Mysterious monolith appears in Utah desert

[crazy canuck]

It's hardly a massive structure.

Size shamer

No, he is correct.  Not nearly tall enough to be massive.  Hardly the height of one CC.

[Barrister]

So ya'll are saying it should be a monoferr?  Doesn't sound as snappy. 

Nah, BB is talking in terms of geography/geology.  Others are using a less narrow definition.

*BB points to his geology degree*

[Eddie Teach]

It's hardly a massive structure.

Size shamer

No, he is correct.  Not nearly tall enough to be massive.  Hardly the height of one CC.

It's between 10 and 12 feet.

[Syt]

Is anyone else irritated at how they call this thing a "metal monolith"?

Should they call it monochrome instead?

[Josephus]

If Monolith was good enough for Arthur C Clarke, it's good enough for me

[Barrister]

If Monolith was good enough for Arthur C Clarke, it's good enough for me

The material was never really described, other than being black, IIRC.

I can live with calling it a monolith.  It's "metal monolith" that grinds my gears.

[Razgovory]

So ya'll are saying it should be a monoferr?  Doesn't sound as snappy. 

That would mix Latin and Greek.

[Razgovory]

So ya'll are saying it should be a monoferr?  Doesn't sound as snappy. 

Nah, BB is talking in terms of geography/geology.  Others are using a less narrow definition.

It's not a definition so much as an etymology.  Word origins are interesting field.  They can shine light on meaning.  For instance, the name "Viper" is German

"Vipe" is how the Germans say for "Wipe".  The "R" is German for "That shit on your face"  So the word means "wipe that shit (off) your face".

[The Brain]

Aren't naturally occurring lumps of metal considered parts of the lithosphere btw?

[Barrister]

Aren't naturally occurring lumps of metal considered parts of the lithosphere btw?

There's a couple of metals you can find in nature in raw elemental form (copper is one) but almost invariably metal elements are tied up within minerals.  And any elemental mineral you find isn't going to form something large enough to be called a monolith.

[The Brain]

Aren't naturally occurring lumps of metal considered parts of the lithosphere btw?

There's a couple of metals you can find in nature in raw elemental form (copper is one) but almost invariably metal elements are tied up within minerals.  And any elemental mineral you find isn't going to form something large enough to be called a monolith.

Just establishing that things of metal can live under a lith umbrella. And the largest natural lump of metal I've touched weighed 22 tons, which I think could at least approximate a 2001 style object in size.

[Barrister]

You can call a 22 ton of naturally occurring metal a "metal monolith" if you like.

But you can't call this thing in Utah that.

[The Brain]

You can call a 22 ton of naturally occurring metal a "metal monolith" if you like.

I wouldn't. "Metal potato" maybe.

[The Brain]

If anyone's interested it's a piece of iron presently sitting in front of the Natural History Museum in Stockholm. It was brought from Greenland in the 1870s. The guy who found it initially thought it was meteoritic, but it was soon established that it was terrestrial in origin.

[Valmy]

So either the original artist went out there and took it down or somebody went out there and stole it but it did not stay up there for long after its discovery.