Pete Pace's Blog
June 21, 2020
Underground Structures Discovered
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University of Maryland geophysicists reviewed and assessed thousands of recordings of seismic waves — sound waves traveling through the Earth — to identify echoes from the boundary between Earth’s molten core and the solid mantle layer above it.
The echoes exposed more widespread, heterogenous structures; i.e., areas of unusually dense, hot rock, at the core-mantle boundary than have been previously known.
From the June 12, 2020 press release:
In the illustration above, earthquakes send sound waves through the Earth. Seismograms record the echoes as those waves travel along the core-mantle boundary, diffracting and bending around dense rock structures. New research provides the first broad view of these structures, revealing them to be much more widespread than previously known.
Image credit: Doyeon Kim/University of Maryland.
Scientists are unsure of the composition of these structures, and previous studies have provided only a limited view of them. Better understanding their shape and extent can help reveal the geologic processes happening deep inside Earth. This knowledge may provide clues to the workings of plate tectonics and the evolution of our planet.
The new research provides the first comprehensive view of the core-mantle boundary over a wide area with such detailed resolution. The study was published in the June 12, 2020, issue of the journal Science.
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May 25, 2020
Ancient Murals Found
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From the article:
The newly discovered cave paintings, some seven meters long, were found in a cave at the Khao Sam Roi Yod National Park in Prachuap Khiri Khan province. They were discovered last week by archaeologists from the Fine Arts Office in the neighboring province Ratchaburi.
In the paintings are drawn a number of humanlike figures, some with accessories on their bodies, while others appear to hunt animals with bow and arrow. There is one obvious animal figure that looks very much like a serow, a goat-like mammal found regionally, said archeologist Kannika Premjai.
The cave is located 125 meters above sea level; its mouth was a wide 9.5 meters in diameter.
Some of the drawings remained visible and clear, while others have been ruined by limestone erosion. Kannika said her team would work to determine the dates of the paintings more specifically. They will also explore the roughly 20 other caves in the area.
May 11, 2020
1903 Shipwreck Discovered
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With coaching via FaceTime by members of the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association (who were hundreds of miles away), a 1903 wreck has been discovered and identified along Lake Michigan’s shoreline on the eastern side of Garden Peninsula–
The next day, a beachcomber, who wishes to remain anonymous, was walking along the shoreline near his home, which is located just south of Manistique.
He saw what appeared to be the bones of a shipwreck emerging from the sand.
The beachcomber’s curiosity led him to contact the Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven, Mi., who then put him in contact with the MSRA.
Read the whole story here at WZZM13’s website.
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May 3, 2020
Deep Caves in France Reveal Ancient Tracks
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In this deep cave, dinosaur footprints have been discovered, per ScienceNews this week–
The team discovered the prints, left by behemoths related to Brachiosaurus, in Castelbouc Cave in December 2015 (SN: 2/21/18). But getting to the site might make even the most hardened field scientists balk. Wriggling through such dark, damp and cramped spaces every time they visit is challenging for elbows and knees, and even trickier when carrying delicate equipment such as cameras, lights and laser scanners.
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Three-toed prints up to a foot long and lavishly explained in January of 2018 in the International Journal of Speleology were left by carnivorous dinosaurs walking through marshland about 200 million years ago — and it appears that they walked upright on their hind legs.
April 26, 2020
Book: Underland
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Underland: A Deep Time Journey is a swift, songlike read about the underground by British nature writer extraordinaire Robert Macfarlane.
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The NY Times said this in June 2019 about the book:
“Underland” recounts a series of explorations under the surface of our planet. In England, Macfarlane goes caving and studies, with a young plant scientist named Merlin Sheldrake, the fungi that create a cooperative system below forests. In Paris, he plunges into the catacombs and falls in with an avant-garde troupe of urban explorers, wriggling through tiny openings into grand caverns.
In Italy, he tracks the flow of a partly subterranean river, the Timavo. In the Slovenian highlands, he considers sinkholes, and the gruesome ways they have sometimes been put to use.
In the book’s final sections (he calls them “chambers”), he visits a nuclear-waste containment site in Finland and sea caves in Norway, and considers global warming in Greenland. He catalogs the things that, long buried in ice, are now returning to the surface of the world, sometimes to humanity’s steep detriment.
The website for this superb nature tract is here.
April 19, 2020
Underground Living: 15 Places
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This is a good read: Mole People Are Known To Inhabit These 15 Places Around The World.
My favorite is #3, a Cold War relic:
Hidden beneath the ground someplace in the UK, the underground city of Burlington is one of the most secretive cities in the world. Built to house 4,000 government officials, it also had a BBC studio, 60 miles of roads, a railway station, a hospital, water treatment facilities, and a pub. It now sits derelict since the end of the Cold War in 1991.
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April 12, 2020
Great Memoir: Wine Girl
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Wine Girl is a terrific read.
A sommelier (/ˈsɒməljeɪ/ or /sʌməlˈjeɪ/; French pronunciation: [sɔməlje]), or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, normally working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food pairing. The role in fine dining today is much more specialized and informed than that of a wine waiter.
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Author’s Bio: Victoria has worked in restaurants since she was thirteen. She was certified as a sommelier when she was twenty-one, making her the youngest sommelier in the country. She was Food & Wine’s Sommelier of the Year in 2018, and has appeared on both Forbes and Zagat’s “30 Under 30” lists. She has worked at some of the most prestigious restaurants in New York City, including Marea and Aureole. Currently, she is the Beverage Director and partner at Cote, a Michelin-starred hot spot in the Flatiron district. She is the author of the new book Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America’s Youngest Sommelier. Her first book, Drink Pink: A Celebration of Rosé, was published in 2017. Her website is https://victoriajames.info/.
April 5, 2020
Mystery Cave Found
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In late March St. Louis Magazine reported a long-lost cavern far beneath the surface of the Benton Park neighborhood–
The curtain began to be pulled back when Dr. Kenneth Boyko, a post-doctoral fellow in geological engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, began to take LIDAR measurements of the cave, after the delicate laser measuring instrument tool had been threaded like a needle down the 49-foot bore hole. LIDAR works by “firing” millions of laser beams in horizontal and vertical orientations, and measures how long it takes for the light from the laser to bounce back to the LIDAR instrument. Dr. Boyko explained that LIDAR is incredibly reliable, as the laser beams can travel great distances, and since we know the speed of light, we can calculate how far away an object or wall is by how long it takes for the laser to bounce back to the LIDAR instrument. But there are a few issues. Some surfaces can still cause the laser to bounce off, particularly aluminum. Also, because water can slow down the speed of light compared to air, it can result in some slightly inaccurate readings, but for the purposes of measuring the cave, this was not a significant issue. Dripping water can also create “static” when the laser beams hit water drops coming off the ceiling of the cave.
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The reporting started in 2018 thanks to Chris Naffziger.
March 27, 2020
Vivos xPoint Bunkers
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There’s what the owner describes as “an irreplaceable, former U.S. Army base, consisting of 575 private military-built, concrete and steel, all-risk bunkers, now repurposed and affordably priced – ready to provide life-saving shelter for your entire family or group.”
Called “Vivos xPoint,” an epic humanitarian project the size of a city,” its address is Unnamed Road, Edgemont, SD 57735.
More detail about this 18 square mile area, from the Vivos xPoint website–
Vivos xPoint is located near the Black Hills area of South Dakota, just south of the City of Edgemont. The Black Hills Army Base was originally built by the Army Corps of Engineers as a fortress to store bombs and munitions, from 1942 to 1967, when the base was completely retired.
The Army then sold the property to the City of Edgemont, which in turn sold it to local cattle ranchers. Since then the bunkers have sat empty until Vivos decided to repurpose them.
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B-207 and 574 bunkers like it are for sale.
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March 21, 2020
Invisible Life Underground
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Great long read from The Guardian: The invisible city: how a homeless man built a life underground.
Here’s a clip–
Halfway along the footpath, he turned off again, this time stepping directly into dense bramble. He found a narrow gulley that had been cut between the thorns and followed it through a zigzag turn to a small clearing, where he bent in the dark and patted the earthy floor. There – a concealed hatch. Van Allen tugged it open with his fingers and descended into the ground, closing the hatch behind. Below, he flicked on lights at a switch. He hung up his coat.
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