Stonehenge

[xSilverPhinx]

I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while.

[Tank]

I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while.

How much did you loose?

My son is the only person I know who goes to Vagas and makes money!

[Ecurb Noselrub]

yo, Tex

have you been to palo duro canyon?

what a hole in the ground that is.

Yes, that's the Lighthouse formation.  I've climbed to the flat mesa below it.

[Randy]

I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while.

How much did you loose?

My son is the only person I know who goes to Vagas and makes money!

I had planned to go to Vegas, not so much to gamble but to see the shows like The Blue Man Group. I won't get to now of course. If I were to gamble, knowing my luck I'd be leaving IOU's at the roulette table.

[xSilverPhinx]

I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while.

How much did you loose?

My son is the only person I know who goes to Vagas and makes money!

Heh, who said I gambled anything?

I went there with my mother, and basically the only reason we went there was because it's close to the Grand Canyon. 

[Tank]

I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while.

How much did you loose?

My son is the only person I know who goes to Vagas and makes money!

Heh, who said I gambled anything?

I went there with my mother, and basically the only reason we went there was because it's close to the Grand Canyon. 

You went to Vagas and didn't at least play one slot machine! 

[xSilverPhinx]

I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while.

How much did you loose?

My son is the only person I know who goes to Vagas and makes money!

Heh, who said I gambled anything?

I went there with my mother, and basically the only reason we went there was because it's close to the Grand Canyon. 

You went to Vagas and didn't at least play one slot machine! 

My mother is a born-again christian and against gambling, so even if I wanted to, how would I be able to gamble a few bucks? 

Strangely enough in many hotels on the Strip didn't have much people gambling in them when I went. Mostly just senior citizens, probably gambling their retirements away. Granted, I went into those hotels during the day, and they most likely they fill up with people at night.

[Recusant]

Definitively determined that the stones weren't carried to the Salisbury Plain by glaciers. As much as anything in science is definitive. They failed to find evidence of glaciers. I thought it was already generally agreed among paleontologists/archaeologists that people got the stones there, but of course there would be some who supported an alternate hypothesis. 

"A century-old Stonehenge mystery may finally be solved" | ScienceDaily

New research from Curtin University offers the clearest scientific support so far that people, rather than glaciers, carried Stonehenge's well known bluestones to the ancient monument. The findings take aim at one of archaeology's longest running debates and add weight to the idea that the stones were deliberately moved by human hands.

The study focuses on how the Altar Stone and other massive rocks ended up at Stonehenge, a question that has puzzled researchers for generations. By ruling out natural ice driven transport, the research strengthens the case for purposeful human planning and effort.

To investigate the stones' journey, Curtin scientists used advanced mineral "fingerprinting" methods to study microscopic grains found in rivers near Salisbury Plain in southern England. These tiny mineral fragments act like geological time capsules, preserving evidence of how sediments moved across Britain over millions of years.

Using world leading instruments at Curtin's John de Laeter Centre, the team examined more than 500 zircon crystals. Zircon is one of the toughest minerals on Earth, making it ideal for tracking ancient geological processes.

Lead author Dr. Anthony Clarke from the Timescales of Minerals Systems Group in Curtin's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences said the analysis revealed no indication that glaciers ever reached the Stonehenge area.

"If glaciers had carried rocks all the way from Scotland or Wales to Stonehenge, they would have left a clear mineral signature on the Salisbury Plain," Dr. Clarke said.

"Those rocks would have eroded over time, releasing tiny grains that we could date to understand their ages and where they came from.

"We looked at the river sands near Stonehenge for some of those grains the glaciers might have carried and we did not find any. That makes the alternative explanation - that humans moved the stones - far more plausible."

[Continues . . .]

The paper is open access:

"Detrital zircon–apatite fingerprinting challenges glacial transport of Stonehenge's megaliths" | Nature Communications Earth & Environment

Abstract:

How Stonehenge's building blocks arrived on Salisbury Plain remains debated, with glacial and human transport mechanisms proposed.

Here we test the possibility of Pleistocene glacial sediment input using grain-scale U–Pb fingerprinting of detrital zircon and apatite from modern stream sediments surrounding Stonehenge. Zircon ages span 3396–285 Ma, with age peaks at ~1090, 1690, and 1740 Ma, matching the Laurentian basement of northern Britain.

Salisbury Plain detrital zircon ages match those of southern British rocks sourced from the London Basin, implying local sediment recycling rather than glaciogenic transport. Apatite ages of ~60 Ma reflect post-depositional U–Pb resetting, consistent with the distal effects of the Alpine orogeny.

Collectively, our data show Salisbury Plain remained unglaciated during the Pleistocene, making direct glacial transport of Stonehenge's megaliths unlikely.

[zorkan]

Last ice sheets melted away from England 10,000 years ago.
They didn't get as far south as the Wiltshire Downs.
Stonehenge only dates from 5,000 years ago.
Stones transported by rafts then rollers from South West Wales is the most likely.