Who built these ancient metal pipes deep inside a mountain cave?

Originally posted by Bybyots
Looks like they are fossilized tree roots...

And if in the "future" we learn how to "grow" our plumbing so it more effectively integrates and works with the surrounding environment without the need for disruptive digging and time intensive "planning"... ???

I must admit, my first thought after reading the entire article is that it's a great warning about jumping to conclusions on what is seen and/or found. The anthropology course I'm in this fall is covering similar themes so this is timely for me in coming across. It does initially look artificial and so easy to assume it is if we want to find 'out of time' artifacts.

The lab work the article refers to seems to have settled the question of what it is by the organic material results but without that? Well, it would still be easy to say ..'but it still looks ... it could still...' Wow.. It DOES look artificial, huh?

I'm gonna have to go with the scientists on this one.The finding of the organic matter and tree rings seals it for me.Since the nearby lake is salt water, I would think that there would be a excellent supply of dissolved metals and minerals to cause the formation seen here.

This topic shows up on occassion

I'd suggest just looking at fossil trees and compare them to what is seen in the photos





Etc

Did anyone take the time to survey these 'pipes' going to a lake? As I understand it the 'pipes' show up in sections of rock and are not contiguous.

Originally posted by Harte

Originally posted by TheEthicalSkeptic
Sorry, I just could not sit idly brain dead and zombie-absorb the word of the Skeptic community on this matter. I can accept 'fossilized trees' on this, but that does not mean we stop looking.

That's because they aren't actually fossils of tree roots.

They are concretions that formed around tree roots, leaving a "cast"-type fossil.

And these concretions that formed around the tree roots, preserved the concentric rings inside. I would say that both probably occurred.

If its one piece reaching 260 feet,
I want to see that tree....

reply to post by SweetKarma

But never once have I seen a petrified tree- roots or anything, hollow. Just my own observation over the years I have been around this particular area.

Thats how many fossils begin. Organic matter becomes buried by a flood, volcano , etc. The organic matter rots away leaving a hollow. Mineralized water secretes into the cavity and fills it. Sometimes very slowly growing crystalline structures, slowly closing the cavity, leaving an impression (fossil) in stone. There are a ton of examples from agate to geodes to fossil plants and animals.

The link the OP has provided does suggest that.

And here's the real story:

The most recent researchers to examine the pipes believe that the metallic phenomenon are in fact fossilized tree root casts. The rusted tubes being the result of tree roots that underwent the processes of pedogenesis (the process that forms soils) and diagenesis (transformation of soil into rock). Further experiments confirmed that the pipes contain organic plant material and even microscopic tree rings. Overflow from an extinct lake once carried these roots to where they stand now.

reply to post by SLAYER69


Hey Slayer,

My hunch is that these are some kind of iron ore deposits that formed into these unique veins and then corroded with time. I see no reason for them to change circumference over the whole length, unless it was to increase pressure. But I see no evidence for such use, and using bamboo would have been more efficient.

Kratos

I have no clue as to the origin, purpose or who may have done this.. What I do know is that is no tree root system.. I do believe they found organic tree roots in the pipes though.. He'll, I have to have mine roter routed every 3 years due to tree roots clogging up the drain..

Interesting find OP, I've never heard of this till now.. Thnx..

Tree roots can make some amazing things so its nothing to find a fossilized tree root thats unusual.Here this is tree roots check it out!

Well I thought some here would find this one interesting. Great discussion so far.

It seems, that many people are forgetting that the pipes were "inserted" deep into the rock.



Look how smooth and straight those edges are. It looks like the stone was cut away for the pipes to be placed there. They are even tilted on an angle showing their high fixing technique.

Maybe the pipes were created from some type of hybrid organic material. I'm sure they weren't making pipes out of the same materials we do these days.

reply to post by ArchaicDesigns


Take a really good look at it do you see uniformity or something that was formed by several tree roots that became fossilized. Wish we could find more of the picture you would see what it looks like.But looking at it i have no doubt that wasnt planned its bumpy inconsistent any intelligence would show uniformity in a pipe. See pipes need to fit together to do this they have to be the same. Pipes haven't changed since ancient Rome and 1000 years from now will still be the same. As for growing a pipe through rocks takes trees decades to go a few feet. Not the best way for a civilization to get water when it could take hundreds of years seems to me they would just do what the Romans did and be done in a month or 2.

PS when a root finds a void like a cave its going to take on the shape of the crack it forces itself through as it grows ever played with play doh?

reply to post by dragonridr


They do resemble tree roots but that still doesn't sit well with me, I think there's something else to it.
Whose to say they didn't use a natural root system from an extinct species of trees as a pipe system.

3 pages in and I havent seen a picture of a pipe yet..........this is great

Originally posted by Bybyots
For real...

What is that? An ancient-alien pop-rivet?

That's why I don't think it's a tree root, because you can clearly see where the metal plating overlaps and there's some sort of rivet or screw holding together the two parts. Either that photo is not actually taken from this cave or the scientists claiming it to be fossilized tree roots are covering something up.

Even the article mentioned that it is possibly tree roots and y'all keep going on about metallic this and smelting that.

So who built these pipes? ...a tree, a tree built the pipes.

Now the real question is, how do these trees get a hold of metal? ALIENS! Aliens taught the trees how to smelt iron ore into pipes.

Originally posted by ArchaicDesigns
reply to post by Bybyots

 

Yes, Tree roots can reach up to 400 ft in their search for water. Although, I don't think they are made of metal.

Since you brought up basalt with columnar jointing, I thought I would share my favorite example,

Can you guess which movie it was in?

Thanks Slayer for the thread.....I love these type of finds and discussions!! Also, thanks Archaic Designs for your picture of the 'Devils Tower in Southeastern Montana. Like the movie, 'strange encounters of a third kind" , I found myself drawn to it. There is something just so strange about it and amazingly beautiful. The outer ridges just don't match anything nearby...it is an anomaly. There are many theories to explain how this 'Tower' originated, however, many debates...It is simply mysterious....just like the finds in China. Mysteries.

Additionally during my cross country trip in my jeep across America, after seeing the Devil's Tower, I was drawn further East to southern central South Dakota.

I came across this 'un-earthlike' landscape of features, Domes, vastness, strange hues and unlike anything else seen in the U.S. It will always remain with me as a mysterious place...it just doesn't seem to fit into anything within 100's if not 1000's of miles from it.


Again Slayer, thank you for opening our eyes a bit...to think, to wonder, to question and to explore the unknown. Unlike China, the natural topographical anomalies, the ones in America are free and encouraged to visit. Love this stuff. Thanks

Its worth reading about the pipes here skeptoid.com...

reply to post by SLAYER69




I really think this is at least our second or maybe third time around this rodeo. I do believe we have grown to approximately where we are right now and digress and destroy ourselves and our civilization all over again. We keep making the same mistakes because we forget what we once knew. Those pipes, I think we built them and then we got stupid again.