Access Denied ghv087 AMY SMITH'S ATLANTIS (The ASA Theory)
Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!
Amy Smith's Atlantis
(THE A.S.A. THEORY)
12 Degree Earth Axis Tilt in 10,000 B.C. Ended Ice Age
Many Images--Allow To Load Before Proceding

TILT THEORY SUPPORT
10,000 B.C.
LAKE AGASSIZ
ICE AGE TERMINOLOGY
THE SHORT OF IT
THE RIVER WARREN
MELT WATER PULSE 1-A
IMAGE GALLERY
YOUNGER DRYAS
BARBADOS ACCRETIONARY PRISM
ELASTIC MAGMA REBOUND
E PUR SI MUOVE
GULF STREAM
ICE AGE SOCIETY
ICE AGE ARTISTIC WORKS
ICE AGE CREATURES
JUST THE SCIENCE
MOSES, THE JOSEPHUS SOLUTION
PLEASE SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK

"The story has the fashion of a legend, but the truth of it lies in the occurrence of a shifting of the bodies of the heaven, which move round the earth"

"Dialogues of Plato"

65-1"And in those days Noah saw the earth had tilted and that it's destruction was near."

"The Book Of Noah(Enoch)"

AN ODD CHOICE OF WORDS

Some of the readers of this article may follow either Biblical style writings or Greek philosophers. I am not attempting to convert anyone to either system of beliefs. Your beliefs are your own. I am attempting to express the ideas put forth by these writings only for any historical value they may present. By accepting these writings only for their historical content, I will attempt to follow the events that could have brought about this tilt, as well as the events that would have occured due to a Tilting of the Earth. My reason for referring to these two writings is because they are the only two ancient text that directly refer to the Earth as having Tilted.

It seems obvious to me that the author of 'The Book of Noah' considered the Earth to be a movable object within the universe because it could be tilted --
'And in those days Noah saw the Earth had tilted.'

Plato appeared to have a different view. His choice of words indicate his view of the Earth.
"A shifting of the bodies of the heaven, which move round the earth".
He did not say the earth tilted, but the effect was the same. His choice of words leads me to believe he considered the earth was the stationary center of the Cosmos.

Plato's description of ice age Atlantis is that it was 321 miles long, 223 miles wide and rectangular in shape.(Converted from the Stadium Measurement used by Plato) The ocean approach to Atlantis was high cliffs all along it's coast. It was washed away in one night in an incredible flood. It disappeared beneath the sea in 10,000 B.C. after a series of earthquakes and possible volcanic activity.

The area covered in this writing is the Caribbean Basin. The Caribbean Basin sits on the "slab" of the Puerto Rico Trench. The Pacific side is bordered by the Mid America trench. This area was born of Earthquakes and Volcanos. An earthquake there was and is an absolute Certainty.
Plato's description of Atlantis would easily match the area of the Caribbean Basin or the Bahama Islands region. The location and time of destruction coincide perfectly with Plato's writing. There is no other place on Earth that is any better matched for the Atlantis described by Plato than the Caribbean Basin or the Bahamas.


This Atlantis site was constructed to include the only two known references to the Earth having Tilted,
The Book of Noah(Enoch) and Plato's Atlantis
There is also a reference to Genesis on this site.

The writings of Plato and the Book of Noah(Enoch) say the Earth tilted. But how could a body as massive as the Earth possibly Tilt? Is there any scientific support for their claims!
Below are a few statements by individual scientist and scientific institutions about the possibility of an Earth Axis tilt. Links are provided to credit their work and for further study.


Tilt Theory Support

TRUE POLAR WANDER

True Polar Wander is based on the physics of a spinning Sphere. If a sphere such as a ball is spinning and you drip a drop of water onto it halfway between the equator and the axis, centrifugal force will pull the drop of water towards the center or the equator of the sphere.
This was exactly the condition of the Earth during the Ice Age over North America. Only the Ice mass was solid and too heavy to move without tugging the Earths sphere along with it. The centrifugal force produced by the spinning Earth pulled the ice mass towards the equator, the ice mass tugged the Earth along with it. The Earth began to TILT. As the ice mass became exposed to more direct sunlight it melted. Thus ended the Ice Age.
Read the linked article from Science Daily for more detail on this:
>
SCIENCE DAILY


Here is another one from:
David R. Cook Atmospheric Research Section Environmental
Research Division Argonne National Laboratory.
Here is his answer to the question he was asked about how
the Earth tilted to it's present 23.5 degree.It is posted in the:

Environmental Earth Science Archive
The question he was asked is - What causes the tilt of the Earth's axis? Is it the result of the sun's and moon's gravity and why is it 23.5 degrees?

"The locations and gravity of the other planets, the Sun, and the Moon may have had some effect on the tilt of the Earth. However, a recent theory says that the shape of the Earth has had more of an effect on the tilt angle in the past. The shape may have been sufficiently altered by the massive ice sheets that have formed during ice ages to cause a change in the tilt."

Take a rubber ball and and put a dot on it with a marker. Let this dot represent the North Pole or Axis of the ball. Spin the ball with the dot at the top. If the ball is balanced, the dot will remain at the top.
Now place a weight near the top of the ball to represent the North American Glacier during the Ice Age. When you spin the ball again, it will tilt and lean because of the weight.

to read more on this you can find this article at: Ask A Scientist

======================================================
Here is one from the:
Department of Physics at the University of Illinois.

"The Earth has not always rotated at 23.5 degrees. Many factors effect the angle of Earth's tilt. The motion of large air masses can change its tilt by measurable amounts even today. During the major Ice Ages, large sheets of ice on Earth�s surface and lowered sea level may have caused the Earth to have an even larger tilt."
You can find this article at: University of Illinois

The above is one of the most profound statements in this entire webpage. If a mass of "AIR" can alter the tilt of the Earth, is it that difficult to believe that an elevated continent of Ice could do it?



Here is one from Penn. State University
A group of Geologist and other scientist backed by The National Science Foundation ran models of todays Earth, named Present Earth, with different tilt angles from 50 degrees to zero degree tilt. The following is the result of present Earth And zero degree tilt Earth:

"The researchers also ran some of the model Earths with zero tilt. "Present Earth is one of the most uninhabitable planets that we have simulated" says Williams. "Approximately 8.7 percent of the Earth's surface is colder than 14 degrees Fahrenheit on average, and this percentage peaks at 13.2 percent in February owing to the large landmasses at high latitude covered by snow.
The only planets colder than today's Earth are those simulated with no tilt."

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY
The National Science Foundation supported this work.

It seems an Earth with no tilt is very cold indeed. Both it's polar regions would seem more likely to suffer an Ice Age. Just a thought.


Today many Scientist are saying that, due to the effects of Global Warming, the Antartic and Greenland ice sheets are melting. They say that this will raise the sea levels of the worlds oceans. They also say that these raised sea levels could alter the balance of the Earth and cause it to "TILT". Below are a couple of links to these sites.

Scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California are now saying that as the Ice sheets of the Polar regions melts due to Global warming, the increase in sea level could adversly effect the spin/tilt ratio of the Earth Axis Tilt?
NEW SCIENTIST

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
"Geophysicists at the University of Toronto looked at the possible effects on the earth if sea levels rise because of a collapse of the west Antarctic ice shelf. The Toronto researchers say the melting of the ice sheet will actually cause the earth's rotation to shift dramatically"


It seems even an earthquake can tilt the Earth.
NASA scientist are now saying the 8.8 Chile earthquake may have shifted earth’s axis and shortened the days

"Any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's rotation," Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said while explaining the phenomenon in 2005."
"The magnitude 9.1 earthquake in 2004 that generated a killer tsunami in the Indian Ocean shortened the length of days by 6.8 microseconds."
"On the other hand, the length of a day also can increase. For example, if the Three Gorges reservoir in China were filled, it would hold 10 trillion gallons (40 cubic kilometers) of water. The shift of mass would lengthen days by 0.06 microsecond, scientists said."

CNN NEWS REPORT

AOL News Article -- Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab stated: "The Earth right now is rebounding due to the melting of ice from the last ice age," Gross says. Those masses of ice effectively weighed down the surface of the planet, deforming it. As they melted, the mass of the Earth was redistributed, and the Earth isn't quite done settling down. Since 1900 alone, the figure axis has shifted about 33 feet relative to the North Pole -- far more than the effects from the recent quake.


Another Cause Of The Tilt

The sea-level records derived from the Gulf of Mexico, along with pleistocene coral formations from the Island of Barbados in the south Caribbean, are as much as 35 meters(114ft) lower than global sea level records 15,000 yrs. ago.
This is due to the fact that a large portion of the western hemisphere, from mid North America to Barbados, was affected by significant isostatic uplift (due to the weight of the ice load in upper North America)

As the Ice Sheet pressed down the northern area as much as 3,000 ft., the depressed magma within the Earth was displaced and pushed south into the Gulf/Caribbean area forcing a rise in surface area there.

There was a bulge in the Earths surface along this area. This lifted the crust of the Earth from an area just above the Gulf to just below the Caribbean by as much as 35 meters(114ft). This is the reason why Ice Age sea level readings from these areas show a significantly lower sea level than the readings from the rest of the worlds oceans. The crust of these areas was lifted up above it's present elevation.

We've said all that to say this, the bulge in the Earth's crust added yet another weight displacement to the Earth. This displacement, along with the massive displacement caused by the Ice Sheet, increased the lopsided forces tugging the spinning Earth out of it's more upright position, thus causing the Earth to tilt. .


AN UNRELATED EVENT?
"The magnetic north pole had moved little from the time scientists first located it in 1831. Then in 1904, the pole began shifting northeastward at a steady pace of about 9 miles (15 kilometers) a year.
In 1989 it sped up again, and in 2007 scientists confirmed that the pole is now galloping toward Siberia at 34 to 37 miles (55 to 60 kilometers) a year."

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS

"Earth's magnetic field is changing in other ways, too: Compass needles in Africa, for instance, are drifting about 1 degree per decade. And globally the magnetic field has weakened 10% since the 19th century. The magnetic field waxes and wanes, poles drift and, occasionally, flip. North becomrs South, South nbecomes North.
Reversals take a few thousand years to complete, and during that time--contrary to popular belief--the magnetic field does not vanish. "It just gets more complicated," says Glatzmaier. Magnetic lines of force near Earth's surface become twisted and tangled, and magnetic poles pop up in unaccustomed places. A south magnetic pole might emerge over Africa, for instance, or a north pole over Tahiti. Weird. But it's still a planetary magnetic field, and it still protects us from space radiation and solar storms."

NASA Website


IMAGE CREDIT- NASA

Some weather related authorities believe this changing magnetic field could alter weather patterns by affecting electricly charged thunderstroms, and even hurricanes. Dry areas could become wet and vice versa. If this happens it could alter food production in parts of the world and lead to a food crisis for many.

Back To Top



ICE AGE EARTH

The Earth 10,000 B.C.

The Ice Age is in retreat. The meltoff water flows from the 3,000 mile long, 4,000 mile wide Canadian, North American Glacier. This Glacier is as much as two miles thick even down to the area that is Chicago today. This entire portion of North America was buried under one super thick sheet of ice. Canada looked like Antarctica does today. It would be easier to cross the Greenland Ice Cap today than it would have been to cross Illinois then. The vast blanket of ice buried most of the mountains of New England, and was as much as ten thousand feet thick in parts of Ohio. The weight of this ice compressed the land beneath it as much as 3,000 feet lower than it is today. This massive ice pack had absorbed so much of the Earth's water that the sea level's were as much as 300 to 500 feet below today's sea level.
On the Russian side the area of Siberia was a green land full of wildlife. There were no 10,000 ft. thick Ice Sheets there. The vast amount of ice was in the Western Hemisphere.

That two mile thick, elevated ocean of ice over the North American continent not only moved because of it's own weight and centrifucal force. Just as the moon today draws the oceans towards it with it's gravity creating the tides, it would also have drawn this ocean of ice. When aligned with the sun, the combined gravitational pull of Sun and Moon would have been a large factor in the tilt of the Earth at the end of the Ice Age.
Another factor was the oceans were as much as 300 to 500 ft lower than today (Depending on who's estimates you use) which also altered the weight dynamics. If the Earth Tilted as Plato and Noah described, it would have required all of these factors to come together at the right moment to cause the present tilt of the Earth.

Did the earth actually tilt as Plato and The Book of Noah state? Or was this the only way they had of explaining the dramatic worldwide climate reversal spoken of by the ancients. That question is for you to answer for yourself.
The point is, no matter how the Ice Age ended, we know it ended quite suddenly. The question then is, "Where did all that water go?"


The sudden retreat of the Ice Age due to a tilting Earth which exposed the Ice Sheet to more direct sunlight was causing a quick meltdown of the Glacial Ice Sheet over North America. The water from this rapidly melting ice was creating giant Reservoir Lakes which over ran the Mississippi River Valley and raised the water level of the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River Valley is a hundred twenty miles miles wide and stretches from Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. That's 600 miles in length and 35,000 square miles of area. This melt off water from the Mississippi River Valley was backing up in the Gulf and turning it into an upland sea.

A partial, narrow land bridge of Islands between Yucatan and Cuba was limiting the southern discharge of the Gulf into the northern Caribbean. The eastern exit of the Gulf, into the Atlantic through the Florida Straits, was restricted by the Bahama Mega Bank.

The Gulf was fed by the Mississippi River. This river was a raging torrent from the melting Glacier to the Gulf.
The water flooding in from the glacial meltoff was much more than was flowing out through the smaller Florida Cuba and Yucatan Cuba openings. As the water backed up in the Gulf, it began flowing over the flat low lying Yucatan Peninsula and eroded down the north eastern corner of Yucatan and caused the collapse of the western tip of Cuba. These two areas were much more pronounced then than they are today.

The water from this rapidly melting ice was creating giant Reservoir Lakes which over ran the Mississippi River Valley and raised the water level of the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River Valley is a hundred twenty miles wide and stretches from Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. That's 600 miles in length and 35,000 square miles of area. This melt off water from the Mississippi River Valley was backing up in the Gulf and turning it into an upland sea. This Valley was carved out by Ice Age flooding.


Fluid Mechanics At Work
An image of Mississippi Valley carved by Ice Age flooding
The above map is modified from an original,
COPYRIGHT by Andrew Birrell and Ray Sterner.


HOW WIDE WAS THE MISSISSIPPI?
First examine how wide the Amazon River can be.

"At its widest point the Amazon river gets about 6.8miles (11km) in the dry season but in the rainy season when it floods, it can reach 24.8 miles at it's widest point."

The Amazon River can be 25 miles wide in todays climate. During the sudden climatic collapse and the massive ice sheet meltdown at the end of the Ice Age, the Mississippi River far exceeded the Amazon as the worlds largest river.

Evidence of a rapid increase in global temperatures and sudden meltdown of the ice sheet is turning up all over the world.


6 to 7 degree Celsius increase in temperatures in less than 3 years

"the discovery by Danish scientists a few years ago that the last ice age ended with astonishing rapidity. Britain's icy desolation ended abruptly 14,700 years ago when there was a dramatic leap in temperatures across the globe according to ice-cores found in Greenland and lake sediments in Germany. In less than three years, temperatures had soared by around 6 to 7 degrees Celsius ice sheets began a rapid retreat throughout the world."
(a rise of 7 degrees Celsius is a rise of 12.6 degrees Fahrenheit)

To gain a better understanding of the amount of water the Ice Age Glacier was pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, here is a quote from the
St. Paul District Army Corps of Engineers

"Melting ice sheets released vast amounts of water that flooded the Mississippi Valley. These floods scoured the valley from the bluff to bluff, spilling meltwater miles back into tributary valleys".



The above image demonstrates the Drainage of the Mississippi. The area covers 1,245,000 square miles or about 40% of America. During the Ice Age, the Mississippi also drained incredible amounts of water from the melting ice in Canada as well as that in America. The area of Chicago was under a two mile thick sheet of ice. That ice sheet stretched back thru all of Canada, which looked like Antarctica does today.

When most people think of an Ice Age Megaflood, they only consider the run off of melt water from the melting ice. What is not considered is the fact that the North American Glacier was so massive that it created it's own weather. The run off of ground water was one thing. However, there was an equally incredible amount of water vapor being released into the atmosphere. As the Earths temperature warmed, the ice sheet melted at an astonishing rate.

" In fact, an ice sheet of this scale would have probably made its own local weather. Sudden cooling of warm, moist masses of Gulf air encountering the cold ice sheet would have created torrential summer rains and near-constant "glacier-effect" snow in winter." Indiana Geological Survey

There was an almost incessant fog and raining from this vapor. Torrential rain fell over the entire Mississippi Drainage area, including the ice age glacier itself (see above Image). This rain began to dissolve the ice pack. This produced an unbelievable amount of run off into the Mississippi Valley and kept the Mississippi River flowing with astonishing power.

"Annually, the Mississippi River discharges about 133 cubic miles of water (approximately 640,000 cubic feet per second)." - Answers.com

"As the glaciers receded, runoff increased to five times the volume of today’s rivers and streams."
The Natural Environment

Thats five Mississippi Rivers. And thats on an average year. A year of high discharge could easely double that. During the Ice Age, a year of high discharge could swell the Mississippi to ten times it's present size.
10x640,000 cubic feet per second=6,400,000 cubic feet per second -- Thats a lot of water.
And during times of Megafloods, the flow rate could be incalculable.
That is by a conservative estimate from "The Natural Environment" website. Some sources say there was much more water than their estimate.

Thirty-three major rivers in the United States drain into the Gulf of Mexico. Along with thousands of streams and underground water sheds. These stretch from Florida around the Gulf to Yucatan. Each of these swollen far beyond their size today by monsoonal rains produced by the climatic collapse at the close of the Ice Age. These incredible rains were produced by the dissovling Ice Sheet filling the atmosphere with water vapor. These rains fell over the Ice Sheet, the entire Mississippi River drainage area (1,245,000 square miles), and into Mexico and the Gulf region.

"Drainage into the Gulf of Mexico is extensive and includes 20 major river systems (>150 rivers) covering over 3.8 million square kilometers of the continental United States (Moody, 1967). Annual freshwater inflow to the Gulf is approximately 10.6x1011 m3 per year (280 trillion gallons). 85% of this flow comes from the United States, with 64% originating from the Mississippi River alone. Additional freshwater inputs originate in Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Cuba."
F. Moretzsohn, J.A. Sánchez Chávez, and J.W. Tunnell, Jr., Editors. 2011. GulfBase: Resource Database for Gulf of Mexico Research. World Wide Web electronic publication. http://www.gulfbase.org, 10 May 2011. GulfBase: Resource Database

Estimates of ancient hydrologic conditions indicate that many glacial flood events far exceeded the largest floods ever measured in the recorded history of these streams.

During the Ice Age there were many rivers that fed into the Mississippi that don't feed into the Mississippi River Basin today. As the Ice age ended these rivers changed course anf flowed elsewhere. Listed below are three such rivers.

"During the melt, giant glacial rivers found drainage paths into the Mississippi watershed, creating such features as the Minnesota River, James River, and Milk River valleys. When the ice sheet completely retreated, many of these "temporary" rivers found paths to Hudson Bay or the Arctic Ocean, leaving the Mississippi Basin with many features "oversized" for the existing rivers to have carved in the same time period."
Wikipedia

This proved to be too much for the smaller openings of Florida Cuba / Florida Yucatan. 12,000 years ago all of the now submerged land area of Florida, Yucatan, the Bahama Mega-Bank and Cuba was exposed. The surge of water in the Gulf flooded these exposed areas. The backup of water was exerting tremendous pressure on the water that was escaping through the narrow divides in the Florida Cuba and Cuba Yucatan exits. This highly pressurized water tore away at the walls of the openings and ripped away huge chunks of material, making them many times larger.

REALLY COOL GOOGLE MAP

Use the above map to Zoom In on the area off the western tip of Cuba. There you will see the main area of the land Bridge we say was overcome by the meltoff water from the North American Ice Age Glacier.

If the water did flood into the Gulf of Mexico from the Ice Pack, is there any evidence to support this?

Back To Top



Image Credit-
Sheffield University
GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ

Evidence of glacial Lake Agassiz occurs over an area of roughly 365000 square miles and it was the largest lake in the world. This was first suggested in 1823 by William Keating, it was named after Louis Agassiz in 1879 after he was the first to realize it was formed by glacial action. Much of the final drainage of Lake Agassiz may have occurred in a very short time, in one or two events, perhaps taking as little as one year. The final drainage of Lake Agassiz contributed an estimated 1 to 3 meters to the total global sea level rise.

"Throughout much of the time that glacial Lake Agassiz existed, greatly increased fluvial discharge took place through the Minnesota valley into the Mississippi drainage basin and ultimately into the Gulf of Mexico. It has been estimated that the average overflow discharge from Lake Agassiz at this time was between 40 000 and 100 000 million m3 s−1. During periods when Lake Agassiz increased in size owing to ice retreat or when additional flood waters derived from melting ice masses and other lakes emptied into Lake Agassiz, the rate of discharge from Lake Agassiz may have on occasions been as high as a million cubic metres a second".
Quaternary superfloods


Below is a quote from GreatRivers.com. This is a geological/historical site specializing on the rivers of North America.

"According to some scholars, catastrophic walls of ice broke off from the receding glaciers and joined a massive run-off of melt-water, scouring out the contours of the Mississippi River. It is envisioned that a sudden collapse of the NA ice cap produced a massive sea-level rise with the speed of a tidal wave around the world. It is likely that the river valley in the upper Mississippi was once 500 feet deeper than it is now, filled as it is with gravel and sand deposited by that melt-water. The accumulated Gulf of Mexico organisms have provided compelling evidence of a vast flood of fresh water about 11,600 years ago".
http://www.greatriver.com/Ice_Age/glacier.htm


Two oceanographic vessels pulled from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico several long, slender core samples of the sediment, which includes the fossil shells of one-celled plankton called foraminifera. While still alive, these organisms lock into their shells a chemical record of the temperature and salinity of the water. When they reproduce, the shells fall away and drop to the bottom. A cross-section of that ocean bed carries a record of climates that the oceanographers say go back more than 100 million years.

The cores were analyzed in two separate investigations, by Cesare Emiliani of the University of Miami, and James Kennett of the University of Rhode Island and Nicholas Shackleton of Cambridge University.

Cesar Emiliani explains the results: "A huge amount of ice-melt water rushed into the Gulf of Mexico and produced a sea-level rise that spread around the world with the speed of a tidal wave." He adds, "We know this because the oxygen isotope ratios of the foraminifera shells show a marked temporary decrease in the salinity of the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It clearly shows that there was a major period of flooding from 12,000 to 10,000 years ago, with a peak about 11,600 years ago. " Readers Digest, U.S. edition, September 1977, p. 133).

Addition--(In brackish water estuaries and deltas, the Sw (mean S18O) of sea water is diluted by isotopically light 16O from rivers, so that S18O values of CaCO3 skeletons generally become more negative than in coeval sea water. Glacial meltwater, for example, brought in negative S18O values to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi delta during the Pleistocene (e.g. Williams et al. 1989). www.intechinc.com)


MISSISSIPPI MEGAFLOOD MAY HAVE ENDED THE ICE AGE
Miami, FL, 2008-07-21 (RPRNewswire08) "A scientific study suggests that a large sub-glacial lake accumulated under the ice sheet in Canada, and eventually burst forth through the Missouri and Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico."
RPRNewswire08

The article at the link below is the original version of the above article.
"The article presents arguments supporting that a jökulhlaup (a sub-glacial megaflood) started at the edge of the ice sheet in SE South Dakota, followed the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, eroded a 1.1 km deep canyon in the continental shelf off Louisiana, followed the sea floor half the way to Cuba, and deposited hundreds of meters of sand in the Gulf of Mexico. The author hypothesizes that as the cold water evidently sank to the sea floor, warm surface water was instead expelled from the Gulf through the Florida Straits, thus warming up the North Atlantic."
Erlingsson.com


Proglacial Lake outbursts along the southern margins of the Laurentide Ice Sheet
"As the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated northward through the Great Plains and midwest area of North America, meltwater drainage initially occurred southward toward the Gulf of Mexico through the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries. As the margin receded north of the Mississippi drainage divide toward the isostatically depressed Hudson Bay lowland (which was lowered because of the enormous weight of the ice sheet upon the crust), vast amounts of meltwater ponded in many short- to long-lived lakes. Glacial Lake Agassiz was the largest and best-known of these lakes, but numerous smaller lakes formed in the prairie regions of the U.S. and Canada. In addition to isostatic depression of the crust by the ice sheet, reasons for these proglacial lakes include regional slope of the land surface towards the north, and the formation of temporary dams of ice and sediment....Most of these lakes were unstable resulting in their sudden and catastrophic drainage. The volumes of water released were huge, on the scale of some of the present-day Great Lakes,
Alan E. Kehew, Western Michigan University
Mark L. Lord, Western Carolina University
Science Education Resource Center (SERC) Carleton College

Two very educational pages on glacial lakes and their size and influence---
GLACIAL LAKES OF MICHIGAN
GLACIAL LAKES OF MINNESOTA

Back To Top


Ice Age Terminology

ISOSTATIC DEPRESSION= This is a term used by geologists for the sinking of large parts of the Earth's crust into the asthenosphere. The sinking is caused by a heavy weight placed on the Earth's surface. Often this is caused by the heavy weight of glacial ice due to continental glaciation, a process in which permanent ice places pressure on the Earth's crust thereby depressing it with its weight. The same thing that occurs when you sit on a cushion or lay on a mattress.

PRO-GLACIAL LAKE= The 10,000 ft thick Ice Age Glaicers depressed the surrounding land mass as much as 3,000 ft. Water accumulating in these depressions are called Proglacial Lakes. It means, "in front" of the glacier. Lake Agassiz was the largest of the pro-glacial lakes, but there were many others equal in size to the present-day Great Lakes. The collapse of one of todays Great Lakes into the Mississippi River Valley would destroy everything between it and the Gulf of Mexico.

SUB-GLACIAL LAKE= The Ice Age Glacier didn't melt just from the top down. It melted from underneath as well.
As the depth of the Ice Sheet increased, the pressure at the bottom increased enough to lower the freezing point of water below the temperature of the ice above it. This allowed liquid water to form into huge under ice lakes. Water under high pressure requires a much lower temperature to freeze than surface water.
This melt water would accumulate into depressions and form giant under ice lakes. Also, the Proglacial Lakes that formed up against the ice sheet, would undercut the ice and bleed underneath it to form lakes.
These same type of Subglacial Lakes have been identified beneath the Antartic ice sheet. According to scientists from the University of Edinburgh, at least 386 lakes have been identified buried beneath the Antartic ice sheet. Check out the link below for more on this.
U.K. SITE:
GUARDIAN

Below are listed some wonderful works by Michael Studinger, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
SEE ALSO: www.ldeo.columbia.edu
SEE ALSO: MAP
SEE ALSO: FLASH

GLACIAL OUTBURST= A Glacial Outburst could occur when the ice above a Sub-Glacial Lake could no longer support it's own weight and would collapse. This could squeeze the trapped water out in tremendous outburst.
The warmer Pro-Glacial Lake water along the leading edge of the Ice Sheet would melt miles back beneath the 10,000 ft. thick Ice Shelf creating huge Sub-Glacial Lakes. This melting would occur along stretches hundreds of miles in length. Eventually, the under-cutting of the ice Sheet by warmer Lake water would stretch so far beneath the super thick ice Sheet that it could no longer support it's own weight.

Click the following link to witness a small Glacial outburst from an Icelandic glacier.
Sub-glacial Lake Outburst

But how could this massive ice sheet melt so easily? Isn't glacier ice super cold, and don't glaciers freeze solid to their base? No, most glaciers do not freeze to super low temperatures. For example, most of the glaciers in Alaska are only a few tenths of a degree below the 32 degree freezing temperature of water. These barely freezing glaciers are called, "temperate glaciers".

A "cold glacier" is one that is more than a few degrees below the freezing temperature throughout most of its mass. The coldest part of most glaciers is the surface area and extends down only a few meters. This is because frigid air temperatures freeze the surface layer into an ice "shell" over the glacier. The air over a glacier is much colder than the glacier itself. If enough solar radiation or warm air temperature is applied to melt through the ice shell, the rest of the Glacier will disintegrate rapidly.
The Ice Age glacier over North America, especially along the southern margin, was a temperate glacier. It's underside was actually, slightly above freezing.

Portions of Lake Agassiz along the depression caused by the weight of the Ice Shelf, could be up to 1,000 ft. deep. When the 10,000 ft Ice Shelf dropped into a Sub-Glacial Lake, it's entire contents would surge out into Lake Agassiz and over the Lake edge along areas the length of entire states.
This process is not to be confused with an ice or sediment dam collapsing and releasing vast amounts of glacial water through a narrow selected area. It was more like getting into an overfilled bathtub and the water overflowing the entire rim of the tub at once. We have termed this process, "Burping".

These overflows would cover vast areas of the landscape before finally draining into the MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY.
These overflows could release so much water into the Ocean, they could disrupt current flows and alter weather patterns worldwide.

Back To Top


The Short Of It

As lake Agassiz overflowed, those smaller proglacial lakes (some the size of the present day Great Lakes), would fill and burst their banks and then cascade into yet another lake below it. The isostatically depressed northern region, which would have been the natural direction of run off for these lakes, was blocked by the Laurentide Ice Sheet. This ice sheet formed a dam and forced the filling of these lakes untill they rose high enough to break through the southern Sediment Dams created when the Ice Sheet was advancing. These fillings could occur whenever a Sub-Glacial Lake would be expelled from beneath the ice due to a collapse of the ice shelf above it. The expulsion of huge amounts of Sub-Glacial Lake water onto an already water soaked landscape would result in terrific flooding.

A domino effect would take place as this water would surge down a spillway or valley into another glacial lake. These overflows would build to increasingly catastrophic proportions until they burst through into the River Warren valley and the Mississippi River Valley. These outburst would flood the Mississippi River Valley, destroying everything in their path as they surged through the 600 mile long, 120 mile wide valley and poured into the Gulf of Mexico. So much water would flood through that offshoot valleys would fill in an attempt to contain the flood waters. These outburst then hit the Gulf of Mexico with the force of an explosion.

"Most of these lakes were unstable resulting in their sudden and catastrophic drainage. The volumes of water released were huge, on the scale of some of the present-day Great Lakes,
Alan E. Kehew, Western Michigan University
Mark L. Lord, Western Carolina University
Science Education Resource Center (SERC) Carleton College

Mystery of the Mega-flood - NOVA

The sudden dumping of massive amounts of ice, sand, gravel, and other debris carried along by a massive flood of water from a Great Lakes size pro-glacial lake, caused shock waves when they struck the Gulf. These in turn, caused a wave of tsunamis to wash through the Gulf region.

(A tsunami or tidal wave is a series of water waves (called a tsunami wave train) caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water.)

By geological definition, a megaflood has a flow of at least 1 million cubic meters per second. These Mega-Floods down the 120 mile wide Mississippi River Valley met that definition many times. As these Mega-Floods slammed the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf waters surged in a series of tsunami wave trains, three feet or more, above the Ice Age sea level.

(The recent tsunami that devastated Japan was only three foot tall in the open ocean, but was 60 miles thick from front to rear)

These shock waves of water were then pressure forced through the Yucatan and Florida straits. Time after time, these Mega-Surges, or tsunami shock waves, scoured the Bahama land bank before finally creating the Bahamas of today. Like ripples in a pond, these tsunami wave trains slowly influenced the entire Gulf region. This was not one sudden dumping of water and debris into the Gulf. These floods were at least 1 million cubic meters per second, and could continue for days.

The Gulf today, is about 500 miles wide from Louisiana to the Yucatan Peninsula. During the Ice Age that distance was only about 300 miles, due to much lower sea level. It took a tsunami traveling at 500 mph. about 40 mimutes to over flow the very flat, low laying area of Yucatan. And even less time for it to reach the Florida Peninsula. This was hours and days of continual pounding.

This megaflood event didn't happen just once, but many times as Lake after Lake collapsed. Each of these tsunami wave trains were likely on the scale of several hundred feet or more from front to rear. A series of three foot high walls of water, with each one several hundred feet thick, striking an area at 500mph. would have a profound impact on the region.


Ice Lobes
Another Factor

Ice lobes (ice dams) are formations of ice that form in shallows and narrows of a river and grow larger in size as water backs up behind the blockage. Water behind the ice dam backs up and slowly seeps over the top. This seeping water freezes and more water seeps over the top and also freezes. This process can continue for a very long time, eventually forming a very large ice dam.
Ice dams formed in the Mississippi River Valley far south of the ice age glacier. Some argue that temperatures weren't cold enough south of the glacier to form an ice dam in the Mississippi river. Following are some weather conditions from 100 yrs. ago.

1899: When the Mississippi River Entirely Froze
"On February 14, (1899) Tallahassee, Florida saw temperatures as cold as -2°F (-18.9° C). This is still the coldest temperature ever recorded in Florida. Other locations that saw rare low temperatures include Dallas, Texas at -10°F (-23.3° C), Kansas City, Missouri at -22°F (-30° C), and Scottsbluff, Nebraska at -45°F (-42.8° C). All records which still stand.
This was the year when the Mississippi River froze its entire length down to the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, some ice even flowed into the Gulf. In places like Cairo, Illinois the thickness of the ice was 13 inches. Ice two inches thick reached New Orleans and ice an inch thick was observed at the mouth of the river."

Science Facts

If the Mississippi could freeze it's entire length in modern times, imagine how much easeier it could freeze during the ice age. Temperatures weren't always pleasant south of the ice sheet. Near freezing temps could reach as far south as the Florida Keys and it could remain cold for years, untill a warming spell brought the temps back up. This was the kind of weather that formed ice dams in the Mississippi and other rivers.

Water could back up behind these ice dams in the Mississippi Valley into huge lakes, a hundred miles long and many, many miles wide. Now add the force of a collapsing Great Lakes size pro- glacial lake to that immense back up of water and you begin to realize the volume of water that could impact the Gulf of Mexico.
When one of these pro-glacial lakes collapsed into a huge ice blocked lake in the Mississippi River Valley, the added force of water could shatter the ice dam and the combined volume of water would crash into the Gulf of Mexico with incredible force.

Other rivers far removed from the Mississippi river also formed ice dams and backed up huge quantities of water. Following is information on the Baraboo Hills’ ice dam of Wisconsin.

"The intersection of this glacier with the unyielding Baraboo Hills created an ice dam that impounded the glacier’s meltwaters and formed a huge body of water called Glacial Lake Wisconsin. At its zenith, the lake covered an area in the central portion of the state estimated to have been more than eight times larger than Lake Winnebago and with depths of up to 160 feet.
About fourteen thousand years ago, the ice sheet began permanently withdrawing as the earth’s atmosphere warmed toward the end of the Pleistocene, and the Baraboo Hills’ ice dam broke for the final time. The cataclysmic flood that ensued literally compressed geological time into hours – the lake’s water level probably dropped a hundred feet in several days as its rampaging waters tore out a channel and flooded down the lower Wisconsin River valley, swelling the river to over a hundred times its present size. Enormous quantities of sand and gravel filled the river’s bed, in some areas up to 150 feet deep. Later as the stream eroded through it, numerous terraces were formed."

Lower Wisconsin State River Board

When we think of a glacial lake collapse, there is a tendency to only consider the volume of water released. Few consider the volume of debris. The mud, sand, sediment and gravel, even trees and animals were caught up, and possibly, humans. When a giant pro-glacial lake collapsed into the already greatly swollen Mississippi River, it brought with it an incredible amount of debris. This debris, along with the sedement carved up from the valley itself, altered the dynamics of the Mississippi. The River Valley was no longer just a path of rampaging waters,it was a gigantic mud flow.

The river water in front of one of these flows was forced up into a tidal wave by the super saturated liquefied mud flow behind it. When these incredible surges of water and mud flows struck the Gulf of Mexico, the entire Gulf area would shutter from the impact. These are the forces that carved out the Mississippi River Valley, the Florida Straits, the Bahamas and the Yucatan Channel, as they forced their way into the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Back To Top



Image Credit-
Minnesota State University, Mankato
The River Warren


"Lake Agassiz drained in a variety of directions over the years. From 11,500-11,000 and 9,900-9,200 years ago, Lake Agassiz drained through the Minnesota River Valley. Lake Agassiz overtopped a moraine dam (near present day Browns Valley) and an outlet river was created. This outlet, called Glacial River Warren, drained south and carved the Minnesota River Valley. The drainage shifted to Hudson Bay about 8,500 years ago.
This diagram illustrates the scale of the mighty River Warren. The torrent of water that flowed out of Lake Agassiz carved out the large Minnesota River Valley that spans up to five miles across in some places. A huge volume of water filled the valley from bank to bank.
Note the present day Minnesota River is comparatively tiny, shown meandering through the large valley carved by mighty Glacial River Warren."
Minnesota State University, Mankato

The River Warren was only one of many glacial rivers that drained into the Mississippi River Valley. The River Warren joins with the St.Croix river near Prescott Wisconsin. The St. Croix river was itself another powerful glacial river that drained Glacial Lake Duluth. These were two of the great glacial rivers that fed into the Mississippi River. The River Warren was up to five miles wide. How wide must the Mississippi River have been at full flow with many glacial rivers emptying into it?

Consider this- A six foot tall person standing on the Ocean shore can see the horizon three miles away.
During the Ice Age, the Mississippi River was five times wider than that.

If you had been standing on one side of the Mississippi at full flow during the Ice Age, you would not have known there 'was' another side. All you would have seen was a water horizon. And almost every place along the river, the current was too fast for a raft or canoe to cross. But you could have had an interesting downstream ride.


Ice Age Mississippi River

Above is our view of the Ice Age Mississippi River. As much as 10 to 20 miles wide in the narrows and 40 miles wide, or more, in the spread out areas of the Valley. This is without megaflooding from a collapsing Great Lakes size glacial lake. During a glacial lake collapse event it could swell larger still.

The river spread out over a wide area as it emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. As it spread it laid down a deposit of sand, silt and gravel and created the lowlands and Delta region of present day Louisiana.

But could so much water that it caused an overflow of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean really have flowed through the Mississippi River? And if so, What evidence do you have?
Following is some information regarding Melt Water Pulse 1A from NASA



Image Credit -
NASA
Melt Water Pulse 1A


"A more clearly-defined accelerated phase of sea level rise occurred between 14,600 to 13,500 years before present (termed "meltwater pulse 1A" or "MWP-1A" by Fairbanks in 1989), when sea level increased by some 16 to 24 m (53 feet to 78 feet). Although the meltwater was previously believed to have come chiefly from Antarctica, a recent reconstruction by Tarasov and Peltier of ice sheet retreat using a glacial model calibrated by a variety of data, indicates instead to a largely North American source."
National Aeronautics And Space Administration

At first it was thought that this dramatic rise in sea level originated from melting ice in the Antartic, but that later proved not to be the case. Then it was proposed this melt water drained into the north Atlantic by way of Lake Superior and the St. Laurence seaway. Later glacial mapping demonstrated this also was not the case. The St Laurence Seaway was still blocked by the glacial ice sheet at the time of Melt Water Pulse 1A.

That leaves only one source for the catastrophic sea level rise, and that is through the Mississippi River Valley. Many scientist think this Melt Water Pulse event occurred in under 200 years of time. Many others think it was as little as 100 years time. But 100 or 200yrs. makes little difference. To raise the world ocean by 53 to 78 feet required an absolutely astounding amount of water to flow through the Mississippi River Valley. That much water had a dramatic effect on the shaping of the entire Gulf, Bahama, Caribbean region. That massive flow of water in that short of time carved out the great Mississippi River Valley as well as the Bahamas and the Caribbean region.

.

EXTREME ICE - NOVA

A recent NOVA Special on the melting ice and Glaciers of Greenland is a must see for those interested in the Meltdown of the Ice Age ice sheet over North America. This is highly recomended viewing for all. This will help explain where all the water required to do the things discribed here came from.
Check it out at EXTREME ICE - NOVA

Below are a couple of satellite images to help visualize the washout effect the melting ice sheet had

Image Source Wikimapia

The ice was a mile thick over Chicago Illinois. In Indiana the ice reached past Indianapolis and strecthed towards the south of the state.


"Our Disclaimer"

Even without the backup of water in the Gulf of Mexico, The Florida Straits and the Bahama Bank would have been degraded. You have likely seen images of the Mississippi River during a time of torrential flooding. The devastation left along the path of the modern Mississippi during a flood is phenomenal. During the flooding from the rapid melt off produced by the North American ice sheet, todays flood would have seemed to be a light day of flooding. This massive run-off of melt water had to go somewhere.

As rain fell over the great northern ice sheet, the ice sheet melted at an astonishing rate. An incredible flow of water poured into the Gulf of Mexico in a continual flood. Due to the lower sea level of the Ice Age, the Yucatan and Florida Straits were much narrower than today. This increase in water produced an increase in pressure which tore away at the Yucatan and Florida Straits, and the Bahama Mega-Bank. This increased flow of water into the Gulf was magnified as it exited through the narrower, shallower Florida/Cuba Strait.

There were thirty three other major rivers that drained into the Gulf, along with thousands of streams and underground water drainages. These stretched from Florida around the Gulf to Yucatan. Estimates of ancient hydrologic conditions indicate that many glacial flood events far exceeded the largest floods ever measured in the recorded history of these streams. The much smaller exits of Florida and Yucatan would have been continually eroded away by the increased flow through their channels.

These continual mega-floods of glacial melt water into the Gulf of Mexico would surge the water level of the Gulf. This tsunami water would pressure force through the narrower Florida/Cuba opening and is responsible for enlarging the Florida/Cuba Straits. These surges, combined with the continual massive melt off from the glacial Ice Pack, slowly enlarged the Florida Straits and created the Bahama Islands of today.

12,000yrs. ago, (with sea level up to 425 ft. lower than today,) the Bahama Mega-Bank was an exposed land mass larger than present day Florida.


==========================================================================


OUR CARIBBEAN HYPOTHESIS"

"A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an observable phenomenon.
The following is our explanation for the shape of the Caribbean Islands and the debris fields found off their coast. This is our idea of what occured there, and how and why it occured.

The Gulf Mega-Surges, or Tsunami Wave Trains, also pounded away a stretch of the narrow western tip of Cuba. This area was once a thin ridge of islands spanning from Cuba towards Yucatan. The continual pounding of this thin wall of Islands by powerful tsunami actions eventually weakend, and then brought about the collapse of this region.
The north eastern portion of Yucatan was also washed down and submerged at this time. These actions are what created the much broader Yucatan Channel of today.

Not only did the narrow Cuban Island chain collapse, the entire southwestern corner of Cuba collapsed with it. This huge volume of land sliding into the northern Caribbean generated an unimaginable wave train of giant tsunamis. These mega-tsunamis pounded the then exposed areas of the Cayman Ridge and plowed into the southern Caribbean Island belt. Wave after wave covered the low laying Islands. The surface areas of these Islands were peeled away in a single stroke. Entire Island eco-systems were obliterated and swept into the Atlantic, leaving only scarred rock to be covered by rising sea level.

Sediment cores taken from the regions around Lake Agassiz indicate that these southern outburst finally stopped around 9,000 B.C. The final drainage of Lake Agassiz was northeast into the Hudson Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
This final drainage is thought by some to have been so powerful, that it shut down the Gulf Stream and brought about the Younger Dryas period. This in turn caused the mass loss of plants, animals and people worldwide.


ANOTHER FACTOR
OCEAN ICE SHEETS

The events at the end of the Ice Age(Last Glacial Maximum), nearly ended life as we know it.
Many attribute this near extinction event to a rapid massive rise in sea level brought on by the sudden end of the ice age. Global temperatures jumped twelve degrees in as little as three years. We believe that part of a massive ice sheet the size of Alaska called the Ross Ice Shelf broke free due to the fact that sea levels had dropped by four hundred and fifty feet. If not the Ross Ice Shelf, then the northern Atlantic ice shelf produced by the Ice Age. As the sea level droped due to ice acumulating over North America and Europe, these Ice Sheets could no longer support their own weight, and so broke free into the sea.

That massive amount of ice moving suddenly even a few feet would move huge amounts of water generating incredible ocean swells. These slid into the Artic and Antartic Ocean squeezing out ocean surges a thousand miles long, hundreds of feet high and hundreds of miles front to rear. These sped around the world inundating the shores where most people lived. These shores were a hundred miles or more out into the oceans. The lower sea level had exposed much more land than today. For example, Florida was more than twice the size it is today, the Bahama Mega bank was the size of Florida, and Australia was joined with Malaysia by land. England was joined to France, and Japan was joined to China.

This sudden swell of water would have flooded these low shoreline areas as well as washed inland by hundreds of miles. Most of humanity would have been wiped out by this event, as well as much of the plant and animal life on this planet. And this was just the first round. Like ripples in a pond, wave after wave would have inundated the earth. This would also have brought an end to the Ice Age by redirecting the Ocean Conveyor Belt and opening up the Florida Gulf Stream. During the Ice Age this stream was a trickle compared to today.

Massive weather reversals would have taken place and survivors of the tidal waves would have faced starvation. These are the events we feel brought an end to nearly all life on Earth and spawned stories like the forty five hundred year old Epic of Gilgamesh in which Utnaphishtim survived in an ark with his family and many animals. Or the Bible story of Noah' Ark, or the destruction of Atlantis.

Back To Top



A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
A Collection Of Images


Click on Image to Enlarge
Double Click on Image to Shrink
Gulf Of Mexico

In the Image above, the Mississippi River Valley can be seen. It's more than 120 mile wide path caused by the melting Ice Age Glaicer cut deeply into the Gulf and carved away the then exposed Land area between Florida and Yucatan. The Florida Peninsula today is 90 to 125 miles wide which is about the width the Mississippi River Valley was. That should give the reader of this article some idea of the volume of water and debris that could surge into the Gulf region from the Ice Age Glacier. A valley that massive could allow for all the runoff produced by the Ice Sheet.
The areas in light blue were exposed land during the Ice Age. Notice the area of Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas. The Bahama Mega-Bank was a barrier that greatly restricted the flow of water through this area during the Ice Age, before the area was washed down by Megaflooding and covered by rising Sea level.
Notice the drastically smaller channels around Florida and by Yucatan. These were the flow areas before the end of the Ice Age.



LOWER SEA LEVEL

The above Image depicts the Gulf and Caribbean area at it's lowest point of sea level. This was before the melting Ice Age Glaciers began overfilling the region with melt-off water. A huge amount of land was exposed, and the narrower channels between Florida/Cuba and Cuba/Yucatan are evident. Florida was more than twice the size it is today. The Yucatan Peninsula and the Florida Peninsula were large flat grasslands. As the water backed up in the Gulf, these areas were the first to be flooded.
The water from the rapidly melting Ice Sheet began pouring into the Gulf faster than it could discharge. The great North American Glacier melted much faster than it should have with the available sunlight. Scientist have no explanation for the extreme meltdown of the Ice Pack. This extreme meltdown poured vast quanities of water into the Gulf.



Click on Image to Enlarge
Double Click on Image to Shrink

The first image above is our view of the Ice Age Bahamas. The second image is the Bahamas today.

The above image is our view of the Bahama Islands 12,000yrs ago. This was before ice age flooding and sea level rise reshaped the area. The places in black are what is left above sea level today. Before the end of the ice age, the Bahamas and the Caribbean would have been "The" place to live.

Notice the very southern end of the Bahama Bank. This area (known as the Navidad and Sliver Banks) is now submerged, but was dry land during the lower sea stand of the Ice Age. It is likely this area was joined with the Dominican Republic during that time. This prevented the expulsion of overflow from the Gulf of Mexico from exiting through the channel between Cuba and Bahama.

If you scan up the image a short distance, you will come to the Cuban "Spur". This spur is on the southeastern side of Cuba a little above it's southeastern tip. With the Navidad/Dominican blockage, water flowing through the Cuba/Bahama channel was redirected by this spur across the middle section of the Bahama Bank. The washed out area there is evident. If the image is clear, you can see the debris field off the eastern coast of Bahama.
Notice the area the arrow points at. We didn't fill in this area in order to show the striations there. We believe this area was marshland, swamp and tidal flats during the Ice Age. This area would have been washed out first by the overflow of water from the Gulf as it flowed to the Atlantic.

In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador in the eastern Bahamas. After viewing how shallow the ocean around the islands was, he called the area, “ baja mar" , which means "The Islands of the Shallow Sea". Little did he know, these shallow sea's were once land.

A sad footnote: "For the local Lucayan Indians, the Spanish discovery was the beginning of the end. Twenty-five years after Columbus made his log entry, the Lucayans were no more. Death came to them swiftly as disposable pawns in Spain’s quest for gold. The Bahamas has no gold, at least of the metallic kind.
In 1513 Ponce de Leon, ever-seeking his “fountain of youth,” stopped by Grand Bahama and discovered one old Lucayan woman, “la vieja,” the sole remnant of her people."
dtmag.com



AN UPLAND SEA


The Gulf's water level may have at times, surged many feet above the lower lying waters of the Caribbean Basin. These shocks of water pressure eventually shattered the narrow land bridge between Cuba and Yucatan. The Caribbean Sea was at least 400ft. below todays level.



Collapsed Land Mass

Not only did the narrow western tip of Cuba collapse, it's fall brought down the entire south western corner of of Cuba as well. The image shows the collapsed land mass. That much material falling into the northern Caribbean would have generated an unimaginable tsunami. This tsunami would have destroyed the Cayman Ridge and then delivered the south Caribbean belt a crippling blow.



Click on Image to Enlarge
Double Click on Image to Shrink
CAYMAN RIDGE AREA

The Cayman Ridge is visible in this Image. It stretches from the southwest corner of Cuba towards Central America. Some of the debris field on the southern side of the ridge may be from the Cuban generated tsunami striking the ridge and dislodging much of it's surface material. The surge of water pouring in from an overfilled Gulf, along with the force created by the collapse of the Cuban land bridge into the Northern Caribbean, first overwashed the Cayman Ridge. The Cayman Ridge divides the northern and southern Caribbean. With the lower Ice Age sea level, so much of the Cayman Ridge was exposed that it was almost a land bridge itself.

"Curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Gary Morgan, was the first to discover a fossilized crocodile in the Cayman Islands, a fresh-water species of crocodile, which now lives only in the Zapata swamp on the south coast of Cuba." Abaco Life

For fresh water crocodiles to reach Cayman from Cuba would require a 200 mile ocean swim. This is a good indicator that during the low stand sea level of the Ice Age much of the Cayman Ridge was exposed, forming a partial land bridge connecting the Cayman islands with Cuba.

The overwashing of the Cayman Ridge caused massive amounts of material to collapse into the southern Caribbean. The tsunami unleashed by the collapse of the Cuban land mass, along with the force created by the material from the Cayman Ridge overwashed the then exposed land of the Jamaica Rise and then poured into the South Caribbean.

The raising water of the South Caribbean then overwashed the low laying narrowly exposed ridge of the Lesser Antilles Islands. This overflowing water washed debris a hundred miles out into the Atlantic Ocean. It deposited this material onto the Atlantic Seafloor in layers hundreds of meters thick. It's impact would have been catastrophic to the lower lying land of the region.
The rising Sea level at the close of the Ice Age covered the battered land and created the Caribbean of today.



Click on Image to Enlarge
Double Click on Image to Shrink
THE CARRIBEAN TODAY
Image Source-University Of Texas
Caribbean Research Projects

The first image above is our view of the Ice Age Caribbean. The second image is the Caribbean today.
In the above Image the effects of the Gulf overflow as it rushed through the Yucatan Channel and washed over the very flat low lying area of the then exposed Cayman Ridge. Once past Cayman, some of this flow entered the lower Caribbean between Jamaica and the Honduras/Nicaragua bulge. Another portion entered between Jamaica and Haiti, and possibly overwashed the southern most edge of the area.
Part of this flow exited between Haiti and Cuba, overwashing the lower end of Bahama. The pile up of debris from this overwash can be seen in the Atlantic.



PUERTO RICO TRENCH
Click on Image to enlarge
Double click to shrink

The above image is from the Caribbean earthquake and tsunami hazards studies page of the USGS Woods Hole Science Center.

The flood of water pouring in from the saturated Gulf of Mexico had dramatic effects in the Caribbean. The image above indicates that an incredible force struck the Islands of the South Caribbean region. Not just during the formation of this region millions of years ago, but in recent geological history as well.

A great deal of this water overflowed the entire low laying land of the Caribbean Rim, with the bulk of the water exiting the Caribbean through the Anegada Trough and into the Atlantic. A layer of debris was laid down far out into the Atlantic on the opposite side of the Puerto Rico Trench. That layer of debris is hundreds of meters thick.
Notice the classic 'washed' tear drop or sea shell shape of the Islands in the region. Another place these shapes can be found is in the Channelled Scablands of the American Northwest. Those shapes were carved by the great Missoula Megaflood.



Image Source USGS
Click on Image to Enlarge
Double Click on Image to Shrink

There is a special aspect about flowing water. As it flows, it picks up particles of dirt and rock, even boulders, and becomes abrasive. These abrasive particles allow high pressure high volume water to cut away through solid rock foundations like a laser. The greater the volume and pressure of the water, the more abbrasive particles it can carry. The more particles, the more intense that laser becomes.
The megaflood we refer to contained as much abrasive material as it could carry.



Ice Age Caribbean

Here is a view of how the Caribbean may have looked during the Ice Age. The sea levels were as much as 300 to 500 feet below todays sea levels. A great deal of land would have been exposed. Puerto Rico was more than twice todays size. The Antilles Arc was almost completely exposed. The southern Caribbean was an almost closed system.

This was due in part to a lower sea level, but also isostatic uplift of the region. The crust of the Earth sits on a ball of molten magma. If you press down on the surface in one spot, another spot will swell with the added magma moved into that area. The great northern Ice Sheet was depressing the north by as much as 3,000 feet. This forced the Earths magma to flow into the region beneath the Gulf/Caribbean. This iflux of magma lifted the land area there by as much as 35 meters(114ft).

The interesting thing about a magma bubble, or any liquid or gaseous bubble, is that the center of the rise is higher than the edge of the bubble. The area of the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico and the south coast of Barbados would be the edge of the bubble. If the area of the northern Gulf of Mexico and the southern coast of Barbados were forced up by 35 meters(114ft) above todays level by isoststic uplift, how high was the center? This would be the area around the Cayman Ridge and the Nicaraguan Rise/Jamaican Divide to Haiti and southern Bahama. If the Nicaraguan Rise were lifted more than 35 meters(114ft) above the 400ft. ice age sea level, it would have totally separated the North Caribbean Sea from the South Caribbean Sea. Also, a great deal more of the Cayman Ridge would have been exposed by the higher isoststic uplift.

Back To Top



Elastic Magma Rebound?

The Ice Age began over North America in northern Canada and slowly crept south into the northern United States. As the ice load increased over North America it's weight pressed down on the Earth's surface with ever increasing pressure. Beneath the Earth's surface is the Magma Field. This field of molten rock surrounds the Earth miles beneath the surface. It's as if the Earths surface floats on a water bed of molten liquid.

Over time, this slow moving ice mass increased in density and weight. This increased weight pressed down on the surface of the Earth with incredible pressure, pressing the surface down by as much as 3,000ft. This ever increasing force squeezed the magma beneath it out to the south forcing it into the area of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean region.

As the magma squeezed in beneath these areas, it began to lift the surface above it. Added to that was the fact that as the ice mass increased in size, it was siphoning water from the world's ocean. This began to drastically lower the sea level. Land mass that had been submerged beneath the water level began to be exposed to the air.

It took 50,000yrs. for the ice mass to develope to it's fullest extent over North America. It took less than one twentieth that time for this ice load to return to the ocean. All the magma that had been forced beneath the Caribbean by the ice load in North America was now quickly released as the pressure over North America was removed. This allowed the magma to rapidly flow back into the area under North America.

Due to the elastic nature of the magma and the force with which it flowed out of the Caribbean region, extra magma was siphoned from beneath the Caribbean region which pulled the land of the area below it's pre-ice age level. This caused pre-ice age land to be drawn down below sea level flooding some areas. An indent was formed in the Caribbean and remained untill the magma could equalize between the north and the south. This magma is still rebounding to some degree today as it equalizes back and forth beneath the Earths surface.

Following is some evidence that the occurence spoken of above took place.

"An extremely well-preserved Holocene fringing coral reef occurs at an average elevation of 5 m below sea level around the margins of the central Enriquillo Valley, Dominican Republic. The reef records the latest marine incursion from the east into an 85-km-long, 12-km-wide tectonic depression and appears to represent a unique preservation. .....Radiocarbon age determinations indicate that reef growth coincided with sea-level rise following the last ice age (5,930 ± 100 to 4,760 ± 90 yr B.P.). "
Enriquillo Valley Dominica


Image source-Absolute Astronomy

The Reef System above was formed around 6,000yrs. before present day. This was at a time when the Caribbean was at it's lowest draw down position tectonically. Some of the magma from the region had been pulled north by isostatic rebound. The lowered land mass allowed for an overflow by the rising sea level.

As the magma that had been siphoned from under the Caribbean began to flow back into the area, regional uplift occured. The uplift, along with sedimentation blockage, severed the connection between the Enriquillo Valley and the South Caribbean Sea. Left there today is a salt lake that is home for some of the only salt lake crocodiles in the world.



Click on Image to Enlarge
Double Click on Image to Shrink
The Three Basins Area

Think of the Gulf of Mexico, the North Caribbean and the South Caribbean seas as a series of Pro-Glacial Lakes. The Gulfs southern exit was restricted by a narrow stretch of Islands off the west coast of Cuba. The Gulfs eastern exit was dramaticly reduced by the protrusion of the Bahama Banks. Incredible amounts of water flood in from the melting Ice Sheet. This water came from thousands of streams and underground water sheds as well as the Mississippi River, The Grijalva River, The Usumacinta River, and The Rio Grande River.

"Runoff from the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains goes into the Gulf of Mexico. Thirty-three major rivers in the United States drain into the Gulf of Mexico, as well as many, many small rivers, creeks, and streams"
thinkquest.org

"More than 3,700 streams and 15 major rivers can be found in Texas. Major rivers include the Rio Grande, the Pecos, the White and the Colorado. Most Texas rivers flow into the Gulf of Mexico."
Texas Rivers

The Ice Age Jet Stream had finally changed it's course. It no longer reached quite as far south. Warm moist air flowed into the region around the Gulf, including the southern and mid-western United States and Mexico. The atmosphere was saturated with moisture. The cold air of the north and the warm air of the south met here. Heavy rainfall swept the entire area.

"The climate was much cooler and wetter, the Gulf coastline was much farther out (lower sea level), soils were deeper and less eroded, grasslands were thicker, there were more streamside woodlands, and more permanent streams."
Texas History

All of these rivers and streams were flowing at full force. More water was flowing into the Gulf than could flow out. And that's just Texas. The entire Gulf region, from Florida through Texas, around to Yucatan were under the same influences. The Gulf backed up with water inches deeper than the Caribbean Sea.

During the Ice Age the Gulf covered about 300,000 sq. miles. Thats 300,000 sq. miles of water up to a foot or more above the ice age sea level. Below the Gulf is the North Caribbean Sea. It was partially separated from the South Caribbean by exposed land from Nicaragua through Jamaica and to Haiti.

The South Caribbean was almost isolated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Antilles Arc. This Arc stretches from Haiti past Puerto Rico around to the coast of Venizuela. Three Ice Age Pro-Glacial Lakes.

The Gulfs southern exit was into the Caribbean Sea. The protrusion of a narrow wall of islands, off Cuba's western tip and spanning towards Yucatan, greatly restricted the flow of water through this area. Also the north eastern portion of the Yucatan Peninsula was not washed down and submerged as it is today.

Today the closest distance between Cuba and Yucatan is about 125 miles, or 200 km.. During the Ice age, due to much lower sea levels and the Cuba land bridge, we estimate that distance at no more than 10 to 15 miles. The over flow of water from the Gulf forced the collapse of the pertial Cuban land bridge. We estimate this breach of the land bridge enlarged the Yucatan Channel by as much as 75 miles to 90 miles.

The Gulfs eastern exit was through the Florida/Cuba strait. Today this area is 90 miles wide. But then it was a much shallower and narrower opening. It was partially blocked by the Bahama Mega Bank. The Bahama Mega-Bank divided the flow of water exiting through the Florida/Cuba Strait into two narrow flows. One flow went north between Florida and Bahama. The other flow swept south between Cuba and Bahama.

Many geologist feel that during the ice age, the southern channel between Cuba and Bahama may not have been present, due to lower sea level. And that if it did exist at that point, it was only a narrow, shallow channel.

The Yucatan/Cuba channel, and the Florida/Bahama channel, were the only exits out of the Gulf of Mexico. These exits combined were a maximum of 25 miles, and as little as 18 miles. The run off from thousands of swollen Rivers and streams, plus the massive over flow of the Ice Age Mississippi River, were more than that 18 to 25 mile drainage could drain. As the Ice Age meltdown intensified, the water level of the Gulf slowly backed up.
The Mega-Bank was a dam, ponding the water in the Gulf and only allowing limited water flow through it's channels. It was the Yucatan blockage and the Bahama blockage that forced a backup of water in the Gulf.

As water backed up in the Gulf, water pressure pulls apart the Cuban Land Bridge, greatly enlarging the opening. This allows 300,000 sq. miles of water from inches deeper than the Caribbean to drain into the smaller North Caribbean Sea. The North Caribbeans exit between Haiti and Cuba was very possibly not open then. Today the Cuba/Haiti channel is 51.5 miles wide. During the Ice Age this opening was no more than 10 miles wide.
Also, the very southern end of the Bahama Bank was joined with the northern side of the Dominican Republic. This created another blockage between the North Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean. The Water that does escape through the Haiti-Cuba opening pressure washes the southern end of the Bahama Bank.

The backup of water in the northern Caribbean rolls through the Jamaica divide. This overflow first begins between Jamaica and Haiti.(For a close look at where the water may have over flowed CLICK HERE). As the backup increases, it breaches the land on the west side of of Jamaica. These breaches allow the overflow to enter into the South Caribbean.


Ice Age Caribbean

This drainage of cooler water from the ice pack worked it's way down the Mississippi Valley into the Gulf of Mexico. From there it emptied into the Caribbean sea. The cooler water sank to the bottom and forced the warmed waters of the Caribbean out over the then exposed rim of the Antilles Arc. The South Caribbean slowly rose over the lower laying exposed land of the Antilles Arc. This overflow carried away most of the top soil, vegetation and wildlife of the low laying areas of the Arc, leaving only bare rock and a chain of higher standing Islands there today. The overflowing water along with the land mass are expelled into the Atlantic. As this warmer water emptied into the Atlantic, it added a boost to the warm Equatorial Current flowing towards Europe. This very warm water and the air masses created by it raised the temps in Europe and brought about a quick meldown of the Ice Pack in Europe. A
6 to 7 degree Celsius increase in temperatures in less than 3 years
(12 degrees Fahrenheit) caused a rapid warm up of Europe.


Image Source Wikimapia

Much later, as the Ice Pack over North America melted, a northern drainage was opened through what today is the St. Lawerence Seaway. This allowed very cold water from the Ice Pack to empty directly into the North Atlantic. This influx of cold glacier waters diverted the equatorial Atlantic current to the south and brought about the Younger Dryas, a rapid cool down and return to Ice Age conditions in Europe.

Later still, the collapse of the ice blockage on the northern side of the Hudson Bay allowed what was left of Glacial Lake Agassiz to empty into the Atlantic. This caused even more cold in Europe and the rest of the world.

This process did not happen overnight. It took some time for these events to play out.

OUR THEORY

(1) Earth temperatures warm. Rain falls on Glacial Ice Sheet
(2) Monsoonal rains fall over N. America, Mexico, Gulf.
(3) Rivers, creeks, and streams swell to unprecedented size.
(4) A particularly intense year of Glacial melt off.
(5) Drastically smaller Yucatan & Florida Straits.
(6) Restricted water flow forces a backup in the Gulf.
(9) Rapid erosion, Yucatan & Florida straits & Bahama Mega-bank.
(10) Intense melt off forces collapse of large pro-glacial lakes.
(11) Super megafloods scour Mississippi River Valley.
(12) Tsunami shock waves created when megafloods reach Gulf.
(13) Water pressure and shock waves shatter Cuban land bridge.
(14) Megaflooding and Tsunami's race through Caribbean.
(15) All low laying land is picked up and taken away.
(16) Drastic influx of water and debris into Atlantic warms Atlantic current.
(17) Warmer Atlantic current water and air unfreezes Europe.
(18) New ice pack drainage opens in Canada, St. Lawerence Seaway.
(19) Fresh onset of cold glacial water into Atlantic causes Younger Dryas cold snap.

Yes, it was a bit more involved than the simplified steps listed above.

Debri mounds off the coast of Florida, the Bahamas and the Puerto Rico Trench are also evident in the Three Basins image(next image above). This cover of debris is from Florida around to the Barbados Accretionary Prism.


BARBADOS ACCRETIONARY PRISM

Barbados is located on the spine of the Barbados ridge and is probably the most structurally complex portion of the prism due to the substantial uplift. Geological evidence lead to the belief that the Scotland sediments were sourced from a Paleo-Orinoco river system and were deposited deep offshore. Due to plate tectonics, these deep-water sediments were transported north-west, riding on the top of the Americas plate which was being subducted into the Tobago trough. The sediments were scraped off the top of the downward moving plate and an accumulation of sediments formed into what is now the Barbados accretionary prism.
Energy.gov


Image Source-USGS

For a closeup of the accretionary prism CLICK HERE

A flash Animation from Mcgraw-Hill Website

The above is a very good hypothesis, and should be considered seriously. This idea goes a long way towards explaining the Filled Trench area around the Islands of Barbados and Trinidad. However, this does not explain the debris fields from the coast of Florida, the Bahamas, or the entire area of the Puerto Rico Trench around to that area. Orinoco river sediments did not create those debris fields. Those fields could only have come from massive flooding from the Gulf of Mexico and the ice age Mississippi River.

Back To Top


"The Gulf Stream"

During the Ice age, there was no 'Gulf Stream' as we know it today. The Equatorial Atlantic current flowed past the Caribbean Belt. The lower sea level exposed much more land area there. The entire belt of the Antilles Arc was nearly a solid band of land. This warmer equatorial water did enter the Caribbean, but through much smaller passages than today.


Ice Age Caribbean

This warmer water never entered the Gulf of Mexico. The much lower sea level exposed most of the submerged land of the Jamaica divide. This is a shallow stretch running between Honduras and Haiti. The smaller Yucatan Channel restricted the flow of water into the Gulf, and the exposed Bahama Mega-Bank, restricted the flow of water out of the Gulf. Also, the massive quantity of water flowing in from the climatic collapse as the ice age ended was cooling the Gulf and this cooler water was flowing out through the smaller Yucatan and Florida straits. So much cool water was flowing out of the Gulf, little could flow in.


Above is an animation from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The Gulf Stream gathers it's strength from the influx of warm water from the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. As the Gulf stream exits through the Florida Straits it curves up the coastline of North America and is redirected towards Europe. Along the way it splits into two branches. The southern branch, or the 'Canary Current', flows southeast towards the Canary islands and the coast of Africa.
The northern branch continues untill it reaches the coast of north west Europe. This branch is known as the 'Norwegian Current'. This current of warm water helps warm northwest Europe and is what makes these areas habitable. Without this current of warm water Europe would be much colder than today.
During the Ice Age the Norwegian Current didn't exits or at the least was barely noticeable. This was due to the fact that the Gulf Stream was not flowing the way it does today and the Atlantic current was not collecting the added warm water to push into the northern area. This caused northwest Europe to become glaciated during the Ice Age.

"What Creates The Gulf Stream"

'Equatorial Bulge'
Water that is heated, expands. The water along the Equator is much warmer than the water in northern latitudes. This phenomena creates what is known as the 'Equatorial Bulge'. The warmer water along the equator rises above the rest of the oceans water level creating a downhill slope. Water runs downhill due to the force of gravity. As this water flows downhill, it is effected by another force, sometimees called 'The spin off effect', or Coriolis Effect.

'Coriolis Effect'
The Earth's rotation imparts an acceleration known as the "Coriolis Effect, or Coriolis Force". This acceleration causes winds and ocean waters to spin off from the Equator in a counter clockwise rotation in the northern hemisphere and a clockwise rotation in the southern hemisphere.

In the northern hemisphere these wind and ocean currents spin off to the northwest and pull the equatorial waters toward North America. The Coriolis effect also initiates cyclonic rotation, but it is not the driving force that brings this rotation to high speeds. That force is the heat of evaporation. This is how we get our Hurricanes from Africa today. They are created by, and ride on this spin off water. The combination of the Coriolis effect and the heat of the sun create the current of warm water known as the Atlantic Current.
The Atlantic equatorial current enters the lower Caribbean between the Island belt of the Antilles Arc.

'The Sauce Pan'
As the waters of the Equatorial Bluge and the Coriolis Effect are forced through the Antilles Arc into the lower Caribbean they encounter the much warmer waters of the South Caribbean. The South Caribbeans water is warmer because it is in the shallower bowl created by the surrounding Islands of the Antilles Arc. It can be heated more by the suns rays and build to a higher temperature.

The water flowing in from the Equatorial Bluge forces out the much warmer water of the Caribbean north through the Yucatan Channel where it mixes with the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This high volume of "hyper" warm water is then pressure squeezed, like water from a hose, through the Florida Straits as the Gulf Stream.

'Uneven Heating and Cooling'
The effect of the Coriolis Force on the Gulf Stream is compounded by a process known as "Uneven Heating and Cooling". The water near the Equator is heated and migrates towards the cooler waters in the north. The Coriolis effect and it's winds force these warm currents toward North America where they curve up the coastline and then are redirected across the Atlantic to Europe. During this process the waters cool.
This cooler water falls down the coastline of Europe and Africa back to the Equator. The more heat on the water at the Equator the faster it flows. Also, the more it is cooled in the north the faster it flows. During the Ice Age, uneven heating and cooling would have been at a maximum. All of these effects together created a tighter and faster Atlantic current that was 30 to 50 miles wide. A virtual ridge of water creating a wirlpool effect in the Atlantic Ocean.

For an excellent study of the Caribbean Current today, visit:
Joanna Gyory, Arthur J. Mariano, Edward H. Ryan. "The Caribbean Current." Ocean Surface Currents.

For an in-depth study of the World Ocean currents see- Essay Web

Back To Top


E Pur Si Muove
And Yet It Moves

There is little dispute over the idea that the Cuban Land Bridge and the entire southwestern corner of Cuba collapsed, or that this event unleashed devastation on the entire Caribbean area. It is the timing of that collapse that is in question. Due to the freshness of the evidence from the coast of Florida to the coast of South America , we believe the events listed above occured in the recent past. Others feel these events happened in the more distant past.

Rather you except the Cuban land bridge theory or not, the influx of glacial melt water into the Gulf of Mexico was channeled into the North Caribbean. The passage between Florida and the Bahama Bank was much, much smaller. The southern passage between Cuba and the Bahama Bank may not have exited at that time. Many geologist believe that Cuba was conected to the Bahama Bank during the Ice Age. And of those who don't agree, most allow for only a shallow, narrow opening.

The Bahama Banks southern end (the Navidad Bank) and it's connection with the Dominican Republic restricted the water flowing into the Northern Caribbean from draining into the Atlantic. During the Ice Age this area may have been completly closed, and at best was only a few miles wide. This forced the influx of Glacial melt water into the southern Caribbean. This influx of water overflowed the low laying exposed land of the Antilles Arc.

(The wholly submerged Silver Bank and Navidad Bank north of the Dominican Republic have been claimed by the Dominican government. They were geographically part of the greater Bahama Bank. These banks are underwater now, but during the Ice Age they were above sea level and may have had a dry land connection with Northern Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The southern, Navidad Bank, had the closest connection.)



Click on Image to Enlarge
Double Click on Image to Shrink
THE CARRIBEAN TODAY
Image Source-University Of Texas
Caribbean Research Projects

The end result? Glacial melt water poured from the Gulf into the Northern Caribbean. This influx of water could not escape and rose over the Jamaica divide into the South Caribbean. This glacial water then overflowed the Antilles Arc and shaped the Caribbean Islands of today. With a Cuban land bridge, there is the possibility of a sudden Caribbean megaflood. Without the land bridge, a less sudden Megaflood.
A Megaflood none the less.
E pur si muove - - Por si acaso!

As you review the evidence for yourself, you will reach your own conclusion. We have simply placed the evidence here for you to review, along with a few theories of our own.

For a more detailed view of the events discribed above CLICK HERE

Back To Top


NOT BY ITSELF

There are four major river drainage areas that feed the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi and Rio Grande rivers in the northern gulf, and the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers to the south.

The Mississippi River== Its triangular drainage area, covering about 40% of the country and including all or part of 31 states, is approximately 3,250,000 sq km (1,250,000 sq mi),

Although the Mississippi drainage area contributes the greatest volume of runoff water to the Gulf of Mexico, it is by no means the only contributor. There are three other major river drainage areas that affect the Gulf Region. These drainage rivers are:

The Grijalva River== This river's drainage basin is 134,400 sq. km in size.
"The area has also been identified as a “Pleistocene Refuge,” where numerous species survived the climate changes and extinctions of the last ice age."
The Nature Conservancy

The Usumacinta River== Stretching through the El Petén department and flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, the Usumacinta River drains a tropical jungle of 16,984 square miles (44,000 sq. km.).

The Rio Grande River== The area within the entire watershed is some 336,000 square miles (870,000 square kilometres).
"During the Ice Age, sheets of ice extended south from the North Pole. They didn’t reach this area, but mountain glaciers formed in the high mountains. As the climate warmed, these glaciers moved and melted, expanding valleys and carving channels for rivers as they progressed.
High in the Colorado Rockies, melting glaciers fed a powerful stream, which pushed south toward the sea, carrying rock and earth with it."
Mid-Region Council of Governments' of New Mexico

The combined watershed areas of the above rivers is equal to nearly two million sq. miles. As the Ice Age ended an enormous flow of water passed through these systems. These overflowing river systems were a product of the climatic collapse at the end of the Ice Age. These rivers, along with the thousands of local streams and underground water sheds from Florida around through Mexico to the Yucatan Peninsula, are all factors contributing to the rapid rise of the Gulf of Mexico at the end of the Ice Age.

"Drainage into the Gulf of Mexico is extensive and includes 20 major river systems (>150 rivers) covering over 3.8 million square kilometers of the continental United States (Moody, 1967). Annual freshwater inflow to the Gulf is approximately 10.6x1011 m3 per year (280 trillion gallons). 85% of this flow comes from the United States, with 64% originating from the Mississippi River alone. Additional freshwater inputs originate in Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Cuba."
F. Moretzsohn, J.A. Sánchez Chávez, and J.W. Tunnell, Jr., Editors. 2011. GulfBase: Resource Database for Gulf of Mexico Research. World Wide Web electronic publication. http://www.gulfbase.org, 10 May 2011. GulfBase: Resource Database

It was this rapidly rising Gulf of Mexico that forced water through the narrower Florida Straits. This forced water then went on to water carve the Bahama Megabank into the Islands there today. The Yucatan channel was also greatly affected by this water carving as it tore away the western tip of Cuba and the north eastern portion of the then exposed, Yucatan Peninsula.

Back To Top


THE GULF CARIBBEAN AREA FORMATION

The prevailing geologic model maintains that the Caribbean crust formed in the Pacific over an Earth core hotspot or mantle plume within the Earth and drifted east to it's present position.
The separation of the North American plate and the Yucatan Penninsula tectonic block began creating the Gulf of Mexico around 100mil. yrs. ago. The Gulf of Mexico Basin opened with a clockwise rotation of the Yucatan block . Over millions of years the Gulf has opened to it's present form. Today the Gulf of Mexico covers an area of 600,000 sq mi (1,550,000 sq km).
The Cayman trough, or gully, was created when the Yucatan continental block, one of two Paleozoic blocks forming northern Central America split apart from the southern Nicaragua Honduras Block. This separation occurred from east to west forming what is now the Cayman Trench. The entire area, from Texas-Louisiana to Northern Central America opened like a Fan.
(according to the most prevailent models on the subject)


ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

In the summer of 2000, geologist Paulina Zelitsky, and her husband and business partner, Paul Weinzweig discovered geometrically shaped megalithic forms off the coast of Cuba. Because these shapes are seldom seen in nature, some hailed them as the work of a lost civilization. Paulina Zelitsky said she believed that a partial land bridge once joined Cuba and Yucatan. She felt that at the end of the ice age this land bridge collapsed due to a seismic event.

We agree that a partial land bridge once connected Cuba and Yucatan. And, seismic activity probably played a roll in the collapse of that land bridge. But, to us these geometric shapes are the result of splits, fractures and breakage in the plate material of Cuba and the land bridge. These heavily karsted forms broke and shattered into these shapes because of the incredible water pressure pushing against this area. We believe many more of these forms will be found stretched across the northern Caribbeans abysmal plain. Those who observe these forms will wonder, What are these things, and how did they get here?

Back To Top


Back To Top



ICE AGE SOCIETY
THE AURIGNACIANS

(30,000 to 40,000 years ago)"The Aurignacian tool industry is characterized by worked bone or antler points with grooves cut in the bottom. Their flint tools include fine blades and bladelets struck from prepared cores rather than using crude flakes.[1] The people of this culture also produced some of the earliest known cave art, such as the animal engravings at Aldène and the paintings at Chauvet cave in southern France. They also made pendants, bracelets and ivory beads, and three-dimensional figurines. Bâtons de commandement are also found at their sites. These were thought later to be spear throwers." Wikipedia


Image Credit- Wikipedia

"In an experiment, the bâton percé was held so that the end with the hole was outwards, and no hook was added. In this series of tests, a 60 inch (1.5 m) long, 1500 grain (97 g) fletched spear was used. To use the bâton percé as a spear thrower, a length of cord is attached to the spear, near the middle of the spear. Leather would be suitable for lighter spears, while sinew would be required for heavier spears. The addition of the cord turns the spear in to a large Swiss arrow. Using the spear thus equipped as a Swiss arrow resulted in a 43% increase in range, compared to a hand thrown spear." Wikipedia This sophistication and self-awareness led archaeologists to consider the makers of Aurignacian artifacts the first modern humans in Europe. The increase in the accuracy, range and power of their weaponry made them a force to be reckoned with.


THE GRAVETTIANS

"A phase (c.28,000-23,000 ya) of the European Upper Paleolithic that is characterized by a stone-tool industry with small pointed blades used for big-game hunting (bison, horse, reindeer and mammoth). It is divided into two regional groups: the western Gravettian, mostly known from cave sites in France, and the eastern Gravettian, with open sites of specialized mammoth hunters on the plains of central Europe and Russia. Some early examples of cave art and the famous 'Venus' figurines were made by Gravettian artists.

People in the Gravettian period also used nets to hunt small game. It is divided into two regional groups: the western Gravettian, mostly known from cave sites in France, and the eastern Gravettian, with open sites of specialized mammoth hunters on the plains of central Europe and Russia. The earliest evidence of Gravettian culture comes from the Buran-Kaya caves in the Crimean Mountains (southern Ukraine), dating to 32,000 years ago."
Wikipedia
Kostenki is a very important Paleolithic Gravettian culture site on the Don River in the Ukraine. A great deal of useful informatiom has been revealed by the finds at Kostenki

It is known that Gravettian culture produced weaving which represents a major advancement in human development
"at a meeting here last week of the Society for American Archeology, scientists announced that this same group, contemporaries of the earliest cave painters of France and northern Spain, has left the oldest evidence of weaving in the world. The site has yielded clay fragments bearing impressions of textiles or basketry, which according to Dr. James M. Adovasio of Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., and Dr. Olga Soffer of the University of Illinois at Urbana, push back the known origin of these technologies at least 7,000 years, to 27,000 years ago." NY Times

In the Images below, proof of the weaving ability of the Gravettian can be seen


Venus wearing a hat
Image Credit- University of Texas

In the above Venus image it can clearly be seen that the Venus is wearing a woven head dress or hat. The hair can be seen flowing out from underneath the hat in the back view. The figurine dates to about 24,000yrs. ago.



Image Credit- BBC News

"Some of the fibre impressions may have been made accidentally, such as by sitting on a fresh clay floor or when wet clay was carried in woven bags. "
"Other impressions may have been caused by deliberate action, such as lining a basket with clay to make it watertight," said Professor Soffer."

NY Times

Here is a site called Mathildas Anthropology Blog that seems to have done their homework

Today the Earth tilts at 23.5 degrees in relation to it's path around the Sun. According to The Book of Noah and the writings of Plato, the Earth once sat in a more upright position. This upright position would have placed the area of the North American Glacial ice pack as much as 2,000 miles further north than it is today. During the Ice Age the sea level was as much as three to five hundred feet lower than today due to the fact that the Glacier held all of that water. A great deal of land would have been exposed due to this lower sea level.
The Tilt that these writings propose took place would have leaned the area of North America down into the more direct sunlight of the temperate zone. This would have caused the rapid meltoff of the Ice Age Glacier. This action would also have drawn Russian Siberia up into the frigid zone. This would help explain why we find Mammoths frozen there within the perma frost.
The writings of Plato and the Book of Noah describe a Tilt in the Earth. Whether we choose to except that the Earth tilted or not as these ancient sources state, the fact remains that the Ice Age ended. And, according to most scholars on the subject, it ended quite quickly, which brought on a dramatic climatic collapse called the Younger Dryas Period. A time when melting Ice Sheets produced so much rain and flooding that plants world wide died on a massive scale, not from drought, but from too much water. This left the famous Black Mat. A layer of dead organic matter deposited over much of the land. With the loss of their food supply, the Ice Age Mega-Animals perished as well. Devastating flooding swept the Earth, especially in the America's. Huge tracts of land were inundated by rising sea levels. Any advancements humankind had made to that point were swept aside in the struggle for survival.


THE JAMON

A classic example of a sophisticated Ice Age culture is the Jomon culture of Japan. Many studies have been made regarding the Jomon culture. These studies suggest that the Jomon demographic expansion may have reached America along a path following the Pacific coast. Pottery found in Fukui Cave (Japan) has been determined to have secure radiocarbon dates to 15,800 years before present.

The earliest Jomon lived along the coast of Ice Age Japan. Many of the sites of these earliest people are now underwater due to the melting of the Ice Age glaciers. These people had the Bow and Arrow, agriculture, and boats for deep water fishing. They didn't run around grunting at each other and hitting women on the head with clubs for reproductive purposes.
Sites of similar Ice Age cultures have recently been found in Russia and China. These sites date to a time even earlier than the Jomon culture.

Recently in Southern China a stash of pottery fragments have been unearthed that confirm that pottery was made at least 20,000 years ago, and that it was used in food preparation and cooking.

"The fragments were believed to belong to a community of roving hunter-gatherers some 20,000 years ago and apparent scorch marks indicate they may have been used in cooking."

Recent archaeological evidence uncovered in the Americas indicates the Americas were inhabited at least as far back as 16,000 B.C. Who these people were is unknown. What has finally begun to be recognized is that they possessed the knowledge and skill to reach the Americas by way of the ocean. The Jomon had this knowledge.

The ice age, or end of ice age people were a varied group that were on the one hand, "Barely come down from the trees", and on the other hand they were as highly advanced as upper Paleolithic and Neolithic technology could take them. Most Ice Age peoples fit somewhere between these two extremes. Here, we will concentrate on the most sophisticated and advanced groups.

They made up an advanced Crafts Age civilization. There were farmers, herders, pottery makers, weavers, fishermen and boat builders. Likely they dammed small creeks and streams to create ponds that were stocked with fish netted from other sources. Water fowl, turkeys, hens and other birds were netted and their wings clipped to have a supply of eggs, poultry and fish on hand to feed a growing community. Groups like the Jomon of Japan were scattered around the world and led the world in human development.

"They used chipped stone tools, ground stone tools, traps, and bows, and were probably semi-sedentary hunters-gatherers and skillful coastal and deep-water fishermen. They practiced a rudimentary form of agriculture and lived in caves and later in groups of either shallow pit dwellings or above-ground houses, leaving rich middens for modern archaeological study." Jomon Culture


THE NATUFIANS

Around 10,000 to 5,000 B.C. the Natufian people began to cluster into larger societies. The Natufians were a culture that existed from 13,000 to 9,800 years ago in the Eastern Mediterranean. These sparks of religious and social development were widely separated from each other in both distance apart and the time of their development and coalesed and dissipated frequently.. Some clasic examples are Gobekli Tepe-10,000 B.C. and Catal Huyuk-8,000 B.C.. Another is the city of Jericho-7,000 B.C.. Jericho is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. There is evidence that the people around Jericho began their own food cultvation as early as 9,000 years ago.

These isolated incidences of social complexity, or cultural developments came and went, but no truly complex society was formed. Then around 5,000 B.C. in Mesopotamia, one of these societies developed the kind of social and organizational skills that continued to grow and become more complex. This more organized society developed into the city states of the Sumerian civilization.

We tend to associate civilization with the monolithic builders. But not all societies built huge megaliths of stone. Some built of small trees and branches woven into shape and packed and covered with mud mixed with straw. These structures could be as small or as large as needed. Called a Beehive House, these structures were shaped much like the American Indian Teepee. Like a chimney, they vacumed out smoke from a central fire through the opening at the top. Thick walls offered protection from the elements. These structures were warm in cold temps. and cool in warm temps. They could even have second or third levels. Small structures were built by wandering groups and large structures by more settled groups. Entire comunities, even towns, could be built this way. These were sturdy structures and could last a lifetime.


These would disappear with the passage of time.

There were many other forms of housing during the Ice Age, from cave dwellings to lean-to's, to tents and wigams, and on to much more elaborate forms of houses. The Beehive House design we suggested above is only one possible form of Ice Age dwellings. Following is a link to early American Indian designs.
Native American Houses

Back To Top


ARTISTIC WORKS

Cognitive advances occured that encompassed both increases in knowledge and in the ability to think abstractly and multi-dimensionally; as well as socially, and to reason more effectively. Exactly when these Cognitive advances took place is a matter of debate among anthropologist who study human development and culture, but 50,000yrs. B.P. is the norm.

Artistic work blossomed, with Venus figurines, cave painting, petroglyphs and exotic raw materials found far from their sources, which suggests emergent trading links. More complex social groupings emerged, supported by more varied and reliable food sources and specialized tool types. This probably contributed to increasing group identification or ethnicity. These group identities produced distinctive symbols and rituals which are an important part of modern human behavior.

The true beginning of civilization was 40,000—35,000 BC= ""Technological advances included significant developments in flint tool manufacturing, with industries based on fine blades rather than simpler and shorter flakes. Burins and racloirs were used to work bone, antler and hides. Advanced darts and harpoons also appear in this period, along with the fish hook, the , oil lamp, rope, and the eyed needle."


Ice Age Bone Sewing Needles



Ice Age Oil Lamp (17,000B.P.) and Fish Hook



55,000 year old Flute

"Divje Babe is the oldest known archaeological site in Slovenia. The site is the location of a horizontal cave, 45m long and up to 15 m wide. It is located 230m above the Idrijca river, near Cerkno, and is accessible to visitors. Researchers working at this site have uncovered more than 600 archaeological finds in at least ten levels, including 20 hearths, the skeletal remains of cave bears, and have studied climate change during the pleistocene. According to the museum, the flute has been associated with the "end of the middle Pleistocene" and the time of Neanderthals, about 55,000 years ago."


Art work from these periods include= 35,000 and 40,000 years ago ------VenusSchelk.jpg


VIDEO
This is perhaps the earliest work of art depicting the human form ever found.
Many anthropologist believe that at this point in history, women
held the sway over clans an tribes as Shamanitic Priestesses.
These were highly venurated women who excelled in wisdom.
Only later did mans cognitive abilities develope enough to
place him at the head of a clan or tribe as chief or shaman.
This, they say, is why so many Venus figurines are found today.
(So, did Eve take of the furit of the tree of knowledge first??)
(Is this why girls mature so much faster than boys?)


35,000 B.C.----------IVORY MAMMOTH

"Archaeologists at the University of Tübingen have recovered the first entirely intact woolly mammoth figurine from the Swabian Jura, a 220-meter long plateau in the state of Baden-Württemberg Germany, thought to have been made by the first modern humans some 35,000 years ago. It is believed to be the oldest ivory carving ever found."


30,000 B.C. ----------Lion_man_photo.jpg

"A lion headed figure, first called the Lion Man , then the lion lady, is an ivory sculpture that is the oldest known zoomorphic (animal-shaped) sculpture in the world and one of the oldest known sculptures in general. The sculpture has also been interpreted as anthropomorphic, giving human characteristics to an animal, although it may have represented an unfactual presence deity. The figurine was determined to be about 32,000 years old by carbon dating material from the same layer in which the sculpture was found. It is associated with the archaeological Aurignacian culture."


29,000—25,000 BC= ---------VenusDoini.png

"This figurine, together with a few others from nearby locations, is the oldest known ceramic in the world, predating the use of fired clay[1] to make pottery. It has a height of 111 millimetres (4.4 in), and a width of 43 millimetres (1.7 in) at its widest point and is made of a clay body fired at a relatively low temperature."


23,000 BC= ---------Laussel.jpg

"The Venus of Laussel is a Venus figurine, a 1.5 foot high limestone bas-relief of a nude female figure, painted with red ochre. It is related to Gravettian Upper Paleolithic culture (approximately 25,000 years old).
The figure holds a wisent horn, or possibly a cornucopia, in one hand, which has 13 notches. According to some researchers, this may symbolize the number of moons or the number of menstrual cycles in one year."

To read what we think the thirteen marks means The Number Thirteen



22,000 BC= ------VenusBrass.jpg

"The Venus of Brassempouy (French:, meaning "Lady of Brassempouy", or "Lady with the Hood") is a fragmentary ivory figurine from the Upper Palaeolithic. It was discovered in a cave at Brassempouy, France in 1892. About 25,000 years old, it is one of the earliest known realistic representations of a human face."

Back To Top


Any culture that is able to fashion the artifacts shown above was able to develop an organized and sophisticated society. Consider that between 40,000 years ago, when these artifacts began to appear, and the close of the Ice Age, 12,000 years ago, they had 30,000 years to "Evolve". There was plenty of time to develop their society into a refined culture. In other words, a Civilization or many localized civilizations scattered around the Earth.
Most of the cultures that refer to this Dream Time in human history indicate it ended in great floods and destruction. I believe that, as the Greek civilization expanded into the then known world, the many cultures they encountered expressed to them their own legends of origin. Included in these legends were the distant memory of world wide climate change, of sudden sea level rises, and of catastrophic weather reversals.
In other words, The End Of The Ice Age!

Back To Top


Is it possible, that all the stories from cultures around the world that refer to Lost Civilizations destroyed in some great catastrophe are really refering to a "TIME" in the history of humankind. A time of climatic upheavel on such a scale it affected the entire planet.
If so, then there is only one time in the recent history of the Earth that fills those requirements. That time was the end of the Ice Age, and the world wide climate change that it brought to this planet. It took thousands of years for the Earth, the animals and the people to readjust to the new enviroment this event brought.

Today, we are told the effects of Global Warming are going to bring many changes to our planet and our way of living. Most people accept this as a real possibility. Now try and imagine a climatic upheavel a thousand times more pronounced than the subtle effects of global warming. That was the end of the Ice Age.

Plato was highly educated in all of the history of the nations around him. He was well aware of all of the myths and legends of these nations. Undoubtedly, the Greeks had their own such stories. I do not believe the story of Atlantis was an attempt at untruth. Rather, I see it as a way of bringing all of these legends together in an attempt to express this nearly forgotten race memory buried so deeply within the mind of humankind. I believe the Atlantis story to be just such a reference to this Dream Time.

Plato states that Egyptian Priest related the story of Atlantis to his grandfather, Solon, while he was on a diplomatic mission to Egypt. This story came from the written history within their temples. According to their records, the events of Atlantis occured 9,000yrs. earlier. That would put the date to around 10,000B.C. That would be at the end of the Ice Age.
My main goal in this writting is to demonstrate that the conditions existed at that time in history to support the claim of entire societies disappearing into the sea.

"I firmly believe Atlantis represents more of an Age in Time than it does a Place in Geography."

I also firmly believe that it is only a matter of time before the Civilization, or Civilizations, that spawned the Legend of Atlantis, Mu, or Lemuria and other legends are brought to light by archaeology. These ancient societies were lost to history during the sea level rise and dramatic climatic events at the close of the Ice Age.

I am not saying that the Atlantis of Plato could not have been an actual place. I believe Atlantis represents an historical Era in time that is all but forgotten by humankind.
My attempt in this writing is to demonstrate that the "Time" spoken of by Plato is a documented event we call the end of the Ice Age. Throughout this writing I will use Atlantis as a reference to this lost Era.

Had The Earth tilt/End of Ice Age/Younger Dryas period not taken place, our society would be at least a thousand years more advanced than it is today.
On a more personal note, I do find it odd that two distinctly different cultures, the Jews and the Greeks, reached the same conclusion. That conclusion, that the Earth "Tilted" in the distant past, resulting in a flood and the destruction of a civilization.

Here is a link to shortened versions of many Flood Stories
Flood Stories from Around the World -by Mark Isaak


The above information was given to demonstrate how a society could disappear from history without a trace. The rising sea level at the end of the Ice Age inundated vast tracts of land all over the world. The last discharge of Glacial Lake Agassiz raised the oceans level by 10ft in a very short time. There can be no doubt that many Ice Age societies were forced to flee to higher ground as their homes and villages were swept away. This alone would explain the legends of floods from all over the world.
There are many other "Flood and Lost Civilization" stories from our past that I have not made mention of in this writting. The fact that so many of these stories exist and follow much the same story line suggest that more study needs to be done before discounting them as mere legend. Be sure to check out the links below for more on this.

I do however hold that the Caribbean Mega Flood I have presented here is entirely possible and very likely took place.
It is not out of the realm of possibility that such a devastating event as a rapid meltdown of the NA Ice Sheet and rapidly rising sea levels could have left a profound impact on the stories of Floods and Lost Civilizations from many cultures.
Don't forget, the Greek Philosopher Homer wrote about the city of Troy. It was considered to be a myth just as many consider Plato's Atlantis to be. But in 1865 an English archaeologist, Frank Calvert, proved it really had existed. Will this happen with Atlantis as well? We can only wait and see.


E pur si muove

Back To Top


ICE AGE CREATURES

Could HUMANS have been witness to, or been victims of the Caribbean Megaflood Event? The discovery of four 13,000yr. old Skeletal Remains in underwater caves off the Caribbean coast of Yucatan may reveal some surprising answers to the question on humans in the Americas. One skeleton was of a woman about 50 years old.
Also found in the caves were the remains of Elephants and giant Land Sloths. Could these people and animals have been washed into the caves by....
A MEGAFLOOD?
PRE-CLOVIS PEOPLE?
HOW DID THEY GET HERE?

National Geographic Magazine


Image Source-Heritage Key

More on Arturo Gonzïalez
Rolex Award Winner and discoverer of 13,000 year old skeletons


For an excellent study of the sudden climate reversal that took place 12,000yrs. ago as evidenced by frozen animals and frozen forest found a thousand feet under the frozen muck of Siberia be sure to check out
Frozen Mammoths.
It is an excellent source of information.


Image Source-Forbidden Planet

What a Columbian Mammoth might look like on a modern freeway. And they say guys with rocks tied on the end of sticks killed off tens of millions of Mammoths. REALLY! How would you like to tick one of these things off? Or maybe a whole herd?


Image source-Unknown


Image source-Paleo Direct
Florida Columbian Mammoth Tooth

MAMMOTH VIDEO


SHORT FACED BEAR


Image Source-Wikipedia

The remains of four of these Bears were found in an underwater cave in Yucatan along with the remains of five humans. These finds have not been dated at this time.

Known as the short faced bear this creature could top out at 12 feet tall on its long hind legs or about 5 ft. 9 in. at shoulder height while on all four feet. It's weight was around 2,000 pounds. It is considered to be the largest bear that ever lived. It could take off a mans head in one bite. This huge size didn't slow it down though. It had long legs and could reach speeds of 40mph. The average human was 5 ft. 8 in., 165 lbs. and could run at about six miles per hr...... Do the math.


GIANT RAT

Image Source-Blond Search.ru

How about a giant 300lb. Rat the size of a Bear? It's from the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean when it was joined with other islands due to the low sea stand of of the last Ice Age.

"In 1868, Henry Waters & Brothers, manufacturers of phosphatic fertilizers in the city of Philadelphia, received a shipment of cave earth from Anguilla... [Probably from Cavanaugh Cave.] Henry Waters was sufficiently astute to notice the presence of fossil bones in his shipment and promptly brought them to the attention of Edward Cope, one of the countries preeminent paleontologists..Edward Cope could not have been more astounded.. the remains were quite unmistakably those of a rodent, but a rodent of phenomenal size...

Cope named his animal Amblyrhiza inundata, the generic name Amblyrhiza roughly translating to "strange root" and reflecting Cope's difficultly in conceiving of the origin of such an aberrant beast. The specific name inundata alludes to Cope's contention that the presence of so large an animal on so small and remote an island evidenced the existence of a foundered (or inundated) land-bridge between the Antilles and South America." Web Page

Check out the Giant Rat video.


GIANT SLOTH


Image Source-Wiki File Image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eremotherium.jpg
Wiki File Info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_sloth

The Giant Ground Sloth of the Ice Age went extinct about 12,500 years ago. They lived in the plains and grasslands like those in Yucatan and could be 18ft. to 20ft. long and weighed about 3 to 4 tons.
Their claws could grow to be 18in. long. It is thought Ice Age man hunted these creatures.
The giant ground sloth originated in South America (fossils were found in Argentina). They then migrated to southern North America.

Could the giant Sloth have been a meat eater?
"Harlan's Ground Sloth (Paramylodon harlani) variously interpreted as a grazer, a browser, or a mixed feeder but looking at dentin isotopes Ruez ( 2005) said it was a mixed feeder with grass being one or the main component of the diet.

From tooth studies (Bargo 2001), anatomical studies of elbows (Fariña & Blanco 1996) conclude Megatherium from South America may have been omnivouous, consuming meat by either hunting or scavenging; other researchers have suggested diets with animal protein for other sloth species. (France et al 2007)"
SAN DIEGO ZOO

The biggest surprise has come from the fossilised trackways of Megatherium. These have revealed the amazing fact that these giants regularly walked upright on their hind legs. The giant sloths must have weighed almost four tonnes (nearly as much as an African elephant), and so walking on only two legs would have put a tremendous strain on their skeletons.


THE REAL HOBBIT
AN ICE AGE ODDITY

There is one other Ice Age creature to bring to your attention, and that is the Hobbit. Not the movie Hobbit. The real Hobbit. Known scientifically as Homo Floresiensis.
Here are a couple of internet addresses--

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE

BBC NEWS


Image Source-Wikipedia

WIKI FILE

A NOVA television special about the Hobbit- Alien From Earth-NOVA

The remains of these creatures were first discovered in 2003, on the island of Flores, in Indonesia. They were almost three feet tall with a brain smaller than that of a chimpanzee.
Don't let that small brain size fool you though. They made weapons and tools, they made fire, and they hunted the Pigmy Elephant. [Which stood six feet tall- weight, one half ton]
Their Island was no paradise though. They shared this Island with a breed of giant Rats the size of Beavers.
The giant Komodo Dragon [a huge lizard] was also there, as well as other large predators like giant Pythons, much larger than todays Pythons.
On the one extreme were the Hobbits, a very small people, living in the most remote jungles. Every creature they encountered was a fearsome beast to them.
And just emerging from their caves, what we call Neolithic man. With stone tools and a primative society. But these people scattered over the Earth, including to North and South America.
An then there was Neanderthal man, still unknown to us after having been discovered so long ago.
The latest carbon dating of the bones of the Hobbits has shown that the most recent time they existed was about 10,000 B.C.E., or 12,000 years ago.
It was a very strange world at that time in our Earth's history! Not one most people would want to live in.
To view more incredible Ice Age animals

Mental Floss

NOVA Online - Death of the Mega Beast

Back To Top

======================================================


I hope you have enjoyed this presentation of
"AMY SMITH'S ICE AGE ATLANTIS".


This Atlantis site was constructed in order to include the only two known references to the Earth having Tilted.
"The Book of Noah" and "Plato's Atlantis"
There are also a references to Genesis on this site.


Be sure to check out our E-Books
for much more up to date information.


Want to see some Press Releases on this site:

Press Box Press Release

Free-Press-Release Inc.

PRLOG Press Release

Free Press Release Service


Would you like to see this site as it is featured on one of the best Mystery Sites in the world of cyberspace. These fine folks continue to pursue the Idea that there is more to the history of Humankind than meets the eye. And they have chosen to feature my Atlantis page in pursuit of that Idea. Please pay them a visit and enjoy what they have to offer.

WORLD MYSTERIES.COM
YOUR PREMIER MYSTERY SITE

for this and many other Mysteries from the dawn of time till the present.
If it is a Mystery, WORLD MYSTERIES will give you all of the latest information available to solve this Mystery for yourself.



If you enjoy well written and researched articles about the lastest Atlantis findings as well as research into many other cutting edge topic's along with excellent Documentary Video then point your browser in the direction of

THE ATLANTIS ARCHIVES


Want to know the thoughts of those from across the Big Pond
(The Atlantic Ocean) about Atlantis. Check out this site by

Tony Oconnell called Atlantipedia.ie

He is an Irish Gent who is bringing All of the serious Atlantis theories and studies together in a form not unlike Wikipedia. Give it a look.


WHAT DO NASA SCIENTIST SAY
ABOUT AN EARTH AXIS TILT?

Click the link above to read what Scientist from
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
have to say about past and future Earth Axis Tilt's.



A look at the most generally accepted theory about the Ice Ages today, Milutin Milankovitch

Here is a link to the latest findings challenging the Milankovitch Theory .


Here is a link to a great Caribbean Map with ZOOM capability
ZOOM MAP

Would you like to learn more Caribbean Geology
CLICK HERE

Discover Yucatan's geology at this link
GEOLOGY OF NORTHERN YUCATAN

Want to know more about the Gulf of Mexico?
GULF FACTS

Need more Mississippi info and a really cool map?
MISSISSIPPI RIVER


The Book of Noah(Enoch)

Ethiopian Enoch

Plato's Atlantis


Do you have information about Atlantis, Other Lost Civilizations or related mysteries you would like to add? We would love to hear from you.
Please Sign Our Guestbook

E-Mail: Amy Smith

AmyAtlantis on Twitter.com

Click to find any page on LOST HISTORY PUBLISHING!
(Must allow for Pop-Ups)


Legal and Copy Right Information
This theory is the product of Lost History Research, A Division Of Lost History Publishing.
It is subject to the limitations and interpretation of the historical, geological and archaeological information available about the Earth 12,000 years ago. This work may not be redistributed over the internet or published in any form without the prior written agreement of:
Lost History Publishing :{Amy Smith}
Contact Information:
amymsmith@losthistorypublishing.com
"http://www.losthistorypublishing.com"

This publication is protected under the following registered Copy Right:
Noah And The Current Riders Of Ice Age Atlantis
and existing supplements
Copy right � 2008 Lost History Publishing :{Amy Smith}
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-0-692-00250-6

IMAGE CREDITS
Some of the above Images were created by Lost History Publishing or are permitted by the image owner. Some are Author Unknown. LHP attempted to locate any owners or copyright holders to them but was unable to find any. If these Images belong to someone like "Google" or other, LHP will gladly give credit for them on this page or remove them if you find this site unacceptable for your Image. FAIR USE NOTICE: This page may contain elements of copyrighted material which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. All effort is made to acknowledge the copyright owner of said material and links are provided to the material source. Lost History Publishing presents this material without profit to those who have an interest in the included information for research and educational purposes only. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in
17 U.S.C. § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Thanks for all the views and the E-Mails,
Amy Smith