Sunken Treasure under Lake El'gygytgyn

From Nature, Frontier Scientist: Sunken Treasure under Lake El'gygytgyn
Deep under a frozen lake in Siberia, Russia, lies a researcher's gold: an astounding record of past climates preserved in untouched layers of lake bed sediment. In 2009 an international team of scientists headed to Lake El'gygytgyn (pronounced El'geegitgin). They perched specialized drilling equipment atop the icy lake surface and drilled down. At the bottom of the lake as much as a quarter mile (1,312 feet) of sediment awaited them atop the site of a monster meteorite impact. That sediment, withdrawn in cores and shipped to labs in Germany for close scrutiny, represents a continuous record of past Arctic conditions going back 3.6 million years. The more complete picture of paleoclimate it forms will help scientists understand how and why Earth's climate changed in the past, and give them better tools for predicting the future.

An international team of scientists from the United States, Russia, Germany and Austria undertook this geological drilling project as part of the International Continental Drilling Program. The U.S. research team was led by Julie Brigham-Grette of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and included doctoral student Kenna Wilkie and PolarTREC teacher Tim Martin. The diverse team of scientists faced no easy task- six months of hard work in Northeast Siberia during winter. The team hired converted tanks to pull drilling platforms to the extremely remote lake (62 miles north of the Arctic Circle), chartered temperature-controlled cargo planes to safely move the sediment core samples back to specialized labs, and lived in temporary housing atop ice. It was all so they could collect excellent samples: the longest sediment core samples retrieved from the Arctic region. Their successful expedition showcased international scientific cooperation and provided one-of-a-kind data for the scientific community. The project was funded in part by the National Science Foundation: the NSF Division of Earth Sciences and also the NSF Office of Polar Programs.

It is said that location is everything, and that is certainly true for Lake El'gygytgyn (El'geegitgin). The lake, 7.5 miles wide and 558 feet deep, rests in the middle of a large impact crater formed 3.6 million years ago when a meteor slammed into the Earth. The region in present-day Russia it struck was part of Beringia, the great land bridge which spanned the ocean between Asia and North America. The area was never glaciated. Accordingly, it wasn't scoured or covered over by crawling ice. Ever since the meteorite struck, the basin where Lake El'gygytgyn rests has accumulated sediment: drifts of pollen, decomposing plant matter, ash from fires or volcanic activity, and other debris. With these samples, the scientists can measure radioactivity, magnetic and sonic properties, electrical resistance, and much more. Like vertical timelines, the striated sediment cores withdrawn from the lake-bed are capable of telling stories about the world. Lake El'gygytgyn is a gem, holding an undisturbed, continuous uninterrupted sediment sequence which has accumulated for the past 3.6 million years.

"Earth's warm and cold cycles over the past one million years varied every 100,000 years at times. Before that, however, climate change, especially in high latitudes, varied over 41,000- and 23,000-year cycles. The record from Lake E will show the ramp up to that type of change in the Earth's climate." ~ Julie Brigham-Grette*

Today Siberia and the Arctic are notoriously cold. The meteorite struck during the warmer Pliocene era, when mammoths, giant ground sloths, and early hominins still roamed the earth. During the Pliocene the area supported a heavily forested ecosystem. Hopefully through research we can fully understand the causes of Arctic climate shift toward a cold permafrost ecosystem some 2 two 3 million years ago. What influences forced such a dramatic change? Understanding that, and comparing past Arctic climate change to paleoclimate records of change that occurred in the rest of the world, will help form more complete climate models. Sediment cores, marine sediment cores, and ice cores all contribute data to an increasingly complex climate map. Climate modeling can help us systematically analyze the past, and predict what will happen as the present-day global climate continues to shift.

Our ability to inform policy makers about global/regional climate and related environmental change and its uncertainties depends on our capacity to understand the role of the Arctic region in modulating past periods of change under different climate forcing conditions. ~ Julie Brigham-Grette**

While ice cores collected from the Greenland Ice Sheet are long enough to detail about 110,000 years, the sediment cores from Lake El'gygytgyn (El'geegitgin) map 30x more... nearly 3,600,000 years. The undivided core is nearly 1165 feet long (similar to the Empire State Building's top floor at 1250 feet). It is an unprecedented time-continuous terrestrial record of Arctic conditions. I31 feet of core is from the warm middle Pliocene era- when there was no permanent sea ice in the Arctic Ocean- which may represent an analog for the climate not-too-distant humans will face.

While most of the core samples were drilled from the lake bed, an additional borehole was cored at the western edge of Lake El'gygytgyn. The borehole was fitted with instruments to monitor ground temperatures and will continue to contribute to the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost.

Supreme Court Declines to Enter Sunken Treasure Dispute

From KSBY.com: Supreme Court Declines to Enter Sunken Treasure Dispute
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has again steered clear of an international dispute over the treasure salvaged from a 19th century shipwreck.

The justices on Monday rejected appeals from the deep-sea explorers who found the wreck of a sunken Spanish galleon and Peru, both of which objected to court rulings awarding the treasure to Spain. In February, Spain took possession of 17 tons of silver coins and other artifacts estimated in 2007 to be worth $500 million.

Odyssey Marine Exploration has lost every round in federal court in its effort to hold on to the treasure it found when it discovered the wreck, believed to be the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, off Portugal's Atlantic coast near the Straits of Gibraltar. The ship was sunk in 1804.

Court OKs Kent man's audacious high-tech venture to recover Alaska's sunken treasure

From Puget Sound Business Journal: Court OKs Kent man's audacious high-tech venture to recover Alaska's sunken treasure

More than a century after the steamship Islander sank near Juneau with a purported cargo of Alaskan gold, a Kent man hopes to cash in on his two-decade-long quest to retrieve the treasure.

Theodore Jaynes, 72, a former professional diver, got a federal judge last month to approve his latest plan to recover the gold, clearing the way to aim high-tech imaging gear at the sunken vessel this summer.

"He is wary and excited, enthused," said Jaynes' attorney, Jed Powell, with the Seattle firm of Cairncross & Hempelmann. "One way or the other, we're going to know the answer to the SS Islander story."

That would be the answer to the question of how much gold, if any, lies under 175 feet of frigid water in Lynn Canal, south of Juneau. Top-end estimates are that the Islander sank with 480,000 ounces of gold, which at current prices of about $1,500 an ounce would be worth about $720 million.

Or there could be nothing.

"Some people say none, some say a lot," Powell said. "Sworn affidavits from 1902, from people on the docks in Skagway - some of them said there were tons of gold, others saw there were boxes of gold."

"The company's purser said there wasn't anything on the boat," Powell added, "just a little bit in his safe."

While nobody's sure what is down there, that hasn't stopped people - a lot of people - from trying to find it.

If Jaynes turns out to be the one who finally succeeds, he would complete a major chapter in the saga of the Klondike Gold Rush, an event that helped turn Seattle into the business capital of the Pacific Northwest. After an 1896 gold find in Alaska's Klondike, some 70,000 "Stampeders" passed through Seattle, buying supplies and frequenting hotels while waiting to sail north. Seattle's population tripled in less than 15 years, to 240,000 by 1910.

Amid the thousands of lives lost to the Klondike gold frenzy were those of 65 passengers and crew of the Canadian Pacific Navigation Co.'s SS Islander. Heading south from the gold gateway port of Skagway, the 240-foot steamer hit an iceberg and sank on Aug. 15, 1901, more than a decade before the same fate befell the Titanic.

Numerous expeditions have attempted to find the Islander's lost gold. In 1934, a monumental effort partly funded by Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. President Norton Clapp raised the ship's hull, but little gold was found - possibly because the prize remained in a bow section that had broken off and was still on the bottom.

"If it's there, it's the biggest ever," said Powell, referring to the potential treasure. "A lot of people have lost their fortunes on this thing over the years."

Jaynes created a company called Ocean Mar Inc. and assembled a team of fellow divers and a vessel to lift the gold. But on arrival in Juneau in 1996, Jaynes was served by a restraining order by a federal marshal, obtained by a rival salvage company, Yukon Recovery, of Puyallup.

From that point on, Jaynes spent more time in court and his lawyers' offices than underwater, until April 30, when a "Third Amended Plan" from U.S. District Court of Alaska approved the updated details on how his Ocean Mar Inc. will proceed to pull up the gold. Part of the legal proceedings has been to work out a contractual arrangement with the Salvage Association of London, an organization that brokers settlements between insurers and salvage companies such as Ocean Mar. Under that contract, Powell said, Ocean Mar will pay the Salvage Association 25 percent of the value of any "insured gold" recovered, to reimburse any insurers who might have previously paid claims on the gold. Ocean Mar's recovery plan is being kept away from the public view by the court, reflecting the company's stated intent in its court filing that the specifics should be "confidential - extremely confidential." A 2010 court document suggests that Ocean Mar will use sonar equipment and software that also has been deployed by the Navy "to 'see' through the seabed material for a number of inches, in order to locate the gold bars." Powell suggested that technology advances since 1996 should make the mapping more precise. The court papers said Ocean Mar had been in talks with Science Application International Corp., a major Pentagon contractor with a branch in Bremerton, to conduct the mapping. But the SAIC deal never came to fruition, Powell said, and Ocean Mar is still negotiating with contractors.

"For 15 or so years, Ted Jaynes and Ocean Mar have been trying to put together the science to actually do the salvage," he said. "They have a much greater ability to go down and see what's on the bottom." Powell declined to make Jaynes available for comment, and Jaynes did not respond to other attempts to contact him.

Some of Jaynes' 40-year diving career was in France, working for a Marseilles company called Intersub, or International Submarine Services.

While Powell declined to say how much money is available to pay for the salvage operation, he said the costs "could be" $3 million to $4 million.

Powell said the undisclosed lender is a "financial entity," but not a bank. He declined to say if the entity is based in the U.S. or overseas.

Over the years, Jaynes has attracted investors to his treasure hunt. Undisclosed investors in a Jaynes-led entity called Islander Bullion Partners LLC are entitled to divvy up approximately $147 million in potential proceeds from the Islander's gold, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission notice dated May 15.

Islander Bullion Partners is not the only investor group. Another set of backers, called Islander Partners LP, dates back to the 1990s. According to another recent SEC filing, an entity called Douglas Island Group LLC is entitled to about 22 percent of the Islander Bullion Partners' payoff.

Douglas Island, off Juneau, is where Capt. H.R. Foote back in 1901 had hoped to ground the distressed Islander after it hit the iceberg to keep the ship from sinking.

He didn't make it.

Back to our regularly scheduled blogging

Visiting relative  has left, traveling has done, and I'm ready to devote myself to this blog again.

So thanks for  your patience!

I crave your indulgence

My mother's sister is visiting for three days.


My mom's deaf as a post, my dad can't be bothered to get out of his chair, so I will be doing the entertaining - the chauffeuring and the talking and the communicating - for the next three days.


So I'll be posting back here Thursday.


Thanks for your patience.

American Civil War Center May Calendar

From Richmond.com: Where am I RVA? American Civil War Center
ichmond's big chapter in the battlefield history of the Civil War began its 150th anniversary commemoration on May 9 and continues with 60 days of events.

One of the more unique places to learn about the Civil War can be found at the American Civil War Center at historic Tredegar Iron Works.

The Center opened October 7, 2006, and is considered to be place to learn about the Civil War -- its causes, its course, and its legacies, according to its website. "It is a place where the people who decided America’s future tell their stories. Here, all of the main stories -- Union, Confederate, and African American -- get significant space together for the first time."

The Center is located on 8 acres on the historic James River in downtown Richmond. A National Historic Landmark, the Tredegar site contains five surviving buildings illustrating the Iron Works era. The National Park Service operates the Richmond National Battlefield Park Visitor Center located in the restored Pattern Building.

Admission is $8, children are $4 and free to children 5 and under.

Highlighted upcoming events at the Center:

Fire! Rifle Musket Program - May 19 & May 27: Join a costumed historical interpreter for a discussion and demonstration of the primary infantry weapon of the American Civil War. Learn how a Civil War soldier trained and fought with the rifle musket.

Men of Iron - May 20: Before, during and after the Civil War, the Tredegar Iron Works was an important industrial complex. In peacetime, it supplied the vast expansion of the railroad industry; in war it produced the largest number of cannon in the Confederacy. Guests are treated to a tour of the grounds learning about the manufacturing of iron, the people who worked here, the historic buildings on site and Tredegar owner Joseph Reid Anderson.

Meet the Curator, Meet the Artifact! - May 26: Throughout the year, artifacts in our In the Cause of Liberty exhibition change to showcase remarkable pieces that have been shared with us from private collections and renowned museums around the country. Join Randy Klemm, Curator for the American Civil War Center as he shares these remarkable pieces with you.

WWII-era battleship USS Iowa being refitted to move to new home as naval museum in California

From Yahoo News: WWII-era battleship USS Iowa being refitted to move to new home as naval museum in California

RICHMOND, Calif. - Firing its 16-inch (41-centimetre) guns in the Arabian Sea, the U.S.S. Iowa shuddered. As the sky turned orange, a blast of heat from the massive guns washed over the battleship. This was the Iowa of the late 1980s, at the end of its active duty, as it escorted reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran-Iraq war.

Some 25 years later, following years of aging in the San Francisco Bay area's "mothball fleet," the 887-foot (270-meter) long ship that once carried President Franklin Roosevelt to a World War II summit to meet with Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin and Chiang Kai Shek is coming to life once again as it is being prepared for what is most likely its final voyage.

Not far from where "Rosie the Riveter" female workers built ships in the 1940s at the Port of Richmond, the 58,000-ton battlewagon is undergoing restoration for towing May 20 through the Golden Gate, then several hundred miles (kilometres) south to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro. There it is to be transformed into an interactive naval museum.

On May 1, ownership of the Iowa was officially transferred from the U.S. Navy to the Pacific Battleship Center, the non-profit organization that has been restoring the boat for its new mission.

"This means everything — it's going to be saved," said John Wolfinbarger, 87, of San Martin, California, who served aboard the USS Iowa for almost two years in the mid-1940s and recently began giving public tours of the old ship during repairs here.

"When it gets down to San Pedro, it's going to be the happiest day of my life, like coming home!" he said, watching the mast being reattached.

For the past decade, the lead ship of her battleship class known as "The Big Stick" has sat in the cold and fog, anchored with other mothballed ships in nearby Suisun Bay. This spring, workers began scrubbing and painting the Iowa's exterior, replacing the teak deck and reattaching the mast in preparation for the museum commissioning on July 4.

Jonathan Williams, executive officer of Pacific Battleship Group, has been overseeing the project, which will exceed $4 million upon completion. Williams credited his dedicated staff and volunteers, along with the financial contributions from the state of Iowa, for making the restoration possible.

"The U.S. Navy, MARAD (United States Maritime Administration) and the crew that mothballed the battleship over the past 22 years did an excellent job and kept the heart and soul of Iowa alive," said Williams.
"Things are on track and we are following our schedule as planned," he added. "We are trying to make sure nothing is missed as the process is complex."

The fast Iowa-class battleships, ordered by the Navy in 1939 and 1940, could travel at a speed of 33 knots (61 kph). The Iowa, first commissioned in 1943 and again in 1951 and 1984, saw duty in World War II and the Korean War. It took part in escorting tankers in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war before being decommissioned in 1990.

During World War II, when transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1944, the ship shelled beachheads at Kwajalein and Eniwetok in advance of Allied amphibious landings and screened aircraft carriers operating in the Marshall Islands.

It was one of two ships of its class camouflaged during World War II— and it also was the only one with a bathtub, which was put in for President Roosevelt. The Iowa also served as the Third Fleet flagship, flying Adm. William F. Halsey's flag as it accompanied the Missouri at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.
A dark part of the ship's history took place in 1989, when 47 sailors were killed in an explosion in the No. 2 gun turret. After the blast, the Navy alleged a crewmember caused the explosion as a result of a failed relationship with another male crewmember. A follow-up investigation found the explosion was most likely the result of human error.

Most visitors are immediately drawn to the sight and firepower of the Iowa's nine 16-inch guns, which could send an armour-piercing shell the weight of a small car 24 miles (39 kilometres). When the ship was modernized during the 1980s, it was outfitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Phalanx gun mounts. It was also one of the first ships outfitted to carry a drone for reconnaissance flights.

Future plans for the Iowa include an interactive tour experience that will allow the visitor to experience what life at sea was like during active duty. Among the highlights will be viewing the inside of one of the main gun turrets, seeing the 17.5-inch (44.45-centimetre) armoured conning station on the bridge and viewing Roosevelt's stateroom.

There will also be tours of secondary weapons, missiles, engineering, armour and special spaces.

The museum is scheduled to open on July 7.