Our Earth, Soil is not just Dirty Dirt
On Earth, soil is not just dirty dirt. It’s an important piece of the cosmic puzzle.
4.1-2 The dirt shifts under our feet as we walk through the forest,
where Galacti has conducted us. However, Galacti doesn’t
mean for us to linger here for long. He promises that we will
return once we have explored the flora on our Earth. “Come on
then, there’s more to see,” he shouts.
We hike, following our trusted tour guide. It’s a breathtaking
trek out of the woods and into a dirt field. Is this the
next piece in our universal jigsaw puzzle? What does pure dirt
have to do with the cosmic tableau? It is, after all, dirt: It is
loose, with tiny grains and pebbles. It’s in our gardens, including
rooftop container gardens if we live in the city. Dirt, we
think, is everywhere. It is nothing extraordinary, unless you
are a child.
Despite our questioning minds, this field of dirt is
strangely mesmerizing. We have the urge to take off our shoes
and stick our feet in the dirt as we contemplate a few more
pieces of the cosmic mosaic.
Why is Earth, to our knowledge, the only planet with soil
we can actually dig our hands and feet into?
How is it that our Earth can produce such a wide variety of
foodstuffs? In fact, agriculture is responsible for close to 40
percent of all employment worldwide.
Why are there so many uninhabitable planets with “land”
that won’t support us?
Galacti pulls up the card catalog of the universe in digital
format and shows us the many books (some of which are mentioned
in the bibliography and on our website) that have been
written about these and hundreds of other similar questions.
As your other host, I pause to add that you can also submit
articles and references to documents about these wonders of
the world—these systems and paradoxes that should make
us stop, at least for a second or two and raise our minds to
another dimension at http://www.TheExplanation.com
“They’re already following our adventures, Sam,” Galacti
says.
“I know. But the goal of our story is to immerse all of you
into the grandioseness of these inanimate marvels,” I say as I
turn to the travelers. “It’s a prologue and preparation for The
Explanation of what we’re doing on Earth. We humans are
not isolated. We’re on a planet that is part of a solar system
that is part of a galaxy that is part of the universe.”
The travelers and Galacti are considering this and reflecting
on where we are in the universe. We can’t understand what
we’re up to if we don’t grasp who we are and where we fit
in the jigsaw puzzle, or as one of our fellow travelers puts
it, “Who am I? Who are we? How did we get here? What’s
our purpose? What are we accomplishing here? Where is this
stage of ‘man on Earth’ heading? Is it just ‘a stage?’ Is that all
there is, if anything? What’s the point?”
“For the moment, just enjoy the soil,” Galacti says. “Perfect
growing conditions. It’s tailor-made. And I can honestly say that
I haven’t found any cocoon while traveling in all the vastness of
the universe that approximates even 0.000001 percent of the
physical marvels you have on Earth that sustain your lives. I’m
sure there is going to be an Explanation for this.”
“For now, Galacti is right. Let’s dig in the dirt,” I say, and
then I step out of the way in time to avoid a spacecraft-like
drill that skillfully penetrates the soil of our Earth’s crust.
Land: Supporting Life
Our Earth is often compared to an apple, with the thinness of
the skin representing the volume of Earth’s surface crust.
However, as the drill burrows into the “apple,” we can also
compare the crust to the skin that forms on boiled milk as
it cools down, even though the layers of dirt are dark.
This is because below Earth’s stable but skin-thin crust, which
has a thickness of approximately five to seventy kilometers,
is the mantle. The mantle is 3,000 kilometers thick. It is a
hot, viscous amalgam of rock that surrounds a boiling outer
liquid core, like liquid “milk” lava, 2,000 kilometers thick,
with a temperature of 3,000 degrees Celsius.
Finally there’s the solid inner core composed of nickel and iron,
like a 2,500-kilometer diameter peach pit heated to 6,000 degrees
Celsius suspended in the liquid inner core.
Galacti sticks his hand into our Earth’s slim skin surface
as we consider the colossally hot core of 6,000 degrees Celsius
as well as the sun with its core temperature of fifteen million
degrees Celsius. When traveling at the speed of light, the sun
is just eight minutes away. Galacti announces that the Earth’s
slim skin membrane remains at a steady 15 degrees Celsius.
Unlike the Earth’s core, its “skin” supports life in the form of
plants, animals, and the soil bacteria Galacti examines under a
powerful microscope. The soles of our bare feet on the Earth
make us realize that this temperature is just right for water to
flow, worms to squirm, animals to burrow, seeds to germinate,
roots to absorb, and for man’s agricultural and other activities.
With all the interplanetary orbiting and the solar, stellar, and
seasonal activity, average land temperatures vary very little
and have been in a range that have supported life for millions
of years.
The dirt we’re standing in is not just for our current
explorations. Land has numerous purposes. Listen to passengers
clap when their plane touches down after a flight. They
appreciate terra firma. We speak of being “grounded” and
“down to Earth,” that is, reliable and mature.
Our daily lives involve Earth when we work, sleep, eat, and play.
Whether we’re manufacturing or providing a service, sleeping in our
bedrooms, camping in a yurt, cooking dinner at home, feasting
out, bowling, sailing, or studying, all our activities are directly
related to our Earth.
Our digital library of the universe shows us an image of
various areas on the planet. We can see that although about
one-fourth of Earth’s surface is land, only about one-tenth of
this land area can be used for arable and grazing purposes.
One of our travelers picks an apple from the forest to demonstrate
the nature of land. She cuts the apple in half and one piece
in half again. Three-fourths of the apple represents our Earth’s
water, while one-fourth represents the land. Divide the landapple
in three parts.
The first corresponds to nonarable land areas—deserts, swamps,
and cities—and the second designates the forests. Cut the third piece
in four. Three of those pieces represent pastures and meadows. The
final sliver represents arable land for annual crops and permanent
orchards (some fourteen million square kilometers). That’s about the
area of Canada, Alaska, and Mexico combined, and that’s the
land available to grow all of mankind’s foodstuffs.
As the traveler shares the apple with a few people who are
still hungry, she notes that one of the similarly sized slivers
represents the entirety of the land habitable by the world population.
It’s literally food for thought.
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