Sadly, that name is already taken for a somewhat humorous, yet codified look at how continents tend to "drip" into the south -- perhaps due to having broken away from Antarctica long ago? Some geologist coined the term in 1973, I think as a joke, but it stuck.
If I saw this title from anyone else, I would not have watched it. But this is from a most wonderful person who has earned both my respect and my trust. Stay wonderful, Anton.
@@SSGLGamesVlogs Pretty much, yea... Sadly even some respectable channels use clickbait titles or thumbnails. When I come across them I make a point to (civilly) tell them that it hurts their credit... but that's assuming they even *care* and aren't just in it for the $$, as there's plenty of dupes who don't know any better and will click on anything (thereby, unfortunately, justifying such behavior). 😞
I'd love to find out if this is what's actually causing a lot of unexpected volcanism on the Korean peninsula too. It has some of the world's biggest dormant volcanoes and they're all just here not making any sense.
@@whatdamath There is also that out-of-place volcano in China that was explained to me as being due to a tear in the pacific plate subduction causing a slice to continue and extend beneath the asiatic plate instead of subducting into the mantle.
@@Mr_Jamin007 That's what caused the mountain building in general, but that doesn't explain why the entire region isn't covered in jagged mountains and ravines. Why would there be a relatively low flat area in the middle of so many mountainous regions, one also surrounded by thrust faults as well.
So dripping creates a series of long depressions ( shallow lakes and rivers)... Until it drips, then the crust rebounds upward and pushes mountains and hills up (thus causing deep mountainous lakes and mountainous river valleys). That is what i took from this. But Lithospheric Drip just became my new favorite thing to work into a conversation.
To be fair it's probably been doing this for millions of years and caused so little trouble that we didnt even know about it. Not something to get worried about
I have been conducting tests on viscous drip using cheese in my toasted sandwich maker. It's a cost effective analogue, with crusts and major molten cheese formations under high temperature and pressure just dripping away...
Thanks for a deeper look at lithospheric drip or drip subduction. I first heard of this late last year and have been interested in this process. Studies point to drip subduction happening during the Archean Eon, playing a role in accretionary events. Just when we think we're figuring out plate tectonics, a long lost chapter on subduction suddenly forces us to re-examine earth processes! Always learning!
Couple'a thoughts - A drip from a water faucet (or the pitch experiment) has a singular, round point of separation, while the crust's dive towards the mantle wouldn't be round, it'd be a stretch of lateral material. So unless the piece of crust breaking free were to have been reorganized to a point, the corresponding surface reaction wouldn't be a circular depression or a circular rebound uplift, it'd be lateral groove or a length of uplift. Also, the melted crust must still be heavier than the surrounding magma, and still chemically cohesive enough to maintain its own integrity rather than combining with surrounding magma, at least for a time, in order for a "drip" to occur.
Your first question: wouldn’t that be different depending on the type of mantle material is in any given place? I assumed this is why it only happens in rare places to begin with.
With the mantle collecting on the core, increasing the mass of the core, will this eventually slow the rotation of the planet? Could it possibly slow the convection process of the core and cause it to solidify?
@@rwfrench66GenX Moving denser material toward the centre of a spinning object will speed up the spin, not slow it down, but I wouldn't expect something this small to have a measurable impact on the planet's rotation. It would be interesting to see some density studies of the upper mantle below these drip sites and find out how long it takes the drips to dissolve into the mantle rock, or how far they sink into it.
Could you tell how long it takes for the land to raise up after the drop separates ? Hopefully it's not one minute your are at 10m, then next minute you are at 50m.
This makes perfect sense. I have a strong feeling that hot spots, or upwellings of heat from the mantle, are related to this drip process. They may work together in a system. This is very exciting science. Thank you so much for covering it.
We have? I thought we only knew the inner and upper mantle were lava lamping with each other, not the crust into the upper mantle. Also, plate tectonics began about 3 billion years ago.
@@glennbabic5954 Well there's evidence supporting up to 3.2 billion years ago, so I don't think disputed is the right word. Same with recycled. Drip tectonics doesn't do much to "recycle" earth. edit: unless they were absolutely hectic af before plate tectonics came into play.
@@invader_jim2837 tectonics means to restructure the Earth's crust, no matter the process. Drip tectonics has been theorised from 3.5B to 1B years ago. My point was just this video is old news
In 1980 Walter T Brown in his book "In The Beginning Compelling Evidence" talks about the properties of magma under various pressures. Magma, produced by shearing friction in the mantle at a depth less than 220 miles, the crossover depth, can expand and become bouyant and rise through more shearing friction. Likewise magma produced by shearing deeper than 220miles, the crossover pressure, will compress to half it's volume so the same volume will be twice as heavy and with gravity cause it to migrate downward toward the outer core The expanding magma produces earthquakes as it makes it's way upward to larger pockets or magma chambers. Anton,These two ideas trying to explain geologic processes both sound the same to me!
As a retired geologist i will definitely look at these papers. You only mentioned once in the video the key concept. Density. Of the top of my head, were these ophiolitic complexes or very mafic regions. They would need to be denser than the mantle they were to descend into which is pretty dense in comparison to the crust which is typically less dense. Unless of course there were a hot pool of trapped felsic material floating atop the mantle…. Ah guess i will look into the papers….
I came close to yelling "Density" at my monitor, but he finally got around to it. Doesn't this mean that these drips should be more common under the old oceanic crust than under continental crust? (Sorry, I'm not a geologist)
Wow! This allows me to understand uplifting much easier. I couldn't quite understand how every uplift was bc of two plates coming together due to the varying locations
This is fascinating and raises many questions in my mind. For instance, you said this drip action seems to be vertical and may be the reason this geological phenomenon hasn’t been discovered until now because it is much easier to discover horizontal crust movement affects on the surface than vertical ones. But doesn’t the mantle spin around the center of the earth at a greater rate than the crust? And if so, wouldn’t it drag the hundred+ mile crust droplet in the direction of its movement? I could be seeing this all wrong but picturing how a massive crust drip pushing down into the liquid mantle for hundreds and hundreds of miles, I can’t help but wonder how the drop doesn’t completely disintegrate long before it forms such a massive drop that causes it to separate from the crust by sheer weight of the droplet.
Sections of crust move in many different directions with respect to the mantle, but the crust and mantle basically spin at the same rate. Perhaps you're thinking of the inner core.
Aight, so check it, continental drift? That’s some OG Earth flex, been movin’ plates like it’s a whole tectonic wave. Back in the day, all the continents were chillin’ together, straight-up linked like a squad, in a supercontinent called Pangaea. My guy Alfred Wegener was the first one to notice the drip in this, back in the early 1900s. Dude was peepin’ that the continents look like they could fit together, like puzzle pieces, and he’s like, “Yo, they must’ve been vibin’ together at some point.” Everyone thought Wegener was trippin’, but he was onto somethin’. Fast forward, my man Wegener noticed all these fire clues - like fossils that matched up on coastlines across the globe, and mountain ranges that lined up on different continents. That’s like when you spot two hypebeasts wearing the same fit in different cities - you *know* there's a connection. So Wegener’s theory was that these landmasses were movin’, slow but steady, drifting apart over millions of years. He called it continental drift, and that idea had the scientific community shook. They weren’t ready to rock with it yet, though. Now, let’s talk plate tectonics - the science that really put continental drift on the map, like the Supreme x Louis Vuitton collab of geology. Underneath Earth’s crust, you got these massive plates movin' on some molten lava flex. These plates? They slide, collide, and dip under each other, causing all kinds of seismic heat - earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, the whole nine. That’s how the continents been movin’, fam. Slowly but surely, they been spreading apart or crashing into each other, like sneakerheads rushing a drop. A wild fact? Even today, the continents are still drifting, but it’s on that slow-mo tip. Like, centimeters per year slow. It’s not somethin’ you’d notice unless you been keeping tabs for a few millennia. But over time? Those small moves stack up big. In a few hundred million years, we might have a whole new world map. Imagine the continents pulling a remix, comin' together or driftin' even further apart. That’s like rockin’ vintage in the future - timeless, but constantly evolving. So, continental drift? That’s the Earth flexing its history, stayin’ wavy over the ages. Wegener was ahead of his time, and now science is rockin’ with his vision. Just like in the fashion game, sometimes the dopest trends take time to catch on, but once they do? It’s legendary. Continental drift is like the OG streetwear of geology, setting the tone for how we understand the planet today.
That is frickin' weird! Thanks! I've read that glass is actually a liquid. The bottom of windows from the Middle Ages is actually thicker than the top.
For the crust to "drip", either the material is denser than the mantle below or the mantle is down welling there and dragging (not dripping) the crust down with it - essentially the opposite of a mantle "hot spot". The researchers' model attributes the drip to a high density ophiolite attached to the crust during compressional tectonics, which then initiates the drip and then secondary drip through the initial drips downwelling. The problem with this model is that it does not encompass the entire mantle convention system. Mantle convection is initiated from the core outward, not from the crust down. I'm not saying they are wrong, just incomplete. When the mantle upwells it must downwell elsewhere, and the thick crust would be the natural place for it to do so. Downwelling underneath the thickened crust was probably initiated first and pulled the relatively cool ophilite down with it which then cools the mantle it sinks into and reinforces a convection current.
Before modern window making techniques it was nearly impossible to make glad of a uniform thickness. People put the thicker end of the glass at the bottom
@@gildedbear5355 Glass is not solid. It is firm but runs slowly like a liquid. They call it an amorphous solid, because it is neither solid or liquid, but behaves like both :)
Just a guess, but the answer is... *drive* , plus the relative rigidity above. Components behaving like lower viscosity anything are expelled downward - the easiest place to go compared to a return to surface. You ever grabbed a tube of toothpaste with a hole in it you didn't know about? Its like that: squeeze, and it finds all exits. For the kids, do a simple oil & water demo - easy visual of process concept. Closed jar, shake it up, then let it stand to witness phase separation of water to the bottom - happens every time [and thankfully does not take a million years].
I love that this is simultaneously a huge and significant step in our understanding of our world and other worlds in our universe, and yet has absolutely zero impact on my day to day life.
One of the only people to stay true to his word and uplodes constantly i hope he feel the love and gratitude he deserves for doing us all such a service
With the discovery of plate tectonics and drip tectonics, we're only left to discover swag tectonics. I'm pretty sure, Earth do has massive swag tectonics too.
An admirerer's questions to Anton: How fast can you read scientific articles, grasp their significance in a wider perspective, and make these wonderful videos in a way simple enough for us to understand them?
I read a short article in a magazine about the pitch experiment some 40 years ago, funny to hear it's still running (well, dripping). Interesting to see it in time lapse, seeing the christmas decorations flashing by now and then gives us a good impression of the real time it all takes.
I recall this being talked about on a BBC programme, "Earth Story", back in 1998. Mountain-building areas can lose their "root" of thickened crust that way and rebound upwards.
The mantle material moving in to replace the drip can be expected bring/cause lava. I would expect that a drip would eventually create a volcano or two most of the time.
No, this is NOT a newly discovered geological process. Lithospheric drips have been known about for 20 years at least. The Wikipedia article on the subject has a reference to a 2004 paper.
These are new discoveries in the sense that these locations were this seems to actually happen weren't known until recently. The theoretical background, such as calculations of rheology and thermal gradients are significantly older. So this discovery is an observation of a previously predicted phenomenon. Vertical tectonics were theorized to have been the dominant type of tectonics during the Hadean and Archean, and probably still had global effects even after modern type horizontal tectonics became dominant. Vertical tectonics in archean geological settings recently gained a lot of support from new observations and interpretations of terrains preserving archean geology. These new observations of "drips" lend further credibility to archean vertical tectonics, and in some sense, this IS vertical geology that still occurs (albeit at a miniscule scale compared to the past). Fascinating stuff, I remember reading about the theorized archean vertical tectonics and wishing I could timetravel just to collect data from the archean. As it turns out, it's still might be happening to some degree. It's a bit like seeing a horseshoe crab, a living example of ancient lineage!
@@hamstsorkxxor, @whatdamath Dr. Nick Zenter CWU Geology Professor had a online video about this/or similar concept a few years ago - referencing the work of other field geologist's who had used data from seismic monitoring stations to map the crust at plate boundaries. Wish I had a book mark of it as Anton would probably enjoy it and expand on it. Good stuff either way,
. . Notice that the clock (appears) to run backwards ...caught me the first time. . If analogue clock is slow by 1 sec a day . the time lapse will show 1/2 min loss per month. . A close up showing "the snap" of breaking drop would be excellent. .
Wouldn't a drip suggest that there is a substantial gap between the bottom of the crust and top of the mantle? Maybe they occur next to mountain ranges, where the mantle hasn't yet rebounded after going under a mountain's root. Just a thought...probably Dunning-Kruger, though
@@roypatton1707 it depends. when subduction happens, the old dense oceanic crust descends quite a bit before reaching mantle at the same density. afaik crust density depends on age, so the most recent is the most buoyant, while the oldest is most ready to sink. drip tectonics involves older crust dripping down, whether at the bottom of continental crust nowadays, or before crust type differentiation and subduction, in older regions, the whole thing.
This is the coolest one yet Anton, what else is so fascinating is wondering about what else out there or lol in there, we don't know about. Like the huge size of the drips also means that the empty space around the drips must be gargantuan, imagine what minerals and other substances are down there under grandmother earths skin, bless our little planet forever ❤❤
Makes perfect sense. But didn't think of it before. If you happen across an old window pane, they are always thicker on the bottom. Glass is liquid too! Thanks Anton
Intriguing! This process could be occurring upon any planet or moon with enough mass and density to create a high enough internal temperature. Thank you, Anton!
Forget about continental drift, embrace continental drip
Continentally dripped out 🥶💯
continental grip the way the wet lava gonna suck us in
Sadly, that name is already taken for a somewhat humorous, yet codified look at how continents tend to "drip" into the south -- perhaps due to having broken away from Antarctica long ago? Some geologist coined the term in 1973, I think as a joke, but it stuck.
Impossible! Inertia drip
Frfr, Earth's crust got mad drip
If I saw this title from anyone else, I would not have watched it. But this is from a most wonderful person who has earned both my respect and my trust.
Stay wonderful, Anton.
100% agree, but this speaks to Anton Petrov honor, he has never made clickbait or used any of the other stupid tricks.
Anyone else? Wow.
Well said!
@@SSGLGamesVlogs Pretty much, yea... Sadly even some respectable channels use clickbait titles or thumbnails. When I come across them I make a point to (civilly) tell them that it hurts their credit... but that's assuming they even *care* and aren't just in it for the $$, as there's plenty of dupes who don't know any better and will click on anything (thereby, unfortunately, justifying such behavior). 😞
@@DUKE_of_RAMBLE I follow Dr. Becky too.
Lava Lamp Earth!
Yep
Like whoa man
That's what I was thinking. That's what it should be called. Lava lamp affect
Lava Lamp is the most important thing humans ever invented.
If only they understood how to use it.
I like to think of it as a simmering soup.
That thin crust that builds up after a while is where we live.
Bubbles = volcanoes.
Fun fact, the 100 year pitch experiment is where the phrase “wait for it” originated.
How did this Fun Fact Person get here?
waaaaaaaaait foooor iiiit......
@@SSGLGamesVlogsit is funfact-dripping. Pretty unpredictable but happens time to time.
@@KA-jm2cz "New Fear Unlocked" I suppose.
I thought Aaron Burr coined that phrase…
That explains that sinking feeling 😮.
Badumtsh
You keep finding the best stuff in very different fields, thank you Anton!
This is also happening beneath SW Utah, likely being responsible for the Markagunt and Uinkaret volcanoes at a minimum.
I'd love to find out if this is what's actually causing a lot of unexpected volcanism on the Korean peninsula too. It has some of the world's biggest dormant volcanoes and they're all just here not making any sense.
@@whatdamath There is also that out-of-place volcano in China that was explained to me as being due to a tear in the pacific plate subduction causing a slice to continue and extend beneath the asiatic plate instead of subducting into the mantle.
Fascinating as always Anton -- you are a wonderful educator in the sciences
and most handsome
This weird dripping is a possible explanation for these strange relatively flat areas in the middle of a mountain range, such as the Tibetan Plateau.
ice is also extremely powerful . when you have an ice age and its glaciers every 100000 years . a blink in geological time.
The Tibetan plateau is caused by the sub continent of India pushing north.
@@Mr_Jamin007 That's what caused the mountain building in general, but that doesn't explain why the entire region isn't covered in jagged mountains and ravines. Why would there be a relatively low flat area in the middle of so many mountainous regions, one also surrounded by thrust faults as well.
@@malcolmt7883 Write and publish your paper then.
You mean like the desert surrounded by mountains and ringed by cities?
So dripping creates a series of long depressions ( shallow lakes and rivers)... Until it drips, then the crust rebounds upward and pushes mountains and hills up (thus causing deep mountainous lakes and mountainous river valleys).
That is what i took from this. But Lithospheric Drip just became my new favorite thing to work into a conversation.
Bobby Vinton tried that, it made for a number one hit, "Lonely"
Videos like this are what UA-cam and the internet are for.
It's confirmed. Earth does indeed have drip😎😎😎
🔥🔥🔥
Always has been 😎
Next up, Swag Tectonics. Earth definitely has a massive swag.
"Wait What?! Earth's Crust Is Dripping Into the Mantle, Causing Weird Effects." Great. Just great.
😂 just another coincidence.
To be precise, it's pitch "dripping" into lava.
@@barbarian1111in the middle of an election year no less… typical!
Throw it on the pile....
To be fair it's probably been doing this for millions of years and caused so little trouble that we didnt even know about it. Not something to get worried about
I have been conducting tests on viscous drip using cheese in my toasted sandwich maker. It's a cost effective analogue, with crusts and major molten cheese formations under high temperature and pressure just dripping away...
And tastes delicious 😂 I'm fasting, I'd kill for one of your tests 😂
Oooh I’m starving😂😂
Are ther other long term experiments still going ... it was fascinating to see the one set up so long ago.
Fascinating video. Thanks
There is one experiment called the Beal Seed Experiment. That one is very interesting and I highly recommend you read about it
Rothamstead agricultural. Soil organic matter. 1843.
Illinois corn breeding 1896 directional selection for oil content.
Thanks for reminding me, I’d forgotten I knew!
@@ImmortalLemonthanks. Seed from the pyramids have germinated. Perhaps Beal wasn’t ambitious enough!
They study the evolution of bacteria and fungi of a single strain, separated into different conditions over many decades, at many places.
@@iandavies4853 damn, yeah I just looked it up. Seeds are insane!!
Mind blown again! We are just mayflies when looking at geologic time!
Watching pitch drip. Makes watching paint dry or grass grow sound swift and exciting action holding spectators spell bound.
Grass, living on the edge; with its fast and furious lifestyle!
Thanks for a deeper look at lithospheric drip or drip subduction. I first heard of this late last year and have been interested in this process. Studies point to drip subduction happening during the Archean Eon, playing a role in accretionary events. Just when we think we're figuring out plate tectonics, a long lost chapter on subduction suddenly forces us to re-examine earth processes! Always learning!
Couple'a thoughts -
A drip from a water faucet (or the pitch experiment) has a singular, round point of separation, while the crust's dive towards the mantle wouldn't be round, it'd be a stretch of lateral material. So unless the piece of crust breaking free were to have been reorganized to a point, the corresponding surface reaction wouldn't be a circular depression or a circular rebound uplift, it'd be lateral groove or a length of uplift.
Also, the melted crust must still be heavier than the surrounding magma, and still chemically cohesive enough to maintain its own integrity rather than combining with surrounding magma, at least for a time, in order for a "drip" to occur.
Your first question: wouldn’t that be different depending on the type of mantle material is in any given place? I assumed this is why it only happens in rare places to begin with.
With the mantle collecting on the core, increasing the mass of the core, will this eventually slow the rotation of the planet? Could it possibly slow the convection process of the core and cause it to solidify?
@@rwfrench66GenX Moving denser material toward the centre of a spinning object will speed up the spin, not slow it down, but I wouldn't expect something this small to have a measurable impact on the planet's rotation. It would be interesting to see some density studies of the upper mantle below these drip sites and find out how long it takes the drips to dissolve into the mantle rock, or how far they sink into it.
The earth is just a lava lamp.
Geologist here! so... interesting video incoming!
😂😂😂
Could you tell how long it takes for the land to raise up after the drop separates ? Hopefully it's not one minute your are at 10m, then next minute you are at 50m.
This makes perfect sense. I have a strong feeling that hot spots, or upwellings of heat from the mantle, are related to this drip process. They may work together in a system.
This is very exciting science. Thank you so much for covering it.
I’ve been teaching geology classes for over 20 years, yet every video I watch from Anton teaches me something new. You rock, Anton!
No, you are dripping the knowledge day after day in our brain ! Thank you 😮😊
then why did you not already knew it, it’s not new? ;)
@@realmcafee there’s always something new to learn. That’s what makes science so exciting!
Get better at your job. Sheesh. These people put in zero effort these days, and then go “educate” people.
@@benc2972 That’s such a mean thing to say. Whats wrong with you?
I can always count on my boy to bring the dopest info thank you Anton 😊
A surprisingly fascinating presentation Anton. Thanks.
Drip tectonics has been known for decades. It was the only tectonics a billion years ago, before plate tectonics kicked off.
We have? I thought we only knew the inner and upper mantle were lava lamping with each other, not the crust into the upper mantle.
Also, plate tectonics began about 3 billion years ago.
@invader_jim2837 That's disputed. Definitely drip tectonics was the way the earth recycled itself before plates appeared.
@@glennbabic5954 Well there's evidence supporting up to 3.2 billion years ago, so I don't think disputed is the right word.
Same with recycled. Drip tectonics doesn't do much to "recycle" earth. edit: unless they were absolutely hectic af before plate tectonics came into play.
@invader_jim2837 You're just making up studies now with no evidence. I'm done talking to you
@@invader_jim2837 tectonics means to restructure the Earth's crust, no matter the process. Drip tectonics has been theorised from 3.5B to 1B years ago. My point was just this video is old news
In 1980 Walter T Brown in his book "In The Beginning Compelling Evidence" talks about the properties of magma under various pressures. Magma, produced by shearing friction in the mantle at a depth less than 220 miles, the crossover depth, can expand and become bouyant and rise through more shearing friction. Likewise magma produced by shearing deeper than 220miles, the crossover pressure, will compress to half it's volume so the same volume will be twice as heavy and with gravity cause it to migrate downward toward the outer core The expanding magma produces earthquakes as it makes it's way upward to larger pockets or magma chambers. Anton,These two ideas trying to explain geologic processes both sound the same to me!
Dripping? Call my plumber!! Anton, your a great host. Ive learned a lot from you. Thanks.
So, that's where Folgers got the saying, "Good to the last drip."😂
Would love more earth science videos, Anton. Thanks!
As a retired geologist i will definitely look at these papers. You only mentioned once in the video the key concept. Density. Of the top of my head, were these ophiolitic complexes or very mafic regions. They would need to be denser than the mantle they were to descend into which is pretty dense in comparison to the crust which is typically less dense. Unless of course there were a hot pool of trapped felsic material floating atop the mantle…. Ah guess i will look into the papers….
I came close to yelling "Density" at my monitor, but he finally got around to it. Doesn't this mean that these drips should be more common under the old oceanic crust than under continental crust? (Sorry, I'm not a geologist)
Wow this is super interresting, thank you for presenting it :)
Wonderful as always Anton. Thank you. 😊
Damn I had no idea the Earth had this much drip
✌️😎🌎
🏆
I love your science and thoughts. Thank you
Who else is kept awake by the drip?
I know I am
NOW I am
I usually get tired and fall asleep after the drip… it’s 2 am now, gotta get up at 7, time to turn off UA-cam and drip real quick.
Peace
Nah there is a pill for that. Nbd
i think i can hear it….
Crust drip is not on the 2024 bingo list? Someone fix it pls
Naw... you got to be creative. It's the bingo card of "Opening up mining resources and deregulation".
Eww. Crust and drip should not be paired together, ever.
Wow! This allows me to understand uplifting much easier. I couldn't quite understand how every uplift was bc of two plates coming together due to the varying locations
"Bro, your drip is lit!"
"Lit like in lighter?"
"Lit like in lithosphere, bro!"
You've outdone yourself this time Anton! This is so amazing!
Once again Anton, you have blown my mind! Best channel on UA-cam!!!
This is fascinating and raises many questions in my mind. For instance, you said this drip action seems to be vertical and may be the reason this geological phenomenon hasn’t been discovered until now because it is much easier to discover horizontal crust movement affects on the surface than vertical ones. But doesn’t the mantle spin around the center of the earth at a greater rate than the crust? And if so, wouldn’t it drag the hundred+ mile crust droplet in the direction of its movement? I could be seeing this all wrong but picturing how a massive crust drip pushing down into the liquid mantle for hundreds and hundreds of miles, I can’t help but wonder how the drop doesn’t completely disintegrate long before it forms such a massive drop that causes it to separate from the crust by sheer weight of the droplet.
Like a slowly spinning lava lamp, spinning end over end, rather than twisting.
Sections of crust move in many different directions with respect to the mantle, but the crust and mantle basically spin at the same rate. Perhaps you're thinking of the inner core.
Aight, so check it, continental drift? That’s some OG Earth flex, been movin’ plates like it’s a whole tectonic wave. Back in the day, all the continents were chillin’ together, straight-up linked like a squad, in a supercontinent called Pangaea. My guy Alfred Wegener was the first one to notice the drip in this, back in the early 1900s. Dude was peepin’ that the continents look like they could fit together, like puzzle pieces, and he’s like, “Yo, they must’ve been vibin’ together at some point.” Everyone thought Wegener was trippin’, but he was onto somethin’.
Fast forward, my man Wegener noticed all these fire clues - like fossils that matched up on coastlines across the globe, and mountain ranges that lined up on different continents. That’s like when you spot two hypebeasts wearing the same fit in different cities - you *know* there's a connection. So Wegener’s theory was that these landmasses were movin’, slow but steady, drifting apart over millions of years. He called it continental drift, and that idea had the scientific community shook. They weren’t ready to rock with it yet, though.
Now, let’s talk plate tectonics - the science that really put continental drift on the map, like the Supreme x Louis Vuitton collab of geology. Underneath Earth’s crust, you got these massive plates movin' on some molten lava flex. These plates? They slide, collide, and dip under each other, causing all kinds of seismic heat - earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, the whole nine. That’s how the continents been movin’, fam. Slowly but surely, they been spreading apart or crashing into each other, like sneakerheads rushing a drop.
A wild fact? Even today, the continents are still drifting, but it’s on that slow-mo tip. Like, centimeters per year slow. It’s not somethin’ you’d notice unless you been keeping tabs for a few millennia. But over time? Those small moves stack up big. In a few hundred million years, we might have a whole new world map. Imagine the continents pulling a remix, comin' together or driftin' even further apart. That’s like rockin’ vintage in the future - timeless, but constantly evolving.
So, continental drift? That’s the Earth flexing its history, stayin’ wavy over the ages. Wegener was ahead of his time, and now science is rockin’ with his vision. Just like in the fashion game, sometimes the dopest trends take time to catch on, but once they do? It’s legendary. Continental drift is like the OG streetwear of geology, setting the tone for how we understand the planet today.
That is frickin' weird! Thanks! I've read that glass is actually a liquid. The bottom of windows from the Middle Ages is actually thicker than the top.
It's just always so interesting on your channel. Thank you, man.
For the crust to "drip", either the material is denser than the mantle below or the mantle is down welling there and dragging (not dripping) the crust down with it - essentially the opposite of a mantle "hot spot". The researchers' model attributes the drip to a high density ophiolite attached to the crust during compressional tectonics, which then initiates the drip and then secondary drip through the initial drips downwelling.
The problem with this model is that it does not encompass the entire mantle convention system. Mantle convection is initiated from the core outward, not from the crust down. I'm not saying they are wrong, just incomplete. When the mantle upwells it must downwell elsewhere, and the thick crust would be the natural place for it to do so. Downwelling underneath the thickened crust was probably initiated first and pulled the relatively cool ophilite down with it which then cools the mantle it sinks into and reinforces a convection current.
There has to be lower density and pressure below the crust for a drip of super viscous material to drip.
Mine it, before it drips away.
Right, relatively cold oceanic crust, particularly after it has subducted and boiled off all the lighter materials, is denser than hot mantle.
Even glass drips over time, look at old buildings with original glass and it will be thicker on the bottom.
Make you stop and think about our concepts of different states of matter, gas, liquid, solid etc.
How solid is solid really?
@@axle.studentit's not.
Before modern window making techniques it was nearly impossible to make glad of a uniform thickness. People put the thicker end of the glass at the bottom
@@gildedbear5355 Glass is not solid. It is firm but runs slowly like a liquid. They call it an amorphous solid, because it is neither solid or liquid, but behaves like both :)
Great point
How is a lower density crust dripping into higher density mantel? I guess this process requires very specific conditions.
Just a guess, but the answer is... *drive* , plus the relative rigidity above. Components behaving like lower viscosity anything are expelled downward - the easiest place to go compared to a return to surface. You ever grabbed a tube of toothpaste with a hole in it you didn't know about? Its like that: squeeze, and it finds all exits. For the kids, do a simple oil & water demo - easy visual of process concept. Closed jar, shake it up, then let it stand to witness phase separation of water to the bottom - happens every time [and thankfully does not take a million years].
I was thinking about that too. I guess like convection, the colder material is more dense than the hotter material, but it seams a bit weird.
Think Lava lamp
thanks anton huge development of my conceptual framework of geology and plate tectonics
Very cool I almost forgot about that long running pitch drip experiment, thanks for an update on it!
I love that this is simultaneously a huge and significant step in our understanding of our world and other worlds in our universe, and yet has absolutely zero impact on my day to day life.
Out of all the rocks in the universe, Earth has always had that certain drip.
wow. not what i was expecting today anton
thanks for the video and looking forward to any updates
So what you're saying is the Earth has so much drip that its drip has drip 😅
💧🌎💧
I can't stop laughing at this. My friend and I had a debate about this some time ago, and this exact subject came up while we were stargazing.
One of the only people to stay true to his word and uplodes constantly i hope he feel the love and gratitude he deserves for doing us all such a service
I just love listening to him talk I think. I also like a lot of this topics he picks too.
With the discovery of plate tectonics and drip tectonics, we're only left to discover swag tectonics. I'm pretty sure, Earth do has massive swag tectonics too.
At 1:57 the spiky flash you see is actually red, green and silver garland decorations on and around the experiment.
An admirerer's questions to Anton: How fast can you read scientific articles, grasp their significance in a wider perspective, and make these wonderful videos in a way simple enough for us to understand them?
Excellent summary, bravo. Stunning discovery. Planetary science remains an enigma in many domains.
thank you, Anton I’m not a scientist but a science enthusiast and I enjoy your content ❤
Fascinating! I really enjoyed the pitch experiment video, thank you
This was postulated a LONG time ago to the point where it was already 'discovered' but nice to see better proof.
Thank you Anton, great topic
Soon enough there will be Nestlé funding digging efforts to get to such water and monopolize it lmao
Hi ! This was so unexpected! Thank you Anton! ❤❤❤
This was really interesting!!
A new way that the earth forms mountains! It's just amazing.
Thank you Anton
Imagine building your house over one of these and then waking up one morning being hundreds of feet higher in elevation because the drip separation
a million year long nap?
I read a short article in a magazine about the pitch experiment some 40 years ago, funny to hear it's still running (well, dripping). Interesting to see it in time lapse, seeing the christmas decorations flashing by now and then gives us a good impression of the real time it all takes.
I recall this being talked about on a BBC programme, "Earth Story", back in 1998. Mountain-building areas can lose their "root" of thickened crust that way and rebound upwards.
The mantle material moving in to replace the drip can be expected bring/cause lava. I would expect that a drip would eventually create a volcano or two most of the time.
No, this is NOT a newly discovered geological process.
Lithospheric drips have been known about for 20 years at least. The Wikipedia article on the subject has a reference to a 2004 paper.
These are new discoveries in the sense that these locations were this seems to actually happen weren't known until recently.
The theoretical background, such as calculations of rheology and thermal gradients are significantly older. So this discovery is an observation of a previously predicted phenomenon.
Vertical tectonics were theorized to have been the dominant type of tectonics during the Hadean and Archean, and probably still had global effects even after modern type horizontal tectonics became dominant.
Vertical tectonics in archean geological settings recently gained a lot of support from new observations and interpretations of terrains preserving archean geology. These new observations of "drips" lend further credibility to archean vertical tectonics, and in some sense, this IS vertical geology that still occurs (albeit at a miniscule scale compared to the past).
Fascinating stuff, I remember reading about the theorized archean vertical tectonics and wishing I could timetravel just to collect data from the archean. As it turns out, it's still might be happening to some degree. It's a bit like seeing a horseshoe crab, a living example of ancient lineage!
@@hamstsorkxxor, @whatdamath
Dr. Nick Zenter CWU Geology Professor had a online video about this/or similar concept a few years ago - referencing the work of other field geologist's who had used data from seismic monitoring stations to map the crust at plate boundaries. Wish I had a book mark of it as Anton would probably enjoy it and expand on it. Good stuff either way,
.
. Notice that the clock (appears) to run backwards ...caught me the first time.
. If analogue clock is slow by 1 sec a day
. the time lapse will show 1/2 min loss per month.
. A close up showing "the snap" of breaking drop would be excellent.
.
This video helped me grasp the key concepts!
I believe we were taught the mantle is more dense than the crust. If this isn't true, then even in some areas we could have a sudden INVERSION !
This would explain so much geomorphically.
❤Anton, I hope you’re doing well
the Wonderful Person t-shirt is the only drip we need
Wouldn't a drip suggest that there is a substantial gap between the bottom of the crust and top of the mantle? Maybe they occur next to mountain ranges, where the mantle hasn't yet rebounded after going under a mountain's root.
Just a thought...probably Dunning-Kruger, though
no it’s differences in density, there’s no gaps
@@morgan0
But mantle rock is much denser than crust. There would be no drip. It would be more like a smear.
@@roypatton1707 it depends. when subduction happens, the old dense oceanic crust descends quite a bit before reaching mantle at the same density. afaik crust density depends on age, so the most recent is the most buoyant, while the oldest is most ready to sink. drip tectonics involves older crust dripping down, whether at the bottom of continental crust nowadays, or before crust type differentiation and subduction, in older regions, the whole thing.
Great...and I have no idea where we put the extra large can of Fix-a-Flat.
This is the coolest one yet Anton, what else is so fascinating is wondering about what else out there or lol in there, we don't know about. Like the huge size of the drips also means that the empty space around the drips must be gargantuan, imagine what minerals and other substances are down there under grandmother earths skin, bless our little planet forever ❤❤
Informative as always. Great job
If I were on this team, I'd have a look at the Richat structure, see if that could be a candidate.
Very nice Anton, thanks for mentioning this surprising theory
To be expected. We all start sagging and dripping as we get olders and the earth has billions of years on the rest of us
Gravity but thanks vulcanos👍.
I have this sinking feeling every day little by little my spine shortens.
Drill there for unlimited steam energy generation.
Thanks for a fascinating video, I had never heard of this before.
Your videos always stand out for their quality and originality. Thank you for your contribution!🟣🎳💧
That's pretty cool. I wonder if GeoGirl will make a video about it.
IIRC she has already done it in a video on how plate tectonics started billions of years ago.
2:00 ... and the time is moving backwards in the experiment, verrrryy interesting!
There's been other observations of craton delaminating over the mantle as well.
Very interesting on how it happens 😮
Makes perfect sense. But didn't think of it before. If you happen across an old window pane, they are always thicker on the bottom. Glass is liquid too! Thanks Anton
Intriguing! This process could be occurring upon any planet or moon with enough mass and density to create a high enough internal temperature.
Thank you, Anton!
Surprenant! Merci pour l'info! 😁
I'm dying to get on Google Earth in the morning and start looking for these.
Isn't the thinnest earths crust spot on the planet in the continental USA??
Thinnest crust is at the mid ocean ridges, where the crust is formed.
That to bad
Would explain a lot tbh