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Posts Tagged ‘geology’

Some (Mon)days

Posted in Science!, tagged , , , , , , on December 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Some (Mon)days you might just want to get away. Or maybe you’re just a huge fan of that classique of modern cinema, The Core. 

What If You Just Keep Digging? – YouTube

Have you ever thought, “what if I just dug a really really deep hole?”

Well, the USSR actually did. The hole they dug is deeper than the deepest part of the ocean. It’s deeper than Mt. Everest is tall! They began digging it in the 1970s as part of a space race, but down. The United States only got to 600 ft before pulling funding. But the USSR kept going for 20 years. They made it about a third of the way through the Earth’s crust and then STOPPED.

But what if… you just… kept… digging? 

If you dug a hole to the center of the Earth, what would you find? What would happen to you? And what does our newest tech tell us is REALLY down below your feet?

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Photo by Alejandro Alas on Unsplash

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This Beautiful Dance

Posted in Science!, tagged , , , , , on September 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

How did we get the landscape that we have today? I’m talking the big stuff, geology, not horticulture. Plate tectonics. We all know what Earth looks like now, but how did we get here?

This animation starts with the world we recognize, then rolls back time to show how the planet’s macrostructure has changed. Fun, right?

Witness 1.8 billion years of tectonic plates dance across Earth’s surface in a new animation

Mapping our planet through its long history creates a beautiful continental dance — mesmerising in itself and a work of natural art.

It’s a beautiful dance.

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Photo by Drew Colins on Unsplash

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Slow Time

Posted in Science!, tagged , , , , , , on February 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Some days, time just seems to fly by. Those are usually days with new and interesting experiences, where every moment fires off new synapses. Other days not so much, particularly on days that call for the predictable.

If you, like me, are feeling the drag of Pandemic Mondays, you might find a little comfort in this new model of Earth’s tectonic activity over the last billion years. Because there’s time that feels like it’s crawling by, and then there’s sloooooow time.

“It’s mesmerising: like ill-fitting jigsaw pieces, bits of continents slam together and morph into supercontinents, break apart, and then crash back together in new formations – with each second of the video leaping forward 25 million years.”

— Tectonic timelapse – Cosmos Magazine
click through to the video

See the linked scientific paper for details, caveats, additional maps etc., or just sit back and watch the world morph like Play-Doh.

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While you’re at it, have fun locating modern day sites across millions of years, and by milestones like first flowers (120 million years ago!). 

Ancient Earth (interactive; kind of like Jurassic Park, but with fewer teeth)

Flowers? Earth, that’s so thoughtful of you!

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