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Geological Curiosities

ramonmercado

ramonmercado

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Scripps Researchers Rediscover Elusive Site Of Exploding Volcanic Rocks

Eakins and co-chief scientist Dana Vukajlovich, a Scripps graduate student, say the loud popping sounds are due to high concentrations of volcanic gases trapped in bubbles within the lava rocks (pictured) that explode when they escape the confining water pressure of the deep ocean floor.
San Diego CA (SPX) Oct 17, 2005
Scientists aboard the Scripps research vessel Roger Revelle have solved a 45-year-old geological mystery. In 1960, Scripps oceanographer Dale Krause reported the discovery of extraordinary deep-sea volcanic rocks in waters off Mexico, near Guadalupe Island, approximately 200 miles south of San Diego.
When brought to the surface, the rocks spontaneously exploded "with a sharp snapping sound," according to Krause.

Since then, only a few other sites, mostly along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, have been reported with similar "popping rocks." An attempt by the late Scripps Professor Harmon Craig to locate the site in 1984 proved unsuccessful, largely because the location of the original discovery lacked the precision of today's navigational technologies.

A team of U.S. and Mexican geologists and student researchers aboard the Oct. 5th to 10th Revelle expedition explored the region, including the area now known as Popcorn Ridge, in an attempt to precisely locate the source of Krause's popping rocks and the unique information these rocks could provide about important Earth processes.

Three dredge hauls of Popcorn Ridge on Oct. 7 recovered some volcanic rocks, though none "popped" on deck. A sonar survey of the seafloor revealed a small mound, which was later identified as a volcano, at the base of Popcorn Ridge, 3,200 meters (10,500 feet) below sea level.

On Sunday, Oct. 9, the researchers hit the jackpot with 'D-11,' or the 11th area dredged during the expedition. D-11 is located along the flank of what the scientists are now calling "Krause Volcano."

"As soon as we took the rocks out of the water we could hear them popping, much like a firecracker," said Barry Eakins, a post-doctoral researcher at Scripps and one of the chief scientists on the cruise. "We were very excited because we knew this was a big find."

Eakins and co-chief scientist Dana Vukajlovich, a Scripps graduate student, say the loud popping sounds are due to high concentrations of volcanic gases trapped in bubbles within the lava rocks that explode when they escape the confining water pressure of the deep ocean floor.

The scientists consider the rediscovery an important achievement because it will give them the opportunity to study these rare rocks in their Scripps laboratories and to compare them with the popping rocks from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It also allows other scientists to return to the site, since the precise, GPS-marked location is now known.

Vukajlovich says that the rocks are important because the volcanic gases (such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, helium and argon) that are trapped in the bubbles did not escape during eruption and therefore should represent the concentrations of these gases in Earth's mantle.

Eakins believes the rocks will not only give researchers more information about the inventory of these gases within Earth, but also help them better understand the origin and history of Earth's atmosphere. "We expect that these rocks will be the source of research for decades," Eakins said.

The rediscovery also will provide new information about seafloor volcanoes. The researchers characterized Krause Volcano that provided the popping rocks as very young—from decades to a few centuries old—which is a rare find.

"There are lots of volcanoes on the seafloor but most are quite old," said Vukajlovich. "It's exciting to find one that may be very, very young and possibly still active."

According to Scripps Professor Peter Lonsdale, detailed analyses of the gas chemistry and isotopic composition by Vukajlovich and others in Scripps labs will provide important information about the composition and origin of the mantle beneath oceanic crust.

The Revelle cruise was funded by the University of California Ship Funds Panel of the Marine Operations Committee.


http://www.terradaily.com/news/tectonics-05zzzzf.html
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Strange rock containing 30,000 diamonds baffles scientists
Miners unearth rare rock stuffed full of diamonds that has baffled scientists
By Andrew Trotman
5:20PM GMT 17 Dec 2014

When Russian miners pulled a strange red and green rock out of the ground, they immediately knew it was different to the thousands of tons of ore they process every day.
In fact, what workers at Alrosa's Udachnaya diamond mine had unearthed was a 30mm rock that contained 30,000 diamonds - a conentration 1m times higher than normal.
However, despite the rare find the company donated the rock to the Russian Academy of Sciences, as the diamonds are so small that they cannot be used as gems.
After scanning the rock with X-rays, scientists found that the diamonds inside measure just 1mm and are octahedral in shape - similar to two pyramids stuck together at the base. The red and green colouring comes from larger crystals of garnet, olivine and pyroxene.
"The exciting thing for me is there are 30,000 itty-bitty, perfect octahedrons, and not one big diamond," said Larry Taylor, a geologist at the University of Tennessee, who presented the findings at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting. "It's like they formed instantaneously. This rock is a strange one indeed."

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...aining-30000-diamonds-baffles-scientists.html
 
Volume of world's oldest water estimated
_79805048_ut-researchers-underground2.jpg

The researchers dated some of the deep water to between one and 2.5bn years old

The world's oldest water, which is locked deep within the Earth's crust, is present at a far greater volume than was thought, scientists report.
The liquid, some of which is billions of years old, is found many kilometres beneath the ground.
Researchers estimate there is about 11m cubic kilometres (2.5m cu miles) of it - more water than all the world's rivers, swamps and lakes put together.
The study was presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
It has also been published in the journal Nature.

The team found that the water was reacting with the rock to release hydrogen: a potential food source.
It means that great swathes of the deep crust could be harbouring life.
Prof Barbara Sherwood Lollar, from the University of Toronto, in Canada, said: "This is a vast quantity of rock that we've sometimes overlooked both in terms of its ability to tell us about past processes - the rocks are so ancient they contain records of fluid and the atmosphere from the earliest parts of Earth's history.
"But simultaneously, they also provide us with information about the chemistry that can support life.
"And that's why we refer to it as 'the sleeping giant' that has been rumbling away but hasn't really been characterised until this point."

The crust that forms the continents contains some of the oldest rocks on our planet.
But as scientists probe ever deeper - through boreholes and mines - they're discovering water that is almost as ancient.
The oldest water, discovered 2.4km down in a deep mine in Canada, has been dated to between one billion and 2.5bn years old.
Prof Chris Ballentine, from the University of Oxford, UK, said: "The biggest surprise for me was how old this water is.
_79805010_samplingminewatersphotocreditb.sherwoodlollar-toronto2.jpg

"That water is down there is no surprise - water will percolate down into the rock porosity.
"But for it to be preserved and kept there for so long is a surprise.
"So when you think about what's down beneath your feet, it's more exciting than just some rock."

As well as the new estimates for the volume of the ancient water, the researchers used data from 19 different mine sites, studied as part of the Deep Carbon Observatory programme, to assess how much hydrogen was being produced through the underground chemical reactions.
Prof Ballentine said: "Until our most recent work, the hydrogen production in the continental crust was calculated to be negligible: close to zero.
"This was very wrong and our work shows the hydrogen production in the continental crust to be the equal to that produced in the oceanic crust. This doubles the estimate of hydrogen produced on Earth."

Prof Sherwood Lollar said the hunt for life in the deep crust was now a priority.
"It gives us a quantum change in our understanding of how much of the Earth's crust might indeed be habitable and have enough energy to sustain subsurface life.
"We want to now follow this 'treasure map', to go to these sites to characterise just how broad this deep hydrosphere is, to characterise the extent of ages, and then to try to understand the differences in the kinds of life we might find in one fracture versus another.
"And even more exciting is if we can understand the limit to life, understand where we don't see life in the subsurface, and understand what it is about some of these fractures that makes them inhospitable for life."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30527357
 
IbisNibs said:
:bump:I'd never heard of ringing rocks until I stumbled on a mention in another thread—has anyone ever experienced any?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringing_rocks
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Last year my kids and I visited Panola Mountain State Park near Atlanta, GA, which is a large bare granite area several square miles in extent. While hiking around we found a place where the rock seemed to lie in sheets with air spaces beneath, and would ring at various musical pitches when struck with stones in various places. It was not bell-like by any stretch but more like a very dull marimba sound.

We jammed out for a good half hour.
 
IamSundog said:
Last year my kids and I visited Panola Mountain State Park near Atlanta, GA, which is a large bare granite area several square miles in extent. While hiking around we found a place where the rock seemed to lie in sheets with air spaces beneath, and would ring at various musical pitches when struck with stones in various places. It was not bell-like by any stretch but more like a very dull marimba sound.

We jammed out for a good half hour.
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Granite “exfoliates” in sheets or slabs. Panola granite is well known for it. I suspect the ringing may have to do with surface stresses created by the mineral weathering and/or the fact that they are thin slabs that allow for vibration when struck.
 
Split rock in Saudi Arabia

The huge boulder is made from sandstone and sits in Saudi Arabia’s arid Tayma oasis. Called the Al Naslaa rock formation it has become a popular photo opportunity.

Geologist Cherry Lewis told MailOnline it’s a natural phenomenon.

Lewis is an honorary research fellow at the University of Bristol and explained: ‘It [the split] could have formed due to a process called “freeze-thaw” weathering, which occurs when water gets into a small crack in the rock. As temperatures drop, the water freezes and expands which causes the crack to widen and lengthen.

‘The process repeats itself over thousands, or even millions, of years until the rock eventually splits. This process, coupled with wind erosion – which, in a desert environment, is like sandblasting – could also explain why the boulder is standing on its own like that.’
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1633640477063.png

 
hunck said:
Split rock in Saudi Arabia


View attachment 46279
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Hmm. I recall reading that some of these rocks could have been cut through using sand and rope. But I can't find that now. It does not appear that a natural split would have occurred like this. There is no weakness or stress along this vertical plane. Frost wedging would have pushed the pieces apart and broken it along several planes. Also, not aliens.
 
Sharon Hill said:
Hmm. I recall reading that some of these rocks could have been cut through using sand and rope. But I can't find that now. It does not appear that a natural split would have occurred like this. There is no weakness or stress along this vertical plane. Frost wedging would have pushed the pieces apart and broken it along several planes. Also, not aliens.
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I had similar doubts - the rock strata are more horizontal than perpendicular, but I’m no geologist. I think your rope cut could be a possibility, but why? It seems to be on it’s own in a remote area.

This photo shows the carved horse more clearly.
1633650839740.png


The other side is much rougher & there’s quite a nice simulacra of a creature’s head on the right.

1633650891604.png
 
If you look at the back side (last photo above) ... The suspiciously straight gap doesn't seem so anomalous when you note the similarly straight crack running parallel to it.

Al-Naslaa-BackSide.jpg
 
EnolaGaia said:
If you look at the back side (last photo above) ... The suspiciously straight gap doesn't seem so anomalous when you note the similarly straight crack running parallel to it.

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Yeah maybe, although it doesn’t look quite as straight… The site I got the photos from speculated that ground had dropped on one side or the other to create the gap, which seems even less likely.
 
hunck said:
Yeah maybe, although it doesn’t look quite as straight… The site I got the photos from speculated that ground had dropped on one side or the other to create the gap, which seems even less likely.
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It's difficult to tell. The photographer took that shot from the precise angle that allowed looking through the vertical gap with clarity. The crack is off to the side (i.e., a different viewing angle), and the crack's straightness (as if within a single vertical plane) can't be readily evaluated because the surrounding contours of the rock interfere with seeing it 'head-on' in the same way.
 
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