BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?

Subject: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: skipy
Date: 31 May 05 - 02:16 PM

Over millenia huge channels carved in the earth by "mighty rivers" have blocked.
This will have been started by the first grain of silt!
Skipy.

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 31 May 05 - 02:25 PM

Do you realise I had never considered that Mate !!

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 31 May 05 - 02:30 PM

Silt requires liquid to be suspended in otherwise it would just be dust, ergo those huge channels were carved out by liquid, possibly bad beer which contains lots of sediment.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: gnu
Date: 31 May 05 - 02:35 PM

Nay, tis the suspended solid rubbing against the channel surface that actually does the carving. The energy is provided by gravity and the sun.

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: gnu
Date: 31 May 05 - 02:50 PM

Now, if you want to go one further, after the sun has contributed the energy to make clouds which turn to rain, the falling rain contains carbonic acid (and others due to man made pollution), which also has a chemical action on such strata as limestone, aiding the above mentioned erosion by particulate friction with the channel surface, again, mainly comprised of clay and silt. Of course, the size of particles is dependent on the characteristics of fluid flow, and is not limited to clay and silt.

Gioks's post also reminds me of another erosion process. I think it's time for a brew. (Yeah, I know what to do with it.)

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 31 May 05 - 03:05 PM

Carbonated mineral water is by virtue of the treatment it goes through carbonic acid, albeit a weak solution, but usually it contains no sediment or any solids in suspension. So are you saying that these mighty rivers were in fact composed of mineral water?
G..

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 May 05 - 03:22 PM

I'm sorry, but I'm quite unsedimental.

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: gnu
Date: 31 May 05 - 04:00 PM

No. Rain condensing from a cold cloud dissolves CO2 (I don't know how to type sub's) from the air to form as much as 1% carbonic acid (H2CO3) by volume. Falling rain only 0.03%, but a goodly total.
An excellent and sufficiently detailed description on Chemical Weathering may be found in "Principles of Geology", Gilluly, Waters and Woodford, C1975, ISBN 0-7167-0269-X, pp 215-217.

The result of this chemical action is worthy of note for some strata, as mentioned above, but some authors feel it is of little importance, given that it is strata specific. Indeed, in "Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice", Terzaghi and Peck (excuse me while I bow three times in the direction of Harvard and U of Illinois), C1967, ISBN 0 471 85273 2, PP 10, flip it off with less than a paragraph.

Of course, the engineering text (rather, bible of practical application of soils mechanics) is not as pure as a geology text. Which is why I found geology so boring and skipped many classes to go to the tavern early. Reminds me, another brew. Gee whiz, I wish my neck was healed so I could get out and do some work. I am as bored as you Giok.

This 'mineral water'? Do you use it to mix drinks?

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: open mike
Date: 31 May 05 - 05:49 PM

ok--question here:
i am preparing a letter of concern
regarding a plan to log a vast
area in the watershed of my
community.

i would love some documentation
about siltation, erosion and
weather changes which can be
attributed to disturbing and/or
removing the vegetative canopy
whichg protects and nourishes
the land...does any one have
any specific references i can quote
to the foresters and others
which would support my point of
concern? I am especially interested
in any data which points out
cumulative effects of multiple
de-forestation projects--recent
and historical.....Sahara Desert,
for example!! thanks in advance
for any info i might be able to use.

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: gnu
Date: 31 May 05 - 05:59 PM

http://www.acadianforest.ca/ off the top of my head. Now, I can point you to a lot of stuff but it will take me days to put it all together, and I am recouping from a slice and dice at the hospital.

I can also give you 'personal' accounts of logging in a fairly flat watershed... from my great grandfather to my generation and what has been done to the waterways and wildlife... again, it will take time and effort... but, if I can contribute, I will.

Give me a few days and I'll get back to you.

In the meantime, give us some particulars eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 31 May 05 - 06:11 PM

Try the Greenpeace site.
G..

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 31 May 05 - 09:08 PM

To return to the original question, no, I don't remember a grain of silt. Nor, for that matter, do I remember a grain of salt. What I do remember is a sack of shit. In fact, I remember a number of them, but not well enough to start yet another derivative thread called "Remember A Sack Of Shit?" and have people refer to me as "stoopid" and "dumbass". Of course, that doesn't preclude the possibility that someone may still refer to me as "stoopid" and "dumbass", but it won't be for having started a deravitive thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 03:47 AM

Original people start original threads.
G..

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 08:48 AM

My God! Bee-dubya remembers me!

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 11:45 AM

Trivia: The word is 'grain' because it comes from the Latin phrase cum grano salis. The phrase existed because the salt ration was considered part of a soldier's salary, giving salt the status of currency.

Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: GUEST,Paranoid Android
Date: 02 Jun 05 - 11:13 AM

Just re-reading "Earth Abides" (George R. Stewart). Brilliant passages describing nature reclaiming her territory from homo sapiens.