The
Sunken Forests of New Hampshire are two large
areas of tree stumps submerged off New Hampshire's
coast. They sank below sea level after the ending of
the Wisconsin Glaciation and
subsequent rise in temperature; isostatic rebound has not kept pace with
the rise in sea level, and former
coastal forests were overtaken by the Atlantic Ocean
.
The trees could not thrive, even when they were in the early stages
of sinking, because they cannot live in salt water for very long.
All that is left of the forests are stumps.
Forests
Odiorne Point Sunken Forest
Near
Odiorne Point
State Park
in Rye
, this sunken forest is referred to as the "Drowned
Forest". The roots of different coniferous trees (including
white pine and hemlock) are visible at most low tides. Core samples
taken from the roots date the trees to be about 3,500 - 4,000 years
old! Scuba divers commonly explore to the Drowned Forest to learn
about these ancient remains.
Jenness Beach Sunken Forest
The Jenness Beach forest, much larger than Odiorne Point, is rarely
sighted above sea level. Sightings have occurred in
1940,
1958,
1962, and
1978. The trees, eight to
ten feet in circumference, have been
carbon dated from 3,400 to 3,800 years
old. Currently, only 56 stumps remain, but due to the circumference
of the trees, it was likely to have been a much vaster forest. The
seafloor on which it sits was probably submerged after the
Wisconsin glaciation.
Some estimates say
that the coastline of New
England
used to extend 75 miles east of its current
position; a Native
American of the era could have walked from Nantucket
to southern Cape Cod
without
touching the Atlantic Ocean. Another estimate states that
New Hampshire's shore could have been a few miles inland . The
former estimate is more likely. Fishermen have hauled up
mastodon and
mammoth teeth
miles offshore, suggesting that the forest extended quite far from
its western shoreline boundary. The last few yards of the
transatlantic telegraph cable
laid in
1874 may have gone through the sunken
forest.
External links
Bibliography
- Bisceglia, Michael. "Ice Age coastline". Hampton
Union. May 9, 2006.
- Pielou, E.C. 1992. After the Ice Age: The Return of Life to
Glaciated North America
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