Feb 28, 2018 05:41 AM
Five Lost Cities of the World
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018...o-the-five
EXCERPT: The most intriguing abandoned settlements, from ancient ruins to modern ghost towns. ... Last week laser scanning revealed the true scale of the ancient city of Angamuco in western Mexico. The city, built around AD900, is thought to have had 100,000 residents and included pyramids, road systems, vegetable gardens and ball courts. It was a major centre for the Purépecha people, rivals to the Aztecs. Both cultures collapsed in the 16th century when Europeans introduced typhoid-like diseases to which they had no immunity....
MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018...o-the-five
The Orphan Tsunami & The Ghost Forest Is Geology's Greatest Legend
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinandrew...9d64b5506f
EXCERPT: . . . An orphan tsunami sounds a lot like a powerful magic spell used in a Final Fantasy videogame to me, but as it so happens, it’s something far more fascinating than any beautiful work of digital fiction could muster. In fact, the first incidence of one, as described a few centuries back, created something else rather magnificent: a “ghost forest.”
In my opinion, this is a geological story without parallel; a detective story without equal. [...] Native American tales speak of a battle between the Thunderbird – a supernatural entity – and a gigantic, homicidal Whale, one that, around the year 1700, was pestering various tribes. [...] Eventually, the Thunderbird lifted the Whale out of the sea and left it to die on land, but not before a terrible struggle took place. This generated an enormous oceanic fuss, one which resulted in some rather powerful waves washing up over the shores on which the arrangement of tribes walked. Villages were annihilated, and entire forests were chopped down in the blink of an eye. [...]
A rather beautifully detailed account of the incident by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) notes that, not coincidentally, around the same time, 8,000 kilometres (roughly 5,000 miles) across the Pacific Ocean, a tsunami hit Japan.[...] Clearly, tsunamis require powerful earthquakes, but it didn’t look like the 1700 Japanese natural disaster had one. For nearly 300 years, this so-called “orphan tsunami” would baffle historians and scientists [...]
[...] Significantly, the authors of the Nature study add that this evidence [...] all came together: A megathrust earthquake at the CSZ produced a huge tsunami, which not only washed up on the shores of North America – and likely inspired the legend of the Thunderbird and the Whale – but, ten hours later, also smashed into Japan, creating the orphan tsunami. The orphan, however, was now finally reunited with its geological parents.
[...] The forests nearest the coast are suddenly submerged beneath the salty waves, rapidly killing them. This isn’t the end of their story, though. Despite the massive release of energy, the plates continue marching forth inexorably. The descending plate once again forces the upper plate to compress, forcing up its fringe skyward over time. Eventually, the remnants of the treeline emerged from the ocean, creating what geologists refer to as a “ghost forest.”...
MORE: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinandrew...9d64b5506f
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018...o-the-five
EXCERPT: The most intriguing abandoned settlements, from ancient ruins to modern ghost towns. ... Last week laser scanning revealed the true scale of the ancient city of Angamuco in western Mexico. The city, built around AD900, is thought to have had 100,000 residents and included pyramids, road systems, vegetable gardens and ball courts. It was a major centre for the Purépecha people, rivals to the Aztecs. Both cultures collapsed in the 16th century when Europeans introduced typhoid-like diseases to which they had no immunity....
MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018...o-the-five
The Orphan Tsunami & The Ghost Forest Is Geology's Greatest Legend
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinandrew...9d64b5506f
EXCERPT: . . . An orphan tsunami sounds a lot like a powerful magic spell used in a Final Fantasy videogame to me, but as it so happens, it’s something far more fascinating than any beautiful work of digital fiction could muster. In fact, the first incidence of one, as described a few centuries back, created something else rather magnificent: a “ghost forest.”
In my opinion, this is a geological story without parallel; a detective story without equal. [...] Native American tales speak of a battle between the Thunderbird – a supernatural entity – and a gigantic, homicidal Whale, one that, around the year 1700, was pestering various tribes. [...] Eventually, the Thunderbird lifted the Whale out of the sea and left it to die on land, but not before a terrible struggle took place. This generated an enormous oceanic fuss, one which resulted in some rather powerful waves washing up over the shores on which the arrangement of tribes walked. Villages were annihilated, and entire forests were chopped down in the blink of an eye. [...]
A rather beautifully detailed account of the incident by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) notes that, not coincidentally, around the same time, 8,000 kilometres (roughly 5,000 miles) across the Pacific Ocean, a tsunami hit Japan.[...] Clearly, tsunamis require powerful earthquakes, but it didn’t look like the 1700 Japanese natural disaster had one. For nearly 300 years, this so-called “orphan tsunami” would baffle historians and scientists [...]
[...] Significantly, the authors of the Nature study add that this evidence [...] all came together: A megathrust earthquake at the CSZ produced a huge tsunami, which not only washed up on the shores of North America – and likely inspired the legend of the Thunderbird and the Whale – but, ten hours later, also smashed into Japan, creating the orphan tsunami. The orphan, however, was now finally reunited with its geological parents.
[...] The forests nearest the coast are suddenly submerged beneath the salty waves, rapidly killing them. This isn’t the end of their story, though. Despite the massive release of energy, the plates continue marching forth inexorably. The descending plate once again forces the upper plate to compress, forcing up its fringe skyward over time. Eventually, the remnants of the treeline emerged from the ocean, creating what geologists refer to as a “ghost forest.”...
MORE: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinandrew...9d64b5506f