
Ancient Mass Graves Could Be Filled with Tsunami Victims - curtis
https://gizmodo.com/ancient-mass-graves-could-be-filled-with-tsunami-victim-1828189360
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CodeCube
It will be interesting to see if this leads to any unique insights for human
settlements that's different from what we thought we knew

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fit2rule
As a personal fan of the crackpot theories of Stanisław Szukalski[1], these
sorts of stories utterly fascinate me.

I mean, its hard to look past a flood story and not think "well, maybe we
really will find Atlantis one day, zug zug .."

Not to mention .. The idea of finding tsunami/cataclysm victims by looking for
diatoms is absolutely fascinating.

[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisław_Szukalski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisław_Szukalski)

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byproxy
I wonder if this correlates with flood myths:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth)

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curtis
It's not related to tsunamis, but you might be interested in the Black Sea
deluge hypothesis[1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis)

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fit2rule
There is a broader theory that the Earth has a lot of water in it, and is in
fact a big sponge which sometimes squeezes itself, and sometimes these massive
forms of water convert and to the surface in quantities which overwhelm us,
the land and all, until some process unknown, "pulls it back into the core",
sponge-like.

Its a crackpot theory, but I do wonder where things are going with all these
scientists having interests in flood events and other crazy weather
conditions.

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pvaldes
The idea of smaller diatoms (erythrocyte size) traveling from lungs to the
blood and then to the marrow bone without being stopped by the inmune system
seems a little excessive. What if a tsunami or a high tide just covers a
previously buried corpse with saltwater? old bone tissue is spongy.

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fit2rule
I thought about this and I believe that diatoms get into the bloodstream
during the drowning event, perhaps sometimes very violently, and thus find
their own way around the salty bubbles that a dead human represents, until
they settle on bone marrow .. a long path-way perhaps to you and me, but maybe
diatoms and other such organisms are born to find the safest parts of the big,
wide ocean ..

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pvaldes
Very unprobable. Diatoms are algae. They need two things: A substrate rich in
nutrients and light. There is not reason for a diatom to deliberately settle
inside an opaque bone. Moreover, any strange corpse in the bloodstream would
end in the liver (and kidneys) so they would be free again and lost after the
corpse decay.

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bsg75
> “When people die in a tsunami, they inhale saltwater that contains small
> marine microorganisms called diatoms, which means they suffocate and then
> drown ... These diatoms travel through the bloodstream and are deposited and
> preserved within the bone marrow of larger bones. If we can find marine
> diatoms, this may indicate that the body is a tsunami victim.”

If a victim drowns, is it feasible diatoms can move through the bloodstream
into marrow? Drowning = death = no blood flow.

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FatalLogic
Blood flows at around 10-30cm per second and death isn't instantaneous. So
it's possible.

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fecundita
The article has probably incorrectly presented two mistakes.

1\. Diatoms would/could travel through deceased blood _VESSELS_ as tubes or
plumbing channels, but unlikely the active blood _stream_. And certainly not
en masse, as if invading in seconds or minutes.

2\. Diatoms are ordinarily destected in _THE LUNGS_ of the deceased, upong
forensic investigation. Why the lungs? BECAUSE THAT'S THE PART THAT DROWNS.

Lungs filling with water results in drowning. Sea water contains diatoms.
Drowning at sea puts diatoms in _the lungs_. Drowning does not really put
water anywhere else. This means drowning won't put diatoms anywhere water
won't go.

So, even if you chop someone in half, and throw them into the sea, the diatoms
aren't hell bent on going all creepy crawly and getting into the blood
_stream_. But, after the person dies, and swish, swish, veins and arteries
become rinsed out, and bones cracked in half show their interior to the ocean,
yes blood _vessels_ might incidentally become home to diatoms, in the weeks
ahead, as the body deteriorates.

Now, millions of years hence, looking at fossilized remains... Might one
expect diotomacious fossilization processes to affect tsunami victims,
_SPECIFICALLY_? Yes, so there you go.

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rjsw
The map on that page shows a cluster of sites that could have been hit by the
Tsunami from the Storegga Slide [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storegga_Slide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storegga_Slide)

