Slashdot Mirror
New Ocean being Formed in Africa
PenguinRadio writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting on a 37-mile long fissure that split open in September in the Afar desert in Ethiopia that could be the start of a new ocean forming. The fissure, which grew 8 meters wide in 3 weeks following an earthquake on Sept 14, is now splitting at about 0.8 inches per year, would eventually lead to Ethiopia eastern portions becoming an island in a million years or so. The findings were presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting taking place in San Francisco this week. The BBC reports that formation of a ocean basin is the first step toward developing an ocean, but that it will be millions of years before that could occur."
Within the article it states that many prospective ocean basins fizz out and never really develop into ocean basins.
So, are there reasons to expect that this one will develop into a full fledged ocean? I mean, it is not easy to predict future events, but without some measure of certainty, wouldn't a more appropriate title have been "Giant Fissure in Ethiopia Continues to Grow"?
Given the timefram here, how do we *know* its going to be a ocean?
Oceans are pretty damned large. This thing may never surpass 'lake' stage. Or even just a big mud puddle that reverts back to 'land' when it dries up.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Duh. Air has infinitely more degrees of freedom than rock. The atmosphere is a chaotic, infinite-dimensional, fluid dynamics problem. Ever hear of the butterfly effect? Tectonic plates, on the other hand, haven't changed their general direction of motion in millions of years, and they're not about to do so now. I mean, can you imagine the momentum those things have?
Global warming does not cause the movement of tectonic plates.
Mere surmise, sir.
The fissure grows 8 meters wide in 3 weeks following an earthquake on Sept 14, and then increases at a rate of about 0.8 inches per year. Given the first metric is even possible, it's absurd to think that the the second rate will remain constant so projection to millions of years is invalid. It would be just as valid to conclude that the increase is decelerating and eventually close back up.
One man's Troll is the other man's Funny and is the third man's Truth.
You can't handle the truth.
Something about the moderation of this post teaches me about the realities of the world. The parent post was moderated as 'Troll' at least 5 times by now. It was then moderated as Funny also just as many times.
/. can be viewed as reflection of the world.
What we are observing here on this miniscule scale is the gigantic battle that is taking place in this world. The battle between the forces of stupidity, obedience, fanatism, blind religiouos principles versus the forces of logic, humour, personal responsibility, scientific principles, and tolerance.
.
BTW. I wanted everyone to note, that yesterday we lost a person, who was one of the people fighting this same battle. I don't need to tell you which side of the battle he was on.
You can't handle the truth.
Can't predict with any degree of certainty wether it will rain or snow a few days from now but they can predict that a crack in the ground now will form an ocean in a million years. In the middle of a desert. Ok.
...
Idiot.
First of all, this has nothing to do with climatology. But even if it did
I can't predict with any degree of certainty where, when, or how you're going to die. I can, however, predict with a fair degree of certainty that in a million years, you'll be dead.
Do you see the difference now?
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
And what makes you think they are making these observations based on only three months worth of data? Do you not think they have been here before? Do you not think they have studied similar phenomena before?
Did you read any of the research involved with this? Are you even faintly familiar with geology or even basic research methods?
Are you just an armchair scientist, trying to take potshots at people smarter than you who are actually out there doing the real work?
Let me ask some questions of the experts:
Answers? You don't know. If you don't know, then whatever theory you guys have must be accepted by faith/belief in the absence of facts and evidence.
Speculation and forming conjectures or hypotheses are a normal part of the scientific process. What you're seeing is journalists listening to this and exaggerating wildly.
...
But that's a normal part of the journalistic process
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
So the melting of the polar ice caps and shifting of the wieght via water/ice from one are of concetration to another doesn't cause presures to disperes in ways that could influence the plates?
I remeber reading somewere, a short time ago that this is posible. Lets see, thismight not be exactly what i'm thinking of but damn close. Causing it to move? Maybe thats a steach but causing other events that makes it easier to move is totaly realistic.
If you'd like to propose a more tangible and accurate estimate to determine when the East Africa rift valley will become an "ocean", please do so. The scientific community is waiting.
Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?
i think you're bringing in emotions from a completely separate matter (between you and your physician) into this argument. while it's understandable that your personal experiences shape your perception and attitudes, you really shouldn't let your experiences with a single phsyician dictate your perception of the entire scientific/medical establishment. it just sems like you're looking too hard to come up with wide-sweeping criticisms of the scientific community in order to create more fodder to justify to yourself your resentment towards conventional science and medicine, when all you really need to do is take a more objective look at the situation and separate your personal politics from unrelated matters.
maybe your psychologist is a douchebag--god knows i've had my share of bad experiences with the mental health community--but your attempt at construing one mainstream publication's report on this discovery to reinforce your personal grudge against your physician can only turn up specious arguments that are unconvincing to others.