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.
LAKE AGASSIZ
ICE AGE TERMINOLOGY
THE SHORT OF IT
ICE LOBES & ICE DAMS
THE RIVER WARREN
MELT WATER PULSE 1-A
IMAGE GALLERY
ELASTIC MAGMA REBOUND?
BARBADOS ACCRETIONARY PRISM
E PUR SI MUOVE
GULF STREAM
MILANKOVITCH EXPLAINED
CREATURES OF THE ICE AGE
CANNIBALS OF THE ICE AGE
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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 Antarctica today than it would have been to cross Canada 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 was 390ft. 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.
The unexplained sudden retreat of the Ice Age was causing incredible rainfall and a quick meltdown of the Glacial Ice Sheet over North America and western Europe.
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 (7 degrees Celsius is 44.6 degrees Fahrenheit) ice sheets began a rapid retreat throughout the world.
44 degree increase in temperatures in less than 3 years
The water from this rapidly melting ice was creating giant Reservoir Lakes which over ran the Mississippi River Valley and poured into 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 Valley was carved out by Ice Age flooding. This melt off water from the Mississippi River Valley was turning the Gulf of Mexico into an overflowing basin.
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".
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, as the temperature warmed and the Ice Sheet Melted, there was an equally incredible amount of water vapor being released into the atmosphere.
" 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
The atmosphere became saturated with water vapor. There would have been an almost incessant fog and raining from this vapor. Torrential rain fell over the entire Mississippi Drainage area, including the Ice Sheet itself. As this warmer rain fell on the ice pack, the ice sheet began to dissolve at an astonishing rate.
(see map above) This created an incredible run off into the Mississippi Valley. Both the massive runoff and the atmospheric moisture kept the Mississippi flowing with astonishing power. The Ice Age Mississippi was much more massive than todays river.
Thirty three major rivers in the United States drain into the Gulf of Mexico. Along with thousands of streams and underground water sheds. Many, many more Rivers and Streams in Mexico also feed into the Gulf.
"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
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 and flowed elsewhere, or ceased to flow all together. 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
These rivers and streams stretch from Florida around the Gulf to Yucatan. Each of these were 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.
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.
If you would like to learn more about this event go to your favorite satellite viewer or you can use the Google viewer at this link.
Evidence of glacial Lake Agassiz occurs over an area of roughly 365,000 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
"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 collaspe 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)
The article at the link below is a peer review article about a Mississippi Megaflood .
"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
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 links to 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 Subglacial Lake could no longer support it's own weight and would collapse. This could squeeze the trapped water out in tremendous outburst.
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 was a temperate glacier. It's underside was actually, slightly above freezing.
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.
Portions of Lake Agassis 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.
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
View an animation of a collapsing Glacial Lake
The sudden dumping of massive amounts of ice, sand and 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 months.
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 (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 the Wisconsin River. The Wisconsin River is a tributary of the Mississippi River.
"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."
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.
"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 at least 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.
This was Glacial River Mississippi! The meandering stream we call the Mississippi River today was dwarfed by the 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
"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, points 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 as little as 200 years time, and some believe it was as little as 100yrs. 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.
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
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"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 proposal of what occured there, and how and why it occured. We offer here the suggestion of an Island chain off Cuba's western tip.
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.
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.
Even without the backup of water in the Gulf of Mexico due to a narrow Cuban Island chain, 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 levels at least 390 ft. lower than today,) the Bahama Mega-Bank was an exposed land mass larger than present day Florida.
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 is. 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.
Click on Image to Enlarge
Double Click on Image to Shrink
Gulf Of Mexico
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.
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.
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.
The Gulf's water level may have at times, surged a foot or more 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 390ft. below todays level. This surge of water 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.
The first image above is our view of the Ice Age Caribbean. The second image is the Caribbean today.
In the above Images 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. The carved out area there is visible.
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.
The above image is from the Caribbean earthquake and tsunami hazards studies page of the USGS Woods Hole Science Center.
The backup of water in the Gulf had dramatic effects as it flooded through into the Caribbean. The image above indicates that an incredible force struck the 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.
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 our 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.
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 shallower 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. It wasn't just lower sea level that exposed so much land from Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. The land itself rose above the water.
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. If the Nicaraguan Rise were lifted more than 35 meters above the 425ft. lower 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 isostatic uplift.
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 one tenth 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.). "
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.
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 into the Atlantic Ocean was restricted by the exposed Nicaraguan Rise which divided the North Caribbean from the South Caribbean. The South Caribbean Sea was separated from the Atlantic by the Antilles Island chain. The Gulfs eastern exit was limited by the protrusion of the Bahama Banks. Incredible amounts of water flood in from the rapidly melting Ice Sheet. This water came from thousands of swollen 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"
"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."
The end of the Ice Age brought about an incredible climatic collapse that inundated the lower area of North America with rainfall. All of these thousands of rivers and streams were flowing at full force. More water was flowing into the Gulf than could flow out. The entire Gulf region, from Florida through Texas, around to Yucatan were under the same influences. The Gulf, and possibly the North Caribbean as well, backed up with water from inches to a foot or more above mean sea level.
During the Ice Age the Gulf covered about 300,000 sq. miles. Thats 300,000 sq. miles of water up to a foot 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. The lower ice age sea level had exposed so much of the Arc, it was almost a solid belt of land. This Arc stretches from Haiti past Puerto Rico around to the coast of Venezuela. Three Ice Age Pro-Glacial Lakes.
The water from the catastrophic collapse of the Ice Age ice sheet carves out the Mississippi River Valley and empties into the Gulf of Mexico. As water backed up in the Gulf, water pressure pulls apart the proposed Cuban Land Bridge, greatly enlarging the opening. This allows 300,000 sq. miles of water, from inches deep to a foot or more to drain rapidly into the smaller North Caribbean Sea. The North Caribbeans exit between Haiti and Cuba is too narrow to expel that much water influx fast enough to prevent it from overflowing. Today the Cuba/Haiti channel is 51.5 miles wide. During the Ice Age, due to lower sea level, this opening may not have existed.
The backup of water in the northern Caribbean rolls over the Nicaraguan rise/Jamaica divide. This overflow first begins between Jamaica and Haiti. As the backup increases it breaches the low area on the west side of of Jamaica. These breaches allow the overflow to enter into the South Caribbean.
(For a close look at where the water may have over flowed
CLICK HERE).
The South Caribbean slowly overfilled and 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 water and debris empties into the Atlantic, it delivers a crippling blow to the Atlantic Current. One Giant Mega-Flow.
This process did not happen overnight. It took many years for the overflowing water to equalize with the main sea level. Even then the water from all the over flowing rivers and streams kept pouring into the Gulf. But now it had an unrestricted exit from the Gulf through the Caribbean into the Atlantic large enough to prevent it from backing up.
Debri mounds off the coast of Florida, the Bahamas and the Puerto Rico Trench are also evident in the Three Basins image(second image up). This cover of debris is from Florida around to the Barbados Accretionary Prism. For those who may not be aware of what an Accretionary Prism is, the following is the short of it.
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.
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.
OUR THEORY
(1) Earth temperatures warm. Rain falls on Glacial Ice Sheet
Yes, it was a bit more involved than the simplified steps listed above.
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 existed at that time. Many geologist believe that Cuba was connected 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.)
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 megaflow. Without the land bridge, a less sudden Megaflow.
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
"The Gulf Stream"
During the Ice Age there was no "Gulf Stream" as it is 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.
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 at the end of the ice age was cooling the Gulf and this 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.
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.
This Equatorial Stream flowed past the Caribbean, the Bahama Mega Bank, Florida, and the south eastern coast of North America, before turning towards Europe. The cold winds blowing from the ice cap and the chilled waters of the north diverted the Atlantic Current south, before it could reach Europe.
"What Creates The Gulf Stream"
'Equatorial Bulge'
'Coriolis Effect'
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 warm 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.
Hydrographic surveys of Wust(1964), Gordon(1967) and Johns et al.(2002), demonstrate that water enters the Caribbean mostly through the St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada Passages in the southeast--although there is a vigorous exchange of waters along the Mona Passage, an area of shallow banks between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
As this water moves in, the much warmer waters of the south Caribbean are forced north through the Yucatan Channel where it mixes with the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This high volume of warm water then exits through the Florida Straits as the Gulf Stream.
'Uneven Heating and Cooling'
For an excellent study of the Caribbean Current today, visit:
For an in depth study of the Worlds Ocean flows see-
Essay Web
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 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).
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.
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.
"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."
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.
>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. After studying the now collapsed land mass, Paulina Zelitsky said she believed that a partial land bridge of Islands once joined Cuba and Yucatan. She felt that at the end of the ice age this land bridge collapsed due to a seismic event.
The way scientist explain the onset and retreat of the Ice Ages is by a system known as The Milankovitch Theory. This theory attributes the ice ages to a change that takes place in the orbit of the Earth about every 100,000yrs. Rather than making a perfect circle around the Sun, our Earth sometimes orbits the Sun with an egg shaped orbit. This orbital variation is thought to be due to the gravitational pull of the giant outer planets in our solar system tugging the Earth towards them.
When this orbital variation occurs and the Northern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, the Earth is farthest away from the sun. This allows for cooler summers due to the distance from the sun. Cooler summers mean less melting of the ice and snow built up in the winter. This orbital variation causes cold winters and cool summers in the Northern Hemisphere, thus allowing for the formation of glaciers.
The difficulty with The Milankovitch Theory is that it can't explain the Ice Ages taking place in the Southern Hemisphere while at the same time the Northern hemisphere was under going it's maximum cool down. When the North was cooling down, the South should have been heating up, because it was receiving it's maximum dose of solar radiation.
"Because the Earth is oriented in space in such a way that the hemispheres are out of phase in the amount of solar radiation they receive, it is surprising to find that the climate in the Southern Hemisphere cooled off repeatedly during a period when it received its largest dose of solar radiation," says Singer. "Moreover, this rapid synchronization of atmospheric temperature between the polar hemispheres appears to have occurred during both of the last major ice ages that gripped the Earth."
There seems to be no explanation for why the Ice Age gripped the southern hemisphere while it was receiving it's highest solar radiation.
For our readers, we provide the following simplified explanation of Milankovitch. This theory is based on three factors of the Earths orbital variations coming together at the right time to produce an Ice Age.
Eccentricity== Eccentricity is the shape of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. This constantly fluctuating, orbital shape ranges from more or less circular, to an elliptical orbit (egg shaped) on a cycle of about 100,000 years. These changes alter the distance from the Earth to the Sun. The greater the distance the Earth is from the Sun, the further the Sun's short wave radiation must travel to reach Earth. . If the Earth is closer to the Sun in it's orbit, it receives more warming radiation. If the Earth is further from the sun, it receives less warming radiation. This alone is not enough difference to account for the Ice Ages.
Axial Tilt== Axial tilt is the inclination of the Earth's axis in relation to its plane of orbit around the Sun. About every 41,000 years the tilt of the Earth increases from 21.5 to 24.5 degrees, then back again to 21.5 degrees. If the Earth is tilted at only 21.5 degrees, it means less solar radiation is reaching the Polar regions, thus allowing for colder temperatures. This alone is not enough tilt to account for the Ice Ages.
Precession== Precession is the wobble of the Earth as it spins on axis. Imagine the Earth like a top that isn't spinning quite fast enough to keep it in an upright position. As this slowly spinning top turns, the upper end of of the top slowly moves around in a circle. This is Precession. The Earth is this slowly spinning top. It's Polar regions make slow circles about every 23,000yrs. Over a long period of time, this changes the onset of the seasons of winter,summer, ect. This alone can not account for the Ice Ages.
Putting It All Together== If the Eccentricity, (or the egg shaped orbit) of the Earth, has the Earth at it's farthest point from the Sun, the Earth is recieving less warming Solar radiation.
Recently, there has been an addition to the Milankovitch Theory, or Astronomical Theory, as it is sometimes called. Not only does the Earth follow an egg shaped orbit aroung the Sun, it also follows a path that takes it up and down in it's orbit. Rather than following a straight line, it moves above and below this line in a wave pattern.
As the Earth approaches it's farthest point from the Sun it is following a certian line, or path. Once the Earth makes one orbit, and approaches it's farthest distance from the Sun again, it may be a few degrees higher than it's last orbit. The next orbit, higher still. Eventually, this rising will stop and the Earth will decend below it's natural orbital plane to it's lowest point. This process of rising and falling on it's far orbit end takes many thousands of years.
As the Earth follows this up and down wave pattern, it comes into areas of space that contain more Cosmic Dust than other areas. These areas of high concentration of cosmic dust act like a thin curtain over a window. Some of the sunlight is filtered out. Less sunlight means less heat on the Earth. Less heat, more cooling. This process serves to enhance the Milankovitch Theory.
For more on the latest addition to the Astronomical Theory
CLICK HERE
The Milankovitch Theory has difficulty explaining the variations of temperature and climate in the Northern Hemisphere. It can't explain the Ice Age in South America at all. While the North was cold, the South should have been warm. This is not the only flaw with Milankovitch. Two new findings have recently surfaced to challenge the theory
According to research provided by the USGS Research Program, Devils Hole cavern in south central Nevada is a "500,000 year temperature record of unprecedented accuracy". Limestone Calcite from the cave is heated and releases trapped gases formed back through time. By studying these released gases, scientist can draw a very accurate picture of rainfall, co2, temperature, and other factors, far back in time. These findings suggest variations in temperature that do not conform with the projected model of the Milankovitch Theory.
The findings at Devil's Hole are supported by similar findings from the
Vostok paleo-temperature records derived from
ice core samples in Antarctica. CO2 and other gases trapped when the Ice was formed reveal accurate climate conditions thousands of years in the past. The marine ice volume records from Antartica tie in well with the Devils Hole temperature records.
There are two other new findings that have emerged in recent years. They are, Thermohaline Circulation and Atmospheric CO2 levels .
The adjective thermohaline derives from thermo referring to temperature and haline referring to salt content, factors which together determine the density of sea water.
Another finding concerns Atmospheric CO2 levels. From ice cores taken from Antartica, we know that presently the Earths CO2 level is higher than it has been at any time during the last 800 thousand years. High CO2 levels trap the Suns rays and create a Greenhouse effect thus making the Earth warmer.
When combined with the Milankovitch Theory, Thermohaline Circulation, Atmospheric CO2 levels, and the recent addition of the Wave Astronomical theory, the basics of the modern scientific theory regarding the Ice Ages is formed.
The problem is, even with all this combined, these factors can't explain the Ice Age in South America or the sudden climate collapse at the end of the last Ice. This inability to explain these things has led to yet another theory.
Comet Impact over the North American Ice Sheet. This theory suggest that a comet impacted over the Ice Sheet and brought about the sudden end of the Ice Age. This theory has fallen out of favor recently.
As to the cause of the Ice Age, some suggest that the massive Toba Volcanic Eruption which took place in Indonesia about 75,000yrs ago, may have either caused or at least enhanced the extent of the last ice age. The apparent coincidence of the eruption with the onset of the last glacial period attracted considerable scientific interest. For more on the Toba event click
HERE
The Milankovitch Theory has fallen in and out of favor within the scientific community a number of times. To be honest, I don't know if it is in or out now. None the less, there it is in simplified form.
If you wish to study the Milankovitch Theory further, I highly suggest the link below which provides diagrams to aid in a better understanding of Milankovitch.
Here is a link to the latest scientific findings challenging the Milankovitch Theory
Below is a chart following the Ice Ages. The following Ice Age chart is based on information found at
www.sare.org The chart there was created by Donald Davison.
YEAR 470,000 BC - Start of an exceptionally long 30,000 year Interglacial warm period.
30,000yrs. later in
100,000yrs. later in
10,000yrs. later in
100,000yrs. later in
10,000yrs. later in
100,000 yrs. later in
10,000yrs. later in
100,000yrs. later in
According to the math of planetary astronomers, the giant outer planets should not
The above Ice Age chart is loosely based on the Milankovitch Theory.
Could HUMANS have been witness to, or been victims of the Caribbean Megaflow 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. Also found in the caves were the remains of Elephants and Giant Land Sloths! Could these people and animals have been washed in by a Megaflow?
More on Arturo Gonzalez
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
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 30 to 40mph. The average human was 5 ft. 8 in., 165 lbs. and could run at about six to 10 miles per hr...... Do the math.
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 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.
Could the giant Sloth have been a meat eater?
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)"
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.
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.
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.
NOVA Online - Death of the Mega Beast
Cannibalism (from Caníbales, the Spanish name for the Carib people, a West Indies tribe formerly well known for their practice of cannibalism) is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy. This theme dates back to Columbus' accounts of a supposedly ferocious group of cannibals who lived in the Caribbean islands and parts of South America called the Caniba, which gave us the word cannibal.
Many people view Neolithic, or Cave Man, as a gentle creature living in harmony with nature and his surroundings. Nothing could be further from fact. It was a bitterly savage world in which survival was an uncertain hope. The "Niceties" of civilized society didn't exit. Think of the Head Hunter Tribes of Borneo or the Cannibals of Fiji or of the Aztec or Vikings and what they did to their victims. It is thought that most of humankind practiced cannibalisim at this point in our development.
While working a Neolithic site near the village of Herxheim, in south-west Germany, archaeologist unearth a gruesome find. The remains of many humans were found in pits surrounding the neolithic site. Included among the remains were children and unborn babies. The gruesome part is that it appears these people had been eaten by other humans. The markings on the bones indicated they had been pit roasted and chewed.
Other evidence of Cannibalisim comes from Gough's Cave, England--
Evidence from Spain
They found water and food in abundance, could hunt wild boar, horses, deer, "which means that they did not practice cannibalism through a lack of food. They killed their rivals and used the meat," he said.
The first excavations did not take place until 1978, then "in 1984, we found 150 human remains. In 1992, they found a complete intact skeleton, and two years later, they discovered remains dating back more than 800,000 years. Those remains probably correspond to the first humans who reached Europe, known as Homo antecessor, after the Latin word for pioneer or explorer.
Cannibalisim became so ingrained into the human mind set that it was a part of the Life/Death ritual. It was a part of the burial rite. If you died, you had the joy of knowing you were forever joined with the members of your tribe in what became a holy spiritual Ritual.
There was a practice among early people that is known as Ritualistic Cannibalism. It is when one consumes their enemys for their strength or members of their own tribe or family as a show of respect. There was also homicidal cannibalism, where humans targeted and hunted other humans as a food source.
This was normal behavior. Good and Evil did not exist. It was kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. Compassion, mercy and the other societal norms that describe us as humans today were not present then. The human conscience did not exist except at some vauge rudimentary level.
Here is a link to a great Caribbean Map with ZOOM capability Would you like to learn more Caribbean Geology
Discover Yucatan's geology at this link
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E pur si muove
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Enriquillo Valley Dominica
Image source-Absolute Astronomy
Click on Image to Enlarge
Double Click on Image to Shrink
The Three Basins Area
thinkquest.org
Texas Rivers
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 enlarged the channel and washed down the southern end of the Bahama Bank.
Even without the proposed Cuban land bridge, water entering the Caribbean had a difficult time finding it's way into the Atlantic.
A study of the above link will demonstrate the restriction of water flow caused by the exposed land of the Nicaraguan Rise or Jamaica Divide during the Ice Age. The water flow between the North and South Caribbean was very limited.
Ice Age Caribbean
Energy.gov
Image Source-USGS
(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.
(7) Up to a foot of increase or more in Gulf water level.
(8) Rapid erosion, Yucatan & Florida straits & Bahama Mega-bank.
(9) Intense melt off forces collapse of large pro-glacial lakes.
(10) Super megafloods scour Mississippi River Valley.
(11) Tsunami shock waves created when megafloods reach Gulf.
(12) Water pressure and shock waves shatter Cuban land bridge.
(13) Megaflooding and Tsunami's race through Caribbean.
(14) All low laying land is picked up and taken away.
(15) Drastic influx of water and debris into Atlantic disrupts Atlantic current.
(16) Onset of Younger Dryas cold snap.
And Yet It Moves
Ice Age Caribbean
A Megaflow none the less.
E pur si muove - - Por si acaso!
Ice Age Caribbean
Above is an animation from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
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 needed to push further into the northern area. This caused northwest Europe to become glaciated during the Ice Age.
Caribbean & Gulf Stream today
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 creating a downhill slope. Water runs downhill due to the force of gravity. As this water flows downhill, it is effected by another force, sometimes called 'The spin off effect', or 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.
This flow of water is forced between the Islands of the lower Caribbeans Antilles Arc.
Image Source=USGS
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 whirlpool effect in the Atlantic Ocean.
Joanna Gyory, Arthur J. Mariano, Edward H. Ryan.
"The Caribbean Current." Ocean Surface Currents.
"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
"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
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
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)
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.
Here's a piece from Brad Singer, of UW-Madison,
THE LAST ICE AGE HAPPENED IN SOUTH AMERICA TOO.
FUTURE PUNDIT
If at the same time, the Axis Tilt is at only 21.5 degrees, this will also cause the the Polar regions to receive less Solar radiation. With the Earth at it's greatest distance from the sun, and having the least amount of tilt, that is two of the conditions needed for the onset of an Ice Age.
Also, if Precession, or the Earths wobble, has positioned the Northern Hemisphere so it is pointing towards the Sun, when the Earth is farthest from the Sun, that is the third condition. With these three conditions met, the Earth will likely experience an Ice Age. That is, according to the Milankovitch Theory.
It is similar to holding a yard stick on one end and raising and lowering the other end.
Or at least, that is what the theory says.
These findings together pose a serious threat to the Milankovitch Theory.
Often called the Oceanic Conveyor Belt, this deep water current circulates warm and cold water throughout the Earths oceans. The movement of these waters can effect the atmospheric temperatures, as well land masses they flow past.
Low CO2 levels, allow the Suns rays to be reflected back into space. This makes the Earth cooler. Together, both Thermohaline Circulation and Atmospheric CO2 levels would have a noticeable effect on the Earths climate.
To us, the Milankovitch theory is a useful tool in helping to understand our climate changes. It is not the climate Gospel.
Milankovitch Cycles and Glaciation
It represents the ice Ages from stage 11 in 470,000B.C. till the next predicted Ice Age in 20,000A.D.
The Ice Ages and their ebbs and flows are sequenced from the present day, which is stage 1, and go backward through time.
440,000 BC - Warm period ends, Start of a 100,000 year Ice Age
340,000 BC - 10,000 year Intergacial warm period begins.
330,000 BC - Start of another 100,000 year Ice Age.
230,000 BC - Start of 10,000 year Interglacial warm period.
220,000 BC - Start of another 100,000 year Ice Age.
120,000 BC - Start of 10,000 year Interglacial warm period.
110,000 BC - Start of another 100,000 year Ice Age
10,000 BC - Start of another exceptionally long 30,000 year Interglacial warm period.
align in such a fashion as to tug the Earth into an elongated orbit and thus bring
about another ice age until 20,000A.D.
2,000 AD - Today we are 12,000 years into that 30,000yr. warm period.
5,000 AD - By this date we should reach our peak high temperature.
By this logic, it is going to get even warmer. So much for human caused global warming.
The predicted extra long warm period should last untill
20,000 AD - The Expected start of next 100,000 year Ice Age.
The Earth 10,000 B.C.
"CREATURES OF THE ICE AGE"
PRE-CLOVIS PEOPLE?
HOW DID THEY GET HERE?
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE ARTICLE
Image Source-Heritage Key
Rolex Award Winner and discoverer of 13,000 year old skeletons
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 
Image Source-Wikipedia
Image Source-Unknown,
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
Image Source-Wiki File Image
Wiki File Info
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."
"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.
SAN DIEGO ZOO
AN ICE AGE ODDITY
Here are a couple of internet addresses--
Image Source-Wikipedia
WIKI FILE
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
Science News
"From the bones they left behind, scientists have also discovered these people were using sophisticated butchering techniques to strip flesh from the bones of men, women and children.
"These people were processing the flesh of humans with exactly the same expertise that they used to process the flesh of animals," said Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London. "They stripped every bit of food they could get from those bones."
The new evidence that is emerging does not resolve the issue, though some significant pointers have been uncovered. "These people were breaking up bones to get at the marrow inside," she said. "They were stripping off all of the muscle mass. Brains seemed to have been removed. Tongues seemed to have been removed. And it is also possible that eyes were being removed. It was very systematic work." In addition, human remains appear to have been disposed of in the same way as animal bones, by being dumped in a single pit."
Gough's Cave Cannibals
"The remains of the 'first Europeans' discovered at an archaeological site in northern Spain have revealed that these prehistoric men were cannibals who particularly liked the flesh of children. "We know that they practiced cannibalism," said Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro, one of the co-directors of the Atapuerca project, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A study of the remains revealed that they turned to cannibalism to feed themselves and not as part of a ritual, that they ate their rivals after killing them, mostly children and adolescents.
Cannibals in Spain
More Info
Yes, your ancestors and mine were most likely Human Flesh Eating Cannibals. ....Well,...Your's anyway. The enemies from another tribe weren't just enemies, they were also food. Some people have difficulty absorbing this concept and refuse to except it. They will not believe that we came from such stock in spite of any evidence to the contrary.
Except for tool usage, and a slightly more complex vocal communication, there was little to distinguish us from any other pack animal group. If it didn't kill and eat us first, we would kill and eat it. Even those of our own species.
ZOOM MAP
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GEOLOGY OF NORTHERN YUCATAN
GULF FACTS
MISSISSIPPI RIVER
IMAGE CREDITS
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"AMY SMITH'S CARIBBEAN MEGAFLOW".
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