A simple explanation for awe-inspiring sandstone arches

[BlackHatGuy]

"There’s no need to ask what the appeal of Arches National Park is—it’s in the name. The gorgeous sandstone arches there seem almost impossible. How and why should the relentlessly erosive wind carve such a fantastic structure? The arches seem too vulnerable, too artificial."

More here: http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/07/a-simple-explanation-for-awe-inspiring-sandstone-arches/

[Jerry Adams]

Interesting article, Doug

Then, in the interest of destroying this perfectly good thread before it even started, I wondered what arstechnica.com would have to say about global warming

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/03/journal-pulls-paper-due-to-legal-context-created-by-climate-contrarians/

"Two years ago, a group of researchers published a paper with a provocative title: "NASA Faked the Moon Landing—Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax." In the paper, they noted that a subset of the community that has a hard time accepting the evidence for human-driven climate change tends to more generally believe conspiracy theories.

Ironically, the community responded with… conspiracy theories…"

and

"free-market fans tended to reject scientific findings that had potential regulatory implications"

and

"But it also found that there is a population of people who doubt scientific findings simply because they tended to doubt nearly everything, ascribing a variety of things—the Moon landings, the World Trade Center attacks, etc.—to conspiracies…"

Rog???

[Ian]

Jerry,

You are out of control.

Best Regards,

Ian

[BlackHatGuy]

Also from the article:

“Bruthans and colleagues present nothing more or less than a lovely and elegant formative mechanism for a lovely and elegant kind of landform. These natural sculptures have delighted countless visitors, some of whom must have paused to wonder where they come from. Here is an answer. The proposed feedback mechanism should be on the reading short list for anyone who enjoys the confluence of elegant science and natural beauty.”

It's a neat article, fairly short, worth a read.

[Ian]

"Pressing the sand under weight didn’t expose its weaknesses—it made it stronger."

Interesting indeed. It'd be interesting to read more about the composition of the stratified sandstone in these arches that created this condition.

[Jerry Adams]

That's sort of like growth of bone in animals

Where it's stressed more bone grows, where it's not, the bone erodes away. Making hollow bones, etc.

[Author]

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