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Hot Water, Hot Earth

Posted by kdawson on from the global-warming-not-implicated dept.

Calopteryx notes a New Scientist article on the discovery of "supercritical" water emerging from a vent in the Atlantic Ocean at 407 deg. C (765 deg. F). One of its discoverers actually said, "It's water, but not as we know it"; it's the hottest water ever found on earth. The cause seems to be a huge bubble of magma beneath the ocean floor, 3 km below the sea surface. Meanwhile Nymz shares a journal entry on a hot spot on land: a 2-acre patch in Ventura county, in California, that has heated up to 433 deg. C (812 deg. F). Here geologists blame buried hydrocarbons burning as they get access to air through cracks in the ground. That high temperature was measured a foot below the ground surface.

32 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Start drillin'! by RayMarron · · Score: 5, Funny

    Burning hydrocarbons?! Sounds like a good place to put a combo drill/refinery/gas station!

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    ON DELETE CASCADE
    1. Re:Start drillin'! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Pretty difficult I'd imagine, since that sort of thing always seems to attract the attention of deep sea monsters.

    2. Re:Start drillin'! by philspear · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, in "There will be blood" they were able to get oil from a well that was gushing out oil, on fire ABOVE ground, by using a cool battering ram thing with a steel drum that had a bunch of dynamite in it. Push it up to the geyser of fire, it explodes, I guess it either disperses all the oxygen or maybe just the high-temperature gasses, and voila, you have just a regular old oil spout, not flaming, ready to be tapped.

      So

      1. Push a bomb into the ground
      2. Blow it up
      3. ???
      4. Drink a milkshake.

    3. Re:Start drillin'! by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I wonder how difficult/reliable it would be to harness those deep sea monsters.

      --
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    4. Re:Start drillin'! by joejor · · Score: 3, Funny

      just make sure you get a slayer on staff before venturing into the Hellmouth.

    5. Re:Start drillin'! by Drakonik · · Score: 4, Funny

      I can already hear the drums in the deep.

    6. Re:Start drillin'! by spun · · Score: 3, Funny

      Damn, that's a cool name, "Red Adair." With a name like that, you practically have to get into some kind of hero business.

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      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    7. Re:Start drillin'! by ThePengwin · · Score: 2, Funny

      The sheer fun of riding deep sea monsters outweighs any difficulty obtaining them :D

    8. Re:Start drillin'! by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 5, Funny

      That reminds me of an old joke:

      There's this oil fire going on, so they call Red Adair up and ask him how much it will cost to put it out. Red, being the world-famous guy that he is, rattles off a number that's much too expensive, so they end up going with one of his cheaper competitors.

      So, these guys show up, get briefed, and then proceed directly in their truck right to the heart of the fire. There they stop, and all the guys jump out and start stamping on the fire with their feet! They do this long enough, and what do you know, they put the fire out.

      Of course, the oil guys are just completely awestruck, and ask the heard fire chief guy if they're off to celebrate another job well done. The head fire chief guy replies "Hell no. First thing we're going to do is fix the brakes on the truck."

      --
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    9. Re:Start drillin'! by OakDragon · · Score: 2, Funny

      The fact that this has not been modded "Funny" makes me very, very sad...

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      Dark Reflection
    10. Re:Start drillin'! by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 5, Funny

      I brought a deep sea monster home from the bar last night, and I didn't notice any difficulty in obtaining it at all.

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    11. Re:Start drillin'! by albyrne5 · · Score: 3, Funny

      The fact that this has been modded "Funny" makes me very, very sad...

  2. Hot Water, Hot Earth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Pfffft. Sounds like a bunch of hot air to me.

    1. Re:Hot Water, Hot Earth by philspear · · Score: 5, Funny

      It sounds like hot fire is already present, throw in "hot heart" and you've got yourself a hot captain planet!

  3. When will people learn?!?!?! by BobMcD · · Score: 5, Funny

    Buy an electric car TODAY people! That petrol is causing the ocean to heat up... Wait, what? Magma? Really? Wasn't that around before we invented cars?

    Hang on folks, I'll have to get back to you...

    1. Re:When will people learn?!?!?! by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Buy a magma car!

  4. He got the quote wrong by AKAImBatman · · Score: 3, Funny

    "It's water, but not as we know it";

    "It's water JIM, but not as we know it". Yeash. If you're going to make pop culture references, at least get them right!

    In other news, I vote we go to war against California. They are obviously attempting a scorched earth policy against the world's oil supply. Once we've secured the area, we can bring John Wayne in to take care of the problem.

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    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  5. Seems like.... by bwcbwc · · Score: 4, Funny

    an awful lot of effort to go through for some parboiled prawns. The Ventura county site sounds like a great spot for a barbecue, though. Don't even have to bring any charcoal.

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    We are the 198 proof..
  6. The cause of Global Warming! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    See! humans aren't at fault for causing Global Warming! The Earth itself isdoing it!

  7. Smokin' in Ventura County by flaming+error · · Score: 3, Funny

    It happens that I'm not far from Fillmore, so I went to see the spot. It was intensely hot, and the smoke emanated from a particular bush. I left a mashed up recording of Jeremy Irons playing on a loop. The recording says "You must lead my people out of captivity and into the promised land."

  8. Re:Can we still blame pollution for this? by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 4, Funny

    >Could this conceivably be used to power locomotivators (more commonly known as "iron horses") across large distances on metal rails? This could help solve that whole oil problem!

    This could help solve that whale oil problem!

    There. Fixed it for you.

    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
  9. So we can finally by electricbern · · Score: 3, Funny

    Plant baked potatos in California?

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  10. This prooves it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    global warming is a myth. hot water from magma is causing the earth to warm.

    go back to your long hair and pot, you anti-american pro-global warming hoax hippies!

  11. California hotspot by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Funny

    So can we conclude from this that Ventura==hot air?

    Of course, many Minnesotans already knew that... (and others learned it the hard way)

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    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  12. Re:Carbon sequestration by zygotic+mitosis · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'd say DeBeers might have something to gain by investing in underground carbon storage, though :)

  13. Re:2 acres? Let's get grilling! by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 2, Funny

    Toss another whale on the barbie!

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    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  14. Great burial site. by MRe_nl · · Score: 2, Funny

    "The 812-degree temperature was measured Friday about a foot below the surface."
    Buried AND cremated for the price of one.
    That should even stop a troll.

    hmmm toxic waste dump...

    --
    "Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
  15. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    WTF?

    That was like me saying "Hey, check out my haircut!" with you responding "Yea, my iPhone does that!"

  16. Re:Hot Earth?? by DigiShaman · · Score: 2, Funny

    No no no no noooo

    You see, it's because of Global Warming, that the heat is being transfered INSIDE the planet which in turn causes massive earthquakes and tsunami! If we keep burning fossil fuels, the planet will crack into a bazillion pieces. At this point, a minute gravitational disturbance cause by the distruction of Earth will force the Sun to go super-nova.

    Ohhh noes!

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    Life is not for the lazy.
  17. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    WTF?

    That was like me saying "Hey, check out my haircut!" with you responding "Yea, my iPhone does that!"

    That's what SHE said.

  18. Re:Hot Earth?? by ArsonSmith · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Global warming" was to specific. They changed it to "Global Climate Change" in case things started to cool back off they could get more funding out of it.

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    Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
  19. Re:Supercritical water oxidation by gregbot9000 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I know all about this, as does anyone who eats breakfast at Macdonald's. This is apparently how they make their coffee.