Posted on 02/23/2002 2:33:42 PM PST by blam
After brief discussion of your notes we have a few ideas:
Any channels entering the Gulf of Mexico should have created either alluvial planes or scouring on the bottom of the Gulf.
If the level of the Gulf was maintained for an extended period of time then evidence should exist to verify it. Possible evidence would include layers of salt and/or fresh water organisms.
Drilling cores would be possible source of evidence.
You do know that "civilised" is incorrectly spelled, right?
It's spelled "civilized", moron!
Are you a recent graduate from a government "ska-ule"?
Dummed Down?
If you don't have anything to contribute then get the flock out of Dodge.
Creative spelling?
One guy thinks he has some evidence of this scouring, don't know the details. I agree that some core samples would/could/should clear this up fairly easily. I was also thinking that a reduced water level Gulf would have increased salinity, boating would be much easier, huh?
Chambers is a dictionary published by the Univ of Cambridge. Either spelling is acceptable. -ise might adumbrate cosmopolitan contact with other cultures.
I wrote a short paper a couple of years ago about depositional patterns along the Sigbee Escarpement (on your map, it is the underwater "ridge" seen in the north part of the remaining Gulf of Mexico. I interpreted quite a bit of 3-D seismic as part of the project. On the shelf, the stratigraphy is very complex, and unconformity-bounded sequences are plentiful. Even in the area of the deepwater Gulf of Mexico that presumably has never been completely dry, the lack of well control complicates the interpretation. From what I have seen, I have doubts about "sea levels" being much more than 500 feet below present day sea level in the past 2 million years. There have been several glacials and interglacials during that time, and sea level has fluctuated significantly. I would be interested to read the articles that suggest archeological sites at 2000 feet below present sea level.
When sea level is eustatically low, the stratigraphic record in the Gulf of Mexico records an greatly increased influx of sedimentation. This is due, in part, to increased erosion caused by the increased differential between the highstanding land and the ocean lowstand (nature abhors a vaccuum, and constantly tries to tear down the high points and fill up the low points).
Another factor to consider is that when continental ice sheets form, the weather patterns are changed. In the last glacial stage, the dry "horse latitudes" moved south toward the equator. As the ice age waned, they moved back to the north. This means that some areas which are very wet today, were relatively dry 20,000 years ago, and visa-versa. I frankly don't know how this affected rainfall patterns over continental North America, Central America, and northern South America. It just means that some of your speculative assumptions could be considerabley off - but I am not knocking you for the effort! I am just saying that there is a high degree of uncertainty involved.
Thanks again for your thought-provoking post.
It looks like a simple water reduction of 360 feet worldwide. It does not comprehend the effect of continued drying of the land locked bodies of water, like the Red Sea. The Red Sea may, in fact, have been little more than a 'reed sea' in that period and was 're-opened' during the Thera explosion and the Exodus, worthy of the hand of God, huh?
The 2,000 foot reduction was a theory of mine to explain the 'underwater city' ( not verified ) off the coast of Cuba. Maybe it was built on the shoreline of a reduced water level Gulf Of Mexico, 2,000+ feet seems like a bit to much for subsidence.
I agree. I have read that one guy compares the Nile Vally to the Grand Canyon during the Ice Age due to this 'lower water level effect' that must have created deep canyons way back up past Cairo on the Nile. This all occurred in human history and may be recorded somewhere.(?)
I have some 7,000 year old wood that came from the Santa Rosa Sound Florida that was 'high and dry' at that time. I just wonder why it was suddenly flooded 7,000 years ago if the Gulf Of Mexico was not 'dammed' to some degree, or totally. BTY, all the calculations in post #42 were done by a friend of my son, not me.
On an aside note, for most of the population, that "civilization" thing didn't necessarily work out so great till fairly recently. When settled societies first began, we went from having high protein diets and an incredible amount of mobility and free time (hunter/gatherers) to a life of subsistence agriculture featuring meagre rations and ceaseless stoop labor.
I wonder if anyone has theorized about the legend of the loss of the "Garden of Eden" being somehow rooted in that fateful switch??
A lot of things were going on during that period as the Ice Age was ending (winding down), no doubt a lot of climate/weather changes, ocean current changes and flooding everywhere. I would also expect an increase in volcanic activity because of the 'weight' changes from all the ice melt. Many areas of the world are still rising from the relief from the weight of the miles thick ice.
Yes, but at least with agriculture, an ancient Mesopotamian farmer could come home to his double-wide hut and relax with a nice jar of beer!
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