GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - Famed undersea explorer Robert Ballard is leading a team of scientists heading into the Gulf of Mexico for a weeklong examination of Texas' ancient shoreline to see if anybody may have lived there.
Ballard, whose discoveries include the wrecks of the Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck, is among dozens of geologists, biologists and marine archaeologists exploring the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, a protected area of underwater salt domes that are topped with reefs that host brightly colored sponges, plants and other marine life.
But 15,000 or more years ago, with much of North America locked in the last Ice Age, water levels of the Gulf of Mexico were 200 feet lower, meaning the area was the Texas shoreline some 100 miles south of where it is now.
The estimated $300,000 project will examine what scientists believe are those ancient shorelines. The team will leave from Galveston on Friday.
http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20070302/D8NJQ8E81.htmlI wonder what archaeologists will be studying about us in 20,000 years?