Part III
The History of Urantia
PAPER 57
THE ORIGIN OF URANTIA
57:0.1 IN PRESENTING excerpts from the archives of
Jerusem for the records of Urantia respecting its antecedents and early
history, we are directed to reckon time in terms of current usage -- the
present leap-year calendar of 365¼ days to the year. As a rule, no attempt
will be made to give exact years, though they are of record. We will use the
nearest whole numbers as the better method of presenting these historic
facts.
57:0.2 When referring to an event as of one or two
millions of years ago, we intend to date such an occurrence back that number
of years from the early decades of the twentieth century of the Christian era.
We will thus depict these far-distant events as occurring in even periods of
thousands, millions, and billions of years.
1. THE ANDRONOVER NEBULA
57:1.1 Urantia is of origin in your sun, and your
sun is one of the multifarious offspring of the Andronover nebula, which was
onetime organized as a component part of the physical power and material
matter of the local universe of Nebadon. And this great nebula itself took
origin in the universal force-charge of space in the superuniverse of
Orvonton, long, long ago.
57:1.2 At the time of the beginning of this recital,
the Primary Master Force Organizers of Paradise had long been in full control
of the space-energies which were later organized as the Andronover
nebula.
57:1.3 987,000,000,000 years ago associate
force organizer and then acting inspector number 811,307 of the Orvonton
series, traveling out from Uversa, reported to the Ancients of Days that space
conditions were favorable for the initiation of materialization phenomena in a
certain sector of the, then, easterly segment of Orvonton.
57:1.4 900,000,000,000 years ago the Uversa
archives testify, there was recorded a permit issued by the Uversa Council of
Equilibrium to the superuniverse government authorizing the dispatch of a
force organizer and staff to the region previously designated by inspector
number 811,307. The Orvonton authorities commissioned the original discoverer
of this potential universe to execute the mandate of the Ancients of Days
calling for the organization of a new material creation.
57:1.5 The recording of this permit signifies that
the force organizer and staff had already departed from Uversa on the long
journey to that easterly space sector where they were subsequently to engage
in those protracted activities which would terminate in the emergence of a new
physical creation in Orvonton.
57:1.6 875,000,000,000 years ago the enormous
Andronover nebula number 876,926 was duly initiated. Only the presence of the
force organizer and the liaison staff was required to inaugurate the energy
whirl which eventually grew into this vast cyclone of space. Subsequent to the
initiation of such nebular revolutions, the living force organizers simply
withdraw at right angles to the plane of the revolutionary disk, and from that
time forward, the inherent qualities of energy insure the progressive and
orderly evolution of such a new physical system.
57:1.7 At about this time the narrative shifts to
the functioning of the personalities of the superuniverse. In reality the
story has its proper beginning at this point -- at just about the time the
Paradise force organizers are preparing to withdraw, having made the
space-energy conditions ready for the action of the power directors and
physical controllers of the superuniverse of Orvonton.
2. THE PRIMARY NEBULAR STAGE
57:2.1 All evolutionary material creations are born
of circular and gaseous nebulae, and all such primary nebulae are circular
throughout the early part of their gaseous existence. As they grow older, they
usually become spiral, and when their function of sun formation has run its
course, they often terminate as clusters of stars or as enormous suns
surrounded by a varying number of planets, satellites, and smaller groups of
matter in many ways resembling your own diminutive solar system.
57:2.2 800,000,000,000 years ago the
Andronover creation was well established as one of the magnificent primary
nebulae of Orvonton. As the astronomers of near-by universes looked out upon
this phenomenon of space, they saw very little to attract their attention.
Gravity estimates made in adjacent creations indicated that space
materializations were taking place in the Andronover regions, but that was
all.
57:2.3 700,000,000,000 years ago the
Andronover system was assuming gigantic proportions, and additional physical
controllers were dispatched to nine surrounding material creations to afford
support and supply co-operation to the power centers of this new material
system which was so rapidly evolving. At this distant date all of the material
bequeathed to the subsequent creations was held within the confines of this
gigantic space wheel, which continued ever to whirl and, after reaching its
maximum of diameter, to whirl faster and faster as it continued to condense
and contract.
57:2.4 600,000,000,000 years ago the height
of the Andronover energy-mobilization period was attained; the nebula had
acquired its maximum of mass. At this time it was a gigantic circular gas
cloud in shape somewhat like a flattened spheroid. This was the early period
of differential mass formation and varying revolutionary velocity. Gravity and
other influences were about to begin their work of converting space gases into
organized matter.
3. THE SECONDARY NEBULAR STAGE
57:3.1 The enormous nebula now began gradually to
assume the spiral form and to become clearly visible to the astronomers of
even distant universes. This is the natural history of most nebulae; before
they begin to throw off suns and start upon the work of universe building,
these secondary space nebulae are usually observed as spiral
phenomena.
57:3.2 The near-by star students of that faraway
era, as they observed this metamorphosis of the Andronover nebula, saw exactly
what twentieth-century astronomers see when they turn their telescopes
spaceward and view the present-age spiral nebulae of adjacent outer
space.
57:3.3 About the time of the attainment of the
maximum of mass, the gravity control of the gaseous content commenced to
weaken, and there ensued the stage of gas escapement, the gas streaming forth
as two gigantic and distinct arms, which took origin on opposite sides of the
mother mass. The rapid revolutions of this enormous central core soon imparted
a spiral appearance to these two projecting gas streams. The cooling and
subsequent condensation of portions of these protruding arms eventually
produced their knotted appearance. These denser portions were vast systems and
subsystems of physical matter whirling through space in the midst of the
gaseous cloud of the nebula while being held securely within the gravity grasp
of the mother wheel.
57:3.4 But the nebula had begun to contract, and the
increase in the rate of revolution further lessened gravity control; and
erelong, the outer gaseous regions began actually to escape from the immediate
embrace of the nebular nucleus, passing out into space on circuits of
irregular outline, returning to the nuclear regions to complete their
circuits, and so on. But this was only a temporary stage of nebular
progression. The ever-increasing rate of whirling was soon to throw enormous
suns off into space on independent circuits.
57:3.5 And this is what happened in Andronover ages
upon ages ago. The energy wheel grew and grew until it attained its maximum of
expansion, and then, when contraction set in, it whirled on faster and faster
until, eventually, the critical centrifugal stage was reached and the great
breakup began.
57:3.6 500,000,000,000 years ago the first
Andronover sun was born. This blazing streak broke away from the mother
gravity grasp and tore out into space on an independent adventure in the
cosmos of creation. Its orbit was determined by its path of escape. Such young
suns quickly become spherical and start out on their long and eventful careers
as the stars of space. Excepting terminal nebular nucleuses, the vast majority
of Orvonton suns have had an analogous birth. These escaping suns pass through
varied periods of evolution and subsequent universe service.
57:3.7 400,000,000,000 years ago began the
recaptive period of the Andronover nebula. Many of the near-by and smaller
suns were recaptured as a result of the gradual enlargement and further
condensation of the mother nucleus. Very soon there was inaugurated the
terminal phase of nebular condensation, the period which always precedes the
final segregation of these immense space aggregations of energy and
matter.
57:3.8 It was scarcely a million years subsequent to
this epoch that Michael of Nebadon, a Creator Son of Paradise, selected this
disintegrating nebula as the site of his adventure in universe building.
Almost immediately the architectural worlds of Salvington and the one hundred
constellation headquarters groups of planets were begun. It required almost
one million years to complete these clusters of specially created worlds. The
local system headquarters planets were constructed over a period extending
from that time to about five billion years ago.
57:3.9 300,000,000,000 years ago the
Andronover solar circuits were well established, and the nebular system was
passing through a transient period of relative physical stability. About this
time the staff of Michael arrived on Salvington, and the Uversa government of
Orvonton extended physical recognition to the local universe of Nebadon.
57:3.10 200,000,000,000 years ago witnessed
the progression of contraction and condensation with enormous heat generation
in the Andronover central cluster, or nuclear mass. Relative space appeared
even in the regions near the central mother-sun wheel. The outer regions were
becoming more stabilized and better organized; some planets revolving around
the newborn suns had cooled sufficiently to be suitable for life implantation.
The oldest inhabited planets of Nebadon date from these times.
57:3.11 Now the completed universe mechanism of
Nebadon first begins to function, and Michael's creation is registered on
Uversa as a universe of inhabitation and progressive mortal
ascension.
57:3.12 100,000,000,000 years ago the nebular
apex of condensation tension was reached; the point of maximum heat tension
was attained. This critical stage of gravity-heat contention sometimes lasts
for ages, but sooner or later, heat wins the struggle with gravity, and the
spectacular period of sun dispersion begins. And this marks the end of the
secondary career of a space nebula.
4. TERTIARY AND QUARTAN STAGES
57:4.1 The primary stage of a nebula is circular;
the secondary, spiral; the tertiary stage is that of the first sun dispersion,
while the quartan embraces the second and last cycle of sun dispersion, with
the mother nucleus ending either as a globular cluster or as a solitary sun
functioning as the center of a terminal solar system.
57:4.2 75,000,000,000 years ago this nebula
had attained the height of its sun-family stage. This was the apex of the
first period of sun losses. The majority of these suns have since possessed
themselves of extensive systems of planets, satellites, dark islands, comets,
meteors, and cosmic dust clouds.
57:4.3 50,000,000,000 years ago this first
period of sun dispersion was completed; the nebula was fast finishing its
tertiary cycle of existence, during which it gave origin to 876,926 sun
systems.
57:4.4 25,000,000,000 years ago witnessed the
completion of the tertiary cycle of nebular life and brought about the
organization and relative stabilization of the far-flung starry systems
derived from this parent nebula. But the process of physical contraction and
increased heat production continued in the central mass of the nebular
remnant.
57:4.5 10,000,000,000 years ago the quartan
cycle of Andronover began. The maximum of nuclear-mass temperature had been
attained; the critical point of condensation was approaching. The original
mother nucleus was convulsing under the combined pressure of its own
internal-heat condensation tension and the increasing gravity-tidal pull of
the surrounding swarm of liberated sun systems. The nuclear eruptions which
were to inaugurate the second nebular sun cycle were imminent. The quartan
cycle of nebular existence was about to begin.
57:4.6 8,000,000,000 years ago the terrific
terminal eruption began. Only the outer systems are safe at the time of such a
cosmic upheaval. And this was the beginning of the end of the nebula. This
final sun disgorgement extended over a period of almost two billion years.
57:4.7 7,000,000,000 years ago witnessed the
height of the Andronover terminal breakup. This was the period of the birth of
the larger terminal suns and the apex of the local physical disturbances.
57:4.8 6,000,000,000 years ago marks the end
of the terminal breakup and the birth of your sun, the fifty-sixth from the
last of the Andronover second solar family. This final eruption of the nebular
nucleus gave birth to 136,702 suns, most of them solitary orbs. The total
number of suns and sun systems having origin in the Andronover nebula was
1,013,628. The number of the solar system sun is 1,013,572.
57:4.9 And now the great Andronover nebula is no
more, but it lives on in the many suns and their planetary families which
originated in this mother cloud of space. The final nuclear remnant of this
magnificent nebula still burns with a reddish glow and continues to give forth
moderate light and heat to its remnant planetary family of one hundred and
sixty-five worlds, which now revolve about this venerable mother of two mighty
generations of the monarchs of light.
5. ORIGIN OF MONMATIA -- THE URANTIA SOLAR SYSTEM
57:5.1 5,000,000,000 years ago your sun was a
comparatively isolated blazing orb, having gathered to itself most of the
near-by circulating matter of space, remnants of the recent upheaval which
attended its own birth.
57:5.2 Today, your sun has achieved relative
stability, but its eleven and one-half year sunspot cycles betray that it was
a variable star in its youth. In the early days of your sun the continued
contraction and consequent gradual increase of temperature initiated
tremendous convulsions on its surface. These titanic heaves required three and
one-half days to complete a cycle of varying brightness. This variable state,
this periodic pulsation, rendered your sun highly responsive to certain
outside influences which were to be shortly encountered.
57:5.3 Thus was the stage of local space set for the
unique origin of Monmatia, that being the name of your sun's planetary
family, the solar system to which your world belongs. Less than one per cent
of the planetary systems of Orvonton have had a similar origin.
57:5.4 4,500,000,000 years ago the enormous
Angona system began its approach to the neighborhood of this solitary sun. The
center of this great system was a dark giant of space, solid, highly charged,
and possessing tremendous gravity pull.
57:5.5 As Angona more closely approached the sun, at
moments of maximum expansion during solar pulsations, streams of gaseous
material were shot out into space as gigantic solar tongues. At first these
flaming gas tongues would invariably fall back into the sun, but as Angona
drew nearer and nearer, the gravity pull of the gigantic visitor became so
great that these tongues of gas would break off at certain points, the roots
falling back into the sun while the outer sections would become detached to
form independent bodies of matter, solar meteorites, which immediately started
to revolve about the sun in elliptical orbits of their own.
57:5.6 As the Angona system drew nearer, the solar
extrusions grew larger and larger; more and more matter was drawn from the sun
to become independent circulating bodies in surrounding space. This situation
developed for about five hundred thousand years until Angona made its closest
approach to the sun; whereupon the sun, in conjunction with one of its
periodic internal convulsions, experienced a partial disruption; from opposite
sides and simultaneously, enormous volumes of matter were disgorged. From the
Angona side there was drawn out a vast column of solar gases, rather pointed
at both ends and markedly bulging at the center, which became permanently
detached from the immediate gravity control of the sun.
57:5.7 This great column of solar gases which was
thus separated from the sun subsequently evolved into the twelve planets of
the solar system. The repercussional ejection of gas from the opposite side of
the sun in tidal sympathy with the extrusion of this gigantic solar system
ancestor, has since condensed into the meteors and space dust of the solar
system, although much, very much, of this matter was subsequently recaptured
by solar gravity as the Angona system receded into remote space.
57:5.8 Although Angona succeeded in drawing away the
ancestral material of the solar system planets and the enormous volume of
matter now circulating about the sun as asteroids and meteors, it did not
secure for itself any of this solar matter. The visiting system did not come
quite close enough to actually steal any of the sun's substance, but it did
swing sufficiently close to draw off into the intervening space all of the
material comprising the present-day solar system.
57:5.9 The five inner and five outer planets soon
formed in miniature from the cooling and condensing nucleuses in the less
massive and tapering ends of the gigantic gravity bulge which Angona had
succeeded in detaching from the sun, while Saturn and Jupiter were formed from
the more massive and bulging central portions. The powerful gravity pull of
Jupiter and Saturn early captured most of the material stolen from Angona as
the retrograde motion of certain of their satellites bears witness.
57:5.10 Jupiter and Saturn, being derived from the
very center of the enormous column of superheated solar gases, contained so
much highly heated sun material that they shone with a brilliant light and
emitted enormous volumes of heat; they were in reality secondary suns for a
short period after their formation as separate space bodies. These two largest
of the solar system planets have remained largely gaseous to this day, not
even yet having cooled off to the point of complete condensation or
solidification.
57:5.11 The gas-contraction nucleuses of the other
ten planets soon reached the stage of solidification and so began to draw to
themselves increasing quantities of the meteoric matter circulating in near-by
space. The worlds of the solar system thus had a double origin: nucleuses of
gas condensation later on augmented by the capture of enormous quantities of
meteors. Indeed they still continue to capture meteors, but in greatly
lessened numbers.
57:5.12 The planets do not swing around the sun in
the equatorial plane of their solar mother, which they would do if they had
been thrown off by solar revolution. Rather, they travel in the plane of the
Angona solar extrusion, which existed at a considerable angle to the plane of
the sun's equator.
57:5.13 While Angona was unable to capture any of
the solar mass, your sun did add to its metamorphosing planetary family some
of the circulating space material of the visiting system. Due to the intense
gravity field of Angona, its tributary planetary family pursued orbits of
considerable distance from the dark giant; and shortly after the extrusion of
the solar system ancestral mass and while Angona was yet in the vicinity of
the sun, three of the major planets of the Angona system swung so near to the
massive solar system ancestor that its gravitational pull, augmented by that
of the sun, was sufficient to overbalance the gravity grasp of Angona and to
permanently detach these three tributaries of the celestial
wanderer.
57:5.14 All of the solar system material derived
from the sun was originally endowed with a homogeneous direction of orbital
swing, and had it not been for the intrusion of these three foreign space
bodies, all solar system material would still maintain the same direction of
orbital movement. As it was, the impact of the three Angona tributaries
injected new and foreign directional forces into the emerging solar system
with the resultant appearance of retrograde motion. Retrograde motion
in any astronomic system is always accidental and always appears as a result
of the collisional impact of foreign space bodies. Such collisions may not
always produce retrograde motion, but no retrograde ever appears except in a
system containing masses which have diverse origins.
6. THE SOLAR SYSTEM STAGE -- THE PLANET-FORMING ERA
57:6.1 Subsequent to the birth of the solar system a
period of diminishing solar disgorgement ensued. Decreasingly, for another
five hundred thousand years, the sun continued to pour forth diminishing
volumes of matter into surrounding space. But during these early times of
erratic orbits, when the surrounding bodies made their nearest approach to the
sun, the solar parent was able to recapture a large portion of this meteoric
material.
57:6.2 The planets nearest the sun were the first to
have their revolutions slowed down by tidal friction. Such gravitational
influences also contribute to the stabilization of planetary orbits while
acting as a brake on the rate of planetary-axial revolution, causing a planet
to revolve ever slower until axial revolution ceases, leaving one hemisphere
of the planet always turned toward the sun or larger body, as is illustrated
by the planet Mercury and by the moon, which always turns the same face toward
Urantia.
57:6.3 When the tidal frictions of the moon and the
earth become equalized, the earth will always turn the same hemisphere toward
the moon, and the day and month will be analogous -- in length about
forty-seven days. When such stability of orbits is attained, tidal frictions
will go into reverse action, no longer driving the moon farther away from the
earth but gradually drawing the satellite toward the planet. And then, in that
far-distant future when the moon approaches to within about eleven thousand
miles of the earth, the gravity action of the latter will cause the moon to
disrupt, and this tidal-gravity explosion will shatter the moon into small
particles, which may assemble about the world as rings of matter resembling
those of Saturn or may be gradually drawn into the earth as
meteors.
57:6.4 If space bodies are similar in size and
density, collisions may occur. But if two space bodies of similar density are
relatively unequal in size, then, if the smaller progressively approaches the
larger, the disruption of the smaller body will occur when the radius of its
orbit becomes less than two and one-half times the radius of the larger body.
Collisions among the giants of space are rare indeed, but these gravity-tidal
explosions of lesser bodies are quite common.
57:6.5 Shooting stars occur in swarms because they
are the fragments of larger bodies of matter which have been disrupted by
tidal gravity exerted by near-by and still larger space bodies. Saturn's rings
are the fragments of a disrupted satellite. One of the moons of Jupiter is now
approaching dangerously near the critical zone of tidal disruption and, within
a few million years, will either be claimed by the planet or will undergo
gravity-tidal disruption. The fifth planet of the solar system of long, long
ago traversed an irregular orbit, periodically making closer and closer
approach to Jupiter until it entered the critical zone of gravity-tidal
disruption, was swiftly fragmentized, and became the present-day cluster of
asteroids.
57:6.6 4,000,000,000 years ago witnessed the
organization of the Jupiter and Saturn systems much as observed today except
for their moons, which continued to increase in size for several billions of
years. In fact, all of the planets and satellites of the solar system are
still growing as the result of continued meteoric captures.
57:6.7 3,500,000,000 years ago the
condensation nucleuses of the other ten planets were well formed, and the
cores of most of the moons were intact, though some of the smaller satellites
later united to make the present-day larger moons. This age may be regarded as
the era of planetary assembly.
57:6.8 3,000,000,000 years ago the solar
system was functioning much as it does today. Its members continued to grow in
size as space meteors continued to pour in upon the planets and their
satellites at a prodigious rate.
57:6.9 About this time your solar system was placed
on the physical registry of Nebadon and given its name, Monmatia.
57:6.10 2,500,000,000 years ago the planets
had grown immensely in size. Urantia was a well-developed sphere about one
tenth its present mass and was still growing rapidly by meteoric
accretion.
57:6.11 All of this tremendous activity is a normal
part of the making of an evolutionary world on the order of Urantia and
constitutes the astronomic preliminaries to the setting of the stage for the
beginning of the physical evolution of such worlds of space in preparation for
the life adventures of time.
7. THE METEORIC ERA -- THE VOLCANIC AGE
THE PRIMITIVE PLANETARY ATMOSPHERE
57:7.1 Throughout these early times the space
regions of the solar system were swarming with small disruptive and
condensation bodies, and in the absence of a protective combustion atmosphere
such space bodies crashed directly on the surface of Urantia. These incessant
impacts kept the surface of the planet more or less heated, and this, together
with the increased action of gravity as the sphere grew larger, began to set
in operation those influences which gradually caused the heavier elements,
such as iron, to settle more and more toward the center of the planet.
57:7.2 2,000,000,000 years ago the earth
began decidedly to gain on the moon. Always had the planet been larger than
its satellite, but there was not so much difference in size until about this
time, when enormous space bodies were captured by the earth. Urantia was then
about one fifth its present size and had become large enough to hold the
primitive atmosphere which had begun to appear as a result of the internal
elemental contest between the heated interior and the cooling
crust.
57:7.3 Definite volcanic action dates from these
times. The internal heat of the earth continued to be augmented by the deeper
and deeper burial of the radioactive or heavier elements brought in from space
by the meteors. The study of these radioactive elements will reveal that
Urantia is more than one billion years old on its surface. The radium clock is
your most reliable timepiece for making scientific estimates of the age of the
planet, but all such estimates are too short because the radioactive materials
open to your scrutiny are all derived from the earth's surface and hence
represent Urantia's comparatively recent acquirements of these elements.
57:7.4 1,500,000,000 years ago the earth was
two thirds its present size, while the moon was nearing its present mass.
Earth's rapid gain over the moon in size enabled it to begin the slow robbery
of the little atmosphere which its satellite originally had.
57:7.5 Volcanic action is now at its height. The
whole earth is a veritable fiery inferno, the surface resembling its earlier
molten state before the heavier metals gravitated toward the center. This
is the volcanic age. Nevertheless, a crust, consisting chiefly of the
comparatively lighter granite, is gradually forming. The stage is being set
for a planet which can someday support life.
57:7.6 The primitive planetary atmosphere is slowly
evolving, now containing some water vapor, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide,
and hydrogen chloride, but there is little or no free nitrogen or free oxygen.
The atmosphere of a world in the volcanic age presents a queer spectacle. In
addition to the gases enumerated it is heavily charged with numerous volcanic
gases and, as the air belt matures, with the combustion products of the heavy
meteoric showers which are constantly hurtling in upon the planetary surface.
Such meteoric combustion keeps the atmospheric oxygen very nearly exhausted,
and the rate of meteoric bombardment is still tremendous.
57:7.7 Presently, the atmosphere became more settled
and cooled sufficiently to start precipitation of rain on the hot rocky
surface of the planet. For thousands of years Urantia was enveloped in one
vast and continuous blanket of steam. And during these ages the sun never
shone upon the earth's surface.
57:7.8 Much of the carbon of the atmosphere was
abstracted to form the carbonates of the various metals which abounded in the
superficial layers of the planet. Later on, much greater quantities of these
carbon gases were consumed by the early and prolific plant life.
57:7.9 Even in the later periods the continuing lava
flows and the incoming meteors kept the oxygen of the air almost completely
used up. Even the early deposits of the soon appearing primitive ocean contain
no colored stones or shales. And for a long time after this ocean appeared,
there was virtually no free oxygen in the atmosphere; and it did not appear in
significant quantities until it was later generated by the seaweeds and other
forms of vegetable life.
57:7.10 The primitive planetary atmosphere of the
volcanic age affords little protection against the collisional impacts of the
meteoric swarms. Millions upon millions of meteors are able to penetrate such
an air belt to smash against the planetary crust as solid bodies. But as time
passes, fewer and fewer prove large enough to resist the ever-stronger
friction shield of the oxygen-enriching atmosphere of the later eras.
8. CRUSTAL STABILIZATION
THE AGE OF EARTHQUAKES
THE WORLD OCEAN AND THE FIRST
CONTINENT
57:8.1 1,000,000,000 years ago is the date of
the actual beginning of Urantia history. The planet had attained approximately
its present size. And about this time it was placed upon the physical
registries of Nebadon and given its name, Urantia.
57:8.2 The atmosphere, together with incessant
moisture precipitation, facilitated the cooling of the earth's crust. Volcanic
action early equalized internal-heat pressure and crustal contraction; and as
volcanoes rapidly decreased, earthquakes made their appearance as this epoch
of crustal cooling and adjustment progressed.
57:8.3 The real geologic history of Urantia begins
with the cooling of the earth's crust sufficiently to cause the formation of
the first ocean. Water-vapor condensation on the cooling surface of the earth,
once begun, continued until it was virtually complete. By the end of this
period the ocean was world-wide, covering the entire planet to an average
depth of over one mile. The tides were then in play much as they are now
observed, but this primitive ocean was not salty; it was practically a
fresh-water covering for the world. In those days, most of the chlorine was
combined with various metals, but there was enough, in union with hydrogen, to
render this water faintly acid.
57:8.4 At the opening of this faraway era, Urantia
should be envisaged as a water-bound planet. Later on, deeper and hence denser
lava flows came out upon the bottom of the present Pacific Ocean, and this
part of the water-covered surface became considerably depressed. The first
continental land mass emerged from the world ocean in compensatory adjustment
of the equilibrium of the gradually thickening earth's crust.
57:8.5 950,000,000 years ago Urantia presents
the picture of one great continent of land and one large body of water, the
Pacific Ocean. Volcanoes are still widespread and earthquakes are both
frequent and severe. Meteors continue to bombard the earth, but they are
diminishing in both frequency and size. The atmosphere is clearing up, but the
amount of carbon dioxide continues large. The earth's crust is gradually
stabilizing.
57:8.6 It was at about this time that Urantia was
assigned to the system of Satania for planetary administration and was placed
on the life registry of Norlatiadek. Then began the administrative recognition
of the small and insignificant sphere which was destined to be the planet
whereon Michael would subsequently engage in the stupendous undertaking of
mortal bestowal, would participate in those experiences which have since
caused Urantia to become locally known as the "world of the cross."
57:8.7 900,000,000 years ago witnessed the
arrival on Urantia of the first Satania scouting party sent out from Jerusem
to examine the planet and make a report on its adaptation for a
life-experiment station. This commission consisted of twenty-four members,
embracing Life Carriers, Lanonandek Sons, Melchizedeks, seraphim, and other
orders of celestial life having to do with the early days of planetary
organization and administration.
57:8.8 After making a painstaking survey of the
planet, this commission returned to Jerusem and reported favorably to the
System Sovereign, recommending that Urantia be placed on the life-experiment
registry. Your world was accordingly registered on Jerusem as a decimal
planet, and the Life Carriers were notified that they would be granted
permission to institute new patterns of mechanical, chemical, and electrical
mobilization at the time of their subsequent arrival with life transplantation
and implantation mandates.
57:8.9 In due course arrangements for the planetary
occupation were completed by the mixed commission of twelve on Jerusem and
approved by the planetary commission of seventy on Edentia. These plans,
proposed by the advisory counselors of the Life Carriers, were finally
accepted on Salvington. Soon thereafter the Nebadon broadcasts carried the
announcement that Urantia would become the stage whereon the Life Carriers
would execute their sixtieth Satania experiment designed to amplify and
improve the Satania type of the Nebadon life patterns.
57:8.10 Shortly after Urantia was first recognized
on the universe broadcasts to all Nebadon, it was accorded full universe
status. Soon thereafter it was registered in the records of the minor and the
major sector headquarters planets of the superuniverse; and before this age
was over, Urantia had found entry on the planetary-life registry of Uversa.
57:8.11 This entire age was characterized by
frequent and violent storms. The early crust of the earth was in a state of
continual flux. Surface cooling alternated with immense lava flows. Nowhere
can there be found on the surface of the world anything of this original
planetary crust. It has all been mixed up too many times with extruding lavas
of deep origins and admixed with subsequent deposits of the early world-wide
ocean.
57:8.12 Nowhere on the surface of the world will
there be found more of the modified remnants of these ancient preocean rocks
than in northeastern Canada around Hudson Bay. This extensive granite
elevation is composed of stone belonging to the preoceanic ages. These rock
layers have been heated, bent, twisted, upcrumpled, and again and again have
they passed through these distorting metamorphic experiences.
57:8.13 Throughout the oceanic ages, enormous layers
of fossil-free stratified stone were deposited on this ancient ocean bottom.
(Limestone can form as a result of chemical precipitation; not all of the
older limestone was produced by marine-life deposition.) In none of these
ancient rock formations will there be found evidences of life; they contain no
fossils unless, by some chance, later deposits of the water ages have become
mixed with these older prelife layers.
57:8.14 The earth's early crust was highly unstable,
but mountains were not in process of formation. The planet contracted under
gravity pressure as it formed. Mountains are not the result of the collapse of
the cooling crust of a contracting sphere; they appear later on as a result of
the action of rain, gravity, and erosion.
57:8.15 The continental land mass of this era
increased until it covered almost ten per cent of the earth's surface. Severe
earthquakes did not begin until the continental mass of land emerged well
above the water. When they once began, they increased in frequency and
severity for ages. For millions upon millions of years earthquakes have
diminished, but Urantia still has an average of fifteen daily.
57:8.16 850,000,000 years ago the first real
epoch of the stabilization of the earth's crust began. Most of the heavier
metals had settled down toward the center of the globe; the cooling crust had
ceased to cave in on such an extensive scale as in former ages. There was
established a better balance between the land extrusion and the heavier ocean
bed. The flow of the subcrustal lava bed became well-nigh world-wide, and this
compensated and stabilized the fluctuations due to cooling, contracting, and
superficial shifting.
57:8.17 Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes continued
to diminish in frequency and severity. The atmosphere was clearing of volcanic
gases and water vapor, but the percentage of carbon dioxide was still
high.
57:8.18 Electric disturbances in the air and in the
earth were also decreasing. The lava flows had brought to the surface a
mixture of elements which diversified the crust and better insulated the
planet from certain space-energies. And all of this did much to facilitate the
control of terrestrial energy and to regulate its flow as is disclosed by the
functioning of the magnetic poles.
57:8.19 800,000,000 years ago witnessed the
inauguration of the first great land epoch, the age of increased continental
emergence.
57:8.20 Since the condensation of the earth's
hydrosphere, first into the world ocean and subsequently into the Pacific
Ocean, this latter body of water should be visualized as then covering nine
tenths of the earth's surface. Meteors falling into the sea accumulated on the
ocean bottom, and meteors are, generally speaking, composed of heavy
materials. Those falling on the land were largely oxidized, subsequently worn
down by erosion, and washed into the ocean basins. Thus the ocean bottom grew
increasingly heavy, and added to this was the weight of a body of water at
some places ten miles deep.
57:8.21 The increasing downthrust of the Pacific
Ocean operated further to upthrust the continental land mass. Europe and
Africa began to rise out of the Pacific depths along with those masses now
called Australia, North and South America, and the continent of Antarctica,
while the bed of the Pacific Ocean engaged in a further compensatory sinking
adjustment. By the end of this period almost one third of the earth's surface
consisted of land, all in one continental body.
57:8.22 With this increase in land elevation the
first climatic differences of the planet appeared. Land elevation, cosmic
clouds, and oceanic influences are the chief factors in climatic fluctuation.
The backbone of the Asiatic land mass reached a height of almost nine miles at
the time of the maximum land emergence. Had there been much moisture in the
air hovering over these highly elevated regions, enormous ice blankets would
have formed; the ice age would have arrived long before it did. It was several
hundred millions of years before so much land again appeared above water.
57:8.23 750,000,000 years ago the first
breaks in the continental land mass began as the great north-and-south
cracking, which later admitted the ocean waters and prepared the way for the
westward drift of the continents of North and South America, including
Greenland. The long east-and-west cleavage separated Africa from Europe and
severed the land masses of Australia, the Pacific Islands, and Antarctica from
the Asiatic continent.
57:8.24 700,000,000 years ago Urantia was
approaching the ripening of conditions suitable for the support of life. The
continental land drift continued; increasingly the ocean penetrated the land
as long fingerlike seas providing those shallow waters and sheltered bays
which are so suitable as a habitat for marine life.
57:8.25 650,000,000 years ago witnessed the
further separation of the land masses and, in consequence, a further extension
of the continental seas. And these waters were rapidly attaining that degree
of saltiness which was essential to Urantia life.
57:8.26 It was these seas and their successors that
laid down the life records of Urantia, as subsequently discovered in
well-preserved stone pages, volume upon volume, as era succeeded era and age
grew upon age. These inland seas of olden times were truly the cradle of
evolution.
57:8.27 Presented
by a Life Carrier, a member of the original Urantia Corps and now a resident
observer.
