Stone Age Columbus - Questions And Answers

BBC ^ | 8-22-2004 | BBC

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[ForGod'sSake]

Thanks. I have looked a a few of the glaciation min/max maps, and amongst other things, a large part of the Gulf of Mexico was once dry land. The western shelf of Florida and the Yucatan were particularly large chunks. Like some others, I believe much/most of our history is under several hundred feet of water.

FGS

[Fedora]

I've heard of that story but haven't read it yet. I love Howard and Burroughs' work but I'm still working through it. I also have a ton of non-Conan Howard stories and non-Tarzan Burroughs stories, which I've only had time to read about half of so far. I read the first "John Carter of Mars" recently and thought it was one of the best stories I've read in years. Solomon Kane is another of my favorites.

[Fedora]

Darkseid:

I, DARKSEID, AM EVEN LESS AMUSED THAN THANOS! THANOS IS A GIGGLING GIRL COMPARED TO THE UNSMILING, IMMOVABLE COUNENANCE OF DARKSEID! ONLY TOM LANDRY IS MORE STONE-FACED THAN I!

[Fedora]

PS: AND IN CASE YOU'RE WONDERING, DARKSEID DOES KNOW HOW TO SPELL "COUNTENANCE" CORRECTLY, CONTRARY TO THE APPARENT TYPOGRAPHIAL ERROR IN DARKSEID'S LAST POST. DARKSEID MEANT TO DO THAT!

[Sam Cree]

Cool map.
Looks like the Great Bahama Bank, as well as Florida Bay were all dry land. That would screw up the crawfishing for the guys in Spanish Wells, for sure.
I don't see Chesapeake Bay either

[The Scourge of Yazid]

Tom Landry:

Now, where the heck did I put my hat?

[blam]

"a large part of the Gulf of Mexico was once dry land. The western shelf of Florida and the Yucatan were particularly large chunks."

I've gone so far as to speculate that the Gulf Of Mexico was blocked off from the world's oceans during the Ice Age...and, at some point reflooded, like the Black Sea.

[blam]

"I don't see Chesapeake Bay either"

A lot of things are missing. The Persian Gulf, the Red Sea is landlocked and the Mediterranean is blocked in at least two, maybe three places.

Now, some believe the water level was another 200 ft lower. Lots and lots of flooding.

[Sam Cree]

I guess Mobile Bay and Lake Pontchartrain were dry as well;-)

It's easy to imagine Florida Bay as dry, its average depth has to be less than 6 feet, and the Bahama Banks less than 20.

So if the water level was another 200 ft lower, that means more ice?

[blam]

"So if the water level was another 200 ft lower, that means more ice?"

Yup.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[The Scourge of Yazid]

You're welcome!

[ForGod'sSake]

I've gone so far as to speculate that the Gulf Of Mexico was blocked off from the world's oceans during the Ice Age...and, at some point reflooded, like the Black Sea.

I haven't run across a model that would support that notion yet, but I haven't done a whole lot of research on the subject either. Ya never know. I ran across a clean graphic of the Gulf ~18,000 years ago, on the EPA's website of all places:

FGS

[blam]

" I ran across a clean graphic of the Gulf ~18,000 years ago, on the EPA's website of all places:"

I wonder what water depth this was based on?

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

This could only have been written by a landsman with a great deal of ignorance of seamanship.

[ForGod'sSake]

I wonder what water depth this was based on?

GOOD question. I'll see if I can get back to their site for more particulars.

FGS

[ForGod'sSake]

I wonder what water depth this was based on?

It appears their graphic is based on a sea level drop of ~425 feet. Late Pleistocene time period in particular. Have a looksee.

FGS

[edwin hubble]

"Here's a map of the world with the water level reduced by a little over 300 ft."

interesting map.

Australia is still isolated.
Red Sea is a lake.
Gibraltar is open.
Bosporus is closed.
But the map assumes the Black Sea is filled to then-sea level. It might have been dry (or lower) at the time.

[blam]

"It took so much water to form the glaciers that the world sea level fell approximately 140 meters (425 feet). This exposed the flat continental shelves, now covered with water, as dry land. This lowering of sea level has the same effect as raising the land, which caused rivers to begin eroding deep valleys. The Lower Mississippi, Tombigbee-Alabama, and Red River systems formed deep cuts in the existing land surface. As the glaciers melted and sea levels rose again, the valleys were filled with sediment carried by meltwater-swollen rivers."

Very good, thanks. I've read that the Nile River valley must have looked like the Grand Canyon.

I got to thinking about this due to the 'under-water-city' discovered off the west coast of Cuba...it's under 2,200ft of water, too much for subsidence, IMO. I proposed that it was built on the shore of a dessicated Gulf Of Mexico that was later flooded.