Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Divers Discover 52,000 Year Old Cypress Forest Underwater

Christina Sarich, Staff Writer
Waking Times
Covering more than .5 square miles in the deepest waters of the Gulf of Mexico, divers have uncovered an enormous Cypress forest. It will probably be destroyed in just a few years by wood-burrowing marine life now that it has been exhumed from numerous layers of sediment, but experts believe this hidden arbor, now being called the Bald Cypress Forest, is more than 52,000 years old. The Cypress are so well preserved that, when scientists took the thinnest cut to determine their age, you could still smell the scent of fresh Cypress sap.
Local fishermen found a site near the coast of Alabama that was particularly full of fish and other marine life. They weren’t quite sure why. Suspecting that there might be something hidden under the Gulf water’s surface, the fisherman confided in a dive shop owner who eventually decided to look into the deeper waters in person to see what he could find. The diver discovered an extraordinary underwater forest but refused to disclose the location for years. He told another diver, named Ben Raines, but swore him to secrecy in 2012. The forest has become an artificial reef  - a habitat for all kinds of fish, crustaceans, anemones, and various marine wildlife. The layers of sediment covering the forest had been protecting the reef by creating an oxygen-free environment.
Raines broke his silence and put together a team of a few scientists to create a sonar map to measure the breadth of the forest and also took samples to try to date the trees. The age given to the underwater forest, 52,000 years, will likely help scientists learn more about the climate during the Wisconsin Glacial period, when sea levels were much lower than they are today. The Wisconsin glaciation extended from approximately 85,000 to 11,000 years ago.
A researcher from Louisiana State University, Kristin DeLong, will dive the site this year to explore it more completely. Another team of scientists is applying for grants, but they will need these grants to be awarded expeditiously since a dendrochronologist (someone who determines the age of trees by their rings) says the forest will probably only remain for two years before being devoured by sea organisms.
This is yet another underwater discovery that proves we know less about our own deep seas than we might have imagined. Other recent finds include a first century B.C. stonecuttersubmerged DNA in Greece, a possible crashed UFO between Finland and Sweden in the Baltic Sea, and pyramids of glass found in theBermuda Triangle.
About the Author
Christina Sarich is a musician, yogi, humanitarian and freelance writer who channels many hours of studying Lao TzuParamahansa YoganandaRob Brezny,  Miles Davis, and Tom Robbins into interesting tidbits to help you Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga.
This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

29 comments:

  1. So...this forest is 52,000 years old, but coincidentally, in just TWO short years, it will be DEVOURED, so they need grant monies NOW!!! How convenient...how very convenient. duh. Funny how these 'finds' somehow fit the narratives of those who stand to get MONEY. interesting. more interesting than the forest above, for sure.

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    1. It was burried until recently... until Kartina uncovered it... I'm pretty cynical about things but wow... you win. Here's the crown.

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    2. When I read about it the first time the prime worry was that people would start logging at it for high-priced furniture. Fast grants and protective injunctions can give scientists like archaeobiologists time to gather what data they can before it's pillaged. Think of it like archaeologists vying with treasure hunters for a newly uncovered city; if the scientists can't get in there soon enough the artifacts will be plundered and sold off to the highest bidders and we'll get no chance to learn from them.
      - MsScience @ Facebook.com/MsScience

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  2. and correct me if i'm wrong but i think atlanta is quite a distance from the gulf of mexico

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    1. An acutal news story says off the coast of Alabama. Atlanta, Alabama, Alaska, they're all the same.

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    2. Ask Obama where the gulf is lol!

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  3. Just so you guys know the glass pyramids mentioned later in the article are a well known hoax and don't exist.

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  4. this is such a joke...52 thousand years..all gone in two...I do have some lovely beachfront property to sell to you for a steal in Arizona if you believe this malarkey.

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  5. Did you even bother to read it? It was under sediment that created an oxygen free environment. It's not anymore (one click and you'd find that surges from Hurricane Katrina likely resulted in the sediment clearing.

    Now that it's not under sediment, it's prone to decay. It's really not all that far fetched.

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    1. So there where no hurricanes int that area for 52 thousand years, you say?

      This article is bull shit

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    2. Once the 2nd guy told scientists about it, they went and finished uncovering it. Seriously, read, then comment...

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  6. The deepest waters of the Gulf of Mexico? So.....the diver went down to 2000M on a single free dive tank, explored for a day or so and came back finding the cypress forest?

    That's the far fetched aspect of this story.

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    1. This is why people get stupider and stupider. They buy into this crap hook line and sinker. They do no comon sense research.

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  7. So....Katrina 'uncovered' for the FIRST TIME IN 52,000 YEARS this amazing forest that now requires SPEEDY money in order to save?protect?study? it? Nice scam, if you can pull it off. haha

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  8. Where did all that water come from? Did someone make more water?

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    1. It came from glacial melt. It's in the article.

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  9. I guess diving technology has really advanced over the years... the 'deepest' waters of the Gulf? Wowser! And I guess the entire gulf was drained dry during the last Ice Age, if the forest is located in the deepest waters.

    Perhaps an editor should've spotted this... imagine the submerged cypress forest is just a few hundred feet below sea level... a believable rise in sea level since the last glacial retreat.

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  10. "Oxygen free environment"...water has oxygen in it lol

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    1. That's why it's going to be gone in the next 2 years, because it is no longer under layers of sediment that provided the oxygen free environment...

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  11. Seriously? Two years? Two years of exploitation. They will just disrupt the peace underwater. Fockers.

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  12. WOW!! I was so excited about this, I am so interested in the research! WE ARE SO LUCKY TO HAVE SOMETHING LIKE THIS TO STUDY even for just a short while. THIS COULD BE ONE OF THE GOOD THINGS THAT CAME FROM KATRINA! Then I read the comments..... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Why even give your negative opinion about it if you have NOT EVEN TAKEN THE TIME TO READ THE ARTICLE?!?!? I doubt you are a scientist, or naturalist, or even slightly care about the environment around you!! If you are so against this, don't you dare donate your welfare check to the research, go to your corner store, get ya another Big Gulp in a Styrofoam cup, cook your Hamburger Helper and watch your favorite movie, 'Idocracy'!!!

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  13. so let me get this straight: the forest is 52,000years old but will only "remain for two years before being devoured by sea organisms" since we discovered it. How long has it been emerged in the water exactly? longer than 2 years surely.

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    1. Surely you mean submerged... It was under layers of sediment before, you know, the same way bog mummies are formed. Perfectly preserved in some cases, with their internal organs intact, but mummified on the outside. But now they are uncovered and in the open ocean, rather than under sediment, where aquatic animals can eat them, and salt and oxygen can destroy them.

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  14. The diver that found it first was right. Too bad he told the 2nd diver that couldn't keep his mouth shut.

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  15. Morons. Can you all spell "Dumb"

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  16. This is a legit story. The "forest" doesn't look like a standing forest as the picture above would suggest. It consists of stumps, and roots and some logs. Also it was found in 60ft of water, which is more understandable than saying the deepest parts of the gulf. And yes, for some of you who don't understand geography, Alabama has a coast on the gulf of mexico. A quick google search of the topic brings up all the details. Katrina most likely moved the dirt. AND since the "forest" isn't standing, that sound much more believable. I feel the author trumped up the info to sound like a sci fi novel. It's there, just not the picture that was painted in this article.

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