Free The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries by Colin Wilson Page B

than puddles. “The evidence from the sea floors indicates that sea level has, for long periods of time, been three miles lower than it is now”. Human settlements would move to the shores of these seas, since the temperature close to the sea is always slightly higher than inland. The ice sheets would raise soft sediments and magmas to high altitudes, where they would set like concrete, forming mountains and the “drift” that so puzzled Donnelly. Then, as the ice age gradually ended, the settlements would be forced to retreat higher and higher as their former homes were submerged. Some people would even move to mountain-tops like the civilization of Tiahuanaco. And great civilizations would disappear beneath the waves . . .
    But if this is true, then why do we not have such tremendous explosions nowadays? Krakatoa, which erupted in 1883, and sent a giant tidal wave across the Pacific, devastating whole islands, only hurled its vapours seventeen miles into the atmosphere. Walworthpoints to the planet Jupiter, which produces tremendous eruptions of energy every ten years, and he suggests that this is basically an electromagnetic phenomenon: “eddy currents developed by Jupiter’s motion through the electrified solar wind cause a buildup of heat under the planet’s surface”. Because earth is so much smaller, the same mechanism could cause such eruptions at far longer intervals, accounting for the ice ages.
    Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Walworth’s theory is his suggestion that the earth’s core may not be a mass of molten iron, as geologists believe. If volcanic activity is caused by the “electrified solar wind” acting upon the earth’s magnetic field and setting up tremendous stresses just below the surface, then presumably the centre of the earth is relatively cool and solid. Presumably science should one day be able to develop “depth sounders” that could prove or disprove this unorthodox notion. As far as the human race is concerned, it would probably be a relief if Walworth proved to be mistaken, since his theory also involves another catastrophic eruption over the next thousand years or so, followed by an ice age that would re-create the conditions that destroyed Atlantis.

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    The Baader-Meinhof Gang
    Suicide or Murder?
    On the afternoon of Thursday, 13 October 1977, four Palestinians seized control of Lufthansa Flight LH181 as it flew from Majorca to Frankfurt. Two men and two women held the passengers and crew at gunpoint and forced the pilot to change course for Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport. After wiring the aircraft with explosive charges, they issued their demands in the name of the Struggle Against World Imperialism Organization.
    Few informed sources were surprised when the Palestinian hijackers’ main demand turned out to be the release of “all German political prisoners”; it was an open secret that Palestinian paramilitary organizations had close links with the left-wing revolutionary terrorists in West Germany. The demand was later reduced to the release of eleven high-ranking members of the Red Army Faction (RAF; generally referred to by the nickname Baader-Meinhof) then in custody in the GDR.
    Over the next three days the hijacked jet was flown on to Cyprus and then Dubai to keep the security forces from launching an attack. Then, on Friday, 16 October only hours before the ransom deadline expired, it was flown to Aden in Yemen.
    Shortly after landing, the pilot, Jurgen Schumann, asked permission to inspect the front landing gear, which he thought had been damaged by the last touchdown. He checked the gear, found it to be still serviceable, and started to walk back, but on the way he made the mistake of speaking to a group of airport security men. As he re-entered the aircraft he was made to kneel down and was “executed” in front of the other hostages with a shot through the back of the head. Schumann’s body was dumped onto the runway, and the co-pilot was