Dr. Iturralde is a senior researcher at the National Museum of Natural History inHavana,Cuba, and he’s been associated with MEGA since early 2002. He has very kindly provided us with detailed biographical information, which is used here with his permission.

Born in 1946 in the port city ofCienfuegos, on the Caribbean coast ofCuba, Iturralde received his geology degree in 1975 from the Universidad de Oriente (University of the West) inSantiago,Cuba. He earned a Ph.D. in 1995 and he lists his specialties as geology and paleontology of theCaribbean, environmental geology, karstology (the study of limestone caves) and plate tectonics. He has received a long list of awards, including the Juan Tomás Roig Medal for more than 40 years of scientific research. Suffice it to say that he’s a highly respected scientist who’s opinions and analysis regarding MEGA make the discovery that much more significant.

Iturralde has worked with Paulina Zelitsky and Paul Weinzweig, of ADC, to help determine whether the images captured by the ADC crew are of an ancient city or simply a naturally occurring rock formation. In [1], Iturralde is quoted as saying, “It turns out to be, to me, very complicated to explain this from a geological point of view.” On the subject of whether or not MEGA is the site of streets and pyramids, as reported by the media, Iturralde objectively observes that, “As a geologist I can say that there are high linear structures that could perfectly agree with streets and pyramids.”

Dr. Iturralde has prepared a report summarizing several working theories about the origin of MEGA, which I’ll cover in detail in a later blog entry, but the report’s conclusion is that “the megalithic structures are not associated with faults, fractures or breaks on the slope. Therefore, its origin is yet to be understood.”

[1] Fernandez, Luis Mariano, as reported on http://www.s8int.com/water28.html