Re: [Utah-astronomy] More on Upheaval Dome
Jim wrote:
While reading your comments and some of the articles I was wondering how many examples of salt dome’s there were. From this one statement If true, "Upheaval Dome would earn the distinction of being the most deeply eroded salt structure on earth." It would seem that the salt school guys are going to have to come up with extraordinary evidence to back this extraordinary claim.
I don't know of specific examples for Utah; I'm not a geologist. But we have enough geologists and petroleum exploration geologists on this list to answer that. The Paradox Formation beneath canyonlands is a classic example of a salt layer that is the source that forms salt domes. The salt rises from below into a diapir with dome sprouting out the top like a mushroom head. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Salt_dome_hg.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_dome The wikipedia entry for "salt dome" has a picture of an "emergent salt dome" near Fisher Towers in Moab. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ken_Leonard_-_Fisher_Towers_-_Salt_Dome_P_... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ken_Leonard_-_Fisher_Towers_-_IMAG0059.JPG The Fisher Towers salt dome is newly forming, e.g. - emergent. The most cited classic dome example that I have seen (when I was hunting for salt dome images a few months ago) is the Kuh-e-Namak in Iran http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6465 The Kuh-e-Namak is a salt dome in mid-life. It's fully formed and is now being eroded away, as you can see from this side view: http://www.beg.utexas.edu/news-events/news-archive2/jackson_iran_02-2004.htm There are even "salt glaciers" coming off the thing. Who would have thunk such a thing existed - salt glaciers? Considering the Fisher Towers emergent salt dome, of which I was not aware of previously, it seems the old geologic consensus that Upheaval is an eroded salt dome is not that far out of an idea. Why look for randomn rocks falling out of the sky when you can see another cause right in front of you doing the same thing in real time? As the Huntoon article says, the Dome is kind of a geologic Rorschat Blot. "[B]ut this is not simply a debate about different processes, rather it reflects deeper philosophical divisions", citing those that in their gut believe in geologic uniformism governed by slow processes and those who are willing to accept random catestrophic acts as a force of nature. Although on first impression Upheaval has always looked like an impact crater to me because of the dual concentric ringwalls. Come' on. It obviously looks like an impact crater. But here's a picture of another crater like bowl shape - dug out of gypsum by the wind - and that has nothing to do with a meteor impact - Richat Structure, Mauritania. 48 km dia. NASA Image of the Day. url: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_528.html And another well known local hole in the ground that is about a kilometer bigger than Upheaval's 3km diameter - http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=8144 What that caused that "crater"? - Kurt
Kurt, Cool stuff man. Thanks Jim --- On Tue, 1/27/09, Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote: From: Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] More on Upheaval Dome To: "Utah Astronomy List Serv" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2009, 5:27 PM Jim wrote:
While reading your comments and some of the articles I was wondering how many examples of salt dome’s there were. From this one statement If true, "Upheaval Dome would earn the distinction of being the most deeply eroded salt structure on earth." It would seem that the salt school guys are going to have to come up with extraordinary evidence to back this extraordinary claim.
I don't know of specific examples for Utah; I'm not a geologist. But we have enough geologists and petroleum exploration geologists on this list to answer that. The Paradox Formation beneath canyonlands is a classic example of a salt layer that is the source that forms salt domes. The salt rises from below into a diapir with dome sprouting out the top like a mushroom head. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Salt_dome_hg.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_dome The wikipedia entry for "salt dome" has a picture of an "emergent salt dome" near Fisher Towers in Moab. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ken_Leonard_-_Fisher_Towers_-_Salt_Dome_P_... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ken_Leonard_-_Fisher_Towers_-_IMAG0059.JPG The Fisher Towers salt dome is newly forming, e.g. - emergent. The most cited classic dome example that I have seen (when I was hunting for salt dome images a few months ago) is the Kuh-e-Namak in Iran http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6465 The Kuh-e-Namak is a salt dome in mid-life. It's fully formed and is now being eroded away, as you can see from this side view: http://www.beg.utexas.edu/news-events/news-archive2/jackson_iran_02-2004.htm There are even "salt glaciers" coming off the thing. Who would have thunk such a thing existed - salt glaciers? Considering the Fisher Towers emergent salt dome, of which I was not aware of previously, it seems the old geologic consensus that Upheaval is an eroded salt dome is not that far out of an idea. Why look for randomn rocks falling out of the sky when you can see another cause right in front of you doing the same thing in real time? As the Huntoon article says, the Dome is kind of a geologic Rorschat Blot. "[B]ut this is not simply a debate about different processes, rather it reflects deeper philosophical divisions", citing those that in their gut believe in geologic uniformism governed by slow processes and those who are willing to accept random catestrophic acts as a force of nature. Although on first impression Upheaval has always looked like an impact crater to me because of the dual concentric ringwalls. Come' on. It obviously looks like an impact crater. But here's a picture of another crater like bowl shape - dug out of gypsum by the wind - and that has nothing to do with a meteor impact - Richat Structure, Mauritania. 48 km dia. NASA Image of the Day. url: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_528.html And another well known local hole in the ground that is about a kilometer bigger than Upheaval's 3km diameter - http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=8144 What that caused that "crater"? - Kurt _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
participants (2)
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Canopus56 -
Jim Gibson