Archaeology by Prau123 – Page 553 – Main Forum

Prau123 · 2020-04-23T00:56:31Z

Here's an update on some of the new discoveries in recent years in the Mesoamerican region. Tonina - Considered the new tallest structure in Mesoamerica. It's debatable since El Mirador is actually 172 meters tall. The largest structure is still Cholula. There are still several areas in the El Mirador Basin that needs to be excavated and measured. There are 61,000 plus sites that were scanned a few years ago and that was only a mere portion of the El Mirador Basin. 15 facts about the Maya Civilization 1. THEIR PYRAMIDS AND CITIES ARE STILL BEING DISCOVERED.It’s amazing to think that something as large as a pyramid could elude archaeologists today. But it was only a few years ago that a Maya pyramid more than 1000 years old was discovered at Toniná in the Mexican state of Chiapas. It had been hidden under what was believed to be a natural hill. In 2015, researchers said this newfound monument was actually Mexico’s tallest pyramid at 246 feet (75 meters) in height, surpassing the 213-foot Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. The ruins of two Maya cities concealed by thick vegetation were also recently discovered in Mexico’s state of Campeche. Tonina Picture They also found El Palmar and Angamuco a few years ago also. El Palmar - El Palmar is 40 to 70 times larger than previously acknowledged. It’s 40 times larger than we thought it was,” Garrison says. “This is now this huge city that would have been a rival to Tikal An early city called El Palmar seemed now to be 70 times larger than we had suspected, with raised fields for agriculture. An “isolated” royal palace had an extensive swath of settlement extending a kilometer or more. Angamuco - Angamuco had as many buildings as Manhattan city. A new laser-mapping technology, called lidar, has been used to confirm a truly mind-blowing ancient city buried in western Mexico. Called Angamuco, researchers say that it has about 40,000 buildings. This is around the same amount of building foundations as there are in Manhattan, New York. Whoa! El Mirador - Articles: Videos:

Fulgurite: What Real Fossilized Lightning Looks Like ⚡

When lightning hits sand it can melt it into glass in about a second, leaving a hollow, branching tube called a fulgurite: fossilized lightning. In 2012 lightning hit a tree in a backyard in New Port Richey, Florida, and the fulgurite it left behind held a phosphorus crystal never seen forming naturally on Earth.

Have you ever found one of these after a storm?

The numbers: a lightning channel reaches about 30,000 K, roughly five times the temperature of the Sun's surface (about 5,800 K). Quartz sand melts near 1,700 °C. Fulgurites can reach as deep as about 15 m, though most are far shorter.

Sources: Bindi L, Feng T, Pasek MA (2023), Communications Earth & Environment 4:70, a new calcium phosphite (CaHPO3) in the New Port Richey fulgurite. It is not yet an approved mineral. Pasek MA, Block K, Pasek V (2012), "Fulgurite morphology: a classification scheme and clues to formation", Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 164:477-492. The idea that lightning freed phosphorus for early life is a published hypothesis, not settled science.

Real specimen photos (Wikimedia Commons): Rama, "Sand fulgurite" (CC BY-SA 2.0 FR); James St. John, "Fulgurite (Sahara Dune Field, Morocco)" 6 and 8 (CC BY 2.0); Matyáš Vohralík, fulgurite in granite, High Tatras (CC BY-SA 4.0); Ji-Elle, "Fulgurites, Adrar mauritanien" (CC BY-SA 3.0). Clips marked AI DRAMATIZATION are AI visualisations of what no camera can film: the strike, the melt, the cooling, the underground tube and the early Earth. The temperature bars and the map are coded graphics.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/U3y0s3IOGno?feature=share

Fulgurite is lightning's work of art

By: Emily Kennedy

Posted: May 22, 2019 5:36 AM EDT

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Lightning is a fascinating yet dangerous force of nature!

With a temperature that can reach up to 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the heat from a strike is hotter than the surface of the sun. So what happens when that intense energy hits the ground?

Houses can catch fire and trees explode!

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When lightning strikes the sandy soil, a chemical reaction takes place.

Sand melts at a temperature of 3,090 degrees Fahrenheit, so the heat from the lightning quickly turns it into a liquid. Much cooler surrounding air and sand cools it and it turns into a glass-like substance called fulgurite!

Phil Whitmer, Director of Joshua Tree Earth and Space Museum in Lakeville has collected fulgurite from all over!

“We’ve collected them from several different locations in Michigan, couple locations in Indiana, Hawaii, California, Arizona,” Whitmer said.

Display of fulgurite at Joshua Tree Earth and Space Museum

Right now he is displaying tons of fulgurite at the Lakeville museum!

“Usually it’s like a tube shape but we’ve been finding all kinds of weird shapes. Sometimes they’re hallow, sometimes they’re solid. Generally it’s a tube, sometimes with branches coming off of it," Whitmer said.

These formations can be found anywhere from the sand dunes along Lake Michigan to the soil in your own backyard.

It does not take an expert to find one - you just have to know what to look for.

Todd Miller, who lives in South Bend, found fulgurite on his walk to get ice cream!

It kind of looked like a chemical spill in the grass. When we were walking back that’s when I saw the big piece sticking out of the ground, the burnt piece of the sod. When I pulled it out, I thought well that’s kind of unique. I didn’t really know how to explain it because I wasn’t familiar with fulgurites at that time either. - Todd Miller

You, too, can find your own piece of this weird science!

Next time you see lightning strike, look around where it hit after the storm has passed and you, too, might find a chunk of rare fulgurite of your own.

If you would like to see fulgurite up close, head over to the Joshua Tree Earth and Space Museum in Lakeville, IN.

Fulgurite is lightning's work of art

Archaeology [Sticky] Archaeology by Prau123

Fulgurite: What Real Fossilized Lightning Looks Like ⚡

Fulgurite is lightning's work of art