OF THE MOON AND MARS    part II

Searching For The Scars Of Battle

Ralph E. Juergens


The first part of this paper (Pensee, Fall, 1974) was devoted
primarily to an argument that sinuous rilles, features peculiar
to maria surfaces on the Moon, are of electrical origin. It was
suggested that these tortuous "riverbeds" were produced
instantly and explosively as subsurface formations succumbed
to electrical stresses, and that the youngest of them resulted
from an encounter between Mars and the Moon. Electrons
thus torn from the lunar crust pioneered paths in space along
which powerful discharges transferred electric charges
between the two bodies. It was further suggested that the
energy delivered in just one such discharge was sufficient
to create, and probably did create, the large explosion crater,
Aristarchus.

                                           *****

There are several other lunar surface features that seem best
explained as electrical scars. But before taking a look at them we
may usefully ask how much electric charge might have been exchanged
in the postulated Aristarchus event. Would this charge, for example,
be a reasonably small fraction of the total charge carried by each
of the two planetary bodies involved?

Suppose we approach this problem by taking the measure of an
ordinary lightning bolt, which hopefully is the nearest thing to an
interplanetary discharge likely to be observable in our time. The
energy of a fairly average lightning discharge, according to
Viemeister (59), is about 250 kilowatt-hours-roughly 9 x 108 joules.
On Earth, most of this energy is dissipated in the atmosphere. But
what might happen if such a bolt were to strike an airless body like
the Moon?

From Baldwin's analysis of lunar and terrestrial explosion craters
(60), it would appear that such a bolt ought to produce a lunar
crater about 85 meters in diameter (see Figure 1). Aristarchus, as
indicated in the figure, was probably formed by an explosion
releasing some 2 x 10(21) joules of energy. So we are talking about
an interplanetary discharge a few million million times as energetic
as ordinary lightning.

Cloud-to-ground electric potentials in thunderstorms reach values
near 109 volts (61). Presumably the potential drop across an
interplanetary spark gap would be considerably greater than this,
but by how much we can only guess for now.  Let us assume that it
would be at least a thousand times greater- say, 10(l2) volts.  On
this basis, since the energy of a discharge is the simple product of
the potential drop between electrodes and the total charge
transferred, we can estimate that a spark transferring 10(9)
coulombs of charge would suffice to produce an Aristarchus on the
Moon and wreak corresponding havoc, though of a different kind, on
Mars (62).

Some recent estimates of total electric charges carried by
solar-system bodies include Bailey's 10(18) coulombs for the Sun
(63) and Michelson's 10(13) coulombs for the Earth (64). Michelson's
figure is derived from Bailey's on the assumption that the specific
charges- total charges divided by total masses- of all bodies in the
solar system might be alike. The same assumption would imply total
charges of about 10(l2) and 10(11) coulombs for Mars and the Moon,
respectively. However, as pointed out elsewhere (65), the ubiquitous
interplanetary plasma can be expected to equalize surface potentials
rather than specific charges; except during near collision episodes,
and perhaps even then to large degree, the potentials of all the
planets (or at least the inner planets of the system) should be
pretty much alike and equal to that of the Sun.

Nor need one put too much stress on Bailey's estimate of the Sun's
net charge.  Most of his arguments assume that electric fields
propagate across interplanetary space, and this seems ruled out by
the plasma. Nevertheless, for present purposes we might take
Bailey's figure as a minimum value for solar charge and deduce from
it a minimum value for the Sun's surface "potential"- 10'9 volts.

(In passing, it is well to note that this "potential" is relative to
some "zero" of potential that probably does not apply anywhere in
the solar system, and may not apply anywhere within the limits of
the local galaxy, either. Bailey contended that the Sun maintains a
potential of this magnitude relative to its immediate surroundings
("empty space"), but his analysis of the solar-charge problem was
made before Mariner 2 demonstrated the all pervasive nature of the
interplanetary plasma.)

On this basis, then, since the plasma effectively "grounds" the
planets to the Sun, each of them ought to be charged so as to have
this same 10 ' 9 -volt surface potential. The charge on each of
them, expressed as a fraction of the Sun's charge, should be
proportional to the planet's radius, expressed as a fraction of the
Sun's radius. Earth, Mars, and the Moon should then carry respective
"normal" charges of approximately 10' 5, 5 x 10'4, and 2.5 x 10'4
coulombs.

Given such charges- and it bears reemphasizing that these figures
may be substantially on the low side- we can see that the postulated
Aristarchus discharge, transferring 109 coulombs between Mars and
the Moon, would alter the "normal" charge of Mars by only about two
parts in a million, and that of the Moon by some four parts in a
million. Quite a few such bolts might pass between the two bodies
during a single encounter without significantly affecting the
electrical balance between either of them and the interplanetary
plasma.


Tycho

But of course Aristarchus and craters of similar size are by no
means the entire story. The crater Tycho in the Moon's southern
highlands gives every indication of being one of the most youthful
of lunar features; indeed, Shoemaker et al. (66) consider it even
younger than Aristarchus, but this solely on the basis of geologic
considerations that may not apply to a Moon involved in
near-collisions only a few thousand years ago. In any case, as
Hartmann and Yale stress (67), Tycho and Aristarchus are the only
two among the larger craters on the Moon with floors of bare rock,
unlittered with debris from later eruptive events in their
neighborhoods. This would seem to put both in the same age bracket-
one of extreme youth.

Tycho, about 86 kilometers in diameter, is located in a highland
region that is generally more than 1200 meters above the Moon's
spherical datum- the surface of a hypothetical sphere of average
lunar radius (68). The crater site appears to be at the summit, or
very close to the summit, of terrain that trends downward in every
direction away from the site for hundreds of kilometers. The summit
is more than 2600 meters above the spherical datum, according to
Baldwin (69).  (The crater site is thus topographically comparable
to that of Aristarchus, which, according to Bald vin's contour map,
is near the summit of a more-than-270~ meter rise from a plain that
is generally several thousand meters below spherical datum.)

LOG. - ENERGY IN JOULES

Figure 1. Minimum crater-forming energies (after Baldwin).
Baldwin gives crater diameters in feet, and energies in
calories; these units have been converted to meters and
joules in the preparation of this revised diagram. As
indicated, a "typical" terrestrial lightning bolt, were its
energy not dissipated in the atmosphere, could be
expected to blast out a crater nearly 100 meters in
diameter.)

Shoemaker and his colleagues (70) emphasize that, aside from the
fact that Tycho is twice the size of Aristarchus, the two craters
are remarkably similar in their structural details, which include
prominent central peaks, and floors that have preserved the contours
of "flows...partly draped or folded around small hills..." (They suggest,
too, that the floors of other large ray craters probably have also been
formed by similar flows.")

Observations indicating that Tycho is a persistent "hot spot" after
sundown on the Moon (71 ) and that it is a strong reflector of radar
beams (72) support the conclusion that its floor is remarkably
clean. They also suggest that the flows observable in Lunar-Orbiter
photographs are of congealed, lava-like material. And this may be
taken as further evidence in support of the discharge hypothesis of
Tycho's origin.

Explaining a crater floor of bare, once-molten rock in terms of the
conventional impact theory is a little difficult.  One must resort
to ad-hoc theorizing to the effect that something- perhaps the shock
of the postulated impact explosion - melted a considerable volume of
rock at some depth, and that following the explosion this material
welled up to engulf the crater floor and flow around obstructions
encountered there; otherwise, debris from the explosion itself could
be expected to clutter the crater floor (73).  Impact theory offers
no reason, however, to expect such a sequence of events, and nothing
in terrestrial experience with crater-producing explosions supports
the idea.

On the other hand, if Aristarchus and Tycho were produced by
electric discharges, their clean floors would be just about what one
would expect. The abilities of discharges to produce melting on
cathode surfaces and generally to "clean up" those surfaces have
been remarked upon since the earliest experiments with electric
discharges (74).  Furthermore, though an electric discharge might be
thought of as taking place in a very brief span of time, an
interplanetary discharge must surely be an event of greater duration
than an impact explosion; the long- distance flow of current would
persist beyond the instant of any initial touchdown explosion, and
ejecta that chanced to fall back into the crater thus produced could
be swept away or melted in place.  (The hummocky appearance of the
floors of Tycho and Aristarchus may testify in part to such melting
of fallout blocks too large to be forcefully removed.)

Tycho's position in Figure 1 shows that the explosion that produced
it, whether attributable to impact or to electric discharge, must
have been perhaps 40 times as energetic as the Aristarchus event. 
Assuming that the explosion resulted from an electrical strike and
that the driving potential (spark-gap voltage) was of the order of
10'1 volts, we are led to conclude that the Tycho bolt must have
transferred something approaching 10" coulombs of charge between
Mars and the Moon. But even this amounts to only a few parts in ten
thousand of our estimated "normal" charges on Mars and the Moon; the
electrical balance between either body and the undisturbed
interplanetary medium would be only negligibly affected.

But if Tycho, like Aristarchus, is a cathode crater, where are the
sinuous rilles that might be expected to have provided triggering
electrons for the Tycho discharge? Should not such features be tens
of times more abundant around Tycho than in the area of Aristarchus?

We have already noted the fact that sinuous rilles occur only on
mare surfaces. And Tycho is located in a highland region, hundreds
of kilometers from the nearest mare margin and even farther from the
nearest evidence of sinuous-rille activity.  Could a Martian spark
to the Tycho site have been triggered in another way?

I suggest that the answer to this last question may be, yes. The
supporting evidence seems to lie in Tycho's most obvious feature-
its spectacular system of rays.


The Origin of Tycho's Rays

The rays of Tycho constitute a centuries-old puzzle that has defied
solution in terms of conventional thinking about the history of the
Moon. Velikovsky's demonstration that Earth's satellite, like the
Earth itself, actually has a recent history- a natural history- and
that this history has been punctuated by episodes of interplanetary
violence, puts the Tycho-ray puzzle- like many other astrogeological
problems- in an entirely new light. In this instance, Velikovsky's
work suggests that astronomers, selenographers, and astrogeologists
alike may have been searching in too few compartments of scientific
knowledge for clues to the puzzle's solution.

To judge from the preponderance of recent literature, today's
majority opinion is heavily in favor of the idea that lunar-ray
systems originated in the ejection of materials from central
craters.  And Tycho's long rays, some of them reaching so far as to
pass out of sight beyond the limb of the Moon's visible disk, are
considered exceptional but still explainable as ejecta from Tycho
itself.  Ralph Baldwin, a leading advocate of this view, mocks those
who would seek other explanations: "There must be something about
the moon which causes astronomers and others to suffer severe
attacks of imagination" (75). He refers specifically to ray-origin
suggestions ranging from an efflorescence of mineral salts along
radial cracks, or an expulsion of ice crystals through openings in
crater walls, to an emission of lava along tectonic fractures, or an
ejection of volcanic ash in extraordinarily straight, evenly spaced
streams. His answer: The rays are simply rock flour jetted outward
by impact explosions.

Now, obviously, some of the ideas Baldwin takes exception to are
pretty farfetched.  But their common inspiration is just as
obviously the many difficulties that plague the ejection hypothesis.

The ray system of Tycho

 
For one thing, the rays have no discernible depth. Surely materials
squirted laterally from any explosion site would at least
occasionally fall more heavily in one place than in another and
build up substantial formations. But no one has ever been able to
point out such a ray "deposit."

Another difficulty concerns the fact that the rays are scarred with
numerous small craters. Baldwin's explanation is that "some solid
material was shot out with the jets and produced 'on-the-way'
craters" (76). But Kopal pointed out some years ago (77) that the
total volume of material of this type alone, if called upon to
explain the secondary crate along Tycho's rays, would amount t some
10,000 cubic kilometers- a amount of material entirely inconsistent
with careful measurements indicating that practically all material
excavated from Tycho's crater has been deposited in it rim.
Furthermore, Ranger photograph suggest that on-ray craterlets may be
eve] more abundant than either Baldwin o Kopal thought likely.
Baldwin, writing at a time when only Earth-based telescope
observation was possible, noted that "when these rays are closely
studied, the!  are found to be composed of long, narrow, elliptical
sections, often with a small crater or elongated groove in the white
region" (78). But after examining the Ranger photos, Shoemaker
commented (79) "...many small secondary craters, too small to be
resolved by telescopes or earth, occur at the near end of each ray
element."

Thus not only the presence of the secondary craters in connection
with "each ray element," but their placement always "at the near
end," poses a problem for the ejection hypothesis. Is it conceivable
that larger objects randomly mixed with fines in ejecta streams
would always manage to drop to the surface just at the inner ends of
fallout patterns produced by the fines?

The strange proportions of Tycho's long rays seem all-but-impossible
to reconcile with ejection origins. Enormous velocities of ejection
must be postulated to explain the lengths of the rays, yet the
energetic processes responsible for such velocities must be imagined
to be focused very precisely to account for the ribbonthine
appearance of the rays.

Early in this century Pickering reviewed the ray-origin ideas then
abroad and found them wanting (80). He suggested: "Another and
perhaps better explanation is that electrical repulsion... furnished
the radial force which caused the arrangement [of Tycho's rays]." It
was his personal observation that "those streaks which do not issue
from minute craterlets lie upon or across ridges, or in other
similarly exposed situations." Although he was none too specific as
to the details of an electrical mechanism that might explain Tycho's
rays, he drew an interesting comparison between the suggested
phenomenon and "auroral streamers."

I think that in this case Pickering was indeed on the right track.
Before pursuing the point, however, suppose we take a close look at
the entire Tychonian system.

 Shoemaker et al. (81 ) give us this description of conditions just
outside the rim of the crater: "The exterior flank of the
rim....comprises a belt of terrain 80 to 100 km wide that differs
from the surrounding highland terrain in topography, albedo, radar
reflectivity, thermal characteristics, and other physical
properties. This belt is underlain by a complex sequence of rim
deposits. They are divisible, on the basis of both topography and
albedo, into distinct geologic facies, which form a series of three
concentric rings around the crater....

"The inner ring.... [ which ] extends from the crest of the crater
rim a distance of 5 to 10 km down the rim flank... is characterized
by irregularly hummocky topography and a normal albedo of 16 to 17%.
Within this ring are many well- developed flows, some as long as 8
km....

"The second ring is marked by numerous subradial ridges and valleys
superimposed on a broadly undulating surface.... Some undulations
clearly reflect ancient craters that have been buried, or partly
buried, by the rim materials of Tycho.... The ring appears in
full-moon telescopic photographs as a prominent, broad, dark halo
completely surrounding Tycho....

"Surrounding the dark-halo facies is a third major ring
characterized by abundant secondary or satellitic craters.... 
Beyond the third or outer ring, the rim deposits are discontinuous
and gradual outward into the ray system.

"The Tycho rays consist of a discontinuous series of bright streaks.
In more distant parts of the ray system, the streaks lie nearly
along great circle arcs that pass through the parent crater. Close
to Tycho, the pattern is more complex and includes broad, roughly
linear, bright bands and numerous bright ellipses and loops.

"The pattern of the rays is superimposed on nearly all the other
topographic and geologic features of the lunar surface...."

But do the long rays- all, or even most of them- actually "pass
through the parent crater?" another point that has long troubled the
ejection hypothesis of ray origin is the readily observed fact that
Tycho's long rays do not diverge from the center of the crater,
although such divergence would be expected for material thrown out
by a point explosion. It is often said (e.g., 82) that the rays are
tangent to the crater rim, and various adhoc modifications of the
ejection hypothesis have been offered to explain, or explain away,
such a peculiarity in ray alignment. As a matter of fact, however,
the briefest examination of good photographs of the full Moon
indicates that only a few rays are "tangent to the rim of the
crater," while others seem to point directly to, or through, the
center of the crater.

Close scrutiny of the long rays suggests that they actually may
diverge from a common point, or common focus, located on or buried
beneath the western (83) rim of the crater.

But Tycho's shorter rays- those which fill the inner regions of the
gaps between the long rays and appear to be quite similar to the
rays of other craters, such as Copernicus, Kepler, and Aristarchus-
seem to diverge from Tycho itself.

Could it be that we have here two systems of rays, one superimposed
on the other?  Such a situation would be consistent with the known
behavior of certain electric discharges.

In the first part of this paper (note 12), it was suggested that the
bright rays associated with lunar craters, recognized some years ago
by Velikovsky as electric- discharge markings (84), are Lichtenberg
figures- star like patterns produced when electric sparks terminate
on non-conducting surfaces. The proportions of Lichtenberg figures
are determined by such variables as the polarity of the surface with
respect to the discharge, the magnitude of the impressed voltage
(the potential drop across the spark gap), and the abruptness of the
wave front in the flow of current (85). Positive figures- those
produced where positive charges touch down, as on a non-conducting
cathode- are generally more distinct; their patterns are more
obvious, and for a given impressed voltage they are larger than
negative figures (86).

Lichtenberg figure. Lightning striking the flagpole on this
golf-course green produced a negative figure as
ground-hugging streamers seared the grass


Since Lichtenberg figures result from the breakdown of gases
immediately adjacent to surfaces (87), they increase in size both as
the spark-gap potential goes up and as the ambient gas pressure goes
down (88).  Thus, at atmospheric pressure on Earth, a 1,000-volt
positive figure might be only a centimeter or so in diameter, while
one produced by a 100- million-volt lightning bolt might be meters
in diameter; features of the latter proportions are occasionally
seared into exposed lawn surfaces. On the Moon, where the ambient
gas pressure, even during an encounter in which the atmosphere of
Mars might be partially drawn into the gap prior to the onset of
electrical displays, would scarcely be significantly greater than
that of interplanetary space, a bolt striking with a driving
potential of several million million volts might well produce a
Tychonian ray system.

Lichtenberg figures, though they have been known for several
centuries and have been employed to practical advantage in various
ways (89), are far from completely understood. The essential
function of the process that results in a positive figure, however,
seems to be one of assembling electrons.

Because the surface receiving the electric spark is non-conducting,
the electron- collecting mechanism takes the form of breakdown
streamers in atmospheric gases in contact with the surface. By means
of strong electric fields associated with concentrated space charges
at their outer tips, these streamers propagate outward literally at
"lightning speed." At the same time, they are held to the surface by
the electrostatic attraction between their tip charges and those
they seek to extract from the surface. And, although they originate
at a common point where there exists an intensely concentrated
field, they are able to extend that field far beyond its initially
effective reach in all directions- again by virtue of the strong
field at their tips (90).

Now, suppose that Tycho's rays actually constitute two systems: A
primary system of long, narrow rays diverging from a point just
outside the crater; and a secondary system of much shorter, much
more diffuse rays that actually focus upon and are more intimately
associated with the crater itself.  The visual evidence seems to
support this idea, and the local absence of sinuous rilles seems to
require it: The long, primary rays would be needed to trigger a
discharge to the general area; the more concentrated secondaries-
counterparts of the rays of Aristarchus- would be needed to pinpoint
the actual site of the strike.

Interestingly enough, E. Nasser and D. C.  Schroder, of the lowa
State University Department of Electrical Engineering, have
published a report on spark studies indicating that just such a
composite system of rays might be expected where there is no other
practical means of assembling triggering electrons (91).  This
report is illustrated with an "autograph," a Lichtenberg figure
recorded on photographic film, showing a less-extensive, secondary
figure superimposed on a more-extensive, primary figure. The authors
describe their autograph, obtained by placing the photographic film
where it would intercept cathode-directed spark streamers, this way:
"The usual radial primary streamer pattern is in evidence but
superimposed on this are the traces of secondary channels... [which]
branch more extensively and have associated with them a very dense
net of filamentary 'threads' which leave a circular pattern of
traces. The trunks of the secondary channels often form along the
path of a primary streamer, but they have been observed to form
between primary streamer traces also. The branches of the secondary
streamer traces often cross primary traces and the secondary
streamer growth would appear independent of the particular paths
chosen by the primary streamers. The fine filamentary tips of the
secondary streamers seem to propagate in a circular pattern.... 
Although the filamentary traces do cross, the general pattern
indicates that they tend to repel each other."

Nasser and Schroder interpret their primary streamer traces as
effects of a mechanism assembling electrons that triggered the spark
event, but their analysis shows that the "secondary channel
mechanism... is responsible for creating the highly ionized path
along which the spark channel develops" in the gap between the
electrodes.

In other words, the primary streamers set the stage for a discharge
to the area in question, while the secondary streamers selected the
precise point of touchdown for the main-stroke spark. If this is
what happened at the Tycho site on the Moon, then it is misleading
to refer to Tycho as the "parent crater" for the rays; instead, the
secondary rays must be considered the parents of the crater, and
perhaps the primary rays the grandparents.

I suggest that the sequence of events that produced Tycho and its
rays was something like this:

-The external electric field due to the nearby presence of Mars was
locally intensified by the high ground at this site.  The center of
a radial ground field that resulted was probably a preexisting peak
of ground that now lies buried in Tycho's western rim.

-The radial field was unable to produce breakdown in subsurface
formations by the sinuous-rille process, and as a consequence the
field intensified to a point where breakdown was initiated in the
thin lunar atmosphere.

-Instantly, breakdown streamers began to propagate in all
directions, generating electrons "the hard way." As the intense
fields at the streamer tips passed over susceptible geologic
formations, electrons were exploded from the ground, and on-ray
craterlets were born; the fines from each little explosion were
carried along for some distance and deposited in an elliptical patch
by the "wind" force of the plasma streamer.

-Small-scale branching of the primary streamers locally broadened
the rays, and occasionally led to the splitting of rays, but the
force of the guiding field and repulsive forces between the rays
kept them generally straight and narrow.

-The electrons thus collected and fed back to the initial breakdown
point were funneled off toward Mars by the electric field in the
interplanetary gap, and the Kanalaufbau mechanism established a path
to be followed by a main-stroke spark. (It seems conceivable that a
peak of high ground initially responsible for concentrating the
external field might have been destroyed as the primary- streamer
electrons took leave of the Moon. If so, it seems likely that in the
minute or so between the departure of the triggering electrons and
the arrival of the return streamer the field would have shifted its
focus to another nearby point of high ground. In any case, the
evidence suggests that the Tycho cratering explosion took place some
tens of kilometers to the east of the initial focus of the long-ray
system.)

-As the spark streamer from Mars approached, the lunar atmosphere
again broke down. Secondary Lichtenberg streamers fed electrons from
proliferating local eruption craters toward the new focus of the
field, thus determining the precise touchdown point for the Martian
streamer.

-Finally- again, all this probably happened in a minute or so- the
Martian streamer bridged the interplanetary gap, and the crater
Tycho was born in the resulting explosion. Material thrown from the
crater blanketed the outer slopes of the crater rim, itself formed
largely of material shoved laterally, creating a dark ring that
obliterated the brightest parts of the secondary ray system.

Thus the visual evidence suggests that triggering electrons for the
Tycho discharge were assembled by means of an atmospheric-breakdown
process that drew them from numerous distant points in all
directions and hauled them over the surface to a common collection
point. On the far side of the Moon are several more long-rayed
craters (92), presumably marking sites where much the same thing
happened; these, too, are located in highland terrain.

Now let us take another look at Tycho's primary rays. Though some of
them pass out of sight to the far side of the Moon, it is readily
apparent from those that run their courses entirely on the visible
hemisphere that ray lengths vary considerably. Also, there is a wide
variation in brightness and width from one ray to another, and even
between different reaches of single rays.  When these
characteristics are examined in conjunction with Baldwin's lunar
contour map (93), an interesting point emerges: The brightest,
widest rays, and the brightest, widest parts of individual rays,
seem to be those traversing the highest ground.  All rays appear to
narrow as they approach mare margins, and some of them terminate
abruptly at such points.

If we assume, on the basis of reports by careful visual observers
(94), that ray prominence (or brightness) and width is a reflection
of ray-element abundance, we are led to conclude that there is a
correlation between ground elevation and ray- element abundance.
This recalls Pickering's observation, already noted, that ray
elements show a preference for "exposed situations."

A proliferation of ray elements could well be explained in terms of
the natural tendency of electric fields to become intensified by
projections from surfaces; the Moon's highland terrain is notably
more rugged than the lowlands. An abundance of stress concentrations
induced by the approach of a charged streamer tip could be expected
to promote streamer- branching and thus increase the sprawl as well
as the density of craterlet eruptions and ray elements. But this
does not seem to account for the narrowing of rays as they approach
the edges of lowland plains; highland terrain at lower elevations is
probably just as rugged as at higher elevations.

Part of the narrowing, presumably, is attributable simply to
distance from the initial breakdown point; a corresponding narrowing
with distance is evident in sinuous rilles. But perhaps atmospheric
density at ground level has something to do with the effect, too.
The lunar atmosphere is everywhere extremely tenuous.  Nevertheless,
some variation in density with altitude must exist, and the
extraordinary broadening of rays at high altitudes and the narrowing
at lower altitudes may indicate that streamer- branching was
promoted as much by lower gas densities as by surface roughness.

But why atmospheric breakdown in the first place? Why should one
process- sinuous- rille eruption- provide primary electrons for
spark-ignition in lowland regions, while another process- breakdown
in the Lichtenberg mode- does the same job in the highlands?

The fact that long-rayed craters are so few necessarily limits
confidence that can be placed in any answers to these questions. 
Nevertheless, since sinuous rilles are confined to mare surfaces and
long rays seem to be associated only with craters located at
considerable elevations above spherical datum, and since there is
reason to suppose that both types of feature were produced by
triggering events leading to interplanetary discharges, perhaps some
speculation as to the implications of this dichotomy is in order.

Presumably, topographic intensification of an external electric
field would be much the same on one part of the Moon as on another.
Consequently, the intensities of radial ground fields thus induced
should also be comparable. It would seem, then, that if the mode of
triggering differs radically between the two locations, the
difference must reflect the relative dielectric strengths of
materials at the two sites.

Crater Tycho


The present hypothesis suggests that in lunar maria breakdown
occurred preferentially in coherent rock formations at shallow
depths beneath the regolith, or surface mantle of fractured rock. In
the highlands, on the other hand, electrical stresses of equal or
perhaps greater intensity failed to achieve a similar result, and
nothing much happened until field strengths increased to values
sufficient to initiate breakdown in the overlying atmosphere. When
this happened, fields of even greater intensity at streamer tips
apparently did manage to break down surface materials, but only
locally, producing small craters instead of rilles.

This could mean that the regolith mantling lunar highlands is much
deeper than that covering the maria- perhaps much too deep to be
explained in terms of in-situ fragmentation under bombardment of any
kind, meteoritic, electrical, or otherwise.  Is it possible that,
contrary to the accepted notion that the lunar highlands are
exposures of the Moon's oldest rocks, these mountains consist
largely of debris emplaced from the outside, and that therefore the
highland materials, for the most part, are not even "lunar"
materials at all? (95)


Mars

What kind of damage might the planet Mars be expected to sustain
from episodes in which electric discharges passed between it and the
Moon?

In seeking an answer to this question, let us first recall that the
medium separating the two planets up to the moment discharging
started must have been an almost perfect vacuum by any terrestrial
standard.  And in such a medium a spark cannot pass until electrons
forcefully drawn from the cathode body by the electric field can
cross the gap and ionize anode materials (see discussion in Part I
of this paper).

Under the postulated conditions therefore, Mars, as the anode body,
must have yielded up some significant fraction of its own matter for
the production of positive ions required by the discharges. 
Electrons liberated in the ionization process would have remained
with Mars, but the positive ions- the identifiable fractions of the
atoms and molecules broken in the process would have been
transferred in considerable measure to the Moon.


Martian Gases in Lunar Rocks

In an encounter of the type described by Velikovsky the atmosphere
of Mars would certainly become highly distorted (96).  Gravitational
forces, electrical forces, and thermal effects could be expected to
pull and push the planet's gaseous envelope in various directions.
In any case, however, one would expect that the first Martian
"anode" materials to be encountered by triggering electrons from the
lunar cathode would be atmospheric gases. In view of this, it is
most interesting and suggestive to find that Mars lacks much of the
atmosphere it ought to have.

Atmospheric pressure at the Martian surface was for many years
believed to be nearly one-tenth that at the Earth's surface (97). 
Then, in the early 1 960's, Earth-based studies turned up
"surprising" indications of a much thinner Martian atmosphere (98). 
And Mariner 4, in 1965, confirmed the fact that Mars' surface
pressure is less than one- hundredth that of the Earth (99). Some 90
percent of the gases Mars should have retained- had it orbited
peacefully since the birth of the solar system- seem to have been
lost. (It might well be added, lost "recently," for if volcanism has
been an active process on Mars, as is generally supposed from the
presence of very fresh- looking "volcanoes" on that planet (100),
then the outgassing process has not yet had time to replace the
missing gases.)

The atmosphere of Mars consists of carbon dioxide and rare gases,
notably argon and neon (101). If the pre-encounter atmosphere was of
similar composition, we would expect electrical discharging between
an anode Mars and a cathode Moon to result in a massive transfer of
these gases to the Moon. It is in the nature of things for positive
ions from a discharge medium to become deeply implanted in cathode
surface materials (102).

And what gases are found to be implanted from the outside into lunar
surface materials? Precisely, carbon dioxide, argon, neon, and other
rare gases (103).

The accepted explanation for the surprising abundance of argon in
lunar soils is rather contrived, as Velikovsky emphasized several
years ago (104). Investigators found that argon 40 was too abundant
to have been produced in place by the radioactive decay of
potassium-40 and too abundant to have been collected from the solar
wind.  Therefore it is imagined to have been produced from
potassium-40 deep inside the Moon, then to have migrated to the
surface, and finally to have been driven into surface materials by
impacting solar-wind ions.  Velikovsky asked: "Is this not a most
artificial explanation, especially in view of my advance claim of
rich invasions of argon and neon of extralunar origin?"

Almost as surprising as the great abundance of argon 40 were the
lesser, but still "excessive" abundances of neon and other rare
gases in lunar materials. For them, all the blame fell on the solar
wind by default: "The large amounts of rare gases found in the lunar
soil and breccia indicate that the solar atmosphere is trapped in
the lunar soil as no other source of such large amounts of gas is
known" [emphasis added] (105).

And the story was much the same with carbon dioxide. Those who found
this gas in lunar materials were looking primarily for elemental
carbon. This they found to be concentrated near particle surfaces,
as if it had been implanted, like the rare gases, from the outside. 
But they found more than just elemental carbon.

Several teams of researchers reported (106) that carbon dioxide gas
was present, as such, in the lunar fines. It clearly did not belong
there, but there it was.  This led to speculation that carbon
dioxide thus implanted was "consistent with reactions of elemental
[solar-wind] carbon....with the mineral matrix" (107).  But the
relative abundances of oxygen isotopes in the carbon dioxide
molecules did not match those of the rocks themselves. Contamination
by Apollo lander rocket gases was ruled out by "the tenacity with
which the C¡2 is held in the samples" ( 108). So it was finally
conceded that the matter "calls for further investigation" (109).

As things stand, therefore, the situation is this: Lunar fines are
rich in argon, neon, other rare gases, and carbon dioxide.  None of
these gases is known to be present in the solar wind, nor is
elemental carbon a known constituent of that medium ( 110), yet
somehow the solar wind is supposed to have been instrumental in
their forceful implantation on the Moon.

And this is not all. The reasoning has been carried full-circle, so
that it is claimed that the composition of the solar wind can be
inferred with confidence from the evidence in the lunar rocks. In
particular, an unusual "excess" of carbon-13 with respect to
carbon-12 in the lunar fines has been interpreted as evidence of a
similar excess of carbon-13 on the Sun (111), even though
spectroscopy of the solar atmosphere indicates nothing of the kind
(112).

It will be most interesting, when and if a detailed analysis of the
Martian atmosphere becomes possible, to learn whether or not
carbon-13-to-carbon-12 ratios there resemble those of the carbon
atoms and carbon-dioxide molecules stranded in lunar rocks.

For now, however, it seems highly significant that precisely those
gases known to be present in the atmosphere of Mars- the great bulk
of which has been mysteriously "stolen" away in the not- too-distant
past- are also found tenaciously held in superficial crystalline
layers of the Moon's outermost blanketing materials. This would be a
most incredible coincidence if the interplanetary discharges
described by Velikovsky never took place.


Anode Scars on the Surface of Mars

Even though the Martian atmosphere were importantly involved in
furnishing positive ions for electric discharges between Mars and
the Moon, we need not suppose that the Martian surface would go
unscathed. The spark streamers triggered in the atmosphere by
electrons from the Moon would almost certainly reach backward, too,
and very quickly establish the body of the planet as the true anode
in the exchange.

Typical anode effects of a destructive kind, leaving detectable
markings after discharges are extinguished, include intense heating
by streams of high-energy electrons (113), and erosion due to the
leaching away of surface matter in the form of positive ions (114),
as well as to the bulk extraction and removal of materials (115).

In the first part of this paper we noted Leonard Loeb's explanation
of the triggering process by which vacuum sparks are ignited and his
further comment that if the electrodes in an industrial or an
experimental setup are not carefully outgassed in advance, a vacuum
spark will usually lead to a general breakdown of the gap in the
form of a power arc- essentially a ' high-current, low-voltage
discharge that persists rather longer than a spark discharge ( I
16). In the postulated Mars-Moon discharge, even though we must
imagine vacuum conditions to prevail at the cathode (the Moon),
where triggering electrons are extracted only with some difficulty,
we can hardly suppose that Mars, with its atmosphere, will behave as
an "outgassed" electrode (anode). So it seems entirely likely that
any spark channels established between the two bodies must
immediately have been transformed into arc channels. This would
facilitate the enormous transfers of charge already inferred from
the dimensions of lunar craters like Aristarchus and Tycho. It would
likewise facilitate a drainoff of great masses of Martian atmosphere
and their emplacement in lunar rocks (117).  And it leads us to look
for arc-anode scars on Mars; these traces, like the spark- cathode
markings on the Moon, should be among the youngest features of the
Martian surface.

Concerning thermal effects, the Thomsons tell us (I 18) that a
distinguishing feature of the arc discharge, due to high current
densities, is the high temperature of the anode junction: "This is
so high that the anode vaporizes, the vapor combines with the gas
through which the arc is passing and forms a flame...." Also, anode
materials can be heated to hundreds of degrees above their boiling
points.

It is instructive, too, to take notice of the thermal effects
produced on Earth by mere lightning bolts. One such effect is the
formation of fulgurites- glassy objects, usually tubular and often
branching, formed in dry ground (such as dune sands) as concentrated
streams of electrons funnel into the Earth from the lower ends of
lightning channels (119).  Another is the vaporization of surface
materials, as shown by their appearance as emission features in
lightning spectrograms (120).  And of course the fire ignition
capabilities of lightning are well-known and too numerous to list.
It remains to be added that in most cloud-to- ground lightning
strikes the Earth's surface is the anode.

Now, which are the youngest features on the surface of Mars? We know
a lot more about this planet than we did just a few years ago,
thanks to the thousands of excellent photographs taken by Mariner 9.
But still this knowledge is rudimentary compared with what we know
of surface details on the Moon. Therefore, any ranking of Martian
features by their relative ages must for now be highly speculative
and tentative.  Nevertheless, by all accounts of those who have
studied the Mariner 9 evidence in great detail, the great volcanoes
that rise many kilometers above the surface in the Amazonis and
Tharsis regions of Mars are among the youngest of Martian
formations.

Volcanoes surely indicate sites of intense thermal activity. Could
volcanism be initiated by an arc discharge of cosmic proportions?
Possibly so. In the first place, no one really knows what causes
volcanism on Earth ( 121). Presumably the basic requirements are a
source of heat and a breach in the planetary crust.  Whether either
or both are due to external or internal causes may well be
immaterial .

The volcanoes of Mars have some strange features.

For example, the huge Nix Olympica structure- some 600 kilometers
across at its base and standing perhaps 23 kilometers above the
surrounding plain (122)- has a summit "caldera" 65 kilometers in
diameter that is unlike anything ever observed on Earth. It is
described as "a complex multiple volcanic vent" ( 123), or as a
complex of "successive collapse pits" (124), but it has
peculiarities hard to reconcile with such explanations.  Presumably,
if molten materials simply welled up from a series of successive
vents, flows radiating from the later vents would override and at
least partially obliterate the outlines of the earlier vents; in
this case, however, although the later scars do deface the earlier
ones, such effects are strictly local, and there is no evidence of
overflowing between or among them. The idea of collapse does not
seem to square with the near-perfect circularity of the pits, or
with their extremely flat floors.

Nix Olympica. Successive cratering events at the summit of
this volcano appear to have centered themselves on
previously formed crater rims, as if electric discharges had
produced them in rapid sequence. (JPL).


A study of Mariner 9's overhead shot of Nix Olympica suggests that
the summit crater on this vast pile is indeed the result of one pit
having been superimposed on another, the process repeated at least
five times.  But the sequence seems to run from larger to
successively smaller pits in at least the first three stages, and in
every case the later pits appear to be centered on rims of earlier
pits. Such a seeming preference of later craters for high points on
the rims of earlier ones is strongly suggestive of electrical
activity.

One hesitates to propose that Nix Olympica, in spite of its obvious
youth, is a result of Mars-Moon discharge activity only 2700 years
ago. Its bulk alone is enough to give pause to such speculation. 
Still, who can say what internal forces might be tapped by a
thunderbolt to a body like Mars?  Conceivably the heat and shock of
such a strike could have been all that was necessary to produce an
enormous outpouring of lava, especially from a Mars already
disturbed by not-much- earlier contacts with Venus.

An observation by M. H. Carr (125) may be of great significance in
this connection: "Nix Olympica is unique among the Martian shield
volcanoes in being surrounded by an aureole of what appears to be
highly fractured terrain." Could this region have been disturbed and
fractured during one interplanetary encounter, then provoked to
massive volcanism during a similar encounter closely following the
first?

If indeed this volcano resulted from sudden triggering by a
Mars-Moon arc discharge, and if the arc continued to play on it
summit as it rose, occasionally shifting its focus in response to
changes in the local electric field, the diminishing sizes and rim
locations of the successive craters forming the present caldera
would be understandable (126).

The enormity of Nix Olympica, of course, makes this difficult to
imagine.  One is inclined to argue that any conceivable discharge of
static electricity must surely burn itself out long before a
mountain of molten lava equal in volume to "the total extrusive mass
of the Hawaiian Islands chain" (127) could be built up beneath it.
Still, given a ready-made body of magma under great pressure, the
sudden shock of an interplanetary bolt, and the gravitational pull
of the nearby Moon, who can say what is to limit the rate at which
molten material might be delivered to the surface?

It is by no means excluded, of course, that only the uppermost parts
of the Nix Olympica structure were added to the pile in the final
episode affecting the site.

There remain several phenomenological limbs to be explored on Mars,
and with the reader's indulgence I would like to climb out on each
of them rather briefly.

Another Martian "volcano" has features that differ from those of Nix
Olympica, but which may also be suggestive of discharge origins.
This is a "mountain" near Nodus Gordii that has been dubbed "South
Spot" (128). It is more a crater than a mountain- an enormous pit
140 kilometers across at the crest of an impressive 17-kilometer
rise from the floor of the Amazonis basin to the west (129).  Both
inside and outside the flat-floored crater, its otherwise remarkably
smooth rim is scarred by what have been described as "multiple
concentric fractures" (130) or "concentric grabens" (131).  Again we
have a structure with no known close counterpart among terrestrial
volcanoes.

Might this be the planetary-surface equivalent of what R. D. Hill
has termed a "fulgamite" (132)? Discussing the effects of lightning
on metal caps placed over the ends of lightning rods, Hill calls
attention to "pips," or mounds of metal, "melted and raised above
the surface of the metal." He describes the sides of these
fulgamites as "usually ridged with closely spaced concentric
grooves" and their bases as "usually flared like a bell." And he
remarks: "Sometimes the position of the strike is found to wander
slightly during the formation of the mound [as] shown by the shallow
development of the 'borrow pits' [concentric graben?] from which the
mound is built up."

Hill attributes the mounding-up of fulgamites to magnetic-pinch
forces at the junction of the discharge with. the electrode
(lightning rod). His calculations indicate that such forces in a
lightning column are easily adequate to raise metallic welts a
centimeter or so in diameter, and they neatly account for the
bell-shaped fulgamite surfaces as well. The concentric rings and
ridges, in his opinion, are best explained as remnants of ripples
set up in the molten surface during fulgamite formation by
oscillations in the plasma of the lightning column.

But what of the great disparity in scale between the Martian
feature, South Spot, and Hill's tiny fulgamites? In diameters, this
amounts to at least seven orders of magnitude. As for mound heights,
if we assume that South Spot's central crater resulted from
subsidence of material initially mounded much higher, the difference
in scale is at least five orders of magnitude. And the disparity in
masses of material melted and elevated can only be guessed at, but
it must be roughly proportional to the cube of the mean difference
in dimensions. Is the proposed analogy even marginally reason- able?

The area of an anode "spot"- the usually molten area where the
discharge makes electrical contact with the anode surface- is
determined by the total magnitude of the discharge current and the
rate at which a unit area of anode surface can accept charge.
Metallic anodes can be induced to accept current densities of tens
of thousands of amperes per square centimeter (133). In contrast,
the greater resistivity of carbon has the effect of limiting current
densities at carbon-arc anodes to less than 10 amperes per square
centimeter; when the arc current is increased, the anode crater
enlarges, so that an acceptable current density is maintained (134).
Now the resistivity of carbon responsible for this effect is roughly
a thousand times that of copper.  Accordingly, we may suppose that a
refractory planetary body might display electrical resistivity
sufficient to limit acceptable current densities to, say, no more
than 0.0001 ampere per square centimeter. (Actually, the resistivity
of dry earth is about 109 times that of carbon.)

Again taking the Tycho discharge as an example, we can make some
further assumptions and estimate- very, very roughly- how large the
corresponding anode spot on Mars might have to be.  We have 101 l
coulombs of charge to accommodate, but we do not know the arrival
rate. Let us guess that the discharge persisted for a full minute
after the conducting channel between Mars and the Moon was
established. The average discharge current in this case would have
been 101l coulombs/60 seconds = 1.7 x 109 amperes. And pushing such
a current through a surface capable of accepting a current density
of only 10-4 ampere per square centimeter would involve a total
surface some 1.7 x 1013 square centimeters in area. This works out
to a circular spot some 46 kilometers in diameter- within an order
of magnitude of the size of South Spot.

Obviously this kind of calculation involves many assumptions and
pure guesses. But it suggests that anode scars the size of South
Spot on Mars are at least conceivable in terms of the present
hypothesis.

As for exotic erosional features on Mars, there is almost too much
variety.

"South Spot." This singular Martian "volcano," with a crater 140
kilometers in diameter, may be an "anode spot" produced by
an interplanetary electric discharge. (JPL).


For now, let us simply take a brief look at a system of enormous
canyons near the Martian equator. The rims of these canyons are
serrated and gouged in a most peculiar fashion. Some canyons appear
to be doubled, their parallel reaches separated by ridges showing
similar gouging on both sides. It is estimated that some two million
cubic kilometers of material was removed in the formation of the
"canyonlands" (135), yet the spoil seems nowhere in evidence on the
surface of the planet.

Some suggest that subsidence can explain these features (136). But
to me this entire region resembles nothing so much as an area sapped
by a powerful electric arc advancing unsteadily across the surface,
occasionally splitting in two, and now and then weakening, so that
its traces narrow and even degrade into lines of disconnected
craters (see note 126).

The proportions of this vast excavation seem to put it beyond
comparison with any feature of the Moon we have discussed (except,
perhaps, the lunar- highland deposit that blankets more than half of
the Moon). But it is well to remember that Mars tangled with Venus
and with the Earth, too, according to Velikovsky. I can only wonder:
Is it possible that Mars was bled of several million cubic
kilometers of soil and rock in a single encounter with another
planetary body? Might the canyonlands of Mars have been created in
an event perhaps hinted at by Homer when he wrote: "Athena [Venus]
drove the spear straight into his [Ares' (Mars')] belly where the
kilt was girded: the point ran in and tore the flesh... [and] Ares
roared like a trumpet...." (137)?


An Anode Role for Mars

It remains to be shown that the planet Mars, probably carrying twice
the negative charge of the Moon as the two bodies first approached
one another, could have become the anode (positive electrode) in
discharge activity that followed.

A Martian sinuous rille? This 700- kilometer-long feature in
the Rasena region of Mars resembles lunar
sinuous-rilles.


In private conversation at the McMaster University symposium on
"Velikovsky and the Recent History of the Solar System," Professor
Clement L. Henshaw of Colgate University kindly took the time to
discuss this problem with me.  He argued, for example, that when two
negatively charged bodies are brought close together without
actually making contact, there results at some point between them a
mathematical "surface" of zero electric potential- an effective
barrier to the transport of charge from one body to the other (138).

It appears to me, however, that this argument assumes too readily
that both bodies are good conductors of electricity, so that their
charges reside entirely on their surfaces. In such a situation,
there would be no electric field in the interior of either body, and
the electric potential at any internal point would equal that of the
surface. And, as the bodies were brought together, the surface
charges would simply distribute themselves so that the demands of
the interacting electric fields and the necessity for preserving
uniform surface potentials would be simultaneously met (139).

But consider what happens when a storm cloud passes over the surface
of the Earth.  Typically, the underside of the cloud is negatively
charged. The surface of the Earth normally carries negative charge,
too. Beneath the cloud, however the Earth becomes positively charged
(relative to the cloud), so that cloud-to- ground lightning delivers
electrons to the Earth. And this happens even though the Earth as a
whole carries net negative charge, and the cloud as a whole is
probably electrically neutral. The easiest explanation is that the
Earth's surface and near-surface charges are more mobile than those
in the cloud; they are repelled by the electric field of the cloud,
and as they flee they leave behind a region that is positive with
respect to the cloud (140).

The electrical situation in an encounter between Mars and the Moon
might be similar to that just described. If we assume, for example,
that the conductivity of the Martian surface (or some interior
region where the bulk of the charge may reside) is greater than that
of the Moon, it would seem likely that a "positive charge"- a
relatively high potential- would be induced in a localized part of
the Martian surface by the electric field of the "overhead" Moon.
Martian electrons would flee the zone in question, raising its
electric potential (and presumably lowering the potential of regions
to which the repelled negative charges retired).

Figure 2. (No scale.) Schematic diagram of interplanetary
electric field between Mars and Moon resulting from
repulsion of negative charges from localized, sub-lunar
point on Martian surface. It is assumed that, due to the
effectively higher temperatures of plasma electrons with
respect to positive ions, the normal potentials of both
bodies are somewhat lower than that of the plasma
itself; consequently electric-field lines, both from Mars
and from the plasma, are shown terminating on an
equipotential that takes in the entire surface of the Moon,
as well as a non-spherical surface associated with Mars.
(The Martian equipotential hachured in the diagram,
dips beneath the planetary surface on the side toward
the Moon, implying the presence of an electric field
directed inward in this part of the body of Mars.
Breakdown of such a field might contribute to the
formation of volcanic tubes, providing "instant" access
to the surface for magmatic materials)


Figure 2 is a schematic representation of the kind of electric field
such a sequence of events might establish between Mars and the Moon.
No attempt has been made to consider distortional effects due to the
nearby presence of the Earth, or confining effects due to the
surrounding plasma.  Nevertheless, it seems generally reasonable to
expect the field lines (solid lines in the figure) to diverge from a
limited, sub-lunar point on Mars and to converge upon the Moon from
all directions; a critical assumption here is that the Moon's
negative charges would be practically immobile until discharging got
underway.  Ensuing activity, of course, would quickly alter and for
the most part destroy the initial field.

Several other participants in the McMaster symposium in June, 1974,
offered critical comments on the theme of this paper.  Professor
Derek York, a specialist in the radiometric dating of terrestrial
and lunar rocks, had this to say concerning electrical scarring of
the Moon: "If much of the sculpting of the surface was produced in
this fashion, then based on the radiometric dating results. . .,
these discharges must have occurred over three billion years ago and
not in present times during postulated recent catastrophes." The
issue raised, of course, is the validity of accepted interpretations
of radiometric evidence, and this is a subject that must be dealt
with elsewhere. But it bears noting that if meteoritic bombardment
of the Earth and the Moon is a process that has gone on from the
distant past to the present at anything like the present rate, the
"freshness" of the lunar rilles and craters discussed here is
exceedingly difficult to reconcile with ages of more than a few
thousand years. And rays must almost certainly disappear completely
in relatively short spans of time, since they are purely superficial
in nature.

Professor David Morrison, of the Institute for Astronomy, University
of Hawaii, objected to the discharge hypothesis for its speculative
extrapolations "from small-scale terrestrial effects to landforms on
the Moon that are many orders of magnitude larger." This kind of
argument certainly compels caution; it is difficult to imagine how
one today might establish conditions capable of duplicating any of
the processes proposed here on a scale that would remove all doubt. 
However, the same objection can be leveled at the widely accepted
impact theory, which is also an enormous extrapolation from
terrestrial effects observed on a very small scale; no meteorite
capable of producing a large "lunar" crater has ever been observed
to fall on Earth.

Martian canyonlands. Could an interplanetary arc discharge,
traveling across the surface of Mars, have split in two and
eroded these parallel canyons in a single, brief episode? (JPL).


Perhaps some support for the present ideas can be drawn from
observations in which electric-discharge effects appear to be
closely duplicated on scales ranging from that of tiny scars,
visible only under magnification, to that of damage caused by
lightning. Since the first part of this paper was written, it has
come to my attention that microscopic features remarkably similar to
earth-channels excavated by lightning (and to lunar sinuous rilles)
are produced when electrons are wrested from photographic emulsions
by cathode electric fields. Loeb (141) describes these "delta ray
tracks" (142) as having the appearance of "grainy dots." They are
formed when "the cathode surface through the image force field of
the [approaching] positive [spark] streamer gives a very heavy field
across the emulsion." This strong field liberates electrons in the
emulsion. "Sixteen-fold magnification indicates the dots to be
small, very tortuous tracks, of lengths on the order of 0.05 mm...."
(emphasis added).

Thus, if lightning can cut "delta ray tracks" some five orders of
magnitude larger than those observed in photographic emulsions (see
photo illustrating Part I of this paper), it seems conceivable that
an interplanetary discharge might duplicate the effect and magnify
it another five orders of magnitude in scarring the surface of the
Moon.

Velikovsky's reconstruction of the recent history of the solar
system indicates that electric discharges passed between planets
some thousands of years ago as they encountered one another in near-
collisions. If this is so, we would expect the Moon and Mars,
involved in the most recent of those near-collisions, to display
"fresh" surface markings interpretable as discharge scars, and this
indeed seems to be the case. Furthermore, as anticipated by
Velikovsky, the Moon's surface materials contain surprising
abundances of precisely those gases that Mars could be expected to
have planted there if it were the anode and the Moon were the
cathode in electric discharges between the two planets.

Viewed as a whole, the complex of evidence would appear to add
considerable substance to the thesis of Worlds in Collision.