Message #137362

[Artemis]

2007 Bimini Update

In May and June of 2007, three separate expeditions were carried out in the Bahamas as part of the ARE's Search For Atlantis Project. The initial report from these expeditions, issued in July, deta`iled the discovery of several crashed planes, at least one of which was reported missing in the Bermuda Triangle. The second report, issued in August, summarized several unexpected discoveries at Bimini, which included what appear to be rectangular building foundations in 100-feet of water and the remains of a temple consisting of white marble materials. This report summarizes the finds made on and around Andros.

Andros is the largest and most unexplored island in all of the Bahamas. North Andros lies about 150 miles East of Miami. The island is about 105-miles long and 35 miles wide at it widest point. As reported earlier, several land explorations were made on Andros along with numerous water explorations. Weeklong trips were made to Andros by Drs. Greg & Lora Little in both May and June 2007, both of which began with aerial surveys on portions of the Great Bahama Bank (GBB). The GBB is a massive expanse of a largely flat and shallow bottom extending for nearly 300 miles beginning north of Bimini to some distance south of Andros—just north of Cuba. In general, the water depth of this area averages about 25 feet. During the last Ice Age, the entire GBB was well above sea level. The aerial surveys identified over 30 unusual, dark formations in shallow water on the GBB and the gps locations were taken on each from the air. All but one of these formations was then visited on water with North Andros serving as our base of operations. In addition, side-scan sonar was employed to explore wide areas around Andros and in other areas a remote underwater video camera was used to examine the bottom.
Findings at Underwater Dark Features on the Great Bahama Bank

Thirty dark features (underwater formations) were visited on the Great Bahama Bank, some of which were nearly 50 miles offshore onto the GBB. Ship and plane remains found at some of these sites were detailed earlier. In general, about 75% of all the dark formations are associated with a variety of dumped materials as well as more curious artifacts. For example, one perfectly round white spot in the middle of a dark formation showed what appeared to be a portion of a huge metal anchor sticking up from the bottom. This piece could not be moved by hand. Is the actual ship also buried there? We don't know, but the formation around the anchor is over 500-feet long.

At other dark features we discovered dumped bombs, propane gas cylinders, appliances, and other debris. Bahamas fishermen often enhance a good fishing site by dumping materials to the bottom, thus increasing fish cover. But these formations were of marginal interest to us because our prime interest is in archaeological remains. It has been suggested that these "good fishing spots" may have formed initially because of "something buried under the sand" that allowed the grass to form, however, without extensive excavations, this cannot be determined.