10 ms·

How did so much become buried in such a short (geologically speaking) amount of time?

by grosswait 4y ago

Victerius 4y ago
I want to know too. Are the landmasses becoming thicker over time, at least the relatively uninhabited portions of it?
- asdff 4y ago
  To an extent. Plant life captures carbon from the air and turns it into leaves and stalks. It dies and ends up in the soil where it gets degraded, and some carbon returns to the atmosphere but this occurs slowly and other plants will sooner grow in the vacant space left by the dead plant. Local effects change this of course and it could shift the other way. When I hike among the chaparral, I certainly see a lot more dust blow off the mountain tops than there are plants growing and shedding leaves and adding in more dirt at that instant for sure. The removal process from the prevailing wind is higher in this case than the adding process from plant matter and these mountains are therefore eroding away. If you live somewhere with trees that drop leaves that just stick around in the forest without blowing away, that area is probably adding dirt over time which can be noticeable sometimes if you live in an area for a long time.
- carapace 4y ago
  Not only does life thicken the continents and seafloor on Earth, all planets grow from in-falling matter from space, mostly comets and meteors. I've read that house dust is primarily human skin and powdered meteorite.
asdff 4y ago
Organic matter collects and degrades into basically soil. I have bush that constantly sheds leaves. If I don't keep up with sweeping, they pile up. One pile I didn't get to for a very long time, and at the bottom of that pile was basically leaf dirt. Other things can get almost absorbed into the soil. Walk around an old neighborhood in your city, you will notice the edges of the sidewalks are being actively absorbed into the dirt along the sides unless the property owner is keeping up with edging.
- grosswait 4y ago
  I see this happening on a gravel road on my own property no longer in use, now thinly vegetated, but it boggles my mind that the same action could swallow a settlement or the remains of a settlement in such a short time period. That’s quite a lot of earth building!
Y6576767 4y ago
Charles Darwin showed that it was the action of earthworms. He actually wrote a book about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Formation_of_Vegetable_Mould_Through_the_Action_of_Worms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Formation_of_Vegetable_Mou...

How did so much become buried in such a short (geologically speaking) amount of time?

Victerius 4y ago

I want to know too. Are the landmasses becoming thicker over time, at least the relatively uninhabited portions of it?

asdff 4y ago
To an extent. Plant life captures carbon from the air and turns it into leaves and stalks. It dies and ends up in the soil where it gets degraded, and some carbon returns to the atmosphere but this occurs slowly and other plants will sooner grow in the vacant space left by the dead plant. Local effects change this of course and it could shift the other way. When I hike among the chaparral, I certainly see a lot more dust blow off the mountain tops than there are plants growing and shedding leaves and adding in more dirt at that instant for sure. The removal process from the prevailing wind is higher in this case than the adding process from plant matter and these mountains are therefore eroding away. If you live somewhere with trees that drop leaves that just stick around in the forest without blowing away, that area is probably adding dirt over time which can be noticeable sometimes if you live in an area for a long time.
carapace 4y ago
Not only does life thicken the continents and seafloor on Earth, all planets grow from in-falling matter from space, mostly comets and meteors. I've read that house dust is primarily human skin and powdered meteorite.

asdff 4y ago

Organic matter collects and degrades into basically soil. I have bush that constantly sheds leaves. If I don't keep up with sweeping, they pile up. One pile I didn't get to for a very long time, and at the bottom of that pile was basically leaf dirt. Other things can get almost absorbed into the soil. Walk around an old neighborhood in your city, you will notice the edges of the sidewalks are being actively absorbed into the dirt along the sides unless the property owner is keeping up with edging.

grosswait 4y ago
I see this happening on a gravel road on my own property no longer in use, now thinly vegetated, but it boggles my mind that the same action could swallow a settlement or the remains of a settlement in such a short time period. That’s quite a lot of earth building!

Y6576767 4y ago

Charles Darwin showed that it was the action of earthworms. He actually wrote a book about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Formation_of_Vegetable_Mould_Through_the_Action_of_Worms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Formation_of_Vegetable_Mou...