Comparing Vogt’s Nova Reset Model with Felix’s Volcanism Ice Age Model
Twenty five years ago, Robert Felix, a lay scholar on climate change, published his book, Not By Fire, But By Ice (Sugar Press, 2000). In 2008, he would publish his sequel on the same subject under the title: Magnetic Reversals and Evolutionary Leaps.
He might be considered the granddaddy of 21st Century catastrophism, especially since Ben Davidson of the formerly “Suspicious Observers” was mentored, of sorts, by Felix before he died, presumably from other causes, during the first Covid outbreak in 2021.
Felix’s basic thesis was that the polar reversal phenomenon occurs, either as the effect or the cause, of a very turbulent geophysical process in the Earth’s mantle and core. While solar cycles seem to play a part in this process, it is not clear in the “Felix model” whether it is caused by solar effects coming from within the Sun, or whether it also involves planetary positioning in the form of Earth’s orbital eccentricities. In other words, it is possible that it is caused by the change in Earth’s relationship with the Sun, rather than a change within the Sun itself.
Regardless, he felt that Earth was “past due” and that the telltale signs would be increased volcanic activity and extreme weather events. Volcanism was the driving force of the ice age: submarinal volcanoes heat up the oceans and cause greater evaporation. Land-based volcanoes create atmospheric particles which block the Sun, cool the Earth and create the condensation for the moisture to fall in the form of snow.
If you want to learn more about how devastating to climate major volcanic eruptions might be, check this out:
We might call it the “boom, boom, boom” model.
[For a more scientific analysis of the 536 AD catastrophe, here is a link to Randall Carlson’s recent podcast: https://youtu.be/7I6gVtTfA1Q?si=2VgAh1sM9VFGpkLt ].
In contrast, Douglas Vogt offered a different scenario. He relied upon oceanic maps which reveal underwater river canyons descending from the respective continental shelves, down into the oceanic abyss. While Felix’s model would argue for a gradual lowering of sea level to the once dry continental shelves (this from the water being transferred to the mighty ice sheets on the continental land masses), Vogt’s model argued for an instantaneous evaporation event produced by a solar nova (not a super nova), followed by extreme cold caused by atmospheric depletion and solar hibernation. The force of the nova produces a blast wave which traverses the heliosphere and strips away the atmospheres of the sunward facing side of the planets. Losing its plasma dust shell in the outburst, the Sun goes through a period of dormancy until the shell is reconstituted.
Felix’s model could explain the existence of continental shelves, but could not explain the river canyons which descend to the bottom of the oceanic abyss. There had to be a time (or times) in which the oceans were empty. Vogt’s model explains how that is possible.
Vogt’s solar nova scenario can be called the “BOOM” model.
There are other frightening features of Vogt’s Nova model: aside from the dangers of solar radiation – a concern of Felix also – Vogt envisioned massive tsunamis of continental scale. He believed the Earth stopped and then reversed its rotation. While he based that expectation on an almost religious dedication to his “Theory on Multi-Dimensional Reality,” it has been Cal-Tech’s, Dr. August Dunning, who has explained the possibility from electromagnetic science.
Six-Day Creationists might argue that these oceanic canyons are the relics from the Flood of Noah. That might be. Given the recent discovery that Earth contains vast oceans deep in its mantle (the crust is 40 miles thick while the deepest ocean is a mere 5 miles), it is entirely possible that there once were no oceans and that the oceanic basins were empty until the Great Inundation – or the Great Hydro-Explosion, whatever the case might have been.
However, Vogt pointed to evidence that these submarinal canyons occurred because of multiple flood events. The evidence is suggestive, but not definitive. The canyons are gouged into bedrock and don’t indicate the meandering of delta deposits. A one-time flood event would gouge the canyon; then as the waters subsided, vast amounts of sediment should settle to the bottom and fill these gigantic crevices. So, multiple flood events seem more likely.
Perhaps someday a hydrologist will offer us better guidance.
Still, the idea that the Earth could reverse rotation seems difficult to believe.
An alternative might be found in Professor James McCanney’s science. His description of lunar tidal effects on Earth’s oceans could explain these major tsunamis and terraforming events should the Moon be forced into a much more elliptical orbit.
While McCanney thinks that past catastrophes are to be blamed on cometary encounters (i.e. the once wayward Venus ala Velikovsky), I tend to embrace Donald Patten’s view that the Planet Mars was once an Earth-moon.
At the last nova, the blast wave forced Mars into a much more elliptical orbit around Earth with an orbital period of some 54-56 years. Mars’ earthly perigee brought it close enough for its tiny moons to be visible to the naked eye. The ancients recorded it as such and Patten made much of this fact.
This would also be close enough for fantastic tidal effects. One must remember that the oceanic tides are the most obvious of these effects. But gravity also acts on Earth’s mantle and crust. A close planetary encounter can produce tidal effects in Earth’s mantle with crustal upheaving, volcanism, and even crustal tearing.
Of course, Mars has been lost to Earth’s gravitational control, but the Moon remains. Should a future nova blast wave force it into an extreme elliptical orbit, we should expect the same tidal effects which were once produced by Mars.
Assuming all of this, the fact remains that what we are facing might be none of this. It might have been a “once and done” series of catastrophes in the past. Nevertheless, the fundamentals of non-anthropomorphic climate change identified by Felix still remain. Earth is entering a period of atmospheric and lithospheric changes which will challenge the ability of mankind to adapt.
Even if a solar nova fails to materialize at the next peak of the Gleissberg Cycle in 2046 AD, these other factors still must be addressed and overcome.
— JWS, 5/25/25
