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Despite protests, U.S. ship begins sound wave research off Yucatan
AP ^ | 1/21/5

Posted on 01/21/2005 9:37:33 PM PST by SmithL

MEXICO CITY -- Scientists working off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula began using sound waves on Friday to search for information about an asteroid that may have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

The research projected started despite concerns among environmental activists who say the technology could harm whales, sea turtles and several varieties of fish in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mexican authorities say the project is within acceptable limits and will be closely monitored.

Sergio Chan Lugo, the Yucatan state representative for Mexico's environmental protection agency, told local media the sound blasts began early Friday.

The project includes marine seismologists from the University of Texas Institute of Geophysics, the Geophysics Institute at Mexico's Autonomous National University and Cambridge and London universities.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Mexico; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: asteroid; ping
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Huh?
1 posted on 01/21/2005 9:37:35 PM PST by SmithL
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To: SmithL

Tom lowers his megaphone just into the water...."CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?"


2 posted on 01/21/2005 9:42:03 PM PST by TexanToTheCore (Rock the pews, Baby!)
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To: SmithL

Small scale seismic survey in a general area where such surveys have been going on for 25 years or more.


3 posted on 01/21/2005 9:43:56 PM PST by 1066AD
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To: SmithL

I am sorry but we are running 400B dollar deficits and are in a war. Why are we spending money this academic BS? Repurpose these scientists to figure out how to make terrorists go extinct.


4 posted on 01/21/2005 9:46:52 PM PST by microgood (Washington State: Ukraine without the poison)
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To: SmithL

Chicxulub Crater
Date: 01.24.1992
This is a computer-generated gravity map image of the Chicxulub Crater found on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The buried impact structure has been implicated in the mass extinction of life 65 million years ago and may be much larger than scientists first suspected.

New analyses of gravity measurements in the region have turned up evidence that the feature is a multiring basin with a fourth, outer ring about 300 kilometers in diameter. At this diameter, the Chixulub Basin represents one of the largest collisions in the inner solar system since the so-called "heavy bombardment" ended almost four billion years ago. (The period of heavy bombardment was caused by the impact of debris from the early formation of the solar system raining in on the newly formed planets.) The only comparable post-bombardment basin is the 280-kilometer-diameter Mead Basin on Venus.

5 posted on 01/21/2005 9:48:20 PM PST by endthematrix (Declare 2005 as the year the battle for freedom from tax slavery!)
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To: microgood

There's just about enough room in that crater to house all the islamababblefacists. Not far from Gitmo, either.


6 posted on 01/21/2005 9:55:46 PM PST by SolidRedState (Free Martha)
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To: microgood
I am sorry but we are running 400B dollar deficits and are in a war. Why are we spending money this academic BS? Repurpose these scientists to figure out how to make terrorists go extinct.

You never know. When Robert Ballard found the Titanic he was actually conducting a secret contract with the Navy to survey the status of the nuclear weapons aboard the sunken Navy submarines the USS Thresher and the USS Scorpion. The survey of the area where the Titanic sunk was a cover story for the actual classified work. And the story back in the 70s about Howard Hughes using the Glomar Explorer to mine manganese nodules from the ocean floor was a cover story for the real mission which was to raise a sunken Soviet submarine.

7 posted on 01/21/2005 10:00:49 PM PST by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
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To: TexanToTheCore
Tom lowers his megaphone just into the water...."CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?"


8 posted on 01/21/2005 10:04:02 PM PST by RayChuang88
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To: FreedomCalls
You never know.

Well, if that is the case I am all for it. I was just noting that the dinos have been dead for 65 million years so it would not matter much if we waited a few to get back to the academic pursuits after we take care of our current issues. Thanks for those links. I just am amazed by our current war in that noone has sacrificed a thing. It seems our survival is just another budget line item.
9 posted on 01/21/2005 10:08:49 PM PST by microgood (Washington State: Ukraine without the poison)
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To: FreedomCalls
USS Thresher

BTW I worked for the Navy Shipyards and the Thresher was on sea trials when it went down and it was not a boomer so there was no way they were looking for nuclear weapons on that boat. It had civilians on board and certainly no weapons. Sea trials are just to make sure the thing works.
10 posted on 01/21/2005 10:17:12 PM PST by microgood (Washington State: Ukraine without the poison)
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To: FreedomCalls

Thanks for the links - fascinating reads. I'm certain the Thresher would not have weapons when it sank. They were on sea-trials after just getting out of the yards.


11 posted on 01/21/2005 10:19:44 PM PST by SmithL (ex-Boomer Rider)
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To: microgood

"I am sorry but we are running 400B dollar deficits"

Maybe you haven't heard but fiscial responsibility is no longer a Republican principal. Deficits don't matter anymore.


12 posted on 01/21/2005 10:24:53 PM PST by OneTimeLurker
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To: microgood
You can bet that the hydrographic survey will be used to drill for oil too. I've worked on such a vessel. The data they get is very very useful. Having such data makes it easy to catch subs (or provide the same with excellent charts for stealthy transits).

Recall too that Cuba use to (and maybe still does) harbor old Soviet subs...subs now sold to China who's been putting them to use. The Yucatan is not that far off from both Cuba and Venezuela. I'll bet money that the Sino-ex-Soviet Communist hardliners will try to continue the same Communist flavor in a post-Castro Cuba.

These hydrographic surveys are more than just academic. The U.S. ship probably won't share everything they find (valleys that can mask a subs transit), and that's likely to get the typical socialist sympathizing/environmental groups more upset than dolphins with bleeding ear drums.

Revelations 20:13
13 posted on 01/21/2005 10:27:58 PM PST by SaltyJoe ("Social Justice" begins with the unborn child.)
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To: microgood; SmithL

Yes, you are both correct. He was charged with surveying the status of the nuclear torpedoes on the Scorpion and the general condition of the hull and reactor on the Thresher.


14 posted on 01/21/2005 10:30:59 PM PST by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
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To: SaltyJoe
You can bet that the hydrographic survey will be used to drill for oil too.

Cool. I thought we were talking about dino chasers. I withdraw my objection. Cool.
15 posted on 01/21/2005 10:33:06 PM PST by microgood (Washington State: Ukraine without the poison)
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To: OneTimeLurker
Maybe you haven't heard but fiscial responsibility is no longer a Republican principal. Deficits don't matter anymore.

I hear you. But one try to make the case for that.
16 posted on 01/21/2005 10:38:08 PM PST by microgood (Washington State: Ukraine without the poison)
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To: FreedomCalls
He was charged with surveying the status of the nuclear torpedoes on the Scorpion and the general condition of the hull and reactor on the Thresher.

Did not know that. It makes a ton of sense.
17 posted on 01/21/2005 10:50:33 PM PST by microgood (Washington State: Ukraine without the poison)
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To: microgood
I work on a cable ship (laying submarine fiber optic cable). We need hydrographic surveys like we need caffeine for breakfast. Yes, it's that much of a requirement.

DID-JA-KNOW! The tsunami in the Indian Ocean had wiped out most of the beaches that it hit? My company has an installation contract for a cable system making a shore landing in India. We have to put that entire project on hold until hydrographic surveys can re-map the cable route. Areas that were hundreds of meters deep are now only meters deep. These last events were nothing short of cataclysmic!

http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&q=hydrographic+survey+tsunami

http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/hsd/hydrog.htm
18 posted on 01/21/2005 10:53:50 PM PST by SaltyJoe ("Social Justice" begins with the unborn child.)
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To: SolidRedState

...and it's mostly underwater... '-)


19 posted on 01/21/2005 10:55:40 PM PST by TXnMA (Attention, ACLU: There is no constitutionally protected right to NOT be offended -- Shove It!)
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To: SaltyJoe
Areas that were hundreds of meters deep are now only meters deep. These last events were nothing short of cataclysmic!

I did indeed read about that. Islanss shifting hundreds of feet and channels need to be remapped. Read an article where a team was leaving the East Coast to remap the channels. Good luck and proud to know you.
20 posted on 01/21/2005 11:03:42 PM PST by microgood (Washington State: Ukraine without the poison)
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