I knew it! In Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne's characters go down through endless caves and finally come to a huge underground sea (which, remarkably, they can see to navigate around...). Well, in today's Yahoo News, we see an article entitled Huge 'ocean' discovered inside earth. There is apparently a huge body of water deep in the earth's mantle, under east Asia. In fact, it appears to be centered under Beijing.
They don't say anything about the giant whirlpool Verne described in the middle of his underground ocean.
But the water is in rock (water of hydration? or is it not molecularly bound, just water making its way into and through the rock, in which case that was a mighty small submarine, and would require Raquel Welch in the cast).
ReplyDeleteStill, damned cool stuff.
Anonymous David
I think it was just water seeping into the rock; the article made a comparison to getting water out of clay by firing it.
ReplyDeleteI have to watch that movie again, I don't remember any submarine. I thought that was in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
And that was Arlene Dahl in Journey (I just checked IMDB), or are you thinking of Fantastic Voyage??
It was late and my brain faded on me. Warn't no submarines in the movie you mentioned, just in my sometimes cross-circuited head.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous David
hedera,
ReplyDeleteThe reason is a gruesome reality in Iraq, but it looks like the attack on Iran is off, may the neocons all have apoplectic seizures. I have never been so happy to have a prediction apparently not be born out. On the other hand, do cry for Mesopotamia. We have reduced it to a horrifying nightmare.
Anonymous David
Anonymous David -
ReplyDeleteI'd be as happy as you are if the proposed attack on Iran were truly off, and I likewise agree that all the neocons should have apoplexy. And truly, we should all cry for Mesopotamia. The bad karma from that will last for generations.
... um, what does this have to do with subterranean bodies or water, or with Jules Verne?? Or are you responding to a post I don't yet know I'm going to write??
hedera, I live my life reflexively off-topic. Actually, it's because I remember a post sometime back on FA when I said something about us bombing Iran and you said that you hoped not. I thought immediately of that exchange when I read the US had met one-on-one with the Iranians and was encouraging Iran and Syria to help with Iraq. That meant to me that the neocon plan was off, which I think means the anti-Cheney forces, led by Poppy Bush's team, must have gained the upper hand because of the stark realities in Iraq. Not at all sure how the Saudis actually figure into this, unless the possible demise of the royal family's monarchy when the attack on Iran ignited at the least a mini-WWI in the region gave the whole lot of self-indulgent, tyrranical bastards pause.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous David
The Russians either believe the US will attack Iran in early April with surgical bombings, or else the Russians have some other reason for claiming such, if the article on Information Clearing House is correct, which I have absolutely no way of knowing. But Bush is perfectly capable of following Cheney's instructions and launching another excercise in military madness. He does geopolitical idiocy really well.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous David
Anonymous David, you're perfectly right about Dubya's expertise in geopolitical idiocy (gee, said like that, it doesn't even sound like an insult, does it?), and I agree that if Cheney told him to bomb Iran, he probably would. (I don't think I've ever rooted for a deep-vein thrombosis before.)
ReplyDeleteHowever, also keep in mind that the Russians are perfectly capable of lying like rugs when it suits their purpose; and that the Iranians probably aren't done paying them for the work at Bushehr. They could be stirring the pot for any one of several reasons.