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Antarctica Once Abutted Death Valley

Posted by kdawson on from the may-i-borrow-some-grey-poupon dept.

Science News has a story of strange bedfellows. It seems that Antarctica was once adjacent to what is now the American Southwest, some 800 million years ago. Earth's continents then formed a supercontinent called Rodinia, predating Pangaea by some 550 million years. "...the ratios of neodymium isotopes in the ancient sediments in the Transantarctic Mountains are the same as those in what was then Laurentia, says Goodge. Also, the hafnium isotope ratios in the 1.44-billion-year-old zircons found in East Antarctica match those of the zircons found in the distinctive granites now found primarily in North America. Finally, the researchers note, the ratios of various isotopes and elements in a basketball-sized chunk of granite found in East Antarctica — a chunk ripped by a glacier from bedrock now smothered by thick ice, the team speculates — match those of granite found only in what was southwestern Laurentia, which today is the American Southwest."

22 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. but wait... by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... how do we know it was called Rodinia? Who left records?

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    1. Re:but wait... by tftp · · Score: 2, Funny

      Pnakotic Manuscripts, of course.

    2. Re:but wait... by Darkness404 · · Score: 4, Funny

      ... how do we know it was called Rodinia? Who left records?

      All those people that were here before Xenu blew them all up of course!

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      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    3. Re:but wait... by rubycodez · · Score: 2, Funny

      hey, it was McCain's old stomping grounds.

    4. Re:but wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      After reading your post about TFA, I had to go back and re-read TFA to see if the movement of continents was as you said TFA described; and indeed, TFA confirms. Fuck.

    5. Re:but wait... by MarkRose · · Score: 1, Funny

      amorphous blobs labeled things like "p.s. this is actually Canada"

      Funny, I thought amorphous blobs referred to average Americans ;-)

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      Be relentless!
    6. Re:but wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Yo momma so old she was born in Rodinia.

    7. Re:but wait... by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you watch your scriptures carefully, they take place "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away". So it would clearly be heresy to suggest that Earth and Hoth are the same planet.

      --
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    8. Re:but wait... by jollyreaper · · Score: 2, Funny

      ... how do we know it was called Rodinia?

      What else would you call a place with a gaggle of Rodinians nobbing about?

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  2. Death Valley is a bitchin place by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    Go spring or fall... crank up the Harley and pack some doob... bring a camera... stuff your ugly bitch in the seat behind you... and stay at Panamint Springs (the other places are run by contractors with federal NPS contracts).

    There is NOBODY there. It's a space as big as Connecticut and you have it all to yourself and maybe a few dozen other people. After a few days you start to recognize them; you even start waving at each other when you pass. It's totally like Antarctica.

    1. Re:Death Valley is a bitchin place by gardyloo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Fine. One of the reasons there's nobody there is because of all of the assholes on their Harleys :)

    2. Re:Death Valley is a bitchin place by kclittle · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's totally like Antarctica.

      Except it is a dry heat, ya'know.

      --
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    3. Re:Death Valley is a bitchin place by colourmyeyes · · Score: 4, Funny

      ... stuff your ugly bitch in the seat behind you...

      Do I have to take the ugly one?

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      My grandmother used anecdotal evidence all the time, and she lived to be 120 years old.
    4. Re:Death Valley is a bitchin place by mrbluze · · Score: 5, Funny

      One of the reasons there's nobody there is because of all of the assholes on their Harleys :)

      Taken literally or figuratively, the visuals are not appealing.

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    5. Re:Death Valley is a bitchin place by sconeu · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's why Death Valley is so hot. Antarctica got all the cold in the divorce settlement.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    6. Re:Death Valley is a bitchin place by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 2, Funny

      Q: What's the difference between a Hoover and a Harley?

      A: The position of the dirtbag.

  3. left no forwarding address by themushroom · · Score: 3, Funny

    Damned landmasses, moving around all the time.

    Plate techtonics are breaking up that old neighborhood of mine.

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    Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
    1. Re:left no forwarding address by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh no, here he goes again, next we'll have to hear about those damned trilobites on his lawn.

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      "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
  4. Re:war history by Migraineman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Rodinia has always been at war with Laurentia.

  5. Re:Man Google knows everything by zappepcs · · Score: 2, Funny

    A better questions is: You mean they don't? WTF, somebody call Mr Brin! This is a serious oversight. I've been hankerin' to trawl me through some archeology street views, I want to see those humans that lived with dinosaurs.

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  6. Legal implications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does this mean that the United States has a historical claim to Antarctica?

  7. explains a lot. by owlnation · · Score: 4, Funny

    So... that's how Hell froze over?

    Maybe the Cubs won the World Series that year...