[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help] 

Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

The History of Barbecue

‘Pathetic’: Joe Biden tells another ‘tall tale’ during rare public appearance

Lawsuit Reveals CDC Has ZERO Evidence Proving Vaccines Don't Cause Autism

Trumps DOJ Reportedly Quietly Looking Into Criminal Charges Against Election Officials

Volcanic Risk and Phreatic (Groundwater) eruptions at Campi Flegrei in Italy

Russia Upgrades AGS-17 Automatic Grenade Launcher!

They told us the chickenpox vaccine was no big deal—just a routine jab to “protect” kids from a mild childhood illness

Pentagon creates new military border zone in Arizona

For over 200 years neurological damage from vaccines has been noted and documented

The killing of cardiologist in Gaza must be Indonesia's wake-up call

Marandi: Israel Prepares Proxies for Next War with Iran?

"Hitler Survived WW2 And I Brought Proof" Norman Ohler STUNS Joe Rogan

CIA Finally Admits a Pyschological Warfare Agent from the Agency “Came into Contact” with Lee Harvey Oswald before JFK’s Assassination

CNN Stunned As Majority Of Americans Back Trump's Mass Deportation Plan

Israeli VS Palestinian Connections to the Land of Israel-Palestine

Israel Just Lost Billions - Haifa and IMEC

This Is The Income A Family Needs To Be Middle Class, By State

One Big Beautiful Bubble": Hartnett Warns US Debt Will Exceed $50 Trillion By 2032

These Are The Most Stolen Cars In Every US State

Earth Changes Summary - June 2025: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval,

China’s Tofu-Dreg High-Speed Rail Station Ceiling Suddenly Floods, Steel Bars Snap

Russia Moves to Nationalize Country's Third Largest Gold Mining Firm

Britain must prepare for civil war | David Betz

The New MAGA Turf War Over National Intelligence

Happy fourth of july

The Empire Has Accidentally Caused The Rebirth Of Real Counterculture In The West

Workers install 'Alligator Alcatraz' sign for Florida immigration detention center

The Biggest Financial Collapse in China’s History Is Here, More Terrifying Than Evergrande!

Lightning

Cash Jordan NYC Courthouse EMPTIED... ICE Deports 'Entire Building


Science/Tech
See other Science/Tech Articles

Title: Missing: A Huge Chunk Of The Earth's Crust
Source: Reuters
URL Source: http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USL057295420070305
Published: Mar 5, 2007
Author: Reuters
Post Date: 2007-03-05 19:48:44 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 251
Comments: 13

Mon Mar 5, 2007 12:55PM EST

LONDON (Reuters) - A team of British scientists has set sail on a voyage to examine why a huge chunk of the earth's crust is missing, deep under the Atlantic Ocean -- a phenomenon that challenges conventional ideas about how the earth works.

The 20-strong team aims to survey an area some 3,000 to 4,000 metres deep where the mantle -- the deep interior of the earth normally covered by a crust kilometres thick -- is exposed on the sea floor.

Experts describe the hole along the mid-Atlantic ridge as an "open wound" on the ocean floor that has puzzled scientists for the five or so years that its existence has been known because it defies existing tectonic plate theories of evolution.

"We know so little about it," said Bramley Murton, a senior research scientist at Southampton's National Oceanography Center.

"It's a real challenge to our established understanding of what the earth's surface looks like underneath the waves," he told Reuters by telephone from the brand new, hi-tech British research ship RRS James Cook.

Mid ocean ridges are places where new oceanic crust is born, with red-hot lava spewing out along the seafloor.

What scientists are keen to know is whether the crust was ripped away by huge geological faults, or whether it never even developed in the first place.

The primary motivation for the project was to understand how the earth continues to evolve.

"The area that we are looking at is part of a mountain range that spans thousands of square kilometres, but we are beginning to realize that there are probably millions of square kilometres where the ocean floor is missing," Murton said.

The six week mission, led by geophysicist Roger Searle of Durham University and Chris MacLeod of Cardiff University's School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, will recover sample cores of rock by drilling into the mantle using a rig lowered on to the sea floor.

Asked if the discovery posed a threat to the environment, Murton replied: "It's not problematic for the earth because it is a natural earth process -- but in terms of knowing how the earth works and how the world is put together it is important."

Murton also said the expedition would shed light on the composition of sea water amongst other initiatives.

Crust formation is a fundamental mechanism of the earth which affects the chemistry of the world's oceans.

Progress by the research team can be monitored via a live web link to the ship at: http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/gg/classroom@sea/JC007/.

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

#1. To: Brian S (#0)

Here's the answer: New Model of the Universe

(Over time the earth has grown. Check it out!)

Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.

Arator  posted on  2007-03-05   20:21:36 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Arator (#1)

Here's the answer: New Model of the Universe

(Over time the earth has grown. Check it out!)

Brilliant. Always wondered why subduction seemed so rare, and so rarely near continents.

However, have you figured out what process ("plasma"?) he credits with the growth of the Earth? Is it nuclear? Is it akin to what drives the growth of a Red Giant? Or hasn't he figured this part out yet?

leveller  posted on  2007-03-05   21:17:42 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Brian S (#0)

Missing: A Huge Chunk Of The Earth's Crust

It appears to be on my kitchen floor.

tom007  posted on  2007-03-05   22:04:05 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Brian S (#0)

Asteroid strike??


SKYDRIFTER  posted on  2007-03-05   22:36:18 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Arator (#1)

Latest hadlines: Hell has been found! LOL......

rowdee  posted on  2007-03-05   23:09:40 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: leveller (#2) (Edited)

Brilliant.

I thought so too. Shrink the size of the earth, and the continental crusts all fit together. This is an amazing insight.

However, have you figured out what process ("plasma"?) he credits with the growth of the Earth? Is it nuclear? Is it akin to what drives the growth of a Red Giant? Or hasn't he figured this part out yet?

I think that BIG QUESTION remains to be answered. He has some theories, though.

He claims that this plantary expansion is not just an earth phenom, but is evidenced by the crusts of every other observable planet and even the moon.

So, whatever is happening is effecting all large masses. Might it have something to do with a stretching out of the fabric of space-time?

Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.

Arator  posted on  2007-03-05   23:09:41 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: rowdee (#5)

Latest hadlines: Hell has been found! LOL......

So earth expands in size as hell fills up to capacity...is that your theory?

Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.

Arator  posted on  2007-03-05   23:11:28 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: Arator (#7)

Nah.........I was thinking of the 'heat' element.

rowdee  posted on  2007-03-05   23:21:40 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#9. To: Arator (#1)

Here's an interesting question: I've seen people claim the reason dinosaurs were so big in the past is because gravity was less. After all, why are there no gigantic dinosaurs today?

If the Earth was smaller in the past, would the gravity be less? Might that not be an explanation?

"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.

YertleTurtle  posted on  2007-03-06   6:02:35 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: YertleTurtle (#9)

If the Earth was smaller in the past, would the gravity be less? Might that not be an explanation?

That is exactly what Neal Adams thinks. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.

Arator  posted on  2007-03-06   9:43:32 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: Arator (#1)

New Model of the Universe

Phhhhhhht . . .

Whoa! Cool!! (Cough, cough.)

Money trumps . . . uh . . . . peace . . sometimes. - GW Bush

randge  posted on  2007-03-06   9:49:03 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#12. To: Arator (#7)

So earth expands in size as hell fills up to capacity...is that your theory?

It reminds me of the scene in the South Park movie where Kenny goes to Hell and the numbers sign is 240,000,000,000,000,000 and is spinning upward so fast you can't read the numbers.

Then he goes to Heaven and the sign reads 241 and is clicking so slow it looks like it's stuck in molasses.

"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.

YertleTurtle  posted on  2007-03-10   7:43:46 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#13. To: YertleTurtle (#9)

Here's an interesting question: I've seen people claim the reason dinosaurs were so big in the past is because gravity was less. After all, why are there no gigantic dinosaurs today?

Atom Ant could be the wave of the future. LOL

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke

BTP Holdings  posted on  2007-03-10   8:15:45 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest


[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help]