Posted on 02/21/2006 8:23:44 AM PST by mattdono
Forget my interest in science, I truly like your exlanation the best. Science leaves too many unanswered questions but your explanation covers it all (the Hillary ooze, nothing else is as all consuming).
Thanks for your knowledgeable posts.
"There is an area between Perris, California and the foothills west of Perris where suddenly, since sometime last year, the temperature of the ground has become hot enough to fry an egg on it."
That may have been what I was reading about. Guy said the bottom of his shoes were melting so he got the heck out of there.
Strategerist to pollyannish, who says Freepers aren't creative?!?!
Wait a minute, you said pariffin, I said crude and the hot water was coming from another local well as they were injecting hot water. BTW, crude zones here in CA can be very shallow in LA and Orange County.
My grandfather took me and my older brother to see it as a double-feature with "The Curse of Frankenstein" (starring Peter Cushing). I made it through Frankenstein just fine, but I was so scared by "X the Unknown" that my grandfather took us home before the movie ended.
Now you went and ruined my daydreams about Hollyweird going up in smoke and a volcano erupting in downtown L.A. I was even thinking about some earthquakes in San Francisco, but like I said, it was only a day dream.
I remember only bits and pieces. Freaked me out a bit too (but not as bad as when the creature from the black lagoon killed a German Shepard). I remember it came out of a hole in the ground, was radio active and ate away a guy's head; well, most of it, anyway. As long as they were armed with a Geiger counter they knew when to run. Sheesh, I watched those on monster movie matinee around '65 or so.
Pariffin is a component of crude and (almost certainly) the reason for the hot water treatment.
Crude without paraffin is liquidy.
It's the paraffin in the crude that makes it "blobby."
(To compare, light sweet crude in West Texas is basically gasoline and kerosine mixed.)
nanotechnology gone awry?
"Hazmat and Urban Search and Rescue crews determined that the mysterious substance wasn't flammable, Myers said."
And what you're talking about isn't flammable?
Video at the link under "Mystery ooze . . ." http://www.cbs2.com/video/?cid=71
Assuming an open envirnomnent, it is hard to get crude, especially thick goop like paraffin, with a bunch of water in it burning, yes.
(The crude/paraffin is presumably suspended in the water like oil in a salad dressing; little droplets)
Seperate the water, not so much.
If they just let it sit, it will eventually float to the top, and it will become much more flammable.
I also wouldn't be in a hurry to light a match in the sewer down there, as trapped natural gas is gradually released from the oil, and you can probably get enough contained in a sewer to go "boom."
They should have called you for information :~ )
In follow up to my own post, if you look a typical oil well, there are two or more tanks next to each pump jack (or a big one gathering system).
The first one gets the oil/water/goop mix straight out of the ground. The second one has a pipe/pump that skims the oil off the top of the first tank, after it settles and the water/oil seperates. (The first tank's extra water is then injected back into the ground whence it came.)
The contents of the first tank are not that flammable (they do go boom if there is gas releases); not so the second tank.
I hope the Hazmat squad knows as much as the Midland, Texas squad about these things and does not let the mixture settle, or they are in for a big surprise.
Well, let me just say that I'd LIKE to believe that oil isn't a fossil fuel, but I'm still waiting on the evidence.
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