Fossilized Tropical Forest Found — in Arctic Norway

This is pretty cool, ATS. I saw this article a couple of days ago but I didn't post it because I thought it was already done on ATS but a search shows that it hasn't so here goes:

Scientists have uncovered a forest in Arctic Norway which used to once be at the Equator proving to me once again that there's still a lot of history to be discovered which is buried....under land, under sand, under ice, and under sea.

Before continental drift carried the forest north by several thousand miles, the forest was growing close to the equator. But Svalbard's forest didn't resemble modern tropical forests. The ancient trees that appeared 380 million years ago were mostly lycopsids, also known as "club mosses." Lycopsids produce leaves with a single vein and reproduce with spores; there are about 1,200 species of lycopsid still alive today.

In Svalbard, lycopsids grew to a height of about 13 feet (4 meters) and would have been tightly packed, with gaps of about 0.7 feet (20 centimeters) between trees. Their trunks would have flared slightly at the bottom, with some holding diamond- or oval-shaped patterns. Trees "scrub" carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by absorbing it through photosynthesis, and forests such as these would likely have absorbed a lot more CO2 than the smaller plant life that previously covered the planet.

In a statement, Berry described the appearance of trees on Earth as "the most likely cause" of the drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide during the Devonian, when CO2 plummeted from about 15 times what it is now, to an amount more like the atmospheric CO2 levels today.

This isn't mind-blowing news but something that I think is important to the ATS community. If this forest was once near the equator but is now near the Arctic that means that there must've been a massive shift that occurred. Could it happen again? I think about this "event" in relation to current events: polar caps melting in some places, growing in others, weather patterns changing, drought in some places, water inundation in others, etc. Things are definitely changing; albeit, not anything that human life can't handle. The change may hit a point where the switch is violent and sudden. In that case, I don't know. What says ATS?

news.yahoo.com...

Yes, the continents hve moved a lot (and still is moving), but it happens slowly, google "continental drift" and you will get your answers, and set your mind at ease if you think it happened overnight.

a reply to: lostbook

It could be that in prehistory, during comet or asteroid events that an impact could have shifted the rotation of earth enough to push the northern European are further north. Of course the output of the sun might have also been different back then as well, or the orbit of the earth might have been marginally closer to the sun. Atmospheric water and CO2 could have been trapping more heat as well.

What I take from this, is buy a few good trees, we don't need no stickin' carbon taxes (if the planet is actually warming and that's still a big chocolate covered turd).

Cheers - Dave

Some continents currently move at 5cm/year. That's 50cm/decade, 5 meters/century, 50 meters/millenia, 50 Km/million years (or 1 Km/20,000 years). Distance from the North pole to the equator is about 6000 miles, so it only takes 6 million years for a point on the Equator to move up the North Pole and visa versa.

At the time, as the continents move around, the Earth's axis also moves around to maintain a center of balance. Also, there have been times when the Earth has been hotter and colder. These are related to the Earth's orbit.

a reply to: lostbook

A scientist Hapgood i think theorised the whole crust can become displaced at the same time causing new polar regions to form. Maybe that is why there are old stories from around the world about stars falling from the sky and great flood..

snf

originally posted by: Hellhound604
Yes, the continents hve moved a lot (and still is moving), but it happens slowly, google "continental drift" and you will get your answers, and set your mind at ease if you think it happened overnight.

Isn't there evidence in the fossil record of a sudden major climactic shift occuring at some point in Earth's history. I heard about that a while ago somewhere.

the continents have moved a lot (and still is moving), but it happens slowly

Well, I guess this rules out the young earth creationism theory!

Where I live, in the Northwest of America, fossils of tropical plants have been found in areas that are mountainous evergreen forests today.

originally posted by: Hellhound604
Yes, the continents hve moved a lot (and still is moving), but it happens slowly, google "continental drift" and you will get your answers, and set your mind at ease if you think it happened overnight.

Actually scientists have different theories. Einstein believed in physical pole shift. Earth is a bucky ball, and when you shift magnetic poles on that, doesn't something happen.

a reply to: lostbook

One does wonder how that might have happened. Like Willy said, "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Great find. F&S&

Reminded me of fungi that grew around the same time (400 odd million years ago).
Thought these may be of interest to the thread (certainly:

(Thread from 2010)
400-Million-Year-Old Mystery: Giant Tree-like Object in Epoch Before Trees Existed

(Thread from last Friday)
Long Before Trees Overtook the Land, Earth Was Covered by Giant Mushrooms

The earth used to be a lot hotter. That's why we had the dinosaurs being so successful, because warmer temperatures made life much more conducive to large reptiles.

Antarctica used to be covered in rainforests, and for a while there were no polar ice caps at all.

Climate change has affected the world throughout its entire history. The problem these days is the unprecedented speed at which it's happening, and like all major climate changes, it's also accompanied by mass extinction.

Still though, it's always cool when something like this is discovered and gives us a better understanding of how our planet evolved throughout the ages. It could even provide insight into the future of our changing climate.

originally posted by: stormcell
Some continents currently move at 5cm/year. That's 50cm/decade, 5 meters/century, 50 meters/millenia, 50 Km/million years (or 1 Km/20,000 years). Distance from the North pole to the equator is about 6000 miles, so it only takes 6 million years for a point on the Equator to move up the North Pole and visa versa.

Your maths are bit squiffy - you're fine up until the end!

50Km/million years (or, as you said, 1Km/20,000 years) would mean it takes 120 Million years to travel 6,000 km from the equator to the pole.

6,000/50 = 120.

EDIT: Oh - for the other chappy, dinosaurs weren't reptiles and it was a higher Oxygen content in the atmosphere that allowed for larger creatures, not the temperature.

It's obviously because of GLOBAL WARMING guys. Now give me all your money so I can fix it!

Not only continental drift, but at some periods in the past the poles themselves were a temperate climate. They weren't iced over under arctic conditions like they are now. In which case the tropical zones would have been considerably bigger too.

a reply to: pauljs75

If that's the case then there's probably a lot of history buried under the ice at the North and South pole(s).

soficrow good to see you still alive and kicking.

I've read/studied a good bit on Pole Shifts, it's a theory I personally subscribe to.
I hate to sound vague, but I recently got to do a little digging into some literature through a now closed 'backdoor' through google into the parent directories of some well known secret societies. I won't post it on ATS, ever, but one of the more interesting things I ran into was a book which discussed some 'unknown cyclic disaster' that befalls us periodically. A Pole shift seems to fit the bill IMO.

Edit:
Thought this was interesting as well...
Secrets of Antarctica's fossilised forests

a reply to: lostbook

The North pole is actually in the Arctic Ocean so nothing to see there but Greenland and the Antarctic have more potential.

However they have been under miles of snow and ice for millennia now so I would imagine most of any remains that were there will have been ground down by glacier action.
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Pole shift has happened many times throughout geological history and will happen again - many say its already underway and point to the movement of the magnetic north pole.

Also as stated above the continents have been moving for millions of years (as far a current science understands) - watched a very interesting documentary the other day on their initial formation around 'cant remember the word' but there were a handful of these 'plates' 1 in S.Africa, 1 in E.Africa, 1 under the Sahara (making Africa the 1st continent) and interestingly these formations are where all the precious metals and gems are to be found. Also one in S.America and can't recall the others. (As an aside the Sahara is therefore literally one of the largest untouched mine site on the planet)

and Twitchy care to pm me about the unknown cyclical disaster (even if it is Niburu related )

a reply to: johnb

No it's not Nibiru related. :-)
I wish I could post a link, but it's a really long story that ended with threats, scary traceroutes, and I'm sure what amounts to a blackballing at any lodge in the world lol.
Here's where it started though,
www.abovetopsecret.com...
To make a long story short, I basically applied the same search parameters and spent about a week gleaning. It's a closed door now, they were closing down as fast as I was downloading, sometimes when I hit the back arrow I'd lterally get a page that said 'Get Out' or a redirect to some terrible pron site.