September 30, 2005
Stupefying things I cannot unsee . . . REVEALED!
Some guesses are in so I suppose it's time to reveal what these are.
Video #1
Guesses included: a burrowing clam, reverse quicksand, and mud.
WWB is the lucky winner of nothing. Yes, it is quicksand. And by "reverse" I think you're getting at the direction of flow. Of course, most quicksand doesn't flow; it's just suspended in nonmoving water. This stuff, however, was positively pressurized by a small artesian spring that bubbled out of the sand alongside the Yachats River. WHEN YA CHATS, YA CHATS!
The Oregon coast features a lot of flood basalt (hot lava, hot lava!) overlying older, softer mudstone. If water flows downhill through mudstone under a basalt cap, and finds a crack in the lava, it'll shoot out of the ground, in this case really doing a number on the sand above, as this handy diagram shows:
Video #2
Guesses included: a burrowing muskrat, a new volcano, and el chupacabra.
Well, it's none of those. It's the same damn thing as Video #1. Zuma's quite the geologist. He lost a rock down the hole, and was quite anxious to get it back. But geology vexed him! Ironical!
Video #3
Guesses included: a snot mine, a snot mine, and a, er, SnotMoss mine.
Sounds good to me. Photographed in a tunnel in the German Alps, these drooling rocks have me stumped. The water trickling through the rock is obviously loaded down with something to the point that it's a disgusting viscous goo. And until a scientician comes along to give me a better answer, I'm gonna conclude that the "something" is snot, from Snotium deposits deep in the earth. This diagram should help demonstrate the process:
Thanks for joining me again in The Terrifying World of Science.
Posted by FLOG at September 30, 2005 1:41 PMAt least we're in agreement on the snot mine. But do you agree it's the product of intelligent design?
Posted by: Brandon at September 30, 2005 3:01 PMAllow me to pre-empt everyone else (especially Tim) by mentioning the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Posted by: WWB at September 30, 2005 3:09 PMWell, if I was God I'd put me in some snot mines, that's for sure.
The thing about walking down a 400-meter tunnel cleaved through solid rock, and seeing tendrils of snot dripping from the walls around you -- well, you just creep along hoping you aren't in there when the damned mountain sneezes.
Posted by: FLOG at September 30, 2005 3:29 PMJust let me preempt a few people, especially Bill, and say that I am glad FLOG now posts more regularly than I do. FLOG, the metimucil of blogs!
Posted by: Timothy at September 30, 2005 4:10 PMIf I was God I would skip the snot mines and plop stripper and chocolate chip cookie mines everywhere.
Posted by: Brandon at September 30, 2005 7:54 PM