Is Galway sinking ?

Rob A. Bank · 16-02-2012 06:15PM #1

I was walking the dog along the seashore by the golf links when, to my surprise, I noticed expanses of bog poking out of the sand here… http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,526579,723331,6,0

Genuine black bog complete with bog oak, a few meters below the high tide mark !

My very limited knowledge of oceanography would suggest that bogs do not form under the sea, soooo, is Galway slowly sinking beneath the waves or is this local proof positive of global warming ?

jkforde · 16-02-2012 06:32PM

it's amazing alright but don't reckon we're sinking, in fact the land's probably still rebounding upwards after the last ice age.... a modern day example is that the land surface in the centre of Greenland is below sea level with some 4km of ice on top of it, it'll be some crack when the ice comes off it! see here, take a look at the top paragraph of page 8 (page 46 of the paper)

Sponge Bob · 16-02-2012 06:40PM

Rob A. Bank wrote: »

r is this local proof positive of global warming

Absolutely must be global warming, sure isn't everything caused by global warming. :cool:

desaparecidos · 16-02-2012 09:54PM

Rob A. Bank wrote: »

or is this local proof positive of global warming ?

Worst case scenario in 90yrs time the oceans will have risen by a couple of cm, so no.

maddragon · 16-02-2012 09:57PM

I misread the title to say "is Galway stinking" and I thought hell yeah it stinks on ice.

xflyer · 17-02-2012 12:49AM

No the Winter storms have washed away a lot of the sand exposing all sorts of interesting stuff long buried. I was on the beach lately opposite the Waterfront hotel and noticed a lot of rocks exposed that hadn't been there before. Checking a photo I took of my kid at the same spot. I reckon a good 18 inches of sand has been washed away during the Winter. But don't worry it'll all come back.

That area was probably dry land during the last ice age.

jimbobaloobob · 17-02-2012 01:11AM

The sea has risen over the last 50 years, back along the coast near barna too there is many areas where there is bog on the shoreline.

No need for armbands yet.

Wompa1 · 17-02-2012 02:37AM

Rob A. Bank wrote: »

I was walking the dog along the seashore by the golf links when, to my surprise, I noticed expanses of bog poking out of the sand here… http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,526579,723331,6,0

Genuine black bog complete with bog oak, a few meters below the high tide mark !

My very limited knowledge of oceanography would suggest that bogs do not form under the sea, soooo, is Galway slowly sinking beneath the waves or is this local proof positive of global warming ?

No but the sky is falling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms-w4M_AYxU

Rob A. Bank · 17-02-2012 11:02AM

jimbobaloobob wrote: »

The sea has risen over the last 50 years, back along the coast near barna too there is many areas where there is bog on the shoreline.

No need for armbands yet.

LOL Jim, I’m not taking swimming lessons either.

However the bog and trees are well below the high water mark by the golf course. So either the sea has risen or the land sank since that bog with its trees lived.

The old Ordinance Survey maps going back to 1843 don’t suggest there has been any big change in sea levels since then.

I suppose the buried trees could be carbon dated, or dated by dendrochronology, to see if they are prehistoric or of more recent origin. That might help solve the mystery.

17-02-2012 02:39PM

there are entire sunken forests in the Irish and North seas

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/coast/pages/5.shtml

Rob A. Bank · 17-02-2012 02:54PM

Mystery solved !

Apparently there was an inland lake stretching from Salthill to Spiddal 5,000 years ago, which was eventually eroded and inundated by the sea !

This article about the Barna bog boat, also found in bog below the high water mark, explains all.

He described it as a "most exciting and important find" which was made in December of 2002 when, after a series of coastal storms, Brian and Ronán Ó Carra were looking along the beach near Barna at low tide to see if anything unusual had been exposed by the wave action. They had previously found ancient tree trunks, now they made this amazing discovery of the prow of what seemed an ancient canoe, stripped from the peat boggy area by the waves. They contacted the Department of Archaeology at NUI Galway who recovered the canoe and took it to the aquarium for further analysis. This has been carried out in association with the National Musuem, with whose approval the canoe, or bog boat, is now on permanent display. It is being kept underwater in a special display, the only one of its type in Ireland.

The researchers believe that the peat around the canoe was formed in a very large freshwater lake that existed over 5,000 years ago and may have stretched all the way from Salthill to Spiddal. During the Neolithic period this would have been heavily wooded, but since then the sea has eroded the coastline and broke through completely into what was originally an inland lake.

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/seascapes/1216967.html

:cool:

Is Galway sinking ?

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