com (this service is currently only available at U.S. banks)

If you would like to send money using a check, money order or traveler’s check, send it to: Alan Hayman, P.O. Box 5591, Tucson, AZ 85703

You can also help us in these ways...

Media/Resources. Good archival footage is invaluable and would be a huge help to us. This could include radio or television interviews, news footage, press releases, relevant music, informational or educational videos, PSA’s and commercials, other documentaries, movies with interesting or humorous clips of relevance, and literature, such as primary sources, news stories or academic and personal correspondence. Referrals are also very helpful. People of interest include researchers and scientists familiar with alternative concepts, those affiliated with geologic societies around the world, journalists who are familiar with reporting science, educators of geology who are familiar with the politics of science and alternative tectonic concepts, and especially anyone working in the areas of earthquake and volcanism prediction.

International Connections. There are many places that this documentary will take us, including Australia, India, Italy and Japan, and anyone who lives in any of those countries could help us immensely by offering to either house us or show us where the best deals are. We will also be looking to get footage of the geography in many of these places to be used in the film. We may need translators to conduct interviews as well. What we will eventually need, we will post here in the coming months, but it couldn’t hurt to let us know who you are and where you are.

Word-of-Mouth. Perhaps the best way you can help is to link this page to anyone and everyone you know, and put an extra kind word in for us when you do. If you can’t afford to donate or don’t know how else you can help, this alone would go a long way. Also, become a subscriber by clicking the Follow link to the left, that way you’ll get an email as soon as any updates are posted.

Exciting Things are Happening Right Now

We have been fast at work these last few weeks and I'm happy to say things are moving along. We have a trailer in its final stages of completion, and our Kickstarter project is ready to go. These things will be posted in the next few days, so look for them.

We would like to thank Biju, the coordinator of the Indian conference, for offering to give us quite a discount for attending the event. We have also been invited to attend a post-conference field trip in the week following the conference, to study some Precambrian terrain just north of Kanyakumari, where the conference is taking place. This will be a rare opportunity to accompany scientists of diverse backgrounds from all over the world.

Also to the various other members of the scientific community who have extended their support to the film, not the least of which is Dong Choi, Editor-in-Chief of New Concepts in Global Tectonics (which is now a journal), we thank you.

We have also garnered the support of the famed John Taylor Gatto, whose efforts to investigate and explore the various problems in the American public school system have been invaluable and, for us, will play a big role in the education portion of our film.

We have learned more information pertaining to earthquake prediction than we ever could have imagined. The more we learn, the more important this film appears to get. Two methods have been successful in predicting earthquakes; one involving 'vapor clouds' and the other 'gravity anomalies. The Global Network for the Forecasting of Earthquakes (GNFE) was successful in predicting the Sendai earthquake in Japan using the latter method. Neither of these methods uses Plate Tectonic Theory. And, in the time since the Sendai earthquake, at least one prominent Japanese Plate Tectonics advocate has gone on record saying that Plate Tectonics is inapplicable to that earthquake.

Our intuition that this film will be important is becoming evident by the day.

Yet despite all of this good news, the conference is only 3+ months away, and the clock is ticking. I think we can beat it, but we need your help to do it.

In the meantime, John and I have decided to see if we can get some interviews here locally. The Geology Department here at the University of Arizona happens to be one of the top schools in the country for Geosciences (14th, in fact, according to Geotimes). As it turns out, some of the terrain here in our own backyard is a subject of controversy even within the department. We will use it as a point of entry, and see what happens.

Geology Background

We're still getting our donation stuff set up, but it will be available soon. For now, be sure to select "Follow" to the left to make sure you will receive any new updates as soon as they appear. Also, feel free to comment with any suggestions or input you may have. You may also email us at altgeologydoc@gmail.com for any information we may not have yet posted.  Here is some brief background information about Geology to provide some context for the film.

For a long time, Geology was a secondary science, being mainly preoccupied with the detailed mapping of the Earth. Until the middle of the 20^th century, most papers would have titles similar to: “The Geology of Quadrangle NN.” Astronomy’s equivalent to Geology would have been Tycho Brahe, whose painstaking efforts to map the skies and all of its celestial bodies led his follower, Johannes Kepler, to develop the Laws of Planetary Motion. Geology had not yet developed a theory to unify the measurements it had been making for over a century.

Then, in the 1950’s and the 1960’s, a revolution happened in Geology, made possible by technological advancement. Geoscientists could now study the ocean floors, which had previously been an impossible subject of study. This resulted in new sciences, such as Geophysics and Bathymetry, playing greater roles in the development of geologic thought, despite the apparent lack of historical and foundational knowledge of geology on the part of these newcomers. During this exciting time of new discoveries and a great accumulation of valuable new data, a race had begun to reach a Great Theory of the Earth. Though a great many theories were tossed around in that time, it is not surprising that these newcomers rallied for Plate Tectonic Theory, which is a theory that is based on the single most compelling and shocking discovery to come out of the oceanic research of the 1950’s: just about all of the oceanic crust on the planet is 200 million years old or younger. The creation of Subduction as a model for explaining this strange discovery was the most convincing and important conclusion that resulted from the discussion.

But by prematurely creating a truly global one-size-fits-all theory, one that finally restored to Geology a prestige it once had, any scientist whose research was based locally or regionally and who produced results which were contradictory to this theory would in some cases be ignored and in other cases be suppressed. There may be a personal stake in the overlooking of contradictory evidence, or one may just simply remain unconvinced of the conclusion. Such contradictory evidence sometimes involves a lengthy and elaborate alternative model, if only from the vantage of one safely couched in the living space of the dominant belief where simplicity is expected. Other alternatives are equally simplistic, such as Expanding Earth theory, but lack a convincing mechanism for expansion. But as proponents of such theories point out, a theory should not be rejected based on the implications of is conclusion but on the merits of its evidence. Yet regardless of the great gap between the main camp and all the others, skeptics are beginning to gather in greater numbers to discuss other concepts.

The first major push of these alternative concepts and the scientists who proposed them came in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Following the International Geological Congress in 1989, a group of geologists with mixed views gathered at the Smithsonian Institution to discuss other ideas. Those involved were a mixture of everything from Plate Tectonic devotees to proponents of brand new concepts. The content of the discussion was later published in the form of an anthology called “New Concepts in Global Tectonics.”  Then, following the 30^th International Geological Congress in Beijing in August, 1996, a newsletter was formed by the same name. The response was overwhelming, so much so that the editor had to recommend to potential contributors other publications, such as the Greek journal Theophrastus Publications, in order to accommodate the sudden influx of papers. The newsletter is now a respected journal with several thousand readers.

Summary

Here is a summary of the documentary. In the next few weeks, I will post additional details about the documentary, such as where we are looking, who's signed on to help, any successes we have had, how our approach may be evolving, a background on geology (for the non-geology folk) and other stuff. We will also include ways you can help us, such as how to donate. We are still setting up a lot of that, but we'll have it up shortly. 

The recent earthquake activity being witnessed all over the world throughout the last decade has placed geology in the limelight. The earth sciences have never been more socially interesting, politically relevant or scientifically significant than they are right now. An apparent increase in the volume and magnitude of tectonic events across the globe, such as the earthquakes in Chile, Haiti, Myanmar, New Zealand and recently Japan, have the public deeply concerned.

The consensus among Earth scientists, so far as the general public is concerned, is that all of the tectonic activity that happens on the planet’s surface, with the exception of Hot Spots, is the result of plates interacting with each other in three ways: collision of two continents, subduction of an oceanic plate under a continent, or along transform faults like the San Andreas fault. There are very few things that can’t be explained by these three observable phenomena, according to proponents of the Plate Tectonic Theory.

However, a compelling case is being presented by a growing number of scientists who claim to have found much evidence to the contrary. Subduction, for example, stands accused of being mathematically and geometrically impossible, physically and mechanically unlikely, and whose mechanism and driving force requires an unobservable, unproven and poorly understood explanation involving convection. Many papers have been written criticizing the theory in intricate detail, even by those who believe in it. Some believe the theory is erroneous or weak, but think it is fairly close.

Then there are those who go further. Expanding Earth Theory, Contracting Earth Theory, Global Wrench Tectonics, Surge Tectonics, Pulsating Earth Theory, Subcore Drift Theory and many other concepts have been put forth as alternatives. Some theories have commonalities, such as Expanding Earth Theory and Contracting Earth Theory believing that the continents do not move (fixism) and that tectonic activity is primarily vertical. Some even have things in common with Plate Tectonic Theory, such as the existence of spreading centers like the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Expanding Earth model.

That so many theories can exist is a testament to how little we really understand the Earth. The biggest proponent of Expanding Earth Theory, Samuel W. Carey, was actually an original defender of Alfred Wegener at a time when his Continental Drift Theory was ridiculed, and was instrumental in breaking the ice with a Theory of the Earth. Only after it gained acceptance and became Plate Tectonic Theory did Carey begin to question the theory more closely. Ironically, he became ridiculed after suggesting that the Earth may in fact be expanding in size.

If men like Samuel Carey can become marginalized and ridiculed overnight, the case can be made that such things are still happening today. And if science is on the side of those who are real practitioners of it, then the evidence should speak for itself. This may be the case with Geology’s hottest and most important area of interest right now: Earthquake prediction.

Critics of Plate Tectonics often point to the theory’s failure to provide any hope for predicting earthquakes or volcanism, which is the holy grail of geology. The reason for this is the theory’s assumed unpredictability. No cause has been found for why plates move as fast or as far as they do or what directions they may change to. But while the top minds in geology are trying to find the answer, the scientists working outside the mainstream say they have found a link between the motion of the sun and the moon. Supported by evidence from the geologic record, they are finding that tectonic activity is at an all-time high because we are entering a solar minimum – a period of decreased energy output from the sun – which is referred to as a “solar hibernation.” Over the last few years, they have developed sophisticated models for measuring solar and lunar impact on global tectonics. If true, the implications of this scientific oversight are huge.

Yet looking at this evidence and these theories is only half of what this film is going to do. This film will also look at the flow of information from the field where it is collected, through the academic world where it is interpreted and studied, and to the classroom where it is disseminated. The fact is, there are many pedagogical consequences and problems associated with the teaching of a theory like Plate Tectonics. The simplicity of the theory leads, not surprisingly, to an over-simplified view of the Earth where it would seem there are no large questions left unanswered. The feeling that all of the big questions have been solved serves to quell any child’s inspiration or passion for geology. It also creates over-confidence in those who do go into geology, for they only seek solutions that fit the theory that they were once told would fit everything. Anything that doesn’t seem to fit is treated as merely anomalous, even if it is far from extraordinary.

Finally, the theory could just be flat wrong. It would not be an exception to the rule of scientific history at all if Geology turns out to have been pursuing the wrong theory all along. It is a relatively new science, and new sciences tend to run with the first big theory they come up with. An older science like Cosmology is a science which even today demands constant reassessments of the current model. Rethinking the way we view the universe did not stop with Galileo; that is where it started. Up until 1927, we thought the Milky Way was the universe, and the discovery of other galaxies forced us to reexamine this as well. In fact, astrophysics is a field in which many theories are entertained because things like dark matter and dark energy are, at this point, anyone’s guess. The concept of reinvention is so much more commonplace in Cosmology than in any other science, and it ought to be used as a model for all the sciences.

The film will attempt to do the following: chronicle the earth sciences from origin to the present; explain the many criticisms of Plate Tectonic Theory along with rebuttals wherever possible; depict as accurately as possible as many alternatives as do exist, focusing more heavily on those which are most developed and praised by peers; examine the life of scientists who pursue such theories as well as those who sympathize but fear doing so for financial or political reasons; look closely at the subject of earthquake prediction, investigating any potential systems that may have been proposed or which currently exist and works to this end; speak to educators who are aware of the existence of such theories and/or the problems with Plate Tectonics, and attempt to incorporate them into the curriculum; briefly look at public perceptions of Earth dynamics in recent history, particularly in the media; make comparisons to other sciences, such as astrophysics and archaeology; compare geological societies of the world and contrast the egalitarian ones with the dogmatic ones.

Welcome!

This blog is going to be the home for all of the updates regarding the documentary. Unfortunately, it is still under construction at the moment. 

In the next few days, I will be posting information about the documentary, as well as providing contact information and links where donations may be accepted. Please come back in the next few days to learn more!