First off, I find the use of the word "missing" hilarious. Did someone take it?

Secondly they use the word "wound". They call this an "open wound". That denotes trauma or injury. Hmm, trying to scare people? They use this term, yet they're not sure of the purpose for this opening. So how do they know that it is a wound? Maybe it is meant to be this way. Maybe it is like the soft spot on a baby's head?

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0572954.htm

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Anyone ask Hillary what kind of underwear she wears, yet?

Lt. Gov Diane Denish on Bill Richardson "The governor, she said, "pinches my neck. He touches my hip, my thigh, sort of the side of my leg."

or yours.....

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From toxic waste to the unpronounceables on your food labels, chemicals are all around and within us......

Actually, your article indicates clearly that the scientists studying the situation are, in fact, wondering if the "missing" part never formed. So while your analogy was clearly intended to be glib, (though I'm not quite sure why you felt the need to be since it's an interesting story), maybe you aren't that far off.

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"artists use lies to tell the truth while politicians use them to cover the truth up" "V" in V for Vendetta

672 days to go.
http://www.backwardsbush.com/?gclid=...FRQxSgodT0dCxw

I said it that way due to the word "wound". Like I said, they threw that word out there as if some how the earth damaged, BEFORE they know if this is a problem or not. It's as if, by using this phrase, they want it to be a problem.

All that aside, it would be really cool to see some quality pics of this.

Since we know these plate move and swell, it would make some sense that there would be some gap to accept the movement. Pretty interesting if this is the case.

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Anyone ask Hillary what kind of underwear she wears, yet?

Lt. Gov Diane Denish on Bill Richardson "The governor, she said, "pinches my neck. He touches my hip, my thigh, sort of the side of my leg."

I didn't read it that way. But I do agree, it's an interesting phenomenon and I'm looking forward to the National Geographic pics.

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"artists use lies to tell the truth while politicians use them to cover the truth up" "V" in V for Vendetta

672 days to go.
http://www.backwardsbush.com/?gclid=...FRQxSgodT0dCxw

One might ask who "they" are. Science reporters are journalists, not scientists. IOW, they use the same journalistic methods as any other journalist in order to sell a media product. No big deal.

If one bothered to look at the actual study proposal :
PhD-projects
22
one would see three things :

These 'open wounds' are not recently discovered. They are part and parcel of the lithosphere , i.e. the outer shell of any rocky planet such as the earth. (Lithosphere) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It has long been known that in MOR (mid-ocean ridges) the lithosphere is much thinner than in non-renewed areas (the 'normal', level, ocean floor).
But the hypothesis as to why and how this occurs is, according to the project leader :
What the project is thus setting out to do is testing a hypothesis by experiment. This is known as science

Secondly, if one reads through the whole project proposal, one finds not a single instance of the use of sensationalist terms such as 'open wounds' or 'missing' such as decried by the OP. The responsability for these terms thus lays entirely with the author of the linked article (Stefano Ambrogi) who is a Reuters copywriter. Moral of the story : do not rely on the mass media in the context of science. Without exception, their writings on any scientific issue are ignorant travesties of the real issue.

Thirdly, and lastly, this is not a 'hot' environmental issue. It's a geologic one. The occurence of relatively thin spots in the lithosphere dates back from the cooling of the earth's outer crust and the start of tectonic activity. That is in the order of 4 billion years. It's not a discovery akin to the hole in the ozone layer as the copywriter seems to want to infer.

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"Say not, 'When I have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any free time"
Hillel the Elder

So are these same "Scientists" the ones that, although they don't understand the Earth's crust, they absolutely have a grip on global warming? Or is it that they can't promote a "Crust Tax"?

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No, they're not the same. These are geologists. The others are climatologists.

There's a big difference between 'not understanding' and testing a hypothesis in a specific aspect of a broader theory.

Scientists do not promote taxes. Politicians do. The science on global warming is clear (chaos theory). What the politicians and massmedia do with that is their responsibility, not that of the scientists. The de facto result of how these two use it is of course that hardly anyone has a clue what they're talking about as is so ubiquitously demonstrated on this very forum.

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"Say not, 'When I have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any free time"
Hillel the Elder

Give it up dude. Everyone knows the earth is only 6,000 years old. Sheesh, man, can I buy you a vowel?

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"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither breaks my leg, nor picks my pocket."

Thomas Jefferson

I wonder if these scientists know the dry land was once under the sea and the sea floor was once dry land???

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Only a liberal would know how hard it is to get a nicotine patch to stick to a monkey.

If one reads the link that the OP posted one finds...

The average joe will not read the proposal, they will read the article. Thusly the average person now reads about "an open wound".

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Anyone ask Hillary what kind of underwear she wears, yet?

Lt. Gov Diane Denish on Bill Richardson "The governor, she said, "pinches my neck. He touches my hip, my thigh, sort of the side of my leg."

Well, it's Mr. Average Joe's choice then to remain ignorant of the issue while relying on the sensationalist mass media crap. Maybe that's why Mr. Joe has 'average' in his name.

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"Say not, 'When I have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any free time"
Hillel the Elder