Monkey Wrench Thrown into Science

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070305/sc_nm/britain_expedition_dc_1

Missing: a huge chunk of the earth's crust

By Stefano Ambrogi Mon Mar 5, 11:22 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A team of British scientists has set sail on a voyage to examine why a huge chunk of the earth's crust is missing, deep under the Atlantic Ocean -- a phenomenon that challenges conventional ideas about how the earth works.
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The 20-strong team aims to survey an area some 3,000 to 4,000 metres deep where the mantle -- the deep interior of the earth normally covered by a crust kilometres thick -- is exposed on the sea floor.

Experts describe the hole along the mid-Atlantic ridge as an "open wound" on the ocean floor that has puzzled scientists for the five or so years that its existence has been known because it defies existing tectonic plate theories of evolution.

"We know so little about it," said Bramley Murton, a senior research scientist at Southampton's National Oceanography Center.

"It's a real challenge to our established understanding of what the earth's surface looks like underneath the waves," he told Reuters by telephone from the brand new, hi-tech British research ship RRS James Cook.

Mid ocean ridges are places where new oceanic crust is born, with red-hot lava spewing out along the seafloor.

What scientists are keen to know is whether the crust was ripped away by huge geological faults, or whether it never even developed in the first place.

The primary motivation for the project was to understand how the earth continues to evolve.

"The area that we are looking at is part of a mountain range that spans thousands of square kilometres, but we are beginning to realize that there are probably millions of square kilometres where the ocean floor is missing," Murton said.

The six week mission, led by geophysicist Roger Searle of Durham University and Chris MacLeod of Cardiff University's School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, will recover sample cores of rock by drilling into the mantle using a rig lowered on to the sea floor.

Asked if the discovery posed a threat to the environment, Murton replied: "It's not problematic for the earth because it is a natural earth process -- but in terms of knowing how the earth works and how the world is put together it is important."

Murton also said the expedition would shed light on the composition of sea water amongst other initiatives.

Crust formation is a fundamental mechanism of the earth which affects the chemistry of the world's oceans.

Progress by the research team can be monitored via a live web link to the ship at: http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/gg/classroom@sea/JC007/.

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Well, is that something new to confound us, or has it always been there saying, "Look, I created the Earth the way I wanted to and I put this here to prove it".

An interesting article on an upcomming "Documentary"

http://www.crosswalk.com/11530418/

The Remains of Jesus Uncovered!

Regis Nicoll

That’s right! At least according to award winning filmmakers James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici whose documentary to that effect will be shown later this year on the Discovery Channel among other places.

How did they come across such a sensational find? It all goes back to the 1980 discovery of a cave in a backwater neighborhood in Jerusalem in which six coffins were scribbled with the names: “Jesua son of Joseph, Mary, Mary, Matthew, Jofa (Joseph, identified as Jesus’ brother), Judah son of Jesua (Jesus’ son - the filmmakers claim).” Then after DNA analysis and “close work with world-famous scientists” Cameron and company concluded that the cave contained Jesus’ remains.

But there several things quite odd about this. First off, the names Mary, Joseph and Jesus are some of the most common names in early Palestine. One of my colleagues remarked, “It’s like finding a cemetery plot in Great Britain 100 years from now with tombs bearing the names of Philip, Elizabeth, Anne and Margaret, and concluding they contain the remains of the Royal Family.” Second, although DNA could establish the relationships between those in the cave, it is incapable of identifying any one of them as being Jesus of Nazareth. Third, it fails to mention anything about crucifixion forensics. Fourth, Amos Kloner the archaeologist who wrote the official report on the cave ten years ago concluded, the "possibility of it being Jesus' family [is] very close to zero. [and] And Motti Neiger, spokesperson for the Israel Antiquities Authority, agreed "that chances of these being the actual burials of the holy family are almost nil."

In fact, if this cave did contain the remains of Jesus it would be nigh impossible to verify 2000 years later. That said, in the days, weeks and months after Jesus’s death, it would have been certain--an important point to keep in mind.

Both the Jewish leadership and the Roman authorities were not only highly motivated to quash any resurrection ruse, but had the political muscle and wherewithal to extract confessions and find the body, if indeed it existed. That no body was ever found is reflected in the extra-biblical account by the Jewish historian, Josephus, in the late first century:

“Now there was about this time Jesus… [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.” (Antiquities 18.3.3)

I’m sure that Cameron’s film will get its share of media attention—maybe enough to put Anna and Britney “beneath the fold.” All the same, this whole exercise—a filmmaker doing archaeology—reminds one of a certain politician doing climate science. But that’s a whole other story.

What to comment? Join the discussion on The Point.

Find this article at: http://www.crosswalk.com/11530418/