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Friday, March 25, 2011
Blue Hole
Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters.
They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation – leaving them eerily empty.
Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.
Sailing Stones
The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades.
Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time.
Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements.
However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions.
Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.
Columnar Basalt
When a thick lava flow cools, it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity - in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man.
One of the most famous such examples is the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above), though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.
Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water.
Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters.
They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation – leaving them eerily empty.
Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.
Sailing Stones
The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades.
Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time.
Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements.
However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions.
Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.
Columnar Basalt
When a thick lava flow cools, it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity - in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man.
One of the most famous such examples is the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above), though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.
Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water.
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