5 ms·

The unsolved mystery of the Earth blobs (2019)

101 points by nopassrecover 5y ago

chasil 5y ago
My hunch would be that these large structures are the remnants of massive impactors from very early in the history of the formation of the earth.
- lovecg 5y ago
  From the comments on the article, more recent research suggests these are remnants of the giant collision that created the moon: https://youtu.be/X-EZjEJc8Bo https://youtu.be/X-EZjEJc8Bo https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2021/pdf/1980.pdf https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2021/pdf/1980.pdf
- lovemenot 5y ago
  I didn't have such a hunch, though yours is interesting. I assumed these were not so much persistent structures as waves whose current state is more-or-less arbitrarily determined by previous state and some effectively random physical inputs.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jiahaiqi 5y ago
Earthlings' exploration of the Earth's interior and universe is endless and accurate
Sulfire 5y ago
Seismic analysis of interior ignored gas and plasma as potential states. These blobs are the continents of inner hollow earth
rbrbr 5y ago
One of those articles where I read and read and think, get to the point already. What a tedious read.
kuu 5y ago
It's interesting to read these kind of articles that show how little we know about some things. In my case at least I have the general feeling that all is mostly solved by science, but I find it really interesting/motivational that we still have "simple" unsolved things around us (or under us ;) )
- prox 5y ago
  Whenever I feel like that, I just peruse this list : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_physics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_p... The advancements we made in science is fantastic though. But a lot of work is ahead of us.
- fsloth 5y ago
  "all is mostly solved by science" I think this is a terrible misconception which I had as well in childhood (a MSc in physics cured me of that - I'm mostly as dumb and ignorant as without the degree sans some tiny areas of knowledge). Maybe this misconception is caused by the popular faith in 'expertise' and the fact that only well understood phenomena make good news articles and popular science programs. It's important to popularize current state of knowlegde but it also causes a fake perception of god like understanding of the world when in fact - what the human species has achieved through science is remarkable - but so very far from 'total knowledge'. The daily question science asks are becoming more intricate, but we are as far from 'total knowledge' as ever, I think. We just see the rabbit hole going deeper and deeper. And it's fun!
  - agent327 5y ago
    Around 1800 or so, you could order a box of insects from the colonies, spend time carefully describing each, publish, and in so doing, with comparatively minimal effort, be a scientist. But the low-hanging fruit has largely been picked now, and for non-scientists, the barrier to joining in, to contribute something meaningful, is so much higher now that it may appear that everything is now known. Indeed, the things that are not known are so far outside the realm of everyday experience that non-scientists aren't even aware of the questions anymore. Interestingly, some companies have programs that let you experience being a 'citizen scientist' for yourself. As one example I'm aware of, https://taxonexpeditions.com/ https://taxonexpeditions.com/
akomtu 5y ago
Former continents?
- adrian_b 5y ago
  That cannot be. The continents are made of the rocks (e.g. granite) which are lighter than the average rocks of the Earth, so they float above the mantle. Those "blobs" are heavier than the average rocks, so unlike the continental rocks that have more aluminum and alkali metals than the average, the heavier rocks must have more iron and manganese than the average. As others have already mentioned, the most likely hypothesis is that they are remnants of the bodies which have collided with the Earth soon after its formation.
mrlonglong 5y ago
Perhaps these are giant creatures sleeping, like Godzilla?

101 points by nopassrecover 5y ago

My hunch would be that these large structures are the remnants of massive impactors from very early in the history of the formation of the earth.

lovecg 5y ago
From the comments on the article, more recent research suggests these are remnants of the giant collision that created the moon: https://youtu.be/X-EZjEJc8Bo https://youtu.be/X-EZjEJc8Bo https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2021/pdf/1980.pdf https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2021/pdf/1980.pdf
lovemenot 5y ago
I didn't have such a hunch, though yours is interesting. I assumed these were not so much persistent structures as waves whose current state is more-or-less arbitrarily determined by previous state and some effectively random physical inputs.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

jiahaiqi 5y ago

Earthlings' exploration of the Earth's interior and universe is endless and accurate

Sulfire 5y ago

Seismic analysis of interior ignored gas and plasma as potential states. These blobs are the continents of inner hollow earth

rbrbr 5y ago

One of those articles where I read and read and think, get to the point already. What a tedious read.

kuu 5y ago

It's interesting to read these kind of articles that show how little we know about some things. In my case at least I have the general feeling that all is mostly solved by science, but I find it really interesting/motivational that we still have "simple" unsolved things around us (or under us ;) )

prox 5y ago
Whenever I feel like that, I just peruse this list : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_physics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_p... The advancements we made in science is fantastic though. But a lot of work is ahead of us.
fsloth 5y ago
"all is mostly solved by science" I think this is a terrible misconception which I had as well in childhood (a MSc in physics cured me of that - I'm mostly as dumb and ignorant as without the degree sans some tiny areas of knowledge). Maybe this misconception is caused by the popular faith in 'expertise' and the fact that only well understood phenomena make good news articles and popular science programs. It's important to popularize current state of knowlegde but it also causes a fake perception of god like understanding of the world when in fact - what the human species has achieved through science is remarkable - but so very far from 'total knowledge'. The daily question science asks are becoming more intricate, but we are as far from 'total knowledge' as ever, I think. We just see the rabbit hole going deeper and deeper. And it's fun!
- agent327 5y ago
  Around 1800 or so, you could order a box of insects from the colonies, spend time carefully describing each, publish, and in so doing, with comparatively minimal effort, be a scientist. But the low-hanging fruit has largely been picked now, and for non-scientists, the barrier to joining in, to contribute something meaningful, is so much higher now that it may appear that everything is now known. Indeed, the things that are not known are so far outside the realm of everyday experience that non-scientists aren't even aware of the questions anymore. Interestingly, some companies have programs that let you experience being a 'citizen scientist' for yourself. As one example I'm aware of, https://taxonexpeditions.com/ https://taxonexpeditions.com/

akomtu 5y ago

Former continents?

adrian_b 5y ago
That cannot be. The continents are made of the rocks (e.g. granite) which are lighter than the average rocks of the Earth, so they float above the mantle. Those "blobs" are heavier than the average rocks, so unlike the continental rocks that have more aluminum and alkali metals than the average, the heavier rocks must have more iron and manganese than the average. As others have already mentioned, the most likely hypothesis is that they are remnants of the bodies which have collided with the Earth soon after its formation.

mrlonglong 5y ago

Perhaps these are giant creatures sleeping, like Godzilla?