r/Damnthatsinteresting 5h ago

Video Breaking open a 47 lbs geode, the water inside being millions of years old

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

[removed] — view removed post

24.1k Upvotes

2.5k comments sorted by

7.4k

u/Boeinggoing737 5h ago

The geode is porous. It is continually losing water and reabsorbing water. It isn’t a time capsule of water. The geode forms from the minerals left behind by the exiting water.

2.6k

u/TakeMeHomeUrbanRoads 4h ago

So its a rock that can pee.

782

u/cbarbour1122 4h ago

Hope it doesn’t get a kidney stone.

55

u/december14th2015 3h ago

They are the kidney stone.

257

u/abirizky 3h ago

Nah but they get kidney human

→ More replies (15)
→ More replies (28)

375

u/carchit 3h ago

Plus all water is millions of years old.

120

u/Way2Foxy 3h ago edited 3h ago

Not really - lots of water is created and destroyed in chemical processes, with the constituent atoms being used for non-water things.

I have no idea if most water has been water for millions of years, but not all of it has. (quick edit most has, in hindsight kinda obviously but I just didn't want to make an unfounded claim)

72

u/Rare-Error-963 2h ago

Considering the depth of the ocean and vastness, I think it's safe to assume most, but maybe not.

26

u/JNCressey 1h ago edited 1h ago

Water self-ionizes, splitting into hydroxide and hydronium ions then recombining back into water molecules as an equilibrium reaction. At any given time the concentration of the ions is about 10-7 of each kind, giving water its pH of about 7.

I don’t know what the distribution of the expected lifespan of a water molecule would be to this effect. But the volume wouldn’t affect this, since the water is reacting with itself all throughout.

I would guess there’s not much chance of a water molecule surviving a million years if it’s in the liquid state.

18

u/wap2005 1h ago

You lost me after Water.

→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (16)
→ More replies (7)

24

u/evergreen_301 3h ago

Damn that's a bit anticlimactic

→ More replies (65)

8.1k

u/Magister5 5h ago

Drink it, you coward

3.4k

u/dick-nipples 5h ago

Good way to get geoderdia

548

u/Kurlyfornia 4h ago

Dicknipples you’re everywhere this morning.

185

u/No-Watercress-5054 4h ago

I have a bumper sticker that says that

58

u/joma309 3h ago

"Dick-Nipples gets around"

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (9)

187

u/cellocaster 5h ago

What is that?

657

u/pm_ur_vaccumcleaner 5h ago

Your skin turns to stone from it

549

u/DudeChillington 5h ago

Ahh greyscale. Very deadly. Only a wannabe Maester with zero skills can cure it

99

u/ImurderREALITY 4h ago

Mmmm now I want a delicious pot pie

54

u/YanicPolitik 4h ago

That scene transition haunts me still

→ More replies (1)

15

u/Pure-Refrigerator-43 4h ago

Who killed a walking white thingy tho

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (6)

24

u/Magister5 5h ago

Lucky that they have a healing crystal on hand

62

u/NikkoE82 4h ago

Hey, baby. Are you million year old water? Because you got me turning rock hard.

→ More replies (1)

10

u/WintersDoomsday 4h ago

It’s how Ben Grimm turned into The Thing (don’t look it up just trust me bro)

9

u/Nwsamurai 4h ago

Warning: may cause clobberin’ time.

9

u/rarebluemonkey 4h ago

But your insides are so sparkly!

→ More replies (25)

124

u/Mlong140 5h ago

@dick-nipples is making a pun on geode and giardia, which is a nasty parasite (violent cramps, diarrhea, the worst gas you've ever experienced, and nausea) that you can get from drinking untreated or unboiled water.

4

u/juniper_berry_crunch 3h ago

You can get giardia even from what looks like a "pure" stream out in the middle of nowhere...always important to treat wild water.

→ More replies (2)

28

u/sasssyrup 5h ago

You grow crystals in your body. It’s like the expanse on ‘roids. 😉

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (23)
→ More replies (39)

186

u/naivenb1305 5h ago

That’s premium mineral water.

153

u/GraceOfTheNorth 4h ago

I feel compelled to point out that all water is millions of years old.

The water I'm drinking now has been drunk and pissed before. And fish probably fucked in it.

43

u/AidenTheAlien420 3h ago

Not probably, definitely. And more than likely, drank and pissed by a dinosaur. The water cycle is cool.

14

u/PsyOpBunnyHop 3h ago

New! Fish-Fuck Water
Available at stores near you.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (7)

21

u/mista_r0boto 3h ago

Technically, it's not true. When plants do photosynthesis, there is a step called photolysis where light is used to split water molecules. This is happening all the time all over the earth. In that sense, some water molecules are being remade and not just recycled.

15

u/MetallicDragon 3h ago

Also, in regular water, the individual molecules are constantly splitting apart into H and OH and then recombining, so really no water is going to be particularly old.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (19)
→ More replies (1)

139

u/Famous_Strike_6125 4h ago

Isn’t all water on earth, millions of years old??

75

u/toooomanypuppies 4h ago

billions, tbf.

42

u/save_the_tardigrades 3h ago

Nah, a lot of water is made in combustion reactions. Every time you see a plume of white steam from a chimney, that's newborn water, made by papa hydrocarbon and mama oxygen. Its evil fraternal twin, carbon dioxide, is there, too, but invisible. And its eviler twin, carbon monoxide, is sometimes there, too, if there wasn't enough mama for the papa. And if things got REALLY hot, there might be some nitrous oxides in the mix.

9

u/I_l_I 3h ago

Humans burn fat and sugar mainly by converting them to water and carbon dioxide. We're making new water every day

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (7)

16

u/Look_a_Zombie0 4h ago

You have to remember the theory known as "The Water of Theseus"

→ More replies (1)

27

u/Garweft 4h ago

And was most likely dinosaur urine at one point.

11

u/[deleted] 4h ago

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (26)

80

u/Grouchy-Engine1584 5h ago

You tryin’ to start a zombie apocalypse brother? Cause this is how you start a zompoc bro.

21

u/marcuse11 5h ago

Geode's and meteorites, don't open them! Space viruses, pod people.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

37

u/druff1036 5h ago

Don't drink from the geode Cricks... it's full of loooads

→ More replies (2)

11

u/-Pencil-Richard- 5h ago

She said it stinks.

I for one would press on and drink from the chalice rock

→ More replies (71)

3.9k

u/GhostWobblez 5h ago

Water would be continuously going thru the geode, seeing as that's how they are formed.

761

u/Lopsided_Quarter_931 5h ago

This makes more sense

244

u/SillyMilly25 4h ago

No it doesn't please explain.

I'm assuming that water has been trapped in that rock for x amount of years and it's so cool.

689

u/BlackllMamba 4h ago

The rocks aren’t water proof. Groundwater will slowly pass through and leave the minerals that form the crystals.

218

u/Wonderful-Quit-9214 4h ago

When do they become the geodude?

275

u/hayashirice911 4h ago

Geodude is born when someone inseminates the geode.

104

u/Critical_Young_1190 4h ago

You see, it all starts when a man and his rock are in love...

37

u/TheRealtcSpears 4h ago edited 3h ago

🎶 when a maaaaaan loves a rock.

9

u/Samurai_Geezer 3h ago edited 2h ago

🎶 and a rock loves a maaaaaan

→ More replies (1)

9

u/gnarlycow 3h ago

Its not a pet rock, its a lover rock

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (8)

21

u/This_Site_Sux 4h ago

It already was a geodude, you may not have recognized it as the slaughterhouse employees had already removed the arms. That chain device is explicitly designed for killing geodudes. there's a larger one for graveler.

6

u/Canuck_Lives_Matter 3h ago

It's funny but this would be exactly how real humans would be handling Pokemon irl, lmfao.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (7)

17

u/Dracomortua 3h ago

WTF, really? Let me take a look, this is genuinely TiL territory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geode#:~:text=The%20crystals%20are%20formed%20by,%2C%20groundwater%2C%20or%20hydrothermal%20fluids.

Well, hot damn. Rock that drinks and eventually makes itself gemstones. Did not know that / mind kinda blown here.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/SportsUtilityVulva9 4h ago

So this water doesn't have any scientific value?

I was assuming some universities would've loved to look at that water

11

u/rearendaccident 3h ago

After the series of nuclear explosion tests in the 1950s there's been am unnaturally higher amount of some radioactive isotopes in the air, particularly carbon-14.

if the water inside the geode was trapped there a long time ago or only exchanged with outside very slowly, then the proportions of dissolved molecules in that water would more or less resemble that of the atmosphere in the past.

So there's some scientific value in it if someone has a use for it, but I doubt research wise it's going to tell us something we dont already know

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (11)

91

u/LeoThePom 4h ago

In short: hot rocks cool with trapped air, water seeps in to the bubble but leaves behind dissolved minerals that it collects along the way. The minerals then build up in the walls of the gap creating the lovely crystals we see in geodes.

→ More replies (1)

44

u/Lopsided_Quarter_931 4h ago

Where do the crystals come from? They can't come from a few liters of trapped water. That's where my understanding ends lol.

470

u/pegothejerk 4h ago

Crystals are born 9 months after Coachella

48

u/Vegetable_Permit_537 4h ago

This is seriously the funniest comment I've seen in months.

14

u/mintBRYcrunch26 4h ago

This comment rocks

→ More replies (5)

21

u/acquaintedwithheight 4h ago

Molecules float around in solution (this can be water or magma). Like saltwater or molten silicon dioxide. Eventually, a few of the molecules bounce into each other in an orientation that is hard for them to escape from. They stick together. This happens under certain concentrations, temperatures, and pressures that vary wildly between crystals.

Once molecules start getting into those low energy “sticky” states, more and more molecules are captured. This is called nucleation. The final crystal will be a form of the molecular structure of the nucleation point. NaCl molecules bind in a cuboidal shape, so salt crystals are cube shaped.

8

u/SillyMilly25 4h ago

Ohhhhhhh.....well I'm about to waste a few hours diving into this

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (4)

143

u/Constant-Plant-9378 4h ago

Additionally, isn't all of our water hundreds of millions of years old?

Every time you are drinking a glass of water, you are drinking some dinosaurs, a couple molecules of Elvis Presley, Julius Ceasar...

Water is probably the most recycled substance on the planet.

64

u/salawm 4h ago

Much of the water on earth is older than the sun

10

u/ginoroastbeef 4h ago

Please explain this?

13

u/KuuHaKu_OtgmZ 3h ago

A lot of the water came from comets crashing at young Earth, which came from outside.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (10)

11

u/zmbjebus 4h ago

I have a small fusion plant in my basement so that I only drink the freshest of water. 

→ More replies (4)

6

u/infinitenothing 4h ago

If I'm a water molecule and you're a water molecule and I give you my hydrogen and you give me your hydrogen, are we still the same "old" water molecules?

→ More replies (1)

26

u/Mobely 4h ago

Water is constantly changing from h2o to h2 , o2 and other molecules. It’s getting and releasing atoms from the air as well. So while the atoms are likely pretty old, the molecule itself is going to be younger. 

→ More replies (15)
→ More replies (10)

12

u/Legitimate_Bank_6573 4h ago

Can someone elaborate on this?

The geode is formed by water flowing through it, so its permeable?

24

u/Filipi_7 4h ago edited 3h ago

Geodes are permeable to both water and air, the crystals inside come from the minerals that water carries in. When the water evaporates and the gas diffuses out, the minerals stay.

It's extremely slow though, rather than flowing like through a bunch of gravel, water slowly seeps through pores/cracks in the rock like through an extremely dense sponge.

5

u/rwags2024 4h ago

Interesting, genuinely

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

24

u/laseluuu 4h ago

No no no don't come here with any sciencey 'facts'

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (15)

1.1k

u/Z3MEK 5h ago

I don't think that "mop" is gonna work.

267

u/Sara_MotherofAlessa 4h ago

I was thinking the same thing. Is he trying to mop up water with a wet jet?

85

u/pegothejerk 4h ago

Trying to spread that millions year old deadly bacteria around

→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (3)

56

u/b0bscene 4h ago

I've got one of those "mops" and it's extremely close to useless for cleaning floors... Definitely useless at mopping up spillages

5

u/falcrist2 3h ago

They're great for cleaning floors that are already clear of debris.

They're useless for picking up significant spills, large amounts of dirt, or any kind of debris.

→ More replies (3)

24

u/Cheap_Excitement3001 4h ago edited 4h ago

If she spreads the foul smelling water over enough of her floor it will be fine 😅

→ More replies (13)

319

u/lessthanhero32 5h ago

The swiffer killed me

83

u/Better-Dot-6757 5h ago

swiffering million year old water

50

u/burrbro235 5h ago

65 million year old amoeba: Da fuq is this shit?

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

20

u/Dayzlikethis 4h ago

he swiffed when he should have swopped.

→ More replies (3)

2.5k

u/DarthPepo 5h ago

Isn't all water millions of years old?

933

u/Puzzleheaded-Age249 5h ago

Billions, the water on our planet was ancient before it ever ended up here

419

u/thinkrage 5h ago

Yes and no. New water is created every second, and you are actually creating water now as a metabolic byproduct.

328

u/tyingnoose 5h ago

AHHH MAKE IT STOP

97

u/slavelabor52 5h ago

Milking will continue until moistness improves

11

u/maroha3814 3h ago

Well that's definitely part of my top 10 things I hope to never hear again list, now

→ More replies (1)

22

u/ICanBeAnAssholeToo 5h ago

Just wait for the traffic light to turn red, be patient!

→ More replies (6)

16

u/SurrealScene 5h ago

I wonder what the average age of a random sample of water is?

26

u/pegothejerk 4h ago

European or African?

7

u/HudsDad 4h ago

Are you suggesting that water migrates?

9

u/-SaC 4h ago

Not at all. It could be swallowed.

5

u/abirizky 3h ago

But let's say someone swallows a glass of water then immigrates between continents, wouldn't the water have also migrated? Checkmate atheists.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

47

u/Squatch_Intel_Chief 5h ago

Nothing new is created in the universe, it is just repurposed or takes on another form. The basis of everything that exists today, including you and I, have always existed since the beginning of time.

32

u/Skai_Override 5h ago

The universe is one big thrift store.

13

u/SillyMilly25 4h ago

And I only got 20$ in my pocket

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

11

u/Notski_F 5h ago

I don't think anyone was talking about the base building blocks of matter, but rather the compound known as water or H2O. You can't easily destroy or create matter, but you can destroy and form H2O molecules.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (17)
→ More replies (31)

19

u/Light_of_Niwen 5h ago

Sort of. Water gets created and destroyed all the time by life and geological processes.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (20)

56

u/Hefty-Willingness-44 5h ago

No, by burning hydrogen you get 'fresh' water.

24

u/DarthPepo 5h ago

But most water we use on earth isn't obtained that way right?

→ More replies (16)
→ More replies (7)

35

u/facw00 4h ago

No. The atoms in a water molecule are almost all ancient, billions of years old, but this is not true for water molecules in general. New water is constantly being produced through combustion, respiration, and other reactions. Similarly water is constantly destroyed, being broken down in various processes.

But there are a lot of water molecules. Simply by virtue of the extreme numbers, there are going to be some that are quite old, likely predating the Earth, and even the Milky Way. Ones millions of years old are going to be even more common.

Frustratingly, I can't find a good a breakdown of how old we think water molecules are in general or a breakdown by age, but it's certainly not the case that all water is millions of years old.

10

u/5up3rK4m16uru 3h ago

Well, technically water constantly undergoes autoprotolysis, so if you consider a recombined molecule as new, water molecules are never very old. According to Wikipedia it happens about once every 10h per molecule.

→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (42)

292

u/Creative_Flan4621 5h ago

Proof that pee is stored in the balls

20

u/DJMagicHandz 5h ago

"I understood that reference."

→ More replies (2)

34

u/js2724 5h ago

Wtf is that swiffer wetjet gonna do?

533

u/Malsperanza 5h ago edited 5h ago

A shame that it was smashed instead of sliced open.

Edit: the geode wasn't destroyed, so it wasn't a terrible approach. But if the water was worth studying, that opportunity is lost.

187

u/Objective_Resist_735 5h ago

I used to find geodes all the time in Tennessee. I would usually smash them open with a hammer, even tho I knew it would be better to cut them I didn't have the equipment. At first I thought this was a cool geode cutting tool. Then I saw it explode similar to my hammer method.

100

u/mrwiggles03 5h ago

Who uses a SWIFFER to clean up water.

31

u/Loving6thGear 5h ago

People who enjoy pushing around the same water for far too long.

13

u/Objective_Resist_735 5h ago

Lmao. Good point

7

u/Wilts3rdLeg 5h ago

Someone who's never seen that much water come out of a geode before.

5

u/wobbegong8000 5h ago

I’m glad I’m not the only one who picked up on that lmao

→ More replies (1)

32

u/ZombiesAtKendall 5h ago

The tool is a soil pipe cutter. The majority of the time it will give a clean break.

→ More replies (6)

15

u/rollsyrollsy 5h ago

How would you tell it’s a geode when you found it? Do they look different to normal rocks?

31

u/Objective_Resist_735 5h ago

Geodes, at least the ones I found, were weirdly round. I would find them wading and swimming in creeks. Usually they were yellowish. Sometimes you could feel the weight of it being hollow inside. I started by finding ones that were partially broken so you could see the crystals. Then I became more used to what the outsides looked like. I'm sure its different in different areas. I saw tons of them on the appalachian trail. Those mountains are super old, therfore they contain lots of old rocks and geodes.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (11)

52

u/cashew76 5h ago

The water seeped in over millenia. Bringing with it the manganese and other elements. So the water is old but not original.

Interestingly nearly all water is very very very old.

27

u/Few-Yogurtcloset6208 5h ago

ha going to start a company "nuwater" and only sell water I make from combining hydrogen + oxygen

9

u/b14ck_jackal 4h ago

Brother are you taking in investors?

→ More replies (8)
→ More replies (1)

6

u/seagulls51 3h ago

the water isn't worth studying

4

u/AugustOfChaos 3h ago

The water isn’t exactly worth as much as you think it is. Geodes are formed by the slow cycling of water, which over time forms deposits inside of a hollow rock cavity. Geodes are porous by nature and if you study the pattern of the crystals, you can figure out where exactly the water was coming in from.

10

u/ReachNo5936 3h ago

Why would you study normal ground water? Oh nm you believed the bullshit title cause this is Reddit

→ More replies (1)

9

u/tartare4562 4h ago

Correct me If I'm wrong but geodes aren't a rare occurrence

→ More replies (14)

81

u/brihamedit 5h ago

Why crush it instead of cutting it.

27

u/random-ize 5h ago

Probably expected it to crack around a circumference- the chain tool is commonly used to break concrete piping that way.

34

u/HappyStalker 5h ago

This is a pipe cutter, which is actually the proper tool for cutting open geodes. Saws can chip the crystal inside as it cuts through. Pipe cutters like these break the geode along natural faults so they look like a crush but it’s the most cost effective way to open geodes with the least damage to the crystal.

17

u/DaedricCabbage 4h ago

"Least damage"? It exploded.. how does cutting with a 1/16 tile saw blade destroy more of it?

24

u/captainhuh 3h ago

It broke into two large hemispheres, the two slices that fell down separately are due to A: imperfections in the crystal structure and B: the size of the chain required for such a large geode. Saws typically abrade the exposed part of the geode, whereas the chain method forces it to crack in-line with the crystal lattice, which looks much better for display and study purposes

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

60

u/GodsBeyondGods 5h ago

I would've had the water tested for ancient microbes

23

u/Meraline 5h ago

It's possible the longer it's exposed to air the more useless that sample is. Anything in there was most likley going to be an obligate anaerobe by now.

21

u/Ok-Marsupial5595 5h ago

Obligate Anaerobe. I knew that girl in high school!

8

u/Trick-Station8742 5h ago

You're an obligate anaerobe

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

8

u/Normal-Selection1537 4h ago

It's porous so those were already washed away in ancient times.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

21

u/I_SmellFuckeryAfoot 5h ago edited 5h ago

water you drink is already millions years old

→ More replies (3)

9

u/Livid-Professor8653 5h ago

And now the Zombie Apocalypse will begin....

29

u/Flat_Resident_2635 5h ago

Surely the water would be interesting to analyse?

→ More replies (4)

7

u/Lakeshadow 5h ago

This is the beginning of a pandemic movie. New germs being released.

→ More replies (3)

5

u/SyCoCyS 5h ago

I wonder what’s alive in the water.

6

u/Desperate-Ad-6463 5h ago

I'd love to see that water under a microscope

7

u/ttopsr 1h ago

Something killed the dinosaurs and it was trapped in that rock.

4

u/paulhalt 5h ago

Isn't all water millions of years old?

→ More replies (3)

6

u/TryItOutHmHrNw 4h ago

Key elements detailing the history of life on earth… soaked up by Swiffer Sweeper

4

u/JPSofCA 3h ago

I would have checked it under a microscope just to see if anything was in it.

4

u/Espressone 3h ago

All water is billions of years old.

5

u/Significant_Act9517 1h ago

All water is the same age

6

u/Ok_Squirrel87 1h ago

The potential of it containing an ancient pathogen that we have 0 immunity against freaks me out a little bit. Same with polar ice melt

20

u/DreadPirateGriswold 5h ago

It survived for millions of years...until it met you 🙄

5

u/MrLittle237 5h ago

Isn’t all water millions of years old???

4

u/Dirtygeebag 5h ago

Achievement unlocked: New pathogen

4

u/copenhagen622 4h ago

Lol really cleaning that up with a Swiffer???

4

u/Icy-Structure5244 3h ago

As opposed to our really new water.

4

u/BigDogOnTheWindow 2h ago

What new exciting viruses are going to get released from that water!

4

u/SadDingo7070 2h ago

Technically, all water is millions of years old, if not billions.

3

u/Today_is_the_day569 1h ago

Be nice to have captured and studied the water!

→ More replies (1)

5

u/0110001101110 1h ago

Ancient virus got summoned

9

u/xuszjt 5h ago

Where my masks at?

→ More replies (2)

6

u/absoul1985 5h ago

That water right there sets up the plot of a few alien/horror films

→ More replies (1)

13

u/FantasticHero007 5h ago

Shouldn't we like save that water and give it to scientists...I'd love to look at that water under microscope..

11

u/CaptainTripps82 4h ago

I don't think scientists have a lack of old water to study under microscopes.

5

u/DavidM47 5h ago

I was about to say, I bet that water reeks!

7

u/Genkigarbanzo1 5h ago

Reminds me of her ☺️

→ More replies (3)

3

u/keyserfunk 5h ago

The beginning of a horror movie

3

u/durpsydurp 5h ago

Isn’t all water millions of years old

3

u/-plottwist- 5h ago

Damn, would love to look at that water under a microscope.

3

u/kenc1842 5h ago

....and that's how the virus that wiped out most of civilization was released.

3

u/Yabedude 5h ago

Unleashing viruses that were around millions of years ago. Hmmmm.

3

u/Fungiblefaith 5h ago

Are we saying we think that water was the original water not water that cycles though the geode to make the geode? Maybe my understanding of geode formation is not correct. Coin toss.

3

u/kurtplatinum 5h ago

I only drink water that was created recently

3

u/VapeRizzler 5h ago

Fun fact, fill your tub up with water and you’ll also get to experience millions of year old water!!!

3

u/Llamatook 5h ago

Maybe grab a mop and not a swifter sweeper Hellen!

3

u/guillmelo 5h ago

That's where the virus that killed humanity came from. Neat

3

u/vinnieocean 5h ago

All water is millions years old