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16 messages

BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?

31 May 05 - 02:16 PM (#1496728)
Subject: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: skipy

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.


31 May 05 - 02:25 PM (#1496733)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: Leadfingers

Do you realise I had never considered that Mate !!


31 May 05 - 02:30 PM (#1496738)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: John MacKenzie

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


31 May 05 - 02:35 PM (#1496745)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: gnu

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


31 May 05 - 02:50 PM (#1496759)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: gnu

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.)


31 May 05 - 03:05 PM (#1496772)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: John MacKenzie

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..


31 May 05 - 03:22 PM (#1496794)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: Rapparee

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


31 May 05 - 04:00 PM (#1496822)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: gnu

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?


31 May 05 - 05:49 PM (#1496912)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: open mike

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.


31 May 05 - 05:59 PM (#1496921)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: gnu

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?


31 May 05 - 06:11 PM (#1496934)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: John MacKenzie

Try the Greenpeace site.
G..


31 May 05 - 09:08 PM (#1497055)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: Bee-dubya-ell

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.


01 Jun 05 - 03:47 AM (#1497195)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: John MacKenzie

Original people start original threads.
G..


01 Jun 05 - 08:48 AM (#1497310)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: Rapparee

My God! Bee-dubya remembers me!


01 Jun 05 - 11:45 AM (#1497424)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: mack/misophist

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.


02 Jun 05 - 11:13 AM (#1498234)
Subject: RE: BS: Remember A Grain of Silt?
From: GUEST,Paranoid Android

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