Discovering of trees from the days of Methusalah near Alabama

It all began with Hurrican Ivan in 2004 with waves up to 98 feet tall that opened up a forest buried beneath the Gulf 60 feet underwater about 10 miles offshore of Alabama. AL.com collected samples from the site and participated in every scientific mission beginning in 2012. Scientists were very impressed how well they were preserved. Dating the forest split the scholars at least in two groups: those who look for an early Ice-age almost 50,000 years old and those who allocate it to a recent Ice-age about 8000 years old. A third alternative is my own that it was buried that fearful and dreadful day the dinosaurs all died, 2692 BCE, to be precise. The Flood of Noah.

“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. The forest was apparently buried under a thick layer of sand for eons until it was uncovered by giant waves during Hurricane Katrina.”

“It is a little darker in color than a piece of modern cypress, but if I didn’t tell you that it was over 50,000 years old, you wouldn’t know it,” said Kristine DeLong, the Louisiana State University researcher who prepared and sent the AL.com samples for analysis. “I showed it to some of the other professors and they couldn’t believe the wood was that well preserved. It’s amazing it has held up. When I cut into them, they smelled just like you were cutting into a cypress tree.”

“DeLong inspected the tree samples under a microscope and said the cell structure typical of cypress trees remained intact. Bits of sap appear to be present in photos of the freshly cut wood.

Paleontologists contacted by AL.com originally speculated the trees were between 8,000 and 12,000 years old, based on the present depth where the forest is located and the distance from shore. Those dates fit nicely with Gulf Coast sea levels during the most recent ice age”

Cypress underwater since the Flood of Noah in 2692 BCE near Alabama offshore.

Ringworms and organisms in the sea has made holes in it.

After all these millennia, since 2692 BCE, the sap is still in the wood.

The forest found 10 miles offshore Alabama in the Gulf of Mexico 60 feet under water.

This piece was prepared for Radiocarbon dating test. Laboratories at Louisiana State University and the University of Southern Mississippi where samples from the forest have been analyzed.

Growth rings can be seen.

Sources: 

1.        Ben Raines, "Ancient underwater forest off Alabama is much older than scientists thought," 7th March 2013 updated 10th of April 2014. Online accessed 5th August 2017 at http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/03/ancient_underwater_forest_off.html

2.        Ben Raines, The Underwater Forest. Video. July 5, 2017. “Alabama's 60,000-year-old underwater forest spills its secrets in new documentary.” Online accessed 5th August 2017 at

http://www.al.com/news/mobile/index.ssf/2017/06/underwater_forest_discovered_alabama.html