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Sunday, July 19, 2020
7/19/20 Report - Unidentified Treasure Coast Fossil Tooth. Historic Backyard Meteorite. Tropical Wave Over Hispaniola.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Sunday Morning nhc.nooa.gov |
It is that time of year when storms can quickly form in our area.
A tropical wave located over Hispaniola and the adjacent waters of
the southwestern Atlantic is expected to move west-northwestward
over the next several days and enter the southeastern Gulf of
Mexico by late Tuesday, and then move across the central Gulf on Wednesday and reach the northwestern Gulf on Thursday...
A space rock, which weighs 66 pounds, was discovered more than 30 years ago in a garden in Blaubeuren, in southern Germany. “In 1989, a homeowner was digging a cable trench on his property in Blaubeuren, in the German region of Swabia, when his spade hit a rock,” explains the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in a statement. “Upon lifting it half a meter [1.6-feet] to the surface, he found that it was remarkably heavy.”
The rock, which is a chondrite, or stony meteorite, measures 11 inches by 9.8 inches by 7.9 inches...
If the predictions are correct, it looks like this one will not be a big deal Treasure Coast.
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The rock, which is a chondrite, or stony meteorite, measures 11 inches by 9.8 inches by 7.9 inches...
I found this sweet little fossilized tooth yesterday.
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| Fossil Tooth From Treasure Coast Beach. |
After looking through some books, I think it is probably from something in the camel line, but I'd be happy to hear from anyone who knows.
It is small and very sharp. Obviously not worn down much by wear. Maybe an unerupted tooth.
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| Another View of the Same Fossil Tooth. |
On the Treasure Coast beaches you can find things that are hundreds of years old, but also thousands or even millions of years old.
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On your recent post you mentioned folks wanting to keep secrets to themselves and questioned whether or not you should share what you have learned along the way. Personally, I applaud you. I’ve been treasure hunting for nearly thirty years and have learned at least 75% of what I know about beach hunting from you. Mostly I go offshore with my guys to do the known sites of the 1715 fleet, but when the weather is not cooperating I do the beaches.
The reason for me posting this is to say that the Treasure Hunter’s Cookout was started by me 12 years ago because I wanted to get all these secretive hunters to open up to each other. I’ve accomplished my goal as I’ve seen rivals actually team up and create a more friendly atmosphere in the community. I always thought that scenarios like "I have a boat but no divers, magnetometer, sidescan, money, location etc. could cure itself if we all got together, met in a non formal, party like place and get to know each other. It appears to have worked. ...
Thanks much John. I know your cookouts have been a big success. Over the years I've received many glowing reports people who attended. The cookouts have helped many, and the comradery has been a big positive for the treasure hunting community.
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And I received this email from the other side of the Atlantic.
... I have been reading the treasure beaches for years now and appreciate your blog very very much.
Your blog also brings back fond memories of living in southern Florida during the early 90s.
I always enjoy the photos of the beaches posted too.
I am located in Europe for now and mainly detect in central Europe and the northern Mediterranean.
The links about the "Dead water phenomenon" are not directly detector related,
unless you are towing a PI coil on a sled through the sea of course ...
With kind regards from across the big pond, Bjorn
I can tell from the Google stats that the blog is read overseas, but it is always nice to get an email and links for study.
I'll be studying the links more thoroughly. It is always good to add to your understanding. You never know how it might help something fall into place.
Thanks Bjorn.
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The new blogger editor is slow. I should make a transition to the new blog before long.
It looks like the Treasure Coast surf will remain in the two or three foot range for about a week. We'll have a bit of a negative tide.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@com.
Saturday, July 18, 2020
7/18/20 Report - South Hutchinson Island Beaches Somewhat Eroded This Morning. A Product Recommendation.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Sunrise This Saturday Morning on the Treasure Coast. |
I went to the beach this morning. It is the first time I went out for a few weeks. Yesterday I saw the wind change and thought I'd check out some of the beaches.
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| John Brooks Beach Saturday Morning. |
As you can see, John Brooks had some erosion on the beach front. You can also see the big step behind the erosion.
There were modern coins, sinkers and other items on the slope in front of the cut, both high and low. I was there way before low tide, and I had already spent a lot of time eye-balling, so I didn't spend a lot of time detecting, even though it looked decent for Treasure Coast summer conditions. If I didn't have other things to do, I could have easily detected much longer.
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| Erosion At John Brooks Beach Saturday Morning. |
As you can see, the cut ran for along distance in both directions.
A little farther south, people were surfing.
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| Surfing On The Treasure Coast Saturday Morning |
There was erosion to the south too. Also the remains of some nice shell piles. The shell piles had some of the bigger shells. It wasn't just the little pieces, so it was possible there would also be sea glass, and there were some fossils. In fact that is why I did some eye-balling first. And once I get my nose to the ground, I'm like a beagle on the trail. So I ended up doing a lot of that before I ever got my metal detector out.
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| Treasure Coast Erosion Saturday Morning. |
I found a horse tooth fossil and another nice tooth that I need to identify, along with some other fossil bones.
Which reminds me - I enjoyed watching Dino Hunters last night, and I was hoping to see a tooth or two today.
Here is the largest fossil bone I saw this morning.
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| Fossil Bone Found on Beach. |
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IIn response to my recent blog post, JamminJack spoke of a fellow that used to duck dive at night and also added the following.
...Using my knowledge of when I used to work with some of the salvagers, I would check some of the reefs to see if anything was nearby. Believe it or not, I never removed any shipwreck treasure other then some modern jewelry, fishing gear, and junk. One time, I discovered a reef loaded with shards of onion bottles, olive jars, etc. I told Bill Moore about it, but never got a reply back. Maybe he was protecting me, but will never know. There was no law going out on the reefs, but removing any treasure was...
My grandmother would tell me locks were made for honest people.
Is anyone out detecting with a [virus] mask on? I bet it is difficult with the heat and limited breathing.
Happy Hunting, JamminJack
I recently bought a Solarguard Faceshield, made by Bimini Bay for $9.95 at WalMart. A lot of fishermen use them for sun protection. It is a tube of stretchy material that goes around your neck and can be pulled up to protect your face from the sun.
Well this morning I used the one I recently purchased for the first time. When I got to the beach there were also a lot of mosquitos and I was glad I had the faceshield because it helped with that too.
Some people use them as virus masks in stores, but that isn't what they were made for, and I don't know how effective they would be for that purpose.
Anyhow, I found it helpful and had no problem using it in the early morning hours. If you start to get hot, you can pull it down. I also think it could be worn wet and would have a cooling effect.
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There are no storms to watch right now, and the Treasure Coast surf is running two to three feet.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
Friday, July 17, 2020
7/17/20 Report - Metal Detecting On Vacations. Odd Ring Find. Use the Context of the Appropriate Time And Place.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Silver Mine in Colorado. |
This time of year Floridians often think of vacations in cooler areas. I always enjoyed Colorado, and took the photo shown above. You can probably see the silver mine in the middle of the photo.
Metal detecting new places, whether it is a Caribbean Island or the Rocky Mountain,s is always fun but presents the challenge of not knowing the site as well as you would on your home turf.
Detecting a resort in the Caribbean is very much like detecting a Florida beach. One difference is the hot rocks on some of the Caribbean islands..
One thing I'd recommend if you ever get the chance is taking the train from Durango to Silverton. Silverton is an small old mining town that looks like a Western TV set, and the train passes some of the most amazing scenery you'll see anywhere.
I saw a fellow dredging in the water shown below as the train neared Silverton. Of course the water is much cooler than ours.
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| Nearing Silverton Colorado. |
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When I was looking through some old photos I noticed a picture of an odd ring find that I put away in a box a long time ago. I decided to take another look at it, now that I have a good digital telescope and considerably more experience than when I originally found the ring.
The ring was gold gilt or plated and had a very hard black encrustation with shells embedded. The black crust is unusual and looks like blacktop, though I am sure it is not.
I decided to do some cleaning on the ring, and managed to move some of the stubborn encrustation, but also in the process removed much most of the gold gilt.
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| Two Photos of the Half Cleaned or Half Dirty Ring. |
As you can see a lot of the gilt was removed by the acid. That is one thing that can happen with acid cleaning.
I'm still curious about the odd shape of the ring and wondered if anyone has any idea of age or anything else.
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We often judge previous generations by 21st century context or our own standards. I was watching the Finding Your Roots TV show on PBS, and it was mentioned that one of the guest's ancestors was a slave and slept on a sack of straw. They responded to "sack of straw" with horror, as if it was some kind of torture. The evils of slavery are well known, but sleeping on a sack of straw was not an indignity.
Bill Bryson in At Home: A Short History of Private Life cites an 18th century book, Good-Holmes Cyclopedia, which lists ten mattress types or stuffings. The listed mattress fillings are down, feathers, wool, wool-flock, hair, cotton, wood-shavings, sea-moss, sawdust, and straw. Bryson goes on to state, "Historically, the most basic common filling was straw." Did they think that everyone in the 18th century were sleeping on Sealy Posturpedic mattresses with My-Pillow bed toppers. Any mattress might be considered an option, and often pioneer beds, if there was one, were nothing more than wood shelves.
Thirteen.org described frontier bedding as follows:
I read that the expression "sleep tight" originally referred to that rope being stretched tight.
Here is that link.
https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/frontierhouse/frontierlife/essay5_3.html
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The blogger editor is slow and cumbersome. I'm going to have to make some changes before long. I've been putting it off.
No storms to watch. Hot weather. Flat surf and small tides on the Treasure Coast.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
Thursday, July 16, 2020
7/16/20 Report - 18th Century Passwords. Reality Treasure TV Show Article. Cortes Aztec Palace. How It Was.
Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of TreasureBeachesReport. blogspot.com.
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| Queen Anne's Passwords. Source: Sotheby's Auction Catalog. See link below. |
Do you have trouble keeping track of your passwords? It evidently isn't anything new. Shown above is a list of passwords from 1704. It recently sold in a Sotheby's auction.
Below is the lot description.
DOCUMENT SIGNED AT THE HEAD, LIST OF DAILY PASSWORDS "FOR THE COURT" AND "FOR THE CITTY"
providing two daily passwords, each being an English town or city, 4 pages, folio, February to April 1704, with a duplicate set of passwords for February, detached blank, contemporary docketing
These passwords, or paroles, will have been circulated to those guarding the royal court and the gates of the City of London.
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Treasure Quest Team Leader Exposes the Fraud of Reality TV.
That is the title of a article I just found. Below is a brief excerpt of that article.
A) On Treasure Quest: Snake Island Mehgan Heaney-Grier finds a rare and ancient solid gold mask while searching for treasure underwater.
B) The producers of Treasure Quest: Snake Island get a plastic mask, spray paint it gold, and place it underwater to be found by Heaney-Grier and claim it to be treasure.
The answer is B.
Believe it or not, reality TV is fake and scripted. Joe Teti of Dual Survival doesn’t walk into the woods with a pointy stick and come back with a hog slung over his shoulder. The producers go to a farm, get a dead hog and give it to Teti who triumphantly carries it back to his nonexistent survival camp...
There is much more in that long article to read. Here is the link.
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The remains of an ancient Aztec palace have been discovered under a stately building in Mexico City.
During renovations at the building off the capital's central Zócalo plaza, workers found basalt slab floors.
The floors were part of an open space in the palace of Aztec ruler Axayácatl, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said.
The palace was also used as the home of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés after the fall of the Aztec empire.
Excavators have found evidence of the home Cortés had at the palace site....
Here is the link for more about that.
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It is a beautiful morning, and I haven't even looked outside yet. I'm feeling very blessed. I'm alive and my back feels good. No problem. I have two 94-year-olds in the family, so am always aware of what could happen. Being a caretaker is probably the toughest thing I ever did.
This is sometimes called the information age, but it seems like it could just as well be called the disinformation age. We have so much access to information and misinformation, it can be overwhelming.
I'm very fortunate. I don't have to sell anything, and I'm not trying to become somebody. I don't expect you to believe anything I say just because I say it. I give sources and links so you check things out for yourself. I enjoy developing ideas and adding to my own understanding, which is my primary motive, and I don't ask for anything - not that you'll buy a book, and not even that you'll visit this site. I never advertised and don't do any promotions, so I don't even know how you found this site to begin with.
Like most oldsters, I sometimes look back and marvel at how things have changed. When I started metal detecting the beaches, there was no internet. You couldn't check out Youtube videos on every topic under the sun. There were a few books, like those by Karl Von Mueller or maybe Charles Garrett, and there were two or three treasure hunting magazines that came once a month, but you couldn't just sign-on and find tons of information about almost anything you might like to know. You had to learn a lot on your own.
In fact when I began this blog, people didn't like me giving so much information. I got emails saying that people should have to put in the time and learn on their own like they did. They didn't think I should give so much information away. I can see that side of it too, but things were going to change with or without me.
I like learning on my own and do it even when it would be much easier to learn from someone else. I like experimenting, and testing and proving things for myself. For me, that is a lot of the fun of it. It takes much longer, but when I test it out for myself, I know if it works for me or not.
A lot of the guys back a few decades ago, didn't want people to know what they were doing. They didn't advertise their successes. They wanted to be able to continue doing what they were doing without everybody else finding out what they were finding and how they were doing it.
There was one anonymous fellow, for example, that was called The Florida Pro by the few that knew of him. He'd slip into the water at night and come out to leave unobserved just about sunrise. Jerry from Pot of Gold, once published a picture of the fellow in a newsletter, but he was wearing a dive mask and you couldn't really tell what he looked like. That isn't usually how it is done today.
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No storms or other big changes.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
7/15/20 Report - Beginner's Luck. Old Gold Metal Detector Finds. A Super Answer. The Second 2.5 Million Views.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Sword Mount Found by Beginning Detectorist. See BBC.com link below. |
A woman who inherited a metal detector and found two rare Anglo-Saxon items within three months said it was a case of "beginner's luck".
Mel Hollwoger, 54, unearthed a sword scabbard mount and rare gold band in fields near her home in Aldborough, Norfolk.
The mount was valued at £25,000 and both have been declared treasure.
Ms Hollwoger only took up the hobby to accompany her partner who used to hunt with his late father.
She inherited his metal detector and three months after finding her first piece, unearthed the gold, gem and cut-glass band...
Here is the link for the rest of that story.
I've heard some people say that it is skill instead of luck for them, but who can say exactly what they will find on any particular day. Your greatest finds seem to always be a surprise. Isn't part of the fun of metal detecting going out there not knowing what is waiting for you hidden in the sand and then seeing the object emerge for the first time?
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Now there are wedding bands made of silicon!
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| 14th Century Ring Found in Box of Old Finds After Nearly 40 Years. Source: bbc.com - link below |
A retired man has found a 14th Century gold ring in his garage, nearly 40 years after he first discovered it.
Tom Clark, 81, located the seal ring in a tin at his Buckinghamshire home among items which had come from his late mother's house.
The Aylesbury metal detectorist had first discovered it on farmland between 1979 and 1982, but had not realised the significance of the find.
It could now fetch up to £10,000 at auction...
That happens if you detect long enough. You don't always know the value of a find when you first find it and then you throw it in a box where it stays for years. Then years later when you look through your old finds and discover that you have something that you failed to appreciate before. But that only happens if you don't get careless and lose or throw things like that out.
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Here is a video you might like. It is not about metal detecting, but is still something I think you should see. It is an exceptionally good answer to the difficult question: where did God come from.
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I was forced to start using the most recent blog editor, which caused a few unexpected and unwanted changes to the blog. I'll have to make more changes before long. I've mentioned that my new posts will be in a separate blog with a different link. I don't think that will cause any problems. I'll try not to change too much else.
I've done this blog for a long time now. There were forums and discussion groups, but this blog began before Facebook and many of the other social media platforms that now exist. In fact I was not aware of any other metal detecting blog sites when I began this one. Since then they have become common.
There have been changes. One that I really regret is blogger removing the survey app. I could have learned to use some other survey app, but just didn't take the time to figure that out yet.
There are a couple changes to blogger, and I don't have all of it worked out yet.
I didn't expect to be doing this so long, and I don't know how people ever found this blog, but some have been reading this blog daily for a lot of years now. Some of you have been with me since the blog began. Other loyal readers and contributors passed away. I mentioned a few of those.
As I recently mentioned, the blogger Page View counter went over 2.5 million recently. It is already showing thousands over 2.5 million now. I don't know exactly how it works, and I'd like to have it posted on the front page. I lost the "hit" counter that used to be displayed on the front page when I switched to the new editor. That is too bad, but it didn't count exactly the same way as the page view counter.
I never did any advertising or promotion or never looked into optimization or whatever they do, so I don't know how people ever found the site. It must be completely word-of-mouth.
Since I don't advertise or try to promote or sell anything at all. It is simply something I started when I took on responsibilities that kept me from going out detecting very much, so it kept me involved by trying to help other people. At the same time it did help me. By attempting to communicate clearly it forced me to really think things through more completely than I otherwise would. I enjoy enjoy and benefit from that process. I also benefit from the many stories and contributions that people send to me.
Thanks for your kindness and assistance.
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No storms to watch.
The surf is only one or two feet, and the tides are small.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
Monday, July 13, 2020
7/14/20 Report - Florida Archaeologists Versus Treasure Hunters. Church Attacks. Creating Greater Understanding.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| See link below. |
Saturday, the Queen of Peace Catholic Church of Ocala was set on fire with parishioners inside. That is only one of a rash of church attacks that has been taking place across the country, but it isn't being reported in the media.
... Dr. Taylor Marshall, founder of the New Saint Thomas Institute and author of Infiltration: The Plot to Destroy the Church from Within, told viewers and listeners of his popular podcast that on the day before the attack, “some men of the parish of Queen of Peace” had gone up to a group of police officers to give the medals of St. Michael for protection.
“They made a Catholic gesture,” Marshall said. “They were doing evangelization. They’re doing what we Catholics should do.”
“Guess what happened: Within 24 hours someone serving the invisible enemy ran his car into their church, and poured two gallons of gasoline and lit it,” he continued. “The same police officers were the ones who came to the church and got the bad guy. So you never know. I think it was the Holy Ghost leading these good men from the parish … to give this medal, these medals to the police officers.”...
The arsonist was said to be schizophrenic. Interesting how the "invisible enemy" terminology keeps popping up. Sounds like a real spiritual war.
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The above illustration is from an article that was published in the January 2020 Smithsonian Magazine. I think I missed it, but it is still a good read.
Here is the link.
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I posted this picture of a glass a few weeks ago. I knew it was relevant but it wasn't quite time to discuss it in more detail. Now it is.
About forty years ago, I would guess, I was watching Monday night football, when Howard Cosell said to Dandy Don Meredith, "You have a tremendous grasp of the obvious." I never forgot that.
People are different. They process information differently. If I didn't tell you which of those two people made the comment, but you knew something about each of them, you would have no trouble attributing the comment to Howard Cosell. It just isn't the kind of thing you would expect Don Meredith or Terry Bradshaw to say.
Some people are quite content to see the sun as coming up in the morning and going down in the evening. They are fine with a simple view of things. They see no relevance to the fact that it can be seen as anything different. They don't need Copernicus to add confusion. They would undoubtedly also be fine with saying the glass is half full or half empty and not giving it any additional consideration. Who cares anyhow? And why consider the air? You don't see it anyhow. What is the relevance, they ask.
But then there are people who aren't content to simply accept the first or most obvious view of things. They dig a little deeper. They ask questions and consider alternatives, even if things become a little more complex.
Those people might ask how you would know if the glass is half full anything? How would you measure half full or half empty? Would you go by the level of the surface of the water and say the glass is half full or empty if the surface of the water is half way between the bottom and top of the glass? Or would you measure the volume that the glass could hold and the volume of water in the glass to see if half the volume of the glass was taken up by water?
But then if you are intellectually active, you might ask even more questions. For example, you might wonder if the glass can contain anything since it doesn't have a top? And since the top of the imaginary glass is even more imaginary, why would you assume that the top goes straight across the top of the glass? Could the imaginary top not be convex or concave?
And if you are a very precise person and want to be precise in your measurements, maybe down to three or four decimal digits, it would be very unlikely to ever be half. It would be a job to get it just right. The more precise you make your measurements, the more difficult it would be to fill the glass to be exactly half.
I could take it farther, but I won't. I'm sure some of you think this is all crazy jiberty jab. But that is my point. People are different.
Some won't see the point of all this talk about liquefaction. They won't see the practical application or the potential. I'm not surprised at all by that. But for me, understanding sand liquefaction and the factors involved seem like something that might help me more accurately understand what goes on under the crashing waves of a good storm. Understanding how vibrations, water and air can liquefy sand, and seeing sand being sucked up into waves, can be important contributions to putting it all together. And once you understand that, you should have a better idea of where things will show up on a beach.
Some people are not interested in figuring it all out. They rather wait for it to become common knowledge and then go with whatever people are saying at the time.
At this point, there are still holes in my knowledge - mostly concerning exactly how things work directly under crashing waves. You add to your knowledge piece by piece. You improve your level of understanding. It is a slow and incremental process, and every once in a while, when you have enough background and understanding there are those moments of insight when it comes together for you. But before that happens, you gradually improve your understanding and add to your conceptual toolbox. Those things make that moment of insight all the more likely.
Adding new terms and concepts to the discussion helps too. Even those that are eventually rejected.
Those who do not see the relevance or do not agree help too. Old ideas can be stubborn, and people don't like to have to change their mind. Copernicus found that out. It is easy to find fault with what you don't understand.
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| Source: YouTube link below. |
And for those of you who, like me, aren't tired of it yet, here is a great video showing a hot-tub of liquidized sand and how to do it.
Thanks to Bill G. for the link.
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Nothing interesting on the National Hurricane Center map for our region.
The surf continues to be low. If you are in an area where you can hunt in the water, you won't have to fight much surf.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
7/13/20 Report - Blue China Shipwreck. Gold Prices Increasing. Ancient Necklaces Made By Early Sea Shell Collectors.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Site of BA02
Source: See link to Jacksonville "Blue China" Shipwreck below.
I found a good study of the "Blue China" wreck, which lies about 70 miles east/southeast of Jacksonville. The study was conducted by Odyssey Marine Explorations and provides a lot of great information and photos. Above is one illustration of the site.
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| Plates and Jars on the "Blue China" Wreck Site. Source: Odyssey Marine Explorations Report (link below) |
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| Source: See link below. |
There is a lot to see in this report. Here is the link.
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| Source: Kitco.com |
Gold has been doing well. As you can see from the above chart, the price has increased from just over $1400/oz. to over $1800/oz. in the last year.
After peaking back in 2011, it has almost reached those levels again recently.
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| Source: Kitco.com. |
Silver, on the other hand, has not be doing so well. Silver was nearly $50/oz. back in 2010, but is below $20/oz. today.
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| Source: Kitco.com. |
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Picking up seashells has been a human habit for almost as long as there have been humans. Archaeologists found clam shells mingled with other artifacts in Israel’s Misliya Cave, buried in sediment layers dating from 240,000 to 160,000 years ago. The shells clearly weren’t the remains of Paleolithic seafood dinners; their battered condition meant they’d washed ashore after their former occupants had died....
Shell collectors at Misliya seemed to like mostly intact shells, and there’s no sign that they decorated or modified their finds. But 40,000 years later and 40km (25 miles) away, people at Qafzeh Cave seemed to prefer collecting clam shells with little holes near their tops. The holes were natural damage from scraping along the seafloor, but people used them to string the shells together to make jewelry or decorations. Tel-Aviv University archaeologist Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer and her colleagues examined five shells from Qafzeh and found microscopic striations around the edges of the holes—marks that suggest the shells once hung on a string...
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No storms to be concerned about right now.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
Sunday, July 12, 2020
7/12/20 Report - Very Interesting Study of Database of 1,431 Shipwrecks Lost in Florida Waters. Making Quicksand?
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
I found a very interesting study that provides a lot of useful concerning shipwrecks around Florida. It is Shipping Losses and the Expansion of Global Capitalism: A Quantitative Analysis of Florida Shipwrecks, 1520-1890 by Chuck Meide.
Here are a couple excerpts that describe the study.
The present study is different in that instead of focusing on the material remains of
wrecks in the archaeological record, it relies on shipping losses extant in the documentary
record. My analysis is of a dataset of 1,431 shipwrecks lost in Florida waters between
1520 and 1890, modified from a larger database originally compiled by state underwater
archaeologists in the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, Division of Historical
Resources. At least one study of similar scope has been undertaken to date, that of
Garrison (1989; et al 1989) which utilized a database of 4,000 shipwrecks in the Gulf of
Mexico. Garrison’s valuable and innovative study focused primarily on spatial patterning
in order to generate a predictive model of likely shipwreck locations, based on factors
such as shipping routes, winds and currents, port location, historic hurricane paths, and
the location of shoals, bars, barrier islands, reefs, and other hazards. The present
1
analysis, however, is less concerned with where or how the shipwrecks took place than
with where they were going to or coming from, and with what commodities they were
carrying. The quantification of these types of variables should expose patterns reflecting
the ongoing processes of economic restructuring that took place throughout Europe and
the New World between the 16th and 20th centuries...
The Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research (BAR) Shipwreck Database is a listing
of 2,560 shipwrecks, dating between 1521 and 1949, all in or believed to be in Florida
waters. It has been compiled using Microsoft Access 97 by BAR underwater
archaeologists, mainly James Dunbar, under the direction of Dr. Roger Smith. While a
summary of the geographical distribution of the wrecks in this database has been
presented in Smith et al 1997 (38-39), for the most part this valuable resource has not
been subject to any significant analytic study. The version I have used for this analysis
dates to 1997, and no further records have been added to the database since that time
(Della Scott-Ireton, personal communication, December 2003)...
The following graph illustrates the kind of information you will find in this paper.
You can easily see the transition of the major shippers going from primarily Spanish to English to American shipwrecks.
This is only one of many informative illustrations you will find.
There are breakdowns for cargos and shipping routes as well.
There is also a good bibliography.
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Here is another video of a beach showing a group of people turning a section of beach into quicksand by stomping their feet.
You have to see this to believe it.
If you imagine the surf continually pounding the front beach, you can imagine how the sand might fluidize in a similar manner.
Thanks to DJ for that video link.
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One person pointed out that the coin in my drain/experiment was a nickel, not a quarter. Keen eyesight. I'm glad the photos can be seen that well. I was thinking I should have taken better photos, but evidently they weren't that bad.
Thanks for the correction.
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I'm enjoying the Dino Hunters TV show. It might make you more interested in finding fossils even though Florida doesn't have dinosaurs.
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The blog is getting big and a little sluggish. I think I'm going to start a new blog, and keep the current one for old posts. I'm sure there will be a few small problems when I start the transition.
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There are no storms to watch right now.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
Saturday, July 11, 2020
7/11/20 Report - Beach Dynamics: Sand Liquefication and Fluidizing With Water and Air. A Little Experiment Using a New Apparatus.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Sand Being Aerated and Fluidized. Source: See Nerdist.com link below. |
I started my study of beach movement many years ago by just observing how old coins and objects show up on a beach after a storm. Everybody knows that happens, but I wanted to understand more than that. I wanted to know how that happens so I could predict where and when different kinds of things would be found.
I observed how items were uncovered by erosion, and I pretty much understood how that happened, but I didn't understand the processes involved in how things washed up onto the beach so well. I couldn't observe that because it was always hidden by big waves and turbulent water. Although I had many times observed erosion and objects being uncovered and washed down the beach, I was never able to observe them as they were being washed up onto the beach so I looked for anything I could find that would explain how that happens.
Eventually I learned about liquefaction that is cause by vibrations during earthquakes. I also studied how sand is compacted and cponsidered friction between grains and the pressure in the pores between grains. Then there was Clark Little's photographs that showed sand appearing to flow with the water in a very fluid form. And now I found another great illustration that shows that sand can be fluidized by pumping air into it.
When sand is infused with air so that the friction between grains is reduced, it will act very much like a fluid even without water. Light objects will float to the surface and heavy objects will sink in it. Here is a video that illustrates that process very well.
It is amazing. Take a look.
There are two videos. You might want to watch both.
I''ve now read of three things that can cause sand to liquefy. They include vibrations, and both water and air injected into sand. All three of those probably happen when we have big waves, and considering the Scott Little photographs along with those other principles, I now feel pretty confident that some significant amount of liquefaction of the sand occurs when the waves are big and the surf is rough. While you normally can't see it while it is happening, you can get a look at it in Little's photos.
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I just went out and did a little experiment, although not a very good one. It was more a matter of exploring how I could conduct experiments.
I got a three-sided length of PVC drain that I added as an extension to my down spout. I filled the bottom of the PVC drain with a couple inches of sand and placed a quarter and a ring on the surface of lightly packed sand. I put a hose in the top of the gutter so a pretty even stream of water flowed down the gutter and over the coins and through the chute.
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| Quarter and Silver Ring on Couple Inches of Lightly Packed Sand Inside Water Shoot. |
I placed the ring and coin beside each other in the drain. When the water was running, it covered the items. It was maybe about an inch deep over the surface of the sand and objects and flowed swiftly.
What would you expect to see? Do you think the quarter or ring will get covered by sand? Do you think either will be moved by the flowing water.
Here is what it looked like after a couple minutes of water flowed swiftly over the sand for a couple minutes.
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| Same Quarter and Ring After Exposure To a Couple Minutes of Flowing Water. |
Neither object got covered with sand at all, and neither moved very much although the ring moved a little. That is just water on the quarter - no sand.
The quarter is low profile and was not moved. But the water pushed on the raised edge of the ring, moving it slightly with the current. In this experiment the amount of movement was slight. In future experiments I could vary the amount and velocity of water and measure the movement. There are a couple of tweaks I can make to the apparatus.
A small amount of sand was washed out of the chute.
The experiment was far from perfect. It was just a hurried attempt to see if the water chute could possibly be of some experimental value, and I think it can. I was generally pleased with how it worked, but the experiment, if you can call it that, could have been much better.
I would not have been surprised if sand began to cover the quarter. In this case it didn't.
This is a very different situation than would exist on a beach during big waves and rough water. The water in the experiment only had horizontal velocity. On a beach during rough surf, not only would there be more water, there would also be a drastic difference in the movement of the water. Instead of the flowing in a steady horizontal stream, it would be lifting and crashing, pumping air and water into the sand, suspending grains and moving it in waves. I could go into that in more detail, but will stop there for now.
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Terry T. said the pointed object I showed yesterday was a horseshoe crab tail. That is right. I think someone else told me that years ago, but I forgot by the time my wife found it yesterday.
Here is a good link to some information on horseshoe crabs. Some people call them living fossils, and they are used to test vaccines.
And DJ sent a link to a picture of a Spanish Mackerel skull, and the jaw seems to match the one I showed yesterday very well.
Here is that link.
Thanks guys!
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A couple days ago the counter quickly blew through 2.5 million page views.
I'm going to have to make some changes. I'm going to have to separate new posts on a new blogger page. It won't cause too much inconvenience.
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Nothing of interested on the NHC maps now.
And the surf remains small and the weather hot.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
Friday, July 10, 2020
7/10/20 Report - Miscellaneous Old Finds: Animal and Fossil. Long-Term Risks to Manage.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| A Horse Tooth and Three Fossil Horse Teeth. |
Above are three fossil horse teeth found on the Treasure Coast. The more colorful one is a horse tooth that is not fossilized.
Which of the four do you think would show up first?
The tooth that is not fossilized is less dense and would be most likely to show up on a beach when beach conditions are not good.
My wife was cleaning out a cabinet and found these items. Not many women are lucky enough to be able to find interesting things like that in their cabinets.
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| Barb of Ray or Something. |
The two points on the right end are individually hinged and move vertically. Really cool. I cana't imagine why it is like that and would like to find out more about it.
Anybody know what kind of ray or animal it comes from?
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| Jaw Bone From Some Kind of Toothy Fish? |
Can you tell me about this one?
These two items are also not fossilized and were surface finds.
When beach conditions change, the type of finds will likely change too.
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It discusses trade among the Spanish and indigenous peoples. The indigenous were happy to get items of jet, glass and mirrors and gladly traded gold.
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When you are young you aren't aware of the possible long term impact of some of your actions. A young person probably won't think about the damage that can be caused by prolonged sun exposure. Many years later you see the results. If you are fair skinned, you are especially at risk for developing skin cancer, which can be a big deal. Even the stress you put on your skeleton can eventually cause problems. Repetitive actions can wear on joints. Younger people don't often think of the consequences their actions can cause in the distant future. Older people are actually dealing with those things.
There were a lot of things I did back when I was doing a lot of metal detecting that I wouldn't do today. I wouldn't detect in the ocean at night by myself any more, for example.
When you are older you see the long term impacts that you didn't think about when you were younger. And you might even think how lucky you were to avoid some of the things that could have happened. I was (and am) a very lucky person. It often seemed as if I was being protected. A lot of things could have gone another way.
Young or old, you face risks all the time. You can't avoid it if you do much of anything at all. Every time you get on the highway in a car, you take a risk, Someone could plow into you at any time, and many people are killed in automobiles every year, but people are willing to take that risk, if they ever think about it.
There is also the risk of lost opportunity. Doing nothing can be a risk. They talk about that in regard to finances, but a life without risk would not be very exciting, and you would certainly lose out by not participating.
Everyone has their own level of risk tolerance. Some people are more adventurous than others. And different people are more sensitive to different kinds of risk.
People who seem to repeat poor decisions like to blame everyone else. They don't take responsibility for their own actions. That makes them bitter people, and they fail to learn from their mistakes. It turns into a downward spiraling cycle.
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| Tropical Storm Fay. Source: nhc.noaa.gov |
I mentioned Fay yesterday. She is now headed towards New York, New Jersey and New England.
On the TreasureCoast we are supposed to have one and two foot surf for another week or two, but keep watching. A storm could pop up any time now.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net