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Money pit or sinkhole? Retired geologist digs up Oak Island's history
CBC ^

Posted on 05/17/2020 11:50:26 AM PDT by BenLurkin

The bedrock under the east side of Oak Island, where the money pit is located, is made up of Windsor Group limestone and gypsum.

"Given the right conditions, such as temperature, pressure, poor fluid composition, quite often these minerals, especially gypsum, they're prone to dissolution," Aitken said.

What you're left with is essentially a cavity in the bedrock, or a kind of cave. At the money pit, Aitken said the geological evidence suggests the roof of the cave collapsed.

He said there are also other sinkholes nearby, which further shows the so-called tunnels and pits are not engineered, as the show suggests.

"These are not man made. They are naturally formed features, they take sometimes thousands to even millions of years to form," he said.

But Aitken said while mystery hunters have been looking for buried treasure, they've missed the real riches.

"To me personally, the treasure on Oak Island has already been found in the form of archeological artifacts that have been discovered," Aitken said

(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: oakisland
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To: faucetman

I thought the original premise as to why go to Oak Island was that Captain Kidd buried treasure there.


41 posted on 05/17/2020 2:03:50 PM PDT by Reily
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To: Pete Dovgan

“We have a Roman ship wreck off shore. Complete with sword and Roman pillae that have been found. Romans in Newfoundland would be far earlier than Vikings.”

That whole situation was found to be a hoax and the banished the guy who brought it up from the island. The Pulitzer guy. He was trying to scam them and got caught.

Anyone who watches Oak Island just for the treasure is totally missing the point.


42 posted on 05/17/2020 2:07:53 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: BenLurkin

The story has interested me, but I hate to watch and quit watching it. It drags, scenes repeat after a commercial, and repeat again at the start of each session; and too much blah blah blah, and within a half hour there is maybe five minutes total of anything important. If a whole season was edited and condensed you could tell all that was important for a whole season in one one-hour show, with commercials.


43 posted on 05/17/2020 2:29:52 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: beethovenfan

I read a book about it - complete snooze. It’s basically a couple of neighbors fighting over property lines.


44 posted on 05/17/2020 2:32:21 PM PDT by HonkyTonkMan
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To: jmacusa

had internal combustion machines to do the digging and pumps to pump out the water.

```
just wrong. the techniques of subsurface mining have been known for thousands of years. Even so called ‘cave men’ had deep mines. internal combustion machines and pumps are just modern labor saving devices doing what people did by hand and some times using animals to work the pumps.

Why so you imagine the blew all their money on booze and women? Because that’s what they did in the movies? You really are lacking in the history department. Spend some time at the library, please; there are lots of biographies and historical accounts from that time on pirates and on mining as well.


45 posted on 05/17/2020 2:32:32 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: BenLurkin
Given the right conditions, such as temperature, pressure, poor fluid composition, quite often these minerals, especially gypsum, they're prone to dissolution," Aitken said.

The peeples chase easy money, they git prone to dissolution, then it gypsum!

46 posted on 05/17/2020 2:40:14 PM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: BenLurkin
I like that show.

Me, too. I've been watching it since the first season.

The most interesting discovery they made this season was the Loonie that one of the brothers dropped into one hole, and a year later they found it in another hole 15 feet away.

The implication is that, as this article points out, the underground geology of the island is extremely unstable.

The drilling company decided to stop when they found they were probably sitting on a large underground cavern and didn't want to risk a cave-in and lose their rig.

We'll see next season if the team decides to proceed with the 'big dig,' a 100-foot wide, 200-foot deep hole.

47 posted on 05/17/2020 2:59:36 PM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard., -- Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4)
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker

I like that show too, but what cracks me up is the narrator. Every time something is found, he says something like: “A spoon? Found in three feet of dirt? Could this be what the Knights Templar used to bury Shakespeares transcripts?”


48 posted on 05/17/2020 3:17:52 PM PDT by sgt_lau (Being tolerant to the most intolerant people on the planet is a losing proposition. Reject islam.)
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To: Reily

The Oak Island swamp was man made.

It is common on FR to comment before reading articles.
The carry over is commenting on show content without seeing the show.


49 posted on 05/17/2020 3:23:32 PM PDT by Cold Heart (.)
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To: Fresh Wind
Isn’t there a curse of some sort that says that one more searcher will have to die before the treasure can be found?

According to legend, seven searchers must die before the treasure would be found. Up until the show, six had died, leaving one more to die.

Since the show has started, three people directly connected to the treasure hunt have died:

1) Matt Chisholm. (Died while attempting to retrieve an old Masonic map of the island)
2) Craig Tester's son, Drake Begley. (Died in 2017 of a seizure disorder)
3) Dan Blankenship. (2019)

Drake died of medical issues, and Dan died of old age.

Matt's death is the only one clouded in mystery. Very little information is available about the circumstances surrounding his death.

50 posted on 05/17/2020 3:56:28 PM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard., -- Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4)
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To: Cold Heart

If you says so.


51 posted on 05/17/2020 3:58:30 PM PDT by Reily
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To: sgt_lau
I like that show too, but what cracks me up is the narrator. Every time something is found, he says something like: “A spoon? Found in three feet of dirt? Could this be what the Knights Templar used to bury Shakespeares transcripts?”

Yeah. His commentary reminds me of the Alien dude: "Is such a thing possible? I believe it is..." Ugh!

I usually record the show and watch it later so I can fast-forward through all that junk.

52 posted on 05/17/2020 3:58:48 PM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard., -- Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4)
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To: BenLurkin

And nature lined the caves with timbers, put human bones in them, English pottery, book binding material, digging tools too ... huh?


53 posted on 05/17/2020 5:46:03 PM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: logi_cal869

The funniest outcome: at the end of the Big Dig they find a bronze placard left by Francis Bacon detailing a bet he had with Shakespeare about who could play the best practical joke of all time. Bacon, with his treasure pit, won.


54 posted on 05/17/2020 5:50:41 PM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: Rurudyne

The curse of Joke Island?


55 posted on 05/17/2020 8:55:25 PM PDT by Eddie01
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To: logi_cal869

Actually “treasure-wise” and if you paid attention to the show, there have been quite a few things found such as coins and gemstone jewelry dating back to the 1700’s. There have also been more than one pre-1700’s crosses found although made mostly of iron, these are considered valuable and a treasure seekers find of a lifetime. The author is right the real value of this treasure hunt lies not in the treasure but the history that has been divulged searching for the treasure. While some claim it is an “entertainment” show. I don’t disagree with that statement, it has a lot more to do with pre-American history that a lot of people think the only history of this continent started just before the Revolutionary war (except the 1619 debate). There is a lot more history going on than taught in schools these days about the North American continent. I watch the show for the history involved rather than if they find a treasure. Some history that has been tied to Oak Island involves the Templars, the Vikings, the French, the Spaniards and more. It is more of a revealing history show than an entertainment show. I hope they do find the treasure but if not there has been a lot of history that has been revealed that was only speculative until now. Keep the show going and there will be naysayers about anything these days. Pay them no mind, it is about people using their money for what they want to do with it and every now and then the Government of Canada does have their say with permits.

As to the treasure has been long ago found there is some basis of truth here with the former slave who became very rich by the time he died and one of the biggest land owners in the area.

As to evidence of human subsurface construction, they have the coconut fibers, the clay pit and the structures they found in the cove. When they put the round pipe down near the moeny pit, they found timbers with roman numerals on them that matched the roman numerals in the cove. The revelation of the tooney found again did bring to a head that the money pit moved and is probably now deeper tha n what was believed. That was a worthwhile find even though the tooney was a modern coin but tossed down by one of the brothers.

The show has both entertainment value as being a thriller-mystery but adds to the overall value in global history through the finds found on the Island. For example the treasure might have been used to fund the American Revolutionary war at one point. Who knows? Let the brothers and the fellowship of the dig spend their money how they want because after all, it is their money and we have no business telling them how to spend it. Haters will always hate. Ignore them.


56 posted on 05/17/2020 9:07:03 PM PDT by zaxtres
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

“I remember reading about the Oak Island “treasure” sixty four years ago.”

Maybe it’s been that long that it was written up in Reader’s Digest. We had a stack of them at the family cabin/shack. On rainy days they were my go-to entertainment. Of course as a young boy I was enthralled with the story about Oak Island.

Just like the guy on the show that is exploring it fell in love with it after reading the article as a boy.


57 posted on 05/17/2020 9:11:42 PM PDT by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful!)
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To: cpdiii

First, a common navigation tactic was sail up the coast of North America before heading towards England because of the currents and winds. Second, the theory is that it could have been from a Spanish fleet. Third and the most plausible theory is that the treasure buried was from a fort from the north and to keep it from the enemy took it to the island and buried it. The reason this theory holds is from the episode they ventured to the fort and found architecture used at the fort used on the island. The swamp is turning out to be man made after all and how the legends went. While it may be true that it was not Pirate booty, but the island was used as cover to hide somethign very valueable.


58 posted on 05/17/2020 9:12:23 PM PDT by zaxtres
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To: Reily

The previous poster was referring to how the swamp was made by man before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. There is a lot of evidence pointing to the Templars sailing to North America long before good ole Chris did.

The people that landed on Hawaii before Captain Cook, are said to be people from South America that “canoed” all the way there. How did the people get to Easter Island? Speaking of South America, a lot of information is being uncovered there as well that has changed what people believe about the Aztecs and Incas and others. Seriously and highly unlikely there is fraud going on with this show given the searcher history with Oak Island.

However they have never done the satellite scan to find metals beneath the soil. Why? This was highlighted in the WWII treasure hunt just recently but I have never heard the Oak Island crew use it. It would be helpful. This satellite tech has been used on the Skinwalker show and the WWII show and some others. This is not to be confused with LIDAR.


59 posted on 05/17/2020 9:23:02 PM PDT by zaxtres
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To: Wuli

You had to get past the narrator in the first couple of seasons when they found something and the narrator posited questions to the audience. At the end of his question the pitch in his voice would rise to the almost borderline screeching. I almost stopped watching because of that alone. They must have said something to him because he no longer raises the pitch in his voice like he did in the beginning. The narrator, don’t know his name, is featured in other shows but Capt. kirk formerly of the Enterprise is vying for a spot to do the narration.


60 posted on 05/17/2020 9:27:52 PM PDT by zaxtres
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