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Scientists Reveal a Lost World Discovered Under the North Sea
[3.3.2004 | ]
Rachel Robson
Scientists at the University of Birmingham are using seismic data to reveal a spectacular prehistoric landscape previously unknown to science where early man roamed more than 10,000 years ago, deep beneath the North Sea.
With the aid of new high-powered computing facilities at the University's HP VISTA (Visualisation and Spatial Technology) Centre, a team of archaeologists, geologists and engineers are beginning to explore and visualise this hidden landscape, which, during the period from 8000 - 18,000 years before the present day, was a large plain on which humans hunted animals & gathered plants.
The team is revealing some amazing secrets as they reconstruct the lost environment, including evidence of a large river comparable in size to the Thames or Rhine, which was buried when its valley was flooded some 7,000 years ago due to glacial melting. The river channel, which has provisionally been named the Shotton River after the University's pioneering geologist and archaeologist Professor Fred Shotton, is over 600 metres wide and has so far been traced for a length of 27.5 kilometres travelling in a north west-south easterly direction.
Engineers have produced preliminary virtual reconstruction images of the river and its surrounding environment prior to the area becoming flooded. Professor Bob Stone, Head of Engineering's Human Interface Technology Team (and a Director of the International Virtual Heritage Network) said, "This is the most exciting and challenging virtual reality project since Virtual Stonehenge in 1996. Not only are we working with our colleagues in Archaeology to ensure the visual accuracy of this very rich environment, we are basing the topography of the virtual landscape on actual seismic data and the computer-generated flora on pollen and plant traces extracted from geological core samples retrieved from the sea bed".
Dr Vincent Gaffney, Director of the University's Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity and lead investigator on the project comments, "This pilot project has great significance to the whole of the quaternary research community, both in its environmental, geological & archaeological forms. We intend to extend the project to visualise the whole of the now submerged land bridge that previously joined Britain to Northern Europe as one land mass, providing scientists with a new insight into the previous human occupation of the North Sea."
In addition to the 3D virtual images of the landscape, an industrial collaboration with HP Vista Centre partners, Reachin Technologies, has aided the development of a tactile (haptic) interface, greatly assisting scientists by combining the sense of touch and sight to interpret and explore the intricate landscape.
The North Sea Visualisation Team from the University of Birmingham
comprises:
Dr Vincent Gaffney - Director, Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity Dr Ken Thomson - Lecturer in Basin Dynamics, School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences Professor Robert Stone - Chair in Interactive Multimedia Systems, Department of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering Simon Fitch - Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity Eugene Ch'ng - Department of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering
The seismic data has been supplied courtesy of the PGS Southern North Sea Mega Survey, and was originally carried out for oil prospection. More information on PGS is available online.
The initial study area covers a landscape 140x70 kilometres in size.
Professor Fred Shotton (1906-1990) dedicated much of his varied career to the study of Pleistocene (Ice Age) geology & archaeology and was a pioneer of multidisciplinary Pleistocene research at the University of Birmingham.
A brief biography of Professor Shotton is available online.
The Quaternary is a subdivision of geological time (the Quaternary Period) covering the last two million years up to the present day. (The exact duration is a matter of debate with estimates of the onset of the Quaternary Period placed at between 1.8 million years and 2.6 million years by different authors) The Quaternary and the Tertiary Periods together form the Cenozoic Era. The Quaternary can be subdivided into two epochs; the Pleistocene (two million years to ten thousand years ago) and the Holocene (ten thousand years ago to the present day).
The preliminary virtual reconstruction images are based upon the present scientific understanding of the area - these are likely to be revised as the project reveals valuable new information to the scientific community about the evolution of the area.
Location map of study area with bathymetry - green areas were lowland, brown areas were highland
The River Shotton - this image shows the clear outline of a large river (the Shotton) on the right hand side. Changes in geology reverse the image colours on the left where one can see a dendritic stream system
Reconstruction of mesolithic landscape of the North Sea showing original terrain derived from seismics and contemporary vegetation
Reconstruction of mesolithic landscape of the North Sea showing original terrain derived from seismics and contemporary vegetation.
Further information:
Rachel Robson - Press Officer, University of Birmingham
tel: 0121 414 6681 / mob: 07789 921165
email: r.a.robson@bham.ac.uk
Rachel Robson
Press Officer
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
tel: +44 (0)121 414 6681
mob: +44 (0)7789 921165
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