Ancient Underwater Forest Much Older Than First Thought

[Coyotl]

http://www.wunderground.com/news/ancient-underwater-forest-found-alabama-20130317

MOBILE, Ala. — An ancient forest found 60 feet underwater about 10 miles offshore of Alabama is much older than originally thought.

Al.com collected samples of the trees during a scuba diving expedition to the forest. Those samples were sent to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for radiocarbon dating and found to be more than 50,000 years old.

Scientists who examined the trees remarked on how well preserved the wood was. Cut into a piece and the unmistakable aroma of newly sawn cypress blooms up, despite millennia spent at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

Some of the pieces still had bark on them. ........

[niyad]

1. k and r

[AllyCat]

2. This is incredible! Of course, we all know the Earth is only 6,000 years old

Somebody's interpretation of a much-translated tome tells us so. I actually had someone who is a science teacher use science to explain why the Earth is only 6,000 years old and carbon-dating an other technological advances only explain advances we have seen in our lifetimes and in the past, oh, say 6,000 years. Convenient, no?

[Coyotl]

4. I took in a dinosaur museum that posits this timeline for creation.

These people who own a ranch in SD believed this, and then a dinosaur quarry was found on their land. To add to the heavy irony, they start this museum to reinforce their beliefs and put the contradictory evidence on display as God's creation. Now, you'd think the irony couldn't get any thicker, when they hire a local artist to do something to catch a few tourists off the highway, what with attendance about nil. The artists welds up a pile of iron into a cowboy riding a dinosaur. That's like an iron monument to irony pulling its own ironic pun on the believers.

I took photos and rofl'ing a lot.

[AllyCat]

11. Please post photos!

[Kennah]

9. Now the Devil is planting trees underwater? That bastard!

[Coyotl]

13. ROFLMAO

[krispos42]

3. Too old for radio carbon dating?

That's impressive!

I'm astonished that thewood held up that long when.immersed in water. wouldn't worms and microorganisms eaten it long before?

[freshwest]

5. Wasn't there a video of this? I didn't watch. Please tell me the title of it, if you know. TIA.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Posted this a while back ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/122810113

This loaded slowly for me, and the video is preceded by an ad ... e caveat browsor.

[freshwest]

8. Thanks!

[mike_c]

6. salt water immersion is an excellent wood preservative....

eom

[Wounded Bear]

10. And IIRC, Cypress has excellent water resistance....

It makes pretty good outdoor furninture.

[AllyCat]

12. Were ships made out of it too?

Maybe I have it confused with something else, but perhaps they should have been if the wood is this good this much later. But now we have steel. And plastic.

[Wounded Bear]

15. I don't think so....

IIRC, the boles of the trees and the limbs are not big enough or straight enough to build large things like ships out of.

I remember having some cypress wood furniture a few years ago. It was more woven like wicker than cut and fashioned like oak.

I could see it being made into small canoes or paddle boats, but probably not ships.

[Dustlawyer]

14. K&R

[Raffi Ella]

16. Very cool.

K&R