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Geologists Discover New Layer in Earth’s Mantle
Sci-News.com ^ | 9/24/2015 | Staff

Posted on 09/25/2015 2:28:37 PM PDT by JimSEA

New research led by Dr Hauke Marquardt of the University of Bayreuth, Germany, suggests the existence of a previously unknown superviscous layer inside our planet: part of the lower mantle where the rock gets 3 times stiffer. Such a layer may explain why tectonic plate slabs seem to pool at 930 miles (1,500 km) under Indonesia and South America’s Pacific coast.

“The Earth has many layers, like an onion. Most layers are defined by the minerals that are present. Essentially, we have discovered a new layer in the Earth. This layer isn’t defined by the minerals present, but by the strength of these minerals,” said Dr Lowell Miyagi of the University of Utah, the second author on the paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

(Excerpt) Read more at sci-news.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; geology; mantle
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To: ETL; SunkenCiv
Reminded me of something:


61 posted on 09/25/2015 11:09:48 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (Fair Dinkum!)
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To: Fred Nerks

Those rock maggots just couldn’t eat one without biting through to the Tootsie Roll center....


62 posted on 09/25/2015 11:11:03 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: JimSEA
That depends on how old your oil is.

We have producing formations in this area from the Cambrian up through the Permian.

Elsewhere, Cretaceous is common, too.

63 posted on 09/25/2015 11:19:43 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Fred Nerks

What is the location (where the photo was taken)?


64 posted on 09/25/2015 11:25:59 PM PDT by BlueDragon
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To: philman_36

Yeah, words mean things....

I agree...

Perhaps I should take my complaint to the author of the misleading title.

Frankly, it means nothing to me if they postulate a claim, or they use words like is, will, must. rather than could, might, or wouldcouldashoulda....

Like I said, it’s semantics and science is full of it these days. These modern day bozos do not want their asses on the line if the paper is found to be faulty so they use semantics.

In reality, the title is correct because all baloney aside, that is what they are claiming.

All they have really discovered is what they expected to find and that is a area of slightly cooler material in the place where the plate makes it decent into the mantle. They then extrapolate that this is stagnant and therefore relevant somehow..Perhaps if they come back to the same place and run the same tests in about 10 years, and they can assure me that the same material is still stagnant, I might find that to be relevant to the geological activity of the earth over time.

There really is no new layer, but that’s what they claim.

All the might’s, could’s and if’s aside. Their data is not usable for anything like quake prediction or further extrapolations unless they repeat it over a period of years/decades while logging plate movement as well.


65 posted on 09/25/2015 11:37:08 PM PDT by Cold Heat (For Rent....call 1-555-tagline)
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To: philman_36

I don’t want to belabor this issue any longer then needed, but for me, sometimes I find it hard to just let things go.

I’m not necessarily directing this at you so don’t take it personal.

I have a counter postulation to issue to the claimers of a newly discovered layer.

I think what they are observing “could” be the heat sink like effect of the entire length of the descending plate (some 900+ miles according to their data).

The fracture lines along the surfaces front, back and sides of the descending rock mass could tend to isolate it to some degree like a thermos bottle insert. It would remain cooler then the surround rock because the heat from the mantle would be siphoned off by the length of the rock mass.

As I explained, just like a heat sink in electronics.

This “could” be responsible for their postulated stagnation and their so called “stiffer” layer.

But then again, I am not a geologist.


66 posted on 09/26/2015 12:00:18 AM PDT by Cold Heat (For Rent....call 1-555-tagline)
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To: eartrumpet; JimSEA
Is this new layer several million degrees, like Algore taught us?

Al Gore: Earth's Interior 'Extremely Hot, Several Million Degrees'

By Noel Sheppard (newsbusters.org) | November 18, 2009

[snip]

CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST: ...to create energy, and it sounds to me like an evil plan by Lex Luthor to defeat Superman. Can you, can you tell me, is this a viable solution, geothermal energy?

AL GORE: It definitely is, and it's a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy - when they think about it at all - in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, 'cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot ...

[snip]

The physics and astronomy website Physlink contests Gore's absurd claim:

***It is approximately 4000°C [7,232°F] at the centre of the Earth***.

To put this in context:

1. The centre of the Sun is approximately 15 million°C
2. The surface of the Sun is 5500°C
3. Iron melts at 1535°C (when at atmospheric pressure)
4. Water boils at 100°C (when at atmospheric pressure)
5. Human skin is comfortable with temperatures up to about 60°C
6. The highest temperature recorded on the Earth's surface is 58°C (Libya 1922)

It is not possible to directly measure the temperature at the centre of the Earth and four thousand degrees is nothing more than our most well-established piece of guesswork to date.

Most modern calculations rely on the fact that we believe the inner core to be made up of iron and nickel that is just about at melting point. It is under a lot of pressure, which prevents it from melting, even at such high temperatures. There is also a lot of evidence regarding how the outer core of the Earth convects and that helps to establish the temperature.

However, recently British scientists have suggested that the temperature of the Earth's core may in fact be as high as the surface of the Sun, so the question is still open.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/11/18/al-gore-earths-interior-extremely-hot-several-million-degrees


67 posted on 09/26/2015 1:28:59 AM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: BlueDragon

TORYSH

http://mangystau-view.com/en/pages/actau?page_mode=slideshow#s-21


68 posted on 09/26/2015 3:31:38 AM PDT by Fred Nerks (Fair Dinkum!)
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To: BlueDragon

The short description of the tour route on Mangistau:

Aktau – canyon Kapamsay – mosque in a rock Shakpak-Ata – canyon Shakpakty - globular concretion Torysh – valley Kokala – Sherkala mountain - valley Zhylshy – valley Ayrakty – village Shetpe – village Zharmysh – Tuzbair salt marsh – village Shetpe – Aktau town.

http://silkadv.com/ru/node/1199


69 posted on 09/26/2015 3:40:14 AM PDT by Fred Nerks (Fair Dinkum!)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

That sort of material behavior occurs in real life under rare circumstances.

Corn starch, water, and one or two other ingredients, when combined in the right proportions, will instantly (but temporarily) harden when hit with high force, but otherwise allow your hand to easily move through the substance if not at a high attack speed.

I had the opportunity to witness this at an event at a university engineering campus.


70 posted on 09/26/2015 4:36:00 AM PDT by ConservativeMind ("Humane" = "Don't pen up pets or eat meat, but allow infanticide, abortion, and euthanasia.")
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To: ConservativeMind
It's a Solid... It's a Liquid... It's Oobleck!

Materials
•    1 cup of water
•    1 to 2 cups of cornstarch
•    Mixing bowl
•    Food coloring (optional)

71 posted on 09/26/2015 4:54:22 AM PDT by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: ConservativeMind

Silly Putty behaves the same way. I need a new egg full!
8^)


72 posted on 09/26/2015 9:04:51 AM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra (Don't touch that thing Don't let anybody touch that thing!I'm a Doctor and I won't touch that thing!)
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To: Fred Nerks
Thanks for the info.

In Western Kazakhstan, fairly near the Caspian Sea...

I'd seen photos previously but could not place from where.

Searching maps I can find Shetpe, but not very precise for where the Valley of the Balls, Torysh Valley Kazakhstan is, other than I guess it is to the Northwest, near Sherkala mountain, which is on what maps I can access.

No matter though. I doubt I'll ever go there.

73 posted on 09/26/2015 12:26:11 PM PDT by BlueDragon
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To: ETL; JimSEA
Re. comment #32 with the illustration:
"The lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary is conventionally taken at the 1300°C isotherm, above which the mantle behaves in a rigid fashion and below which it behaves in a ductile fashion.[3]"

Ductile, that is, malleable, movable. It's hot down there. Most rocks have little structural strength at 1300 C (2372 F) and melt at slightly greater depths (~1200-2200 C, depending on materials). Melting occurs at much lesser depths in large lava blooms (older long tube theory recently superceded). Generally, the greater the heat, the greater the viscosity, even with greater pressure. Even if one layer is more adhesive, another above or below it might be more slippery, so to speak.

The magnetic field, led by larger outside forces, pulls the outer core around more quickly, and parts of the mantle less quickly. Those outside forces aren't completely understood or analyzed, yet (solar field, galactic, general cosmic, etc.).

One can have a look at some of the refractory technologies for an easy study of effects of heat on materials at lower temperatures (near 1300 C and below). Thanks for the illustrations and information, ETL, and for the article, JimSEA!


74 posted on 09/27/2015 2:02:40 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: JimSEA
"Certainly plate tectonics over geologic time produces the plate movements responsible for large scale climate change. The collision of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate is responsible for the Himilayan range which combined with the monsoon currents give us the most massive carbon sink and, most likely, the low CO2 levels that contributed to the most recent ice ages. What accounts for near term climate change? We are slowly and acrimoniously learning."

Well said! My knowledge is only from technical work including hobbies (e.g., open source equipment) and a recent interest in what broader physical, political and economic changes might be ahead. I'm not an engineer.


75 posted on 09/27/2015 2:07:39 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: familyop

I am just a hobbyist but spent some 30 years in one or another jobs in mining (about 12 years as a day’s pay miner and the rest in supervision and middle management - personnel). From the time I was growing up in a mining town, I’ve been fascinated by geology, mineralogy and in the last two decades, plate tectonic theory). It’s better than a football game to me and things are being discovered or contradicted at dizzying pace.


76 posted on 09/27/2015 2:15:48 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: JimSEA

Over “300 million years,” maybe the slabs are melting in the mantle rather than “getting stuck.” I’ll go a little further and say that they would certainly melt, given the temperatures involved. Maybe what we’ve been reading has to do with lack of overlapping knowledge between fields of study and a misinterpretation of received seismic wave patterns.


77 posted on 09/27/2015 2:27:38 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: JimSEA

Mining geology is fascinating! I once hired a mining geologist to do a report in answer to bogus claims about levels of surface radiation from some particular maroon soil and claims that small amounts of surface uranium tailings were hazardous for several miles (mine that didn’t yield nearly enough for profitable radium production). I’m rather financially poor but had the study done for a small, low-cost property concern for myself and neighbors against some evil real estate speculators. The surface radiation count showed safe soil, and water tested fine.

It’s radon gas from fast decay that, in the past, hurt mainly miners who smoked, not to mention the hazard from inhaling dust in general for miners. Drinking and bathing water for residents only needs to be decayed out with aeration before use (only about 3-4 minutes for adequate decay from a bathtub of water through an open window or vent, or a fountain in a vented cistern before input to a house).

I worked to make steel products for a few years in my youth, by the way. The problem was called blue lung instead of black lung in steel work, and there was no appreciable uranium involved (only carbon and other materials in the dust and smoke). We finished our shifts covered with black dust.


78 posted on 09/27/2015 2:44:56 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: JimSEA; ETL

Just found out that melting points increase with pressure. I didn’t know that!

Never mind. ;-)


79 posted on 09/27/2015 2:58:56 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: familyop

Yes, my father died from a combination of silicosis and rheumatoid arthritis. He finally got to the point that the arthritis wouldn’t allow him to get enough air and pneumonia was data. The Grants NM area uranium mines killed a lot of Navajo miners. A lot of safety management in mines has been discovered in the last sixty years.


80 posted on 09/27/2015 3:02:26 PM PDT by JimSEA
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