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Messages 1 - 8 of total 8 in this topic |
Ihateplastic
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, Oregon
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Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 9, 2009 - 03:47pm PT
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Look, all we need is a toothbrush and... okay maybe a wire brush and a ... sandblaster?
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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I see it!
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scuffy b
climber
just below the San Andreas
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too late, boys...
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
pads are for girls
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Naphom .
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WBraun
climber
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When I was in Borneo there where 700 foot towers that looked like that everywhere. I did climb on one though.
Yech .....
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 9, 2009 - 08:10pm PT
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That thing is called the Tongatapu Boulder and it is located on Tonga's main island. They are made of coral and landed here as a result of one of the world's largest tsunamis and washed ashore a few thousand years ago.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Feb 10, 2009 - 12:50am PT
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Werner,
Have you done a Borneo thread?
Largo?....
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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Feb 10, 2009 - 01:31am PT
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cool, i thought you were BS'n:
:Large boulders found upwards of 400 meters from the shoreline on the island of Tongatapu may be deposits that show evidence for the largest volcano-triggered tsunami ever found. The boulders are up to 9 meters in height and consist of coral that formed about 122,000 years ago.
Called erratic boulders, these giant coral rocks did not form at their present location on Tongatapu, Tonga’s main island. Because the island is flat, the boulders could not have rolled downhill from elsewhere. The boulders are made of the same reef material found just offshore, which is quite distinct from the island’s volcanic soil. In fact, satellite photos show a clear break in the reef opposite one of the biggest boulders. And some of the boulders’ coral animals are oriented upside down or sideways instead of toward the sun, as they are on the reef.
Hornbach says the Tongatapu boulders may have reached dry land within the past few thousand years. Though their corals formed roughly 122,000 years ago, they are capped by a sparse layer of soil. And the thick volcanic soils that cover most of western Tongatapu are quite thin near the boulders. This suggests the area was scoured clean by waves in the recent past. Finally, there is no limestone pedestal at the base of the boulders, which should have formed as rain dissolved the coral if the boulders were much older.
Many tsunamis, like the one that struck the Indian Ocean in 2004, are caused by earthquakes. But the boulders’ location makes an underwater eruption or submarine slide a more likely culprit. A chain of sunken volcanoes lies just 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of Tongatapu. An explosion or the collapse of the side of a volcano such as that seen at the famous Krakatau eruption in 1883 could trigger a tremendous tsunami.
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