Frozen Mammoths

     For centuries, stories have been told of frozen carcasses of huge,
     elephantlike animals called mammoths,1 buried in the tundra of
     northeastern Siberia.2 These mammoths, with curved tusks sometimes
     more than 13 feet long, were apparently so fresh-looking that many
     believed they were simply large moles living underground. Some
     called them "ice-rats."3 People thought that when mammoths
     surfaced and saw daylight, they died. Dr. Leopold von Schrenck,
     Chief of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Petrograd (today's
     St. Petersburg, Russia), published the following account in 1869:
     "The mammoth . . . is a gigantic beast which lives in the depths
     of the earth, where it digs for itself dark pathways, and feeds on
     earth . . . . They account for its corpse being found so fresh and
     well preserved on the ground that the animal is still a living
     one."4 Some even thought rapid tunneling by mammoths produced
     earthquakes.5

     This was an early explanation for the frozen mammoths. As people
     learned other strange details, the theories multiplied.
     Unfortunately, theories that explained some details could not
     explain others. In fact, some proposed explanations, such as the
     one above, appear ludicrous in light of new knowledge.

     To learn what produced the frozen mammoths, we must first
     understand much of what is known about them. This is summarized
     immediately below. From this we will distill the key details
     requiring an explanation. Then we will examine nine proposed
     theories. While many will seem initially plausible, their flaws
     will become apparent when we systematically compare how
     effectively they explain each detail. Finally, we will see that
     one theoryăthe hydroplate theoryăintroduced in the preceding
     section, best explains all the details.

                             General Description

     What is Found. Since 1800, at least ten scientific expeditions
     have excavated fleshy remains of the extinct mammoth.6 Most fleshy
     remains were buried in the permafrost of northern Siberia, inside
     the Arctic Circle. Six were found in Alaska. Only a few complete
     carcasses have been discovered. Usually wild animals had eaten the
     exposed parts before scientists arrived. In 1977, the first of two
     complete baby mammoths was foundăa 6-12 month old male named
     "Dima." His flattened,7 emaciated,8 but well-preserved body was
     enclosed in a lens of ice, six feet below the surface of a gentle
     mountainous slope.9 "Portions of the ice were clear and others
     quite brownish yellow with mineral and organic particles."10 Silt,
     clay, and small particles of gravel were found throughout his
     digestive and respiratory tracts (trachea, bronchi, and lungs).11

     If we expand our horizon even further by looking for the frozen
     soft tissue of other animals, we learn that several rhinoceroses
     have been found in the same regions. Some were remarkably
     preserved. (Table 2: on page 121 summarizes more than fifty
     reported mammoth and rhinoceros discoveries.) Other fleshy remains
     come from a horse,12 a young musk ox,13 a wolverine,14 voles,15
     squirrels, a bison,16 a rabbit, and a lynx.17

     If we now look for the bones and ivory of the mammoth, not just
     preserved flesh, the number of discoveries becomes enormous,
     especially in Siberia and Alaska. Nikolai Vereshchagin, the
     Chairman of the Russian Academy of Science's Committee for the
     Study of Mammoths, estimated that more than half a million tons of
     mammoth tusks were buried along a 600-mile stretch of the Arctic
     coast.18 Since the typical tusk weighs 100 pounds, this implies
     that more than five million mammoths lived in this small region.
     Even if this estimate is high and represents thousands of years of
     accumulated remains, we can see that large herds of mammoths must
     have thrived along the Arctic coast. Many more existed elsewhere.
     Mammoth bones and ivory are also found throughout Europe, North
     and Central Asia, in North America, and as far south as Mexico
     City.

     Dense concentrations of mammoth bones, tusks, and teeth are also
     found on remote Arctic islands. Obviously, today's water barriers
     were not always there. Many have described these mammoth remains
     as the main substance of the islands.26 Even if these reports are
     exaggerated, what could account for any concentration and
     preservation of bones and ivory on barren islands well inside the
     Arctic Circle? More than 200 mammoth molars were dredged up with
     oysters from the Dogger Bank in the North Sea.27

     Finally, throughout northern Europe, Asia, and parts of North
     America, we see the bones of many other animals along with those
     of mammoths. A partial listing includes: tiger,28 antelope,29
     camel, horse, reindeer, giant beaver, giant ox, musk sheep, musk
     ox, donkey, badger, ibex, woolly rhinoceros, fox, giant bison,
     lynx, leopard, wolverine, Arctic hare, lion, elk, giant wolf,
     ground squirrel, cave hyena, bear, and several kinds of birds.
     Friend and foe, as well as young and old, are found nearby;
     carnivores, sometimes lying with herbivores. Were their deaths
     related? Rarely are animal bones preserved. Since bones of so many
     different animals were, there may be a connection.

     Former Environment of Frozen Mammoths. There is a common
     misconception that the mammoth lived in areas of extreme cold.
     This widespread belief comes primarily from popular drawings
     showing mammoths living comfortably in snowy, Arctic regions. The
     artists, in turn, were influenced by earlier opinions based on the
     mammoth's hairy coat, thick skin, and a 3.5 inch layer of fat
     under the skin. However, animals with these characteristics do not
     necessarily live in cold climates. Let's examine these
     characteristics more closely:

     Hair. The mammoth's hairy coat no more implies an Arctic
     adaptation than a woolly coat does for a sheep. The mammoth lacked
     erector muscles that fluff-up an animal's fur and creates
     insulating air pockets. Neuville, who conducted the most detailed
     study of the skin and hair of the mammoth, wrote: "It appears to
     me impossible to find, in the anatomical examination of the skin
     and [hair], any argument in favor of adaptation to the cold."30
     The long hair on a mammoth's legs hung to its toes.31 Had it
     walked in snow, snow and ice would have caked on its hairy
     "ankles." Each step into and out of snow would have pulled or worn
     away the "ankle" hair. All hoofed animals living in the Arctic,
     including the musk ox, have fur, not hair, on their legs.32 Fur,
     especially oily fur, holds a thick layer of stagnant air (an
     excellent insulator) between the snow and skin. With the mammoth's
     greaseless hair, much more snow would touch the skin, melt, and
     increase the heat transfer 10 - 100 fold. Later refreezing would
     seriously harm the animal.

     Skin. The skin of the mammoth and elephant are very similar in
     thickness and structure.33 Both lack oil glands, making them
     vulnerable to cold, damp climates. Today, it appears that all
     Arctic mammals have both oil glands and erector musclesăequipment
     absent in the mammoths.34

     Fat. The amount of fat under the skin says little about an
     animal's habitat. Some animals living in temperate zones, such as
     the rhinoceros, have thick layers of fat, while many Arctic
     animals, such as reindeer and caribou, have little fat. Thick
     layers of fat under the skin simply show that food was plentiful.
     Abundant food also suggests a temperate climate.

     Elephants. The elephantăa close approximation to the mammoth35ăis
     a tropical, not an Arctic animal. It requires "a climate that
     ranges from warm to very hot," and "it gets a stomachache if the
     temperature drops close to freezing."36 Newborn elephants are
     susceptible to pneumonia and must be kept warm and dry at all
     times.37 Hannibal, who crossed the Alps with 37 elephants, lost
     all but one due to cold weather.38

     Temperature. The average January temperature in northeastern
     Siberia is about -28ƒF (60ƒF below the freezing point)! During the
     ice age, it was colder. The long, slender trunk of the mammoth was
     particularly vulnerable to cold weather. A six-foot-long nose
     could not survive even one cold night, let alone an
     eight-month-long Siberian winter. For the more slender trunk of a
     young mammoth, the heat loss would be even more harmful. Elephants
     usually die if their trunk is seriously injured.39

     Water. If the mammoth lived in an Arctic climate, its drinking
     water in the winter must have come from eating snow or ice. A wild
     elephant requires 30-60 gallons of water each day.40 The heat
     needed to melt snow or ice and warm it to body temperature would
     consume about half a typical elephant's calories. Unlike other
     Arctic animals, the trunk would bear much of this thermal stress.
     Nursing elephants require about 25% more water.

     Salt. How would a mammoth that lives in an Arctic climate satisfy
     its considerable salt appetite? Elephants dig for salt using their
     sharp tusks.41 In the rock-hard permafrost this would be almost
     impossible, summer or winter, especially with the curved tusks of
     the mammoth.

     Nearby Plants and Animals. The easiest and most accurate way to
     determine an extinct animal or plant's environment is to identify
     familiar animals and plants buried nearby. For the mammoth this
     includes rhinoceroses, tigers, bison, horses, antelope, a
     90-foot-tall fruit tree,42 and temperate species of grasses. All
     live in warm climates. Some frozen remains are of burrowing
     animals, such as voles, who would not burrow in rock-hard
     permafrost. Even larvae of the warble fly have been found in a
     frozen mammoth's intestineălarvae identical to those in tropical
     elephants today.43 No one argues that the animals and plants
     buried near the mammoths were adapted to the Arctic. Why then do
     so for the mammoths?

     Sudden Freezing and Rapid Burial. Before examining other facts, we
     can see three curious problems. First, northern Siberia today is
     cold, dry, and desolate. How could thousands, if not millions, of
     mammoths and many other animals feed themselves? Apparently their
     surroundings were more temperate and moist. If so, why did the
     climate change?

     Second, the well-preserved mammoths and rhinoceroses must have
     been completely frozen soon after death or their soft, internal
     parts would have quickly decomposed. Guthrie has observed that "an
     unopened animal continues to decompose after a fresh kill, even at
     very cold temperatures, because the thermal inertia of its body is
     sufficient to sustain microbial and enzyme activity as long as the
     carcass is completely covered with an insulating pelt and the
     torso remains intact."44 Since mammoths had such large reservoirs
     of heat, the freezing temperatures must have been extremely low.

     Finally, their bodies were buried and protected from predators,
     including birds and insects. But burial could not have occurred if
     the ground were frozen as it is today. Again, this implies a major
     climate change, but now we can see that it must have changed
     suddenly. How were these huge animals quickly frozen and
     buriedăalmost exclusively in muck, a dark soil containing
     decomposed animal and vegetable matter?

     Muck. Muck is a major geological mystery. It covers one-seventh of
     the earth's land surfaceăall surrounding the Arctic Ocean. Muck
     occupies treeless, generally flat terrain, with no surrounding
     mountains from which the muck could have eroded. Russian
     geologists have in some places drilled through 4,000 feet of muck
     without hitting solid rock. Where did so much eroded material come
     from?

     Oil prospectors, drilling through Alaskan muck, have "brought up
     an 18-inch long chunk of tree trunk from almost 1,000 feet below
     the surface. It wasn't petrifiedăjust frozen."45 The nearest
     forests are hundreds of miles away. Elsewhere, Williams describes
     similar discoveries in Alaska:

     Though the ground is frozen for 1,900 feet down from the surface
     at Prudhoe Bay, everywhere the oil companies drilled around this
     area they discovered an ancient tropical forest. It was in frozen
     state, not in petrified state. It is between 1,100 and 1,700 feet
     down. There are palm trees, pine trees, and tropical foliage in
     great profusion. In fact, they found them lapped all over each
     other, just as though they had fallen in that position.46

     How were trees buried under a thousand feet of hard, frozen
     ground? We are faced with the same series of questions that we
     first saw with the frozen mammoths. Again, we are driven to the
     conclusion that there was a sudden and dramatic change in climate
     accompanied by rapid burial in muck, now frozen solid.

                       Some Specifics

     We cannot minimize the frozen mammoth mystery by saying, "Only a
     few complete mammoths have been reported." One good case would be
     enough. Undoubtedly, hundreds of past discoveries went unreported,
     because many Siberians believed that looking at a mammoth's face
     brought death or misfortune. Fear of being forced by scientists to
     dig a mammoth out of the frozen ground also suppressed other
     discoveries. Besides, Siberia and Alaska are sparsely populated
     and relatively unexplored. Flowing rivers are the primary
     excavators, so man has only seen a small sample of what was buried
     there. Siberian geologists report that "work at the gold mines
     uncovers frozen mammoths every year, but since the arrival of
     scientists can delay and complicate the mining, most are lost to
     science."48

     Widespread freezing and rapid burial are also inferred when
     commercial grade ivory is found. Ivory tusks, unless frozen and
     protected from the weather, dry out, lose their animal matter and
     elasticity, crumble, crack, and become useless for carving.49 The
     trade in mammoth ivory has prospered since at least 1611 over a
     wide geographical region, from which an estimated 96,000 mammoth
     tusks have been exported.50 Therefore, the extent of the freezing
     and burial is wider than most people have imagined.

     The Benkendorf Mammoth.51 In May 1846, a surveyor named Benkendorf
     and his party were camped in Siberia on the Indigirka River. The
     spring thaw and the unusually heavy rains caused the swollen river
     to erode a new channel. Benkendorf noticed a large object bobbing
     slowly in the water. As the "black, horrible, giantlike mass was
     thrust out of the water [they] beheld a colossal elephant's head,
     armed with mighty tusks, with its long trunk moving in an
     unearthly manner, as though seeking something lost therein." They
     tried to pull the mammoth to shore with ropes and chains but soon
     realized that its hind legs were anchored, actually frozen, in the
     river bottom in a standing position.

     Twenty-four hours later, the river thawed and eroded the river
     bottom, freeing the mammoth. The team of fifty men and their
     horses pulled the mammoth onto dry land, twelve feet from the
     shore. The 13-foot tall, 15-foot long beast was fat and perfectly
     preserved. Its "widely opened eyes gave the animal an appearance
     of life, as though it might move in a moment and destroy [them]
     with a roar." They removed the tusks and opened its full stomach
     containing "young shoots of the fir and pine; and a quantity of
     young fir cones, also in a chewed state . . ." Hours later and
     without warning, the river bank collapsed, because the river had
     slowly undercut the bank. The mammoth was carried off toward the
     Arctic Ocean, never to be seen again.

     The Berezovka Mammoth. The most famous, accessible, and perhaps
     studied mammoth is a fifty-year-old52 male, found in a freshly
     eroded bank, 100 feet above Siberia's Berezovka River in 1900. A
     year later an expedition, led by Dr. Otto F. Herz, painstakingly
     excavated the frozen body and transported it to the Zoological
     Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.53 (See Figure 63 (caption).)

     Berezovka was upright, although his back was excessively humped
     and his straightened hind legs were rotated forward at the hips
     into an almost horizontal position. This strange, contorted
     position was further exaggerated by his raised and spread front
     legs. Several ribs, a shoulder blade, and pelvis were broken.54
     Amazingly, the long bone in his right foreleg was crushed into
     about a dozen pieces, without noticeably damaging the surrounding
     tissue.55 His shaggy, wirelike hair, some of which was twenty
     inches long, was largely intact.56 His erect penis was
     horizontally flattened.57 (This organ in an elephant is round,
     S-shaped, and never horizontal.58)

     What can we conclude from these unusual details? To crush a long,
     slender rod (which the long leg bones resemble) requires axial
     compression while the rod (or bone) is encased in some material
     that will prevent bending and snapping. To demonstrate this, place
     a straight stick vertically on a table and see how difficult it is
     to compress and break it into a dozen or so pieces. Instead, it
     will snap at the weakest point. If the stick has a slight bend, as
     do the long leg bones, crushing becomes almost impossible.
     Something must prevent the stick or bone from bending as the
     compressive load is applied. Apparently, Berezovka's leg bone was
     severely compressed along its length while encased in some solid,
     but not absolutely rigid, medium.59

     Penile erection, under the above conditions, suggests death by
     slow suffocation. Tolmachoff concluded that, "The death [of
     Berezovka] by suffocation is proved by the erected male genital, a
     condition inexplicable in any other way."60 But why was the penis
     horizontally flattened? It had to be pressed between two
     horizontal surfaces, one of which was probably his abdomen. Again,
     there apparently was considerable vertical compression throughout
     some medium that encased the entire body.

     Suffocation is also implied with four other frozen giants in this
     region. Vollosovitch (Table 2) concluded that his second mammoth,
     buried with a penile erection on Bolshoi Lyakhov Island, also
     suffocated.61 A third example is provided by Dima, whose
     "pulmonary alveoli suggested death by asphyxia" after "great
     exertion just before death."62 The Pallas rhinoceros also showed
     symptoms of asphyxiation.

     The blood-vessels and even the fine capillaries were seen to be
     filled with brown coagulated blood, which, in many places still
     preserved its red colour. This is exactly the kind of evidence we
     look for when we want to know whether an animal has been drowned
     or suffocated. Asphyxia is always accompanied by the gorging of
     the capillaries with blood.63

     Von Schrenck's rhinoceros was found with expanded nostrils and an
     open mouth. The investigators concluded "that the animal died from
     suffocation, which it tried to avoid by keeping the nostrils wide
     asunder."64 In all, three mammoths and two rhinoceroses apparently
     suffocated. No other cause of death has been shown for the
     remaining frozen giants.65

     Sanderson describes another strange aspect of Berezovka.

     Much of the head, which was sticking out of the bank, had been
     eaten down to the bone by local wolves and other animals, but most
     of the rest was perfect. Most important, however, was that the
     lips, the lining of the mouth and the tongue were preserved. Upon
     the last, as well as between the teeth, were portions of the
     animal's last meal, which for some almost incomprehensible reason
     it had not had time to swallow. The meal proved to have been
     composed of delicate sedges and grasses . . .66

     Another account states that the mammoth's "mouth was filled with
     grass, which had been cropped, but not chewed and swallowed."67
     The grass froze so rapidly that it still had "the imprint of the
     animal's molars."68 Hapgood's translation of a Russian report
     mentions eight well-preserved bean pods and five beans found in
     its mouth.69

     Twenty-four pounds of undigested vegetation were removed from the
     Berezovka mammoth and analyzed by the Russian scientist, V. N.
     Sukachev. He identified more than forty different species of
     plants: herbs, grasses, mosses, shrubs, and tree leaves. Many no
     longer grow that far north; others grow both in Siberia and
     Mexico. Dillow draws several conclusions from these remains:

   o The presence of so many varieties [of plants] that generally grow much
     to the south indicates that the climate of the region was milder than
     that of today.
   o The discovery of the ripe fruits of sedges, grasses, and other plants
     suggests that the mammoth died during the second half of July or the
     beginning of August.
   o The mammoth must have been overwhelmed suddenly with a rapid deep
     freeze and instant death. The sudden death is proved by the unchewed
     bean pods still containing the beans that were found between its teeth,
     and the deep freeze is suggested by the well-preserved state of the
     stomach contents and the presence of edible meat [for wolves and
     dogs].70

          At normal body temperatures, the stomach acids and enzymes
          break down vegetable material within an hour. What inhibited
          this process? The only plausible explanation is for the
          stomach to cool to about 40ƒF in ten hours or less.71 But
          since the stomach is protected inside a warm (96.6ƒF for
          elephants) body, how cold must the outside air become to drop
          the stomach's temperature to 40ƒF? Experiments have shown
          that the outer layers of skin would have had to drop suddenly
          to at least -175ƒF!82

          Independently, Sanderson concluded, "The flesh of many of the
          animals found in the muck must have been very rapidly and
          deeply frozen, for its cells [had] not burst83. . .

          Frozen-food experts have pointed out that to do this,
          starting with a healthy, live specimen, you must drop the
          temperature of the air surrounding it down to a point well
          below minus 150 degrees Fahrenheit."84

          The ice layer directly under the Berezovka mammoth contained
          some hair still attached to his body. Below his right
          forefoot was "the end of a very hairy tail . . . of a bovine
          animal, probably [a] bison."85 Also under the body were "the
          right forefoot and left hind foot of a reindeer . . . . The
          whole landslide on the Berezovka [River] was the richest
          imaginable storehouse of prehistoric remains."86 In the
          surrounding, loamy soil was an antelope skull,87 "the
          perfectly preserved upper skull of a prehistoric horse to
          which fragments of muscular fibre still adhered,"88 tree
          trunks, tree fragments, and roots.89 This vegetation differed
          from the amazingly well-preserved plants in the mouth and
          stomach.

          Geographical Extent. We should also notice the broad
          geographical extent over which these strange events occurred.
          (See map on page 120.) They were probably not separate,
          unrelated events. As Sir Henry Howorth stated:

          The instances of the soft parts of the great pachyderms being
          preserved are not mere local and sporadic ones, but they form
          a long chain of examples along the whole length of Siberia,
          from the Urals to the land of the Chukchis [the Bering
          Strait], so that we have to do here with a condition of
          things which prevails, and with meteorological conditions
          that extend over a continent.

          When we find such a series ranging so widely preserved in the
          same perfect way, and all evidencing a sudden change of
          climate from a comparatively temperate one to one of great
          rigour, we cannot help concluding that they all bear witness
          to a common event. We cannot postulate a separate climate
          cataclysm for each individual case and each individual
          locality, but we are forced to the conclusion that the now
          permanently frozen zone in Asia became frozen at the same
          time from the same cause.90

          Actually, northern portions of Asia, Europe, and North
          America contain "the remain of extinct species of the
          elephant [mammoth] and rhinoceros, together with those of
          horses, oxen, deer, and other large quadrupeds."91 So the
          event may have been even more widespread than Howorth
          believed.

          Rock Ice. In Alaska and Siberia, scientists92 have found a
          strange type of massive ice in and under the muck containing
          mammoth remains. Tolmachoff called it "rock ice."93 Rock ice
          often has a yellow-tinge and contains round or elongated
          bubbles. Some bubbles are connected, while others, more than
          two centimeters long, are vertically streaked.94 Rock ice,
          when exposed to the sun, showed "a polyhedral, granular
          structure at the surface, and these granules could usually be
          easily rubbed off with the finger."95 It looked "like
          compacted hail."96 Mammoth remains have been found above,
          below, beside, partially in,97 and, in one case, within98
          rock ice.

          Horizontal layers of rock ice are most easily seen in bluffs
          along the Arctic coast and nearby rivers.99 Some subsurface
          ice layers are more than two miles long and 150 feet
          thick.100 A several-foot-thick layer of structureless clay or
          silt is sometimes above the rock ice. How was this clay or
          silt deposited? If it settled out of a lake or stream, as
          normally happens, it should have many thin layers, but it
          does not. Furthermore, the slow settling of clay and silt
          through water should have provided enough time for the water
          to melt all the ice below. Sometimes rock ice contains plant
          particles101 and thin layers of sand or clay. Had the water
          frozen in a normal way, the dirt would have settled out and
          the vegetable matter would have floated upward. Apparently,
          this rock ice froze rapidly and was never part of a lake or
          stream.

          Several feet beneath the Berezovka mammoth and muck was a
          layer of rock ice, sloping for more than 180 feet down to the
          river. Herz and Pfizenmayer,102 in digging into it, reported
          perhaps the strangest characteristic of the rock ice.

          Deeper down in the cliff the ice becomes more solid and
          transparent, in some places entirely white and brittle. After
          remaining exposed to the air even for a short time this ice
          again assumes a yellowish-brown color and then looks like the
          old ice.103

          Obviously, something in the air (probably oxygen) was
          reacting chemically with something in the ice. Besides
          wondering what the reactants were, there is a more basic
          question. Why was air (primarily oxygen and nitrogen) not
          already dissolved in the ice? Just as liquid water dissolves
          table salt, sugar, or many other solids, water also dissolves
          gases in contact with it. For example, virtually all water
          and ice on earth are nearly saturated with air. Had air been
          dissolved in Herz's rock ice before it changed to a
          yellowish-brown color, the chemical reaction would have
          already occurred.

          Table 4 compares the characteristics of rock ice with those
          of the three generic types of ice. A careful study of this
          table shows that rock ice is a type 3 ice. Since such thick
          layers of rock ice still exist, an enormous amount of water
          must have frozen while moving through cold air or outer
          space.

          Yedomas and Loess. The Siberian frozen mammoths are
          frequently found in strange hills, 30-200 feet high, which
          Russian geologists call yedomas. For example, the mammoth
          cemetery, containing the remains of 156 mammoths, was in a
          yedoma.104 (See line 49 in Table 2: on page 121.) It is known
          that these hills were formed under cold, windy conditions,
          since they are composed of a powdery, homogeneous soil,
          honeycombed with thick veins of ice. Sometimes the ice, which
          several Russian geologists have concluded was formed
          simultaneously with the soil, accounts for 90 percent of the
          yedoma's volume.105 Some yedomas contain many broken trees
          "in the wildest disorder."106 The natives call them "wood
          hills" and the buried trees "Noah's wood."107 Yedoma soil has
          a high salt and carbonate content,108 contains tiny plant
          remains, and is comparable to muck.109 The Berezovka mammoth
          was found in a similar soil.110

          Recently, this soil has been identified as loess111 (a German
          term, pronounced "LERSE"). Little is known about its origin.
          Most believe it is a windblown deposit spread under cold,
          glacial conditions over wide (almost global) geographical
          areas. However, Siberia was scarcely glaciated, and normal
          winds would deposit it too slowly to protect so many frozen
          animals from predators. Loess often blankets formerly
          glaciated regions, such as Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas,
          and Alaska. It lacks internal layering (stratification) and
          is found at all elevationsăfrom just above sea level to
          hillsides at 8,000 feet elevation. Since loess is at many
          elevations and its tiny particles are not rounded by
          thousands of years of exposure to water and wind, some have
          proposed that loess came recently from outer space.112 Loess,
          a fertile soil rich in carbonates, has a yellow tinge caused
          by the oxidation of iron-bearing minerals since it was
          deposited.113 The Yellow River and the Yellow Sea of China
          are so named because of the loess suspended in them. Why is
          there an apparent relationship between frozen mammoths,
          yedomas, and loess?

          Conclusion. This brief survey raises several intriguing but
          perplexing problems. What killed the mammoths, and how were
          they buried in such a peculiar manner? Some must have frozen
          within hours after their death, since significant decay or
          mutilation by scavengers did not occur. However, during that
          late summer or early fall, the conditions in Siberia were not
          cold. What happened?


                      Details Requiring an Explanation

     Listed below is a summary of the hard-to-explain details relating
     to the frozen mammoths. Any satisfactory theory for the frozen
     mammoths should be able to explain them.

     Abundant Food. A typical wild elephant requires about 330 pounds
     of food per day and spends about 16 hours a day eating. Therefore,
     vast quantities of food would have been required to support the
     estimated 5,000,000 mammoths that lived in just a small portion of
     northern Siberia. The Adams mammoth (a male), discovered in 1799,
     "was so fat . . . that its belly hung below its knees."115

     Warm Climate. Abundant food requires a temperate climateămuch
     warmer than northern Siberia today. Only a small percentage of the
     food found in Berezovka's mouth and stomach grows near the Arctic
     Circle today. Furthermore, the flower fragments in its stomach
     show that it died during warm weather. Despite the popular
     misconception, the mammoth was a temperate, not an Arctic, animal.

     Away From Rivers. Although most frozen remains are found along
     river banks where excavations occur naturally, some frozen remains
     are found far from rivers.

     The ice and mud was not deposited as hills. Instead, it was deposited
     as one thick layer. Later the ice began to melt in spots. The more it
     melted, the thinner the layer became, causing lakes to collect in the
     depressions. The presence of lakes accelerated the melting below them.
     What is now left, after thousands of years of summer melting, are these
     hills. Since some yedoma are 200 feet tall, the initial deposition in
     the windy environment was probably at least 200 feet thick.

          Yedomas and Loess. Frozen mammoths are frequently found in
          yedomas and loess. What accounts for this and the strange
          properties of yedomas and loess?

          Multi-Continental. Soft parts of large animals have been
          preserved over a 3,000 mile wide zone spanning two
          continents. It is unlikely that many unrelated local events
          would produce such similar results over such a broad
          geographical area.

          Elevated Burials. Mammoth and rhinoceros bodies are often
          found on the highest levels of generally flat, low
          plateaus.116 Dense concentrations of mammoth and rhinoceros
          remains in yedomas and the interior of Arctic islands are
          examples of this. Dima was discovered in a mountainous
          region.

          Frozen Muck. Mammoth carcasses are almost exclusively encased
          in frozen muck.117 Also buried in the muck are huge deposits
          of trees and other animal and vegetable matter. The origin of
          muck is a mystery.

          Rock Ice. Strange, granular ice containing clay, sand, and a
          large volume of air pockets is sometimes found near frozen
          mammoths. It apparently is a type 3 form of ice. (See Table
          3: on page 127.)

          Sudden Freezing. Some frozen mammoths and rhinoceroses still
          had food preserved in their mouths, stomachs, or
          intestines.118

          Suffocation. At least three mammoths and two rhinoceroses
          appear to have suffocated. No other cause of death has been
          established for the remaining frozen giants.

          Dirty Lungs. Dima's digestive and respiratory tract contained
          silt, clay, and small particles of gravel. Apparently, the
          air Dima breathed and the food he ate contained such matter
          for minutes or hours before his death.

          -150ƒF. The temperature surrounding some mammoths must have
          plunged to at least -150ƒF.

          Large Animals. The frozen remains are usually from the
          larger, stronger animals such as mammoths and rhinoceroses.

          Summer-Fall Death. Vegetation in the stomachs and intestines
          of preserved mammoths imply that they died in the late summer
          or early fall,119 perhaps in August,120 or even late July.121

          Animal Mixes. The bones of many types of animals, friends and
          foes, are frequently found near the mammoths.

          Upright. Several frozen mammoths, and even mammoth
          skeletons,122 were found upright. Despite this posture, the
          Berezovka mammoth had a broken pelvis, shoulder blade, and a
          crushed leg. Surprisingly, he was not lying on his side in a
          position of agony.

          Vertical Compression. The crushed leg bone and the
          horizontally flattened penis of the Berezovka mammoth show
          that he experienced severe vertical compression after his
          death. Dima was also compressed and flattened.

          Seventeen pieces of the problem are now before us. Fitting
          this centuries-old jigsaw puzzle together will be the final
          task. As we will see, many clever and surprising proposals
          have been made. However, most theories address only a few
          pieces of the frozen mammoth puzzle.

             Theories Attempting to Explain the Frozen Mammoths

     Nine theories have been proposed to explain the frozen mammoth
     puzzle; some are quite imaginative. Each theory will be described
     as it would be by the referenced advocate, usually the theory's
     author. We will then construct a special table (Table 4: on page
     136) showing how well each theory fits the pieces of the puzzle
     together. You can make the critical judgments yourself and even
     modify the table. For comparison, this author's opinions will be
     explained.

     Fruitful theories answer not only the obvious, initial questions
     but also more perplexing and seemingly unrelated problems. This
     will be the case with the frozen mammoth mystery. In trying to
     learn why an extinct animal is sometimes frozen and buried, we
     will answer broader questions and may even uncover a sequence of
     dramatic, global events.

     Fruitful theories also generate surprising predictions for testing
     the theory. Keep this in mind as we examine all nine explanations.
     With each, ask yourself, "What predictions can this theory make?"
     If few predictions are forthcoming, the theory is probably
     weak.126 (If theories could not be published unless they included
     clearly enumerated predictions, we would be mercifully spared many
     distractions and false ideas.)

     Hydroplate Theory. (For a more complete description of the
     hydroplate theory, first read pages 83-104.) The rupture of the
     earth's crust passed between Alaska and Siberia in minutes. During
     the next few hours, some of the upward jetting, subterranean water
     from "the fountains of the great deep" went above the atmosphere
     where the effective temperature is several hundred degrees below
     zero Fahrenheit.127 Much of the resulting ice fell in a gigantic
     "hail storm." Some animals were suddenly buried, suffocated,
     frozen, and compressed by tons of cold, muddy ice crystals. The
     mud in this ice prevented it from floating as the flood waters
     submerged these regions after days and weeks. The thick blanket of
     ice preserved many animals during the flood phase. After the flood
     waters drained off the continents, the icy graves in warmer
     climates melted, and their contents decayed. However, many
     animals, buried in what are now permafrost regions, were
     preserved.

     Lake Drowning Theory.128 No catastrophe occurred. The
     well-preserved mammoths, with food in their stomachs and between
     their teeth, died suddenly, probably from asphyxiation resulting
     from drowning in a lake, river, or bog. Such burials preserve
     animal tissue, and even humans, for many thousands of years.

     Crevasse Theory. Some mammoths fell into ice crevasses or deep
     snowdrifts. This protected them from predators, while ice
     preserved them for thousands of years.129

     Mud Burial Theory. In Siberian summers, the top foot or so of
     tundra thaws, so larger animals, even man, can easily become
     stuckăstanding upright. Herds of mammoths, rhinoceroses, and
     buffalo made summer migrations to northern Siberia and Alaska.
     Some became stuck in this mud; others were overwhelmed and
     suffocated in mudslides. Still others died for various reasons and
     were then buried in slow mudflows during several summer thaws.
     Sudden cold spellsăsometimes followed by long, cold wintersăfroze
     and preserved many of them.130

     River Transport Theory. The mammoths and other animals lived
     further south in the temperate zone of Asia where food was
     abundant. Their remains floated from Central Siberia on the
     north-flowing rivers during local floods.131

     Extinction-by-Man Theory. Man exterminated the mammothsăjust as
     man almost exterminated the buffalo. Man, in hunting the mammoths,
     pursued and pushed them north into Siberia and Alaska. There they
     died from harsh weather, lack of food, or the direct killing by
     man.132

     The Bering Barrier Theory. At the peak of the last ice age, the
     Bering Strait was closed as ice accumulated on continents,
     lowering sea level by 300 feet. This newly created land bridge
     allowed people and animals, including mammoths, to migrate between
     Siberia and Alaska and onto Arctic islands. Since the warmer
     Pacific waters could no longer mix through the Bering Strait with
     the cold Arctic Ocean, the Pacific waters became even warmer and
     the Arctic waters even colder. The resulting heavy evaporation
     from the Pacific caused extreme snow falls on the higher, colder
     land masses north of the Bering barrier. Mammoths and others were
     buried in severe snow storms early one fall. As the ice age ended,
     heavy rains washed soil down on top of compacted snow deposits,
     forming rock ice. Some frozen mammoths and rock ice are still
     preserved. Since this last ice age, glacial melting raised sea
     levels and reestablished the Bering Strait.133

     Shifting Crust Theory. Before the last ice age, the Hudson Bay was
     at the North Pole. Siberia and Alaska were further south and
     supported large herds of mammoths with abundant vegetation. The
     earth's crust shifted, moving Siberia northward. Since the earth
     is slightly flattened at the poles and bulges at the equator, the
     shifting earth's crust produced many ruptures. Volcanic gas was
     thrown above the atmosphere where it cooled and descended as a
     super-cold "blob." Airborne volcanic dust lowered temperatures on
     the earth and caused phenomenal snow storms. Mammoths and other
     animals living in Siberia and Alaska were suddenly frozen and
     buried in the extremely cold snow. Some are still preserved.134

     Meteorite Theory. At the end of the last ice age, a large iron
     meteorite hit the earth's atmosphere. The resulting heat
     temporarily melted the top layers of the frozen tundra, causing
     mammoths to sink into muck. The poor visibility caused others "to
     blunder to their deaths in the icy bogs."135

                                   Table 5

     Table 5: on page 136 summarizes how well each theory explains the
     many strange things associated with the frozen mammoths. Each
     column corresponds to a theory and each row represents a strange
     detail requiring an explanation. A green box means that, in this
     author's opinion, the column's theory provides a reasonable
     explanation for the detail represented by that row. Yellow and red
     boxes indicate moderate and serious problems. The number in a cell
     refers to an amplifying explanation below.

     Readers may make their own judgments and independently assess each
     theory's plausibility. For example, if you feel a detail or theory
     has been omitted or misstated, add to or correct it. This tabular
     approach focuses future discussions on the areas of critical
     disagreement. It also motivates one to keep all details and
     competing theories in mindăencouraging balance and thoroughness.
     Often a disagreement becomes moot when one realizes other facts
     opposing some theory. When a theory is proposed, usually only the
     details supporting it and opposing a competing theory are
     mentioned. Table 4: on page 136 is an attempt to analyze all
     published theories and all known diagnostic details.

     In seeking the cause of many strange and related details, one is
     tempted to use a separate explanation for each detail. Throughout
     the history of science, experience has shown that the simplest
     theory explaining the most details is most likely to be correct.
     For example, a sudden rash of fires in a city may all be
     unrelated. However, most investigators would instinctively look
     for a common explanation. Another example occurred centuries ago.
     To explain a newly discovered detail of planetary motion required,
     in effect, a new theory. Later, one theory (Newton's Law of
     Gravitation) provided a simple explanation for all these motions.

                      Relating to the Hydroplate Theory

     1. Yedomas and Loess. (These terms are explained on page 130.)
     Immediately after the rupture, the salty, subterranean water began
     flowing horizontally toward the rupture. The tremendous pressure
     in the subterranean chamber accelerated the escaping water to high
     speeds, rapidly eroding the rock bounding the chamber and rupture.
     Thus the water expelled up through the rupture and into the
     atmosphere was filled with dirt fragments of various sizes. As you
     will see, the higher a droplet rose, the more likely it was to
     lose the larger particles carried inside. Therefore, the droplets
     that rose above the atmosphere and froze contained the powdery
     dirt particles that comprise yedoma hills and the world's loess.

     First, imagine that you are a water droplet jetting up through the
     rupture and atmosphere. What would you see and feel? The
     atmospheric pressure drops as you go higher, causing water to
     evaporate from your surface and reducing your size slightly. The
     evaporation cools you just as drying perspiration cools a person
     or evaporation units cool homes in dry climates. Flowing past you
     are gasesăsome air, but primarily water vapor (steam) from the
     evaporation of other water droplets. This "gusting wind" strikes
     you from differing directions, each time dragging your skin around
     toward the opposite, or downstream, side. This creates a strong
     and complicated circulation within your body and chaotic waves on
     your surface. Your ride is bumpy. Sometimes you fragment into two
     or more pieces, but the smaller a piece is, the stronger the
     molecular forces (the surface tension) holding it together.

     Now pretend you are one of the smallest of hundreds of dirt
     particles in a small, buffeted, water droplet. The swirling
     currents within your droplet cause the other particles in the
     droplet to dart around you chaotically. Being one of the smallest
     of these particles, you are not jostled as much as the larger
     particles.136 Each gust tends to shake the larger particles out of
     the droplet. When you finally arrive high above the atmosphere and
     your droplet freezes, only the smallest dirt particles remain.
     Since you are encased in ice, you are protected from water erosion
     that would round and smooth your sharper corners.

                                  [Image]

     Eventually most of this ice fell to the earth in a giant hail
     storm as the flood began. The high winds tore up trees and
     pulverized vegetation that mixed with the muddy hail. Many animals
     froze and suffocated. When the ice melted, it left behind tiny,
     angular, dirt particles (now called loess) and some dissolved
     salts. Years later, the thick layers of muddy hail began melting
     in many isolated locations. Further melting around these spots
     accelerated as melt water collected in these depressions during
     subsequent melting seasons. Today's hilly yedomas are what remain.
     Therefore, in Arctic regions where little summer melting occurs,
     the loess, salt, vegetation, and mammoth remains were largely
     preserved in cold yedomas.

     At the periphery of formerly glaciated areas, where ice sheets
     most recently melted, loess is commonly found. It is especially
     abundant along the downwind side of ice age drainage channels,
     such as the Mississippi River. In warmer climates, wind often
     retransported the loess, rain leached the salts from the soil, and
     the organic material decayed. PREDICTION 7: High concentrations of
     loess particles will be found in the bottom several hundred feet
     of ice cores drilled in Antarctica and Greenland. The bottom
     layers of Greenland, Canadian, and Antarctic ice sheets contain up
     to 50 times more microparticles than the glacial ice above.137 The
     ice crystals containing them are much smaller than normal glacial
     ice crystals. This suggests that the hail that buried and froze
     the mammoths was smaller than normal hail. Another study138 found
     that the lower portion of the Greenland ice sheet contains
     abnormally high amounts of dust, sea salt, and other chemicals
     consistent with that in the subterranean water chamber.

     2. Elevated Burials, Frozen Muck, and Animal Mixes. When a space
     ship reenters the earth's atmosphere, aerodynamic friction melts a
     thin layer of the vehicle's leading surface. The liquid film then
     flows off the spaceship into the atmosphere. This localized
     absorption and removal of heat, called ablation, protects the rest
     of the vehicle from the friction and heat.

     Likewise, frictional heating melted the first ice particles
     falling into the atmosphere. Muddy rain, accompanied by high
     winds, fell first, forcing many different animals to higher
     ground. Some of these high burial grounds are now the Arctic
     islands containing dense concentrations of mammoth bones and
     ivory. Prey and predator sought protection from the greater common
     enemyărising waters. Larger animals, such as mammoths and
     rhinoceroses, in rushing to higher ground, may have crushed and
     buried the smaller animals in warmer sediments. This may explain
     the antelope skull under the Berezovka mammoth.

     Fine sediments in the muddy rain and ice mixed with the torn up
     surface vegetation and formed muck. This soupy mixture, along with
     ripped up forests, flowed into valleys and other low areas,
     smoothing the topography into flat, low plateaus. Later this muck
     froze, preserving to this day its distinguishing organic component
     and its loesslike inorganic component. PREDICTION 8: Muck on the
     Siberian plateaus should have a wide range of thicknesses. The
     greatest thickness will be in former valleys. Preflood hilltops
     will have the thinnest layers of muck. Drilling or seismic
     reflection techniques should confirm this.

     3. Rock Ice. Table 3: on page 127 shows why rock ice is a type 3
     ice. As was stated on page 91, the subterranean waters contained
     large quantities of dissolved salt and carbon dioxide. The carbon
     dioxide contributed to the carbonates found in loess. PREDICTION
     9: Rock ice is salty.139

     Before the flood, the subterranean water was sealed off from the
     atmosphere and, therefore, probably contained no dissolved air. As
     "the fountains of the great deep" exploded up through the
     atmosphere, the rapid and steady evaporation from the rising
     liquid forced gases away from, rather than toward, each rising
     liquid particle. Thus, the water that froze above the atmosphere
     had no dissolved air but still had dissolved carbon dioxide. Both
     froze to become a mixture of water ice and frozen carbon dioxide,
     or "dry ice."

     Ice absorbs air very slowly, especially the inner portion of a
     large volume of falling ice particles. Therefore, little air was
     absorbed as the hail fell to the earth. Once the ice was on the
     warm ground, some "dry ice" and water ice slowly evaporated as
     white clouds. As the ice depth increased to perhaps several
     hundred feet, these clouds billowed up through gaps between the
     ice particles, forcing out any air that might have been between
     the ice particles. Eventually, the weight of the topmost layers of
     ice essentially sealed the lower ice from the air above. This
     explains why Herz saw the ice under Berezovka turn yellow-brown as
     it came in contact with (and reacted chemically with) air for the
     first time. PREDICTION 10: The bubbles in rock ice will be found
     to contain less air and much more carbon dioxide than normal.

     The ice ages followed the flood. Since then, the surface of the
     ground in Alaska and Siberia melts slightly each summer. In some
     parts of Alaska and Siberia, this included several feet of rock
     ice. When a layer of this dirty ice melted, the water drained
     away, leaving particles of dirt and vegetation behind. The
     remaining clay and silt provided an insulating blanket, causing
     less ice to melt each year. Most of the unsorted and unstructured
     clay and silt above rock ice came from melted rock ice. PREDICTION
     11: The dirt and organic particles in rock ice will closely
     resemble those in the overlying muck.

     4. Suffocation. Suffocation occurred in several ways: (a) physical
     burial by falling ice particles, (b) breathing too much carbon
     dioxide gas from evaporating "dry ice," and (c) freezing lung
     tissue, thereby preventing the diffusion of oxygen into and carbon
     dioxide out of the lungs.

     5. Dirty Lungs. The extreme winds beginning at the time of the
     rupture created a gritty atmosphere for a few hours before the
     rain and ice reached Dima. This is why his entire digestive and
     respiratory tracts contained silt, clay, and small particles of
     gravel.

     6. -150ƒF and Large Animals. As the mass of "hail" fell into the
     atmosphere, it pushed forward and displaced large volumes of air,
     creating violent down drafts and additional surface winds. Larger,
     stronger animals, such as mammoths and rhinoceroses, best
     withstood the driving rain, wind, and cold as they sought safety.
     They were still standing as the colder hail began piling up at
     various placesăhail whose temperature was about -150ƒF,
     corresponding to the temperature above the atmosphere. This
     "supercold" ice pressing against their bodies rapidly froze even
     their warm stomachs and internal organs.

     Some muddy hail fell to the bottoms of streams, rivers, and lakes.
     It did not float, because it contained dirt. Its extreme coldness
     absorbed so much heat that lakes and streams, and the animals
     therein, quickly froze. (See What Happened? on pages 128 and 129.)

     7. Upright and Vertical Compression. The massive and violent hail
     storm buried mammoths and rhinoceroses aliveămany standing up and
     compressed from all sides. Babies were flattened. Exposed parts of
     adult bodies, unsupported by bone, were vertically flattened.
     Sometimes even strong bones were crushed by axial compression.
     Encasement in muddy ice maintained the alignment of Berezovka's
     leg bone as it was crushed lengthwise.

     Ice slowly flows downhill as, for example, in glaciers. Such a
     flow, pushing Berezovka's bodyătail first, would explain his
     forward swept hind legs, humped back, displaced vertebrae, and
     spread front legs bent at the "wrists."

     8. Other. The hydroplate theory states that the frozen animals
     were buried in muddy hail at the onset of the flood. During the
     following months, sedimentary layers and their fossils were
     deposited on top of this ice and sorted by liquefaction. (See
     pages 147-155.) PREDICTION 12: One should never find marine
     fossils, layered strata, coal seams, or limestone directly beneath
     undisturbed rock ice or frozen carcasses. This is a severe test
     for this theory since a few crude geologic maps of Siberia imply
     that marine fossils lie within several miles of the frozen
     remains. How accurate are these geologic maps, and what deposits
     are directly beneath frozen carcasses?

     Sedimentary layers generally extend over large areas and sometimes
     contain distinctive fossils. One can construct a plausible
     geologic map of an area (a) if many deep layers are exposed, as
     for example in the face of a cliff or the bank of a river, (b) if
     similar vertical sequences of fossils and rock types are found in
     nearby exposures, and (c) if no intervening crustal movement has
     occurred. If all three conditions are satisfied, then it is
     reasonable to assume that the layers with similar distinctive
     fossils are connected. Finally, if such layers pass beneath any
     frozen carcass, this explanation for the frozen mammoths will have
     a serious problem. This author is not aware that these four
     conditions were ever satisfied in northern Siberia, one of the
     most unexplored regions on the earth.

     Nor is there any known report of marine fossils, layered strata,
     limestone deposits, or coal seams directly beneath any frozen
     mammoth or rhinoceros remains. Tolmachoff, in his chapter on the
     geology of the Berezovka site, wrote that "Marine shells or marine
     mammals have never been discovered in [deposits having frozen
     mammoths]."140 Also, Hern von Maydell, reporting on his third
     frozen mammoth, wrote, "despite my thorough search, not a single
     shell or fossil was found."141 The sediments beneath the Fairbanks
     Creek mammoth down to bedrock contained no marine fossils, layered
     strata, coal seams, or limestone.142

     9. Other. According to the hydroplate theory, all the frozen
     mammoths and rhinoceroses died at the same time. However, the
     radiocarbon ages vary. See Table 2: on page 121. For an
     explanation of radiocarbon dating and its assumptions, see page
     165. Those pages explain why 40,000 radiocarbon years (RCY) is a
     typical radiocarbon age for most frozen remains, and why 40,000
     radiocarbon years probably correspond to about 5,000 actual years.
     A slight amount of contamination of the remains, for example by
     ground water, would lower their radiocarbon age considerably,
     especially something living before or soon after the flood. This
     probably explains why different parts of the first Vollosovitch
     mammoth had widely varying radiocarbon agesă29,500 and 44,000 RCY.
     One part of Dima was 40,000 RCY, another was 26,000 RCY, and the
     "wood found immediately around the carcass" was 9,000 - 10,000
     RCY. The lower leg of the Fairbanks Creek mammoth had a
     radiocarbon age of 15,380 RCY, while its skin and flesh were
     21,300 RCY.143 The two Colorado Creek mammoths had radiocarbon
     ages of 22,850 ± 670 and 16,150 ± 230 years respectively. Since a
     bone fragment at one burial site fit precisely with a bone at the
     other site 30 feet away, and the soil had undergone considerable
     compression and movement, it seems likely they died
     simultaneously. PREDICTION 13: Blind radiocarbon dating of
     different parts of the same mammoth will continue to give
     radiocarbon ages that differ by more than statistical variations
     would reasonably permit. (See page 72 for an explanation of blind
     testing.) Contamination by ground water will be most easily seen
     if the samples came from widely separated parts of the mammoth's
     body with different water absorbing characteristics.

                    Relating to the Lake Drowning Theory

     (The reader may wish to read only the discussions concerning the
     theories of personal interest.)

     10. Warm Climate. Frozen lakes or rivers do not exist in a warm
     climate during the late summer or early fall. Many additional
     weeks of freezing temperatures are needed to form ice thick enough
     for a large, hoofed animal to venture far enough from shore to
     drown. Yet, the vegetation in the digestive tracts of various
     large animals shows that the weather was warm when they died.

     11. Yedomas and Loess, Multi-Continental, Frozen Muck, and
     Upright. The lake drowning theory does not explain the
     relationship of mammoths with yedomas and loess, why these
     peculiar events occurred over such wide areas on two continents,
     where so much muck originated, why it contains buried forests, or
     why so many mammoth bodies and skeletons are found upright.

     12. Rock Ice. The ice near several carcasses was not lake or river
     ice. It was type 3 ice, not type 1 ice.

     13. Sudden Freezing and -150ƒF. Yes, burial in peat bogs can
     retard bacterial decay and preserve bodies for thousands of years.
     However, only a rapid and extreme temperature drop can stop the
     destructive activity of enzymes and stomach acids.

     14. Dirty Lungs. Drowning in a lake would not cause gravel to
     enter Dima's lungs. Nor could silt, clay, and gravel work its way
     throughout Dima's intestines after a sudden drowning.

     15. Animal Mixes. If mammoths occasionally fell through the ice on
     a lake, why are the bones of so many types of animals from
     temperate latitudes found together? Why do prey lie near their
     predators? Large, hoofed animals seldom venture out on frozen
     lakes.

     16. Vertical Compression. Falling into a lake would not produce
     the vertical compression found in Dima and Berezovka.

                       Relating to the Crevasse Theory

     17. Warm Climate. The contents of Berezovka's stomach showed that
     he lived in a warm climate, not one containing ice crevasses.
     Furthermore, tree fragments and roots were found beneath him.
     Trees do not grow near icy crevasses. Glacial climates prevent
     tree growth. Many animals and plants buried in northern Siberia
     and Alaska only live in temperate climates today. Besides,
     mammoths are not Arctic animals.

     18. Yedomas and Loess, Multi-Continental, Suffocation, and
     Vertical Compression. The crevasse theory does not explain the
     relationship of mammoths with yedomas and loess, why these
     peculiar events occurred over such wide areas on two continents,
     why some of these huge animals suffocated, or what caused the
     vertical compression found in Dima and Berezovka.

     19. Elevated Burial. Falling into a crevasse or being transported
     downhill in a glacier would not herd mammoths up onto islands or
     up near the higher elevations of flat, low plateaus. Furthermore,
     crevasses form only on steep slopes.

     20. Rock Ice. Mammoths are sometimes buried near type 3 ice.
     Crevasses only have type 2 ice. In contrast to rock ice, glaciers
     and crevasses almost always occur on steep slopes.

     21. Frozen Muck. Mammoths were found primarily in frozen muck, not
     ice. Where did all the muck come from, and why are so many large
     trees buried in it?

     22. Sudden Freezing. Let us assume that after Berezovka had eaten
     beans at the base of a glacier, he climbed up to a crevasse, fell
     in, and died. His stomach acids and enzymes would have destroyed
     his food in about an hour. Since crevasses are not at the base of
     glaciers, Berezovka's long trip up the glacier and subsequent
     freezing must have been unbelievably rapid. Furthermore, what
     could motivate a grazing beast to climb up a long, steep, icy
     slope?

     23. Dirty Lungs. Falling into a crevasse would not put gravel in
     Dima's lungs or silt, clay, and gravel throughout Dima's
     intestines.

     24. -150ƒF. Snow is a surprisingly good insulator. Transferring
     heat through glacial snow is a relatively slow process, as those
     who have lived in igloos know quite well. Transferring heat from a
     solid object, such as the body of a mammoth, to stagnant air is
     also a slow process. Both conditions would exist if a mammoth fell
     into a crevasse. The steep walls of a crevasse would shield the
     body from cold winds, and the glacial ice would insulate the
     mammoth from sharp drops in the outside temperature. Eventually
     the carcass would freeze, but the vast residual heat in its huge
     body would delay freezing and cause putrefaction. Hoyle's comment,
     therefore, comes as no surprise:

     I have been informed that, today, when reindeer fall down
     crevasses in the Greenland ice, they are subsequently found to be
     in an unpleasantly putrefied condition. It seems that, no matter
     how cold the air is, the body heat of the dead animal is
     sufficient to promote bacterial decomposition.144

     The warmer, internal parts of the body, such as the stomach, would
     experience even more decay than the outer layers. Furthermore,
     this theory cannot begin to explain a temperature drop to -150ƒF.

     25. Large Animals. The crevasse theory does not explain why
     primarily larger animals fell into the icy crevasses and froze.
     Actually, the larger the animal, the greater its reservoir of
     stored heat and the slower it would cool. Therefore, the larger
     animals should experience greater and more rapid decay.

     26. Animal Mixes. If an occasional mammoth fell into an ice
     crevasse, why are the bones of so many types of animals found
     together? While some might argue that an adult mammoth climbed up
     a glacier, why would a baby such as Dima? Why would a rhinoceros?
     A heavy, low-slung rhinoceros should not be able to walk in deep
     snow. Beavers, squirrels, and birds do not fall into crevasses,
     but all have been found near mammoths.

     27. Upright. Herz, who excavated and analyzed the Berezovka
     mammoth, felt that it had fallen into a crevasse since it had
     several broken bones and was frozen. This might explain why the
     mammoth was found in an upright, although contorted, position.
     Normally, with a broken pelvis, a broken shoulder, a few broken
     ribs, and a crushed leg bone, it should have been lying on his
     side. However, it is strange that a fall would break bones in
     different parts of the body. To break so many bones requires many
     large forces. The blow received from a fall might explain a few
     fractures, but probably not all, especially the aligned
     crushed-fracture of the leg.

     28. Other. Only a few mountains in northeastern Siberia show
     evidence of former glaciers.

                      Relating to the Mud Burial Theory

     29. Away From Rivers. A very large mudslide, such as might occur
     near a river bank, is required to suffocate and bury large
     animals. Yet frozen remains of mammoths are sometimes found far
     from rivers, on high ground where river mud could not reach, or in
     the interior of hilly islands. Besides, northern Siberian rivers
     transport relatively little mud.145

     30. Yedomas and Loess, Multi-Continental, Frozen Muck, and -150ƒF.
     The mud burial theory does not explain the relationship of
     mammoths with yedomas and loess, why these peculiar events
     occurred over such wide areas on two continents, where so much
     muck originated, why it contains buried forests, or what caused
     the extreme drop in temperature to -150ƒF.

     31. Elevated Burials. Mud burials, especially those caused by
     mudslides, would not explain why mammoth and rhinoceros carcasses
     are sometimes found on the highest levels of generally flat, low
     plateaus. Mud moves very slowly, if at all, on flat, low plateaus.
     Rhinoceroses do not live far above the level of rivers or oceans.

     32. Rock Ice. Burial in mud that later froze would produce type 1
     ice, not type 3 ice.

     33. Sudden Freezing. The coldest a mud flow could be is 32ƒF.
     Presumably, the air would be even warmer than 32ƒF. If mud, a good
     insulator, suddenly buried the Berezovka mammoth, the contents of
     its stomach would stay warm for too long. It would take about 20
     times too long for its stomach to cool enough to stop the
     destructive action of the acids and enzymes on the vegetable
     matter. In other words, burial in even cold, flowing mud could not
     freeze a mammoth rapidly enough. Even if the atmospheric
     temperature dropped to -200ƒF after the mammoth was buried, the
     freezing would not be rapid enough to overcome the insulating
     effect of the mud.

     34. Dirty Lungs. One researcher used the mud burial theory to
     explain why Dima had silt, clay, and small particles of gravel
     throughout his respiratory and digestive tract.146 While these
     particles might enter the upper digestive tract, they would not
     enter the lungs and the lower digestive tract. Such particles
     would need to be in the air for several hours, as would occur
     during sustained high winds.

     35. Animal Mixes. Many animals, such as beavers, marmots, voles,
     and squirrels, whose bones lie alongside those of the mammoth, do
     not create enough ground pressure to sink into mud.

     36. Upright. The upright Berezovka mammoth apparently suffocated.
     Burial in a mudslide might explain the suffocation, but it would
     not explain the upright posture. Becoming stuck in shallow mud
     might explain the upright posture, but it would not explain the
     suffocation. The Benkendorf mammoth and others were also upright.
     (See Table 2: on page 121.)

     37. Vertical Compression. Burial in a typical mud flow would not
     flatten Dima or produce the severe vertical compression found in
     Berezovka.

     38. Other. Elephants rarely become stuck in mud. This is because
     their feet expand as weight is placed on them, and narrow as they
     are lifted. In northern Siberia only a thin layer of soil thaws in
     the summer.

     39. Other. A large animal trapped in mud would probably live for
     hours, if not days. Therefore, food should not be preserved in its
     mouth and digestive tract, as occurred for a rhinoceros and
     several mammoths.

     40. Other. Large animals buried in mud flows should frequently
     show marks of scavengers on the top parts of their body where mud
     had not yet reached. No known report has described such a pattern.

     41. Other. Rhinoceroses do not migrate as this theory presupposes.

                   Relating to the River Transport Theory

     42. Away From Rivers, Yedomas and Loess, Multi-Continental, Frozen
     Muck, -150ƒF, Large Animals, and Vertical Compression. The river
     transport theory does not explain why frozen mammoths are not
     exclusively found along rivers, why there is a relationship
     between mammoths, yedomas, and loess, why these peculiar events
     occurred over such wide areas on two continents, where so much
     muck originated, why it contains buried forests, why the
     temperature dropped to -150ƒF, why primarily the larger animals
     were frozen and preserved, or what caused the vertical compression
     found in Dima and Berezovka.

     43. Elevated Burials. Rivers would not deposit large carcasses on
     the higher levels of plateaus. A few mammoths are found 1,000 feet
     above the nearest rivers.147

     44. Rock Ice. With the river transport theory, one would expect to
     find type 1 ice, not type 3 ice.

     45. Dirty Lungs. Drowning in a local flood might cause silt and
     clay to enter Dima's lungs, but it would not explain the gravel in
     his lungs. Nor would drowning distribute these particles
     throughout his intestine.

     46. Summer-Fall Deaths. How could so many animals, washed far
     north by rivers, get buried in hard, frozen muck? Bloating
     promotes floating. Even if flooding rivers buried mammoths under
     sediments that froze the following winter, their bodies would have
     experienced considerable decay after a summer or fall death.
     Besides, river flooding usually occurs in the spring, not late
     summer or fall, and rivers do not deposit muck. The organic
     component in muck would separate and float to the surface of a
     river.

     47. Upright. Mammoths, transported by rivers, would not be
     deposited upright, as some were.

     48. Other. No fossils of water animals have been reported in
     deposits containing frozen mammoths.148

     49. Other. The teeth and tusks of the mammoths found south of
     Siberia differ considerably from those in Siberia. Therefore, the
     many northward flowing rivers did not transport southern mammoths
     during floods.

     50. Other. Cold Siberian and Alaskan rivers would minimize the
     buildup of gas in a decaying carcass. This is why "bodies
     ordinarily do not float in very cold water."149 Even if these
     remains floated for hundreds of miles, why were some found along
     very short rivers flowing directly into the Arctic Ocean?150 Why
     was their long hair not worn off? Why are the mammoths found on
     the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic Ocean, more than 150 miles
     from the mainland? Their bones do not show the wear associated
     with transport or water erosion. If an unusually strong river
     carried the floating carcasses to these islands, the carcasses
     should have been found only along beaches. Instead, remains are
     found in the interior of islands, the largest of which is 150
     miles long and 75 miles wide.151

     51. Other. Parts of six frozen mammoths have also been found in
     Alaska where rivers do not originate in warm climates.

     52. Other. Elephants are, and presumably mammoths were, excellent
     swimmers.

                  Relating to the Extinction-by-Man Theory

     53. Abundant Food. There is little precedent for believing that
     man will push any animal population into a harsh environment
     having little food. Only Dima, a baby, appeared underfed. Most
     frozen mammoths, complete enough to evaluate, were well fed.

     54. Yedomas and Loess, -150ƒF, Large Animals, Upright, and
     Vertical Compression. The extinction-by-man theory does not
     explain the relationship of mammoths with yedomas and loess, the
     extreme drop in temperature to -150ƒF, why primarily the larger
     animals were frozen and preserved, why so many mammoth bodies and
     skeletons were upright, or what caused the vertical compression
     found in Dima and Berezovka.

     55. Elevated Burials. Even if man pushed these animals north into
     Siberia and Alaska, why would a disproportionate number be buried
     on the higher elevations of generally flat plateaus?

     56. Rock Ice. With this theory, one would expect type 1 or 2 ice,
     not type 3 ice.

     57. Frozen Muck. If man killed the mammoths, how were they and
     even forests buried in such widespread layers of frozen muck?
     Where did the muck come from?

     58. Suffocation. If humans killed mammoths and rhinoceroses, why
     did at least five suffocate?

     59. Dirty Lungs. Being hunted by man would not explain silt, clay,
     and small gravel particles in Dima's respiratory and digestive
     tracts.

     60. Animal Mixes. Mammoth remains are often found near bones of
     animals that man would probably not have simultaneously pursued.
     Examples include horses, tigers, badgers, bears, wolves, hyenas,
     lynxes, etc. Nor is it likely that man would have pursued the
     slow, lumbering rhinoceros. Why would animals that man normally
     does not hunt die while man was killing mammoths? Why would a
     hunted horse be frozen?152 Today, wild horses live in only mild
     climates.

     61. Other. It is doubtful that primitive man could have
     exterminated the formidable mammoth in a remote, frigid, and vast
     region. Yes, man almost exterminated the less imposing
     buffaloăwith guns in a temperate climate. Apparently, no human
     remains (even bones or teeth), no weapons (arrows or knives), and
     no other artifacts (pottery, utensils, or art) have been found
     alongside frozen mammoth and rhinoceros remains. Nor are the
     distinctive marks of man's ax or knife clearly seen on mammoth
     bones and ivory. If man exterminated the mammoths, some signs of
     human activity should occasionally be found among the millions of
     mammoth remains. When humans try to capture or kill large animals,
     they often dig deep pits. This would be extremely difficult in
     permafrost.

     62. Other. Humans in today's heavily populated areas might try to
     exterminate mammoths and rhinoceroses. However, it is difficult to
     imagine man doing this thousands of years ago in the barren and
     sparsely populated regions of northern Siberia.

     63. Other. Humans do not travel to desolate regions for food,
     especially food difficult to preserve and transport. Even if man
     occupied these regions, his motive for killing mammoths and
     rhinoceroses would not have been for food, since less dangerous
     and more desirable game was available. In Africa today, man has no
     great desire for elephant or rhinoceros meat. In fact, before the
     day of the rifle and the ivory market, man generally avoided these
     huge animals. If man killed the mammoth for its ivory tusks, why
     did he kill the rhinoceros? Why were so many valuable tusks left
     behind?

     64. Other. The mammoth remains found south of Siberia differ
     considerably from those in Siberia, especially the teeth and
     tusks. This implies that the mammoths did not migrate northward
     for their summer feeding and were not driven there by man.

                    Relating to the Bering Barrier Theory

     65. Abundant Food and Warm Climate. This theory describes events
     during the peak of the last ice age when northern Siberia and
     Alaska would not have had abundant vegetation and a warm climate.
     Many animal and plant species found there live only in temperate
     climates today; mammoths are not Arctic animals. The more complete
     mammoths appeared well fed.

     66. Yedomas and Loess. Soils washed down on top of ice would show
     stratification and some sorting of a wide range of particle sizes.
     Loess, in contrast, consists of very fine and uniform dirt
     particles. Besides, the ice in yedomas is mixed in with the
     loesslike soil.

     67. Multi-Continental, -150ƒF, and Vertical Compression. The
     Bering barrier theory does not explain why these peculiar events
     occurred over such wide areas on two continents, the extreme drop
     in temperature to -150ƒF, or the vertical compression found in
     Dima and Berezovka.

     68. Rock Ice. This theory might explain buried layers of glacial
     ice (type 2 ice), but it does not explain rock ice (type 3 ice).

     69. Frozen Muck. This theory says that mammoths were buried in a
     gigantic snow storm. Actually they are buried primarily in frozen
     muck. Where does so much muck come from, and why does it contain
     buried forests?

     70. Suffocation. Animals caught in a sudden snow storm would die
     of starvation and exposure, not suffocation.

     71. Dirty Lungs. Sudden snow falls would remove dust from the air
     and bury other dirt particles under a blanket of snow. How then
     did silt, clay, and gravel enter Dima's digestive and respiratory
     tracts?

     72. Large Animals. Sudden snow storms would preferentially entomb
     and freeze the smaller animals.

     73. Other. The prevailing winds at the Bering Strait blow to the
     east. Therefore, one would expect that storms from the Pacific
     would dump snow primarily on Alaska, not Siberia. However, 90
     percent of the frozen mammoths and all the frozen rhinoceroses are
     in Siberia.

                    Relating to the Shifting Crust Theory

     74. Yedomas and Loess, -150ƒF, Large Animals, and Vertical
     Compression. The shifting crust theory does not explain the
     relationship of mammoths with yedomas and loess, why the
     temperature dropped suddenly to -150ƒF, why primarily the larger,
     harder to freeze, animals were frozen and preserved, or why
     vertical compression was found in Dima and Berezovka.

     75. Rock Ice. This theory might explain type 2 ice near mammoths,
     but not type 3 ice.

     76. Frozen Muck. If a gigantic snow storm buried many mammoths,
     why are almost all carcasses encased in frozen muck? Where does so
     much muck come from, and why does it contain buried forests?

     77. Summer-Fall Death. Shifting the earth's crust would produce
     ruptures in both northern and southern hemispheres. The volcanic
     activity and storms should have been equally intense in both
     hemispheres. However, since this catastrophic event probably
     occurred in July or August, summer storms should have occurred in
     the northern hemisphere and winter storms in the southern
     hemisphere. We should find parts of frozen carcasses in the
     southern hemisphere, not the northern hemisphere.

     78. Other. Frozen remains of mammoths and other animals were found
     in northern Alaska. If the crust shifted (as Hapgood describes)
     with the Hudson Bay moving from the North Pole to its present
     position, Alaska would not move northward. Why then would northern
     Alaska suddenly shift from a temperate to an Arctic climate?

     79. Other. The places where the earth's crust ruptured should be
     visible today. They are not. There is no independent evidence that
     Siberia shifted north and Canada shifted south. Furthermore, what
     would cause such a shift?

                      Relating to the Meteorite Theory

     80. Abundant Food. This theory places the mammoth extinction at
     the sudden end of the ice age. However, to support such large
     herds and many other animals, vegetation must have been plentiful
     in Alaska and Siberia. Temperate vegetation would not have been
     abundant in those Arctic regions during the last ice age.

     81. Yedomas and Loess, Frozen Muck, Suffocation, and Vertical
     Compression. The meteorite theory does not explain the
     relationship of mammoths with yedomas and loess, where so much
     muck originated, why it contains buried forests, why some of these
     huge animals appear to have suffocated, or what caused the
     vertical compression found in Dima and Berezovka.

     82. Rock Ice. The meteorite theory might explain why type 1 ice
     melted and allowed mammoths to sink into icy bogs; it would not
     produce type 3 ice.

     83. -150ƒF. This theory tries to explain a sudden warming trend.
     It does not explain why the temperature went suddenly in the other
     direction to -150ƒF.

     84. Animal Mixes. A sudden warming at the end of the ice age might
     have caused some animals "to blunder to their deaths in the icy
     bogs."153 It would not explain why this happened to so many
     different types of animalsăanimals that are quick, surefooted, or
     highly mobile (such as birds).

     85. Other. The jump in atmospheric temperature required to rapidly
     melt the permafrost to a depth necessary to bury a 13-foot-tall
     mammoth would have also incinerated their bodies.

                               Final Thoughts

     Students of the earth sciences are frequently discouraged from
     considering alternative explanations such as we have with the
     "frozen mammoths." Too often, students are told what to think,
     rather than taught how to think. Why is this? Permit one person's
     opinion.

     Before the birth of the field of geology in the early 1800s, a
     common explanation for major geological features was a global
     flood. Such explanations were repugnant to many early geologists
     for three reasons. First, many geologists were opposed to the
     Bible which spoke of a global flood. Second, flood explanations
     seemed (and sometimes were) scientifically simplistic. Finally, a
     global flood is an unrepeatable catastrophe which cannot be
     scientifically studied directly.

     Rather than appear closeminded by disallowing flood explanations,
     a more subtle approach was simply to disallow global catastrophes.
     This solved all three objections above and was more justifiable
     since experimental repeatability is the foundation of modern
     science. By definition, catastrophes are rarely repeated. Besides,
     large scale events are difficult to reproduce in the laboratory.
     The flaw in this exclusionary logic is that catastrophes involve
     many phenomena and leave widespread wreckage and strange details
     that require an explanation. (You have seen many relating to the
     frozen mammoths.) Most of these phenomena are testable and
     repeatable on a smaller scale. Some are so well tested and
     understood that mathematical calculations and computer simulations
     can be easily made at any scale.

     How were catastrophes disallowed? The small but growing number of
     academic chairs in geology were primarily given to those who
     supported the anti-catastrophe principle. These professors did not
     advance students who espoused catastrophes. The rare advocate of a
     global flood was branded a "Biblical literalist" or "fuzzy
     thinker." Geology professors also influenced, through the peer
     review process, papers that could be published. Textbooks soon
     reflected their orthodoxy, so few students became "fuzzy
     thinkers." This practice continues to this day, since a major
     criterion for selecting professors is the number of their
     publications.

     This anti-catastrophe principle is called uniformitarianism. For
     more than 150 years, it was summarized by the phrase, "The present
     is the key to the past." In other words, only processes observable
     today and acting at present rates can be used to explain past
     events. Because some catastrophes, such as large impacts from
     outer space, are now fashionable, many now recognize
     uniformitarianism as a poor and arbitrary assumption.

     However, this presents a dilemma. Since uniformitarianism is
     foundational to geology, should the entire field be reexamined?
     Uniformitarianism was intended to banish the global flood. Will
     the death of uniformitarianism allow scholarly consideration of
     evidence that implies a global flood? Most geologists are repulsed
     by such a possibility. They either deny that a problem exists or
     hope it will go away. Some want to redefine uniformitarianism to
     mean that only the laws of physics observed today can be used to
     explain past geological eventsăan obvious principle of science
     long before uniformitarianism was sanctified. The problem will not
     go away, but will fester even more until enough geologists
     recognize that catastrophes were not the problem. Early geologists
     simply, and arbitrarily, wanted to exclude a global flood, not
     catastrophes in general.

     Ruling out catastrophes in general (and the flood more
     specifically), even before all facts are in, has stifled much
     study and understanding. The "frozen mammoth issue" is only one of
     many examples. Disallowing catastrophes has also developed a
     mind-set where strange observations are ignored, or considered
     unbelievable, rather than viewed as important diagnostic details
     worthy of testing and consideration. Those who express disbelief
     at some diagnostic details associated with the frozen mammoths may
     have adopted this mind-set.

     Table 4: on page 136 is a broad target for anyone who wishes to
     grapple with ideas. Notice that it invites, not suppresses,
     critiques. All theories should be subject to critique and
     refinement. We can focus on the more likely theories, on any
     misunderstandings or disagreements, on the diagnostic details that
     need further verification, and on the expensive process of testing
     predictions. With the predictions of various theories clearly
     enumerated, field work becomes more exciting and productive. Most
     importantly, those who follow us will have something to build
     upon. They will not be told what to think.

                            References and Notes

          1 . Some people split mammoths into various species, such as
          Mammuthus primigenius (the woolly mammoth) and Mammuthus columbi
          (the Columbian mammoth). A species, by definition, includes all
          organisms that have viable offspring that can interbreed with each
          other but not with another species. Obviously, no one can say that
          the woolly mammoth could not interbreed with the Columbian mammoth
          or even that the Columbian mammoth did not have a hairy coat
          similar to the woolly mammoth. Their differences, if any, were
          slight. Artificially "creating" new species without solid medical
          or experimental justification seems unwise.

               African and Asian elephants are officially different
               species, and yet on at least one occasion they interbred
               successfully. If they had occupied the same territory in
               the wild, no doubt other hybrids would have been born .
               (Unfortunately, the one known offspring died ten days
               after birth. This has no bearing on the fact that
               African and Asian elephants should not be designated as
               two species.)

             + According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary
               (Unabridged; 1964 edition, p. 1369), the word "mammoth" comes
               from "mamma," which means "earth" to the Yakut people of
               northeastern Siberia. "Mammoth" also relates to the word
               "behemoth" used in Job 40:15 to describe a huge animal.
               Supporting this view are:
             + Henry H. Howorth, The Mammoth and the Flood (London: Samson
               Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1887), pp. 2-4, 74-75.
             + A. E. Nordenskiold, The Voyage of the Vega Round Asia and
               Europe, translated from Swedish by Alexander Leslie (New
               York: Macmillan and Co., 1882), p. 302.
             + Willy Ley, Exotic Zoology (New York: The Viking Press, 1959),
               p. 152.
          2 . One of the earliest descriptions, written in 1724, was
          authenticated by Dr. Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt, a naturalist
          sent to Siberia by Czar Peter the Great to inquire, among other
          things, into the frozen mammoth stories. Although Messerschmidt
          did not personally see the frozen partial remains, he had an eye
          witness, Michael Wolochowicz, describe the find in a short report.
          The report's credibility is enhanced by its similarity with many
          thoroughly verified accounts by scientific teams in subsequent
          years. [See John Breyne, "Observations on the Mammoth's Bones and
          Teeth Found in Siberia," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
          Society of London, Vol. 40, January-June 1737, pp. 125-138.]
          3 . E. W. Pfizenmayer, Siberian Man and Mammoth, translated from
          the German by Muriel D. Simpson (London: Black & Son Limited,
          1939), p. 4.
          4 . Howorth, p. 76.
             + E. Ysbrants Ides, Three Years [of] Land Travels from Moscow
               Over-Land to China (London: W. Freeman, 1706) English
               Edition, p. 26. In 1692, Czar Peter the Great directed Ides
               to explore the vast eastern region of Russia. When Ides
               returned, he reported that mammoths were found, sometimes
               whole, "among the hills," along four named rivers and the
               Arctic coast. He described one person's specific discovery of
               a head "somewhat red, as tho' they were tinctured with blood"
               and a forefoot, cut from a leg, as big around as a man's
               waist.
          5 . Basset Digby, The Mammoth (New York: D. Appleton and Company,
          1926), pp. 17-18, 79.
          6 . Most recently, five expeditions occurred in the 1970s, two in
          the 1980s, and one in 1990.
          7 . Ian Redmond, Elephant (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), p.
          10.
          8 . Dima may have suffered from one of the many problems common to
          baby elephants; mortality among baby elephants is very high.
          During their first year of life, the mortality rate varies between
          5 and 36 percent. [See S. Keith Eltringham, Elephants, editor
          Jeheskel Shoshani (Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1992), p.
          102.]
          9 . Valentina V. Ukraintseva, Vegetation Cover and Environment of
          the "Mammoth Epoch" in Siberia (Hot Springs, South Dakota: the
          Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, 1993), pp. 12-13.
             + N. A. Dubrovo et al., "Upper Quaternary Deposits and
               Paleogeography of the Region Inhabited by the Young
               Kirgilyakh Mammoth," International Geology Review, Vol. 24,
               No. 6, June 1982, p. 630.
          10 . R. Dale Guthrie, Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe (Chicago:
          the University of Chicago Press, 1990), pp. 9, 13.
          11 . Guthrie, pp. 9, 13.
          12 . Ukraintseva, pp. 80-98.
             + Guthrie, pp. 10, 30-32.
          13 . Science News Letter, Vol. 55, 25 June 1949, p. 403.
          14 . John Massey Stewart, "Frozen Mammoths from Siberia Bring the
          Ice Ages to Vivid Life," Smithsonian, 1977, p. 67.
          15 . N. K. Vereshchagin and G. F. Baryshnikov, "Paleoecology of
          the Mammoth Fauna in the Eurasian Arctic," Paleoecology of
          Beringia, editors David M. Hopkins et al. (New York: Academic
          Press, 1982), p. 276.
          16 . Harold E. Anthony, "Nature's Deep Freeze," Natural History,
          September 1949, p. 300.
          17 . Michael R. Zimmerman and Richard H. Tedford, "Histologic
          Structures Preserved for 21,300 Years," Science, Vol. 194, 8
          October 1976, pp. 183-184.
          18 . Stewart, p. 68.
          19 . Charles H. Eden, Frozen Asia (New York: Pott, Young & Co.,
          1879), pp. 97-100.
          20 . A. G. Maddren, "Smithsonian Exploration in Alaska in 1904 in
          Search of Mammoth and Other Fossil Remains," Smithsonian
          Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 49, 1905, p. 101.
          21 . W. H. Dall, "Presentation to the Biological Society of
          Washington, 247 Meeting," Science, 8 November 1895, pp. 635-636.
          22 . N. A. Transehe, "The Siberian Sea Road: The Work of the
          Russian Hydrographical Expedition to the Arctic 1910-1915," The
          Geographical Review, Vol. 15, 1925, p. 392.
          23 . Adrian Lister and Paul Bahn, Mammoths (New York: Macmillan,
          1994), p. 46.
          24 . A. P. Vinogradov et al., "Radiocarbon Dating in the Vernadsky
          Institute I-IV," Radiocarbon, Vol. 8, 1966, pp. 320-321.
          25 . Robert M. Thorson and R. Dale Guthrie, "Stratigraphy of the
          Colorado Creek Mammoth Locality, Alaska," Quaternary Research,
          Vol. 37, No. 2, March 1992, pp. 214-228.
          26 . Howorth, pp. 50-54.
          27 . Ley, p. 169.
          28 . I. P. Tolmachoff, The Carcasses of the Mammoth and Rhinoceros
          Found in the Frozen Ground of Siberia (Philadelphia: The American
          Philosophical Society, 1929), p. 71.
          29 . Maddren, p. 60.
          30 . H. Neuville, "On the Extinction of the Mammoth," Annual
          Report Smithsonian Institution, 1919, p. 332.
          31 . Nikolai K. Vereshchagin and Alexei N. Tikhonov, The Exterior
          of Mammoths (Yakutsk, Siberia: Merelotovedenia Institute, 1990),
          p. 18. (Russian)
             + Pfizenmayer, p. 162.
             + Hair on the rhinoceros leg also hung to the feet. (See Eden,
               pp. 99-100.)
          32 . Hans Krause, The MammothăIn Ice and Snow?: Cold-Adaptation of
          Woolly Mammoth: Fact or Fiction? (Stuttgart: self-published,
          1978), p. 53.
          33 . Neuville, pp. 327-338.
          34 . Krause, pp. 51-52.
          35 . The mammoth is closely related to the African and Indian
          elephants. A comparative study of 350 mitochondrial DNA
          nucleotides from each of the three shows that the "woolly"
          mammoth, Dima, differed from both African and Indian elephants by
          only four or five nucleotides. [See Jeremy Cherfas, "If Not a
          Dinosaur, a Mammoth?", Science, Vol. 253, 20 September 1991, p.
          1356.] A recent Japanese study extracted longer strands of nuclear
          DNA which showed the mammoth to be more closely related to the
          Indian elephant.
          36 . Ralph S. Palmer, "Elephant," The World Book Encyclopedia,
          Vol. 6 (U.S.A.: Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, 1973),
          pp. 178, 178d.
          37 . Daphne Sheldrick, Elephants, editor Jeheskel Shoshani,
          (Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1992), p. 115.
          38 . Harold Lamb, Hannibal: One Man Against Rome (New York:
          Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1958), pp. 83-108.
          39 . Redmond, p. 19.
          40 . Redmond, p. 27.
          41 . Redmond, p. 42.
          42 . Digby, p. 151.
          43 . Stewart, p. 68.
          44 . Guthrie, p. 84.
          45 . Anonymous, "Much About Muck," Pursuit, Vol. 2, October 1969,
          pp. 68-69.
          46 . Lindsey Williams, The Energy Non-Crisis, 2nd edition
          (Kasilof, Alaska: Worth Publishing Co., 1980), p. 54.
          47 . Anonymous, "Much About Muck," p. 69.
          48 . Lister and Bahn, p. 47.
          49 . R. Lydekker, "Mammoth Ivory," Annual Report of the Board of
          Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year Ending June
          30, 1899 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1901), pp.
          361-366.
          50 . Vera Rich, "Gone to the Dogs," Nature, Vol. 301, 24 February
          1983, p. 647.
          51 . Two very similar accounts describe this discovery. [See
          Digby, pp. 97-103, or William T. Hornaday, Tales from Nature's
          Wonderlands (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926), pp. 32-38.]
          The latter was translated from a Russian report held in the
          American Museum of Natural History.
          52 . Ages of mammoths, elephants, and mastodons can be
          approximated by counting the rings in their tusks. This method was
          first used on Berezovka. [See Vereshchagin and Tikhonov, p. 17.]
          Some scientists question whether one ring always equates to one
          year.
          53 . Peter the Great, Russia's most famous and influential czar,
          founded this museum and initiated formal mammoth studies. His
          strong interest in science, and mammoths in particular, led in
          1714 to the systematic study and exhibition in St. Petersburg of
          unusual and exotic animals.
          54 . Herz, pp. 617, 620, 622.
             + Digby, pp. 123, 126, 131.
          55 . Personal communication from Alexei N. Tikhonov, zoologist and
          mammoth specialist at the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of
          Sciences, St. Petersburg, 12 November 1993.
          56 . Vereshchagin and Tikhonov, p. 17.
          57 . Herz, p. 623.
             + Digby, p. 182.
          58 . Jeheskel Shoshani, "Anatomy and Physiology," Elephants, pp.
          79, 80, 97.
          59 . Some readers may want to consider other explanations for the
          crushed leg bone such as impacts or pinching forces perpendicular
          to the crushed bone. The flesh surrounding the bone was not
          visibly mangled, and the leg was still in its shoulder socket.
          Axial compression might crush a short, weak beam. However, to
          crush a long beam requires considerable lateral support.
          60 . Tolmachoff, p. 35.
          61 . Tolmachoff, p. 57.
          62 . Guthrie, p. 13.
          63 . Proceedings of the Berlin Academy, 1846, p. 223, cited by
          Howorth, p. 184.
          64 . Leopold Von Schrenck, Memoirs of St. Petersburg Academy, Vol.
          17, pp. 48-49, cited by Howorth, p. 185.
          65 . William R. Farrand, "Frozen Mammoths and Modern Geology,"
          Science, 17 March 1961, p. 734.
          66 . Ivan T. Sanderson, "Riddle of the Frozen Giants," Saturday
          Evening Post, 16 January 1960, p. 82.
          67 . A. S. W., Nature, Vol. 68, 30 July 1903, p. 297.
          68 . Lister & Bahn, p. 74.
          69 . Charles H. Hapgood, The Path of the Pole (Philadelphia:
          Chilton Book Company, 1970), p. 267.
          70 . Joseph C. Dillow, The Waters Above: Earth's Pre-Flood Vapor
          Canopy (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981, pp. 371-377.
          71 . Dillow, pp. 380-381.
          72 . One questionable report is contained in a brochure
          distributed at an exhibit of some mammoth remains that toured the
          United States in 1992. The brochure stated, "Portions of a mammoth
          thousands of years old that was discovered in permafrost were
          defrosted, cooked and served at a banquet honoring scientists."
          Hapgood (The Path of the Pole, p. 261) made a similar statement
          but mentioned the name of the man who claimed to have eaten
          mammoth steak in Moscow.
          73 . Lydekker, p. 363.
          74 . O. F. Herz, "Frozen Mammoth in Siberia," Annual Report of the
          Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.:
          Government Printing Office, 1904), p. 621.
          75 . Rich, p. 647.
          76 . Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology (New York: Verlag Von J.
          Cramer, reprint edition, 1970), p. 97.
          77 . Guthrie, pp. 9, 11, 12, 20.
             + Georges Cuvier, Essay on the Theory of the Earth, Reprint
               Edition (New York: Arno Press, 1978), pp. 274-276.
          78 . Krause, p. 88.
          79 . S. Keith Eltringham, "Ecology and Behavior," Elephants,
          editor Jeheskel Shoshani, p. 126.
          80 . Digby, 171.
          81 . Henryk Kubiak, "Morphological Characters of the Mammoth,"
          Paleoecology of Beringia, editors David M. Hopkins et al. (New
          York: Academic Press, 1982), p. 282.
          82 . Dillow, pp. 383-396.
          83 . When an animal dies and decay begins, the decomposition of
          each cell's amino acids produces water that ruins the meat's
          taste. The water expands as it freezes. If a cell freezes after
          enough water has accumulated, the expansion will tear the cell,
          showing that a certain amount of time elapsed between death and
          freezing. This characteristic was absent in the Berezovka mammoth,
          and the meat was edibleăat least for dogs. Apparently, these
          mammoths froze before decay set in.
          84 . Sanderson, 1960, pp. 82, 83.
          85 . Pfizenmayer, pp. 105-106.
          86 . Ibid., pp. 105-105.
          87 . Maddren, p. 60.
          88 . Pfizenmayer, p. 176.
          89 . Herz, pp. 613, 615.
          90 . Howorth, p. 96.
          91 . Maddren, p. 87.
          92 . L. S. Quackenbush, "Notes on Alaskan Mammoth Expeditions of
          1907 and 1908," Bulletin American Museum of Natural History, Vol.
          26, pp. 87-127.
             + Tolmachoff, pp. 51-55.
             + Herz, pp. 615, 616, 618.
          93 . Some have called it "fossil ice." Pfizenmayer, who
          participated in the Berezovka excavation, called it "diluvial
          ice." The term "diluvial," refers to the biblical flood (deluge).
          A common belief among Russian Siberians was that the frozen
          mammoths were killed and buried during the biblical flood, after
          which the Siberian weather became much colder. For these reasons,
          the term "diluvial" is often associated with buried animals and
          ice in Siberia. Even today, geologists use the word "diluvium" to
          refer to glacial deposits believed in the 1800s to be laid down
          during Noah's flood.

               Baron Eduard Toll, in the late 1800s, may have been the
               first to write about this strange ice. He called it
               "stone ice." Toll and his three companions disappeared
               in 1903 while on a mammoth expedition to Bennett Island,
               one of the Arctic islands off the north coast of
               Siberia. A rescue attempt was unsuccessful. Toll's
               diary, found on Bennett Island three years later,
               reported that another frozen mammoth had been discovered
               (not listed in Table 2). Few details were given. The
               diary also mentioned that the explorers had just killed
               their remaining dogs for food. (See, for example, Digby,
               p. 147.)

          94 . Herz, p. 618.
          95 . Quackenbush, p. 101.
          96 . W. H. Dall, "Extract from a Report to C. P. Patterson, Supt.
          Coast and Geodetic Survey," American Journal of Science, Vol. 21,
          1881, p. 107.
          97 . A. S. W., p. 297.
          98 . Dubrovo et al., pp. 630, 632.
          99 . One of the earliest reports of these thick layers of buried
          ice came from the expedition led by Lieutenant J. C. Cantwell. He
          concluded that, "The formation of the remarkable ice-cliffs in the
          lower country [of northern Alaska] is, however, a geological nut
          which the writer admits his inability to crack." "Ice-Cliffs on
          the Kowak River," National Geographic Magazine, 1896, pp. 345-346.
          See also J. C. Cantwell, "Exploration of the Kowak River,"
          Science, Vol. 4, 19 December 1884, pp. 551-554.

               Some, but not all, of these reported ice layers may be
               the vertical faces of ice wedges. When found along coast
               lines, the two are easily confused. As the Arctic winter
               approaches and temperatures drop, the ground contracts.
               Sometimes the ground splits open with a loud crack.
               Water later fills the vertical crack, freezes, and forms
               an ice wedge. Years later this fracture, which is a
               vertical plane of weakness, might be exposed along a
               coast line by the undercutting of waves. Viewed from a
               boat far from the coast, the side of the ice wedge might
               seem to be the edge of a horizontal layer of ice. By
               tracing the ice inland for thousands of feet, the "ice
               wedge explanation" can be rejected. This was done by
               Dall (p. 107) and Maddren (pp. 15-117).

          100 . Dall, p. 107.
             + Maddren, p. 104.
             + Cantwell, "Ice-Cliffs," p. 345.
          101 . Cantwell, "Ice-Cliffs," p. 346.
          102 . Pfizenmayer, pp. 89-90.
          103 . Herz, p. 618.
          104 . Stewart, p. 68.
          105 . "The yedoma deposits could only have been formed by
          cryogenous-eolian [cold and windy] processes." V. K. Ryabchun,
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