Beats me, man...
Posted on 03/25/2015 7:05:19 PM PDT by JimSEA
University of Colorado Boulder researchers propose a novel mechanism to explain the region’s high elevation No one really knows how the High Plains got so high. About 70 million years ago, eastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming, western Kansas, and western Nebraska were near sea level. Since then, the region rose about 2 kilometers, leading to some head scratching at geology conferences.
Now researchers at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder have proposed a new way to explain the uplift: water trapped deep below Earth’s crust may have flooded the lower crust, creating buoyancy and lift. The research appears online this week in the journal Geology and could represent a new mechanism for elevating broad regions of continental crust.
“The High Plains are perplexing because there is no deformation—such as major faults or volcanic activity—in the area to explain how this big, vast area got elevated,” said lead author Craig Jones, a CIRES Fellow and associate professor of geology at CU-Boulder. “What we suggest is that by hydrating the lower crust, it became more buoyant, and the whole thing came up.”
“It’s like flooding Colorado from below,” Jones said.
Jones and his colleagues propose the water came from the subducting Farallon oceanic plate under the Pacific Ocean 75 to 45 million years ago. This slab slid underneath the North American continental plate, bringing with it a tremendous amount of water bound in minerals. Trapped and under great pressure and heat, the water was released from the oceanic plate and moved up through the mantle and toward the lower crust. There, it hydrated lower crust minerals, converting dense ones, like garnet, into lighter ones, such as mica and amphibole.
(Excerpt) Read more at geosociety.org ...
Beats me, man...
Several years ago, I read an article -- something like "Assault on Mt. Sunflower -- written by a Denver mountainclimbing club.
It is described in minute detail how they roped theselves together and attempted a circular route on the summit, employing every mountain climbing tool known to man. Their biggest problem, however, was moving the base camp from time-to-time -- because that's where they kept all the beer.
Lol! Great story.
“High Plains Drifter” was actually filmed in the Eastern Sierra of California at Mono Lake near Lee Vining at around 6,500 feet in elevation.
Best western of all-time. Though I liked “The War Wagon” a lot.
That's my take, too. Why do they get so wrapped around the axle about this stuff?
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They’re too busy denying the Genesis catastrophe to figure out any of these simple and obvious things.
It was 4500 years ago, not 75 million or billion or any of their fantasies.
Pangaea was broken up by volcanic eruptions, and hot water surged up through the cracks killing everything in the Earth.
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The water had to go up from below before it could come down from above. The ocean wasn’t in the sky, either. :o)
I'm a maniacal stickler for detail. The tiny hamlet I live in claims to sit at 3,400 ft. above sea level. Yet my compound (haha!) sits at 3,470 ft. I know this because I have a fancy GPS hand-held unit.
So what is my point?
Frankly, I've forgotten...
So, the Ogalala aquifer came from the earth’s mantle?
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My topo quads say that that area is closer to 8000 feet.
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There is simply no evidence for that and a great deal of evidence for an ancient earth. However, the conflicting ideas will never be reconciled because your beliefs are faith based.
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>> “So, the Ogalala aquifer came from the earth’s mantle?” <<
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So did all of the comets.
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We’re talking about different minerals, rocks being formed that are lighter than the mantle and thus floating on the mantle and raising the inland sea bed. The water is contained in minerals both in the crust and mantle.
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The face of the Earth is nothing but evidence for it.
Denial is free though, until the day of Trumpets anyway.
An old Earth would not be having so many deep soil land slides. They would have stopped “millions” of years ago.
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The water had to go up from below before it could come down from above. The ocean wasn’t in the sky, either. :o)
True but there was marine life on those mountains. At least that’s what the fossil records tell us.
They would not be fountains but steam. The earth is quite warm.
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And he who laughs last laughs best; and it won’t be any faithless fools doing the laughing.
Gnashing of teeth is said to be in order.
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