If true, this is really cool:
Excavations are required to confirm the discovery, so we will have to wait and see. Still, we've known for a long time that Vikings were on that island during that time.ARCHAEOLOGISTS have used satellite imagery to identify a site in Newfoundland that could be the first new Viking site discovered in North America in over 50 years.
Satellite imagery, magnetometer surveys, and a preliminary excavation of the site at Point Rosee in southern Newfoundland last year could point to a potentially fascinating discovery.
...
Archeologist Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama, Birmingham, used high-resolution satellite imagery to spot ruins as small as 11 inches buried below the surface, according to NOVA. Satellites positioned around 478 miles above the Earth enabled Parcak and her team to scan a vast section of America and Canada’s eastern seaboard.
The satellite images, two magnetometer surveys, and preliminary excavations suggest “sub-surface rectilinear features,” according to the experts, who also identified possible evidence of ironworking in the form of roasted iron ore. Radiocarbon technology has dated the site to between 800 and 1300AD.
Interestingly, The Queen Of The World was born not 40 miles from Point Rosse when her father was stationed at the Air Force Base on Stephenville.
6 comments:
I wonder if that kind of technology can be used for finding rare earth metal deposits, or gold or oil? Who was the physicist who said oil was just about everywhere on the planet? Was it Thomas Gold?
In the early 1980s, satellite-borne ground penetrating radar was used to find and identify a gold deposit.
The deposit was several meters below the surface. A USGS team sent to the site confirmed it. It was a case study I followed when schooling for my geology degree.
All materials have a discreet signature in the electromag spectrum. Start there.
Shallow deposits can be found this manner. Most gold mines are far deeper than the EM Spectrum currently can probe.
Otherwise, at gold 3K + and rising there would be a satellite based gold mine company selling like hotcakes on the Stock market.
Technology is getting 'better' every day...
I work in the industry, in an area with LOTS of gold mining.
Over the last 150 years, tens of thousands of small operations have looked for shallow deposits and sampleys outcroppings across the region.
Any substantial deposits are in places hard to reach, which usually means underground.
Several of the mines I work with are going underground because their target deposits are too deep to be worth open pit mining. These are anywhere from 480 ft to 1,000 below ground level.
Jonathan
P.S. There are other existing technologies that allow for non intrusive subsurface investigation, particularly gravity measurement. They all have drawbacks.
My grandparents met and fell in love back in the 30s on Newfoundland as members of Grenfell mission. I think they were further north though. There were some amazing stories about the life up there during the depression.
Post a Comment