Vishnu and Plate Tectonics’
There are a number of namas consecrated to Vishnu, eulogizing His power for self protection, self devouring, self creation and self sustenance. These are listed in chapter 7 of my book “The Glory of Vishnsahasranamam” posted in this website, under the Head “Literature”, from pages 53 to 57. All these names praise Him for the way the earth and its life created by Him, have been constantly created, sustained, devoured and recreated by Him again and again, in various periods of Geological history.
Ocean floor surveys undertaken in 1950s found that the mightiest and extensive mountain chains on earth are mostly under water.
Down in the middle of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a canyon, a rift, upto 20 km wide for its entire length of about 19000 Kms. In the 1960s, core samples from the ocean floor showed that the ocean floor was quite young at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but grew progressively older as one moved away from it, both to the east and the west. This could only mean that new ocean crust is being formed at the central ridge and the older ones are being pushed away to either side .In other words, the Atlantic ocean floor is effectively functioning as two large conveyor belts, one carrying the progressively older crust from the centre towards North America and the other towards Europe.
When the oceanic crust reaches the boundary of the continents, it plunges back into the bowels of the earth in a process known as subduction. That is where all the sediments carried by the rivers from the land to the sea go and went and are and were consigned to the bowels of the earth. That explains beautifully why the ocean floors everywhere are so young ( none older than 175 million years) whereas the land in the continental crust is as old as 4.5 billion years. A beautiful illustration of “Atma yoni swayam jataha”.
The earth is made up of a number of smaller and bigger plates, all moving in different directions and at different speeds and their collisions created the present mosaic of the earth which will further change constantly. For details and figures of what the earth looked like a few hundred million years back and what it is likely to look like a few hundred million years from now, please look into the text of the book, pages58 to 61.
And, how about life itself? Bacteria got along for billions of years without us but we can not survive a single day without them. They multiply in an unimaginable way and survive in extreme conditions, in the waste tank of a nuclear reactor, 11000 meters below in the Pacific ocean or in the sealed lens of a camera left behind in the moon. If the world of Atoms stand for what is Vishnu in the domain of physics, the microbes stand for Vishnu in the field of biology, proving many of the names in the namavali. ( For details see again the text of the book, P.62).
While complex life started blooming for the first time in the Cambrian period, the earth has seen several periods of extinction, major and minor. 70 to 95% of life had disappeared each time during these deluges or Pralaya.. What is surprising, however, is , what conditions favoured the survival of the remaining 20 to 25% of the species. For example, while the dinosaurs disappeared without a trace at the end of the Cretaceous period, other species like turtles have survived till date. Same argument applies to many other species and microbes as well. .Yes, He is “ Dharaneedharah” and “Jagatsetavaraha”.The close link gets established! ( Pl. see again book p.62 and 63 for details.)
As if to establish the close link between the earth, Ishwara and oxygen, the word Ishwara gets mentioned eight times in Vishnusahasranamam, either alone or with adjectives,. eight being the atomic number of oxygen.(pl.see P.64)
Having praised the Universe(and, therefore Hydrogen as A in AUM ) in the earlier Namavalis, the current namavalis under review praise the Earth ( and, therefore Oxygen, as U of AUM). Imagine the greatness of Vishnusahasranamam and wait for carbon in the next thread. for M of AUM.
There are a number of namas consecrated to Vishnu, eulogizing His power for self protection, self devouring, self creation and self sustenance. These are listed in chapter 7 of my book “The Glory of Vishnsahasranamam” posted in this website, under the Head “Literature”, from pages 53 to 57. All these names praise Him for the way the earth and its life created by Him, have been constantly created, sustained, devoured and recreated by Him again and again, in various periods of Geological history.
Ocean floor surveys undertaken in 1950s found that the mightiest and extensive mountain chains on earth are mostly under water.
Down in the middle of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a canyon, a rift, upto 20 km wide for its entire length of about 19000 Kms. In the 1960s, core samples from the ocean floor showed that the ocean floor was quite young at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but grew progressively older as one moved away from it, both to the east and the west. This could only mean that new ocean crust is being formed at the central ridge and the older ones are being pushed away to either side .In other words, the Atlantic ocean floor is effectively functioning as two large conveyor belts, one carrying the progressively older crust from the centre towards North America and the other towards Europe.
When the oceanic crust reaches the boundary of the continents, it plunges back into the bowels of the earth in a process known as subduction. That is where all the sediments carried by the rivers from the land to the sea go and went and are and were consigned to the bowels of the earth. That explains beautifully why the ocean floors everywhere are so young ( none older than 175 million years) whereas the land in the continental crust is as old as 4.5 billion years. A beautiful illustration of “Atma yoni swayam jataha”.
The earth is made up of a number of smaller and bigger plates, all moving in different directions and at different speeds and their collisions created the present mosaic of the earth which will further change constantly. For details and figures of what the earth looked like a few hundred million years back and what it is likely to look like a few hundred million years from now, please look into the text of the book, pages58 to 61.
And, how about life itself? Bacteria got along for billions of years without us but we can not survive a single day without them. They multiply in an unimaginable way and survive in extreme conditions, in the waste tank of a nuclear reactor, 11000 meters below in the Pacific ocean or in the sealed lens of a camera left behind in the moon. If the world of Atoms stand for what is Vishnu in the domain of physics, the microbes stand for Vishnu in the field of biology, proving many of the names in the namavali. ( For details see again the text of the book, P.62).
While complex life started blooming for the first time in the Cambrian period, the earth has seen several periods of extinction, major and minor. 70 to 95% of life had disappeared each time during these deluges or Pralaya.. What is surprising, however, is , what conditions favoured the survival of the remaining 20 to 25% of the species. For example, while the dinosaurs disappeared without a trace at the end of the Cretaceous period, other species like turtles have survived till date. Same argument applies to many other species and microbes as well. .Yes, He is “ Dharaneedharah” and “Jagatsetavaraha”.The close link gets established! ( Pl. see again book p.62 and 63 for details.)
As if to establish the close link between the earth, Ishwara and oxygen, the word Ishwara gets mentioned eight times in Vishnusahasranamam, either alone or with adjectives,. eight being the atomic number of oxygen.(pl.see P.64)
Having praised the Universe(and, therefore Hydrogen as A in AUM ) in the earlier Namavalis, the current namavalis under review praise the Earth ( and, therefore Oxygen, as U of AUM). Imagine the greatness of Vishnusahasranamam and wait for carbon in the next thread. for M of AUM.