1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

OIL OIL OIL

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by DaveinOlyWA, Jul 6, 2004.

  1. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2004
    15,140
    611
    0
    Location:
    South Puget Sound, WA
    Vehicle:
    2013 Nissan LEAF
    Model:
    Persona
    here is a very very interesting article talking about oil. i guess some scientists are beginning to think that oil is not an organic product but a contaminated inorganic product that is not the result of millions of years of fossilized decay but an ongoing process deep inside the Earth.

    http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article....RTICLE_ID=38645

    what do you all think?? valid article or propaganda BS started by the oil companies in order to create a more accepting atmosphere for more drilling exploration??

    and if this were true, considering the growing volume of oil being used (this year, China past Japan as the #2 user of oil) are we headed towards an Earth that is nothing but a giant hollow ball??
     
  2. john1701a

    john1701a Prius Guru

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2004
    12,766
    5,251
    57
    Location:
    Minnesota
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Advanced
    The amount of oil available really doesn't matter if you focus on the real problem: SMOG-forming emissions

    And of course, there is still the danger of environmental damage caused by the extraction process and the possibility of a spill.
     
  3. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2004
    15,140
    611
    0
    Location:
    South Puget Sound, WA
    Vehicle:
    2013 Nissan LEAF
    Model:
    Persona
    ummm we do get our oil from Canada...

    in fact, the middle east is not our main foreign oil supplier. they are not 2nd or even 3rd.

    Canada is #1 (this of course doesnt count the oil from the US

    Mexico is #2
    Venezuala is 3rd.
    Saudi Arabia is 4th contributing 11% of the oil we import.

    but i think the article is smoke and a weak attempt at justifying destruction of sensitive ecological areas for large oil deposits that MIGHT be there. iow, oil companies feel that if they can say that there is a trillion barrels of oil in a possible spot that we would be more willing then if the oil company said "well we dont know if there is any oil there at all, but the rock and sand formations are favorable that SOME oil can probably be found.

    its my opinion that if the earth was producing oil continously, then we should be able to get the oil out of the ground everywhere that the mantle is close enough to the surface and that simply aint the case.

    also, although the article doesnt state it, only a handful of geologists ( every one working for the oil companies) actually subscribes to this theory.

    ok fine, even if it is true, oil still destroys the environment in other ways besides accidental spills. and no matter how its made, it is still coming from the Earth and must leave some sort of void since the byproducts of oil comsumption will not be recycled and put back several hundred miles below the surface. i also read another article that says that many planets in our solar system were like earth until the gases (some in the form of crude oil) bubbled to the surface and separated into its components and eventually degraded to methane. well, if that happens here, we will all die. and burning the oil is quickening the process.

    i spent over an hour looking for the article, but unfortunately, i read it about 2-3 years ago and i cant remember anything other than its main focus was global warming. i kind of thought that it might have been from the New York Times but the charge to search the archives that far back and i said "noper".

    but anything that is published on line is quoted or archived in at least 3 or 4 other places if it has any kind of circulation so i will continue to keep my eyes open.
     
  4. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2004
    7,663
    1,041
    0
    Location:
    United States
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Astronomer (note, not a geologist or petroleum chemist) Thomas Gold first proposed this idea something like 30 years ago. A Norwegian test well drilled exactly where he specified found nothing, and very few if any geologists now think the idea has merit.

    Even if it were true and there were an effectively infinite supply of oil in the Earth we'd soon still have to stop using fossil fuels. The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stone, it ended because we found better alternatives. And so it is with the Oil Age. Burning stuff is for cavemen.
     
  5. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2004
    15,140
    611
    0
    Location:
    South Puget Sound, WA
    Vehicle:
    2013 Nissan LEAF
    Model:
    Persona
    well i support the hollow ball theory. the hollow ball theory says that we will continue to burn oil until the earth is a hollow ball since the oil came from deep inside the center.

    as the earth hollows out, it will create a massive imbalance in the overall density of the earth creating havoc with the earths rotation around the sun.

    but the real danger will happen when the moon becomes heavier than us and we start to revolve around the moon and then as time marches on, our orbit will slowly decay resulting in a cataclysmic collision with the moon resulting in the end of all life on earth as we know it.

    of course the cockroaches and rats will survive but no one else...

    P.S.
    the above is my own personal theory. i think it is just as valid as the perpetual oil theory.
     
  6. charlieh

    charlieh Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2004
    54
    1
    0
    Location:
    California
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    From the Oil Sands Discovery Center (jeez, I guess the pit is a tourist attraction - have to plan my next vacation there next to the toxic waste lake) web site (www.oilsandsdiscovery.com):

    "Alberta's oil sands contain the biggest known reserve of oil in the world. An estimated 1.7 to 2.5 trillion barrels of oil are trapped in a complex mixture of sand, water and clay. The most prominent theory of how this vast resource was formed suggests that light crude oil from southern Alberta migrated north and east with the same pressures that formed the Rocky Mountains. Over time, the actions of water and bacteria transformed the light crude into bitumen, a much heavier, carbon rich, and extremely viscous oil. The percentage of bitumen in oil sand can range from 1% -20%."

    So, the oil was created conventionally and then through geologic processes it migrated up and into the sand, the more volatile components were destroyed leaving behind the bitumen. As for how the oil was created, read Deffeyes' book Hubbert's Peak and you will know more about oil and how we find it, drill for it and process it than you thought you ever would. The right mix of carbon has to pass between 7500 and 15000 feet for several million years in order to be turned into oil. Deffeyes was a senior petrogeologist for Shell during and after Hubbert's time with Shell.

    As to how they get it out of the sand, giant steam shovels and dump trucks (powered by petroleum) haul tons of the stuff to a huge bin where it is mixed with hot water to create a slurry which is then piped to the separation plant where the sand, oil and water are cooked and parted from each other using a fair amount of energy and releasing LOTS of carbon dioxide.

    Only trouble with oil sands is that for every 3 barrels of oil produced, it takes 2 barrels of oil energy to produce those 3, so while there may be 1.2 trillion barrels in the sand, it will take 800 million to get them out, for a net of only about 400 million (which at current consumption of about 30 billion barrels per year - and growing- is about 12 years worth. Not much time in a historical sense, and zero in the geological sense.

    And right now, the toxic waste lake that production to date has created is about 37 miles around and over 40 feet deep. The Alberta plant is currently producing about 250,000 barrels a day. Estimates are that to produce enough oil to eliminate our dependence on conventional oil would produce a toxic lake the size of Lake Ontario and grow from there. And this does not consider the EROEI issue. See Heinberg's The Party's OVer or Deffeyes book for a discussion of oil sands' possible net contribution to world oil supplies. While society may make the decision to push for massive development as conventional oil peaks soon and declines, there will be significant energy and environmental costs.

    As to the Thomas Gold theory of the origins of oil, there was an interesting interview on NPR recently with Paul Roberts (author of the just published The End of Oil, a fellow from the American Petroleum Institute (Big Oil) and the head of the British Petroleum Association (apparently somewhat independent of Big Oil). The guy from the API mentioned this theory of oil welling up naturally in an ongoing process from the bowels of the earth, but admitted that he, personally, did not subscribe to that theory, nor did many geologists. Paul Roberts and the fellow from the BPA sided with the naysayers noting that no serious scientist accepted that theory.

    I personally subscribe to DaveinOlyWa's theory...
     
  7. naterprius

    naterprius Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2004
    1,843
    11
    0
    Location:
    USA
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Hollow Ball Theory impossible:

    Sorry, guys, but you are forgetting the first law of thermodynamics:

    Matter is never lost. You can actually take a gallon of gasoline and a tank of air and weigh it, burn the gasoline using air from the tank, then weigh the exhaust and the empty tank, and they weigh EXACTLY THE SAME as the gasoline and full tank of air. Not one molecule, atom, or quark disappears during combustion. It is simply moved and converted in form. The earth gets no heavier or lighter over time due to chemical reactions.

    Nuclear reactions are an exception. Matter is indeed lost. Once you understand that no matter is ever lost under normal circumstances, then nuclear reactions start to become a bit disturbing. Where does the material go? It disappears! It leaves the universe and ceases to exist. When it goes, it leaves behind a tremendous amount of energy.

    Earth's overall mass is not changing. Just its chemistry, and hence its biology. And frankly, that's where the trouble lies, because we can't deny our biology... or we will cease to exist in our present form.

    Nate
     
  8. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2004
    15,140
    611
    0
    Location:
    South Puget Sound, WA
    Vehicle:
    2013 Nissan LEAF
    Model:
    Persona
    thanks for the explanation charlie:

    this is so deja vu. last night workers at my apartment complex were working on a leak on the roof and broke my satellite dish. well before i realized that i only needed to remount it to the bracket i was stuck with the free extended cable that comes with the apartment.

    with a minimal amount of shows on my tivo, i ended up watching the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou" on a canadian station. after the movie was over, the national canadian news came on. (i admit, i wasnt really dedicated to watching it and during each commercial i was posting to this forum.)

    their lead story was on Alberta finally emerging from debt because of oil revenue. i guess before they started extracting the oil, they were 29 billion dollars in debt despite having reduced services for schools, etc to a minimum. the story was definitely spun since it was all positive and didnt mention the toxic waste being generated, (although the population is so low, that they could easily store a huge amount without endangering anyone. they did take steps to prevent birds from being caught up in the mess)

    as i watched the story, i did wonder why it took so long for Alberta to make money since some middle east countries make more than 29 billion every year. they didnt mention the huge cost and extra steps necessary to produce the oil. i am familiar with the process as there are several sites in Texas, Okalahoma and Lousisana that were abandoned because it was felt that the yield wasnt worth the risk since the areas contained much more people and the ability to store large pools of waste would be prohibitively expensive.

    just goes to show ya how easily, tv news and create, alter and mold public opinion. for an industry that preaches impartiality, i feel extremely cheated to the point that i look at national news as no better than any of the news magazine shows on tv. mind you, nearly all have been caught manufacturing news or altering events in order to make a more "entertaining" show. (does anyone remember exploding gas tanks and pickups??)
     
  9. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2004
    15,140
    611
    0
    Location:
    South Puget Sound, WA
    Vehicle:
    2013 Nissan LEAF
    Model:
    Persona
    granted, it doesnt work nearly as efficiently in an ICE, but the fact is that energy is created and mass is lost. besides the hollow ball theory does not say that mass is lost. it says that mass is displaced. i guess i need to explain the theory completely.

    as the Earth's mass is converted from oil to greenhouse gasses, its density is reduced. the overall weight is not changed much but the laws of centripetal and centrifugal force says that eventually as the mass of the earth shifts from the middle to the outside that the forces of gravity that holds out atmosphere to the surface of the Earth will lessen its grip creating a much larger cushion of air as the earths rotational forces pushes the lighter than air gasses further and further away from Earths center.

    the hollow ball theory is based on the fact that there is no man made or surface phenomena that can reconstitute the mess we are amassing on the surface back into oil. iow, its a one way process. so the axion, "what comes out, must be eventually replaced or else" applies.

    the hollow ball theory is the inevitable conclusion to our senseless destruction of the planet. now i am not going to address the consequences of what will happen to us when the concentration of gasses becomes high enough that effects of sunlight and radiation will start creating new poisonous gasses that will kill us by destroying the ozone that protects us from getting skin cancer.


    NOTE: Now before people who havent read the entire post start to panic, The Hollow Ball Theory i something i made up. i did so in jest to illustrate the irresponsibility demostrated by the scientists who have presented the "endless oil" theory. Actually, i dont think scientific evidence played much of a part in the "endless oil" announcement. i believe the ultimate agenda is completely based in greed.
     
  10. naterprius

    naterprius Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2004
    1,843
    11
    0
    Location:
    USA
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Okay, Dave, on that note, I'll support the hollow ball theory as well, but I still hear things in your logic like "earth's weight has not changed MUCH" when in fact it does not change AT ALL. I also hear "the LIGHTER than air" greenhouse gases when in fact CO2 is HEAVIER than air. Also, vegetation CAN put the CO2 and H2O back into oil, it just takes a long time: And there's the point. It's all about RATES. MPG is a RATE and the higher the number the lower the rate of consumption, and the closer we are to reasonable supplies and a sustainable cycle. (But still not closed loop!).

    Nate
     
  11. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2003
    19,891
    1,193
    9
    Location:
    Nixa, MO
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Sorry Nate, but you're going to have to explain that. Unless you're counting the weight of the atmosphere as part of the weight of the Earth then we are, indeed, losing weight as fossil fuels are burned and converted to gases. There may be some of the gasses that later become solid on Earth again as part of a cyclic process. Also, although a MINISCULE amount, we do sent satellites and rockets and such into space and that is lost.

    So, although I think you're general point about the conservation of matter is correct there is some finite amount of weight lost. Solids can be converted to energy/heat and that can be lost to space. The priciple applies to the UNIVERSE, not to Earth. In the universe matter can not be gained or lost, on the earth it most certainly can.
     
  12. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2004
    15,140
    611
    0
    Location:
    South Puget Sound, WA
    Vehicle:
    2013 Nissan LEAF
    Model:
    Persona
    actually the lighter than air reference was to methane that is released as we pump oil.

    and the Earth's weight is not static. in fact some scientists feel that we gain several thousand pounds from meteorites every year.

    also, the atmosphere is not trapped to Earth. we do lose random molecules all the time. but we also gain cosmic dust too so whether we are actually losing weight or gaining weight, i doubt that anyone knows for sure.

    also space is a vacuum? nope... nature abhors a vacuum, even in space. space still has random molecules, primarily hydrogen, helium, etc. these particles tend to not clump because of their low density and more importantly, they dont freeze and form ice as quickly making it tougher to "precipatat4e" the gases. but the density of molecules in space is pretty slim and is controlled by planatary gravatational forces. so the atmospheric density is directly proportional to the distance from the center of the mass that is the predominate gravitational force. when we add more atmosphere to the surface of the Earth, the atmospheric pressure does not increase nor does the Earths atmospheric aura increase in size dramatically. what happens instead is the additional molecules simply get pushed out into space where they find a suitable "vacant" spot in the universe in which to settle. it is basically a domino effect.

    now since we are not talking about gases in a closed container, it does take time for the equilibrium particle density to settle. in fact, it never really settles which contributes to many things including radical weather.

    but the hollow ball theory is based on the redistribution of weight

    it would be like a movable cam on a rotating shaft or worse a worn cam where bad bearing causes unpredictable weight shifts.

    now the Earth is a big boy, so we obviously need to shift a lot of weight to make a difference. but add the weight of all the oil we have consumed and we have a lot of weight.

    it makes me wonder what we are doing to our existance with this massive moving of Earth around. also keep in mind that all the concrete and rock that has been moved ever since the beginning of man doesnt come close to the amount of oil that has been taken out of the Earth.

    today i submitted a post concerning the polarity shift the Earth is undergoing and its consequences. the rate of decay in our magnetic field has accelerated in recent years and it makes me wonder if our oil consumption isn't playing some unknown part in all this. granted the polarity shift will happen no matter what we do and i guess its happened several times before.

    but no one knows why this is happening and some conjecture that is the result of a shifting iron core inside the Earth. well take a bunch of liquid (oil) out of the Earth, what will happen to liquid remainder ?(magma)

    well they are at completely different locations in the Earths crust so they may not have any effect whatsever on the other, but then again... who knows?
     
  13. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2004
    15,140
    611
    0
    Location:
    South Puget Sound, WA
    Vehicle:
    2013 Nissan LEAF
    Model:
    Persona
    sorry hit enter by mistake... but anyway, when we push atmosphere into space, we have heavy molecules that tend to have a high freezing point. they crystalize and eventually get together with other particles to form various phenomena. the "northern lights" are actually ice crystals of various gases ( the color of the light determines the gas displayed) and dust particles that give off light when they escape the Earth's protective atmosphere and become bombarded by the radiation from the sun.

    eventually, so the story goes, the sun will burn, give off gases just like the Earth is, shrink, implode, and explode.

    during this time which will take a few years ( about 5-15 billion years some think) the gases and dust will gather together and by some sort of cosmic force akin to static electricity, will start to swirl and become bunched together so tightly that the small molecules will fuse together, giving off heat in the process until a self-sustaining fusion reactor is created and Wa la!!

    we now have Sun Jr. and the process starts all over again.

    ok, now if the Sun can deteriorate into nothing, what makes you think that Earth cant do it and much faster i might add??

    We dont have to implode. after all, we are not sitting on a self sustaining nuclear reaction. so there is no requirement to constantly be pushing little bits of Earth out into space like the sun does. all our disseminational habits were invented by man and controlled by man and i personally dont think its the wisest solution. lets face it for what it is, its the easiest solution, not the best.

    as technology advances, i think its up to us to do what we can to pursue a better course of action as soon as possible. no one knows how much abuse our atmosphere can take. tremendous forces way beyond our comprehension created the atmosphere and we may find that if a certain threshold is crossed that a chain of events maybe be intialized that we cannot reverse no matter what we do.

    after all, we dont know how to make world we live in. we only know how to destroy it.
     
  14. charlieh

    charlieh Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2004
    54
    1
    0
    Location:
    California
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    See post below
     
  15. charlieh

    charlieh Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2004
    54
    1
    0
    Location:
    California
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    And we have already put LOTS of greenhouse gases into the atmoshpere. Each gallon of gasoline burned puts FIVE pounds of carbon into the atmosphere. Priii just produce less because they burn less gasoline, but Hummer or Prius, it's 5 pounds per gallon. The Prius may produce far less SMOG per gallon, but the combustion of gasoline produces a fixed amount of carbon per gallon, period. Burning coal, which is almost pure carbon produces even more - a ton of coal burned produces almost a ton of CO2, which is REALLY scary when you realize that coal will be burned around the world in even larger quantities as oil first gets too expensive and then gets harder to obtain without going to war. Estimates are that there are nearly a trillion tons of coal - enough to power the planet for about 150 years, although the EROEI of coal has decreased siginficantly as the easy to get to reserves were exploited. We now dig deeper and get far less rich veins than we used to. See Heinberg's book The Party's Over for the numbers on the declines in EROEI for most fossil fuels. We may be willing to pay the finiancial price and the environmental price, but at some point the EROEI drops to where it is a net energy loss to pursue a resource. Hydrogen is an example of a fuel system (it's a storage medium, not a fuel) that we have yet to figure out how to get past break even on EROEI.

    Back to the issue of unexpected consequences... McGibben in The End of Nature spends some time discussing the "unexpected" feedback mechanisms that seem to be occurring as global warming speeds up. Computer models are only as good as our understanding of the processes involved in the environment, and that is clearly something we know very little about. The release of methane from the permafrost, the unknown point at which the oceans may stop being a carbon sink, the additional carbon released as our forests burn up (Alaska is in flames as we write this) due to drought probably induced by global warming, the beetle kill that is decimating the US forests (kokonino National Forest in Arizona is now 90% dead due to beetle kill, the national forests around San Bernardino are 50% dead due to beetle kill) caused by drought - the list goes on and on, are all things we simply don't understand, and there's probably a lot more we don't even know about.

    The prudent move would be to REDUCE energy consumption - not something that is compatible with the growth economy that we in the industrialized world look to to power our coporate engines and provide jobs for a swelling popluation. More tough choices. It's going to be a wild ride and one we may wish to step off of, but alas, I fear the ride operator has left for the coast and we are stuck!
     
  16. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2004
    14,487
    1,518
    0
    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Dave, was that post intended as a joke?

    1. The northern lights are light emitted as cosmic rays excite the electrons in atmospheric gasses (just like a neon light).

    2. Atmospheric pressure is the weight of overlying atmosphere being pulled down by gravity. The more atmosphere, the greater the atmospheric pressure. Venus, though lighter than the Earth, has much greater atmospheric pressure at the surface, because it has more atmosphere.

    3. The total weight of oil we have burned, as a proportion of the Earth's mass, is infinitessimal. The carbon we are putting into the atmosphere is significant, but any change in the Earth's mass as a result of oil burning would not be measurable as a percentage of Earth's mass.

    4. Stars are formed by gravitational attraction of gasses in space. Not by "crystalization" of heavy molecules due to the low temperatures or any effect of static electricity.

    5. The sun keeps its size, against the force of gravity, because of the heat generated by fusion. Once the nuclear fuel is consumed it will contract and then explode, leaving a small core behind. This will not happen to the Earth because the Earth is much too small: it does not have enough gravity to collapse upon itself.

    Your posts up until now have been so reasonable, that I can only assume that you are joking in that last one, or smoking something pretty potent, or someone has hacked your password and is trying to discredit you.
     
  17. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2004
    15,140
    611
    0
    Location:
    South Puget Sound, WA
    Vehicle:
    2013 Nissan LEAF
    Model:
    Persona
    no not a joke, poorly written maybe,

    not as detailed as would be necessary to fully develop an idea, most definitely.

    a birth of a star requires many things to start up. and ice crystals are a small part of the equation.

    also atmospheric pressure works the same way as water pressure does in a general sense. to fully understand it thou, you also have to consider the mass of the components, the diameter of the earth, rate of rotation and therefore angular velocity, etc.

    also you have to realize the post was accidently split by me so part of the post was posted earlier. i did state that nearly every thing we do is probably inconsequential. also my main point was that no one knows how much is too much concerning polution, greenhouse gases, etc. we may find one day that we have gone too far and dont know how to reverse what we have done.

    there are simply too many things in nature that happen that we can only guess as to why it does what it does. now we come to a question of shifting polarity at the poles. the Earth is slowly reversing the magnetic field. unfortunately it appears that during this process, there will be a time when the magnetic field will be nil. no one knows why this is occuring. we obviously didnt cause it since there is proof that this has happened several times before.

    from the site

    http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/au...a_borealis.html

    "The sun gives off high-energy charged particles (also called ions) that travel out into space at speeds of 300 to 1200 kilometres per second. A cloud of such particles is called a plasma. The stream of plasma coming from the sun is known as the solar wind. As the solar wind interacts with the edge of the earth's magnetic field, some of the particles are trapped by it and they follow the lines of magnetic force down into the ionosphere, the section of the earth's atmosphere that extends from about 60 to 600 kilometres above the earth's surface. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow, producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras, northern and southern. The array of colours consists of red, green, blue and violet. "

    so ok... my post was not meant to be taken that literally. you realize that i wrote it with no real fforethought or research. but to say that im way off base is a bit much.

    P.S. on the northern lights issue, i reread my post and did not see the mention of "cosmic rays" you mentioned.
     
  18. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2004
    14,487
    1,518
    0
    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    You said the auroras are ice crystals. They are not. They are the glow given off by gas atoms as they are hit by cosmic rays.

    The long quote in your last post is correct. Your earlier explanation of the auroras was not.

    The analogy of atmospheric pressure to water pressure in your last post is also correct. Your very different explanation in your earlier post (saying pressure was independent of the amount of overlying atmosphere) was not.