On the geology of the Twelve Apostles, Victoria:
The popular story is that the Limestone is up to 15 million years old.
But seismologists last month reportedly discovered similar stacks of limestone some 6km out to sea, 60m below the ocean surface, leaving scientists allegedly bewildered why the stacks have not eroded away despite being subject to the forces of the sea all those thousands of years.
A Doctor Bird surmises that the whole process of erosion from
coastline --> arch ---> stack --> collapse
can take as little as 600 years.
Another possibility could be that sea-levels may have risen far more suddenly and recently than has been asserted.
Or maybe scientists' ideas about rates of erosion in the area are off by thousands or even millions of years.
I think one problem could be: probably not many people have studied the geology of the landforms in question. So rather than seeing independant peer-review, could it be that what we have traditionally seen might just have been a case of widespread acceptance of the assertions of a few?
Just wondering! I don't know.
The popular story is that the Limestone is up to 15 million years old.
But seismologists last month reportedly discovered similar stacks of limestone some 6km out to sea, 60m below the ocean surface, leaving scientists allegedly bewildered why the stacks have not eroded away despite being subject to the forces of the sea all those thousands of years.
A Doctor Bird surmises that the whole process of erosion from
coastline --> arch ---> stack --> collapse
can take as little as 600 years.
Another possibility could be that sea-levels may have risen far more suddenly and recently than has been asserted.
Or maybe scientists' ideas about rates of erosion in the area are off by thousands or even millions of years.
I think one problem could be: probably not many people have studied the geology of the landforms in question. So rather than seeing independant peer-review, could it be that what we have traditionally seen might just have been a case of widespread acceptance of the assertions of a few?
Just wondering! I don't know.
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