GravelTeeth
Greenie
- #1
Thread Owner
Well the references to a "solution channel" in the latest episode seem new to me. I don't recall that having been brought up before. It seems like a catastrophe for the search. If such a water-filled void exists under significant parts of the Money Pit Area, and if their response to reaching it is to cease the drill effort at that point, how can they ever hope to recover stuff that has quite likely fallen in there??
And please correct me if I'm wrong, but with these huge caissons they are putting down, that only lasts for as long as that particular hole is being worked on. Those heavy-duty sections that they oscillate into place are removed again for the next target. Which implies that all that back fill gravel and dirt and stones that they bulldozed into the sinkhole around the outside of the caisson to shore up the platform will now all go straight into the shaft once they pull out the caisson sections. It will drop into the void and bury whatever was immediately below in the channel. They would be actually be making any cache even less accessible!
I can't fathom how with all the detailed charts and plans with which they plan these caisson targets that they don't have a more comprehensive plan to deal with this eventuality. Surely they at least should send down an underwater camera or rover before they pull up the caisson, and attempt to get a view of what is down there and/or how far down it goes. My understanding is that the anhydrite bedrock will easily be dissolved by moving water, so every drill attempt that disturbs the water table down there will just cause this solution channel to grow even bigger. It may extend beyond the boundaries of the island itself already! What's to stop it continuing to enlarge and undermine what's up top? Bedrock can extend 20-25 miles down ... that's a long drop for things heavy enough to sink.
--GT
And please correct me if I'm wrong, but with these huge caissons they are putting down, that only lasts for as long as that particular hole is being worked on. Those heavy-duty sections that they oscillate into place are removed again for the next target. Which implies that all that back fill gravel and dirt and stones that they bulldozed into the sinkhole around the outside of the caisson to shore up the platform will now all go straight into the shaft once they pull out the caisson sections. It will drop into the void and bury whatever was immediately below in the channel. They would be actually be making any cache even less accessible!
I can't fathom how with all the detailed charts and plans with which they plan these caisson targets that they don't have a more comprehensive plan to deal with this eventuality. Surely they at least should send down an underwater camera or rover before they pull up the caisson, and attempt to get a view of what is down there and/or how far down it goes. My understanding is that the anhydrite bedrock will easily be dissolved by moving water, so every drill attempt that disturbs the water table down there will just cause this solution channel to grow even bigger. It may extend beyond the boundaries of the island itself already! What's to stop it continuing to enlarge and undermine what's up top? Bedrock can extend 20-25 miles down ... that's a long drop for things heavy enough to sink.
--GT
