Posted on 05/26/2009 8:01:59 PM PDT by Kimmers
The blob, which drips like honey, is between 15 and 20 million years old By Jeanna Bryner LiveScience updated 5:34 p.m. CT, Tues., May 26, 2009 Hidden beneath the U.S. West's Great Basin, scientists have spied a giant blob of rocky material dripping like honey.
The Great Basin consists of small mountain ranges separated by valleys and includes most of Nevada, the western half of Utah and portions of other nearby states.
While studying the area, John West of Arizona State University and his colleagues found evidence of a large cylindrical blob of cold material far below the surface of central Nevada. Comparison of the results with CAT scans of the inside of Earth taken by ASU's Jeff Roth suggested they had found a so-called lithospheric drip. (Earth's lithosphere comprises the crust or outer layer of Earth and the uppermost mantle.)
Here's how it works: "The Earth's mantle, which lies below the thin outer crust we live on, consists of rock which deforms plastically on very long time scales due to the heat and pressure at depth," West said. "In any material which can flow (including the mantle), a heavy object will tend to sink through lighter material."
And this is what the scientists think is happening with the lithospheric drip. A region of heavier material trapped in the lithosphere gets warmed up and begins to sink into the lighter, less dense mantle beneath, pulling a long tail of material after it.
"Honey dripping off of a spoon is a visual aid to what we think the drip looks like," West told LiveScience. "Dripping honey tends to lead with a large blob of honey, with a long tail of material following the initial blob."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh-key-dokey.
I can always count on you for great posts and great replies....thanks JPB
That, and CO2, huh?
God’s Lava Lamp?
Back in the ‘60s I read a Sci-Fi story about a huge blob of rock that was discovered in a remote area that emitted strange radio-like signals. The scientists kept trying to communicate with it and when they finally made contact with it, it answered, killing everybody in the area with radiation.
Then it remembered it’s mission - from a long-ago war - detonate and destroy the planet.
It did.
Yikes, I remember this movie! I’ve seen it a couple of times in it’s entirety. It’s one of the most frightening movies of it’s time and genre! Even with it being in b/w!
I also noticed that not only Steve McQueen is in it, but the woman who played Andy Griffith’s girlfriend/fiance in Andy Of Mayberry later on! It was Anita Corsault(sp?), who played Helen Krump.
Maybe its the home Sen. Reid and that is his family...
Good question ;-}
I thought Nevada sent their giant blob to Washington, D.C.
Ok, I hope they don't let this thing out. They must check and make sure it isn't red in color, if it is we are in big trouble!
The movie was not in B/W, it was in color and that made it even more scary, the blob was a reddish color. It was a great movie and I still watch it from time to time. The new version is not as good as the original, IMO.
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Sounds like Helen Thomas. [Where's the mandatory ugly picture?]
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