"If by some fiat I had to restrict all this writing to one sentence, this is the one I would choose: The summit of Mt. Everest is marine limestone." John McPhee from the wonderful Annals of the former world
[dead]
I found a seashell in the middle of the desert
71–80 of 127 posts
Re: I found a seashell in the middle of the desert
#72St. Stephens cathedral in Vienna was built with sandstone that contains seashells. It's hundreds of kilometers away from the shore, but ~15 million years ago the area where it stands now was a seabed. The stones are not from the exact location where it was built, but from close by. The quarry where the stones came from hundreds of years ago is still active, and you can find tons of fossils there. It's practically imp…
Was the land lower, the seas higher, or some combination, way back when?
I would wager that the land was lower than the sea back then.
Re: I found a seashell in the middle of the desert
#73Very interesting story and also hands-on walkthrough of PCA.
Re: I found a seashell in the middle of the desert
#74Re: I found a seashell in the middle of the desert
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? Calling a reasonable thing grim without any follow-up isn’t the hallmark of a good comment either.
It is not remotely reasonable to ask "but why didn't he feed it to ChatGPT?". It is pretty silly to assume that ChatGPT should always be consulted.
I understand this is more about the process than the result, but note that: a) his result is completely wrong, he identifies a living land snail as the 100+MYa fossil; b) a conversation with Claude helps with some decent knowledge and provides a few possible candidates, that can be then double checked. c) Claude could have talked the author out of trying to identify a Jurassic fossil against a database of living species.
Re: I found a seashell in the middle of the desert
#76I found may under 12feet in desert of Thar, India.
It was River or flood deposited according to my research.
Re: I found a seashell in the middle of the desert
#77St. Stephens cathedral in Vienna was built with sandstone that contains seashells. It's hundreds of kilometers away from the shore, but ~15 million years ago the area where it stands now was a seabed. The stones are not from the exact location where it was built, but from close by. The quarry where the stones came from hundreds of years ago is still active, and you can find tons of fossils there. It's practically imp…
Not Vienna or Europe, but N. America: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Interior_Seaway
Re: I found a seashell in the middle of the desert
#78Awesome, someone finally found one of the seashells I drop for entertainment when I go for a ride across the desert
Re: I found a seashell in the middle of the desert
#79I found a sea shell in a visit to Latamber in Pakistan (NWFP): https://www.flickr.com/photos/hendry/73369720/ Gemini says "As the crow flies (Straight-line distance): Approximately 900 to 920 kilometers (roughly 560 to 570 miles) directly north of the coast at Karachi"
Maybe a nitpick but Latamber is not directly north of Karachi and it's about 1000 kilometers away (the closest coast is 950 km but not in Karachi). It's easy to see and to measure on a map.
Re: I found a seashell in the middle of the desert
#80It's interesting that saying the Earth is more than 10,000 years old is not haram in Saudi Arabia. I thought it would be, since they are so religious, but it turns out the Koran doesn't make any claims about the age of the Earth, so you are free to say that the Earth is billions of years old and not be accused of blasphemy.
I mean, even in countries with extremely high levels of Christianity, such as Romania, you won't be accused of blasphemy for just... agreeing with science. Both Christianity and Islam are pretty similar after all, so hopefully that is not too surprising.
I can't think of a country where you even might be accused of blasphemy, though I'll admit I am not very familiar with the topic.