The MEGA Forum

A report from 2004 on andros by Dutch Physic teacher of the University of Leiden

SandRock — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:10:42 GMT

I think this report isn't listed under the files and it shows some addittional support for the underwater ruins:
http://www.mysterious-america.net/univleidenlooksa.html

Cheers,
Raul

Potential drawback of the A.R.E's search for Atlantis?

SandRock — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:52:50 GMT

I was thinking, after seeing the youtube intro on the APEX Institute website. Could the great focus of Atlantis and the supernatural like reincarnation have a side-effect on the facts of the bahamas research in terms of shunning other scientists and making them very skeptical about what is found there. And perhaps be more inclined to brush it off as sci-fi not wanting to get a reputation among the 'establishment' of being pro-atlantis and supernatural. In fear of not being taken serious anymore.

Should the Littos and Co. be more restrictive on their comments towards their research when it comes to these supernatural believes and Atlantis. And keep them to theirselves for the good of the result?

Or do you think it is a good thing they bring forward these points?

Am I the only one who would like more conclusive results as well? For instance, I keep thinking. The bimini road isn't submerged that much is it. Its quite shallow water. So would it not be possible to do like what my nation is famous for (the Dutch, The Netherlands) and build a dam around the site, get rid of all the water through pumps, and make it an excavation site. Enabling them to actually dig under the site and do proper research as if it was on land.
Or would the cost of this be huge?

Bimini Beach Rock after all?

SandRock — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:31:14 GMT

Was reading this article and it seems to give quite some conclusive evidence that the bimini road IS beach rock formation.

A contact of mine pointed this article out to me and said this with it:

his is beachrock, the formation and composition of which is discused in this article from the Skeptical Inquirerwith especial reference to Bimini (note particularly the stuff on pages 3-4 about the bedding planes). The form of the blocks into which the layers are fragmented are caused by the geological phenomenon called 'jointing' (please look it up).

For "anchors" read "stones with holes in them" and ask yourself if the one shown on the "Mysterious America" (sic) website has an artificially made hole or a natural one, and whether such a stone would actually serve as an anchor for all but the smallest dinghy on a calm day. Also bearing tropical storms in mind, how long would a 'breakwater' on the Atlantic coast survive which relies on the stones being wedged in with little rocks like the one shown and which apparently the divers removed with little poroblem?

The stone "columns" later turned out to be sunken cylinders of solidified Portland Cement...

Now for the article:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_1_28/ai_111897966/pg_1

Interesting parts:

We cored two of the huge stones and demonstrated to our satisfaction that they were indeed beachrock.
Beachrock is rock that forms near mid-tide level beneath the sand on tropical beaches. It is a very distinctive rock that forms rapidly. Tidal fluctuation constantly forces calcium carbonate-rich waters through the sands where evaporation and off-gassing of carbon dioxide probably help stimulate precipitation of calcium carbonate. Within a few years, crystals of aragonite, a common marine form of calcium carbonate, precipitate between the grains, welding them together to form a very hard limestone. There are beach rocks around some Pacific islands that contain human skeletons and shell casings from World War II. At Bimini and along other Bahamian islands, many swimming beaches are lined with beachrock that is forming today. They contain imbedded Coke and beer bottles. When sea level rises, as it has done during the past 18,000 yeas, any beachrock that formed several thousand years ago becomes submerged. Such is the case with the supposed Atlantis stones off North Bimini.

When our drill cores showed the older beachrock was identical to that forming on the main swimming beach at Bimini, there was much concern. Whereas the modern rock contains discarded bottles, there were no artifacts, no wheel ruts, or any other evidence of an ancient civilization in or around the fifteen-foot-deep site. We thought the quest was over and there would be no more fun weekends in Bimini. Instead it was just the beginning of a long adventure that continues today.
When confronted with the beachrock evidence, Tompkins posed a difficult question: "What if beachrock was the only building material available for the Atlanteans?" We needed an answer, so we approached the question using forensic geology. If the stones had not been moved since they formed, they should all contain beach sand stratification dipping in the same direction as when it formed, i.e., toward deep water. If the stones, had been placed by humans, then internal stratification probably would dip in different directions. We reasoned that Atlanteans, although reputed to have had advanced technology, were not aware of internal stratification within beaches and beachrock. If they fitted the stones, they surely would have selected for the best fit. Thus, some stones should contain stratification dipping the wrong way. Our plan was to take seventeen oriented cores from separate adjacent stones. Soon we had a real expedition planned, and a local PBS station was brought in by Tompkins to supervise a documentary.

Analyzing the Atlantis Beachrock

We survived it all, completed our weekend mission, took the cores home, and later sawed the oriented cores with a diamond rock saw. The rock slabs were x-radiographed to reveal internal stratification. Sure enough, all the cores showed consistent dipping of strata toward the deep water, and distinctive layers of rounded beach pebbles could be traced from one stone to another. To better appreciate what this means, let me explain a little about beachrock formation.
Beachrock forms beneath the sand in the intertidal zone. Nearly all beach sands have distinctive stratification that dips downward toward the water. When the sand is converted to rock, stratification is preserved. Usually one does not see the rock forming on beaches because it forms out of sight beneath the sand, As more sand is added, the beach builds out with the rock following just beneath. However, if conditions change and the beach is eroded, the rock is exposed. Algae grow on its surface, usually turning the rock dark grey or black. After a few years in the sun, the rock layers, usually about one-foot thick, crack much like old concrete roads and sidewalks. The pieces can be large, up to twelve feet in length and four to six feet wide. With continued erosion by wave-driven beach sand, the cracks enlarge and take on a rounded shape. The result is rows of huge pillow-shaped stones that appear to have been fitted neatly together, much like the stone walls high in the mountains at the Peruvian ruins of Machu Picchu. If the beach makes a turn, such as when a curved spit forms, the beachrock follows. At the south end of the long row of stones off Bimini the beachrock curves to form a huge "J." True believer Edward Zink thought the J shape had special meaning. Some say it was built to form an Atlantean harbor.

Later in 1980, I co-authored a paper in Nature with Marshal McKusick (McKusick and Shinn 1980). We presented carbon-14 data showing that the stones (ages range from 2,000 to 4,000 years) are much too young. Atlantis was presumably a 7,000-year-old story when first told to Plato. The rock is actually younger because the material we dated consisted of conch shell fragments cemented within the rock. These materials would have been lying on the beach and predated the cementation process that produced the rock. We did not have the new mass accelerator dating methods that today allow dating of the tiny individual crystals that formed the rock. It is clear the actual time of rock formation would have been some time after the conch shell was deposited on the beach.

There were also other items in the area. An earlier letter to Nature (Harrison 1971) showed that so-called columns on a site about two miles from the stones were made of Portland cement. In the 1800s, cement was carried on ships in wood barrels. When discarded, the wood rotted away, leaving a hard cement column. Needless to say, none of these publications changed the minds of "true believers.

Since our original adventure, I have seen similar straight lines of broken pavement-like stones and have photographed similar features from the Alvin submarine in 5,000 feet of water. Many more offshore beachrock sites have been found in the Bahamas, and I have photographed a large field of the "megaliths," as true believers call them, off the western end of Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. There are exact duplicates around islands on the Australian Barrier Reef, and a geologically fahttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_1_28/ai_111897966/pg_1mous example at the Dry Tortugas off Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. I took a film team from Leonard Nimoy's In Search Of series to the Tortugas to film and demonstrate that the beachrock there was the same as at Bimini. That 1970s program still airs occasionally but seems not to have influenced the true believers. In fact, several of them appear in the program. One talks of finding a half-buried pyramid on the Great Bahama Bank. They claim to have entered the pyramid underwater to make films and then a storm drove them away. Not surprisingly the films were fogged by the "force field" and the site was buried and could never be located again! They did recover one of the "power crystals." It was demonstrated that when a magnet on a stick is placed near the crystal, the magnet is repelled. The program did not show the electromagnet hidden under a black cloth just beneath the crystal.

A.R.E report of april - Bimini Road / Andros Platform

SandRock — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:03:55 GMT

Didn't see the latest report in the PDF or in the blog so here's a link:

http://www.mysterious-america.net/atlantis0407.html

CAN'T WAIT to see what they've come up with!

Peace,
Raul

PLEASE join us today!

admin — Sun, 28 May 2006 20:08:23 GMT

Please add your comments, questions and ideas to The MEGA Forum.

Forgive me........

YARDDAWG — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 18:30:02 GMT

I have been captured and drawn into the world of ancient archeology, specifically, the possible influence of civilizations pre-dating what 'science' claims. I have just recently discovered the findings in Cuba. Everything that I find appears to be dated around '04 and '05 or earlier. I can't seem to find any information after that. Can someone point me in a direction of any new information? This discovery has plastered a huge smile on my face!

"Is it Real? Atlantis" airs on NG Channel

admin — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 18:47:56 GMT

NG Channel, Wednesday, August 14, 2007, at 5PM PDT and 8PM PDT.
Check listings for other time zones.

Ever since Plato first described the existence of an island paradise populated by an advanced civilization, the myth of Atlantis has captured the human imagination. Join NGC on a quest that traverses the globe in search of the ever elusive lost civilization of Atlantis. The special features, among others, Prescott anthropologist George Erikson. Erikson, co-author of Atlantis In America: Navigators of the Ancient World, presents evidence that Atlantis existed in the Yucatan and in submerged lands off Costa Rica, and the Bahaman, and Cuban coasts 11,500 years ago when sea levels were up to 400 feet lower than today. Erikson presents Plato's argument that civilizations are periodically destroyed, often by the people who inhabit them, and only a few of the unlettered survive to eventually create new civilizations, unaware of the past. Erikson posits ancient mariners, not land bridge wanders, as the peoples who connected ancient civilizations.

http://www.AtlantisInAmerica.com

Underwater search for archaeological sites in Gulf of Mexico

maya12 — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 15:36:34 GMT

I have recently read that Robert Ballard will soon be conducting an underwater search off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico for possible archaeological sites..I emailed him for an update yesterday but have not heard back yet..

CUBA, I REMEMBER YOU/CUBA, TE RECUERDO

Cuba5060 — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 23:33:33 GMT

CUBA, I REMEMBER YOU/CUBA, TE RECUERDO

By OSCAR M. RAMÍREZ-ORBEA, PH.D.

http://www.freeadscity.com/photos/class/thumbnails/yrtacsxddg.jpg

Cuba, I Remember You is a book about family, love, relationships, and survival in difficult circumstances in Cuba's pre and post revolution of the 1950's and 60's that all readers will find to be a wonderful reading experience.

See more about the book at:

http://cubairememberyou.zoomshare.com/

CUBA, I REMEMBER YOU/CUBA, TE RECUERDO

A collection of 14 short stories, all in Spanish and English, based on the author’s experiences of childhood before and after the Communist revolution. Includes Appendix for educators wishing to use the book in Spanish or English foreign language classes. Lots of nostalgia for those who knew Cuba in the 50’s and 60’s and plenty of humor for readers in general. Includes also many period family photographs that illustrate the stories and bring them vividly to life!

About the Author

Dr. Oscar M. Ramírez-Orbea, was born in Camagüey, Cuba, in 1955. He emigrated with his family to the US in 1966, after completing elementary school in his home country. He longs one day to return to his native city of Camagüey and to all the fond memories it holds for him. CUBA, I REMEMBER YOU/CUBA, TE RECUERDO is Dr. Ramírez’s first narrative work.

Available now from Airleaf Publishing (www.airleaf.com) or call today to order your copy at 1-800-342–6068.

Product Details:

§ Paperback: 392 pages

§ Publisher: Airleaf Publishing; 1st edition (January 10, 2006)

§ Language: English, Spanish

§ ISBN: 1594539553

New work by the same author, published and in bookstores by winter of 2007:

Cuba, Between History and Legend

A collection of short stories based on Cuban legends and unusual histories, all told in thoroughly original and creative ways. All stories are narrated in English and Spanish on facing pages. Includes also substantial background information on the actual events on which the stories are based, as well as references for follow-up reading, and historical illustrations for all the stories. For brief descriptions of the stories, go to www.cubairememberyou.zoomshare.com On the market by year’s end. Cuba … like you’ve never read it before!

Por el mismo autor:

Cuba, Entre la Historia y la Leyenda

Una colección de cuentos cortos basados en leyendas cubanas y en eventos insólitos de la historia de Cuba, todos narrados en un estilo originalísimo y de gran fantasía. Se narran todos los cuentos en inglés y en español, en páginas opuestas. Incluye considerable información adicional sobre el fondo histórico de cada cuento, al igual que sugerencias para otras lecturas sobre la misma temática, y se incluyen ilustraciones históricas de cada uno de los cuentos. Para leer breves descripciones de cada cuento, favor de dirgirse a www.cubairememberyou.zoomshare.com En venta hacia finales del año. Cuba ¡como nunca te la imaginaste!

Archaeological Discovery in Honduras

Sean — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 09:12:30 GMT

This news item from Sept. 8 caught my eye and I thought I'd share. I'll be watching to see what emerges. The Maya were not thought to have extended any further south than Copan, near the border with Guatemala. From what I gather, this civilization seems to have developed on the West coast of the Central America.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) - Experts are examining the ruins of a pre-Columbian culture in an area of Honduras where there had been no previous evidence of major indigenous civilization.

The site, discovered earlier this year, consists of 14 mounds that form part of what are believed to be ceremonial grounds, the Honduran Institute of Anthropology said.

"They are part of a very important site, a governing center of a pre-Columbian civilization," Oscar Neils, the institute's head of research, told Reuters. "We had no idea that there was a pre-Columbian culture in this area."

The findings so far include an impressive carved stone monument, called a stela, as well as necklaces and grinding stones.

"The stela is a sculpture of various human and animal forms and is truly amazing in how well conserved it is," Neils said.

Three feet (1 meter) high and more than 4-1/2 feet (1-1/2 meters) wide, the stela is being displayed in the park of the nearby town of Moroceli, about 30 miles east of the capital of Tegucigalpa.

Neils said the site has been damaged by tractors involved in sugar cane growing, prompting Honduras' Culture Ministry to move to protect it.

Honduras is home to some 14,000 archeological sites, including world-famous Copan, which flourished between the fifth and ninth centuries and was one of the first Mayan sites to be excavated.

This site is completely distinct, Neils said.

"Its culture is an enigma," added the Mexican archeologist.