






The First Steps Towards Discovery


Portrait of Galileo Galilei, 1636

Portrait of Galileo Galilei, 1636 ( Public Domain)

Telescopes from the Museo Galileo.

Telescopes from the Museo Galileo. (Flickr/ CC BY NC SA 2.0 )



Advancing Technology Unveils Mysteries


However, one may fairly say that all of this has changed with Google Earth. Using Google Earth (a virtual globe, map, and geographical information program), anyone with an internet connection and a computer can view the surface of the Earth's land and sea like never before. This is not to say that Google Earth is an infallible instrument, as every instrument has its flaws; for instance, the refracting telescopes used by Galileo to study the heavens law produce a distortion called ‘chromatic aberration’, which is caused by the different wavelengths that make up light being refracted by different angles. In this article, I will assume that the objects and features displayed by the images generated by Google Earth of the earth's seafloor accurately represent them, much as the craters of the moon and the sunspots on the sun, as those seen with Galileo's telescope were actually there. 

The Saint Croix Basin

The Saint Croix Basin is an underwater basin that lies between the Virgin Islands and Anguilla. It has an area of approximately 200 square miles (518 sq. km) and has a bowl-like shape. Viewed from above, it seems rather unexceptional. However, when it is viewed at an angle from the south at an eye level of about a mile below sea level, the discerning observer will notice that the western boundary of this basin is not an uneven slope as would be expected, but a steep, almost vertical cliff that is over a mile high!

Google Earth image of the Saint Croix Basin

Google Earth image of the Saint Croix Basin (Courtesy Brad Yoon).

This feature, which is not named and is not discussed in any peer-reviewed articles as far as I know, has seemingly escaped the notice of mainstream academics altogether. If it really exists as it appears, could it have been fashioned solely by the workings of natural processes? It seems impossible. Indeed, if such a formation existed on dry land where anyone could see it with his or her own eyes, no reasonable person would suggest that it could have been made by natural processes. But if we are to admit that the feature is man-made, we would have to accept two rather startling conclusions, the first being that the Caribbean Basin must have been dry and habitable for some interval during which behaviorally modern man existed, and secondly, and perhaps more shockingly, that a spectacularly advanced civilization must have made this vast basin its home.

Map of the Caribbean Sea and Basin

Map of the Caribbean Sea and Basin ( Public Domain )

The first conclusion is self-evident, as the  top of the cliff is found at a depth exceeding a mile (1.6 km) and the bottom at almost two miles (3.2 km); if the Caribbean Sea existed when the cliff was formed, it would have had to have been built underwater, which is clearly impossible. The second conclusion is also impossible to deny, as only a civilization as advanced as ours, in certain respects, could have even contemplated the Herculean endeavor of constructing this mile-high wall. 

Looking at the cliff from an appropriate vantage point, the first impression that one gets of this monumental edifice is a sense of awe. Standing a mile high and towering above the St. Croix Basin, it would have dominated the landscape of the area to a profound degree and impressed its visage onto any who lived within the region.

But the cliff is more than just awe-inspiring. To me, at least, it is strikingly beautiful. Aligned almost perfectly north-south, and the face of the cliff facing east, the rays of the rising sun would have impinged upon the almost perfectly smooth face and showered its reflected rays onto the onlooker, with the variations in colors in the rock being revealed in their full majesty. On nights where the moon was full, the face of the cliff would have shimmered with the ghostly glow of the reflected moonlight. All in all, the cliff was a work of art meant to inspire beauty and awe. But it must have been more than that, for no civilization would have undertaken such a massive effort to create something that had only aesthetic value. It must have had a practical function that was essential to that civilization's most basic needs.

Google Earth image of the Saint Croix Basin’s sheer wall.

Google Earth image of the Saint Croix Basin’s sheer wall. (Courtesy Brad Yoon)

Recalling that the cliff was not an isolated feature but the western boundary of a basin, namely the St. Croix Basin, and knowing that water is a necessity for every civilization however advanced, my guess is that the basin functioned as a reservoir. If it was indeed a reservoir, to what use would the water stored have been put to? Before I attempt to give an answer to this question, I shall discuss another nearby feature known as the Muertos Trough. 

The Muertos Trough

Viewing the region from a higher altitude, one notices a long channel that runs west-to-east along the northern part of the Venezuelan Basin. This channel has been given a name by geologists: The Muertos Trough.

Google Earth image of The Muertos Trough.

Google Earth image of The Muertos Trough. (Courtesy Brad Yoon)

Mainstream geologists believe that this trough is a natural formation, created by tectonic activity. But how reasonable is this interpretation? The Muertos Trough is so perfectly aligned to the cardinal points that whatever deviation there may be is virtually undetectable. If the structure was indeed a natural formation, it would have been an amazing coincidence that it is oriented so closely to the cardinal points, as nature displays no such preference in its creations. Moreover, its depth is neither uniform nor random throughout, but increases linearly as one proceeds southward from its northern delineation from zero to almost two thousand feet. Again, nature shows no bias toward linear relationships. 

We may estimate the total volume of earth that must have been excavated in the part of the trough lying between 67 and 66 degrees W longitude as follows: since the depth of the trough between these longitudes rises linearly from north to south from 0 to about 2,000 feet (609 meters) as mentioned above, the average depth of the trough is about 1,000 feet (304 meters) between these longitudes; the length and width of the part of the trough lying between these latitudes is 65 miles and 5 miles, (104 km and 8 km) respectively, so its total volume is 1000 ft * (1 mi/5280 ft) * 65 mi * 5 mi ~ 60 cubic miles. And this is just the part of the trough lying between these longitudes!

For comparison, 268 million cubic yards, or roughly 0.05 cubic miles of earth were excavated in the construction of the Panama Canal, one of the greatest engineering feats of the modern age, yet the amount of earth excavated in constructing the Muertos Trough, if it were manmade, would have been over 1,000 times greater! Given that the creation of the Panama Canal required industrial-level technology, including steam shovels, one may readily infer that the creation of the Muertos Trough, a task exceeding the former by three orders of magnitude must have involved high technology in some form or another. Certainly, whoever constructed this structure possessed some means of harnessing energy above and beyond raw human or animal power. 

If the Muertos Trough was an artificial structure, what might it have been used for? In my opinion, the trough served as a water source to irrigate the fields of the Venezuelan Plain, which I believe was the primary food-producing land of the unknown civilization that inhabited the area. Only necessity could have justified the exorbitant investment in resources required to construct such a massive structure, and there is nothing that is a greater necessity than food, and the water needed to grow it.   

Google Earth image of The Muertos Trough and Saint Croix Basin.

Google Earth image of The Muertos Trough and Saint Croix Basin. (Courtesy Brad Yoon).

How is the Muertos Trough related to the St. Croix Basin? Running eastward for about 175 miles (281 km) starting at the 67 degrees W mark, the Muertos Trough abruptly curves northward and meets the western boundary of the St. Croix Basin, precisely where the aforementioned cliff is situated. I believe that the St. Croix Basin was a reservoir used to keep the water level of the Muertos Trough constant over the course of a growing season; as the water in the Muertos Trough was used up to irrigate the Venezuelan Plain, the water from the St. Croix Basin would be released into the Muertos Trough as needed. 

All of this speculation could be entirely baseless. The Muertos Trough may indeed simply be a natural formation, and the mile-high cliff forming the western boundary of the St. Croix Basin may simply be an image artifact. The Caribbean Sea could have existed in its present form for millions of years and throughout the entire existence of  Homo sapiens sapiens , as all experts insist. But if we take what Google Earth reveals to us at face value, just as the early pioneers in observational astronomy did when they first pointed the telescope at the skies above, an alternative interpretation emerges out of the mysterious depths of the sea: that once upon a time, when we thought man was living in caves and wandering the earth in search of his next meal, a great civilization, almost godlike in the scale of its achievements, all but forgotten save in our most sacred myths, ruled the earth. 

Reconstructed image of ruins from the sonar scan of the sea floor off the coast of Cuba.


Featured image: Deriv; Google Earth Saint Croix Basin, Artist’s concept of Underwater Ruins (Flickr/ CC BY NC 2.0 ), fish (Saramarielin/ CC BY 2.0)

By Brad Yoon


I’m a firm believer that there was a world-wide civilization in our distant past. I see no reason why ruins should not be in the water if sea levels were so low, especially if the Caribbean is as recent as scientists believe.  I think our stories of Atlantis, Lemaria etc. are memories of that civilization

I think I just found the same evidence you have and fully support your theory. The "Elevation Meter" is pretty hard to argue with if it is as accurate as I understand it to be from "known" Depths and Elevations. It would explain a huge amount of discoveries around it.

The theory of man evolving from ancient slim and the evolving from knuckle dragging apes is just that a very bad theory. We can blame Darwin for making this lie popular and because of it tens of millions are murdered for those that thought this was gospel. Hitler and Stalin murdered millions and millions in the belief that Darwins evolution was correct and some were inferior to others because of inferior evolution. Man has been here for a very long time. Look at the dinosaur tracks in Texas and New Mexico, what are human foot prints doing next to them, millions of years old. Someone has to go back in time and tell those ancient humans not to make those tracks because they ain't supposed to be there.

I agree , it seems that the out of place artifacts found so far point to man destroy-ing himself over and over again. Humanity today may be in the path of destruction again, look at the insanity and fighting going on. It could end badly. Ten thousand years from now they may be digging up our ancient remains and scratching their heads. What were these people thinking??

Well that is the view that is generally accepted today. My opinion, and those of many others here is that civilization wasn't born 10,000 years ago but rather reborn after some almost unimaginably violent catastrophe that affected the whole world.


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