Alabama’s Ancient Underwater Forest

On October 16-17, 2013 Kristine DeLong of the Department of Geography and Anthropology and her Ph.D student Robin Cobb along with Grant Harley of University of Southern Mississippi and Ben Raines of the Weeks Bay Foundation dove a highly secret spot 10 miles off the coast of Alabama where a hurricane uncovered the remains of an ancient forest from the Glacial period (80,000 to 50,000 years ago. The team participated in a documentary filmed by the Weeks Bay Foundation and documented the site and recovered over 30 pieces a wood. The wood was buried in oxygen-poor muds which prevented decomposition of the wood. The site is littered with bald cypress stumps still in their growth position, some measuring 6 feet across.

Several core samples were taken of the underwater trees for scientific analysis.