From Smithsonian, another worrisome maybe, could be, sea level rise story. At least they said “Should global warming cause sea levels to rise”.
Scientists issue call to action for archaeological sites threatened by rising seas
Should global warming cause sea levels to rise as predicted in coming decades, thousands of archaeological sites in coastal areas around the world will be lost to erosion. With no hope of saving all of these sites, archaeologists Torben Rick from the Smithsonian Institution, Leslie Reeder of Southern Methodist University, and Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon have issued a call to action for scientists to assess the sites most at risk.
Santa Barbara Channel
Caption: This is a map of the Santa Barbara Channel Study area.
Credit: Leslie Reeder
Writing in the Journal of Coastal Conservation and using California’s Santa Barbara Channel as a case study, the researchers illustrate how quantifiable factors such as historical rates of shoreline change, wave action, coastal slope and shoreline geomorphology can be used to develop a scientifically sound way of measuring the vulnerability of individual archaeological sites. They then propose developing an index of the sites most at risk so informed decisions can be made about how to preserve or salvage them.
Urban development, the researchers point out, also is a significant threat to the loss of archaeological data. Coastlines have long been magnets of human settlement and contain a rich array of ancient archaeological sites, many of which have never been excavated. Urban development is projected to remain high in coastal areas, representing a significant danger to undisturbed sites.
Thousands of archaeological sites—from large villages and workshops to fragmented shell middens and lithic scatters—are perched on the shorelines and sea cliffs of the Santa Barbara Channel, the researchers point out. The archaeological record is never static, and the materials left behind by one generation are altered by the people and environment of the next. However, increasing threats from modern urban development, sea level rise and global warming are poised to increase this steady pattern of alteration and destruction.
Santa Barbara Archaeological Sites
Caption: These are archaeological sites coded according to a Cultural Resource Vulnerability Index.
Credit: Leslie Reeder
The vulnerability of sites in the Santa Barbara Channel is generally lower than sites located along more open, more gently sloped or unstable coastlines, such as the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America.
Measuring threats and identifying vulnerable sites is not an end in itself, the researchers say. “We must find ways to act…by quantifying those sites most vulnerable to destruction, we take a first step toward mitigating the loss of archaeological data and the shared cultural patrimony they contain.”
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“””” Panic: Possible sea level rise to bury old places
Posted on October 28, 2010 by Anthony Watts “””
Well I bring glad tidings of great news. We have only old places here on earth; 4.5 Billion years old; well a few places came from somewhere else; but they may be even older.
But I can guarantee, that Hearst Castle is NOT going to get flooded.; and that’s about the only thing of interest in that part of California; well other than the condors; and condors are not into the sea level thing; they stay in the high places; so they’ll just pack up and leave if Hearst Castle gets flooded.
Well I left out one other earth saving news story; that we should all know about; that is going to save us; and especially Californians from unprecedented perpetual darkness.
The 10/21/2010 issue of ELECTRONIC DESIGN magazine carries a breakthrough Design Notes Bulletin from Linear Technology Corp; that is going to solve all of our energy needs.
And the beauty of this, is that it will for the first time justify the Gummint mandate to move from safe efficient proven technology incandescent lamps to unsafe toxic ugly and newbie technology flourescent lamps.
It uses the Linear Tech LTC 3588-1 IC to harvest electricity for free from flourescent lamps !
You need two 12 inch (30.48 cm) by 24 inch (60.96 cm) Copper panels (Check Chicago Commodities Exchange for latest Copper Futures) which you place 6 inches (15.24cm) from a 2ft x 4 ft (look up conversion factors) flourescent light fixture.
Copper has an optical transmission band that matches the spectrum of standard flourescent lights.
“The copper panels capacitively harvest 200 microWatts (check PG&E Electricity Rates) from the surrounding electric fields (RadioPhysics; I’ve got a degree in that) and the LTC3588-1 converts that power to a regulated output; (plus a 10uF 25V, 4.7uF 6V, and a 1uF 6V metallized Mylar Capacitors and a 10uH high Q Inductor; well there’s another 10uF 6V cap. ”
For some completely unexplained reason LTC uses an extra wire to connect one terminal of this contraption to ground.
Well yes I see the reason now; you need the ground reference to connect your computer to the “Power Good” terminal to switch this free clean green renewable alternative energy souce on.
Got all that ? or do I need to draw a picture ?
Way to go Linear Tech; you guys are bloody geniuses.
As some said there are other archeological sites as important. One that comes to mind is Waterloo Battlefield in Belgium. There is a lot to be learned from digging there and yet large portions are covered with a visitor center and tourists accommodations. A significant historical site and yet being destroyed for profit. Lincoln’s home in Springfield is another. At one time not long ago you could drive to his home and see the entire street with houses as they were in Lincoln’s time. Now they have a visitor center that replaces the historic street and of course parking. To their credit, Lincoln’s home is still in tact.
Leptis Magna in Libya near Tripoli is a below ground Roman city on the coast being restored. Portions may have to be destroyed someday to accommodate tourists. And so it goes. We destroy history to preserve it for tourists. Well, maybe not so many tourists there.
The alarm is in keeping with global warming theory that impending disaster is upon us and we must act now or lose it all. Archeology is important but to use global warming as justification for digging up the coastline seems a little over the top. Preserving what we know we have is also important.
Speaking as a geologist – Santa Barbara is an emergent coastline – even if sites are temporarily submerged, they will not always be.
Further – on submergent coastlines like the Gulf of Mexico, drilling offshore, but on the continental shelf currently requires an archeological survey for submerged neolithic sites. This is a standard practice with a well-developed history and methodology.
And still further – burial under sediment and water is a great way to preserve these sites from development and treasure hunters – I would think the archeologists would be happy if this occurred.
Non-issue.
UK Sceptic says:
October 29, 2010 at 12:20 am
Urbanistation is a far greater threat to our buried heritage.
I think urbanisation often uncovers buried heritage that otherwise might never have been found.
What bunk! Sea levels on the Pacific coast of the United States are falling, not rising. Since 1990 they are falling at a rate faster than earlier in the 20th century.
Check it out:
http://www.psmsl.org/data/obtaining/
Do the guys who write this stuff ever check their facts first?
Trust me, the Coastal Miwok didn’t leave anything worth digging up.
HI Anthony.
You do a great job with your website.
Many thanks.
OT – Here is something I came across
Is the ice at the South Pole melting?
Wow – it seems like it is caused by natural variations and cycles such as El Nino and La Nina – Not a mention of man made global Warming! Peer reviewed study
Gravity field satellites observe for the first time the fluctuations of ice mass of the Antarctic ice sheet due to El Nino
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-10/haog-iti102910.php
Summary:
The change in the ice mass covering Antarctica is a critical factor in global climate events.
Scientists at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences have now found that the year by year mass variations in the western Antarctic are mainly attributable to fluctuations in precipitation, which are controlled significantly by the climate phenomenon El Nino.
They examined the GFZ data of the German-American satellite mission GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment). The investigation showed significant regional differences in the western coastal area of the South Pole area.
It has long been known that the Pacific El Niño climate phenomenon and the snowfall in Antarctica are linked. The complementary piece to the warm phase El Nino, the cold phase known as La Nina, also affects the Antarctic climate.
DaveF mentioned the “Time Team” archaeological TV series here in the UK. It seems archaeologists are at one with some climate scientists – they can’t put two and two together. In one programme which was covering shoreline cave-dwellers in Fife, Scotland, a local expert pointed out a wave-cut platform on which stone-age people had left evidence of having sunk piles, perhaps for a crude fishing dock. The expert gave reasons for supposing that the platform had been at or a little below high water mark 3-4 thousand years ago; it was now almost a metre above current HWM.
A while later, the presenter summarised the “dig” and bemoaned the likelihood of the caves (now several metres above HWM) “disappearing beneath the waves” in the coming decades. There’s none so blind……
Billy Liar said – “I think urbanisation often uncovers buried heritage that otherwise might never have been found.”
Very true. And then quickly covers it again because there is rarely any money to perform a rescue dig unless the find is huge. Even then there is no guarantee.
If the sea rises they lose! If the sea falls they win! The ‘presumption’ of loss seems to be their greatest concern. Well it’s understandable really, especially with all the talk of global warming in the past few years. But, I guess I’m most surprised that this type of database isn’t already in their computer. There are already programs that show urban creep and what coast line areas go under water first with sealevel rise. So it seems the issue is they want something bigger and better that will take a NSF grant to pull off. Aren’t we broke? Or are they talking to the Chinese NSF here? Did the Chinese already buy the Smithsonian?
The ‘sea levels are rising’ myth is based on computer projections (what else!) using the 2.3 mm/year tidal gauge increase registered at the Quarry Bay Station in Hong Kong Harbor, to the exclusion of all the other tidal gauge measurements spread around the world which show no change in sea level at all.
The problem with using Quarry Bay Station is that it is not measuring a sea level increase, it is measuring the rate at which the station is sinking into the harbor.
This IPCC fraud will eventually become known as Sea-Level-Gate.
THE SEA IS RISING!
Or is it?
The land, terra firma, the stuff we stand on is not fixed. In geological time it’s bouncing up and down like an air mattress. Large chunks of the out-of-water stuff in Europe are still springing back from having been under billions of tons of ice.
The spot where the Romans landed in England to begin their invasion is now two miles inland!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1066712/Uncovered-lost-beach-Romans-got-toehold-Britain.html
@ur momisugly Charles S. Opalek, PE
October 30, 2010 at 9:47 am
The reason that the Quarry Bay tidal gauge now reads so high is solely due to reclamation encroaching on Hong Kong’s harbour. The gap between HK Island and Kowloon has now been narrowed to such an extent that, at the change of tide the water actually “bulges up” when it passes through the gap. Did you know that “remedial measures” had to be taken to prevent the scouring of the gravel fill from over the top of the three road tunnels crossing the harbour? The MTR tunnels are too deep to need this additional protection.
If you’d like a hands-on demonstration try sailing a small craft like a junk from Queen’s Pier to Kowloon Public Pier at tide change without moving the rudder. You’ll end up in Western or beyond Causeway Bay!
Confirmation of this can be sought from the Marine Police (the Sui Ging).