Slashdot Mirror
Liquid Mercury Found Under Mexican Pyramid
An anonymous reader writes: An archaeologist has discovered liquid mercury at the end of a tunnel beneath a Mexican pyramid, a finding that could suggest the existence of a king's tomb or a ritual chamber far below one of the most ancient cities of the Americas. Mexican researcher Sergio Gómez ... has spent six years slowly excavating the tunnel, which was unsealed in 2003 after 1,800 years. Last November, Gómez and a team announced they had found three chambers at the tunnel’s 300ft end, almost 60ft below the the temple. Near the entrance of the chambers, they a found trove of strange artifacts: jade statues, jaguar remains, a box filled with carved shells and rubber balls.
And I thought a real king should have had solid mercury in his tomb!
Meanwhile, liquid pyramids have been spotted on Mercury.
Do not activate the gate.
Do not activate the gate.
DO NOT ACTIVATE THE GATE!
An English primer was not among them, it would seem.
At the bottom of the
Near the entrance of the chambers, they a found trove of strange artifacts: jade statues, jaguar remains, a box filled with carved shells and rubber balls.
What's strange about any of that?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Really? Really???
Thanks for the info. I've filed it for later viewing.
It was put there by the giant aliens.
Sounds like the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.
The preserved ship was found underneath the tombs, hidden safely in a pool of mercury from those who sought its destruction millennia ago. But now the pool has been emptied, and the ship's beacon detected, awakening the ancient enemy, who even now races to their final destination, readying massive engines of destruction, pointing them at a small, insignificant planet, called... Earth (zoom out to stock photo of Earth in space - Cue "threatening alien" theme).
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
You'd know him from the Terracotta warriors uncovered. The Burial site is close to being a wonder of the world and it's known where it's at. They won't dig there due to the high levels of Mercury measured at the site, a vast simulated area of water was created using Mercury in the tomb (as claimed by legends). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q...
All of the early civilizations of pre-Columbian America used Cinnabar (a source of Mercury) in their rituals and almost always at burial sites due to it's red color.
you left out the kidney shaking BRRRAAAAWWHHHH sound at the Earth reveal indicating grave significance. it's all the rage...
They don't show any photos of the items the headline brought you in with. How hard is it to take a photo?!?
Call the E.P.A. to deal with mercury pollution. This must become a cleanup supersite, and the polluters brought to court and sued out of existence.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Molten metal beneath a pyramind. 'Nuff said. Notify SG1 and prepare for the onslaught by the goa'uld.
I fail to see how swearing made your case more convincing.
You're joking. Liquid mercury? Come on, show of hands: Who among us has not at some point in our lives broken open a thermometer in order to play with the mercury inside? That's a nerd rite of passage.
Hell, I'm old enough to remember when they made little maze puzzles with a blob of mercury inside that you'd try to get from one corner to the other. Those were the days before parents raised kids like veal. We had pocket knives, for chrissake. Can you imagine millennial parents giving their precious offspring pocket knives? I had my own .22 rifle by the time I was 10. All the liquid mercury I handled in my life, it's no wonder I'm half an imbecile.
You are welcome on my lawn.
"Those were the days before parents raised kids like veal."
The above is THE most awesome ( and true ) phrase I have ever seen on Slashdot.
I doff my hat to you, sir !
Of course it would be liquid mercury. Now I'd be surprised if they found solid mercury down there!
Better start the coverup so they don't have to explain that it's a tomb for Montezuma's cat.
From mucking about with it professionally (foundry sand packing test - pump mercury under a little bit of pressure through a sand sample) and reading a lot about mercury safety at the time it's the fumes that are the problem. Don't breath in mercury fumes and you'll be as fine as the gold miners working outdoors that used to stick their hands in the stuff and far better off than the hatters indoors that were poisoned by the fumes from heating the stuff up.
Washing it down the drain to where it can end up in small organisms then concentrated into top level predators that people eat is also very bad news.
I was about to reply that I've seen a few young kids with pocket knives but their parents grew up in places like China and have associated more with older generations in the west than people of their own age.
Maybe if we had more of that now people would see the things properly as tools instead of the NRA insanity of it being an external sign of manhood, patriotism and being ready to overthrow the USA in a minute.
OK maybe it is nerdy for some of us. Posting my original comment was totally worth the rebuttals. Well played.
Dude your an idiot. A pocket knife is not a firearm. Most kids get pocket knives these days, boys, around 8-10. Its really not that different.
I would not let my children handle mercury, or lead, or really any heavy metals. This is because I am not a negligent parent, and have taught them that things can be toxic, carcinogenic etc because hopefully you can teach them some basic science and aren't just focusing on arming them for the apocalypse that probably isn't coming.
-
Dude your an idiot.
Beautiful!
They were a civilisation of dentists, and they kept their trove of Mercury around 'cause it's used in fabbing the amalgalm for fillings.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Whose an idiot?
46 & 2
If you accept the notion that science is "nerdy", and accept that archaeology is science, it follows that archaeological discoveries are of interest to nerds, with, or without, any mercury nearby. Not that one must be a nerd to enjoy Slashdot. I got laid in high school, yet I'm interested in many of the topics presented here.
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
I would not let my children handle mercury, or lead, or really any heavy metals.
Glad you weren't my parent, (although, I'm sure you're a fine parent)! I would never have had a lead melting kit, (with cowboy molds!), a wood burning kit, (I forget what you were supposed to do with that, but it was great for melting army men, and burning my name into anything wooden), nor likely a dissecting kit, (and all the formaldehyde-soaked creatures I carved up), all while my age was in the single digits. And then, my dentist once gave me a nice blob of mercury to take home and play with - a little reward for being a brave patient. You would've taken that away from me? Yet, somehow, I turned out ok, and suffered no ill effects to my health.
Having grown up in the sixties, (high school in the early seventies), I find it really shocking what a short leash kids are kept on nowadays. I spent my Summer days in complete, day-long freedom, and explored everything, via my Schwinn Stingray, within a ten-mile radius of home before I was nine. I lived in the city, not a remote rural area.
My little sister's kids, OTOH, never went anywhere on their own, their activities all being planned, monitored, and scheduled - even play. Apparently, this is not merely common, but enshrined in law, as children left to simply walk themselves places have been picked up by police, the parents threatened with the taking of their children by Social Services. I wonder what the result of this type of child-raising will be, (for myself), when these children are themselves old enough to make laws.
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
I find it very odd that we take it at face value that pyramids were tombs for kings. I find it even more puzzling that we'd thing different cultures in different parts of the world would do the same thing! I don't see why mercury would be considered to lead to treasure of a king. All assumptions with no proof of anything. Just like the kings of Egypt. No body or any real writings about it being used as a tomb. So I can't buy into the mainstream thinking. Not going down the "Aliens built it" route - but I do think there's evidence that civilizations were once perhaps as great as our own, and probably blown back to the stone age by a nuclear war or some other Atlantis level mass extinction event. What#s left behind is a mystery to us, as their technologies and techniques are very different from ours. So in effect, we can't fathom how they achieved what they did, and perhaps, our computers would seem as magic to them. So what exactly we're looking at, I've no more idea than anyone else - but a king's tomb just doesn't cut the mustard for me.
Your yelling at clouds.
Burning stuff with various implements and unguided play are still common for many parents. There were always overprotective parents who force their children into rigid molds. Some would have us think that's the best way to treat children, but most of us know better.
In any case, melting lead is not a good unsupervised activity for kids and probably something I would keep them away from. A high level of lead in your blood may explain why you are so aggressive about your way being best. Maybe you should have it checked.
Cheap storage VM.
I'd love to don an airtight suit and try to walk/crawl on that river.
According to these documents, I'd displace .0092 m^3 (9195 cm^3) of mercury (yes, I weigh in at nearly 125 kg).
By using the largest values for foot, calf, and thigh volumes, the second document tells me that I could stand up in the mercury, and that it would come up 15% of the length of my thighs or so.
Assuming I'm vaguely rectangular when I'm supine (41 cm wide by 183 cm tall), I'd float in 1.2 cm of mercury.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
... - but a king's tomb just doesn't cut the mustard for me.
Probably just a high-security warehouse, for the Mercury that they used to extract gold from ore.
That you read my post as aggressive and yelling might indicate that you were excessively coddled as a child. Take two paint chips, twice a day, sublingually, for thirty days. Then re-read my post in a soothing, avuncular voice.
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped