Survival Maps. . . Preppers know what they are.
The first one I ever studied was Cresson Kearny’s nuclear war survival map of the United States. It was covered in black. I concluded that the best way to survive a nuclear war was to move out of the country. There is nothing left after a full-scale attack.
The second one I ever studied was Robert Felix’s ice age map. Again, the best way of surviving that might be to move closer to the equator.
But both catastrophes, whether man-made or natural, are only the beginning, not the end of a death cycle. The aftermath is just as deadly, no matter where you live in the world.
Then, there is the the recurring disaster cycles Earth experiences every 6,000/12,000 years which are related to solar nova events, magnetic polar reversals, and ice ages. Somehow, these cycles involve massive tsunami events of continental scale. We are still not sure why they occur.
They could come from the action of crustal uplift associated with massive volcanism or from the close passage of a celestial body. Perhaps, it is a reset from the Earth’s wobble or a reverse in its rotation.
Ben Davidson thinks he’s got it figured out. In the America’s, if you live in the Rocky Mountain high country above 5000 feet, you will be ok. You will be safe from the oceanic tsunamis.
Maybe. He seems pretty confident. He travels the country like an evangelist talking up his mountain retreat. He makes it sound groovy.
But that is based upon his crustal displacement scenario in which the oceans for the northern hemisphere go north and west. I don’t think you will have any takers from Vegas.
Douglas Vogt was highly critical of that theory and believed that it would lead preppers to make the wrong kind of decisions. He believed that Earth’s rotation stops and then reverses: a belief, which while he marshaled an impressive array of “proofs,” nevertheless, was a scenario which begs equal credulity.
What happens to the oceans is just one component of the scenario which we expect to unfold. As delineated in the early chapters of Book I, we have the immediate effects of a solar nova to consider (incinerating heat blasts, instant deadly radiation, debris bombardment, etc.).
Then, there are the effects of the magnetic polar reversal itself: more deadly cosmic radiation, widespread volcanism, and crustal tearing. Whether there is a solar nova or not, a polar reversal is prefaced by the loss of Earth’s electromagnetic shielding which produces many of the same results: radiation burning, organ failure, crop failures and so on. Every polar reversal in the past has coincided with a massive extinction event (cf. Robert Felix and James McCanney).
Why? It is because of the fact that our atmosphere is held in place, not just by gravity, but by static electromagnetic charge. Remember that “puffy” feel of a balloon after you rubbed it on a piece of cloth? That is our atmosphere. Take away that envelope and poof . . . much of our atmosphere is lost in space.
Unless you have an independent source of oxygen, you are going to suffocate to death in this event.
Low places might have air, like deep in caves. There are some people who believe that there are pockets of atmosphere in the deep craters of the Moon. But if you are on the surface or in the high country of the Rocky Mountains – “I can’t breathe” will become intensely personal for you.
Because of the hydrological cycle of our vast oceans, Earth’s atmosphere will eventually recharge. How long will it take? No one knows. How long can you hold your breath?
Don’t think that living at the equator is a solution. Earth’s crustal bulge is something like 27 miles. Any loss of atmosphere in other parts of the world will create a great rushing sound of air being sucked from the equatorial bulge into these low lying regions.
Then, there is the cold. Without an atmosphere to temporize daytime and nighttime temperatures, it will be like the Moon: burning in the light, freezing in the shade.
Submarinal volcanoes will continually feed moisture into the atmosphere which will quickly condense and fall in the form of snow.
The ice age will now have begun.
If your location has not already been buried by a sudden collapse of atmospheric hydroxyls in a strange form of ice and snow, Earth’s new hydrological cycle will begin inundating regions unforeseen by our self-appointed seers. There is no map that can tell you where this will happen. Maps of past ice ages are based upon geological formations which resulted toward the “end” of this cycle, not its beginning.
As Davidson points out, past arctic expeditions have proven that “alternating polar positions” have occurred virtually everywhere on the planet. So, where I live in North Idaho, could end up buried under an ice sheet. Too bad for me.
Unless you know how to build a flight craft that utilizes electromagnetic propulsion (is that even possible if Earth’s magnetic fields collapse?), you probably had better build a boat like Noah did.
Living in a cave might work if it does not get inundated by raging tsunamis or invaded by the creatures of Earth’s wild kingdom.
If you build a boat, you had better build it more like a submarine. That is what Noah did. See Donald Patten’s works for more on that.
If you have survived the first two weeks, then the next two years, what about the next two hundred years? Are you a mineralogist, botanist, agrarian, mechanical engineer, and mechanic? Do you know how to make your own medicines? Do you have a family who will succeed you? Do you belong to a society that has the moral capacity to perpetuate itself? If not . . .
You’re extinct.
JWS, 10/25/25
