66
votes
Accepted
Is the discovery of tuff amongst dinosaur fossils in Utah incompatible with scientific consensus about dating of the fossils?
Has tuff found amongst the deposits at the Dinosaur National Monument?
Yes. The most famous section of the rocks in Morrison Formation in Dinosaur National Monument, the Brushy Basin Member, is chock ...
- 15.4k
65
votes
Does China control 85% of the supply of rare metals used in lithium batteries?
...but China only has 37% of the world's reserves
Michael Karnerfors has provided evidence that China produces 95% of the world's rare earth elements. However, China does not hold that much of the ...
- 1,103
41
votes
Is this video of a fast-moving river of lava authentic?
This seems possible. The U.S. Geological survey states the following:
Fluid basalt flows can extend tens of kilometers from an erupting vent. The leading edges of basalt flows can travel as fast as ...
- 1,885
37
votes
Is this video of a fast-moving river of lava authentic?
It's Ken Boyer's video from 5pm 15 June 2018.
A more complete version is here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1469403073205921
Ken Boyer Photography says:
Nothing is even slightly altered. It's ...
- 109k
33
votes
Is this video of a fast-moving river of lava authentic?
According to the USGS report:
Fissure 8 lava fountains 52-70 m tall showered spatter onto the cone overnight into 19 June (figure 411). [...] Standing waves were visible within the channel and ...
30
votes
Did all iron on Earth come from outer space?
TL;DR
The majority of the Earth's iron was around when the planet formed. Calculations of the mass deposited by subsequent impacts show that these impacts were comparatively insignificant in changing ...
- 11.1k
22
votes
Has fracking caused hundreds of earthquakes in Oklahoma?
There is induced seismicity in Oklahoma. There were 623 earthquakes above magnitude 3.0 in 2016. Some of these have been much stronger than 3.0, including a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in September 2016.
...
- 10.2k
18
votes
Accepted
Is the Yellowstone volcano due to explode?
To restate your question, How can we statistically describe the intervals between mega-volcano eruptions? Do they follow a particular probability distribution with known parameters? Can we use this to ...
- 12k
13
votes
Did all iron on Earth come from outer space?
The mass of the Earth is approximately 5.98×10²⁴ kg. In bulk, by mass, it is composed mostly of iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (...
- 2,865
11
votes
Accepted
Is the stone used for Ram temple construction 65 million years old?
"Shaligram Shila", or Shaligram stone, mentioned in your links, are a specific kind of fossilized ammonite remains found in the valley of the Kali Gandaki river (they are considered sacred ...
- 1,579
11
votes
Does China control 85% of the supply of rare metals used in lithium batteries?
Based on an CNBC piece with similar claims, the Guardian letter seems to be talking about cobalt:
For example, China controls 80 percent of the market in chemical cobalt, a crucial ingredient in ...
10
votes
Did all iron on Earth come from outer space?
Nuclear fusion is the mechanism by which most atom nucleii have been formed from the original plasma present after the Big Bang. It requires incredibly hot temperatures not found in outer space. Since ...
- 141
9
votes
Are gem-quality diamonds common?
Upon closer inspection, such claims appear to actually state that
diamonds cost more than their abundance alone would account for.
Sources that outright claim that diamonds are common don't seem ...
- 9,433
8
votes
Accepted
Do the mountains around this Norwegian valley act like a giant battery?
The scientific literature has almost entirely ignored this theory
The episode (9:54) doesn't present the battery theory as conclusive fact.
It is just a theory. They still need to work out how the ...
- 12k
6
votes
Does China control 85% of the supply of rare metals used in lithium batteries?
As you can read in this article, the main metals used in the common design of Li-ion battery are Lithium and Cobalt; lithium is quite abundant, but cobalt is a bit harder to find. It is usually ...
- 351
5
votes
Accepted
Does New Caledonia have a quarter of the world's nickel?
The USGS estimates for reserves vary from year to year, depending upon nickel price, and have definitely been over 10% some years (see 2014 ; 2015 ; 2016). 16% is the highest I see so far from USGS.
...
- 109k
5
votes
Are gem-quality diamonds common?
Total proved diamond reserves worldwide are on the order of 2.6 billion carats. This source provides numbers for some reserves in Russia along with their share in Russia's Reserves Register, giving us ...
- 3,799
5
votes
Is radioactive decay the cause of the high temperature of the Earth's core?
I want to answer the second part of the question:
I find it hard to believe since volcanoes aren't know for spewing long half-life materials.
The calculations of heat generated by radioactive ...
- 150
4
votes
Have scientists found 700,000-or-more visible annual ice layers?
The counting of layers such as tree rings, glacial varves, and annual ice layers, is a reliable way of establishing a chronology.
As far as the age of Earth is concerned, these methods provide a ...
- 2,903
4
votes
Accepted
Did every signer of the Declaration of independence (US) said they believed that men and women were created?
Yes.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights
The Declaration of Independence
- 109k
3
votes
Can "Seismic Blasting" from a ship induce massive earthquakes?
Referring to GNS Science seismologist Dr John Ristau, the answer is no due to the following reasons.
The origin of the quake (hypocenter) was about 100 kilometres south of where the ship was ...
- 22.9k
3
votes
Does the 'super-moon' have a measurable effect on probability and magnitude of earthquakes?
To first order, no, supermoons don't have measurable effects on earthquakes.
They might have a very very small effect on small earthquakes.
It isn't a ridiculous question. The strength of tidal ...
- 1,955
3
votes
Does "fracking" cause earthquakes?
Cross-posting from my answer here: while fracking can theoretically cause earthquakes in specific rare scenarios (see the accepted answer); most earthquakes attributed to mining are caused by non-...
- 31.4k
2
votes
Did the Quran predict that the crust is thicker under mountains?
No
Whose translation?
This is classical apologist trick where one takes ancient text/language and re-interpret it to mean what ever you like. For instance corpus.quran.com provides competing ...
- 8,884
2
votes
Does China control 85% of the supply of rare metals used in lithium batteries?
Some of the answers are referring to "rare earth" elements. There is nothing in the claim or lithium ion batteries related to rare earth elements.
Lithium is the only metal ubiquitous to lithium ...
- 109k
2
votes
Is radioactive decay the cause of the high temperature of the Earth's core?
We don't know.
It's hard to get direct measurements of what's below the crust in the Earth's mantle, and scientists seem to be divided on mantle radioactivity's contribution to Earth's "internal heat ...
- 2,903
2
votes
Can a "second Chernobyl" happen at the nuclear reactors damaged by the tsunami in Japan?
No. Fundamentally they were different types of accidents.
The Chornobyl accident was an excursion. Power within the reactor increased, and this increase caused more increase,* in an exponential ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible