#spooky-geology — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #spooky-geology, aggregated by home.social.
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Tell me again how humans aren't altering the earth....
#spookygeology The World's First Nuclear Explosion Forged an 'Impossible' Crystal : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-worlds-first-nuclear-explosion-forged-an-impossible-crystal
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Cave diving is crazy dangerous. #spookygeology Maldives military diver dies searching for bodies of 4 Italians in an underwater cave: spokesman | AP News
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Eternal Flames
I’ve posted a new video on natural gas “eternal flames”. This video features info about the Darvaza “gate to hell” crater, which I previously wrote about for Spooky Geology, and new content related to the Eternal Flame falls in New York. I visited the falls in June 2025 and did research on how and why the flame exists. The Darvaza section contains new information about how the Turkmenistan government is aiming to extinguish the crater.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7lhn4Lp4UU
#ChestnutRidgePark #Darvaza #Derweze #EternalFlame #EternalFlameFallsPark #gateToHell #geology #NewYork #SpookyGeology #spookyScience
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I did not agree with the Hough paper that attempted to link spook lights with earthquake lights. Here's why. #spookygeology #earthquakelights #seismology #folklore #ghosts sharonahill.com/new-paper-fa...
New paper fails to connect Sum... -
A meteor falls in Pennsylvania, and lands in ice cream
A rock hit a car in a Walmart parking lot in Lehighton, PA in 2023, busting the window and landing in a half gallon of ice cream. A group of open-minded scientists agreed to take the case and identified the rock as a genuine meteorite.
If any of your friends, family, or neighbors who know you are geologist find a weird looking rock, they will ask you if it’s a meteorite. Because they really want it to be one. Even if you say, “No, it’s not,” they will often not accept your answer. I have had this happen to me. Usually, the rock is a piece of slag which is very common around former industrial areas in Pennsylvania. It looks burned and weird and it may be just hanging out there on the ground by itself.
Only eight meteorites are verified as landed in PA (ironically published by authors Stone and Starr, 1932). It appears now there is a ninth. And this one is an exceedingly rare and interesting tale.
Pennsylvania Geology Winter 2024 edition told me a story I hadn’t heard. By the end of the26-pagee article, now I know why. Here is an excerpt:
On May 17, 2023, at approximately 4:05 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, a rock smashed through the
rear window of a parked vehicle in Carbon County, Pa., landing in a 1.5-quart (1.41-liter) container of
Breyers Natural Vanilla Ice Cream. As it smashed through the window, it passed through a decal that had been placed on the outside of the rear window in memory of a grandson who had been killed by a drunk driver, the safety glass of the window itself, and a tinted film on the inside of the window.The location was a Walmart lot in Lehighton, PA. The man and his wife put the groceries in the car, got in, and the window smashed. I can only imagine the terror of this event to the occupants. Thankfully, neither was hurt. Police investigated it as a case of vandalism, temporarily keeping the 1.5 x 2.5 inch rock. No other fragments were found.
Examining security camera footage, police saw the rock hit at high speed, but were unable to see any hint that it was thrown by a person. The footage did show a smoky trail in the sky and there had been a meteor shower occurring. The police suspected it might be a meteorite, even though it is extraordinarily rare to be hit by one. With obvious sources (like fly rock or trucks) seemingly eliminated, the vehicle owner kept the rock and “contacted several prominent institutions” to request identification. All turned down the option to test the rock except for the Pennsylvania State Museum (under the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission), who, in turn, contacted the authors of the PA Geology paper, retired members of the PA Bureau of Geological Survey. It’s all about who you know!
The three authors of the paper had some experience in testing suspected meteorites, which they called “meteorwrongs” because none were the real deal. The rest of the paper is a fairly easy-to-follow chronicle of all the careful cutting, polishing and testing that they did with the help of other experts. This included dealing with the contamination of the impact (through the car window decal and the ice cream), and possible contamination from the tools and equipment for testing, while trying to use as little of the sample as possible. The mineralogy was examined – the outer crust and internal composition tested separately.
The “stony” rock was magnetic but did not look like the shiny black metallic meteorites commonly known. Instead, it was consistent with a mineral assemblage of a metamorphosed ultramafic rock – a type of rock that is usually formed in the earth’s mantle – but in this case was likely created as the residue left behind after a host rock partially melts, leaving a nickel-iron metal rock rich in silica via a green mineral named olivine. The samples were sent to a lab in Canada for further testing, confirming the rock was an achondrite (classification of meteorite) that had a multi-stage history.
This was only a preliminary investigation. It is not disclosed what the owner chose to do with the rest of the sample. The total mass was 117.6 g with 23.5 g donated to the State Museum of Pennsylvania for nondestructive study and analysis, and for preservation. Additional study of the sample could lead to a greater understanding of the origin of our solar system.
I do wonder if the couple saw in this event a metaphorical message from their deceased Grandson, whom they obviously loved very much. It’s such a cool story.
Source
The “Ice Cream Drop” Meteorite
Robert C. Smith, II, John H. Barnes, James T. Herbstritt
Pennsylvania Geology 54:4 PDF#carHitByMeteorite #meteor #meteorite #Pennsylvania #SpookyGeology
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1/n
bringing back the "if ghosts of fossil life forms were real" thread:Paleontologists would start an iNaturalist-like site where interested folk of all knowledge levels could report and upload possible fossil ghost sounds, ranging from the strange keening songs of the first Devonian insects to the rumblings of Mesozoic sauropods to the mysterious tick-tick-ticks of strange Paleozoic invertebrates.
#Sauropods
#SauropodSunday
#fossils
#Ghosts
#PaleoSpeculation
#HalloweenEve
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Listen: In Research Of… San Andreas
Please give a listen to one of my (very few) favorite podcasts, where I join Jeb and Blake to go In Research Of… of the science and depictions of earthquake information in the 1979 episode of In Search Of… San Andreas with Leonard Nimoy. A bonus is a parade of musings on the disaster movies related to earthquakes in California.
https://inresearchof.libsyn.com/s04e14-san-andreas-fault-explicit
As part of this episode, we remark on how terms related to the geology sound oh-so-very dirty. I had never even considered this before, but, yeah…
Also, so many puns – not my fault.
I’ve appeared on IRO before, including an earlier episode on Earthquakes, but also:
Do you remember this episode? Watch it here on YouTube.
It wasn’t the typical paranormal content we usually think of when we remember ISO. Many episodes were straight science that was in the news at the time.
Courtesy of Blake, here’s a special ‘gif’T from the Universal movie Earthquake! (1974). This was the big year for disaster films, we suspect they ran out of money by the time they had to fix this scene.
More on Earthquakes and related phenomena.
#California #earthquake #popCulture #seismology #SpookyGeology
https://sharonahill.com/?p=8651
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Rapid deep freeze can lead to frost quakes
It’s been awfully cold in many parts of the US this week. As I tried to ignore the wicked wind outside, I thought, hmm, this is frost quake season. Sure enough, the Chicago area, hit hard by an Arctic air blast, reported frost quakes this week.
Frost quakes cause localized noise and shaking
Most people have never heard of frost quakes (sometimes called cryoseisms, although this normally refers to cracking of lake and sea ice). New scientific observations suggest that populations in regions prone to frigid winter temperatures will experience them more often. So, now is the time to get up to speed on this icy topic of spooky geology.
Frost quakes are one cause for mysterious booms and shaking heard by northern residents who are not used to earthquakes. They are not uncommon in the upper Midwest and New England, from January to March. Caused by the rapid expansion of water (thermal stress) as it freezes underground, the energy from the expansion releases suddenly, creating a cracking or booming sound, breaking rock layers, fracturing roads, and ripping tree roots.
Frost quakes are more likely to occur where the ground is saturated (after heavy rains or having a high groundwater table) and when rapid freezing occurs – when the temperatures drop to far below freezing over 8 hours.
Frost quakes are not deadly
Frost quake events are very localized and short-lived, however, if the explosive expansion happens near homes or structures, there is the chance that the shaking can cause moderate damage similar to small earthquakes. Frost quakes cannot create shaking and damage to the extent that a geologic quake can, but ground fractures and heaves can damage foundations, land surfaces, and roads. Frost tremors, which have more irregular waveforms, are less violent expressions of the stress release.
Tabloid headline suggests that frost quakes are related to deaths due to dangerous low temps. It was not the quakes that killed people.Lessons from Finland
Finland seems to be particularly susceptible to frost quakes. In January 2023, the Finnish town of Talvikangas experienced 26 frost quakes in 7 hrs, the greatest number recorded so far. A recent study from Finland will soon be published showing that wetlands, swamps, and irrigated areas, will more likely experience frost quakes.
- Frost quakes are a growing problem in Finland and other sub-Arctic countries
- Frost Quakes Shake Up Finland’s Wetlands
Frost quakes are typically associated with lack of snow cover. Snow provides some insulation against the rapid freezing that creates the stress leading to the sudden release. Climate change suggests that greater rainfall and less snow will be the trend in northern areas. The reduction in Arctic ice creates a destabilization of the Jetstream that allows frigid air masses to dip south, resulting in the cold zap like we got this month.
As the Finnish study showed, we would be wise to take frost quakes more seriously, as their occurrences may be increasing. Certain structures (utility lines, roads, water towers, power generating facilities, bridges, etc.) should be evaluated for risk from frost quakes even though they are outside typical fault-related seismic risk zones.
More: History of mystery booms
#arctic #coldWeather #cryoseism #earthquake #frostQuake #mysteryBoom #MysteryBooms #seismic #SpookyGeology #winter
https://sharonahill.com/?p=8376
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Wrath of Pele
Originally published May 2018.
In 2018 Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes, put on a big show with activity at Kilauea volcano on Hawaii. Kilauea’s Puu Oo crater had been active since 1983, making it the world’s longest continuously erupting volcano. In quick succession in the first week of May 2018, the lake of lava drained from the top of Kilauea volcano and new fissures opened to the east, emitting dangerous levels of sulfur dioxide gas. Then, effusive fountains of lava spewed up to 330 feet high.
“Volcanoes give us warning when they’re about to do something,” [Tari] Mattox said. The emptying of the Puu Oo crater’s lava lake, the surge in seismic activity along the East Rift Zone, and weeks of uplift around the crater all signaled that something was bubbling under the surface. [Source]
Residents nearby were urged to evacuate. Increased earthquakes indicated movement of molten rock towards the surface. A large quake measuring magnitude 6.9 occurred on May 4 caused landslides and small tsunamis. The magma had already reached the surface of the East Rift Zone on May 3 in what was the neighborhood called Leilani Estates. Over two dozen homes have been destroyed so far and lava flows are rendering the area increasingly inaccessible. Officials at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park have closed the park to visitors. Visiting the eruption area is highly discouraged as crews work to ensure public safety. Currently, the gas emissions are the main problem, as the fumes prevent crews from entering areas and may inhibit rescue attempts.
From Hawaii News Now:
Sam Knox, also of Leilani Estates, said all he can do as he waits to hear if his home will survive is appeal to a higher power.
“If there’s a God out there maybe he can help us out,” he said, adding that seeing the lava soaring into the sky into his own neighborhood was surreal. “It was incredible. It was fuming. It was roaring. It was thundering. Rocks were flying out of the ground,” he said.From the USGS Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory:
A fissure about 150 m (492 ft) long erupted mostly spatter and intermittent bubble bursts for about 2 hours. Lava did not travel more than a few m (yards) from the fissure. Hawaii County Civil Defense is coordinating needed response including evacuation of a portion of the Leilani subdivision. USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory deployed geologists to the eruption site overnight, and other scientists are monitoring various data streams telemetered to the observatory 24/7.
The lava eruptions may continue for days or weeks, perhaps longer, as new basalt rock obliterates the old landscape, and the island grows. Even though some fissures may cease emission of lava, other new fissures can open. Some residents believe it was Pele’s doing, reclaiming her land.
“The way I kind of look at it is, the land doesn’t really belong to us. It belongs to Pele,” [Jordan] Sonner said, referring to the Hawaiian volcano goddess. “We get to live on it while we can, and if she wants it back, she’ll take it. I have good insurance.”[Source]
The legend of Pele is relatively well known even outside of Hawaii. Her story, told before we had any understanding of geology, traces the age of the islands from north (Kure Atoll) to south (Hawaii island) as the earth’s plates move over the hot spot that creates vulcanism in this famous tropical paradise. The stories about Pele and her family are rich – I cannot adequately reproduce their depth and variety here. In short, Pele was the daughter of the gods but was mortal. She fought with her sister, Namakaokaha‘i who represents the ocean, where Pele is the land. When the two sisters battled, it created explosions and Pele was torn apart, just like when molten rock meets water. Upon her death, Pele became a god and her spirit eventually took up residence on Hawaii island, at the summit of Kilauea, Halemaʻumaʻu crater.
Pele is said to have become impatient at times with her brothers and sisters. Then she would destroy their pleasure resorts in the valleys. She would send a flood of lava in her anger and burn everything up. Earthquakes came when Pele stamped the floor of the fire-pit in anger. Flames thrusting themselves through cracks in a breaking lava crust were the fire spears of Pele’s household of au-makuas or ghost-gods. [Source]
There are several more modern legends of Pele. One is that she disapproves of tourists removing parts of the island. Taking pieces of lava rock from the island is discouraged as bad luck will follow you home. Many people who disregard the tale eventually come to believe they have been cursed by their rashness and mail back the rocks to the island.
Another local legend is that Pele appears in human form as a young beautiful woman or an elderly lady in need of assistance. Often, she is accompanied by a dog (solid white or black). If you attempt to help her, you will be rewarded. If you ignore her or are unkind, she will seek revenge. Lately, many people may be wondering who disrespected Pele to spark the current evidence of her anger.
Hawaii island is the only active surface volcanic area in the state. Loihi is a seamount that is growing but will remain submerged off the coast of the island for thousands of years.
We should be grateful to the scientists who risk their lives measuring the pulse of Kilauea and several other volcanoes to warn the rest of us of dangerous hazards.
Pele’s Hair and Tears
As molten rock flies through the air, it forms into substances known as Pele’s hair and tears.
Pele’s hair – Natural History Museum, LondonSo-called Pele’s hair, named after the Goddess of Fire who inhabits Kilauea volcano, is vitrified lava, or threads of glass, that looks very much like golden hair. Millimeters in thickness but sometimes very long, they are lightweight and carried by the wind. Strands of the “hair” blown in the wind collect in clumps on the ground or in vegetation. The fine threads are formed when bubbles of lava burst, blown hot into the wind to stretch and cool. The substance can be found in relation to lava fountains in Hawaii and in Iceland where it’s also called Nornahár meaning Witch’s Hair.
Pele’s hair collects on an antenna (Wikimedia Commons) 2012, Hawaii island. Large swaths of hair collect along a road.Like asbestos and fiberglass (which is what this, essentially, is), these fibers are also hazardous if inhaled and irritating if rubbed into eyes or skin.
The current eruption of Kilauea is producing “hair”. From HAWAIIAN VOLCANO OBSERVATORY STATUS REPORT
U.S. Geological Survey. Tuesday, May 29, 2018, 7:45 AM HST:Pele’s hair and other lightweight volcanic glass from high fountaining of Fissure 8 are being transported downwind and falling to the west of the fissure. On Monday night, there were reports of Pele’s hair falling in Pāhoa. Residents are urged to minimize exposure to these volcanic particles, which can cause skin and eye irritation similar to volcanic ash.
Drops of molten lava in a spray instantly cool to form tapered black drops of glass called achneliths or Pele’s tears. The “tear” may often be found at the end of a “hair” as the tail is spun from the trail of liquid in motion. Glass has no crystal structure as it solidifies too quickly. Because of the quick freeze, geologists can use the hair and tears to tell something about the magma from the eruption. The shape of the tears can provide an indication of the velocity of the eruption.
As the blobs of lava get bigger, the tears become “bombs” which can damage structures and even cause injury and death as the outside cools but the core remains molten.
“Tears” or tiny cooled drops of volcanic glass.#Hawaii #Kilauea #Pele #PeleSHair #PeleSTears #SpookyGeology #volcanoes
https://sharonahill.com/?p=7735