CLIMATE EFFECTS OF VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

THE OZONE, GREENHOUSE, AND HAZE EFFECTS There is considerable debate on the role that humans play in changing global climate through both the burning of fossil fuels and the release of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases. Some argue that human interaction poses less of a threat to our atmosphere than do natural processes, like volcanic eruptions. This places a great deal of importance on understanding the role of volcanic eruptions in affecting global climate change. Whatever the source, it is apparent that compositional changes in the earth's atmosphere generate three principal climatic effects: THE OZONE EFFECT: Intense sunlight in the stratosphere (above 12 km) produces bluish colored ozone (O3) by naturally breaking down normal oxygen molecules (O2) into two highly reactive oxygen atoms (O). Each oxygen atom then quickly bonds with an oxygen molecule to form ozone. Ozone absorbs UV radiation, and in the process ozone is changed back into an oxygen molecule and an oxygen atom. A balance exists in ozone destruction and production, so that an equilibrium concentration exists in the stratosphere. This equilibrium has probably existed throughout much of geologic time. Recently, however, an ozone hole has been detected in the stratosphere over Antarctica, presumably due to the atmospheric build up of ozone-destroying CFCs by humans. Ozone depletion has resulted in a greater penetration of ultraviolet radiation on the earth's surface, which is harmful to life on earth because it damages cellular DNA. The ozone effect does not appear to have a direct influence on global temperatures. THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT:

Certain gases, called greenhouse gases (primarily carbon dioxide and water vapor; but also methane, N2O, and CFCs), allow short wavelength radiation from the sun (UV and visible light) to penetrate through the lower atmosphere to the earth's surface. These same gases, however, absorb long wavelength radiation (infrared), which is the energy the earth reradiates back into space. The trapping of this infrared heat energy by these greenhouse gases results in global warming. Global warming has been evident since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Most scientists attribute global warming to the release of greenhouse gases through the burning of fossil fuels. THE HAZE EFFECT:

Suspended particles, such as dust and ash, can block out the earth's sunlight, thus reducing solar radiation and lowering mean global temperatures. The haze effect often generates exceptionally red sunsets due to the scattering of red wavelengths by submicron-size particles in the stratosphere and upper troposphere. THE INFLUENCE OF VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS ON THE OZONE, GREENHOUSE, AND HAZE EFFECTS Volcanic eruptions can enhance all three of these climate effects to variable degrees. They contribute to ozone depletion, as well as to both cooling and warming of the earth's atmosphere. The role of volcanic eruptions on each climate effect is described below. INFLUENCE ON THE OZONE EFFECT:

The halide acid HCl has been shown to be effective in destroying ozone; however, the latest studies show that most volcanic HCl is confined to the troposphere (below the stratosphere), where it is washed out by rain. Thus, it never has the opportunity to react with ozone. On the other hand, satellite data after the 1991 eruptions of Mt.Pinatubo (the Philippines) and Mt. Hudson (Chile) showed a 1520% ozone loss at high latitudes, and a greater than 50% loss over the Antarctic! Thus, it appears that volcanic eruptions can play a significant role in reducing ozone levels. However, it is an indirect role, which cannot be directly attributed to volcanic HCl. Eruptiongenerated particles, or aerosols, appear to provide surfaces upon which chemical reactions take place. The particles themselves do not contribute to ozone destruction, but they interact with chlorine- and bromine-bearing compounds from human-made CFCs. Fortunately, volcanic particles will settle out of the stratosphere in two or three years, so that the effects of volcanic eruptions on ozone depletion are short lived. Although volcanic aerosols provide a catalyst for ozone depletion, the real culprits in destroying ozone are human-generated CFCs. Scientists expect the ozone layer to recover due to restrictions on CFCs and other ozone-depleting chemicals by the United Nations Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. However, future volcanic eruptions will cause fluctuations in the recovery process. INFLUENCE ON THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT: Volcanic eruptions can enhance global warming by adding CO2 to the atmosphere. However, a far greater amount of CO2 is contributed to the atmosphere by human activities each year than by volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes contribute about 110 million tons/year, whereas other sources contribute about 10 billion tons/year. The small amount of global warming caused by eruptiongenerated greenhouse gases is offset by the far greater amount of global cooling caused by eruption-generated particles in the stratosphere (the haze effect). Greenhouse warming of the earth has been particularly evident since 1980. Without the cooling influence of such eruptions as El Chichon (1982) and Mt. Pinatubo (1991),

described below, greenhouse warming would have been more pronounced. INFLUENCE ON THE HAZE EFFECT: Volcanic eruptions enhance the haze effect to a greater extent than the greenhouse effect, and thus they can lower mean global temperatures. It was thought for many years that the greatest volcanic contribution of the haze effect was from the suspended ash particles in the upper atmosphere that would block out solar radiation. However, these ideas changed in the 1982 after the eruption of the Mexican volcano, El Chichon. Although the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens lowered global temperatures by 0.1OC, the much smaller eruption of El Chichon lowered global temperatures three to five times as much. Although the Mt. St. Helens blast emitted a greater amount of ash in the stratosphere, the El Chichon eruption emitted a much greater volume of sulfur-rich gases (40x more). It appears that the volume of pyroclastic debris emitted during a blast is not the best criteria to measure its effects on the atmosphere. The amount of sulfur-rich gases appears to be more important. Sulfur combines with water vapor in the stratosphere to form dense clouds of tiny sulfuric acid droplets. These droplets take several years to settle out and they are capable to decreasing the troposphere temperatures because they absorb solar radiation and scatter it back to space. EXAMPLES OF GLOBAL COOLING IN THE AFTERMATH OF HISTORIC ERUPTIONS: Observational evidence shows a clear correlation between historic eruptions and subsequent years of cold climate conditions. Four well-known historic examples are described below. LAKI (1783) -- The eastern U.S. recorded the lowest-ever winter average temperature in 1783-84, about 4.8OC below the 225-year average. Europe also experienced an abnormally severe winter. Benjamin Franklin suggested that these cold

conditions resulted from the blocking out of sunlight by dust and gases created by the Iceland Laki eruption in 1783. The Laki eruption was the largest outpouring of basalt lava in historic times. Franklin's hypothesis is consistent with modern scientific theory, which suggests that large volumes of SO2 are the main culprit in haze-effect global cooling. TAMBORA (1815) -- Thirty years later, in 1815, the eruption of Mt. Tambora, Indonesia, resulted in an extremely cold spring and summer in 1816, which became known as the year without a summer. The Tambora eruption is believed to be the largest of the last ten thousand years. New England and Europe were hit exceptionally hard. Snowfalls and frost occurred in June, July and August and all but the hardiest grains were destroyed. Destruction of the corn crop forced farmers to slaughter their animals. Soup kitchens were opened to feed the hungry. Sea ice migrated across Atlanitic shipping lanes, and alpine glaciers advanced down mountain slopes to exceptionally low elevations. KRAKATAU (1883) -- Eruption of the Indonesian volcano Krakatau in August 1883 generated twenty times the volume of tephra released by the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Krakatau was the second largest eruption in history, dwarfed only by the eruption of neighboring Tambora in 1815 (see above). For months after the Krakatau eruption, the world experienced unseasonably cool weather, brilliant sunsets, and prolonged twilights due to the spread of aerosols throughout the stratosphere. The brillant sunsets are typical of atmospheric haze. In London, the Krakatau sunsets were clearly distinct from the familiar red sunsets seen through the smoke-laden atmosphere of the city. This is demonstrated in the painting shown here of a sunset from the banks of the Thames River, created by artist William Ascroft on November 26, 1883 (Courtesy of Peter

Francis). The unusual and prolonged sunsets generated considerable contemporary debate on their origin. PINATUBO (1991) -- Mt. Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines on June 15, 1991, and one month later Mt. Hudson in southern Chile also erupted. The Pinatubo eruption produced the largest sulfur oxide cloud this century. The combined aerosol plume of Mt. Pinatubo and Mt. Hudson diffused around the globe in a matter of months. The data collected after these eruptions show that mean world temperatures decreased by about 1 degree Centigrade over the subsequent two years. This cooling effect was welcomed by many scientists who saw it as a counter-balance to global warming.

Climatic Research Unit : Information sheets 13: Volcanoes and their effect on climate David Viner & Phil Jones It has been known for some time that explosive volcanic eruptions can have a major influence on global and regional climate. The most well known eruption of recent times was Tambora, Indonesia, which exploded in 1815. The following summer became known as the "the year without a summer" in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Only certain types of volcanic eruption will have an effect upon the climate. The eruption has to be of sufficient magnitude to emit very large quantities of material into the lower stratosphere (20-25km above the Earth's surface) and, for maximum impact, it should be in lower latitudes. With these conditions met, the particles in the lower stratosphere spread to form a "veil" over the whole planet. This veil then affects the amount of the sun's energy which reaches the Earth's surface. Mt. St. Helens, which erupted in 1980, was large, but the main bulk of the ejected material emerged at a 45 angle rather than directly upwards, so wasnt able to enter the stratosphere. Vast amounts of material were deposited over the northern plains states of the US,

but all the finer material was washed out by precipitation processes within a few weeks. Benjamin Franklin, in 1783, first postulated that major volcanic eruptions affect climate, after the eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland. Ironically, most of the ejected material from this eruption remained in the lower parts of the atmosphere, so Franklin had the right idea but the wrong volcano. The Volcanic Effect on Climate Past volcanic events provide a guide to the impact of major eruptions. In the upper four panels, Figure 1 shows the effects on global average temperatures of four low-latitude eruptions between the 1880s and 1980s. Whilst the individual eruptions show a lot of variability in the timing of the cooling (partly because the eruptions occur at different times of the year) the average of the four, labelled "composite" in the fifth panel, shows significant cooling for many of the months in the subsequent three years (particularly the boreal summers). Major eruptions in lower latitudes are more climatically effective as the veil is capable of reaching the higher latitudes of both hemispheres, because of the nature of the atmospheric circulation. Material from major eruptions in the middle-to-high latitudes of each hemisphere tends to remain poleward of the eruption latitude. Major Icelandic or Alaskan/Aleutian/Kamchatkan eruptions, therefore, only influence the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Figure 1 also includes a similar hemispheric temperature history for the period before and after the Pinatubo eruption in 1991. The northern summers of 1992 and 1993 were the coolest of the period from 1986 to the present. The Spatial Patterns of Temperature Change Whilst such large-scale averages provide good tests of climate models and of our theoretical understanding of the physical effects, forecasts like this are of little use unless we can also give some spatial detail. Figure 2 - spatial pattern of cooling

This figure is also available as PostScript Figure 2 shows the spatial pattern of the cooling for the two extended summer seasons (March-October) following each eruption (i.e. the two years after each eruption). One plot is for the same fourvolcano composite, the other for Pinatubo. Cooling tends to be most marked over the continents and at middle-to-high latitudes, with the greatest effects over eastern North America and northern and central Asia. Both Figures 1 and 2 are discussed in more detail in Kelly et al. (1996). Have Volcanic Eruptions Occurred More Frequently Recently? The 20th century has only seen five major tropical eruptions. Another five have occurred at higher latitudes, giving a large climate-shaping eruption about every ten years. The eruptions have, however, not occurred at regular intervals. They all took place before 1915 or after 1956. The in-between years were devoid of major eruptions and this has probably been a contributing factor to the global warming early this century, between 1920 and 1945 - though volcanic effects can only be a part of the reason as northern hemispheric cooling began at least 10 years before the eruption frequency increased after 1956. Was the 20th Century Unusual for Eruptions? We have records back many centuries in some regions - millennia for Italy and Japan because of the existence of written records - but in many regions such as the North Pacific and large parts of the tropics direct evidence is limited. Fortunately, the material in the

veils eventually falls to Earth and an excellent record is preserved on the ice caps of Greenland and Antarctica. We may not know where the eruption occurred but the frequency can be compared over several millennia. These data show that the 20th century has seen more eruptions than some centuries of this millennium but less than in the 16th/17th/19th centuries. Volcanoes have probably, therefore, made a contribution to the cooler temperatures of these centuries, relative to the 20th century (see The Millenial Temperature Record). The Eruption of Mt Pinatubo, Philippines, June 1991 The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines in June 1991 provided an excellent opportunity to study the response of the climate system to a major volcanic event. Earlier work, from the 1960s onwards, suggested that when eruption clouds reach the lower stratosphere (about 20-25km aloft) the dust spreads around over subsequent months forming a veil over the Earth. The veil slightly reduces the amount of incoming solar radiation reaching the surface, causing a cooling. The effects in the Northern Hemisphere are greatest in the summer season because, then, the suns radiation levels are at their maximum. Cooling is most pronounced over land regions because the thermal inertia is much smaller than over the oceans. The effects in the Southern Hemisphere are less and tend to spread out over a longer period. Shortly after the eruption, when it was clearly evident that the eruption was of sufficiently large magnitude to eject material into the lower stratosphere, scientists, led by Jim Hansen at NCAR in the US, ran several model integrations from the period just before the eruption to about 5 years later. The results showed good agreement with average surface temperatures over the Northern Hemisphere, highlighting the cooling in the northern summers of 1992 and 1993. After that time, both the model and the observations returned to normal levels, continuing the slight upward trend of temperatures over the 19802000 period. In many respects, this study can be considered as the first long-term forecast several seasons ahead.

Impact apart, the importance of volcanic events is that forecasts can be tested relatively quickly over the subsequent few years. Other natural (e.g. solar output changes) and anthropogenic (increases in greenhouse gases and sulphate aerosols) operate on decadal-tocentury timescales and any changes over short timescales are very difficult to distinguish from the natural variability of the climate system. Volcanic-induced forcing is sufficiently large to be clearly seen and provides a good test of climate model performance. References

Kelly, P.M., Jones, P.D. and Jia Pengqun, 1996: The spatial response of the climate system to explosive volcanic eruptions. International Journal of Climatology 16(5), 537550 Pacaya

Country: Guatemala Subregion Guatemala Name: Volcano 1402-11= Number: Volcano Complex volcano Type: Volcano Historical Status: Last Known 2002 Eruption: Summit 2552 m 8,373 feet Elevation: Latitude: 14.381N 1422'51"N Longitude: 90.601W 9036'4"W Eruptions from Pacaya, one of Guatemala's most active volcanoes, are frequently visible from Guatemala City, the nation's capital. Pacaya is a complex basaltic volcano constructed just outside the southern topographic rim of the 14 x 16 km Pleistocene Amatitln caldera. A cluster of dacitic lava domes occupies the southern caldera floor. The post-caldera Pacaya massif includes the Cerro Grande lava dome and a younger volcano to the SW. Collapse of Pacaya volcano about 1100 years ago produced a debris-avalanche deposit that extends 25 km onto the Pacific

coastal plain and left an arcuate somma rim inside which the modern Pacaya volcano (MacKenney cone) grew. A subsidiary crater, Cerro Chino, was constructed on the NW somma rim and was last active in the 19th century. During the past several decades, activity at Pacaya has consisted of frequent strombolian eruptions with intermittent lava flow extrusion that has partially filled in the caldera moat and armored the flanks of MacKenney cone, punctuated by occasional larger explosive eruptions that partially destroy the summit of the cone.

Fastest Glacier in Greenland Doubles Speed

12.01.04

When people talk about something moving at a glacial pace, they are referring to speeds that make a tortoise look like a hare. While it is all relative, glaciers actually flow at speeds that require time lapses to recognize. Still, researchers who study Earth's ice and the flow of glaciers have been surprised to find the world's fastest glacier in Greenland doubled its speed between 1997 and 2003. Image to right: Jakobshavn Glacier Retreat 2001-2003: Jakobshavn Isbrae holds the record as Greenland's fastest moving glacier and major contributor to the mass balance of the continental ice sheet. Starting in late 2000, following a period of slowing down in the mid 1990s, the glacier showed significant acceleration and nearly doubled its discharge of ice. The following imagery from the Landsat satellite shows the retreat of Jakobshavn's calving front from 2001 to 2003. Click on image to view animation (1.9 MB). Click link below to see a still image of the retreating front over the past 150

years. High resolution still showing changes from 1850 to 2003. High resolution still showing changes from 2001 2003. Credit: NASA/USGS The finding is important for many reasons. For starters, as more ice moves from glaciers on land into the ocean, it raises sea levels. Jakobshavn Isbrae is Greenland's largest outlet glacier, draining 6.5 percent of Greenland's ice sheet area. The ice stream's speed-up and near-doubling of ice flow from land into the ocean has increased the rate of sea level rise by about .06 millimeters (about . 002 inches) per year, or roughly 4 percent of the 20th century rate of sea level increase. Also, the rapid movement of ice from land into the sea provides key evidence of newly discovered relationships between ice sheets, sea level rise and climate warming. The researchers found the glacier's sudden speedup also coincides with very rapid thinning, indicating loss of ice of up to 15 meters (49 feet) in thickness per year after 1997. Along with increased rates of ice flow and thinning, the thick ice that extends from the mouth of the glacier into the ocean, called the ice tongue, began retreating in 2000, breaking up almost completely by May 2003. Image to left: Break-up Causes Acceleration Upstream: As the Jakobshavn Glacier discharges ice from its mouth, tributary ice streams show signs of acceleration. This series of Landsat images from 2002 shows rapid migration of ice features downstream, triggering adjacent land ice to accelerate downslope. Click on image to view

animation (2.6 MB). Credit: NASA/USGS The NASA-funded study relies on data from satellites and airborne lasers to derive ice movements. The paper appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature. "In many climate models glaciers are treated as responding slowly to climate change," said Ian Joughin, the study's lead author. "In this study we are seeing a doubling of output beyond what most models would predict. The ice sheets can respond rather dramatically and quickly to climate changes." Joughin conducted much of this research while working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Joughin is currently a glaciologist at the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington, Seattle. The researchers used satellite and other data to observe large changes in both speeds and thickness between 1985 and 2003. The data showed that the glacier slowed down from a velocity of 6700 meters (4.16 miles) per year in 1985 to 5700 meters (3.54 miles) per year in 1992. This latter speed remained somewhat constant until 1997. By 2000, the glacier had sped up to 9400 meters (5.84 miles) per year, topping out with the last measurement in spring 2003 at 12,600 meters (7.83 miles) per year. Image to right: Greenland Ice Changes Since 1990's: This visualization of laser altimeter measurements from the mid 1990's shows overall thinning of Greenland's ice sheet, with thickening in a few locations including the Jakobshavn Glacier, where the ice stream slowed down in the mid 1990s. More recent data show that the

Jakobshavn is now, in fact, retreating, and causing accelerated thinning of adjacent ice at higher elevations in a manner that is consistent with its acceleration. Cool colors represent areas of thinning ice while warm colors show thickening. Slight inland thickening is attributed to accumulation of atmospheric moisture from melting ice at the coasts, supporting observations of a greater net loss to the overall sum of Greenland's ice cap. Click on image to view animation (6.7 MB). Credit: NASA "This finding suggests the potential for more substantial thinning in other glaciers in Greenland," added Waleed Abdalati, a coauthor and a senior scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "Other glaciers have thinned by over a meter a year, which we believe is too much to be attributed to melting alone. We think there is a dynamic effect in which the glaciers are accelerating due to warming." Airborne laser altimetry measurements of Jakobshavn's surface elevation, made previously by researchers at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, showed a thickening, or building up of the glacier from 1991 to 1997, coinciding closely with the glacier's slow-down. Similarly, the glacier began thinning by as much as 15 meters (49 feet) a year just as its velocity began to increase between 1997 and 2003. The acceleration comes at a time when the floating ice near the glacier's calving front has shown some unusual behavior. Despite its relative stability from the 1950's through the 1990s, the glacier's ice tongue began to break apart in 2000, leading to almost complete disintegration in 2003. The tongue's thinning and breaking up likely reduced any restraining effects it had on the ice behind it, as several speed increases coincided with losses of sections of the ice-tongue as it broke up. Recent NASA-funded research in the Antarctic Peninsula showed similar increases in glacier flow following

the Larson B ice shelf break-up. Mark Fahnestock, a researcher at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, N.H., was also a coauthor of this study.

ARTICLE PARU DANS L'EDITION DU 18.09.04

A perspective on potential climate changes presented by Dr. Robert B. Gagosian, President and Director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Over the past two decades, we have heard about greenhouse gases and the idea that our planet is gradually warming. Id like to throw a curveball into that thinkingspecifically the gradually warming part. This new thinking is little known and scarcely appreciated by policymakers and world and business leadersand even by the wider community of natural and social scientists. But evidence from several sources has amassed and coalesced over the past 10 to 15 years. It points to a completely differentalmost counterintuitivescenario. Global warming could actually lead to a big chill in some parts of the world. If the atmosphere continues to warm, it could soon trigger a dramatic and abrupt cooling throughout the North Atlantic region where, not incidentally, some 60 percent of the worlds economy is based. When I say dramatic, I mean: Average winter temperatures could drop by 5 degrees Fahrenheit over much of the United States, and by 10 degrees in the northeastern United States and in Europe. Thats enough to send mountain glaciers advancing down from the Alps. To freeze rivers and harbors and bind North Atlantic shipping lanes in ice. To disrupt the operation of ground and air transportation. To cause energy needs to soar exponentially. To force wholesale changes in agricultural practices and fisheries. To change the way we feed our populations. In short, the world, and the world economy, would be drastically different. And when I say abrupt, I mean: These changes could happen within a decade, and they could persist for hundreds of years. You could see the changes in your lifetime, and your grandchildrens grandchildren will still be confronting them. And when I say soon, I mean: In just the past year, we have seen ominous signs that we may be headed toward a potentially dangerous threshold. If we cross it, Earths climate could switch gears and jump very rapidlynot gradually into a completely different mode of operation.

This is not something new under the Sun. It has happened throughout Earths history, and it could happen again. The key to these climate shifts is that Earths climate is created and maintained by a dynamic system of moving, interacting parts. Earths climate system has two main components. The first one you are all familiar with by watching your local TV meteorologist or The Weather Channel. It is the atmosphere, which circulates heat and moisture around the globe. But, in fact, the atmosphere redistributes only about half of the energy that the earth receives from the Sun. The other half is transported around our planet by a circulation system that is equally important, but far less understoodthe ocean. The ocean isnt a stagnant bathtub. It circulates heat around the planet like the heating and cooling system in your house. The atmosphere and oceans are equal partners in creating Earths climate. The atmosphere is a rabbit. It moves fast. Rapid changes in atmospheric circulation cause storms, cold spells, or heat waves that play out over several days. The ocean, on the other hand, is a turtle. It may take years or decades or even millennia for similar disturbances to circulate through the ocean. But the ocean is a big turtle. It stores about 1,000 times more heat than the atmosphere. So changes in ocean circulation can set the stage for large-scale, long-term climate changes. One example that you may be familiar with is El Nio. Every few years, oceanic conditions shift, and surface water temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific get warmer. The atmosphere above the ocean shifts, too. El Nio rearranges worldwide wind and rainfall patterns, causing destructive droughts, floods, storms, and forest fires. Not to downplay El Nio in the least, because it causes grave human suffering and billions of dollars in damagebut El Nio is relatively short-lived. It lasts only a year or two. The climate changes Im concerned about last longer and involve the ocean circulation system that spans the entire globewhich we often call the Great Ocean Conveyor. The Great Ocean Conveyor is the oceans major heat-circulating system. The ocean keeps our planet from overheating by transporting heat north and south, from the equator to the poles, in currents traveling near the ocean surface. In the Atlantic, the Conveyor removes heat from the

Southern Hemisphere and releases it to the Northern Hemisphere. The most famous and most important of these currents is the Gulf Stream. The vast Gulf Stream transports the equivalent volume of 75 Amazon Rivers. It carries heat absorbed in the tropics, and moves up the East Coast of the United States, then northeastward toward Europe. When the Gulf Streams warm, salty waters reach colder latitudes, they give up their heat to the atmosphere. The atmosphere in the North Atlantic region warms by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Prevailing winds carry the heat eastward into Europe. Thats one reason London, Englandwhich is located at the same latitude as Calgary and Edmontonhas warmer winters than New Yorkwhich is hundreds of miles farther south. When the Gulf Streams waters reach the Labrador, Greenland and other northern seas, and lose their heat to the atmosphere, they become colder and hence denser. The waters are also relatively salty. Salty water is denser than fresher water, so the whole salty mass begins to sink to great depths. When this sinking mass of cold water reaches the abyss, it then flows at deep levels of the ocean, from the North Atlantic southward into the South Atlantic. The plunge of this great volume of cold, salty water propels the Great Ocean Conveyor. And on the back end, it creates a void that actively pulls the Gulf Stream northward to replace the waters that are sinking. Its a pretty neat system. We have been operating under the climate conditions created by this beneficent oceanic heating, ventilation, and cooling system for centuries. But what if this system werent operating today? What if cold North Atlantic waters didnt sink

A schematic of the ocean circulation system, often called the Great Ocean Conveyor, that transports heat throughout the world oceans. Red arrows indicate warm surface currents. Blue arrows indicate deep cold currents. (Animation by Jack Cook, WHOI)

and warm equatorial waters werent drawn in to replace the sinking waters? Then the North Atlantic region would be a much different, much colder place. The vast majority of us go about our business thinking that Earths climate system has always been this way, and always will be. But that is just not the case. In fact, we know that the Ocean Conveyor has indeed shut downstopped operatingin the past. We know this by examining truly interesting and valuable natural archives that record past changes in Earths climate. For example, we can see layers within ice sheets in Greenland or in high elevations in the Andes Mountains in South America. This layering is caused by variations in the amount of snow that fell on the top of the ice sheet in

The Great Ocean Conveyor is propelled by the sinking of cold, salty (and therefore denser) waters in the North Atlantic Ocean (blue arrows). That creates a void that pulls warm, salty Gulf Stream waters northward (red arrows). The Gulf Stream gives up its heat to the atmosphere above the North Atlantic Ocean, and prevailing winds (large red arrows) carry the heat eastward to warm Europe. (Animation by Jack Cook, WHOI) the past.

The light and dark bands within the ice sheet show an annual cycle of dust in the atmosphere, so each couplet reflects the amount of snow that fell in one year. By analyzing the chemistry of the ice itself, scientists can determine the temperature of the atmosphere when the snow was produced. Thus from a single ice sheet record, it is possible to reconstruct the past history of precipitation and air temperature in a region. For very old ice sheets, like the glaciers on Greenland, it is possible to reconstruct this climate history 100,000 years into the past. The ocean has similar archives of past climate. By taking cores from the ocean floor, it is possible to reconstruct the history of ocean climate back many thousands of years. We have used our ships to collect samples of

sediments from the seafloor. Preserved in the sediments are the fossil remains of microscopic organisms that settle to the seafloor. They accumulate over time in layerssimilar to the ice corethat delineate many important aspects of past climate. For instance, certain organisms are found only in colder, polar waters and never live in warmer waters. They can reveal where and when cold surface waters existedand didnt existin the past. From records like these, we know that about 12,800 years ago, North Atlantic waters cooled dramaticallyand so did the North Atlantic region. This large cooling in Earths climate occurred in about a decade. And the cold spell lasted for about 1,300 years. This period is called the Younger Dryas, and it is just one of several periods when Earths climate changed very rapidly from warm to cold conditions, and then back to warm again. So these long-term cold snaps are not unusual. These shifts almost certainly involved changes in the oceans circulation. There were shutdowns and restartings of the Ocean Conveyor. These warm-to-cold transitions happen in about 3 to 10 years. The cold periods lasted for 500 to 1,000 years. Such oscillations in temperature and ocean circulation have occurred on a regular basis. About 1,000 years ago, during a period of unusually warm temperatures in the North Atlantic, the Norse established settlements and vineyards in Greenland that would not be possible today. Those settlements were abandoned about 500 years ago, when we believe the most recent shutdown of the North Atlantic Ocean circulation system occurred. During that era, called the Little Ice Age, northern Europe was much colder than it is today. Glaciers spread outward and downward in the Alps. Winters, on average, were more severe. Farming was affected. Famine was frequent. In the 1730s and 1740s, abrupt European cooling caused famine across western Europe, especially in Ireland and France, where farmers depended on wheat and potatoes. In Ireland, this is known as the forgotten famine. As many people died during the forgotten famine as died during the famed potato famine of the 1840s.

The 16th-century Flemish artist Bruegel couldnt have painted his famous frozen landscapes today, because now canals in the Netherlands rarely freeze, as they regularly did back then. And likewise, the winter in Valley Forge might not have been so cold, and Washingtons crossing of the ice-bound Delaware River wouldnt have been so dramatic, if he had done it a century laterbecause our climate conditions have shifted since then, and today, the Delaware River rarely freezes. If you read David McCulloughs biography of John Adams, you will remember that the British were about to set Boston on fire when George Washington was able to bring the cannons of Fort Ticonderoga down from upstate New York in record time. He was able to do it because the ground was frozen solid and they could slide the cannons to the Dorchester hills of Boston in time to persuade the British to retreat from Boston and to change the course of history. So we have solid evidence that the Great Ocean Conveyor has slowed down or shut down in the past. And we have seen dire impacts on our climate. It begs the question: Could something throw a wrench into the Great Ocean Conveyor in the near future? And could that trigger abrupt, dramatic climate changes throughout our planet? The answers to those questions are, indisputably, Yes and yes.

Top: Ice sheets reveal annual layers, which scientists can analyze to reconstruct the history of precipitation and air temperatures 100,000 years in the past. (Photo by Lonnie Thompson, Ohio State University) Bottom: Cores of seafloor sediments reveal the climate history of the ocean. (Photo by Ken Buesseler, WHOI)

Another way to look at Earths climate system is a simple mode of balances (see diagram, left). Like most dynamic systems, Earths climate seeks a stable mode. And it will tend to stay in that mode if nothing causes it to change. Thats the top tier of the diagram. The ball remains ensconced in its cup. The middle tier shows what happens if you push on the system. The ball will rattle and roll around in different directions for a while until it settles back down in its cup. We humans would definitely notice that rattling until the climate system returned to equilibrium. The balance, forced to move, staggers but recovers. Then there is a third situation in which a strong enough push at the right time could shove the system past a threshold and into a completely different mode of operation. In terms of our climate system, that means that a small or temporary forcing could produce a sudden, large, and long-lasting change. That begs the next question: What could do that to our climate system today? One answer to that is fresh water. If you simply add too much fresh water to the North Atlantic, the waters there will become less salty and less dense. They will stop sinking. Then the Gulf Stream slows down or is deflected southward. Winters in the North Atlantic region get significantly colder. Now heres the predicament. In the past year, oceanographers monitoring and analyzing water conditions in the North Atlantic, have concluded that the North Atlantic has been freshening dramatically especially in the past decade. New data from Ruth Curry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and her colleague Robert Dickson at the British Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science chronicles salinity changes in the western North Atlantic since 1960. The Great Ocean Conveyor transports fresh surface water down into the depths. The depths can absorb a lot of fresh water like a sponge. But since 1970, the equivalent of an extra 20 feet of fresh water across the surface of the northern North Atlantic has been transported down into the ocean depths, most of that since 1990. A sponge that is three-quarters saturated can still absorb more water. But the moment that sponge is fully saturated, it can absorb no more water.

At some point, the North Atlantic will no longer absorb any more fresh water. It will begin to pile up on the surface. When that happens, the Great Ocean Conveyor will be clogged. It will back up and cease functioning. The very recent freshening signal in the North Atlantic is arguably the biggest and most dramatic change in ocean property that has ever been measured in the global ocean. Already, surface waters in the Greenland Sea are sinking at a rate 20 percent slower than in the 1970s. At what percent will the Ocean Conveyor stop? 25 percent? 40 percent? 60 percent? This is not like a dimmer switch, but more like a light switch. It probably goes from on to off. We cant yet determine the precise source or sources of this additional fresh water. Global warming may be melting glaciers, or Arctic sea ice. In recent decades, the volume of Arctic sea ice has decreased by 40 percent. And if North Atlantic sinking slows down, less salty Gulf Stream waters flow northwardwhich exacerbates the situation. If too much fresh water enters the North Atlantic, its waters could stop sinking. The Great Conveyor would cease. Heat-bearing Gulf Stream waters (red arrows would no longer flow into the North Atlantic, and winters would become more severe. (Animation by Jack Cook, WHOI)

In February 2002, at a worldwide meeting of oceanographers, new data on North Atlantic freshening prompted many scientists to say that salinity levels in the North Atlantic are approaching a density very close to the critical point at which the waters will stop sinking. One of my colleagues at Woods Hole, Terry Joyce, put it this way: Im in the dark as to how close to an edge or transition to a new ocean and climate regime we might be, he said. But I know which way we are walking. We are walking toward the cliff. To that sentiment, I would add this: We are walking toward the edge of a cliffblindfolded. Our ability to understand the potential for future abrupt changes in climate is limited by our lack of understanding of the

processes that control them.

New data shows that North Atlantic waters at depths between 1,000 and 4,000 meters are becoming dramatically less salty, especially in the last decade. Red indicates saltier-thannormal waters. Blue indicates fresher waters. Oceanographers say we may be approaching a threshold that would shut down the Great Ocean Conveyor and cause abrupt climate changes. (Data from Ruth Curry, WHOI, Bob Dickson, Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science and Igor Yashayaev, Bedford Institute of Oceanography) In the past decades, we have made great strides in understanding Earths atmospheric circulation system because we established a global network of thousands of meteorological stations to monitor changing atmospheric conditions. No observational network exists to continuously monitor the oceans. If we just had a few more strategically placed modern instruments in the oceans for an extended time, we could understand so much more about how the oceans can cause abrupt climate changes. At present, there is no national plan for improving our understanding of the issue, and according to a 2002 National Research Council report, no policymaking body is addressing the many concerns raised by the potential for abrupt climate change.

So heres the situation: We have unequivocal evidence of repeated, large, widespread, abrupt climate changes on Earth. It is reasonable to assume that greenhouse warming can exacerbate the possibility of precipitating large, abrupt, and regional or global climatic changes. We even have strong evidence that we may be approaching a dangerous threshold that we are squeezing a trigger in the North Atlantic. We could downplay the relevance of past abrupt events and deny the likelihood of future abrupt climate changes. But that could prove costly. With growing globalization, the adverse impacts of climate changes are likely to spill across national boundariesthrough migration, economic shocks, and political aftershocks. Over human history, one of the major ways that humans have adapted to changing environmental and economic fortunes has been to migrate from unproductive or impacted regions to more productive and hospitable regions. But today, the worlds population has grown too large. There is less usable, unpopulated territory to absorb migrants. National borders are less open, so it is difficult for people to move to other countries when droughts, floods, famines, and wars occur. These boundary effects could be particularly severe for small and poor countries, whose populations are often unwelcome in richer countries. In the 1840s, more than 1 million Irish people emigrated because of the potato blight. Can you imagine an equivalent migration of many millions of people today? Keep in mind that there were only about 1 billion people on Earth then. There are 6 billion now. As a society, I believe we must face the potential for abrupt climate change. Perhaps we can mitigate the changes. If not, at least we can still take steps to adapt to them. The best way to improve the effectiveness of our response is to have more knowledge of what can happenand how and when. Research into the causes, patterns, likelihood, and effects of abrupt climate change can help reduce our vulnerabilities and increase our ability to adapt. If climate changes come abruptly, we will have less time to adjust. In other words, the more knowledge we havethe more reliably we can predict changesthe better our chances. Maybe over the edge of the cliff, theres just a three-inch drop-off. Or maybe theres a big, fluffy bed full of pillows. My worry is that we are

indeed approaching this cliff blindfolded. Are you comfortable and secure with this scenario? SOURCE : http://www.whoi.edu/home/about/whatsnew_abruptclimate.html The Heat Before the Cold By Terrence Joyce Published in The New York Times April 18, 2002 This weeks unexpected heat wave across much of the Northeast and Midwest, couple with recent reports about the surprisingly fast collapse of an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Rhode Island, has heightened fears of long-term rise in temperatures brought about by global warming. But this fear may be misguided. In fact, paradoxically, global warming could actually bring colder temperatures to some highly populated areas like Eastern North America and Western Europe. Heres what might happen: In the North Atlantic, a 10-foot layer of fresh water - some of which may be coming from melting ice in the Arctic has been accumulating and lowering the salinity of the ocean to depths of more than a mile for the past 30 years. Fresh water in the ocean may not sound cataclysmic, but it can upset the ocean currents that are the key to our planets climate control system. In February, oceanographers presented new evidence that this northern freshwater buildup could alter currents in a way that would cause an abrupt drop in average winter temperatures of about 5 degrees Fahrenheit over much of the United States and 10 degrees in the Northeast. That may not sound like much, but recall the coldest winters in the Northeast, like those of 1936 and 1978, and then imagine recurring winters that are even colder, and youll have an idea of what this would be like. This change could happen within a decade and persist for hundreds of years. Under normal circumstances, the famous warm waters of the Gulf Stream, carrying heat absorbed in the tropics, move up the East Coast of the United States and southeastern Canada and then angle toward Europe, warming the overlying atmosphere and surrounding land as they go. As the Gulf Stream system carries warm, salty water north, the

atmosphere cools it, making it dense enough to sink to great depths. The plunge of that great volume of water helps propel a global system of currents sometimes called the great ocean conveyor. But add too much fresh water, and North Atlantic waters become less salty and less dense. They stop sinking. The Gulf Stream slows or is redirected southward. Winters in the North Atlantic region get significantly colder. Changes in the conveyor were responsible for some of the most noticeable climate changes in scientific history. About 12,000 years ago, as the earth emerged from the most recent Ice Age and the North Atlantic region warmed, an influx of fresh water - perhaps from melting ice sheets - shut down the great conveyor and plunged much of the Northern Hemisphere back into ice-age conditions that lasted 1,000 years. About 500 years ago a reduction of the ocean conveyors may have turned the climate in northern Europe and the northeastern United States much colder, during what became known as the Little Ice Age, which lasted for about 300 years. In America, the Little Ice Age coincided with the notorious winter at Valley Forge. There is not enough evidence for scientists to know for sure whether the influx of fresh water in the North Atlantic has come from an already altered ocean circulation, changes in rainfall patterns or rivers, or glacial and Arctic Ocean ice. We dont know the exact threshold at which sinking, and the great ocean conveyor, could stop. A global oceanobserving system would greatly enhance our ability to monitor changes that can spawn major, long-lasting climate shifts like these and lead to reliable predictions of what may follow. But the evidence we do have suggests that global warming could actually lead to a big chill. Terrence Joyce is a senior scientist and chairman of the department of physical oceanography at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. DISCOVER Vol. 23 No. 9 (September 2002) Table of Contents The New Ice Age Worried about global warming? Talk to a few scientists at Woods Hole. Oceanographers there are seeing big trouble with the Gulf Stream, which warms both North America and Europe By Brad Lemley

William Curry is a serious, sober climate scientist, not an art critic. But he has spent a lot of time perusing Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's famous painting "George Washington Crossing the Delaware," which depicts a boatload of colonial American soldiers making their way to attack English and Hessian troops the day after Christmas in 1776. "Most people think these other guys in the boat are rowing, but they are actually pushing the ice away," says Curry, tapping his finger on a reproduction of the painting. Sure enough, the lead oarsman is bashing the frozen river with his boot. "I grew up in Philadelphia. The place in this painting is 30 minutes away by car. I can tell you, this kind of thing just doesn't happen anymore." But it may again. Soon. And ice-choked scenes, similar to those immortalized by the 16th-century Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder, may also return to Europe. His works, including the 1565 masterpiece "Hunters in the Snow," make the now-temperate European landscapes look more like Lapland. Such frigid settings were commonplace during a period dating roughly from 1300 to 1850 because much of North America and Europe was in the throes of a little ice age. And now there is mounting evidence that the chill could return. A growing number of scientistsincluding many here at Curry's base of operations, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod in Massachusettsbelieves conditions are ripe for another prolonged cooldown, or small ice age. While no one is predicting a brutal ice sheet like the one that covered the Northern Hemisphere with glaciers about 12,000 years ago, the next cooling trend could drop average temperatures 5 degrees Fahrenheit over much of the United States and 10 degrees in the Northeast, northern Europe, and northern Asia. "It could happen in 10 years," says Terrence Joyce, who chairs the Woods Hole Physical Oceanography Department. "Once it does, it can take hundreds of years to reverse." And he is alarmed that Americans have yet to take the threat seriously. In a letter to The New York Times last April, he wrote, "Recall the coldest winters in the Northeast, like those of 1936 and 1978, and then imagine recurring winters that are even colder, and you'll have an idea of what this would be like." A drop of 5 to 10 degrees entails much more than simply bumping up the thermostat and carrying on. Both economically and ecologically, such quick, persistent chilling could have devastating

consequences. A 2002 report titled "Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises," produced by the National Academy of Sciences, pegged the cost from agricultural losses alone at $100 billion to $250 billion while also predicting that damage to ecologies could be vast and incalculable. A grim sampler: disappearing forests, increased housing expenses, dwindling freshwater, lower crop yields, and accelerated species extinctions. The reason for such huge effects is simple. A quick climate change wreaks far more disruption than a slow one. People, animals, plants, and the economies that depend on them are like rivers, says the report: "For example, high water in a river will pose few problems until the water runs over the bank, after which levees can be breached and massive flooding can occur. Many biological processes undergo shifts at particular thresholds of temperature and precipitation." Political changes since the last ice age could make survival far more difficult for the world's poor. During previous cooling periods, whole tribes simply picked up and moved south, but that option doesn't work in the modern, tense world of closed borders. "To the extent that abrupt climate change may cause rapid and extensive changes of fortune for those who live off the land, the inability to migrate may remove one of the major safety nets for distressed people," says the report. Still, climate science is devilishly complex, and the onslaught of a little ice age is not certain, at least at this stage of research. Scientists the world over are weighing the potential for rapid North Atlantic cooling, but perhaps nowhere in the United States is more energy, equipment, and brainpower directed at the problem than here at Woods Hole. The oceanographers on staff subsist largely on government grants and are beholden to no corporation, making the facility "uniquely independent," says David Gallo, director of special projects. Consequently, it should be as likely as any research facility or university to get at the truth. The task is huge. Down on the docks where the institution keeps its three research ships, gulls swoop around a collection of massive metal frameworks; these are core samplers that, dropped over a ship's side, can extract long columns of layered sediments from the undersea muck. In a workshop nearby, technicians tinker with arrays of multiple independent water samplers, which at four feet long and eight inches thick look rather like giant scuba tanks. Out on the water, researchers drop these instruments into the North Atlantic, hoping to get a sharper picture of the potential for a little ice age. A sense of urgency propels the efforts. "We need to make

this a national priority," says Joyce. "It's a tough nut to crack, but with enough data, I think we can make a more specific and confident prediction about what comes next." Policymakers armed with a specific forecast could make adjustments to prepare for the inevitable.

But first things first. Isn't the earth actually warming? Indeed it is, says Joyce. In his cluttered office, full of soft light from the foggy Cape Cod morning, he explains how such warming could actually be the surprising culprit of the next mini-ice age. The paradox is a result of the appearance over the past 30 years in the North Atlantic of huge rivers of freshwaterthe equivalent of a 10foot-thick layermixed into the salty sea. No one is certain where the fresh torrents are coming from, but a prime suspect is melting Arctic ice, caused by a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that traps solar energy. The freshwater trend is major news in ocean-science circles. Bob Dickson, a British oceanographer who sounded an alarm at a February conference in Honolulu, has termed the drop in salinity and temperature in the Labrador Seaa body of water between northeastern Canada and Greenland that adjoins the Atlantic "arguably the largest full-depth changes observed in the modern instrumental oceanographic record." The trend could cause a little ice age by subverting the northern penetration of Gulf Stream waters. Normally, the Gulf Stream, laden with heat soaked up in the tropics, meanders up the east coasts of the United States and Canada. As it flows northward, the stream surrenders heat to the air. Because the prevailing North Atlantic winds blow eastward, a lot of the heat wafts to Europe. That's why many scientists believe winter temperatures on the Continent are as much as 36 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than those in North America at the same latitude. Frigid Boston, for example, lies at almost precisely the same latitude as balmy Rome. And some scientists say the heat also warms Americans and Canadians. "It's a real mistake to think of this solely as a European phenomenon," says Joyce. Having given up its heat to the air, the now-cooler water becomes denser and sinks into the North Atlantic by a mile or more in a process oceanographers call thermohaline circulation. This massive column of cascading cold is the main engine powering a deepwater current called the Great Ocean Conveyor that snakes through all the

world's oceans. But as the North Atlantic fills with freshwater, it grows less dense, making the waters carried northward by the Gulf Stream less able to sink. The new mass of relatively fresh water sits on top of the ocean like a big thermal blanket, threatening the thermohaline circulation. That in turn could make the Gulf Stream slow or veer southward. At some point, the whole system could simply shut down, and do so quickly. "There is increasing evidence that we are getting closer to a transition point, from which we can jump to a new state. Small changes, such as a couple of years of heavy precipitation or melting ice at high latitudes, could yield a big response," says Joyce. In her sunny office down the hall, oceanographer Ruth Curry shows just how extensive the changes have already become. "Look at this," she says, pointing to maps laid out on her lab table. "Orange and yellow mean warmer and saltier. Green and blue mean colder and fresher." The four-map array shows the North Atlantic each decade since the 1960s. With each subsequent map, green and blue spread farther; even to the untrained eye, there's clearly something awry. "It's not just in the Labrador Sea," she says. "This cold, freshening area is now invading the deep waters of the entire subtropical Atlantic." "You have all this freshwater sitting at high latitudes, and it can literally take hundreds of years to get rid of it," Joyce says. So while the globe as a whole gets warmer by tiny fractions of 1 degree Fahrenheit annually, the North Atlantic region could, in a decade, get up to 10 degrees colder. What worries researchers at Woods Hole is that history is on the side of rapid shutdown. They know it has happened before.

On the northwest side of Woods Hole's Quissett campus, in a dim laboratory that smells like low tide, about 24,000 polycarbonate tubes full of greenish-tan mud rest in wire racks, as carefully cataloged as fine wines. They are core samples collected from seafloors, many collected during expeditions by the Knorr, one of Woods Hole's three largest research ships. Each core tells a story about time and temperature spanning thousands of years. But one particular core, kept carefully refrigerated at 39 degrees Fahrenheit, was pivotal for reaching the conclusion that little ice ages can start abruptly. The Canadian ship CSS Hudson collected the core in 1989 from a seafloor plateau called the Bermuda Rise in the

northern Sargasso Sea, roughly 200 miles northeast of Bermuda. "It's a peculiar place on the seafloor where mud accumulates rapidly," says Lloyd Keigwin, a senior scientist in the Woods Hole Geology and Geophysics Department. Most of the sediment was washed out of Canadian rivers before settling, so it bears witness to the vagaries of climate in the North Atlantic. Seafloor sediments are peppered with tiny invertebrates called foraminifera, which Keigwin describes as "amoebas with shells," that can yield clues about the temperature of the ocean in which they lived. Clay and silt from the Nova Scotia region cause the little creatures to accumulate in neatly distinguishable layers, which means a wealth of information. Keigwin subjected the foraminifera in various layers of this core to mass spectroscopic analysis. By measuring the proportions of oxygen isotopesespecially the ratio of oxygen 16 to oxygen 18he was able to peg the temperature at which the tiny animals in each layer formed their calcium carbonate shells to an accuracy of less than 1 degree Fahrenheit. He coupled that with carbon dating to determine each sediment layer's age. Keigwin had expected to find evidence of climate swings during the past few thousand years. But in the CSS Hudson's prize sample, which was drilled with a more precise corer than oceanographers had used previously, he uncovered plenty of data about abrupt temperature changes over the past 1,000 years, including for a little ice age that averaged about 4 degrees Fahrenheit colder than the present. "And because the Sargasso Sea is pretty well mixed, the cooling must have been widespread," Keigwin says. More ominously, "I found evidence that proves the climate cycles continue right up until today." Clearly, the little ice age from 1300 to 1850 wasn't kicked off by humans releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But natural climate cycles that melted Arctic ice could have caused thermohaline circulation to shut down abruptly. "We are almost certain that this was the cause of the last little ice age," says Ruth Curry, "although we'd need a time machine to be sure." "I was aware that this could be a bombshell, but I stuck my neck out," says Keigwin, who first published his findings in 1996. Since then, similar high-sediment locations have bolstered his early conclusions. "As it turns out, there are probably at least 10 places in the North Atlantic that can give you pretty good core evidence of mini-ice-age cooling," he says. A more recent event is perhaps better evidence that a climate can cool quickly because of thermohaline shutdown. In the late 1960s, a

huge blob of near-surface fresher water appeared off the east coast of Greenland, probably the result of a big discharge of ice into the Atlantic in 1967. Known as the Great Salinity Anomaly, it drifted southward, settling into the North Atlantic in the early 1970s. There it interfered with the thermohaline circulation by quickly arresting deepwater formation in the Labrador Sea. It continued to drift in a counterclockwise direction around the North Atlantic, re-entering the Norwegian Sea in the late 1970s and vanishing soon after. "I believe it shut the system down for just a few years. The result was very cold winters, particularly in Europe," says Ruth Curry. That fresher-water mass, fortunately, was small enough to disperse in a short period of time. The one accumulating up there now, however, "is just too big," says Joyce. Climate science is extraordinarily complex because it is dependent upon the gathering and interpretation of millions of data points. If the National Weather Service has trouble predicting tomorrow's weather, how can anyone forecast a change in global climate a few years hence? One answer is even more data. At the moment, there are about 450 floating sensors bobbing around in the Atlantic monitoring temperature and salinity changes, and that is not enough, says Ruth Curry. "The models don't have enough resolution to capture all the physics yet. Prediction is tough." Or maybe Woods Hole researchers are adhering to a flawed model. That's the view of Richard Seager, a climate scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. In a paper titled "Is the Gulf Stream Responsible for Europe's Mild Winters?" to be published this year in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, he casts doubt on the notion that warmth transported by the Gulf Stream has a significant impact on either continent. Europe would be warmer, he says, "even if the Atlantic were just a big, stagnant ocean" because the prevailing westerly winds would still blow heat stored in the Atlantic in the summer to Europe in the winter. Transported Gulf Stream heat, he says, accounts for less than 10 percent of England's warmth relative to the United States. In Seager's view, prolonged winter warmth is more likely than a little ice age. "The thousand-pound gorilla in eastern North America and Europe is the North Atlantic Oscillation," he says. This is a complex, poorly understood variation in the strength of air-pressure cells over Iceland and the Azores. When pressure over Iceland is high, the pressure over the Azores tends to be low, and vice versa. During the winter, a lower-than-usual low over Iceland and a higherthan-usual high over the Azores forces cold air to eastern Canada

and warm, moist air to northwestern Europe and the eastern United States. That's precisely what has happened from the 1960s to the late 1990s, says Seager, which gave rise to relatively balmy winters in the high-population regions on both sides of the Atlantic. "If this phase continues, as some models predict will occur as the result of rising greenhouse gases, this would make these changes in winter climate persist for years to come," he says. Seager's viewpoint is in the minority. In other models, and climate science is ultimately a battle of different computer models, the Gulf Stream is a major source of warmth for the lands that border the North Atlantic. In Ruth Curry's view, the science as it stands is more than strong enough to warrant thinking ahead. "We can't know the point at which thermohaline shutdown could actually start," she says. "But we should plan for it."

Cold Brutality Should a little ice age arrive, its impact will be told in human suffering, not scientific terminology. The Little Ice Age (Basic Books, 2000), by anthropology professor Brian Fagan of the University of California at Santa Barbara, is replete with tales of woe depicting the plight of European peasants during the 1300 to 1850 chill: famines, hypothermia, bread riots, and the rise of despotic leaders Opposite: "The brutalizing an increasingly dispirited physics of El Nio peasantry. In the late 17th century, writes are simple Fagan, agriculture had dropped off so compared to the dramatically that "Alpine villagers lived on physics of this bread made from ground nutshells mixed climate change," with barley and oat flour." Finland lost says Terrence perhaps a third of its population to starvation Joyce, chairman and disease. of the Woods Life was particularly difficult for those who Hole Department lived under the constant threat of advancing of Physical glaciers in the French Alps. One, the Des Bois Oceanography, glacier on the slopes of Mont Blanc, was said with Ruth Curry, to have moved forward "over a musket shot one of the lead each day, even in the month of August." researchers. When the Des Bois threatened to dam up the Photograph by Greg Arve River in 1644, residents of the town of Miller

Chamonix begged the bishop of Geneva to petition God for help. In early June, the bishop, with 300 villagers gathered around him, blessed the threatening glacier and another near the village of Largenti re. For a while, salvation seemed at hand. The glaciers retreated for about 20 years, until 1663. But they had left the land so barren that new crops would not grow. B. L.

THE BIBLE -- Science or Superstition? Is the Bible a record of science or a relic of ancient mythology? Is the Bible relevant to the Space Age? or obsolete folklore? Here is the most incredible, asonishing PROOF, from history, physics, astronomy, geology, chemistry, oceanography, and archaeology that the Bible, written thousands of years ago, contains knowledge that was supposedly only discovered by scientists during the past two centuries! Here is PROOF the Bible IS not only the "divine revelation" of a Creator God, but that forebears were highly intelligent, skillful and astute scientists, navigators, and explorers. Here is the most amazing and intriguing story you have ever heard -- proving the Bible to be an astounding scientific chronicle -- and a Book of Divine inspiration and insight! William F. Dankenbring FOR CENTURIES, skeptics and scoffers have called the Bible a collection of ancient primitive myths, fables, stories, and

superstition. One religious leader calmly claimed, "We know now that every idea in the Bible started from primitive and childlike origins . . . ." Dr. Edgar J. Goodspeed, who translated the Bible into English, declared that the book of Joshua "is the legendary story of the conquest of Canaan" and the book of Ruth "belongs to Israel's fiction, rather than to its history, and should be among its tales and stories." WHY have so-many men of high education, scholars, and scientists REJECTED the Bible as historical truth and reliable science? Is the Bible "unscientific"? It is time you knew the incredible truth! Science Versus Myth We live in a modern, push-button, scientific world. Science is adulated, placed on a lofty pedestal, and virtually worshipped as the new "messiah" -- the new savior of the world. However, science has also bequeathed to the world lethal modern weapons of war -- the H-bomb, Neutron bomb, A-bomb, poisonous gases, deadly chemicals -- a murderous host of technologically amazing devices to destroy! Science has been described as an angel of mercy, and also as a devil of destruction. But unknown to millions, the Bible has a great deal to say about TRUE science. And it also has much to say about the wrong kind of science, and 'science falsely so called"! Although the Bible is not a textbook about science, it does give many foundational principles of science -- alludes to basic principles of biology, physics, chemistry, meteorology, astronomy, geology, and oceanography, as well as medical science and health sciences! Those who have lightly discarded the Bible and relegated it to the limbo of outer darkness, as myth and fable, have carelessly missed out on the solid foundation of SCIENCE in the Bible! They have jumped to conclusions without getting all the facts.

For some reason, the world of scholars and scientists has rejected the Bible as the provable Word of the living God -- without examining all the evidence! Very few know it, but the Bible has far more to say about science than many suppose. Scientific facts, not understood by the world until the last few hundred years, with the advent of the "scientific explosion," are plainly and directly mentioned IN THE BIBLE! Think what this means. While pagans worshipped sticks and stones, the sun, moon, and stars; while entire nations were bowing under a cloud of magic and superstition, ignorant of the truth -- at that very same time, a Book unknown to millions, the Bible -- the Book of books -- was being INSPIRED which contained many fascinating, fantastic SCIENTIFIC SECRETS totally unknown to the rest of the world! Notice how amazingly scientific the Bible really is! Flat Earth Theory Many people have erroneously believed that the Bible teaches the earth is flat. The Medieval Catholic Church held to the notion the earth is flat and is the center of the universe. When Galileo presented scientific evidence to the contrary, his facts and theories were branded as "absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical, because expressly contrary to Holy Scripture." But nowhere does the Bible teach the flat earth theory, or that the earth is a stationary object at the center of the universe. Galileo's theories were declared heretical in the 17th century. But, amazingly enough, six hundred years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah was inspired by Almighty God to write and speak ef the spherical shape of the planet earth! Notice it! In Isaiah 40:22 we read of God, "It is He that sitteth upon the CIRCLE of the earth." Moffatt translates this verse more clearly: "He sits over the ROUND EARTH." The Critical and Experimental Commentary states this expression is "applicable to the globular form of the earth." The original Hebrew word is chuug and means a "compass, circle, or sphere."

But how did Isaiah, an ancient Hebrew prophet, know that the earth is round? Here is PROOF that the ancient Hebrews were far more knowledgeable and scientific than they are given credit for being! But how much did the ancient writers of the Bible really know about the earth? Did they believe the notions of their Gentile contemporaries who believed the earth was carried about on the back of a great tortoise? The Amazing Earth Three amazing truths were known about the earth itself which the rest of the world did not understand for another two or three THOUSAND YEARS! Sound incredible? It should! First, the fact that the earth revolves around the sun once every year was not generally understood until the days of Copernicus and came to be known as the Copernican Theory. This was in the 16th century -- just a little more than 400 years ago. He taught that the sun is the center of the solar system. However, thousands of years before his time,-in the days of the patriarch Moses, the Bible uses the precise expression to indicate the revolution of the earth around the sun once a year was known to ancient Biblical astronomers! In Exodus 34:22 we read, in the King James Version, the innocent phrase, "And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest. and the feast of ingathering at the year's end." According to the original Hebrew, however, this should be translated "at the REVOLUTION OF THE YEAR." The original Hebrew word is tequuphah and means "to move in a circle," "circuit," "to go round," "orbit of the sun," as well as "revolution of time." The Goodspeed translation has "at the turn of the year." In the days of the prophet Samuel, the expression "in revolution of days" was used to denote the time from conception to birth of a child (I Sam. 1:20, margin). Goodspeed translates this, "when the time came around." Notice also II Chronicles 24:23 where the "end of the year" is called, in the original Hebrew, "in the REVOLUTION of the year" (marginal rendering). Don't these verses clearly suggest the fact that the ancient Hebrews KNEW the earth revolves around the sun, and completes one revolution -- one turning -- each year?

But this is not all. Notice Job 38:12-14 where we read: "Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place; that it might take hold of the ends of the earth . . . IT [the earth] IS TURNED AS CLAY TO THE SEAL . . ." What does this mean? God is talking to the ancient patriarch Job about the morning -- the rising of the sun. How is it that the sun appears to rise in the morning? This verse contains the scientific truth -- the TRUE explanation! The earth tself turns, or "rotates" from west to east, causing the sun to rise in the morning, in the eastern sky, and appear to move through the sky to the western horizon, where it appears to "set." The original Hebrew in this verse says, of the earth, "it turns itself." What could be a more apt expression? The allusion to the day and the seal refers to the rolling cylinder seal one to three inches long, such as was used in ancient Babylon, which left its plastic impression on the clay as it turned about or rolled around. What more apt figure of speech could be used to represent the motion of the earth itself, as it rotates, causing day and night? Thirdly, the laws of gravity were not explained and understood until Sir Isaac Newton, a Christian scientist and theologian, discovered them in the 18th century. The laws of motion were discovered by this same genius. However, strange as it may seem, thousands of years ago the Bible alluded to the laws of centrifugal force, centripetal force, gravity, and motion! How else do you explain the enigmatic statement in the book of Job, speaking of the earth -- "He [God] . . . hangeth the earth UPON NOTHING"? (Job 26:7.) The pagans believed a tortoise carried the earth about; but God revealed to His people the truth -- that the earth hangs suspended in space by powerful laws of force and motion! God asked Job, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? . . . Whereupon are the foundations [sockets] thereof fastened (made to sink]?" (Job 38:4, 6.) It is interesting that science has discovered that the earth's axis is pointed in the general direction of the North Pole Star, and the north and south poles are the points where the earth's axis of rotation meets the surface of the earth. The earth is inclined to its axis at 23 1/2 degrees. God is the One who

planned it all out; set the earth to spinning on its axis; and pointed the north pole toward the star Polaris. Science of Meteorology The science of weather and understanding the earth's atmosphere is of relatively recent origin. It, too, has developed greatly during the last two hundred years. Chemistry and physics play a vital role in this science. Before the nature of matter and air were understood, weather science was in total chaos. Here again, however, the Bible "scooped" science by more than two thousand years! The basic key to understanding the weather cycles and patterns on the earth is the hydrological cycle. Today it is well known that water evaporates from the surface of the oceans, rivers, lakes and all bodies of water; that it rises into the atmosphere; and that later it returns to the earth as rain, snow, sleet, or hail. The evaporationcondensation-precipitation cycle was not understood by mankind, however, before the nature of water, water vapor, and the chemistry of matter was understood. The Bible, however, reveals this basic CYCLE was understood, THOUSANDS of years ago! Once again, the Bible is proved to be SCIENTIFIC! Notice Jeremiah l0:13 -- "When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ASCEND from the ends of the earth." Tell me -- how could Jeremiah, a prophet of God, have possibly known about the evaporation of water into water vapor, condensation of water vapor as rain droplets, and the precipitation cycle? Was he an inspired scientist as well as a prophet? Jeremiah was not the only Biblical meteorologist, however. Solomon was also an expert in understanding the weather cycle. The Scriptures reveal that king Solomon was an avid student of nature, and the natural world, and wrote extensively on the subject. Some of his writings as a "naturalist" are preserved in the Scriptures. Wrote Solomon about one thousand years before Christ, "The wind goes to the south, and circles about continually, and on its circlings the wind returns again. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is

not full; unto the place from which the rivers come, to there and from there they return again" (Eccl. 1:6-7, Amplified Version). Solomon understood the circuits of the wind -- and of water. How did he know? Was he merely guessing? Or was he not truly one of the most gifted, wisest men of all history? If we give Benjamin Franklin credit for being a gifted genius, how much more should we recognize the genius of Solomon who was the most famous naturalist, writer, poet, composer, and scientist of his time? (compare I Kings 4:29-34.) Consider, for a moment, how incredibly amazing Solomon's knowledge was. It was not until the 1800's that William Ferrell, an American meteorologist, formulated "Ferrell's law" which explains the prevailing directions of the winds over the earth, based on the carth's rotation. Said Matthew Fontaine Maury, an American hydrographer who lived in the late 1800's, "The direction in which a wind blows is so constantly changing that we often speak of the winds as fickle, inconstant, and uncertain. There is, however, ORDER in the movements of the atmosphere. The fickle winds are obedient to LAWS." The Sea Around Us In Job 38:16, God asked, "Have you explored the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?" (Amplified Version). How could the writer of the book of Job have known that beneath the oceans of the world there exist springs, or fountains of FRESH WATER? An article in the Saturday Review (July 1, 1967) declared: "Although they usually remain undetected, submarine springs of fresh water are often more common along certain types of shoreline than are rivers and other surface streams." Along some shorelines, as much as 20 million gallons of fresh water a day flows into the sea for every mile of shoreline. In fact, one major submarine spring in the Persian Gulf flows with enough volume to create a large area of fresh water in the midst of the sea, because of favorable limestone geology in Iran and Saudi Arabia. In Greece, an estimated 100 million cubic feet of fresh water goes into the sea through submarine springs.

But about four thousand years before, God asked Job if he knew about the springs in the sea! INCREDIBLE! Job was also told about the "recesses of the deep." Oceanographers today have plotted much of the ocean bottoms of the world, and have discovered deep underlying "trenches" which at some points go down thousands of feet in sharp, sudden drop-offs. Yet even Job knew of the existence of "recesses" in the oceans! The Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean is 36,198 feet deep. It was discovered in September, 1959 by the Soviet ship Vityaz. The same ship discovered a depth of 35,702 feet for the Tonga Trench; there are four other deep trenches in the North Pacific. The greatest depth in the Atlantic Ocean is north of Puerto Rico -- the Puerto Rico Trench, 27,498 feet deep. The dark world of the bottom of the ocean is now being explored by scientists in bathyscaphes, and special cameras, mounted with strobe lamps, have been lowered miles into the depths. New instruments have revealed that the ocean bottom is surprisingly rugged. Depths of valleys and canyons running underwater when averaged out are five times greater than heights reached on continents. The undersea world is cut, and sliced, by huge canyons bigger than the Grand Canyon. One such canyon is the Hudson Canyon off New York. Sixty miles off shore, this mammoth canyon knifes downward to 8000 feet, and then slopes on down to 6,500 feet. The sea floor is called the abyssal plains. At their edge are sometimes found tremendous chasms or trenches, averaging 20 miles wide at the top and hundreds of miles long. The deepest such trench discovered is the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, almost seven miles down. Yet thousands of year ago, God asked the patriarch Job what he knew about these "recesses" or "TRENCHES" of the "deep" -- that is, of the Oceans? How could Job have known? In the original Hebrew, the word for "explore" or "search out" is cheger and means to "search out, examine; secret, inmost part." The word for "deep" is tehown and means "confusion" -- or "the ABYSS, the great deep."

How could such graphic words have been written which so aptly describe the ocean bottom -- so many thousands of years ago -unless they had been inspired by God? "Pathfinder of the Seas" Matthew Fontaine Maury, when reading the Bible, was, struck by the words of Psalm 8:8 -- "The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." His curiosity aroused, he set out to map the currents of the oceans of the world and became the foremost hydrographer of his day (1806-1873). He discovered the ocean routes which would make best use of prevailing ocean currents and winds. His research enabled ship owners to cut many days from the time required to make their voyages and helped them save many thousands of dollars. He was called the "Pathfinder of the Seas." The Bible was his source of inspiration! But how did king David, who wrote the eighth Psalm -- who lived about one thousand years before Christ -- know about the "paths of the seas" and the great currents in the oceans? The Gulf Stream In 1855 Matthew Fontaine Maury, pioneer oceanographer, wrote, "There is a river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm. The Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Seas. It is the Gulf Stream" (The Physical Geography Of the Sea, 1855). Truly, a river in the middle of the sea, the Gulf Stream flows for the most part through the Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico and leaves through theStraits of Florida, from where it flows out into the broad Atlantic across to northwestem Europe. "Seaward of New England, where the Gulf Stream is most robust, it can be l00 miles wide and 16,400 feet deep, and have a surface velocity of six miles an hour. There it carries past a given point about 150,000,000 tons of water every second; this makes it the equal of 700 Amazons or 8,800 Mississippis'" ("A Capsule History of the Gulf Stream," by Thomas Lineaweaver III, Holiday, Nov. 1967).

If the Gulf Stream were emptied upon the United States, it would flood the entire nation to a depth of over four feet -- in just one day! This mighty river is truly a PATHWAY in the sea! The larvae of a snail (Cymatium Parthenopeum) found from Brazil to the west coast of Africa ride the Gulf Stream, perhaps taking 300 days to cover 2,640 miles from the Bahamas to the Azores. Although the "odds" against a successful passage for the snails may be 2 million to 1, it is commonly done! The Gulf Stream is just one of many mighty ocean currents, such as the cold Humboldt Current, pushed by Antarctic winds up the west coast of South America. Then there is the Japan Current, or Kuroshio, in the Pacific. The carth's great wind systems push before them the great sea currents, and have enormous impact on world weather. The westerlies drive the Gulf Stream and Japan Current; the polar easterlies drive before them the Humboldt Current and Brazil Current, and others. The Labrador Current, in the North Atlantic, flows down from the north polar region, pushed along by polar easterlies. All these mighty currents are virtual rivers or paths in the seas. But -- how did David, one thousand years before Christ, know such mighty paths in the seas existed? How indeed, unless navigation was far more advanced in his day than skeptics like to admit? David also wrote of the "fowl of the air . . . and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." What do migratory birds have to do with the great ocean currents? Is there a relationship? Indeed, there most certainly is! Winging their way over the seas, in giant paths through the skies, are the Golden Plover and the Arctic Tern, navigating many thousands of miles every year. Also navigating in paths through the seas are species of eel, turtles, whales, and many species of fish. How did David understand these things about the fowls of the air, and the "fish of the sea" and other migratory creatures? How was he so familiar with the biological sciences of the earth? Clearly, the Bible is far more scientific than most people would suppose! Knowledge About Air Pressure

You are probably familiar with the fact that air has weight. At sea level air pressure is 14.7 pounds per square inch. As you go up in altitude, air pressure is less and less. A mountain climber ascending Mount Everest finds the air so thin that he has to take oxygen. along to breathe. When did science discover that air has weight? Any textbook on Physics reveals that the laws of pressure, temperature and volume of gases were supposedly not discovered until the last few hundred years. It was not known in ancient times, supposedly, that invisible air actually has "weight." Nor was sit understood that rain behaves according to definite laws of physics and chemistry. But notice! Here is what God inspired to be written in the Bible over three thousand years ago! "God . . . looks to the ends of the earth; beneath the whole heavens he sees. When he made a WEIGHT FOR THE WIND, and meted out the waters by measure [rainfall in the United States averages 29 inches every year!]; when he made a LAW for the rain, and a WAY for the thunderbolt" (Job 28:23-26). The Amplified Bible makes this even more clear: "When He gave to the wind weight or presssure . . ." Here is another remarkable instance of SCIENCE in the Bible! Thousands of years before modern science discovered these same laws of nature and physics! Ancient Job knew the relationship between barometric pressure of the atmosphere and weather 3,000 years ago! Over 3,000 years before Torricelli, an Italian physicist (1608-1647) proved the same relationship with his barometer! The Great Pyramid In his book, A History of Egyptian Archaeology, Fred Gladstone Bratton states, "Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Giza Pyramids alone have survived the ravages of time and the destructive hand of man. They are still the most massive and impressive buildings in the world today." He goes on: "As with astronomical measurements where the scientist has to resort to comparisons in order to demostrate the immensity of the universe, so it is with the Pyramid of Cheops. No

other building in history has called for so much study of construction, dimensions, and purpose than this pile of thirty million cubit feet of limestone. It has been estimated that the Great Pyramid . . . is large enough to accommodate St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, St. Peter's in Rome, and the Cathedrals of Milan and Florence. It consists of 2,300,000 limestone blocks, each one weighing 2 1/2 tons and measuring 3 feet in each direction. Originauy it was 481 feet high but now is 451 feet. The average length of the four base lines is 755 feet" (p. 87.) This author continues, "By using one of the celestial bodies, the Cheops builders were able to orient the Pyramid to the four cardinal points, the errors being only in the following fractions of one degree: north side, 2' 28" south of west; south side, 1' 57" south of west; east side, 5' 30" west of north; west side, 2' 30" west of north. The four corners were almost perfect right angles with the following measurements: 90 degrees 3' 2"; northwest 90 degrees 59' 58"; southeast, 89 degrees 56' 37"; and southwest, 90 degrees 0' 33" " (p. 88). Archaeologist Flinders Petrie calculated that 100,000 men were used in transporting the blocks to the base of the Pyramid, and some 4,000 in its actual construction. The precision is such that Petrie said any errors in the angles and degrees "can be covered with one's thumb." Eight centuries ago, Abd al-Llatif observed that the stone blocks were fitted together so well that a knife cannot be inserted into the joints -- a truly remarkable evidence of precision engineering and sheer architectural genius! In his book The Pyramids, Almed Fakhry declares: "The Great Pyramid of Giza represents the culminative effort of the pyramid builders. Not only is it the largest monument of its kind ever constructed, but for excellence of workmanship, accuracy of planning, and beauty of proportion, it remains the chief of the Seven Wonders of the World" (p.99). It has been calculated that if all the stone in the Great Pyramid were sawn into one foot square blocks and these were laid end to end, they would stretch two thirds of the way around the earth at the equator, or 16,000 miles. Put another way, these one foot blocks could make a five-foot highway stretching from the east to the west coast of the United States!

Said Fakhry of the Great Pyramid, "Even equipped with modern tools and instruments, and profiting from nearly 5,000 years of experience, architects and engineers today might well quail if called upon to erect a duplicate" (p.120-121). But the Great Pyramid is only one of the ancient wonders of the world. The Temple of God, in Jerusalem, was another such wonder of architectural skill and engineering! It was the greatest building of its kind in the entire world. The Temple of Solomon David and Solomon, who were instrumental in the construction of the Temple of God in ancient times, were very knowledgeable in the fields of architecture and engineering. The Temple was to be exceedingly "magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries" (I Chron. 22:5). David himself prepared for the Temple 100,000 talents of gold and one million talents of silver. On today's market gold is valued at approximately $400 per ounce. A talent equaled 125 pounds, troy weight. Therefore, 125 pounds, or one talent of gold, would be worth $800,000. At this price, 100,000 talents would be worth $800 million times 100, or $80 billion dollars! Therefore, David provided about $80 billion worth of gold for the Temple of God. The silver he contributed was one million talents. Silver is approximately $5 per ounce. At this rate, therefore, the silver David gave for the Temple was worth $10,000 per talent, times one million talents -- or $10 billion dollars! Can you imagine such a building? This was truly the most magnificent, glorious, beautiful building ever constructed by man! (see I Chron.22:14). The Temple was built of great stones, cedar beams and boards, overlaid within with gold (I Kings 6:14-22; 7:912). Today, such a building would probably cost, by the time you figure in the labor, over $100 billion -- if not much more! To construct the magnificent edifice, Solomon had 30,000 men of Israel and 150,000 Canaanites working on the Temple, hewing timber and magnificent stones, and bearing burdens (I Kings 5:1316; 11 Chron. 2:17-18; 8:7-9). Actual construction took seven years (I Kings 6:38). If Solomon had paid all these men at today's wages, say an average of $20,000 each per year, his labor costs alone would

easily have soared to the $3,600,000,000 ($3.6 billion) per year, or $25.2 billion for the entire project! The construction of the Temple was so precise that the ancient chronicler recorded: "And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building" (I Kings 6:7). Every part was carefully and precisely prepared at some distance from the building site. But when each part, each timber and stone, was laid, it fit perfectly! Can you imagine what a gigantic headache such a building would give contractors today? Obviously, men like David and Solomon were not mere "ignorant shepherds," as some critics and skeptics today would like to believe. David really existed. His name has been found inscribed on archaeological ruins in Israel. Solomon too is a real character of history. And their kingdom was an extraordinary Kingdom! Far from being ignorant shepherds, David and Solomon were immensley rich and wealthy KINGS of the greatest historical empire the world has ever known. The net worth of either of them was far more than the wealthiest businessmen alive today -- inclucling J. Paul Getty, Howard Hughes, and all the Mellons, Rockefellers, Morgans, and Rothschilds, Fords, combined! In the heyday of Solomon silver was "not any thing accounted of" (11 Chron. 9:20). We read, "And the king made silver in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar trees made he as the sycomore trees that are in the low plains in. abundance" (v. 27). Solomon had his own personal fleets and dominated world trade. "And king Solomon passed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom" (v. 22). There is archaeological evidence, in fact, that the fleets of Solomon and Hiram of Tyre circumnavigated the globe, sailing from Eziongeber, a port at tne terminus of the Red Sea, near modern Aqaba or Eliat! Hebrew customs, discovered by the early English settlers in the Americas, were found among some of the Indian tribes, including the wearing of phylacteries! Minoan and Phoenician coins have been found, and inscriptions of ancient Phoenician and Minoan scripts, in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and the Star of David was even found in an ancient ruin of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico! Worldwide Colonies of David and Solomon

A stone in a cry creek bed in New Mexico, discovered by early settlers in the region, is one of the most amazing archaeological discoveries in the Western Hemisphere. It contains engraved on its flank the entire Ten Commandments written in ancient Hebrew script! Hebrew scholars, such as Cyrus Gordon of Brandeis University near Boston, have vouched for its authenticity. I visited the site of the huge boulder in 1973 and photographed the Hebrew inscriptions. A local newspaper reporter guided me to the mysterious site, located out in the middle of the New Mexico desert. We watched for rattlesnakes, as we hiked in to the spot where the boulder lies, unmoved and unmoveable. It is becoming increasingly clear that ancient King David was a much more formidable man than historians are wont to believe -- and that his son Solomon was no "slouch" when it came to wisdom, knowledge, and intellectual grasp! They knew about the "paths in the seas." Their fleets had sailed across the Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans, bringing riches from colonies they established around the world. In December, 1989, it was reported that an American explorer in Peru's highland jungles had found evidence that indicated king Solomon's legendary gold mines may have been in that region. The explorer, Gene Savoy, declared that he had found three stone tablets containing the first writing found from the ancient civilizations of the Andes. The inscriptions, he reported, are similar to Phoenician and Hebrew hieroglyphs! Reports the San Francisco Chronicle: "The hieroglyphs on the tablets are similar to those used in King Solomon's time and include one identical` Savoy is no newcomer to archaeological discoveries. He was the discoverer of the last Inca city of Vilcabamba in 1964. Savoy declared that the three tablets each weigh several tons and measure about 5 by 10 feet. They were found in a cave near Gran Vilaya, the immense ruins of the Chachapoyas Indian civilization which he discovered in 1985. This discovery is not surprising to me. In my book Beyond Star Wars, I suggest strongly that ancient Peru was the site of the mysterious "land of Ophir." Hebrews in the Americas 1,000 B.C.?

Several years ago I visited with Dr. Joseph Mahan in Atlanta, Georgia, an expert in ancient Indian ethnology of the southeastern Indians of the United States. He showed me samples of pottery uncovered from the waters around the Bahamas, and told me of Indian legends, including that of the Yuchis, stating they had migrated to the area of Florida and Georgia from the region of the Bahamas. According to their legends, the island sank beneath the sea and they fled for their lives. These same Yuchis later migrated to the Oklahoma territory, where they eventually settled down. Amazingly enough, they show strong evidence that they had contact with the Old World in historic times. They have a custom which is unique among the American Indians. They are racially and linguistically different from their neighbors. Every year on the fifteenth day of the sacred month of harvest, in the fall, they make a pilgrimmage. For eight days they live in "booths" with roofs open to the sky, covered with branches and leaves and foliage. During this festival, they dance around the sacred fire, and called upon the name of God. The ancient Israelites had the virtually identical custom, in many respects. In the harvest season in the fall, on the 15th day of the sacred month of harvest (the seventh month), they celebrate the "festival of booths" for eight days. During this time they live in temporary booths, covered with branches, leaves, fronds. This festival goes back to the time of Moses and the Exodus from ancient Egypt (Leviticus 23). How is it that two totally separate peoples evolved the identical custom? Dr. Cyrus Gordon, of Brandeis University in Boston, was privileged to sit in on one of the fall harvest festivals of American Indians, and listened to their chants, songs, and sacred ceremonies. An expert in Hebrew, Minoan, and many Middle Eastern languages, he was dumstruck. As he listened, he exclaimed to his companion, "My God! They are speaking the Hebrew names for God!" Dr. Joe Mahan, who related the above story to me, laughed. He is a strong believer in cultural contacts between the Indians and the East, long before Columbus. He showed me a small tablet containing cuneiform writing of the Babylonians. "This," he said, "was found not long ago by a woman digging in her flower bed, here in Georgia. The inscription appears to be genuine. There is no reason not to believe it is authentic." Perplexing Mysteries

More and more, scholars are coming to admit that peoples from the Middle East reached the New World long before Columbus or the Vikings. One stone, found at Fort Benning, Georgia, has unusual markings all over it. I saw the stone myself, and took photographs of it. Professor Stanislav Segert, professor of Semitic languages at the University of Prague, has identified the markings on the stone as a script of the second millennium before Christ, from the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete! In Quest of the White God, Pierre Honore points out similarities between the ancient Minoan writing and the script of the ancient Mayas. Independently of him, other scholars have noted striking similarities between Aztec glyphs from Mexico, and Cretan glyphs on the Phaistos Disc from the island of Crete in the Mediterranean. In addition to these remarkable discoveries, Dr. Cyrus Gordon told me that Jews were in America in ancient times. The inscription on the stone, he asserts, is in the writing style of Canaan, the promised land of the Hebrews. Concludes Gordon, whom I interviewed at his old, New England style home in the suburbs of Boston: "There is no doubt that these findings, and others, reflect Bronze Age transatlantic communication between the Mediterranean and the New World around the middle of the second millennium B.C." In 1968 Manfred Metcalf was looking for slabs to build a barbeque pit. Several strange-looking, flat rocks caught his eye; he picked up a large flat piece of sandstone about nine inches long, brushed it off, and noticed odd markings on it. Metcalf gave the stone to Dr. Joseph B. Mahan, Jr., Director of Education and Research at the nearby Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts at Columbus, Georgia. Mahan sent a copy of the stone to Cyrus Gordon in May of 1969. His report: "After studying the inscription, it was apparent to me that the affinities of the script were with the Aegean syllabary, whose two best known forms are Minoan Linear A, and Mycenaean Linear B. The double-axe in the lower left corner is of course reminiscent of Minoan civilization. The single verticle lines remind us of the vertical lines standing each for the numeral '1' in the Aegean syllabary; while the little circles stand for '100.' Concluded Gordon: "We therefore have American inscriptional contacts with the Aegean of the Bronze Age, near the south, west and north shores of the Gulf of Mexico. This can hardly be accidental; ancienot Aegean writing near three different sectors of the Gulf reflects Bronze Age translatlantic

communication between the Mediterranean and the New World around the middle of the second millennium B.C." Gordon offers the exciting thought, "The Aegean analogues to Mayan writing, to the Aztec glyphs, andto the Metcalf Stone, inspire the hope that the deciphered scripts of the Mediterranean may provide keys for unlocking the forgotten systems of writing in the New World. A generation capable of landing men on the moon, may also be able to place preColumbian Americas within the framework of world history" (Manuscripts, summer of 1969). Further proof that transatlantic travel and communication existed in the Bronze Age, in the middle of the second millennium B.C., during the time of David and Solomon, and before, comes to us from South America. In 1872 a slave belonging of Joaquim Alves de Costa, found a broken stone tablet in the tropical rain forests of Brazil's Paraiba state. Baffled by the strange markings on the stone, Costa's son who was a draftsman made a copy of it and sent it to the Brazilian Emperor's Council of State. The stone came to the attention of Ladislau Netto, director of the national museum. He was convinced of the inscription's autthenticity and made a crude translation of it. Contemporary scholars scoffed. The very thought of Phoenicians reaching Brazil thousands of years before Columbus was viewed with disdain. Few scholars took the stone at all seriously. In 1966 Dr. Jules Piccus, professor of romance langauges at the University of Massachusetts, bought an old scrapbook at a rummage sale containing a letter written by Netto in 1874, which contained his translations of the markings on the stone and a tracing of the original copy he had received from Costa's son. Intrigued, Dr. Piccus brought the material to the attention of Cyrus H. Gordon. Dr. Gordon, the head of the Department of Mediterranean Studies at Brandeis and an expert in ancient Semitic languages, as well as author of some 13 books, was amazed. He compared the Paraiba inscription with the latest work on Phoenician writings. He discovered that it contained nuances and quirks of Phoenician style that could not have been known to a 19th century forger. The writings had to be genuine! Gordon translated the inscription as follows: "We are Sidonian Canaanites from the city of the Mercantile King. We were cast up on this distant shore, a land of mountains. We sacrificed a youth to the

celestial gods and goddesses in the nineteenth year of our mighty King Hiram and embarked from Ezion-geber into the Red Sea. We voyaged with ten ships and were at sea together for two years around Africa. Then we were separated by the hand of Baal and were no longer with our companions. So we have come here, twelve men and three women, into New Shore. Am I, the Admiral, a man who would flee? Nay! May the celestial gods and goddesses favor us well!" Cyrus Gordon believes the king mentioned in the script can be identified as Hiram III who reigned 553-533 B.C. The inscription seems to verify an unusual statement found in the Old Testament. An ancient Biblical chronicler wrote: "And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon" (I Kings 9:26-28). In the days of Solomon there was an alliance between Hiram, the king of Tyre and the Israelites under Solomon. They were not only allies, but very friendly toward one another (II Chronicles 2:2-12). Israelites and Phoenicians even worked together to build the Temple of God in Jerusalem (vs.13-18). This alliance included shipping together, although the Phoenicians were known to jealously guard the secrets of oceanic navigation from other nations. We read in II Chronicles 8, beginning verse 8: "Then went Solomon to Eziongeber, and to Eloth, at the sea side in the land of Edom. And Huram sent him by the hands of his servants ships, and servants that had knowledge of the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon" (v.17-18). In the middle of the second millennium, B.C., and down to the time of Solomon, circa 1000 B.C., oceanic travel by maritime powers in the Middle East seems to have been fairly common. Amazing Discoveries in Mexico Other evidence comes from the investigations of Dr. Alexander von Wuthenau, whom I interviewed at his home in Mexico City. His living room was filled to overflowing with terra cotta pottery figures and objects d' art. In his book The Art of Terra Cotta Pottery in Pre-Columbian Central and South America, Dr. Von

Wuthenau published scores of photographs of these art objects. He tells of his astonishment, when he first noted that in the earliest, lower levels of each excavation he encountered -- not typical Indian heads -- but heads of Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese, Tartars, Negroes, and "all kinds of white people, especially Semitic Types with and without beards" (p. 49). At Acapulco, von Wuthenau found that early Semitic peoples lived in considerable numbers. "The curious points about these essentially primitive figures are that, first, there is an emphasis on markedly Semitic-Hebrew features", he declared (p. 86). Female figures found in the region are also markedly Caucasian, with delicate eyebrows, small mouths and opulent coiffures. Cyrus Gordon, who has studied the collection, points out: "In the private collection of Alexander von Wuthenau is a Mayan head, larger than life-size, portraying a pensive, bearded Semite. The dolichosephalic ("long-headed") type fits the Near East well. He resembles certain European Jews, but he is more like many Yemenite Jews.'" Near Tampico, the early Huastecan culture reveals portrait heads with a predominant Semitic, white element, but also Negroid features appear. At Veracruz, meanwhile, a figurine of a female dancer possesses the features just like those of a Frenchwoman of Brittany! She wears a headdress reminiscent of Phoenician fashion. Also at Veracruz a figure with a false beard, styled like an Egyptian beard, also had a snake-like protrusion on the forehead. Again and again, figures with definite Semitic features have been found. A sample of Maya ceramic painting shows a lady with a flower who has an undeniable Negroid character. The figure has an affinity with Egyptian painting, says Wuthenau. yet it was not found along the Nile, but in Central America! On the Pacific coast of Ecuador, also, evidence for the presence of early Hebrews has been found. A figurine of a lovely girl was found who wore a headdress with a remarkable Phoenician affinity. Other Ecuadorian heads show definite Semitic features. Clearly, the Semites penetrated a large part of the American continent in "prehistoric" times! Discoveries in South America In the past century, several Brazilians have found inscriptions on rocks along the Amazon river. Over a period of 50 years, four men, including two who were scientists, uncovered inscriptions which they independently concluded were Phoenician in origin.

The first man, Francisco Pinto, in 1872 found over 20 caves deep in the Brazilian jungle and uncovered about 250 strange inscriptions upon the rocks. He thought they were Phoenician, scriptions upon the rocks. He thought they were Phoenician, and Brazil's Director of History and Geography corroborated his suspicions. A German philologist who studied the markings in 1911 felt they were genuine. In the 1880s, Ernest Ronan, a French scientist, combed the jungles and found several more inscribed stones. In the 1920s a scholar by the name of Bernardo da Silva discovered many more inscriptions along the Amazon. It makes good sense. It explains why the Mayans,who considered Quetzalcoatl as the bringer of their arts and laws, depicted him as being unusually blond! When the Spaniards discovered the New World in the early sixteenth century, perhaps fifty million inhabitants lived in the Western Hemisphere, speaking over 900 languages. Such linguistic diversity has long puzzled scholars, and logically attests to a diversity of origins. Carleton S. Coon reported that the conquistadores "commented on Montezuma's light skin, but did not remark that this ruler rarely exposed himself to the bright sun." Coon adds: "George Catlin, in his portraits of the Mandan Indians, depicted some of them as blond. . . . Another case of allegedly abberrant Indians is that of the Pomo, Hupa, and neighboring tribes in north-central California whose beard growth seems to have been Caucasoid when they were first seen" (Coon, The Living Races of Man, p.154). Another mystery to ethnologists is the existence of a white skinned, red-bearded tribe recently discovered by builders of Brazil's TransAmazon Highway. Called the Lower Assurinis because they live south of the route of the highway, they have ear lobes (which is uncharacteristic of other tribes), and their language differs from traditional dialects in the region. Sir Walter Raleigh in his History of the World mentioned that the Indians he encountered used many Welsh words long before the Welsh were known to have come to America. Linguistic studies prove that theWelsh language is very closely akin to ancient Hebrew! The Mystery of New Zealand's Maoris There is evidence among the Maori and people of eastern Polynesia that the sun was deified as Tane and that Ra, the sun god, was the tutelary god of Borabora. The Maoris, also, made use of ancient solar

observatories. "At Kerikeri, in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, there is a miniature Stonehenge, the blocks standing about 7 feet out of the ground; and near Atiamuri, north of Taupo, there are other great monumental blocks-some fifty of these still standing original map erect" (Maori Symbolism, p.137). Interestingly, ancient Maori traditions relate that since antiquity the Maoris have observed ceremonial and dietary laws very similar to those of the ancient Hebrews. They even kept the seventh day "Sabbath" as a day of rest! Also, every 7 times 7 years -- or 49 years -- they observed a Jubilee Year similar to that of the ancient Hebrews." These similarities simply cannot be explained away as "mere coincidence"! The Maoris, like the Hebrews, even had a "sacred month" given over to Harvest thanksgiving, corresponding to the Hebrew month of Tishri and the Festival of Tabernacles. How can these fascinating facts be explained? Such similarities must be more than mere coincidence. Like the Yuchi Indians of North America, the Maoris, at some very early stage of history, must have come in contact with ancient Hebrew mariners, roaming the seven seas, who taught them Hebrew customs and left behind signs of Hebraic influence! How was this contact achieved? Was the ancient world covered by a global cultural continuity, indicating a globe-girdling civilization? Ancient Maps of the "Sea Kings" In his book Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, Charles H. Hapgood tells of the Piri Re'is map of 1513 A.D. Studies of this map show that it correctly gives latitudes and longitudes along the coasts of Africa and Europe, indicating that the original mapmaker must have found the correct relative longitude across Africa and across the Atlantic to Brazil. This amazing map gives an accurate profile of the coast of South America to the Amazon, provides an amazing outline of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico (supposedly not yet discovered!), and-incredibly enough-shows a part of the coast of the Antarctic Continent which was not discovered, supposedly, until 1818! This map does not stand alone. A world map drawn by Oronteus Finaeus in 1531 gives a truly authentic map of Antarctica, indicating the coasts were probably ice_free when the original map was drawn (of which Oronteus Finaeus' map was a latter copy). The Oronteus

Finaeus map was strikingly similar to modern maps of the Antarctic. How could this be? Another fascinating map is the map of Hadji Ahmed of 1559. It is evident that the cartographer had some extraordinary source maps at his disposal. Says Hapgood: "The shapes of North and South America have a surprisingly modern look, the western coasts are especially interesting. They seem to be about two centuries ahead of the cartography of the time. . . . The shape of what is now the United States is about Perfect" (p.99). Another map of the Middle Ages, the Reinel Chart of 1510-a Portuguese map of the Indian Ocean-provides a striking example of the knowledge of the ancients. Studying the identifiable geographical localities and working out from them, Hapgood was astounded to find that "this map apparently shows the coat of Australia . . . The map also appeared to show some of the Caroline Islands of the Pacific. Latitudes and longitudes on this map are remarkably good, although Australia is shown too far north" (ibid., p.134). How can such remarkable accuracy be explained on the basis of almost total ignorance of the earth during that time? Obviously, at an earlier period of earth's history, sea-faring nations must have travelled around the world and accurately mapped the major continents, and fragments and copies of their ancient maps survived into the Middle Ages and were copied again. Concludes Hapgood: "The evidence presented by the ancient maps appears to suggest the existence in remote times . . . of a true civilization, of a comparatively advanced sort, which either was localized in one area but had worldwide commerce, or was, in a real sense, a worldwide culture" (p.193). How advanced was this ancient culture? Says Hapgood, "In astronomy, nautical science, mapmaking and possibly ship-building, it was perhaps more advanced than any state of culture before the 18th Century of the Christian Era." He continues: "It was in the 18th Century that we first developed a practical means of finding longitude. It was in the 18th Century that we first accurately measured the circumference of the earth. Not until the 19th Century did we begin to send out ships for purposes of whaling or exploration into the Arctic or Antarctic Seas. The maps indicate that some ancient people may have done all these things" (Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, p.193).

What ancient society could have been responsible? Is there really any doubt? Read the Scriptures again -- blow the cobwebs out of your brain! The identity of these ancient sea-farers are the Phoencians and anceint ISRAELITES! The evidence is overwhelming. The Semitic features discovered in Mexico and South America, the Hebrew and Phoenicians inscriptions, the Hebrew religious customs found in the Americas, similar customs in far off New Zealand among the Maories of ancient times, all attest to the fact that worldwide oceanic travel, trade and commerce was occurring during the time of the Solomonic Empire! David and Solomon were familiar with the "paths of the seas." Hapgood says such mapmaking would indicate economic motivations and vast economic resources. Further, organized government is indicated, since the mapping of a continent such as Antarctica implies much organization, many expeditions, and the compilation of many local observations and maps into a general map under central supervision. He adds that it is unlikely that navigation and mapmaking were the only sciences developed by this ancient people. Such a comprehensive enterprise could only have been achieved during a relative time of world peace, and by a very powerful and extremely wealthy kingdom! The kingdom of David and Solomon best fits the picture, based on all the worldwide evidence! Notice further evidence! "You Resemble a Sinner of Canaan!" Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi in Peruvian Antiquities (1857) point out that after the most thorough examination and minute comparison, the religious rites of the American Indians plainly present many points of agreement with those of the Hebrew people (p.9). Continue these authors: "Like the Jews, the Indians offer their firstfruits, they keep their new moons, and the feast of expiations at the end of September or in the beginning of October; they divide the year into four seasons, corresponding with the Jewish festivals. . . . In some parts of North America circumcision is practised . . . There is also much analogy between the Hebrews and Indians in that which concerns various rites and customs; such as the ceremonies of purification, the use of the bath . . . fasting, and the manner of prayer. The Indians likewise abstain from the blood of animals, as also from fish without scales; they consider divers quadrupeds unclean, also certain birds and

reptiles, and they are accustomed to offer as a holocaust the firstlings of the flock" (ibid.). Surely, all these parallels are not mere coincidence! Can anyone in their right mind consign these similarities to mere "accident"? If you believe it is an accident, then there is a Bridge in New York I would like to sell you -- real cheap! How much money you got? Say Rivero and von Tschudi: "But that which most tends to fortify the opinion as to the Hebrew origin of the American tribes, is a species of ark, seemingly like that of the Old Testament; this the Indians take with them to war; it is never permitted to touch the ground, but rests upon stones or pieces of wood, it being deemed sacrilegious and unlawful to open it or look into it. The American priests scrupulously guard their sanctuary, and the High Priest carries on his breast a white shell adorned with precious stones, which recalls the Urim of the Jewish High Priest: of whom we are also reminded by a band of white plumes on his forehead" (p.9-10). These two reputable scientists of the last century also point out, "The use of Hebrew words was not uncommon in the religious performances of the North American Indians, and Adair assures us that they called an accused or guilty person haksit canaha, 'a sinner of Canaan'; and to him who was inattentive to religious worship, they said, Tschi haksit canaha, 'You resemble a sinner of Canaan'" (ibid.). Though such evidence does not prove by any means that the Indians themselves were Jews or Israelites, it does show that long before Columbus, Hebrews had reached the New World and had left their imprint upon its inhabitants. There undoubtedly was some intermarriage. Such incredible parallels are beyond the remotest possibility of being due to mere chance! Why should it seem strange that peoples of the ancient world-in particular Phoenicians and Hebrews -- reached the New World and travelled to South America, and even crossed the Pacific? Is it really so incredible? The trouble is, most of us of the present generation have been brainwashed to think that the ancients were merely superstitious savages, terrified of sailing out to sea lest they fall off the edge of the earth. But the Phoenicians had already sailed out beyond the "Pillars of Hercules" (Straits of Gibralter) by 1200 B.C. They developed the

keel, streamlined their ships, covered the decks, and improved the sail. Their ships were probably from 80-100 feet long and used a single square sail besides oars. Their ships could average 100 miles in a day's time (24 hours). They were busy traders. Cornmerce was their principal aim. Tyre and Sidon, their home ports, were cities of immense wealth. Did ancient Phoenicians reach the New World'? The evidence is inescapable. However, strange as it may sound, there is even Biblical evidence supporting the conclusions of men like Cyrus Gordon, Alexander von Wuthenau, and many other modern archaeologists! God told Ezekiel, "And say to Tyre, 0 you who dwell at entrance to the sea, who are merchants of the peoples of many islands and coastlands. . . The inhabitants of Siaon and [the island] of Arvad were your orsmen; your skilled wise men, O Tyre, were in you, they were your pilots. The old men of Gebal [a city north of Sidon] and its skilled and wise men in you were your calkers; all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to deal in your merchandise and trading" (Ezekiel 27:3, 8-9). Ezekiel goes on, "Your rowers brought you out into the great and deep waters; the east wind has broken and wrecked you in the heart of the seas . . . When your wares came forth from the seas, you met the desire, and the demand, and the necessity of many people; you enriched the KINGS OF THE EARTH with your abundant wealth and merchandise. Now you are shattered by the seas . . ." (vs.26, 3334, Amplified Bible). This sounds like the description of a globe-girdling nautical nation -one which brings its wealth from afar! -- one which travels throughout the entire earth in its quest for material goods and trade! Three-Year-Long Voyages We also read in the Bible: "For the king [Solomon] had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks" (I Kings 10:22). Is it not significant that Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the globe, requiring three years -- from 1519-1522? Is it not meaningful that Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world, took three years to do so (1577-80)?

Also interesting is the fact that the Quichua word for the sun, Inti, may very likely be derived from the Sanscrit root Indh, meaning "to shine, burn, or flame" and which corresponds to the East India word Indra, also meaning "the sun." It is also significant that the pre-Incas worshipped the invisible, Creator God, the Supreme Being, by the appellative Con, very similar to the Hebrew Cohen, the word for "priest," from the root Kahan meaning "to meditate in religious services, to officiate as a priest." When all is said and done, Rivero and von Tschudi declare: "It cannot be denied, that the above tradition of the creation of the world, by the invisible and omnipotent Con, the primitive happy state of men, their corruption by sin, the destruction of the earth, and its regeneration, bears a distinct analogy to the Mosaic chronicle of the earliest epoch of the history of the human race . . ." (Peruvian Antiquities, p.149). The Gold of "Ophir" In the book of Isaiah we read the enigmatic statement: "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isa. 13:12). Where was the legendary "Ophir"? What was this "golden wedge"? The Hebrew word for "wedge" is leshonah and refers to a "tongue," an instrument of some kind. The wedge of gold was, then, a bar or instrument of gold-literally, a "tongue of gold." What could this "tongue" of gold have been? The gold of Ophir was not a scarce commodity since Solomon received 44 tons of it in a single year. Ophir was a place famous for its gold. Could it be that Isaiah was referring to a particular instrument of gold -- something famous in Ophir? The Inca Empire was famous for the quantity and quality of the gold it produced. The Incas of modern Peru have a tradition that their earliest king was Pirua Paccari Manco. In modern Quichua Pirua means a granary or storehouse. The first dynasty of kings, called the Pirua dynasty, included the first eighteen kings in the king list. One of the commonest titles of the early kings was Capac which means "Rich." One of the first kings was Manco Capac who founded the city of Cuzco ("Navel" in the special language of the Incas). Manco Capac is

generally regarded as the progenitor of the Incas. Legends of the Incas tell us that he got rid of his three brothers and led the people of Cuzco. We read, "He took with him a golden staff. When the soil was so fertile that its whole length sank into the rich mould, there was to. be the final resting place" (Markham, The Incas of Peru, p.50, 53). Another story calls this golden staff a "sceptre of gold about a yard long and two fingers thick" (Markham, Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, p.64). Could this have been the "golden wedge" or "tongue" of Ophir? John Crow relates another tradition of the ancient Incas. It is the story of "the Golden Wedge, according to which the Sun, wearied of the crude, barbaric ways of the uncivilized Indians, sent two of his children, a son and a daughter, to lift them from their primitive life. Placed on the earth near the banks of Lake Titicaca, these two children of the Sun were given a golden wedge which they were to carry with them wherever they wandered; and on the spot where this wedge sank without effort into the ground and disappered they were told to found their mother city. When the divine pair reached the vicinity of Cuzco, their talisman slid into the earth and vanished from sight" (The Epic of Latin America, p.25). Was this mysterious talisman -- this "golden wedge" -- the same thing mentioned by the prophet Isaiah -- the "golden wedge of Ophir"? There is a close resemblance between the Pirua dynasty and the Hebrew word Ophir. In Hebrew, Ophir ("ph" can be pronounced either as an "f" or a "p") was the name of a place rich in gold (I Kings 9:28); sometimes the term Ophir was used for gold (Job 22:24). Ancient Peru would certainly fit the Biblical description of Ophir. It was famous for its gold. In the Temple of the Sun in Cuzco was a fantastic display of wealth. The four inside walls were covered with paper-thin sheets of gold. A giant golden figure of the Sun hung suspended over the main altar. A huge silver room was dedicated to the Moon. Surrounding the Temple of the Sun and several chapels was a huge stone wall, covered with a cornice or crest of gold a yard wide. Inside the Temple were decorations of gold and silver flowers, plants and animals. The Spaniards sacked the Temple and seized all the gold and silver ornaments.

From 1492 to 1600 about two billion pesos' worth of gold and silver flowed out of Spain's New World colonies-at least three times the entire European supply of these precious metals up to that time. The total production of gold and silver in the Spanish colonies between 1492 and 1800 has been estimated at six billion dollars. Historian Fernando Montesinos visited Peru from 1629-1642, a century after the conquest by the Spaniards. He travelled fifteen years through the country collecting material for a history of Peru. Montesinos wrote Ophir de Espana, Memorias Historiales y Politicas del Peru. He believed Peru was the Ophir of Solomon. He contended that Peru was first settled by Ophir, the grandson of Noah (Gen. 10:29). Montesinos has been ridiculed and derided by historians. But since the early settlers of Peru were white-skinned and red bearded; since there was abundant gold in the region; since the name of the Pirua dynasty may correspond to the Hebrew Ophir; since the voyages of Solomon's fleet took about three years to complete; and since the "golden wedge" of Ophir could very well correspond to the "golden wedge" of Manco Capac; and since there is so much overwhelming evidence of cultural contacts betweens the ancient Peruvians and the Israelites, with close affinities in cosmology; and since there is definite evidence of the presence of ancient Semitic peoples in Peru, Equador, and the Western Hemisphere -- it seems very likely that Montesinos was right! Indeed, there is strong reason to believe that Peru was the ancient Ophir of the Bible! When we examine all the evidence, the picture comes startlingly clear. Ancient Semites -- early Hebrews -- sailed to the Western Hemisphere 2,500 years before Columbus. The Phoenician inscriptions, coins, and the terra cotta statuettes found in Central and South America are not mere "interpretations" of scholars. They are fact. There was global navigation, commerce and communication in the Bronze Age. The great cyclopean buildings, worldwide pyramids, stone statues, and ancient astronomical observatories are legacies of that ancient civilization. And that ancient world-travelling empire was the kingdom of David and his son, Solomon! Way for the Thunderbolt

In Job 28:26 we read, "When he (God) made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder." Lightning kills more people yearly than any other natural disaster -about 400 fatalities per annum. It destroys $37 million worth of property annually, plus the losses due to 8,000 annual forest fires started by lightning. How are lightning bolts formed? The story is fascinating. Inside enormous thunderclouds are so-called "chimney currents" -- a column of air rising upward with gale force. Within this turbulence near the top small hailstones become positively charged, while raindrops in the lower portion are charged negatively. Below on the earth there is another positive charge buildup, following the drifting cloud. Tremendous differences of electric potential are created between the top and bottom of the thundercloud, and the earth's surface. At this point, a gaseous arc reaches down from the cloud for perhaps fifty feet. hanging there, building up, growing. Meanwhile, positive particles on the earth below streak upward as high as fifty feet, called "St. Elmo's fire." When one of these earth "streamers" meets one of the cloud's dangling gaseous arcs, called "leaders," suddenly A PATH IS FORMED BETWEEN THE THUNDERCLOUD AND THE EARTH! This is "the way of the lightning" described in the Bible! This is where the darting, flickering BOLT OF LIGHTNING hurtles through the air, startung at the point of contact between negative and positive charges of electricity, ripping up to the cloud along the gaseous arc path already formed. The lightning actually travels' upward, and the fact that it appears to travel downward is an optical illusion. But this is beside the point. The point of this fascinating story is HOW DID JOB KNOW? How, could he have ever known that there is "A WAY for the lightning of the thunder, if he was just a simple "farmer" or "sheep-herder" who lived during an age of ignorance and superstition? Can there be any doubt? Science did not discover the secret of this phenomenon until very recent times. But God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth,

discussed the "path" or "way" of the lightning with Job, over 3,500 years ago! Secrets of Geology What about the earth science of geology? Does the Bible have anything to say about it? It certainly does! Again, the book of job contains the answers. We read of the process of erosion in Job 14:19 -- "The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth. . . ." Notice, also, Job 28:10 -- "He cutteth out rivers among the rocks." There is no canyon on the earth as majestic and awesome as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Geologists point out that this enormous canyon was formed by cutting action of the Colorado River, gouging out a pathway through the rock. The natural world is full of lessons for us to learn. The Word of God actually commands us, "But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: or speak to the EARTH, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all there that the HAND OF THE LORD HATH WROUGHT THIS?" (Job 12:7-9.) GOD is the Creator! This is the supreme lesson and teaching of ALL true science, and the science of the Bible! Truly, as king David wrote in the Psalms, "The FOOL hath said in his heart, There is no God" (Psalm 14:1). Have YOU yet learned that mighty lesson? TRUE Science Stop and think, for a moment. The pagans worshipped the heavenly bodies. Christians worship the Almighty One who put them out there! Pagans believed in astrology and worshipped the sun, moon and stars. But in the pages of the Bible, God expressly CONDEMNS such worship. He tells us the purpose of the creation of the heavenly bodies: "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for SEASONS, and for days and YEARS" (Gen. 1:14). Human methods of counting time, and human clocks, are all based on the motions of the heavenly bodies. The earth rotates at a relatively constant speed, giving us day and night; it revolves around

the sun at a relatively constant speed, taking one year per revolution. The moon revolves around the earth, giving us the lunar month. Every human timepiece -- whether it be a wristwatchs or a Grandfather's Clock, with Westminster chimes -- is kept accurate by timing them with the most precise Clock ever invented -- the solar system and the stars! Time is kept accurate by basing time, calculations and computations on the precise movements of the stars and the positions of the fixed stars. The master clock in the United States is at the Naval Observatory, Washington, D. C. By measuring time by the stars, the Naval Observatory keeps track of time to the tiniest fraction of a second. By knowing the exact movements of the heavenly bodies, solar and lunar eclipses can be PREDICTED thousands of years in advance! God inspired David to write, "He made the moon for fxed times; the sun knows its time of setting" (Psalm 104:19, Goodspeed). Or, as the Amplified Bible has it, "the sun knows the EXACT TIME of its setting." Truly, as David wrote to beautifully in the Psalms: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof" (Psalm 19:1-6). The apostle Paul was so bold as to put it this way: "For the invisible things of him from the CREATION are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are MADE, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse" (Rom.1:20). The existence of God is plainly and forcibly REVEALED in His handiwork, His "Creation"! The Watch and the Watch Maker Take a close look at your watch. It is a delicate, intricate, manmade instrument for telling time. You know, as you look upon your watch,

that a watchmaker somewhere made your watch. It may have been made in Switzerland, which is famous for its quality watches. But you KNOW -- and you REALLY KNOW -- that your watch has no brains, consciousness, or intelligence of its own. You know that it didn't invent itself, or construct itself, and out of nowhere suddenly "decide to EXIST"! You know it wasn't made by "sheer accident." Elements of the ground, and sand and water and iron and tin and sun and heat didn't just "CONSPIRE" to accidentally manufacture a "watch," or to 'EVOLVE" your watch! It just didn't just somehow decide to put itself together! NO WAY, JOSE! Great painstaking and careful workmanship went into it, most likely, and its delicate parts were made with great precision. The more money you paid for your watch, the better it probably is. But you know that if you don't wind it up regularly, or replace the battery in it, it will eventually run down, and stop ticking. The second, minute, and hour hands will stop moving -- or, if it is a digital read-out watch, the numbers will simply fade from view. If you own a watch, you also know that from time to time, it needs repair. I just had my watch cleaned and repaired. Physical things simply gradually "run down," lose energy, and stop functioning. Consider, now, the Great Master Clock we call the "Universe," composed of millions upon millions and sheer billions of Galaxies, each one with billions of stars in orbit! The Universe is the greatest "Clock" of all. It, like your own watch, at one time had to be "created" -- built. "In the beginning," the Word of God tells us, "GOD created the heavens and the earth" (Gen.1:1). there was never a more SCIENTIFIC STATEMENT than that! The Great Master Clock had to be "manufactured." It had to be "wound up," with potential "energy" placed within it. It had to be set to "ticking." It has been running smoothly, operating for millions if not billions of years! And it is STILL "TICKING" today! It is still the most accurate timepiece in existence. Its parts -- the stars, globular clusters, and galaxies -- still move with age-old, timeless precision! Its "pulsars" -- rapidly rotating, spinning super-dense stars -- still operate with incredible precision and timeliness! You keep your watch running by winding it up. Who keeps the Great Clock of the universe operating? Who SUSTAINS it?

TRUE SCIENCE admits the existence of the original "Clock Maker," Almighty God. True science admits GOD made the heavens and the earth. True science also reveals God as the SUSTAINER of the universe! True science sees the hand of God in the creation, functioning, and activity in the Universe -- and in the writing and preservation of the Holy Bible! But those who deny the Scriptures, who deny the existence of God, and His power to divinely inspire His Word, are truly "fools" in His sight! Those who believe in the sick theory of "evolution" of life on earth, believe the "big lie" of Satan the devil. Their so-called evolutionary science, God-rejecting science, is NOT true science at all. It is "science falsely so-called" (I Tim. 6:20). What does God Almighty, who inspired the Holy Scriptures, have to say about the so-called "higher critics" who despise His Word, who deny His divine inspiration, who question its historicity, accuracy, and literal truth? He says, "Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I will work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you" (Acts 13:41; compare Habakkuk 1:5). The truth is, the great "scholars" and men of "wisdom" of this world are "blinded." It was all foretold, long ago. God declared, "the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David said, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway" (Rom.11:7-10). Modern skepticism, and scholarly "criticism" and unbelief, were all prophesied. Peter wrote under divine inspiration, "Knowing this first, that in the last days SCOFFERS, walking after their own lusts," will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation" -- in other words, the unifornitarianism theory of modern geology, that "the present is key to the past," there never were divine interventions in history, but only slow processes, which we see today, account for all the strata and extinctions in the earth's "evolutionary" history (II Peter 3:2-3). Peter goes on, "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of

the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (v.5-7). In this article, you have read things which have been hidden from the eyes of mankind for thousands of years. You have read incredible, fascinating evidence, from the Bible itself, and history, and archaeology -- from around the world -- that the Bible is true, that its science predates modern scientific discoveries by thousands of years. What do you think of the Scriptures, now, after reading this article? As the apostle Paul wrote: "ALL SCRIPTURE is given by inspiration of God [that is, "God-breathed," in the literal original Greek], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect [or, become perfect, and completely mature], thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (II Tim.3:16-17). As the apostle Peter also wrote, "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away: But the word of the Lord endureth forever" (I Peter 1:24--25). Peter was quoting from the prophet Isaiah, who wrote: "The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever" (Isaiah 40:6-8). Isaiah challenges the critics, the scoffers of the God who inspired the Scriptures, "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him? . . . Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance . . . All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him as less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? . . .

"Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? [God is] he that sitteth on the circle [globe or sphere] of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in" (Isa.40:12-22). Even in this verse may well be a hidden indication that Isaiah knew of the "expanding Universe," that the heavens are rapidly expanding, as astronomers tell us, as is evidenced by the "red shift" in the spectrum of light rays reaching us from the stars! Truly, the Bible is a most remarkable Book! As Solomon wrote in the book of Proverbs, "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter. The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings, is unsearchable" (Proverbs 25:2-3). The process of discovery has only just begun!

Death of the Iceman BBC Two 9.00pm Thursday 7 February 2002 In September 1991 two hikers made a sensational discovery - a frozen body high in the mountains, near the border between Austria and Italy. It turned out to be 5,300 years old, the oldest frozen mummy ever found. Named tzi the Iceman after the tztal area where he was found, he became a worldwide sensation. The body was taken to Austria where scientists soon got to work on him. They analysed his bone density to find out how old he was (in his 40s, an advanced age for the time) and examined his wonderfully preserved belongings. The cause of his death remained a mystery. Now archaeologists are being joined by forensic scientists to investigate this unique case and new research has revealed a shocking answer.

Frozen in time The investigation into tzi's death started at the scene of discovery. By examining photos which had been taken at the site, Austrian archaeologist Konrad Spindler worked out the layout. He was particularly intrigued by the position of the Iceman's copper axe, which was found propped up against a rock. He believed that this must have been placed in that position by tzi himself which meant that everything at the site had been preserved in the position it was when tzi died. His body was slumped face down on the ground, his cap lay nearby just as if it had fallen from his head. Scientists also wanted to know when he died so they examined the ice in which he'd been found. This contained pollen that they could identify as coming from autumn-flowering plants, so they concluded that tzi had died in the autumn. Together, this evidence implied that the Iceman might have got caught in a storm and died of hypothermia. The Disaster Theory Then the scientists looked inside the iceman using X-rays and CAT (Computer Assisted Tomography) scans. They saw what looked like unhealed rib fractures. So Spindler came up with what he called his disaster theory. He believed tzi was a shepherd who, one autumn, was returning to his home village with his animals. When he got there he became involved in some kind of argument or battle. He suffered a severe injury to his chest, fracturing his ribs, but managed to escape. He fled into the mountains and made it to the top, but by then he was exhausted from his injuries. He lay down to rest in a sheltered gully where he died of hypothermia and was buried in ice. The theory seemed to make sense, but it would not go unchallenged for long. In 1998, tzi was transferred to Italy since the body had actually been found just inside the Italian

border. There the iceman was placed on display in a specially built museum in the town of Bolzano. To put the finishing touch to their display, the museum contacted forensic pathologist Peter Vanezis to reconstruct tzi's face, based on the shape of the skull. Vanezis normally works from the skull itself, but in this case, of course, that was impossible. So using the 3D CAT scan data and a rapid prototyping machine, the Austrian team created a detailed life-size replica of the Iceman's skull and gave this to Vanezis. He then used a laser to scan the skull into his facial reconstruction system. This measures the proportions of the skull and shapes a generic face to match. This allowed him to recreate tzi's face at last. Re-examining the evidence Vanezis also wanted to look again at the theory of tzi's death, to question assumptions that the archaeologists had made. More and more evidence was questioning the disaster theory. An examination of the contents of tzi's intestine found hop hornbeam pollen. This pollen was incredibly well preserved the cell contents still intact. This could only mean that it had been consumed very soon after the flowering of the plant just before the Iceman died. And since the hop hornbeam only flowers between March and June he must have actually died in spring. Also, evidence from the body and objects showed that the site had melted at least once and so things weren't necessarily in the same position. And finally, new examinations of the ribs showed that they hadn't been fractured before death - but been bent out of shape after death. Scientists seemed to be back to square one. A Shocking Discovery It seemed his death might be shrouded in mystery forever. Then in June 2001, his new custodians, the Italians, decided to

X-ray the body again. A local hospital radiologist noticed what looked like a foreign object near the shoulder, a shadow in the shape of an arrow. When they looked at its density they found it was denser than bone, it was the same density as flint. They'd discovered a stone arrowhead embedded in tzi's shoulder, which had been missed despite 10 years of intensive study. Now scientists can tell a new story of the Iceman's death. tzi was attacked and managed to flee. As he ran he was shot in the back with an arrow. He pulled out the arrow shaft but the head remained stuck in his shoulder. He reached the top of the mountains but was now exhausted and weakened from bleeding. He could go no further, lay down and died. Although this story fits the latest results, there are still many unanswered questions. Scientists hope soon to conduct an autopsy to remove the arrowhead and only then will we be able to say for certain what killed tzi. The Iceman may still be hiding more secrets.

Death of the Iceman BBC Two 9.00pm Thursday 7 February 2002

NARRATOR (DILLY BARLOW): Kept frozen in a specially built chamber is one of the most extraordinary finds in modern archaeology. It's the body of a man who died more than five thousand years ago. Now a gruesome discovery has turned this archaeological sensation into a murder

investigation. NARRATOR: For over five thousand years this body lay entombed in a glacier. Now it's kept under tighter security. The man in charge of the preservation of the body is pathologist Eduard Egarter Vigl. DR EDUARD EGARTER VIGL (Bolzano General Hospital): It's a sensation, the oldest frozen mummy in the world. NARRATOR: Vigl's task is to ensure the Iceman stays as fresh as the day it was found. Every month he performs his examination of the body, checking for any signs of deterioration. To stop the body drying out he sprays it with sterilised water which freezes into a shiny film of ice, but in June 2001 he did more than just his routine conservation work. He decided to X-ray the body and what he found stunned him. EDUARD EGARTER VIGL: It all flashed through my head and I thought this can't be true. NARRATOR: Vigl had made the most extraordinary discovery in the history of the Iceman. He had found that the Iceman contained a secret more gruesome than anyone had imagined. It was a revelation that would finally end a mystery that had begun a decade earlier. In September 1991 two German hikers, Erika and Helmut Simon, were out walking in the Austrian Alps when they found something very disturbing. ERIKA SIMON: My husband walked in front of me a

bit and then suddenly he stopped and said look at what's lying there and I said oh, it's a body. Then my husband took a photograph, just one, the last we had left in the camera. NARRATOR: Near the Austrian and Italian border 3,200m high in the Alps lay the half-naked body of a man. Chest down, his face was buried in the ice. HELMUT SIMON: We thought it was a mountain climber or a skier who'd had an accident perhaps 10 years previously or perhaps two years previously. NARRATOR: A recovery team was sent to the site. As they freed the corpse they noticed strange lines on the man's body, possibly branding or whip marks. There was a large wound on the man's head. At first they wondered whether they were dealing with a murder victim, but there was something strange. Lying in the melt water around the corpse were some ancient looking objects: bits of fur and leather, a flint dagger. They bundled these up with the corpse and the whole lot was taken to the Forensic Medical Institute in Innsbruck. Because of the mysterious objects a local archaeologist, Konrad Spindler, was invited to examine the find. PROF KONRAD SPINDLER (University of Innsbruck): This was the first view that I ever had of the body. It was naked and had a strongly dried out skin. It was the articles found with the mummy which made it relatively simple to date the find. NARRATOR: Spindler began to suspect that the corpse might be incredibly old, even thousands of years old. Carbon dating confirmed it. The body was 5,300 years old. He dated from the Stone Age, the

oldest frozen body ever discovered. This was no longer a routine forensic case. It was an archaeological marvel. Every scientist who saw the Iceman was amazed. PROF HORST SEIDLER (University of Vienna): Oh my, my, my first meeting with the Iceman was something spectacular. DR WOLFGANG RECHEIS (University Hospital, Innsbruck): He looked like, like a doll. This was a small man dried out, the skin is, looks like leather. HORST SEIDLER: To see that wonderful preserved mummy, this is one of your European ancestors. WOLFGANG RECHEIS: It was very impressive to keep in mind that this body was 5,300 and something years old. NARRATOR: Everyone wanted to work on the new discovery. Analysis of his bones revealed his age. he was in his 40s, quite old for his time, and he was even given a name: tzi, after the tztal region where he was found. The Iceman was becoming a personality. HORST SEIDLER: His face was so strange, you know. I never saw a mummy with such a strong _expression. The eyes are open and each detail is preserved. In a way the Iceman is speaking to you. NARRATOR: But it wasn't just the body. His possessions were just as spectacular. PROF MARKUS EGG (Museum of Germanic History, Mainz): The find was absolutely unique for an archaeologist. One saw things here which one

could only dare to dream about. NARRATOR: For the first time they had a Stone Age man with his complete clothes and equipment. He had a copper axe, the only complete Neolithic axe ever found, and a bow almost two metres long, a quiver packed full of arrows and he had a flint knife tucked inside a small pouch. MARCUS EGG: We obtained a view of everyday life which is absolutely unique and will probably remain so since it's very unlikely that we'll ever find something like this again. NARRATOR: They even had an idea of what he'd done for a living. He had warm clothes perfectly suited for life in the Alps and his grass cloak resembled those worn by herdsmen until the last century, so he might well have been a shepherd. They had worked out many details of tzi's life, but one question remained unanswered: how had he ended up dead in the ice 3,200m high in the Alps? The mystery of tzi's death had begun. For the archaeologist heading the research the obvious place to start the investigation was the scene of death. He believed the scene had remained frozen in the ice since tzi's death, unchanged for thousands of years. If this was true it should offer a window onto the events of that fateful day, so Konrad Spindler collected every photograph that had been taken at the site to try and piece together how tzi died. KONRAD SPINDLER: It's clear that this man has stumbled and fallen onto these rocks. His cap has fallen off and he's lying there naked. This picture is

very important because it shows the Iceman's equipment as it was found. You can see the upper end of the bow which he has deliberately placed against the rocks. Slightly above, the Iceman has lain his axe with its wooden handle and metal blade. NARRATOR: Spindler worked out the layout of the whole site. tzi was found in a long, narrow gully. On a rock nearby was his axe and his bow. In another part of the gully lay his quiver. To Spindler the scene of death showed that tzi had carefully laid his belongings around him before lying down to rest. KONRAD SPINDLER: The layout of the site shows very clearly that he had collapsed. His equipment is lying around him exactly where he had placed it before he died. The picture has remained unchanged for the last five thousand years. NARRATOR: It was clear to Spindler that tzi must have been walking in the Alps, had stopped to rest and then died, but the actual cause of his death remained a mystery. Then inside the ice, which they thought had entombed the whole scene for thousands of years, scientists found a vital clue. It told them when tzi had died. The clue was pollen. Every plant releases its own unique type of pollen and different plants release their pollen at different times of year, so pollen acts as a fingerprint for each season. If the ice had formed immediately after tzi's death then any pollen trapped inside it would tell the scientists the season when the Iceman died; and that seemed to be the case. As they analysed each grain they discovered that all the pollen came

from plants that flower in one season. It seemed tzi had died in the autumn. At this time of year conditions in the Alps can become notoriously harsh. This gave scientists their first theory to explain the Iceman's death. Perhaps, like so many others, tzi was caught in a storm and died of hypothermia. HORST SEIDLER: We are convinced that he laid down on, on that pass and froze to death. NARRATOR: It seemed as though tzi was just another victim of the weather, but the investigation was far from over. The next man to investigate tzi was Wolfgang Recheis, an expert in 3D X-ray imaging. His job was to look inside the Iceman. He was part of a team that would begin to suspect that tzi's death was no accident. WOLFGANG RECHEIS: It was only a few weeks after I started working here, I was really a novice, when the Iceman was brought to our CAT scanner. This is a kind of X-ray examination where you get informations of all three special dimensions. NARRATOR: The scans enabled them to see inside the Iceman in incredible detail. They could even see his brain. WOLFGANG RECHEIS: When you look at threedimensional reconstructions on screen you can clearly see the brain, you can clearly see how much the brain is shrunken due to the five thousand years lying in a glacier. It looks like a dried raisin and, but the brain is there, but it has only half the size it

would be in living conditions. We also made an examination of his feet and on the X-ray image of the left foot we saw a little black spot and we think this is a result of frostbite the Iceman suffered from on his little left toe. NARRATOR: So far everything fitted with the theory that tzi had died from hypothermia, but then they examined the chest X-rays. On one side the ribs were severely distorted. It looked like they might have been fractured. This seemed to indicate that tzi had suffered a major injury shortly before death. It didn't take long for the news to reach the head of the tzi investigation, Konrad Spindler. He became convinced that the fractured ribs were the vital clue to what had really happened in tzi's final hours. KONRAD SPINDLER: This made it clear to me that he'd been in a violent situation near the time of his death. He'd been injured and this injury was to his ribs. NARRATOR: Using all the pieces of evidence, Spindler put together a new story of tzi's last days, more dramatic and more violent than the hypothermia theory. KONRAD SPINDLER: I believe that the Iceman must have been a shepherd. It was autumn. he gathered his animals to return to his home village. At that moment some kind of conflict arose. Perhaps an enemy group attacked his village. He appears to have been injured, but managed to escape and fled high up into the mountains. He had obviously used his last strength on his final day to climb up as high

as he could. In the last minutes of his life he must have been very weak from his injuries. He was very tired. He fought against sleep, but it eventually overwhelmed him. He fell asleep and died of hypothermia. Doctors say that this is a painless death. NARRATOR: Spindler christened this scenario the disaster theory. It seemed to fit all the evidence and gave a plausible account of tzi's death, but a chain of events was about to unfold that would challenge the disaster theory and it started with tzi going home. In 1998 tzi began a journey across the Alps. tzi had been discovered a few metres inside the Italian border and the Italians had demanded his return. Escorted by armed guard the body was taken to Bolzano, a town in Northern Italy. This museum would be tzi's final resting place. For the first time tzi would be put on view, the centrepiece of an exhibition. To add the finishing touch to the display they wanted to bring him to life, so they turned to one of the few people with the expertise to rebuild a five thousand year old face. Peter Vanezis is used to looking at death. As one of the world's leading forensic pathologists he works closely with the police to solve murder cases. In particularly gruesome cases the victim can be impossible to identify. PROF PETER VANEZIS (Forensic Pathologist): When we're stuck in this situation and the skull is present, one of the things that we can try is to put a face back on the skull if we're dealing with a

mutilated or skeletalised body. NARRATOR: Vanezis wanted to apply modern forensic techniques to bring tzi back from the past. First they created a perfect replica of tzi's skull using the 3D X-ray data. This was then scanned into the computer using a laser. PETER VANEZIS: Once you've got this image in the, in the computer you can then select a face which anthropologically matches the skull. By that I mean someone who's of approximately the same age, race, sex and so on. NARRATOR: The computer then stretched the selected face over tzi's skull to reveal the shape of his face. PETER VANEZIS: tzi had delicate features. He had fairly flat cheekbones, but a slightly protruding chin and a fairly small forehead. Because we had information in his case about hair and we knew he had some beard hair, we then added that on. NARRATOR: Finally, the face of tzi came to light. Here was a man that lived over 5,000 years ago, long before the pyramids, older than Stonehenge. It was then that Vanezis's background as a police forensic pathologist got the better of him. he couldn't resist looking further into tzi's death. Although the disaster theory appeared to solve the mystery, Vanezis felt it relied too much on assumption and not enough on hard evidence. PETER VANEZIS: Whilst there have, there have been some absolutely excellent studies carried out

on tzi I think there also, there's also been some speculation which has been unwarranted really and this is particularly in relation to how he died. NARRATOR: So Vanezis decided to apply police forensic methods to the mystery of tzi's death. PETER VANEZIS: An archaeologist would look at different things, we would look at different things, and a forensic pathologist would start from the point of view of what normally happens in a criminal investigation. A body is found, it is found at a, a scene. You then have to look at the body itself, do an external and an internal examination, see if you can find any injuries, any other contributing factors that could have led to his death. NARRATOR: In September 2000 Vanezis got his chance to examine tzi. The Iceman was carefully defrosted for scientific research. it was a perfect opportunity for him to examine the body for clues to tzi's death. PETER VANEZIS: He looked to me like an ordinary body that had been maybe around for six months to a year. Of course he was 5,300 years old and that's what made it awesome to actually deal with a body that looks so fresh in that respect, but yet be so much in a time-warp. NARRATOR: Vanezis checked the body for any external marks that might explain tzi's death. He looked for wounds and for signs of disease, but the examination was inconclusive. PETER VANEZIS: There was nothing obvious from this external examination as to what could have

caused his death. There was no obvious trauma or anything like that. NARRATOR: With the body apparently offering no clues, to find out what killed tzi, Vanezis decided to examine each assumption behind the disaster theory. He started with the time of death. PETER VANEZIS: In a forensic investigation time of death is obviously important in many cases, particularly when a body is found and you don't know how long that body's been there. NARRATOR: The disaster theory claimed that tzi had died in autumn because of the pollen frozen in the ice surrounding the body, but this was based on the assumption that the ice had formed straight after the Iceman's death. Botanist Klaus Oeggl thought otherwise. PROF KLAUS OEGGL (Institute of Botany, Innsbruck): Well the ice could be formed later, years, or hundred years later than the body was deposited, so this doesn't tell us very much about the time when the Iceman died. NARRATOR: To be sure of the season of death Klaus Oeggl needed pollen that could only have been deposited at the same time tzi died. There was just one place to look: inside tzi himself. Pollen sometimes settles on food, so it might have been preserved as part of tzi's last meal. KLAUS OEGGL: Oh I got an amazing small amount of sample. It had a weight of 40mg and to imagine the size it's like the size of, of the nail, the fingernail

of the small finger. NARRATOR: Oeggl meticulously examined the samples. He could make out the remains of ground wheat, meat fibres and plant material. It seemed tzi's final meal had been bread with dried meat and vegetables. Next Oeggl turned up the magnification to look for pollen mixed in with the food. He found masses of pollen from one tree: the hop hornbeam, a tree that still survives in the valleys below the Alps. KLAUS OEGGL: The really surprising thing was that the pollen was fresh in the food residues and this means that the pollen was consumed immediately after the flowering of the plant. NARRATOR: This at last gave Oeggl the clue to when the Iceman had died because the hop hornbeam tree only flowers at one time of year. KLAUS OEGGL: This tree flowers in-between March and June in this area which means that the Iceman died in spring and not in autumn, as it was presumed before. NARRATOR: This was the first setback for the disaster theory. One of its key assumptions, the time of death, was wrong. Vanezis then turned the investigation to the scene of discovery. PETER VANEZIS: One of the most important parts of the forensic investigation is to assess the position of the body and the various artefacts surrounding it. NARRATOR: Another key assumption of the disaster theory was that the Iceman had been frozen

in a layer of ice until his discovery, with the scene remaining completely unchanged for thousands of years; but new evidence would emerge to show that this assumption simply could not be true. It all began with the objects found with tzi. Amongst the many items found at the site was a quiver packed with arrows. Thirteen of these were the same length, but one of the arrows was shorter than the others. At the time of tzi's discovery no one thought much about it, but as Oeggl was sorting through fragments of grass and fibre that had been found several metres from the quiver he found some pieces of wood which intrigued him. They looked as if they might be from the mysterious broken arrow. KLAUS OEGGL: So first I tried with two pieces to fit them together and I had to try to do it in different ways. Suddenly I recognised that they really fit together. When they fitted it was a perfect fit. NARRATOR: Oeggl had found the missing piece, but it had been lying four metres away from the rest of the arrow. KLAUS OEGGL: A surprising thing of these splinters were that they were scattered all over the gully, so this tells us that these pieces of wood must have been moved out of the quiver. NARRATOR: It was then that Oeggl realised the significance of the find. If something had moved the bits of wood then the theory that the site had lain frozen in time had to be wrong. Now knowing that the discovery site had been disturbed Vanezis turned his forensic investigation to the body itself.

Had it moved as well? PETER VANEZIS: I believe the archaeologists feels that tzi died in the position in which he was discovered. However, there is no scientific evidence to support this whatsoever. NARRATOR: Vanezis's examination of the body told a different story. Something on the back of tzi's head seemed to suggest that he had once lain on his back. PETER VANEZIS: There was a mark on the back of the head which looked very much like a pressure mark and where a pressure mark would be if the head was, was laying on something hard. NARRATOR: And yet he had been found lying on his front. PETER VANEZIS: There's also the ear as well. One of his ears was bent over again indicating that there could have been some pressure on that side of the face, so he's in different positions in a completely different position to the one in which he was actually found. NARRATOR: For Vanezis this led to an inescapable conclusion: the site had definitely been disturbed. Both the objects and body had moved, but how could this have happened? The most plausible explanation is that at least once in the thousands of years since tzi died the ice must have melted. It meant tzi would have floated in water and drifted into different positions. The disaster theory now hung on just one remaining piece of evidence: the rib fractures which the Austrian team had found,

but Vanezis again had his doubts. PETER VANEZIS: They thought at first that he'd had fractured ribs, therefore one could possibly say well he's had some kind of really severe beating, but there's no real good evidence for this. NARRATION: When Vanezis looked closely he saw something different. PETER VANEZIS: That side of the chest seems to be deformed in a uniform kind of way and over a wide area which does not fit in with somebody being beaten up. They're more consistent with some pressure being put on the chest in some way after death. NARRATOR: The ribs had not been broken, but bent out of shape, as if something had been pressing down on tzi for thousands of years after his death. His ribs must have been damaged simply by the pressure of the ice. All the evidence for the disaster theory had collapsed: tzi had died in spring, not autumn; the scene of death had been disturbed and there was no sign of a violent injury. PETER VANEZIS: The disaster theory really had no scientific grounding for it. That's just pure speculation. NARRATOR: The disaster theory was in tatters. It was time to reopen the investigation And so it was that in June 2001 Eduard Egarter Vigl decided to X-ray the Iceman again. With the cause of death a mystery once more he was looking for any clues that might have been missed before. As soon

as they were ready the X-rays of tzi were given to the Head of Radiology at Bolzarno Hospital, Dr Paul Gostner. His experienced eye immediately spotted something unusual. DR PAUL GOSTNER (Bolzano General Hospital): I noticed a shadow, this foreign body and I said to my assistant look up there, that looks like something completely different and that cannot be bone. EDUARD EGARTER VIGL: It was then in the afternoon. I remember it very well. I was sitting in this room here at about 4pm when Dr Gostner was at the door with the X-ray pictures in his hand. He said look at this, look at this, there's a shadow up on the side near the shoulder. We were very amazed at this find and I asked him what do you think it could be? NARRATOR: To find out what the object was Gostner used the CAT scan data to examine its density. Different materials have different densities, so this should tell him what the foreign body was made of. As he carefully moved the cursor down the density increased dramatically. The result was clear: the object was far denser than bone. It was the same as flint. At last they knew what the strange object was. EDUARD EGARTER VIGL: It was very clear to both of us what we were dealing with. We had this unmistakable X-ray with a shadow and we had its density which meant the only explanation was that it was from an arrow. NARRATOR: For the Austrian team who had first examined tzi it was a huge embarrassment.

Despite years of research they'd missed an obvious cause of death. HORST SEIDLER: They showed me at the very first time the new X-rays and I really can tell you that has been the shock of my life. WOLFGANG RECHEIS: I thought ... we probably have overseen this amazing and very important little thing in his body. HORST SEIDLER: Because it was so clear. There was the arrow head. NARRATOR: Had the arrow really been there all along? To find out Wolfgang Recheis went back to the CAT scans they'd performed in 1994 to have another look. WOLFGANG RECHEIS: I loaded immediately the data set into my workstation and played around with some image processing algorithms to make if there's really an arrow and certainly I found out that OK, you can clearly see an arrow in his left shoulder. NARRATOR: On the 3D CAT scan the arrow was clear to see. Now, with the very data they had overlooked for 10 years, the team at Innsbruck created a perfect replica of the arrowhead. WOLFGANG RECHEIS: So this is an accurate model of the arrow head. This is real size and it is very convincing for me there is no doubt that tzi was hit by an arrow. NARRATOR: But was this arrow really the cause of death? Vanezis was cautious about assuming a

direct link. PETER VANEZIS: We don't know really whether we're dealing with an arrow wound that could be months old or whether we're dealing with one that's killed him. NARRATOR: To answer that question Vigl went to examine the body. EDUARD EGARTER VIGL: We then turned the Iceman over on his stomach. We waited a little until the first 3-4mm of the surface of the Iceman thawed out, laying our hands on the body with our gloves so the warmth of our hands would speed up the thawing process. NARRATOR: As the ice melted away there on the shoulder directly in line with the arrow was a small wound. The crucial question now was whether this wound had killed him, or whether it was old and had had time to heal. EDUARD EGARTER VIGL: We can see that it's a fresh wound, not an old wound. We can see that from the way the cut looks, that it's a diagonal incision and you can only see that in fresh wounds. The second important point is behind the wound. There in the depth of the incision is a brown coloured spot and this comes from blood and both these factors tell us that it's a fresh wound. NARRATOR: As final proof Vigl inserted a metal rod inside the wound proving it had not had time to heal. The evidence suggested that tzi really had been shot shortly before he died so the arrow must have played a role in his death. Sure enough, when

Vigl investigated further he discovered the arrow had penetrated an area full of blood vessels. EDUARD EGARTER VIGL: There certainly would have been bleeding. It is just a question of whether it hit an artery which would cause rapid bleeding, or a vein that would cause slow bleeding. Both of these would have led to a significant weakening of the body and then bleeding to death. NARRATOR: Vigl was now certain tzi had met a violent end. He may even have been murdered. It seems that tzi's death had been even more dramatic than the original disaster theory had claimed. It's now possible for scientists to tell a different story of what might have happened that day 5,300 years ago. tzi's final day must have started in a valley below the Alps. He ate his last meal in the woods where spring pollen fell into his food. It was then that things began to go wrong. KONRAD SPINDLER: The Iceman got involved in a fight. He was chased and as he escaped he was shot, but he fled on. He pulled the arrow out of his wound, but the arrowhead stayed stuck in his body. EDUARD EGARTER VIGL: I am convinced that he did not die immediately from his injury, but was able to run away. I don't know whether he was pursued or not, but I'm sure that he fled into the mountains. MARKUS EGG: He reached a high altitude completely exhausted, but his flight was in vain.

EDUARD EGARTER VIGL: I believe that he died up there due to weakness and shock and loss of blood. NARRATOR: He lay covered in ice for centuries. The ice then melted and his body floated in a pool of water which froze once more. At the moment the evidence fits with such a story, but to be certain Vanezis thinks a fuller investigation is required. PETER VANEZIS: It's vital to carry out an autopsy because as a forensic pathologist I'm fully aware that you don't really get the answer to all the questions you want unless you have a proper look inside the body and are able to retrieve the evidence. NARRATOR: Later this year scientists hope to remove the arrow head, but if there's one thing we've discovered it's that tzi is full of surprises. There may yet be more secrets hidden in the Iceman.