Mythology About the New Siberian Islands
Stratigrapher
of this USENET Group, I found, posted to it, I found an excellent
discussion and listing of papers about the bedrock geology,
Quaternary Geology and plaeoclimatology of the New Siberian
Islands that exposed and refute the falsehoods and myth about the
New Siberian Islands, which Young Earth creationists and various
catastrophists use to make the case for their pseudoscientific ideas.
Some of the catastrophists include Ted Holden (various USENET
posts), Vine Deloria, ( "Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans
and the Myth of Scientific Fact"), Charles Hapgood ("Path of the
Poles" and "Earth's Shifting Crust: A Key to Some Basic Problems
of Earth Science"), Graham Hancock, ("Fingerprints of the Gods:
The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization"), and many others. The
Young Earth creationists include Michael Oard, Beverly Oard, and
Donald Wesley Patten.
These authors claim that there exist the "carcasses" of thousands
dead megafauna, including mammoths, whom were killed by a
catastrophic event around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Several
of these authors claims that the New Siberian Islands are
composed partially or wholly of either the remains of the
megafauna killed in this catastrophe or the frozen mixture of
sand and bones of these animals. In general, these authors,
including Rand Flem-Ath, who postulates an Earth Crustal
Shift / Displacement as the cause of this catastrophe, this
catastrophe resulted in the abrupt shift from temperate climates
for the New Siberian Island to modern polar climates.
David Brunel, who has given me complete permission to use,
edit, and reprint his post, wrote:
"The claim that either New Siberian Islands or Wrangel Island
are "composed partially, or wholly of the remains of these
megafauna" is completely false. If a person reads the modern papers
concerning the geology of the New Siberian Islands and Wangel
Island, a person will find that the Hapgood (1970), Hancock (1995),
and other supporters of Earth Crustal Displacement have used
antiquated, obsolete, unreliable publications that have been
completely discredited by research starting in the early 1900's when
the trained scientists visited the area. For example, on pages
151-152, Digby (1926) wrote:
"Bolshoi Lyakhov consists of granite protruding
from below non-fossiliferous rocks. It was along
the south coast that Toll found his extraordinary
layers of what he called "fossil ice". They were as
much as 70 ft. thick. On top of them lay the
post-Tertiary desposits in which were remains of
wolly rhinoceras and mammoth, American stag,
reindeer, a horse (apparently the Mongolian wild
horse, which still exists), saiga, antelope, ovibos,
and sabre-toothed tiger. There was lying among
them, too, a 90 ft. alder tree (Alnus (sic) fructicosa)
with even its roots and seeds preserved."
(Note: "fructicosa" is a simple misspelling of "fruticosa" as
discussed by (Babinski nd))
Digby (1926) mistranslated and misinterpreted from what
Baron von Toll wrote and incorrectly concluded that the 15-foot high
alder tree that he found was 90-feet high. This is a mistake that
authors that Hancock (1995), Hapgood (1970), and numerous other
authors have repeated as discussed by Babinski (nd). Furthermore
as noted by Babinski (nd), von Toll (1895), who described this tree
as an alder tree, makes no mention of it having either "green leaves"
or "green fruits" attached to it and identified it as neither a
"fruit tree" nor "pear tree" as mentioned by Hancock (1995) and
other authors. These descriptions are nothing more than fictional
inventions of authors that Hancock (1995), Hapgood (1970), many
other catastrophists, and Young Earth creationists all copied from
authors that they mistook for being reliable sources of information.
Digby (1926) continues:
I have given some details of the geological formation
of the larger New Siberian Islands lest the reader might
picture them as mere former sand banks or mudflats on
which Pleistocene remains, brought down to the Arctic
Ocean by the great Siberian rivers, have been cast up.
Some famous palaeontologists of various nationalities
have given that explanation, and the misstatements in
their books live on, to puzzle the students of more
enlightened times."
And on p.144:
"A number of distinguished palaeontologists, having
verified the existence on a map of Asia of a group of
tiny, spotty things lying off the top of Siberia, have
declared, in their writings, that the group is practically
one solid deposit of prehistoric bones, mixed up with
sand and clay and ice.
It is, of course, far too spacious to be anything of the
kind."
Basically, the New Siberian islands are not the huge, concentrated
heaps of bones and frozen sand as which they are falsely said to be.
Instead, they consist of a mixture of folded and faulted sedimentary
and igneous rocks ranging in age from Precambrian to Pliocene. For
example, the Lyakhovsky Islands consist of a folded and faulted
assemblage of Precambrian metamorphic rocks; upper Paleozoic to
Triassic sandstones and shales; Jurassic to lower Cretaceous
turbidites; and Cretaceous granites. Other New Siberian Islands
consist of highly faulted and folded Ordovician to Devonian
limestones, dolomites, sandstones, shales, volcanoclastic strata,
and igneous rocks; upper Paleozoic to Triassic sandstones and
shales; Jurassic to lower Cretaceous turbidites; and upper Cretaceous
to Pliocene sandstones and shales as described by Dorofeev et al.
(1999), Kos’ko and Trufanov (2002), Fujita and Cook (1990).
The pre-Quaternary strata that composed these islands is covered by
only a "relatively" thin and discontinuous layer of Pleistocene
sediments that contains mammoth fossils. Mammoth fossils are
common in them, but the reports of fossil bones of mammoths and
other megafauna being the main constituent of these Quaternary
deposits are nothing more than unreliable, grossly exaggerated
second-hand accounts as documented in Andreev et al. (2004),
Digby (1926), Ivanov (1935), Meyer et al. (2002), Schirrmeister et
al. (2000), and many, many other publications.
A major problem is that the Quaternary sediments and the mammoth
and megafauna fossils (“carcasses”) found in the New Siberian Islands,
which Rick and Hancock (1995) claim to be evidence of an Earth
Crustal Displacement / Shift are far too old by tens of thousands of
years, even over a hundred thosuand years to be associated with a
hypothesized one at 9,600 BC (11,600 BP). For example, the Quaternary
sediments exposed in the sea cliffs examined by van Toll (1895) along
the southwest coast of Greater (Bol’shoy ) Lyakhovsky Island were
dated by Andreev et al. (2004) and Schirrmeister et al. (2000). Their
radiocarbon dating of the bones and ivory, when possible; optically
stimulated luminescence dating of the sediments enclosing the bones
and ivory; and uranium-thorium dating of peats in the lowermost beds
demonstrate that the bulk of the sediments exposed in these sea cliffs
accumulated during three episodes between 28,000 and 200,000. Thus,
the thousands of bones, which have been recovered from these
sediments, are far too old to have any association with a 9,600 BC
(11,600) Earth Crustal Displacement. The rare bones found in pond
and colluvial deposits filling thermokarst developed in the permafrost
ice complex that has developed in the older Quaternary sediments
were dated to be only 12,400 BP (10,400 BC) to 8,000 BP (6,000
BC). Thus, they are too young to have ever associated with a 9,600
BC (11,600) Earth Crustal Displacement. At the base of sea cliffs,
Paleocene bedrock is exposed, these deposits are far, far too old to
be related to a 9,600 BC (11,600) Earth Crustal Displacement. Even
Hanock (1995)’s so-called 90-foot high “fruit tree” is 130,000 year
old and, thus, far too old to have been buried by a 9,600 BC (11,600)
Earth Crustal Displacement. There is a complete absence of any
deposits that looks like it could a be seismite, tsunamiites, or any
other event bed generated by a cataclysm like a Earth Crustal
Displacement (Dawson and Stewart 2007).
Research of the Quaternary deposits of other New Siberian Islands
have found a remarkable lack of deposits dating to around 9,600 BC
(11,600 BP). For example, in their study of sediments underlying
river terraces along the Balyktah and Dragotsennaya river valleys on
Kotelny Island, Makeyev et al. (2003) found packets of fluvial
sediments ranging thickness from 3 to 18 meters (9 to 60 feet) of
interbedded river sediments and peat bogs ranging in age from
greater than 54,000 BP to 1,500 BP and resting the eroded surface
of pre-Quaternary rocks. They found no package of sediments dating
to around 11,600 BP. There was only one, which ranged in age from
around 28,400 BP near the base to around 13,000 at the top. The
next youngest set of deposits was 3 to 5 meters (9 to 15 feet) of
underlying two narrow terraces, which dated from around 8,200 to
around 9,900 BP. Within these river valleys, there was an absence
of any deposits, which dated to a 9,600 BC (11,600) Earth Crustal
Displacement. Quaternary sediments from Faddeyevskiy Island that
were dated by Andreev et al. (2001) ranged in age from around
25,700 to 43,000 BP. They are definitely far too old and look
nothing like any known seismite or tsunamiites. Thes studies found
a complete absence of any deposit that looks like it could a be
seismite, tsunamiites, or any other event bed generated by a
cataclysm like a Earth Crustal Displacement (Dawson and Stewart
2007).
There is nothing in the published literature that documents the
existence of “megafauna carcasses in the thousands”, bones,
or deposits created by a hypothetical Earth Crustal Displacement
around 9,600 BC (11,600 BP) in the New Siberian Islands. So
far there is a complete lack of any hard data which demonstrates
that deposits created by a 9,600 BC Earth Crustal Displacement
actually exist.
References Cited:
Andreev, A. A., D. M. Peteet, P. E. Tarasov, F. A. Romanenko,
L. V. Filimonova and L. D. Sulerzhitsky, 2001, Late Pleistocene
Interstadial Environment on Faddeyevskiy Island, East-Siberian
Sea, Russia. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. vol. 33,
no. 1, pp. 28-35
Andreev, A. A., G. Grosse, L. Schirrmeister, S. A. Kuzmina, E. Y.
Novenko, A. A. Bobrov, P. E. Tarasov, B. P. Ilyashuk, T. V.
Kuznetsova, M. Krbetschek, H. Meyer, and V.V. Kunitsky, 2004,
Late Saalian and Eemian palaeoenvironmental history of the Bol’shoy
Lyakhovsky Island (Laptev Sea region, Arctic Siberia). Boreas.
vol. 33, pp. 319–348.
Babinski, E.T., nd, in the "Ninety Foot Tall Plum Tree" at:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/ce/3/part3.html.
Dawson, A G., and I. Stewart 2007, Tsunami deposits in the
geological record. Sedimentary Geology. vol. 200, pp. 166–183
Digby, B., 1926. The Mammoth and Mammoth-Hunting in North-East
Siberia. D. Appleton and Company, New York, 224 pp.
Dorofeev, V.K., M.G. Blagoveshchensky, A.N. Smirnov, and V.I.
Ushakov, 1999, New Siberian Island. Geological structure and
metallgeny. VNIIOkeangeologia, St. Petersburg, Russia. 130 pp.
Fujita, K., and D.B. Cook, 1990, The Arctic continental margin of
eastern Siberia, in A. Grantz, L. Johnson, and J. F. Sweeney, eds.,
pp. 289-304, The Arctic Ocean Region. Geology of North America,
vol L, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.
Hancock, G., 1995, Fingerprints of the Gods. William Heinemann,
London, 592 pp.
Hapgood, C.H., 1970, Earth's Shifting Crust: A Key to Some Basic
Problems of Earth Science. Chilton Book Company, Philadelphia,
365 pp.
Ivanov, I., 1935, The Novosibirskie Islands. Arkhangelsk: Sevkraigiz
Publishers, 68 pp.
Kos’ko, M.K., and G.V. Trufanov, 2002, Middle Cretaceous to
Eopleistocene Sequences on the New Siberian Islands: an approach to
interpret offshore seismic. Marine and Petroleum Geology. vol. 19,
no. 7, pp. 901–919.
Makeyev, V.M., D.P. Ponomareva, V.V. Pitulko, G.M. Chernova and
D.V. Solovyeva, 2003, Vegetation and Climate of the New Siberian
Islands for the past 15,000 Years. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine
Research, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 56-66.
Schirrmeister, L., V. V. Kunitsky, G. Grosse, H. Meyer, T. V.
Kuznetsova, S. A. Kuzmina, V. e. Tumskoy, A. Dereviagin, I.
Akhmadeeva, and I. Syromyatnikov, 2000, Quaternary deposits
of Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island. Reports on Polar and Marine
Research 354, 113–168.
von Toll, Baron E., 1895, Wissenschaftliche Resultate der Von der
Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften sur Erforschung des
Janalandes und der Neusibirischen Inseln in den Jahren 1885 und
1886 Ausgesandten expedition. [Scientific Results of the Imperial
Academy of Sciences of the Investigation of Janaland and the New
Siberian Islands from the Expeditions Launched in 1885 and 1886]
Abtheilung III: Die fossilen Eislager und ihre Beziehungen su den
Mammuthleichen. Memoires de L'Academie imperials des Sciences
de St. Petersbouro, VII Serie, Tome XLII, No. 13, Commissionnaires
de I'Academie Imperiale des sciences, St. Peterabourg, Russia."
A very nice, general summary of Russian research and paleoclimate
within various parts of Russia, including its Arctic regions, over the
last 65 million years is:
Velichko, A. A., and V. P. Nechaev, eds., 2005, Cenozoic Climatic
and Environmental Changes in Russia. Geological Society of
America Special Paper no. 382, 226 pp. ISBN:0813723825
http://www.geosociety.org/bookstore/default.asp?oID=0&catID=search&pID=SPE382
Additional reading about the Quaternary Geology and history of
the New Siberian Islands and the Russian Artic from a post by
Mr. David Brunel includes:
Andreev, A. A., G. Grosse, L. Schirrmeister, S. A. Kuzmina, E. Y.
Novenko, A. A. Bobrov, P. E. Tarasov, B. P. Ilyashuk, T. V.
Kuznetsova, M. Krbetschek, H. Meyer, and V.V. Kunitsky, 2004, Late
Saalian and Eemian palaeoenvironmental history of the Bol’shoy
Lyakhovsky Island (Laptev Sea region, Arctic Siberia). Boreas.
vol. 33, pp. 319–348.
Andreev, A. A., L. Schirrmeister, C. Siegert, A. A. Bobrov, D.
Demske, M. Seiffert, and H.-W. Hubberten, 2002a, Paleoenvironmental
changes in Northeastern Siberia during the Late Quaternary –
Evidence from pollen records of the Bykovsky Peninsula.
Polarforschung. vol. 70, pp. 13-25.
Andreev, A. A., C. Siegert, V. A. Klimanov, A. Yu Derevyagin, G. N.
Shilova, and M. Melles, 2002b, Late Pleistocene and Holocene
vegetation and climate changes in the Taymyr Lowland, Northern
Siberia. quaternary Research. vol. 57, pp. 138-150.
Andreev, A. A., P. E. Tarasov, V. A. Klimanov, M. Melles, O. M.
Lisitsyna, and H.-W. Hubberten, 2004, Vegetation and climate
changes around the Lama Lake, Taymyr Peninsula, Russia, during the
Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Quaternary International. vol. 122,
pp. 69-84.
Andreev, A. A., P. E. Tarasov, C. Siegert, T. Ebel, V. A. Klimanov,
M. Melles, A. A. Bobrov, A. Yu Dereviagin, D. J. Lubinski, and H.-W.
Hubberten, 2003, Vegetation and climate changes on the northern
Taymyr, Russia during the upper Pleistocene and Holocene
reconstructed from pollen records.Boreas. vol. 32, no. 3): 484-505.
Andreev A. A., P. Tarasov, G. Schwamborn, B. Ilyashuk, E. Ilyashuk,
A. Bobrov, V. Klimanov, V. Rachold, and H.-W. Hubberten, 2004,
Holocene paleoenvironmental records from Nikolay Lake, Lena River
Delta, Arctic Russia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology. vol. 209, pp. 197-217.
Anisimov, M. A., and V. E. Tumskoy, 2002, Environmental History
of the Novosibirskie Islands for the last 12 ka. 32nd International
Arctic Workshop, Program and Abstracts 2002. Institute of Arctic
and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, pp 23-25.
Boeskorov, G. G., 2004, The North of Eastern Siberia: Refuge of
Mammoth Fauna in the Holocene. Gondwana Research. vol. 7
no. 2, pp. 451-455.
Boeskorov, G. G., 2005, Arctic Siberia: refuge of the Mammoth fauna.
Quaternary International. vol. 142–143, pp. 119–123.
Bjorck, S.V., B. Kromer, S. Johnsen, J. Bennike, D. Hammarlund,
G. Lemdahl, G. Possnert, T. L. Rassmussen, B. Wohlfarth, C. U.
Hammer, and M. Spurk, 1996, Synchronized terrestrial-atmospheric
deglacial records around the North Atlantic. Science. vol. 274,
pp. 1155-1160.
Elias, S. A., K. H. Anderson, and J. T. Andrews, 1996, Late
Wisconsin climate in northeastern USA and southeastern Canada,
reconstructed from fossil beetle assemblages. Journal of
Quaternary Science. vol. 11, pp. 417–421.
Fujita, K., and D. B. Cook, 1990, The Arctic continental margin of
eastern Siberia, in A. Grantz, L. Johnson, and J. F. Sweeney, eds.,
pp. 289-304, The Arctic Ocean Region. Geology of North America,
vol L, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.
Hahne, J. and M. Melles, 1997, Late and postglacial vegetation
history of the south-western Taymyr Peninsula (Central Siberia) as
revealed by pollen analysis of sediments from Lake Lama. Vegetation
History and Archaeobotany. vol. 6, pp. 1-8.
Hahne, J. and M. Melles, 1999, Climate and vegetation history of
the Taymyr Peninsula since Middle Weichselian time - Palynological
evidence from lake sediments. in H. Kassens, H. A. Bauch, I. A.
Dmitrenko, H. Eicken, H.-W. Hubberten, M. Melles, J. Theide and L.A.
Timokhov, eds., pp. 407-423, Land-ocean systems in the Siberian
Arctic: dynamics and history, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg.
Hubberten, H.W., A. Andreev, V. I. Astakhov, I. Demidov, J. A.
Dowdeswell, M. Henriksen, C. Hjort, M. Houmark-Nielsen, M.
Jakobsson, S. Kuzmina, E. Larsen, J. P. Lunkkak, A. Lys, J.
Mangerud, P. Moller, M. Saarnisto, L. Schirrmeister, A. V. Sher, C.
Siegert, M. J. Siegert, and J. I. Svendsen, 2004, The periglacial
climate and environment in northern Eurasia during the Last
Glaciation. Quaternary Science Review. vol. 23, pp. 1333-1357.
Kienast, K., C. Siegert, A. Dereviagin, and D. H. Mai, 2001,Climatic
implications of Late Quaternary plant macrofossil assemblages from
the Taymyr Peninsula, Siberia. Global and Planetary Change, vol. 31,
pp. 265-281.
Kos’ko, M. K., and G. V. Trufanov, 2002, Middle Cretaceous to
Eopleistocene Sequences on the New Siberian Islands: an approach to
interpret offshore seismic. Marine and Petroleum Geology. vol. 19,
no. 7, pp. 901–919.
Kyz’michev, A. B., A. V. Soloviev, V. E. Gonikberg, M. N. Shapiro,
and O. V. Zamzhitskii, 2006, Mesozoic Syncollision Siliciclastic
Sediments of the Bol’shoi Lyakhov Island (New Siberian Islands).
Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation. vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 30–48.
Makeyev, V. M., D. P. Ponomareva, V. V. Pitulko, G. M. Chernova
and D. V. Solovyeva, 2003, Vegetation and Climate of the New
Siberian Islands for the past 15,000 Years. Arctic, Antarctic, and
Alpine Research, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 56-66.
Meyer, H., A. Dereviagin, C. Siegert, L. Schirrmeister and H.-W.
Hubberten, 2002, Palaeoclimate Reconstruction on Big Lyakhovsky
Island, North Siberia—Hydrogen and Oxygen Isotopes in Ice Wedges.
Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. vol. 13, pp. 91-105.
Pisaric, M. F. J., G. M. MacDonald, A.A. Velichko, and L. C. Cwynar,
2001, The lateglacial and postglacial vegetation history of the
northwestern limits of Beringia, based on pollen, stomata and tree
stump evidence. Quaternary Science Review. vol. 20, pp. 235-245.
Romanovsky, N. N., 1958, New data about the construction of
Quaternary deposits on Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky Island (Novosibirsky
Islands). Science College Report, Geological-Geographical Series.
no. 2, pp. 243–248.
Schirrmeister, L., C. Siegert, T. Kuznetsova, S. Kuzmina, A. Andreev,
F. Kienast, H. Meyer, and A. Bobrov, 2002, Paleoenvironmental and
paleoclimatic records from permafrost deposits in the Arctic region of
Northern Siberia. Quaternary Internaternational. vol. 89, pp. 97-118.
Schirrmeister, L., H.-W. Hubberten, V. Rachold, and V. G. Grosse,
2005, Lost world - Late Quaternary environment of periglacial Arctic
shelves and coastal lowlands in NE-Siberia. 2nd International Alfred
Wegener Symposium Bremerhaven, October, 30 - November 2, 2005.
Sher, A. V., S. A. Kuzmina, T. V. Kuznetsova, and L. D. Sulerzhitsky,
2005, New insights into the Weichselian environment and climate of
the East Siberian Arctic derived from fossil insects, plants, and
mammals. Quaternary Science Review. vol. 24, pp. 533-569.
Svendsen, J. I., H. Alexanderson, V. I. Astakhov, I. Demidov, J. A.
Dowdeswell, S. Funder, V. Gataullin, M. Henriksen, C. Hjort, M.
Houmark-Nielsen, H.-W.Hubberten, O. Ingolfsson, M. Jakobsson,
K. H. Kjer, E. Larsen, H. Lokrantz, J. P. Lunkka, A. Lysa, J.
Mangerud,, A. Matioushkov, A. Murray, P. Moller, F. Niessen,
O. Nikolskaya, L. Polyak, M. Saarnisto, C. Siegert, M. G. Siegert,
R. F. Spielhagen, and R. Stein, 2004, Late Quaternary ice sheet
history of northern Eurasia. Quaternary Science Review. vol. 23.
pp. 1229-1271.
Wetterich, S., L. Schirrmeister and E. Pietrzeniuk, 2005, Freshwater
Ostracodes in Quaternary Permafrost Deposits in the Siberian Arctic.
Journal of Paleolimnology. vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 363-376
Velichko, A. A., A. A. Andreev, and V. A. Klimanov, 1997, Climate
and vegetation dynamics in the tundra and forest zone during the
Late Glacial and Holocene. Quaternary International, vol. 41/42,
pp. 71-96.
Yurtsev, B. A., 2001, The Pleistocene “Tundra-Steppe” and
productivity paradox: the landscape approach. Quaternary Science
Review. vol. 20, pp. 165-174.
A short web page to look at is:
Andreev, A. A., and Peteet, D. M., 1999, Climate and Diet of
Mammoths in the East Siberian Arctic . Science Briefs (August
1999). Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New
York. http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/andreev_01/
For PDF files, which can downloaded for free, of papers, which
contain cutting edge research being done by German, Russian,
and other researchers of the Alford-Wegner Institute concerning
modern and ancient climates of the Russian Arctic, can be found
at: http://epic.awi.de/epic/Main?static=yes&page=type
http://epic.awi.de/epic/Main?list&page=type&type=reports+on+polar+and+marine+research&awi=yes
http://epic.awi.de/epic/Main?list&page=type&type=article
http://epic.awi.de/epic/Main?list&page=type&type=conference+paper
It would worth a person’s while to look at:
Mangerud, J., J. Ehlers, and P. Gibbard, 2004, Quaternary
Glaciations : Extent and Chronology 1: Part I Europe.
Elsevier, Amsterdam. ISBN 0-444-51462-7
Ehlers, J., and P. L. Gibbard, 2004, Quaternary Glaciations:
Extent and Chronology 2: Part II North America. Elsevier,
Amsterdam. ISBN 0-444-51462-7
Ehlers, J., and P. L. Gibbard, 2004, Quaternary Glaciations:
Extent and Chronology 3: Part III: South America, Asia, Africa,
Australia, Antarctica, America. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
ISBN 0-444-51593-3
Yours,
Douglas