Parry wrote:
>
> elag <elag@cloud9.net> wrote in message news:<3F18C5A4.52B32ED5@cloud9.net>...
> > Parry wrote:
> > >
> > > dt3mfc@aol.com (Mike Rodelli) wrote in message news:<ae79afb8.0307160336.5dc35cde@posting.google.com>...
> > > > parry@perfectmail.com (Parry) wrote in message >
> > > > > > > > > * And Oak Island, my favourite buried treasure story:
> > > > > > > > > http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Nova_Scotia/oakisland.htm
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > It is an interesting story, but probably there never was any treasure.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > That sort question mark makes the story interesting. But the so-called
> > > > > > > "Money Pit" is such an elaborate and sophisticated engineering feat it
> > > > > > > presumably was constructed in the service of something deemed
> > > > > > > important.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ....
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I've probably read most of the same material you have but I'm inclined
> > > > > > to doubt nearly all of the early stories. I think the "water trap",
> > > > > > being that it occurs below the water level, is a natural phenomenon.
> > > > >
> > > > > If the water trap were artificial, it would still occur below water
> > > > > level, otherwise there would be needed a pumping system to draw the
> > > > > water up.
> > > > >
> > > > > > It looks to me like a long game of "telephone"... distortion on top of
> > > > > > exaggeration on top of lie with an overlay of fervent hope.
> > > > >
> > > > > I'm not predisposed to either side, as both theories produce a set of
> > > > > riddles. So I suspend an opinion for now, except to say the basic
> > > > > fantasy of the "booby-trap" isn't very sensible. Why would anyone
> > > > > guard a treasure with a mechanism that makes the treasure utterly
> > > > > irretrievable? It would be like Fort Knox having a trigger to destroy
> > > > > its gold if its security is breached.
> > > > >
> > > > > > This Skeptical Inquirer article goes some way towards debunking the
> > > > > > mystery.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-03/i-files.html
> > > > >
> > > > > The Oak Island system could well be all natural phenomena and the
> > > > > story a great case of people seeing what they wish to see, but
> > > > > Nickell's article does little to sway the argument, I thought. The
> > > > > most interesting bits, those that argue the site was produced by
> > > > > natural phenomena, all seem to have been copped from a Smithsonian
> > > > > article by Douglas Preston. Basically Preston is saying that
> > > > > sink-holes sucked man-made materials deep into the earth, and dragged
> > > > > down and buried trees to create the illusions of platforms.
> > > >
> > > > Hi Parry-
> > > >
> > > > I was wondering if you know anything about the geology of Oak Island,
> > > > or if this subject is covered in the Smithsonian article (citation?).
> > > > Sinkholes typically occur in places like Florida and Pennsylvania,
> > > > where there are large deposits of limestone bedrock, which is easily
> > > > eroded by the action of water. Seems to me that Oak Island would be
> > > > composed of metamorphic or igneous rock, which would not lend itself
> > > > to sinkhole formation.
> > >
> > > I haven't seen the Smithsonian article (I know which parts were used
> > > in the CSICOP piece because the author spelled it out; the Smithsonian
> > > article is dated Vol. 19, No. 3, 1988), but I've read Oak Island has a
> > > fairly unusual geology. It's reportedly covered with a considerably
> > > thick mantle of glacial till, which is very tough, and 167 feet or so
> > > deep there's a bedrock of anhydrite -- I suppose meaning limestone,
> > > gypsum, sandstone and shale -- which is weak and water soluble. What I
> > > know about geology would fit in a mosquito's pocketwatch and leave
> > > room enough for George Bush's brain, but this suggests to me that
> > > where the mantle was fractured it could become unstable and drop into
> > > the bedrock, though given the thickness of the mantle such a fracture
> > > may be unlikely to occur naturally. The sinkhole theory, though,
> > > requires that diverse materials were dropped into a deep hole over an
> > > extended period of time and were gradually buried by naturally
> > > occurring debris. It's surmised this would have all happened in the
> > > space of about a century. One might expect that the nearby pit which
> > > caved in in 1878 (also considered an entirely natural phenomenon by
> > > the CSICOP article) should itself have filled in with debris by now.
> >
> > I don't have the time to do proper researsh but I've distilled two
> > references to the subject.
> >
> > from the csicop article:
> > http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-03/i-files.html
> >
> > Geologist E. Rudolph Faribault found "numerous" sinkholes on the mainland
> > opposite Oak Island, and in a geological report of 1911 concluded there was
> > "strong evidence" to indicate that the purported artificial structures
> > on the
> > island were "really but natural sink holes and cavities." Further
> > evidence of
> > caverns in the area came in 1975 when a sewage-disposal system was being
> > established on the mainland. Approximately 3,000 feet north of the island,
> > workmen excavating with heavy machinery broke through a rock layer and
> > discovered a 52-foot-deep cavern below (Crooker 1993, 144). Fred Nolan
> > insists that, earlier, in 1969, while drilling on Oak Island, Triton
> > broke into a
> > cavern near the fabled treasure shaft at a depth of 165 feet.
> > "Blankenship and
> > Tobias figured that the cavern was man-made," said Nolan, "but it isn't,
> > as far
> > as I'm concerned" (Crooker 1993, 165). And Mark Finnan (1997, 111), writing
> > of "the unique geological nature of Oak Island," states as a fact that "naturally
> > formed underground caverns are present in the island's bedrock." These
> > would account for the flood "booby-traps" that were supposedly placed to
> > guard the "treasure" (Preston 1988, 63).
>
> The above doesn't actually address the sinkhole theory in question,
> though it does mention sinkholes on the mainland and other details
> irrelevant to the island.
But I've reaad that sinkhole(s) have occured on the island itself. I'm
not convinced that the "pit" was one, but it's a reasonable theory.
> Preston seems in error to say that the
> underground caverns in the bedrock account for the flooding of the
> Pit. According to the story, the flood tunnel occurred 50 ft or
> thereabouts above bedrock in the overburden, while the caverns occur
> dozens of feet below the top surface of the bedrock, so they can't be
> connected.
I think the geology of the island as I understand it (limestone and
all), the fact that it rises only a few feet above sea level, and the
action of hydrostatic pressure sound like reasonable elements which
could easily lead to the flooding of any hole dug on the island.
>
> > ...
> >
> > from "Critical Analysis of the Oak Island Legend":
> > http://pws.prserv.net/djoltes/oakisland/
> >
> > To explain the "mysterious" filling of the pit with sea water, one need
> > only look at the geology of the island. It is quite small and only a
> > few feet above sea level, after all. Several of the more reasonable
> > geologists who have examined the site have stated that much of the
> > rock underlying the island is limestone (the limestone bedrock begins at
> > between 160 and 180 feet), and is certainly filled with faults
> > and voids. Indeed, some accounts state the the lost treasure has likely
> > escaped discovery by "falling into a void in the rock." Thus the
> > filling of the pit with water is easily explained. There is nothing
> > mysterious about the effect of hydrostatic pressure in such an area. In
> > fact, there is an area in eastern Africa where seawater is present in
> > crevices near the surface a number of miles from the coast; the
> > water has infiltrated that far inland through voids in the underlying
> > rock strata.
> >
> > What most likely happened on Oak Island was that once the diggers
> > reached a certain depth the pressure exerted by sea water
> > flowing through the channels and fissures in the rock became too great
> > for the earth remaining in the Pit, so a "blow-out" occurred and
> > the Pit was filled as would any hole dug to such a depth in close
> > proximity to a body of water. It must be remembered that the island
> > rises a maximum of thirty feet above sea level, and the Pit was dug to a
> > depth of over 100 feet. Thus, it extended at least 70 feet below
> > mean sea level and would be subject to considerable pressure at that
> > depth. Many writers have asserted this is impossible due to the
> > "hard clay soil" which is found on the island. This assertion is
> > incorrect, however: while the surface soils are indeed firm clay, one
> > needs only to dig to between fifty and one hundred feet to encounter
> > sandy, rocky subsoils which are much more water permeable.
> > Early accounts of the legend state that the diggers were removing "one
> > bucket of earth for every two of water" by the time they reached
> > the ninety foot level, so the Pit was wet long before the initial
> > disaster occurred and it became filled with water.
>
> Again this doesn't address the sink-hole theory, but does support the
> idea that the booby trap is a natural phenomenon, which should be the
> default assumption anyway. A more comprehensive theory will have to
> account for the man-made materials drawn from the earth, the evidence
> of offshore handiwork, and other anomalies.
Read the whole web page. I think it adresses most of these points.
In another place
http://www.oakislandtreasure.co.uk/natural.htm
I read:
"A natural pit was in fact discovered in 1949 on the shore of
Mahone Bay, five miles to the south of Oak Island, when workmen
were digging a well. Just as with the 'Money Pit', reports of a
stone platform and layers of logs invoked the excitement of
another pit yet given the geographical behaviour of this area,
such flights of fancy were soon dismissed."
so it's not unreasonable to consider that the "Oak Island" legend has a
similar genesis.
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