The Earth 10,000 B.C.
The Ice Age is in retreat. The meltoff water flows from the 3,000 mile long, 4,000 mile wide Canadian, North American Glacier. This Glacier is as much as two miles thick even down to the area that is Chicago today. This entire portion of North America was buried under one super thick sheet of ice. Canada looked like Antarctica does today. It would be easier to cross the Greenland Ice Cap today than it would have been to cross Illinois then. The vast blanket of ice buried most of the mountains of New England, and was as much as ten thousand feet thick in parts of Ohio. The weight of this ice compressed the land beneath it as much as 3,000 feet lower than it is today. This massive ice pack has absorbed so much of the Earth's water that the sea level's are as much as 300 to 500 feet below today's sea level.
On the Russian side the area of Siberia was a green land full of wildlife. There were no 10,000 ft. thick Ice Sheets there. The vast amount of ice was in the Western Hemisphere.
The unexplained sudden retreat of the Ice Age was causing a quick meltdown of the Glacial Ice Sheet over North America. The water from this rapidly melting ice was creating giant Reservoir Lakes which over ran the Mississippi River Valley and raised the water level of the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River Valley is a hundred miles wide and stretches from Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. That's 600 miles in length and
35,000 square miles of area. This melt off water from the Mississippi River Valley was backing up in the Gulf and turning it into an upland sea.
The existance of a land bridge (or partial land bridge) between Yucatan and Cuba was limiting the discharge of the Gulf to the Florida-Cuba straits.
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Caribbean Mega-Flood Lost History Publishing-Amy Smith CopyRight©2008 All rights reserved |
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There are three exits out of the Gulf of Mexico that water must pass through before entering the sea.
No.-1 The exit between the Florida and Yucatan Peninsula's.
(Much smaller 12,000 years ago)
No.-2 The exit between Florida and Cuba.
(Also much smaller 12,000 years ago)
No.-3 The exit between Yucatan and Cuba.
(Was greatly restricted or didn't exist 12,000 years ago)
The exit's of Florida/Yucatan and Florida/Cuba were greatly enlarged by the Ice Age Mega Flood into the openings we see there today.
The exit of Yucatan/Cuba was dramatically opened by the megaflood event as it washed away the soft poreous limestone that was the bedrock off the western tip of Cuba.
Between the Gulf and the Caribbean Basin was the the Yucatan Cuba land bridge. Today this is a 135mi(217 km) wide opening from the Gulf of Mexico into the Caribbean Basin, but then it was a narrow partial land bridge connection between Yucatan and Cuba with a much smaller opening.
(We estimate that at least fifty miles of the western tip of the narrow Cuban land bridge was washed away by the Megaflood as well as a sizeable portion of northeast Yucatan)
Scientist are now saying the English channel was carved out by an Ice Age Flood between 150,000 & 400,000 yrs. ago. If an Ice Age flood can carve out the English Channel, one should have no problems carving away the little Land Bridge area between Yucatan & Cuba that I am proposing.
English channel carved by huge ancient flood
Yucatan is very flat and low lying. The bedrock of the Yucatan Peninsula is limestone. Limestone rocks are sedimentary rocks that are made from the mineral calcite which came from the beds of evaporated seas and lakes and from sea animal shells. Limestone is soluble in water. This is what made Yucatan so susceptible to the overflow of water from the Gulf. Yucatan's limestone bedrock is honeycombed with caves and sinkholes. There are no major rivers on the Yucatan Penensula. This is due to the poreous limestone landscape. The water simply sinks underground.
There are underground cave rivers that run up to 150 miles in Yucatan. All along these underground rivers are giant sink holes. These can be a hundred feet or more across and hundreds of feet deep. There are at least 8,000 such sink holes that have been counted in Yucatan and likely thousands of more uncounted.
The coastal areas of Yucatan are made up of relativly young lime stone. Around 1.5 to 2 million years old and some much younger. This type of limestone has not been pressurized and hardened like older, deep earth limestone. It was not difficult for the overflowing waters of the Gulf to erode the Yucatan/Cuba land bridge. You can practically break some of this limestone with your bare hands. Globigerina limestone and coralline limestone are the main types in this area.
The following quote from Quintana Roo Speleological Survey should provide a better idea of the age of some of the shore area of Yucatan
"Most Quaternary deposits on the isthmus are restricted to the present margins of the peninsula. These deposits are typically thin, extending 1-3 km inland from the Caribbean. Most Pleistocene deposits are the result of marine transgressions over Eastern Quintana Roo during the Illinois and Wisconsin Ice ages."
Below the Gulf was the Caribbean. Much of the exposed land in the Caribbean was due to the lower sea levels. This Caribbean formed 'millions of years ago' due to plate tectonic activity. This section was hundreds of feet lower than the area around the Gulf. This section is outlined by the Puerto Rico Trench. It was surrounded by hills that are today the island chain known as the Caribbean Islands.
The Gulf was fed by the Mississippi River. This river was a one hundred twenty mile wide raging torrent from the melting Glacier to the Gulf.
The water flooding in from the glacial meltoff was much more than was flowing out through the smaller Florida Cuba opening. As the water backed up in the Gulf, it began flowing over the flat low lying Yucatan Peninsula and eroded down the north eastern corner of Yucatan and the western tip of Cuba.
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".
Remember, the Mississippi Valley is 120 miles wide. This is an astounding amount of water. If you could stand on one side, you could not see the other side. The curveture of the Earth would prevent it. Standing on the shore of the Ocean, a six foot tall person with good eyesight can see the horizon about 3 miles away. The Mississippi was fourty times wider than that. This incredible volume of water raised the Gulf water level by up to 300ft above the mean sea level of that time.
This proved to be too much for the smaller openings of Florida Cuba / Florida Yucatan. 12,000 years ago all of the now submerged land area of Florida, Yucatan and Cuba was exposed. This backup of water flooded these exposed areas. The backup of water was exerting tremendous pressure on the water that was escaping through the narrow divides in the Florida Cuba / Florida Yucatan exits. This highly pressurized water tore away at the walls of the openings and ripped away huge chunks of material, making them many times larger. This onrushing water also overcame the partial land bridge between Cuba and Yucatan. When the Cuba-Yucatan land bridge gave way, 600,000 sq mi (1,550,000 sq km), of Gulf water that was at least 100ft. (up to 500ft.) deep poured through and hit the lower Caribbean land mass with the force of an explosion. Everything in the path of this unstoppable force was snatched from it's foundations and was ground into a mass of liquid land and carried out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Cuba and the other Carribean Islands of today are but the leftover remnants of the Caribbean Basin that this Ice Age Caribbean Mega Flood could not dissolve.
If you would like to learn more about this event go to your favorite satellite viewer and type in Northeast Coast, South America. You will see the debris field left by this wash away. It totally fills the southern side of the Puerta Rico Trench and piles out into the Atlantic Ocean. It stretches along 500 miles of the South American coast line. Or you can use the really cool Google map at this link and scroll about a third of the way down the page.
Use the above map to Zoom In on the area off the western tip of Cuba. There you will see the main area of the land Bridge we say was overcome by the meltoff water from the North American Ice Age Glacier.
THE GULF CARIBBEAN AREA FORMATION
The prevailing geologic model maintains that the Caribbean crust formed in the Pacific over an Earth core hotspot or mantle plume within the Earth and drifted east to it's present position. The seperation 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 seperation 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)
On the satellite photo the Cayman Ridge to the south of Cuba is visable. To the west is the Cuban Ridge (also called the Yucatan parallel ridge) that runs from the western tip of Cuba to the southeastern corner of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Below is a quote from the Department of Interior that lends support to the Yucatan Cuban Land Bridge connection
Possible Structural Link between Yucatan and Cuba
"Oceanographic investigations along the east-
ern margin of the Yucatan Peninsula (Quintana Roo Ter-
ritory) have revealed the presence of two ridges sepa-
rated by a depression, which parallel the Yucatan coast.
The strike of the eastern, or Outer Ridge (north-north-east) changes to northeast at the northern end of this
ridge and reaches toward the Cuban shelf. The origin of the Outer Ridge is unknown, but possibly it is a remnant of a Paleozoic fold belt that connects the basement rocks beneath the ridge east of British Honduras (Turnef Fe Island well) with basement rocks on the Isle of Pines (CUBA)
The origin of the Outer Ridge is unknown,
but some speculation appears to be justified, inasmuch as this is the first possible structural
link that has been found between Cuba and Yucatan."
doi.aapg.org
The Cayman Ridge, and in particular, the Cuban Ridge, were much higher than todays ridge lines during the last Ice Age. It was this more developed Ridge System that formed a narrow partial Land Bridge area between Yucatan and Cuba. This Land Bridge was the left over remnant of a Paleozoic Ridge System that connected Yucatan and Cuba. It was a mile high wall between the Gulf and the Caribbean and was at least several miles thick.
Most who are familar with the Yucatan Channel won't argue that the stub of a ridge system exist between Yucatan and Cuba today. Some will even agree, that at one point in time, Cuba and Yucatan were likely connected by land. The point of disagreement comes at the time of the disconnecting of these two bodies. They propose the time of this seperation in terms of hundreds of thousands of years ago. This is due to the time required for Karsting to break down a limestone land base.
(Karsting is the dissolving of limestone over a long period of time to form cave systems and enlarged vertical cracks called joints. Limestone rocks are sedimentary rocks that are made from the mineral calcite which came from the beds of evaporated seas and lakes and from sea animal shells.
Limestone is soluble in water. Karsting allows limestone to be broken down and washed away by water).
A land mass connection between Northeast Yucatan and Cuba would require many thousands of years to break down due to the forces of water erosion and Karsting under normal circumstances. We feel this process was still occuring at the end of the last Ice Age. The water volumn from the Ice Age Melt-off was not part of the normal flow.
Between The edge of the Yucatan Channel and the Cayman Ridge is the abysmal plain of the northern Caribbean Basin. If you will study the Images, you will see a huge field of debris in this area.
To us this is the washout of the Land Bridge between Yucatan and Cuba at the end of the last Ice Age. Some may counter that this was the process of hundreds of thousands of years of erosion.
We feel the distance between the debris field and the edge of the Yucatan plateau indicates the force of water that was required to propel this debris the distance it has been removed from the Yucatan area. Also, the collaspe of the Cuban shelf at the southwestern corner of Cuba indicates a force of water that undermined this area.
If you will study the image below you will see the debris field on the north side of the Cayman Ridge. This is the area we say the washout debris from the Yucatan Cuban land bridge was deposited.
To the south of the Cayman Ridge is the debris from the Megaflood hitting and overwashing the Cayman Ridge.
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 colasped land mass, Paulina Zelitsky said she believed that a partial land bridge once joined Cuba and Yucatan. She felt that at the end of the ice age this land bridge collasped due to a seismic event.
We agree that a partial land bridge once connected Cuba and Yucatan. And, seismic activity probably played a roll in the collaspe 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 forms broke and shattered into these shapes because of the incredible water pressure pushing against this area. We believe many more of these forms will be found stretched across the northern Caribbeans abysmal plain. Those who observe these forms will wonder, What are these things, and how did they get here?
Those that agree the stub of a ridge system exist between Yucatan and Cuba today tell us that, Yes there is evidence of a Megaflood having taken place in the Caribbean and perhaps more than one. But not on the scale and magnitude I propose. These events to them were more Mega-Surges of Glacial melt-off than Mega-Floods Until I can produce more evidence that water was indeed backed up in the Gulf due to a partial land bridge, a Mega-Flood is mere speculation. If this article were titled,
"AMY SMITH'S CARIBBEAN MEGA-SURGE"
it would have far more support.
In my attempt to have the Caribbean Megaflood recognized as a distinct possibility, I have written to many Geologist and Science Institutions like the USGS, colleges and others seeking support for this proposed Megaflood. Of those that have chosen to respond, few agree with the late date of 10,000 to 12,000 B.C. Most of those who agree that these things possibly took place say we are off by at least a hundred thousand years and possibly more than that.
Possible, but not in the recent geological past.
That's where things stand today.
During the last Ice Age the sea levels were up to 500 ft. lower than todays levels. At that time the Cuban Ridge between Yucatan and Cuba was not washed down as it is today. For reasons that are as yet unexplained, there was a sudden melt down of the North American Glacier. This rapid melt down created huge Lakes of water. As these Lakes filled, they would break through Ice Dams and Earthern dikes. These megafloods filled the hundred twenty mile wide Mississippi River Valley which dumped into the Gulf. The melt off water was more than the much narrower Florida Cuba exit could drain. This caused a backup of water in the Gulf. The Gulf became an Upland Sea with it's water level at 100 to 500 feet higher than the water level of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
The 300 to 500 ft. lower sea level of the Caribbean Sea left much land area exposed in the Caribbean Basin that isn't there today. As the water backed up in the Gulf it began to overflow and wash down the Cuban Ridge. The continual flow of water wore away the upper portion of the ridge as it drained over the top. Eventually there was a break in the Ridge, with the main break being at the western tip of Cuba. This allowed a Megaflood of water to wash into the lower Caribbean Basin. This Megaflood consisted of 600,000 sq mi of 100ft-500ft deep Gulf water. This Megaflood completly washed away the Cuban Ridge system and eroded down the Land areas in the Caribbean to the smaller Islands we see there today. Some of the debris from this overwash can still be seen on the northern and southern side of the Cayman Ridge. However, as the Megaflood washed away land, it also piled up debris along the southern ridge of the Caribbean and created some of the Islands along that side of the Caribbean Belt.
The rising sea level of the worlds Oceans at the end of the Ice Age filled the Caribbean Basin and today there is little evidence of the land that once existed there. But even today, if the water level were 300 to 500 feet lower, an entirely different chain of Cayman Islands and other Islands would exist in the Caribbean.
In the above presentation the land area of the Caribbean is presented as many Islands both large and small with inter-connecting waterways. It could have been a more solid land mass. The evidence has forever been removed and washed into the Ocean. We may never really know.
I don't know how much land mass was in the Caribbean Basin in 10,000 B.C., but I can see for myself that what is there today has been washed down to it's present mass by a large flood of waters. I think there was much that was there in the form of other small and large land areas that are gone today because of the Ice Age Melt Down. This is my Theory. Proving that this land existed will be a challenge as all traces are gone.
A SIDE NOTE
Using the above theory, the Caribbean was isolated from the Gulf due to a land bridge. Is it also possible, that with sea levels as much as 500ft. lower, the Caribbean also became isolated from the Atlantic Ocean due to the surrounding Caribbean Land Belt? Many who read of the isolation of the Caribbean from the Gulf due to a land bridge may ponder this same thought. This question entriuges me as well, but I do not have the answer. I don't know enough about the depth readings around the Caribbean belt to venture an opinion. "IF" it could have been isolated from the Atlantic, an entirely new set of dynamics would be presented. If anyone has any thoughts or information on this, please let me know!
Would you like to have a better idea of just how much flood water was flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from the Ice Age Glacier Melt Off?
Check out the Mississippi River Valley to get an idea of the amount of water I am talking about. Remember, this Valley was as much as 500ft. deeper than what you see according to greatrivers.com. It is covered over with 12,000 years of sediment buildup. The Mississippi River Valley stretches from Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico and is wider than the state of Louisiana. It drawfs the Grand Canyon to a mere hole in the ground. View map, then consider the following thought.
The Ice Age Mississippi River carved out this enormous valley, but they say there is no evidence that the incredible errosion that washed out this Valley could have had a similar effect on the Gulf or Caribbean Region.
This is a one hundred mile wide valley that according to the St. Paul Corp of Engineers was filled from bluff to bluff and overflowing into offshoot valleys.
That means a one hundred mile wide continually flowing wall of water as much as 500 to 1,000 ft. deep was flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.
Perhaps it's just my misguided view, but in the face of
of that much water, I consider their logic difficult to accept.
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 was. That should give the reader of this article some idea of the incredible volume of water that was pouring into the Gulf region from the Ice Age Glacier. A river that massive feeding into the Gulf area would be akin to putting a garden hose into a coffee cup. Below is a quote from GreatRivers.com. This is a geological/historical site specializing on the rivers of North America.
"According to some scholars, catastrophic walls of ice broke off from the receding glaciers and joined a massive run-off of melt-water, scouring out the contours of the Mississippi River. It is envisioned that a sudden collapse of the NA ice cap produced a massive sea-level rise with the speed of a tidal wave around the world. It is likely that the river valley in the upper Mississippi was once 500 feet deeper than it is now, filled as it is with gravel and sand deposited by that melt-water. The accumulated Gulf of Mexico organisms have provided compelling evidence of a vast flood of fresh water about 11,600 years ago".
"The melting of those enormous ice sheets that, at their maximum, were 5,000 to 10,000 feet thick and covered hundreds of thousands of square miles, released tremendous amounts of water, forming huge glacial lakes. The largest of the glacial lakes, Lake Agassiz, covered northwest Minnesota, parts of North Dakota and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
For more information: Dott, H.R., R.L. Batten. 1988. _Evolution of the Earth. Fourth Edition._ New York. McGraw-Hill Book Company. p463, 555. Laing, D. 1991. _The Earth System. An Introduction to Earth Science._ Dubuque, IA. Wm. C. Brown Publishers. p. 134. Ojakangas, R.W., C.L. Matsch. 1982. _Minnesota's Geology._ Minnesota. University of Minnesota Press. p110.
http://www.greatriver.com/Ice_Age/glacier.htm
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 southwestern side of the Gulf (the side closest to Mexico) is called the Sigsbee Deep (so named after Charles Dwight Sigsbee The first person to do deep water soundings and mapping of the Gulf & the Captian of the ill fated Battle Ship Main which exploded in Havana Harbor igniting the Spanish/American War). This is the side the greatest volume of water was pouring into. As the water poured in it turned to the northeast. Part of this flow cut back in to the incoming flow, and part went towards Florida. The part that turned inward created a wirlpool effect. This highly abrasive water spun like a drill, and is what helped scour out the Sigsbee Deep, the deepest part of the Gulf. This wirlpool drill action is also responsible for carving away the Florida Yucatan opening. This same effect then went on to leave it's mark on the Caribbean.
As this high speed tsunami like wall of water reached the Florida coast on the Gulf side, it appears it may have overwashed at least the lower northern portion of the Florida Peninsula and dumped into the Atlantic Ocean. There will be more on this below the last Image on this page. I don't know how many of our readers have been to the Gulf. When you see it for yourself, you realize, it IS an ocean. It may be smaller than others, but it still qualifies. Now try to imagine this Ocean boiling with the motion discribed here.
Here is a view of how the Caribbean may have looked during the Ice Age. This Image deplicts a Caribbean isolated from the Atlantic Ocean. The sea levels were as much as 300 to 500 feet below todays sea levels. A great deal of land would have been exposed. In the above Image the only exit for water coming from the Gulf of Mexico was through the narrower Florida Cuba / Florida Yuctan Straits. The flat terrain of the Yucatan Peninsula was overwashed by the backup of water. As this water swept over Yucatan it also swept over the Western tip of Cuba. At least 50 to 100 miles of Cuba's western tip was carried away by the flood of backed up water. This, more than anything else allowed a Megaflood to wash into the Caribbean Basin. Once the Cuba Yucatan opening was created, nothing could stop the Megaflood from reaching the Caribbean Basin.
I hope you have enjoyed this presentation of
Could HUMANS have been witness to, or been victims of the Caribbean Megaflood Event? The discovery of four 13,000yr. old Skeletal Remains in underwater caves off the Caribbean coast of Yucatan may reveal some surprising answers to the question on humans in the Americas. 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 Megaflood?
Interested in more than just the Mega-Flood event?
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
Want to know more about the Gulf of Mexico? Need more Mississippi info and a really cool map?
Click on Image to Enlarge
Double Click on Image to Shrink
Gulf/Caribbean
In the above Image the paths cut by water can clearly be seen. Also the pile up of debri in the Atlantic Ocean is seen as well. The highest point in Florida is a hill that is less than 400 ft. above present day sea level. Much of the state is considerably lower. After a careful study of the striations and debri fields in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida, it appears that the Gulf may have overflowed at least the northern portion of Florida and dumped debri into the Atlantic. If this can be verified it would be another indication of how high the Gulf was at one point. Debri mounds off the coast of the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the northeast coast of South America are also evident in the above image.
E pur si muove
"AMY SMITH'S CARIBBEAN MEGAFLOOD".
PRE-CLOVIS PEOPLE?
HOW DID THEY GET HERE?
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE ARTICLE
Want to know WHO the people were in the Caribbean at that time?
Would you like to know how and why all the Ice Age Mega-Beast died?
Want to learn about the connection between the Mega-Flood & Atlantis?
AMY SMITH'S ATLANTIS
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ZOOM MAP
CLICK HERE
GEOLOGY OF NORTHERN YUCATAN
GULF FACTS
MISSISSIPPI RIVER
Legal and Copy Right Information
This theory is the product of Lost History Publishing.
It is subject to the limitations and interpretation of the historical, geological and archaeological information available about the Earth 12,000 years ago. This work may not be redistributed over the internet or published in any form without the prior written agreement of:
Lost History Publishing :{Amy Smith}
Contact Information:
amymsmith@losthistorypublishing.com
"http://www.losthistorypublishing.com"
This publication is protected under the following registered Copy Right:
Noah And The Current Riders Of Ice Age Atlantis
and existing supplements
Copy right © 2008 Lost History Publishing :{Amy Smith}
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-0-692-00250-6
