Ancient underwater forest discovered off Norfolk coast

BBC ^ | 26 January 2015 Last updated at 00:28 GMT | Credit: The underwater diving footage is copyright and courtesy of Rob Spray and Dawn Watson

[WhiskeyX]

Nature experts have discovered a remarkable submerged forest thousands of years old under the sea close to the Norfolk coast.

The trees were part of an area known as 'Doggerland' which formed part of a much bigger area before it was flooded by the North Sea.

It was once so vast that hunter-gatherers who lived in the vicinity could have walked to Germany across its land mass.

[meatloaf]

Thousands of years? who knew ancient man kicked off global warming? We need to immediately ban campfires. /sarc

[Smellin Salt]

Damn that ancient man made global warming!!!!

[stonehouse01]

Looks like Noah was onto something.

[KoRn]

/mark

[River Hawk]

What do you know? Many of my ancestors came from Norfolk.

[Blue Collar Christian]

Too bad Obama wasn’t around then to lower sea levels, or those folks’ kids would still be here today instead of being the victims of lower taxes.

[Bigg Red]

Cool.

[blam]

Ice Age World Map
(Notice there's not even a Persian Gulf)

[blam]

"Too bad Obama wasn’t around then to lower sea levels, or those folks’ kids would still be here today instead of being the victims of lower taxes."

Yup. Low sea levels never fed a hungry child.

[gundog]

Hmmmm. Comparing that to a map of the continental shelves only further convinces me that they were once our shorelines. Which leads me to believe, and I do, that we are more likely to see the oceans drop in the distant future, than to rise much.

[SunkenCiv]

• Ancient underwater forest discovered off Norfolk coast [2015]
• 'How Britain's Atlantis' and its tribes were wiped out by a TSUNAMI triggered by a landslide [2014]
• The real flood: Submerged prehistory [2014]
• Biblical-Type Floods Are Real, and They're Absolutely Enormous [2012]
• 'Britain's Atlantis' found at bottom of North sea [2012]
• Mesolithic 'rest stop' found at new Sainsbury's site [2011]
• 'Incredibly exciting' rare pre-Ice Age handaxe discovered on Orkney [2011]
• The moment Britain became an island [2011]
• Stone Age remains are Britain's earliest house [2010]
• Neanderthal man was living in Britain 40,000 years earlier than thought [2010]
• Neanderthal may not be the oldest Dutchman [ 370,000 years B.P. ] [2010]
• How discovery off the Norfolk coast holds the key to Norway's past [2010]
• How a prehistoric 'super river' turned Britain into an island nation [2009]
• 9,000-year-old house reveals Stone Age lifestyle [2009]
• When Did Humans Return After Last Ice Age? (UK) [2009]
• Sea gives up Neanderthal fossil [ dredged up from the North Sea ] [2009]
• Scotland's most ancient home found - at 14,000 years old [2009]
• Last Ice Age happened in less than year say scientists [2008]
• Archaeology: The lost world --- Death in the Mesolithic [2008]
• Paleolithic Handaxes From The North Sea (Neanderthals) [2008]
• Undersea slide set off giant flow [2007]
• Stone Age Site Surfaces After 8,000 Years [2007]
• (For all you NOVA buffs) Megaflood 'made Island Britain' [sharp illustrations] [2007]
• Giant flood separates Britain from Europe [2007]
• Megaflood Created Great Divide Between Britain and France [2007]
• Lost World Warning From (Under) North Sea [2007]
• Mapping an Underwater World [ Neolithic riverscapes ] [2007]
• Dating A Massive Undersea Slide (8,100 Year Ago) [2007]
• Biblical-style flood tore Britain from France [2006]
• Biblical-style flood tore Britain from France : Scientists Claim UK/France Land Mass Once joined. [2006]
• Flood Made Britain An Island 'In 24 Hours' [2006]
• (English) Channel's Key Role In Pre-History [2006]
• Stone Age Elephant Found at Ancient U.K. Hunt Site [2006]
• Tools Unlock Secrets Of Early Man [2005]
• Prehistoric Knives Suggest Humans Competed [2005]
• The Mysterious End Of Essex Man (UK) [2005]
• Archaeologists Excited By 500,000-Year-Old Axe Find In Quarry [2004]
• Stone Age Elephant Remains Found (England, Slain By Humans) [2004]
• Northern sea baffles archaeologists [2004]
• Scientists Discover Lost World (8,000 Years Old) [2004]
• Stone Age Sites Found Under North Sea (8,000BC) [2003]
• Migrants Poured Into Britain After Ice Age [2003]
• UK's Oldest Cemetery Identified [2003]
• Earliest British Cemetery Dated (10,000+ Years) [2003]
• Stone Age Settlements Found Underwater In Britain [2003]
• Giant Wave Hit Ancient Scotland [2001]

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks KoRn.

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks KoRn. Good Digest topic ping, not least because it slipped my mind to do it yesterday. :')

[uglybiker]

who knew ancient man kicked off global warming?

Must've been all those brontosaurus burgers.

[bert]

discovered?

did not we know of submerged lands off the Brit coast already? Is not this some part of the earlier discovery?

[bert]

I have a good friend that lived in Norfolk but he moves back to Marion

[WhiskeyX]

“did not we know of submerged lands off the Brit coast already? Is not this some part of the earlier discovery?”

Of course, it has long been known the British Isles were connected to the European mainland in the earlier periods when the sea levels were lower. The difference in this case was how the remnants of a forest had been buried in the sediments of the sea floor until a recent series of storms removed enough of the sediment for divers to observe this newly re-exposed offshore submerged forest. This find will give researchers an opportunity to collect samples of the wood to be used for reconstruction of the habitat and its biome.

[concentric circles]