Posted on 12/26/2013 5:02:00 PM PST by Windflier
Bertha, the world's largest tunneling machine, churning through the rock and mud beneath Seattle, has hit a mysterious roadblockso mysterious, it is only known for now as "the object."
The New York Times reports that the machine300 feet long and 5 stories tallhas ground to a halt. Built precisely not to be stopped by, well, just about anything, Bertha has apparently met her match. But what exactly is it? "Something unknown, engineers sayand all the more intriguing to many residents for being unknownhas blocked the progress of the biggest-diameter tunnel-boring machine in use on the planet," the NYT writes.
It is something the managers on site "still simply refer to as 'the object.'"
Some hypothesize a colossal ice age boulder or two, locked down in the sediments beneath the city. Others think it might be "buried train engines."
Whether it's ice age super-rocks, buried trains, a lost cityor even a UFOengineers might have to work "at atmospheric pressures similar to what a diver would experience," the New York Times adds, and even spend "time in a decompression chamber" on their way back up to the surface, to find out.
So what is it? What is "the object" blocking Bertha's path? Just look at the size of the tunnels it's been digging; whatever's in the way has got to be one tough mother.
I have no experience with continuous miners but they are drilling through a type of conglomerate which is difficult due to the various hardnesses of the rock making up the conglomerate. If there is a rock of considerably greater hardness on one or the other sides of the drift, I can see problems. Something unanticipated anyhow.
Guess I had too much Christmas "cheer" yesterday, so I'm a bit slow on the uptake tonight. What reference?
May have hit a ‘buried’ lib’s head..
(^.^)y
I don't know. These TBMs have been operating all over the world in every imaginable type of subterranean environment for a very long time now.
I find it hard to believe that they're just now encountering a type of rock or soil condition that they're unprepared to handle. The technology is pretty darned advanced these days.
Maybe they hit a big lump of concrete, and stopped the machine when they noticed some bits of bone........and a teamsters membership card.
naaa.. that’d pop like a bad fart.. nothing in it.
This is the most boring thread I’ve seen in nine years of FReeping.
Hoffa?
Heh....
Yet you clicked on it and even took the time to comment. Merry Christmas, Ebenezer.
Probably a Butt Plug that Jennifer Lawrence misplaced.
Or, a Martian Tripod Machine.
>> Yet you clicked on it and even took the time to comment.
It was a joke, son. Tunnel... boring...
Actually, the machine is quite interesting.
It is the keystone that keeps the Cascadia Subduction Zone from slipping rapidly...well, it would make a good disaster movie
I have ignored all the stories about “the object” so far, because until they tell me what it is, I don’t really know how to comment.
(groan :-)
Sorry 'bout that. Too much Christmas cheer yesterday. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! LOL
Or a Balrog?
What a concept. That's the best out-of-this-world hypothesis I've seen yet. Chief Seattle's revenge?
Liberal idiocy is dense. Neutron star dense. It seeps out of Seattle and coalesces under the city. Gonna need a marksteyn drill to bust through it
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