BIRKELAND CURRENTS IN PLASMA DISCHARGES AND ROCK ART – PART 2:

OR, INSECTS IN ROCK ART - THE EARWIG (REVISITED).

 

Birkeland currents created in a laboratory. Public domain.

 

Now, to resume the discussion of whether the petroglyphs in question are insects (more specifically the arthropod known as an earwig), or whether they are representations of the plasma phenomenon known as a Birkeland current. Last week I ended with this quote from http://gravity.wikia.com – “Birkeland currents are also one of a class of plasma phenomena called a z-pinch, so named because the azimuthal magnetic fields produced by the current pinches the current into a filamentary cable. This can also twist, producing a helical pinch that spirals like a twisted or braided rope, and this most closely corresponds to a Birkeland current. Pairs of parallel Birkeland currents can also interact; parallel Birkeland currents moving in the same direction will attract with an electromagnetic force inversely proportional to their distance apart (Note that the electromagnetic force between the individual particles is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, just like the gravitational force); parallel Birkeland currents moving in opposite directions will repel with an electromagnetic force inversely proportional to their distance apart. There is also a short-range circular component to the force between two Birkeland currents that is opposite to the longer-range parallel forces.

Electrons moving along a Birkeland current may be accelerated by a plasma double layer. If the resulting electrons approach relativistic velocities (ie. the speed of light) they may subsequently produce a Bennett pinch, which in a magnetic field will spiral and emit synchrotron radiation that includes radio, optical (ie. light), x-rays, and gamma rays.” (http://gravity.wikia.com/wiki/Birkeland_current)

 

 

The penumbra of a dense plasma focus, from a discharge current

 of 174,000 amperes.The rotational structure of the penumbra has

 a periodicity of 56, as shown by the 56-dot overlay pattern. In this

 photo the Birkeland current is manifested in  a multiple of 56.

Credit A. Peratt, Los Alamos National Laboratory

 

These effects were originally “predicted in 1908 by  Kristian Birkeland, who undertook expeditions beyond the Arctic Circle to study the aurora.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkeland_current) Subsequent scientific debate and laboratory and field experimentation provided explanation of the theory and began to accumulate data.

 

Birkeland current diagram. Public domain.

“In 1966 Alfred Zmuda, J.H. Martin, and F.T. Heuring reported their findings of magnetic disturbance in the aurora, using a satellite magnetometer, but did not mention . . . .field-aligned currents, even after it was brought to their attention by editor of the space physics section of the journal, Alex Dressler.

In 1967 Alex Dessler and one of his graduates students, David Cummings, wrote an article arguing that Zmuda et. al. had indeed detected field align-currents. Even Alfvén subsequently credited (1986) that Dessler "discovered the currents that Birkeland had predicted" and should be called Birkeland-Dessler currents.

In 1969 Milo Schield, Alex Dessler and John Freeman, used the name "Birkeland currents" for the first time. In 1970, Zmuda, Armstrong and Heuring wrote another paper agreeing that their observations were compatible with field-aligned currents as suggested by Cummings and Dessler, and by Bostrom, but again made no mention of Alfvén and Birkeland.

In 1970, a group from Rice University also suggested that the results of an earlier rocket experiment was consistent with field-aligned currents, and credited the idea to Boström, and Dessler and his colleagues, rather than Alfvén and Birkeland. In the same year, Zmudu and Amstrong did credit Alfvén and Birkeland, but felt that they "...cannot definitely identify the particles constituting the field-aligned currents." (http://gravity.wikia.com/wiki/Birkeland_current)

Finally, in 1973, satellite evidence was collected that seems to have proven the existence of the effects originally predicted by Birkeland.

“It wasn't until 1973 that the navy satellite Triad, carrying equipment from Zmuda and James Armstrong, detected the magnetic signatures of two large sheets of electric current. Their papers (1973, 1974) reported "more conclusive evidence" of field-aligned currents, citing Cummings and Dessler . . .” (http://gravity.wikia.com/wiki/Birkeland_current)

 

Now we are in familiar territory; this seems to be the old “Lost Knowledge of the Ancients argument.” If it took modern science from 1908 to 1973, and the use of a satellite in earth orbit to prove the possibility of Birkeland currents, which satellite did the prehistoric Native Americans of the American southwest use to discover this phenomenon?

 

 

Village of the Great Kivas, Zuni, photo Teresa Weedin.

Earwig.

And while we are at it, let us just look at the images. Which do the petroglyphs look more like, the earwig, or the Birkeland current diagrams? On second thought we don’t need Occam’s razor to evaluate this – the Birkeland current argument is obviously a fallacy - sorry Anonymous.

Oh, and by the way, if you search the internet you can find out that Birkeland currents are also involved in the human aura, as well as in UFO sightings which makes them even more exciting - but not any more correct as an explanation.

REFERENCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkeland_current

http://gravity.wikia.com/wiki/Birkeland_current

http://rockartblog.blogspot.com

BIRKLAND CURRENTS IN PLASMA DISCHARGES AND ROCK ART – PART 1:

OR, INSECTS IN ROCK ART - EARWIGS (REVISITED).

Village of the Great Kivas, Zuni, photo Teresa Weedin.

On June 18, 2010, I published a posting on some insectiform petroglyphs that I suggested represent the insect commonly known as earwigs. Now, (March 20, 2013) I have received a thirteen word comment on that posting from "Anonymous" stating that “these are images of Birkeland currents occurring in a plasma discharge, not bugs.” While it is difficult to hold much of a conversation or debate with "Anonymous" I have heard these arguments in the past and it may be time for me to attempt to address the subject.

Insect, Canyon de Chelley, AZ, Photo-Peter Faris, 1997.

 

Although I have received a certain amount of criticism for it, I am a firm believer in the efficacy of Occam’s razor in such arguments. While I understand that it is by no means the final arbiter in any debate, it is useful as a guiding principle in evaluating opposing theories. In this case the debate is between the two possible explanations of a particular figure in rock art.

Earwig, Wikipedia.

 

In my June 18, 2010, posting I stated that “In a patch of growing corn the earwig finds ideal hiding places between the leaves and cornstalk, as well as within the leaves that make up the husks of the ears of the corn plant. Anyone who has ever experienced husking fresh picked corn from the garden has found earwigs in the process and would definitely accept an association between the corn and the insect.

Ancestral pueblo people of the Southwest depended upon their corn crop for the survival of their families. They would be expected to have an intimate knowledge of the life and development of the plants and would have been fully aware of insects associated with their corn crop. While the earwig might have damaged some of the corn crop by eating the silk on developing ears of corn, they also ate insects that may have damaged the corn such as aphids and plant lice. This knowledge may well have inspired the sort of approach-avoidance relationship that would lead to granting the insect a special place in agriculturally related belief complexes.” (http://rockartblog.blogspot.com)

Simply stated, I postulate that the agricultural cultures of the American southwest, which created the rock art I am discussing, would have been aware of the association between the insect we call earwigs and their main food crop maize. As a lifelong backyard gardener I have noticed this association so I believe that they inevitably would have as well. It makes sense to me that this relationship could well have been commemorated in their rock art. In terms of Occam’s razor this is, I submit, the simple explanation. I could be wrong in this, but it seems the simplest and most obvious explanation.

Now, as to the other side of the argument, the Birkeland currents. Remember the statement from Anonymous that I quoted above“these are images of Birkeland currents occurring in a plasma discharge, not bugs.” The web site http://gravity.wikia.com gives the following definition of the phenomena known as Birkeland currents: “Birkeland currents are also one of a class of plasma phenonena called a z-pinch, so named because the azimuthal magnetic fields produced by the current pinches the current into a filamentary cable. This can also twist, producing a helical pinch that spirals like a twisted or braided rope, and this most closely corresponds to a Birkeland current. Pairs of parallel Birkeland currents can also interact; parallel Birkeland currents moving in the same direction will attract with an electromagnetic force inversely proportional to their distance apart (Note that the electromagnetic force between the individual particles is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, just like the gravitational force); parallel Birkeland currents moving in opposite directions will repel with an electromagnetic force inversely proportional to their distance apart. There is also a short-range circular component to the force between two Birkeland currents that is opposite to the longer-range parallel forces.

Birkeland Currents in a laboratory.

Electrons moving along a Birkeland current may be accelerated by a plasma double layer. If the resulting electrons approach relativistic velocities (ie. the speed of light) they may subsequently produce a Bennett pinch, which in a magnetic field will spiral and emit synchrotron radiation that includes radio, optical (ie. light), x-rays, and gamma rays.” (http://gravity.wikia.com/wiki/Birkeland_current)

Proponents of this theory suggest that rock art like the figures from the Village of the Great Kivas at Zuni, and the petroglyph from Canyon de Chelley represent the plasma discharges created by one of these Birkeland currents.

This has gotten to be long enough for one week so I will revisit it with the second half of this exploration in next week's posting.

REFERENCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkeland_current

http://gravity.wikia.com/wiki/Birkeland_current

http://rockartblog.blogspot.com