Death Valley’s half-mile-wide Ubehebe Crater turns out to have been created 800 years ago—far more recently than generally thought. (Credit: Brent Goehring/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
Posted on 01/25/2012 2:18:15 PM PST by fishtank
Geologists 750% Wrong in Death Valley
Posted on January 23, 2012 in Dating Methods, Geology,
Physical Science, Physics
A volcanic explosion in northern Death Valley occurred 800 years ago, not 6,000, “far more recently than generally thought,” according to new dating estimates. The event that created Ubehebe Crater is so recent, in fact, geologists think another devastating explosion could happen today.
“This certainly adds another dimension to what we tell the public,” a park ranger said after hearing the announcement reported on Science Daily. Using isotopic ages on rocks blown out of the crater, geologists from Columbia University calculated dates from 2,100 to 800 years old from the debris, with the biggest explosion at 800 years ago perhaps being the grand finale of a series of eruptions. The article said some of the other pits in the vicinity, called maars, gave dates of 3,000 to 5,000 years.
Explosion pits like Ubehebe (pronounced you-be-hee-bee) are thought to result from groundwater hitting a magma pocket. It seems surprising to envision water in this hottest, driest part of North America, but if the explosion occurred in the middle ages (around 1200 A.D.), tree ring evidence shows it was even hotter and drier then. If explosions occur periodically every thousand years or less, it’s not out of the question another one is coming.
Here’s what the geologists estimate an eyewitness would see:
Study coauthor Brent Goehring, (now at Purdue University) says this would have created an atom-bomb-like mushroom cloud that collapsed on itself in a donut shape, then rushed outward along the ground at some 200 miles an hour, while rocks hailed down. Any creature within two miles or more would be fatally thrown, suffocated, burned and bombarded, though not necessarily in that order. “It would be fun to witness — but I’d want to be 10 miles away,” said Goehring of the explosion.
In all fairness, the write-up on Live Science pegs the earlier estimate at 4,000 years. That would make the earlier geologists only 500% wrong.
When you go to national parks, do you accept the interpretive signs as authoritative? There have been other examples of misinformation, some even worse – like the realization in the 1980s after Mt. St. Helens erupted that the Yellowstone fossil forests must not have grown in place (as long taught by park sings), but were buried quickly by catastrophic volcanic mudflows. Scientists don’t know when Ubehebe erupted. Even the revised date is based on indirect evidence that might be overturned again.
What parks and geologists should do is state that the date is only an estimate based on certain assumptions, and that other interpretations are possible. They won’t do that, because they like the air of authority that comes from matter-of-fact statements, like “x million years ago, y happened.” Let’s see how long it takes them to rewrite the interpretive signs at the crater. Meanwhile, park visitors be forewarned. Don’t You Be Heeby.*
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120123152516.htm
Death Valley’s half-mile-wide Ubehebe Crater turns out to have been created 800 years ago—far more recently than generally thought. (Credit: Brent Goehring/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
boom !
boom !
Yes, and?
And we’re supposed to believe that science is settled that mankind can cause global climate change???
Ha Ha!!
Erroneous dating is quite common. I wonder how agenda- driven those geologists were? This puts another nail in the coffin for science as infallible. Every other day some rebuttal is offered for what was previously well established facts.
“It seems surprising to envision water in this hottest, driest part of North America,...”
One of the largest aquifers in North America is in Death Valley. The entrance to it is called Devil’s Hole.
Ubehebe gives me the hebegebes!
Phreatomagmatic explosion craters are known to be hard to date precisely because there is no clear distinction between the ejecta and the undisturbed country rock, and there is no remelting that would “lock in” a precise geochronometer as in igneous or high temperature metamorphic processes. And yes, I have been to Ubehebe and the lesser nearby crater.
Possibly an already fragile society was affected by this. I do “imagine” that there was an impressive amount of debris and dust cast into the atmosphere and made its way toward them.
Bad moon arising omen to them, possibly.
Most folks do not know that Death Valley in late fall, winter and early spring has some fine weather, Fact is in Winter it can get damn chilly.
It is also an incredible diverse and interesting area with LOADS of history.
Well worth going to and you can rent a car and do a day drive from Vegas and have a great time,
Just saying.
Well.....speaking of the Ubehebe gives me the hebegebes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-gZKRKNy4w&feature=player_embedded
Over in Farmington MN, the trees holding an adobe roof were cut in 1088 IIRC.
Within a few years, the place was deserted.
Severe climate change, well beforde the population explosion and SUVs.
Yeah and almost due east, which is where the prevailing winds blow.
Interesting. I was thinking that with so many different events over the ages, it would be hard to find all of the “rocks” from the various events. Although one would think that the latest and greatest event from 800 years ago would have provided the most rocks? (Unless perhaps it was SO great that most of those rocks ended up in Texas!)
Science is the search for the truth of our physical universe.
As such, it is infallible
Do you believe that all those who call themselves Christians, are, in fact, Christians?
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