Sunken treasure [ancient forest buried under the seabed of Nantucket Sound]

Boston Globe ^ | 4 Dec 05 | Beth Daley,

[Fractal Trader]

Scientists mapping the seabed under a proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound were stunned by their find: evidence of a submerged forest under 6 feet of mud.

It's hardly the lost city of Atlantis, but the piece of birch wood, the yellowish-green grass, soil, and insect parts appear to be part of a forest floor that lined the coastline 5,500 years ago, before being swallowed by the sea that rose after the last ice age. Nearby is evidence of a drowned kettle pond and marsh.

The find has scientists abuzz because if a preserved forest rests below the sea, maybe artifacts from ancient cultures do, too -- items that could help answer some of the most vexing questions about early people in North America. As more energy projects are proposed off New England, archaeologists say, there will be more opportunity for even bigger finds.

''We've been arguing for years whether there are remnant prehistoric landscapes out there and now we know they can exist," said Victor Mastone, director and chief archaeologist of the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources. ''This means there is the potential to go after the big theory of how did people get here and how they lived."

Cape Wind Associates, which has proposed the wind farm, redesigned the 130-turbine project this year to avoid the discovered area.

So much of the world's water was locked up in glaciers during the ice age, ocean levels plummeted at least 300 feet. New England's continental shelf was exposed and in some places, the coastline extended more than 75 miles from its current location.

[SNIP]

The earliest evidence of Native Americans in New England has come from around this time -- a period when hunters could have walked from Falmouth to Nantucket.

[Vicomte13]

The picture didn't come through.
I presume it's either an icy plain, or some beautiful meadow.

[SunkenCiv]

Forests Frozen In Time
Science Frontiers (#51) | May-Jun 1987 | William R. Corliss
Posted on 01/15/2005 3:53:29 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1321587/posts

[SunkenCiv]

from December 2005.

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