Scientists find ancient asphalt domes off California coast

Scientists find ancient asphalt domes off California coast

They paved paradise and, it turns out, actually did put up a parking lot. A big one. Some 700 feet deep in the waters off California's jewel of a coastal resort, Santa Barbara, sits a group of football-field-sized asphalt domes unlike any other underwater features known to exist.

About 35,000 years ago, a series of apparent undersea volcanoes deposited massive flows of petroleum 10 miles offshore. The deposits hardened into domes that were discovered recently by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and UC Santa Barbara (UCSB).

Their report—co-authored with researchers from UC Davis, the University of Sydney and the University of Rhode Island—appears online today (April 25) in the Journal Nature Geoscience. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy and the Seaver Institute.

High-resolution bathymetry shows extinct asphalt volcanoes on the sea-floor off California. Credit: Dana Yoerger, WHOI

35,000 years ago huh? Wonder if these will ever rear there heads again?

That's interesting.

I had this humorous thought that with stuff like that, it's not like anybody can really 'see' it in person. It reminded me of how I used to wonder, if UFOs were real and could disguise themselves, why they would even need to hide. Why not just holoproject the image of an airplane or cloud? This reminds me of that idea a little bit. Anything that's big and visible on google maps could get a press release saying it's anything. It's not like we're all going to swim over there and check it out up close for ourselves. ;-)

I'm not saying it's anything else than what it is, I'm just sayin... it's funny how we take everything on faith.

RC

To all the Quake Watch 2010 and Volcano Watch 2010 thread contributors. In the event there are future swarms of the coast of Santa Barbara. This may very well be the culprit.

reply to post by RedCairo


You know I thought about this and these came to mind:

Ancient Burial-Mounds - What Happened There?



Although these are on another continent, who's to say these aren't the same thing.

35,000 years ago huh? Wonder if these will ever rear there heads again?

Well.they have not in like 35,000 years.That wasn't yesterday you know.

This is so misleading.There are asphalt seeps and known asphalt areas all up and down the California coast and inland.

You may have heard of The La Brea tar pits?

Living in the area of SoCal mentioned anybody that transits the 101 freeway from L.A. to Santa Barbara know there are tar seeps on the coast.You can see them if you know what you are looking for.

There are also numerous known seeps in Ventura County along the coast and beaches.

So it would come as no surprise to find these in the area along the Santa Barbara Channel where oil is known to exist.

I could bet when the oil company's were looking for oil off the coast they found these and just said,'That ain't oil" and moved on.


[edit on 2-5-2010 by Oneolddude]

My first thoughts are of what would happen should these destablize, or if they became active. Could this release millions of gallons of oil into the waters? A natural 'oil spill' if you will. I personally don't think any volcano is completely 'dormant'. Good find!

reply to post by Oneolddude

along the Santa Barbara Channel where oil is known to exist.

Hmmm, maybe that's where they'll want to drill next, they ruined the Gulf Coast, why not the Pacific Coast and throw a few off the Coast of the Atlantic as well, go all in.

I see your point, which to me solidifies the fact that we know very little of what is under the depths. We've a lot to learn period!