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Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)

bbc.com

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Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)

#41

Post by ianmcgowan »

prewett wrote: post #33
maxxxxx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet in 10 million years we'll be totally gone or somewhere in a computer. I doubt we'll still bother with physical bodies.

Assuming it is possible (which I don't think), would you really want to be a disembodied computer program? (Being in a robot doesn't count, since you'd merely be exchanging one body for another.) [The following is intended philosophically, not religiously] There is an old, I believe Jewish, tradition that demons are spirits without a body. Their whole goal is to regain a body (hence demonic possession). In one interp…

How does my brain (me!) see, communicate or experience things? Through sense organs; and there's no reason if I could somehow upload my consciousness into a computer that it couldn't do those things too. I tend to agree that the upload part might be a bit tricky, but if you could port my mind (or spirit) out of my flesh computer into another form, then I don't see why it couldn't interact with the world.

http://www.gregegan.net/DIASPORA/01/Orphanogenesis.html is a great read on the concept.

We probably don't agree that mind is a program running in the brain, and is equivalent to spirit. But it's always fun to debate ;-)

Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)

#42

Post by sjwright »

samplatt wrote: post #24
btilly wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Earth has a continental drift cycle where we form a supercontinent, which changes the circulation pattern, the supercontinent breaks up, the pieces drift around the world, and then recombine into a supercontinent again. The last supercontinent was Pangea Asia, Europe and Africa are what is left and they are continuing to break up. The next one will meet where the Pacific plate now is. So this starts as a rift, th…

Isn't it a bit early to be calling it a cycle? I mean, we've not even completed one full iteration yet. Unless I'm wrong, and the tectonic plates existed and were moving long before the oceans did?

By that logic, it's a bit early to conclude that Pluto orbits the sun. We haven't even seen it go half way around yet.

Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)

#43

Post by navs »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #14
vermontdevil wrote: post #2

TL;DR a split in Ethiopia is about 65km long. It'll eventually split the African Continent in 10 million years. Hold off the oceanfront land speculation. Article is from 2010 btw.

So really, 9,999,993 years from now. :)

If there was ever a case for immortality, this is it.

I'd love to see how this turns out.

Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)

#44

Post by nugget »

WildUtah wrote: post #26

Americans don't need to travel so far to see an ocean being born. The block-fault zone from the Sea of Cortez up through most of Nevada is pulling apart rapidly and has already created 500 miles of inlet between Baja California and mainland Mexico. Much of the next few hundred miles north through the Salton Sea and Death Valley is already under sea level and all of Nevada has thinning crust that will eventually fall…

How can a place be simultaneously 4k elevation and also "presently below sea level"? Are you saying that the introduction of sea water would rapidly erode 4k ft of surface material?

Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)

#45

Post by delcaran »

nugget wrote: post #44
WildUtah wrote: post #26

Americans don't need to travel so far to see an ocean being born. The block-fault zone from the Sea of Cortez up through most of Nevada is pulling apart rapidly and has already created 500 miles of inlet between Baja California and mainland Mexico. Much of the next few hundred miles north through the Salton Sea and Death Valley is already under sea level and all of Nevada has thinning crust that will eventually fall…

How can a place be simultaneously 4k elevation and also "presently below sea level"? Are you saying that the introduction of sea water would rapidly erode 4k ft of surface material?

No, he's saying that most valleys are above 4K, but some other valleys are below sea level.

But I also think he's wrong: as said in http://www.netstate.com/states/geography/mapcom/nv_mapscom.h..., I quote "[...] but the lowest point in Nevada is actually only 479 feet above sea level at the Colorado River at the southern end of the state." .

Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)

#46

Post by tangus »

nugget wrote: post #44
WildUtah wrote: post #26

Americans don't need to travel so far to see an ocean being born. The block-fault zone from the Sea of Cortez up through most of Nevada is pulling apart rapidly and has already created 500 miles of inlet between Baja California and mainland Mexico. Much of the next few hundred miles north through the Salton Sea and Death Valley is already under sea level and all of Nevada has thinning crust that will eventually fall…

How can a place be simultaneously 4k elevation and also "presently below sea level"? Are you saying that the introduction of sea water would rapidly erode 4k ft of surface material?

Yes, AIUI, he's saying bedrock is under sea level and is covered by 4000 ft of easily erodable material.

Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)

#47

Post by bcraven »

notyourwork wrote: post #7
vermontdevil wrote: post #2

TL;DR a split in Ethiopia is about 65km long. It'll eventually split the African Continent in 10 million years. Hold off the oceanfront land speculation. Article is from 2010 btw.

> Article is from 2010 btw. Thank you for pointing this out. I find a tendency to not seek out date of publish and assume content from places like hackernews is current. From 2010 feels a lot less like current events which is part of what I read the front page here. New years resolution is to check dates and sources of articles, thanks!

I'm seeing the title listed on HN as "Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010) (bbc.com)"

Is this something only I can see, or was it edited since your comment?

Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)

#48

Post by bcraven »

djsumdog wrote: post #15
mmanfrin wrote: post #6

A single inlet, attached to the Red Sea -- wouldn't this be a Sea and not an Ocean ? Also a story like this without a map is very annoying; my best guess as to where it is is here: https://www.google.com/maps/@10.1384475,40.4893819,818636a,2...

I was going to mention the lack of map as well. I had hoped someone may have drawn one in the comments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_Rift

and the image:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/EAfrica....

Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)

#49

Post by bcraven »

tossaway1 wrote: post #22

> The researchers say that they are extremely lucky to be able to witness the birth of this ocean as the process is normally hidden beneath the seas. What??? The birth of oceans usually happens "beneath the seas"...?

Oceanic crust vs continental crust
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