Science stories of the week

Not at all. This is just one of many geophysical tectonic processes going on all the time in an endless cycle. Don't worry about the crust being "lost". As a matter of fact, over geological time the amount of continental crust on the Earth's surface seems to have increased, due to the fractionation process that occurs when lower melting point, less dense mineral fractions are ejected onto the surface by volcanism.

In fact, now you make me read this again more closely, the journos have indeed got it wrong. They speak of the "crust" dripping into the mantle but that is not what is happening. As my earlier post pointed out, the lithosphere consists of crust on top and also a layer of cooled, rigid mantle material beneath. It is that mantle layer which is denser than the underlying, plastic asthenosphere and it is just that layer that "drips" down into it. In doing so it tends to pull on the crust supporting it, causing a depression.

The journos have made the same error I did before, with that other article I posted, of equating lithosphere with crust, when lithosphere has 2 components: crust and a denser rigid mantle layer.

Relax, wegs, it's all fine. :cool:
I appreciate you sorting this all out with me. You're a patient man, exchemist. lol
 
I appreciate you sorting this all out with me. You're a patient man, exchemist. lol
Only with good-natured rational people, esp. those willing to learn or to teach. You will be well aware I can also be an irascible old curmudgeon.

And your subject interested me. My mother, who temporarily taught geography at the local girls' grammar school when I was growing up, enthusiastically embraced plate tectonics when it appeared in the 1960s and caused a revolution in understanding the Earth. She rushed out and bought a copy of Arthur Holmes's 2nd edition of "Principles of Physical Geology", when it came out in 1965. Holmes was the man who really brought plate tectonics to public attention: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Holmes So I learnt it from her, when she talked about it in the evenings. I have not really kept up with it all but understand enough to retain an interest.

And I've always loved volcanoes. The photo in that book of the grotesque "spine" that grew out of la Montaigne Pelée, after the catastrophic nuée ardente (pyroclastic flow) eruption of 1902, is an image that has stayed with me all my life. I actually climbed that mountain with my wife and son, about 12 years ago.
 
Last edited:
Hmm, sounds like ballocks….and, surprise, surprise………

.https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/27/world/neutrino-research-anita-scn-trnd/index.html

“Scientists didn’t detect a parallel universe…..” :)

Having skimmed the article, it looks to me as if they have some anomalous reflection events from the ice, in which the phase of the wave is not reversed as expected.
 
Last edited:
RE: General Science & Technology
SUBTOPIC: Laudatory Remarks
⁜→ et al,

On this New Year's Day, I wish to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation for the many contributions made by our membership. While I have not contributed much that might be noteworthy, I have read and accepted the many hours of interesting commentary on various topics this past year.

All the best to you and yours in the coming year.

1611604183365-png.448413.png

Most Respectfully,
R
 
Finally lift off!

At least this one looks less like a gas-powered dildo. My son and I named the first one Bellend One.

But it is faintly disgusting to see Jeff “He-thinks-he’s-a-spaceman” Bezos and Muskie indulging in this billionaires’ willy-waving contest, at the expense of all those workers toiling away in warehouses on the minimum wage, with their rest breaks monitored by computer, while they amuse themselves futzing about in space and undermining democracy. Clearly luxury yachts are so yesterday, in the world of the mega billionaire tech bros.:rolleyes:
 
Back
Top