Posted on 07/31/2015 1:22:24 PM PDT by Red Badger
Workers digging a well for underground water are dwarfed by the sand dunes of the Taklimakan Desert, 13 September 2003, outside of Tazhong, in China's northwest Xinjiang province.
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Chinese scientists have discovered what could be a huge hidden ocean underneath one of the driest places on earth, the South China Morning Post reported on 30 July.
The Tarim basin in northwestern Xinjiang, China, is one of the driest places on Earth, but the vast amount of salt water concealed underneath could equal 10 times the water found in all five of the Great Lakes in the US.
"This is a terrifying amount of water," said professor Li Yan, who led the study at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital.
"Never before have people dared to imagine so much water under the sand. Our definition of desert may have to change," he told the South China Morning Post.
Scientists had long suspected that a vast amount of melt water from nearby mountains had slipped beneath the basin, but the exact amount of water remained unknown.
Accidental discovery
Li's team made the discovery by accident. They had actually been looking for carbon dioxide, which is absorbed in certain areas - such as forests and oceans - called "carbon sinks."
Scientists study carbon sinks to gain a greater understanding of climate change.
Around 10 years ago, the team discovered that carbon dioxide had been disappearing into the basin for 10 years, but could not understand why.
After measuring the amount of carbon dioxide in samples from nearly 200 locations across the desert and comparing them to the carbon dioxide in melt water, they were able to calculate how much water had flowed into the basin.
"Our estimate is a conservative figure. The actual amount could be larger," Li told the paper.
The team will now work with other research scientists to see if other underground "oceans" could potentially exist underneath other deserts.
Li said it is likely large amounts of water will be found underneath the deserts, as the amount of carbon they potentially hold could be a trillion tonnes - the same amount of "missing" carbon on the planet.
Water doesn’t disappear it just goes somewhere else.
A lot would depend on how salty the water turns out to be. It is far enough from the ocean that some desalination would be useful to provide water for travel and scientific sites. If the water was merely brackish, with a more modest amount of dilution with desalinated water some amount of agriculture with salt tolerant plants including grasses might be useful, and also might allow herding.
“They” also found an extinct one mile high layer of ice here in Montana (well a few hundreds miles north, but still).
Said it came from Canada, better than those pooping geese.
I heard an idiot on the radio a couple of days ago say that global warming is causing the water in the oceans to expand...........water expands when it freezes, or turns to vapor when it boils....
Robert Schoch Ancient Mysteries and Civilizations
We have a vast hidden lake under our desert. It’s really not that exciting.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1480756/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1546130/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1845417/posts
The “oceans warming at depth” BS was debunked years ago, but the past couple of years it’s been making the rounds again.
what is that from????
Salt men aren’t what I was referring to. The cavernous ruins in China that I’ve seen pictures of hold huge temples, stairways, etc. hewn out of solid rock. Check out the pics.
That’s why I’d already posted this one:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3319171/posts?page=45#45
Turns out these are the correct YT links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tn-Y6Mt7HA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqDewaTvwfo
He didn’t say warming he said expanding.
> global warming is causing the water in the oceans to expand...
Which is the old meme, that the oceans are warming at depth.
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