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Ontario Lake - Mysterious Structure
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 6:38 am
by Beagle
http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/002729.html
In the spring of 2005, diving was conducted in MacDonald Lake as part of a unique submarine project at the Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve. Repeatedly staff of Haliburton Forest would stumble upon an unusual stone structure, perched on top of a rock ledge at a depth of 40 feet below the present lake level. Initially the structure was considered a complex version of a 'perched erratic', those monstrous rocks, ferried by the glaciers thousands of years ago and dumped where they happened to melt at the end of one of the recent cold-freezes.
When several geologists and archaeologists saw images of this object - a 1,000 pound, elongated and south pointing rock sitting on baseball-sized stones at each end, which in turn, were resting on a massive, several thousand pound slab on top of the ledge, they expressed doubts about its natural origin. Haliburton Forest engaged the services of an underwater archaeologist to examine the structure. Before diving, he explained that so far he had never encountered man-made rock-cairns, which were stabilised without the help of shim-stones. If he found these, it would convince him of the structure's man-made, not natural, origin.
After a 30 minute dive examining the rock assembly closely and carefully, taking pictures along the way, the expert emerged with his unequivocal conclusion: the existence of 3 shims was proof to him that the assembly of now seven rocks was the result of human activity and not a fluke of nature. Subsequently, Haliburton Forest turned to the services of a statistician to calculate the probability of 7 rocks falling on top of each other creating a 'structure'. Albeit difficult to assess, he reported back that even 4 rocks creating a natural structure was almost unattainable, but that the probability of 7 rocks hitting at the right time and place was virtually impossible.
I have my doubts that this will amount to anything, as no scientist has had a look at it, from what this article says. Hopefully though, there will be some scientific follow-up.
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:31 am
by Minimalist
the existence of 3 shims was proof to him that the assembly of now seven rocks was the result of human activity and not a fluke of nature.
Kind of wish they had posted the photos they took, huh?
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:44 am
by Beagle
If there's anything to this story, there probably will be pics soon.
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:22 am
by Minimalist
Reminds me of The Bimini Road. It's a "natural formation" say the geologists.....meanwhile there are shim stones between the tiers of rock to level them off!
Ugh!!!
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:24 am
by Beagle
Reminds me of The Bimini Road.
Later this evening, I might have a couple of beers and tell you what I think about that "road".
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:07 am
by Minimalist
Looking forward to it.
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:08 am
by Digit
Then he'll have few more folks and become incoherent!
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:10 am
by Minimalist
Coherence is overrated.
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:06 am
by Sam Salmon
I grew up in Ontario and was surrounded by evidence of the power of glaciation-I don't believe a word.
Odd shaped rock structures that look
man made are a dime a dozen in the bush.
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:24 pm
by Beagle
You're right Sam. This pic shows us the same kind of glacial deposit oddity that is present thoughout upper North America.
http://www.farshores.org/am8struc.htm
As glaciers retreat, they can drop these stones in unusual formations. This is typical.
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:13 pm
by dannan14
Wow, if that picture is the 'cairn' the article talks about then i am very disappointed.. Oh well, Maybe ancient inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere simply had no need for lasting monuments.
Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:20 am
by kbs2244
Seven supporting stones and “shim stones” doesn’t sound very natural to me.
Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:48 am
by dannan14
kbs2244 wrote:Seven supporting stones and “shim stones” doesn’t sound very natural to me.
That is what got me excited about the article in the first place, but when Beagle posted the link with a pic it did not appear to be man made. Hopefully, the particular stone the diver claimed was leveled with shim stones is not the one in the picture.
Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:22 pm
by Sam Salmon
kbs2244 wrote:Seven supporting stones and “shim stones” doesn’t sound very natural to me.
That's something I've seen more times than I can count-smaller and more regular stones than those in the illustration jammed between much much bigger stones-it all means nothing.
From Ontario...sort of
Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:30 pm
by CShark
Sam Salmon wrote:I grew up in Ontario and was surrounded by evidence of the power of glaciation-I don't believe a word.
Odd shaped rock structures that look
man made are a dime a dozen in the bush.
Off-topic, I know, but where in Ont ? I spent 23 yrs in Ottawa before moving to PEI.