Underwater forest: Ancient cypress forest buried off Alabama's coast

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
I think another important question to ask would be, "What type of event submerged this forest?"

That's not a mystery at all.

The gulf was one of the main places that the water from the melting North American glaciers of the ice ages went. When they were melting, the Mississipi was enormous, around ~100 miles wide in places.

reply to post by sulaw


This meet the Immanuel Velikosky theories about many upheavals on Earth.
Many more will be discovered.

reply to post by sulaw


I read this and starred it yesterday, there are some submerged forests around the British isles as well though (though it is a bit brisk in our coastal waters).
Thought I would add something that was told to me today by an elderly farmer whom still work's his land and is in his 80's, this elderly gentleman is a typical Lancashire Farmer and not the type to be given overly to flights of imagination so the gentleman told me today that on his farm there are peat beds and while draining one they took over 700 tons of trees from under the peat, He also said that there are trees everywhere under his peat and that of his neighbours and they appear to have all been blown over in the exact same direction but are under several meters of bog, SO a whole forest of trees now buried in recent geological history and a major climate change were the area was much wetter afterwards favouring bog land (Temperate swamps) and peat formation.

Just makes me wonder would a carbon dating provide any correlation to the change in land or sea level were you have found this submerged forest on the other side of the Atlantic.
Of course it is a hypothetical musing as I do not have any further data from this elderly farmer but may ask some of the other local farmers if they have ever encountered such.
This is in west Lancashire Britain In an area that is relatively very low lying and was once before being drained the largest by area fresh water lake in western Europe called martin mere (but the description lake may be wrong as I believe due to the shallow depth it was more an area of fens and broads much like Norfolk, parts of this area are today below sea level but are kept dry by a series of pumps and drainage channels, the pumps that keep this area of rich black soiled farmland dry are at a place called imaginatively the Banks near to Southport (the real and original Southport). Hope this is interesting to add to your fascinating thread.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


I totally agree texan could it have been a "Flood of biblical proportions"? As there are many Ancient ruins being uncovered and found on a day or even yearly basis, at least it feels that way to me.

I feel Olivine brought up a great point and I didn't catch it in the begining. Who the hell was cutting down 2 meter diameter cypress trees 52,000 years ago?

More questions which I would presume stranger answers to arise...

I'm wondering now if these were so well preserved then there must be more, obviously sediment would prevent underwater excavating (I hope I didn't botch that word) I just wonder if sonars could ping objects under that sediment given the right submersible and equipment....

Wow excellent responses and information all around! Thank you everyone and star's for all!

Originally posted by sulaw
reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

 

I feel Olivine brought up a great point and I didn't catch it in the begining. Who the hell was cutting down 2 meter diameter cypress trees 52,000 years ago?

Not trying to be snippy at all here, but weren't there giant beavers in existence back then? Even the ones we have now can decimate a surprising amount of trees.

Originally posted by LABTECH767
Thought I would add something that was told to me today by an elderly farmer whom still work's his land and is in his 80's, this elderly gentleman is a typical Lancashire Farmer and not the type to be given overly to flights of imagination so the gentleman told me today that on his farm there are peat beds and while draining one they took over 700 tons of trees from under the peat, He also said that there are trees everywhere under his peat and that of his neighbours and they appear to have all been blown over in the exact same direction but are under several meters of bog, SO a whole forest of trees now buried in recent geological history and a major climate change were the area was much wetter afterwards favouring bog land (Temperate swamps) and peat formation.

Fascinating. The thing I think of right away is a tsunami, but Lancashire is on the 'wrong' side of Britain, at least for the known tsunamis of the time. Or maybe just for the known tsunamis I know about? Anyways those were primarily affecting the North and East coasts of Britain, being caused by landslides in Norway which were themselves the result of piled up loose earth left over from retreating glaciers. They happened now and then for thousands of years, with the last major one around ~5000BCE IIRC.

Still, it's not the first I've heard of possible tsunami evidence on the 'wrong side' in that part of the world. I'll see if I can find the story I read about from the western coast of Ireland and be back with a link. I think there was a thread here about it even.

Originally posted by aboutface
Not trying to be snippy at all here, but weren't there giant beavers in existence back then? Even the ones we have now can decimate a surprising amount of trees.

Good call dude. Behold...the MEGA BEAVER!! The largest rodent of the ice-age, it was approximately the size of a black bear!

Ok they just call it a giant beaver but come on, mega-fauna, mega beaver...and it sounds cooler, right?