[blam]

Here is what the worlds oceans looked like after a decrease in water level of 360 feet. Underwater Map Of The World

[maro]

That's a great map.

[capitan_refugio]

Sorry I didn't reply back on this thread sooner. Your figure of about -360 feet (110 meters) is pretty good for the eustatic low about 20,000 years ago (the height of the last ice age). Of course, on your map modification you wiped out the Caspian Sea (a land-locked body of water!) and you don't account for the depression of the land under the continental ice sheets that existed then. Still, a very interesting and enlightening map! Thanks!

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.

[headsonpikes]

Just checked out your fascinating map link in #21.

Most interesting.