6 ms·

WWII ships from Battle of Iwo Jima raised by volcanic activity, seismic shifts

132 points by simonebrunozzi 5y ago

bigbaguette 5y ago
In Tulamben on the East coast of Bali you can find the opposite: the submerged wreck of a ship that's never been sunk: the USAT Liberty. She's been torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during WWII but stayed afloat. As she was getting towed towards the nearest shipyard, she was taking on too much water and she's been beached to save her cargo and fittings as she was not deemed repairable. 21 years later, an eruption of Mount Agung produced tremors that made the ship slip off the beach, down to the ocean, where she lies now on a sand slope, turning the location into an amazing diving spot! Nowadays, each time the volcano shakes the island a bit, the water around turns red for a couple days
- tokai 5y ago
  Poseidon getting the help of Hephaestus to claim the oceans rightful bounty.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  Until the Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, the Allies were hapless against the Japanese. It was so bad that an Australian ship had to camouflage as vegetation and sneak away.
- arminiusreturns 5y ago
  For a moment I thought you were talking about the USS Liberty and got confused. For those who don't know the USS Liberty was a deliberate attack on a US vessel by the Israelis in 1967 that killed 34 Marines and Sailors that would have been used as a false flag to goad America into war with Egypt. The resulting coverup by a POTUS who got his position after another POTUS was assassinated is one of the most egregious coverups in the last century. The USAT Liberty was just a ww transport vessel.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - CrazyStat 5y ago
    There's zero evidence that the Liberty was intended to be a false flag. Even most of the people who believe it was a deliberate attack (i.e. Israel knew it was an American ship) don't believe the false flag theory.
    - arminiusreturns 5y ago
      Not only is there a ton of inductive evidence, but its been said by survivors themselves. Of course the less "reaching" conclusion is it was to coverup activities they had spied on, but many things don't make sense with that proposal. We will probably never know for sure due to the degree of coverup. To be fair as the remaining survivors have gotten more traction they do usually avoid saying that directly, but they hint at it heavily. It was deliberate, all the deductive evidence points to it, so I find the framing of "even those who believe it was deliberate" to be slightly misleading.
      - kfprt 5y ago
        It's amazing the level of defensive outrage this event generates 50 plus years on. If we can't have an open discussion about shady events in the past then maybe we need to investigate the current interests preventing that open discussion.
        perl4ever 5y ago
        >It's amazing the level of defensive outrage this event generates 50 plus years on That's the thing, though. About trying to make something of it now. Isn't it just anachronistic? I have the impression that people obsess over it because they believe that all that keeps Israel going is US support and if they just get people to believe the "truth" about the USS liberty then magic will happen. But the event was from back when the US wasn't a close ally. If it was intentional, how is it at all mysterious? What is there to say about it? They could've thought that US surveillance would give them away to those they were actually fighting. Again, it seems anachronistic, taking something from before the relationship as if it was a betrayal, to try to break up the relationship. No amount of rhetoric can move it forward to today.
xwdv 5y ago
Land: They’re making more of it.
- nathancahill 5y ago
  That's the joke in Hawaii. More beach front property by the minute.
- missedthecue 5y ago
  In fact, the world has gained a net 13,565 square kilometers (5,237 square miles) of land since 1985, according to satellite data. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-coasts-idUSKCN1101TY https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-coasts-idUS...
polycaster 5y ago
I understand the main point of the article is that the ships were lifted due to vulcanic activity. Still, as this creates the image of graves being lifted: „To be clear, these ships aren't victims of a battle; instead, the U.S. Navy intentionally scuttled them at the location in 1945 after taking the island in an attempt to create an artificial breakwater for a planned harbor. Several of them are reinforced concrete barges, ships built to support naval operations and not necessarily for any direct combat role.” https://www.thedrive.com/news/42802/volcanic-activity-lifts-sunken-wwii-ghost-ships-from-the-ocean-off-iwo-jima https://www.thedrive.com/news/42802/volcanic-activity-lifts-...
alleycat5000 5y ago
Here's a interesting talk on the underlying volcano and uplift. https://youtu.be/SPmT0aS0pK4 https://youtu.be/SPmT0aS0pK4
geenew 5y ago
It's strange and sad how, to me, at least, WW2 artifacts like these are moving from the category of items representing the time we live in to items representing the distant past, like wrecks of wooden frigates. ~80 years is a long time.
1MachineElf 5y ago
I hadn't realized seismic shifts and volcanic activity could cause a land upheaval so spontaneously. As I was reading HP Lovecraft's Dagon[0] I wondered whether or not such a thing were possible - most of the story takes place on that type of terrain. [0] https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/d.aspx https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/d.aspx
- sintaxi 5y ago
  Lake Titicaca in Peru which is 12,500 feet above sea level and it sits in a sedimentary basin that was apparently below sea level at some time in the past since the lake is made up of diluted salt water.

In Tulamben on the East coast of Bali you can find the opposite: the submerged wreck of a ship that's never been sunk: the USAT Liberty. She's been torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during WWII but stayed afloat. As she was getting towed towards the nearest shipyard, she was taking on too much water and she's been beached to save her cargo and fittings as she was not deemed repairable. 21 years later, an eruption of Mount Agung produced tremors that made the ship slip off the beach, down to the ocean, where she lies now on a sand slope, turning the location into an amazing diving spot! Nowadays, each time the volcano shakes the island a bit, the water around turns red for a couple days

tokai 5y ago
Poseidon getting the help of Hephaestus to claim the oceans rightful bounty.
redis_mlc 5y ago
Until the Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, the Allies were hapless against the Japanese. It was so bad that an Australian ship had to camouflage as vegetation and sneak away.
arminiusreturns 5y ago
For a moment I thought you were talking about the USS Liberty and got confused. For those who don't know the USS Liberty was a deliberate attack on a US vessel by the Israelis in 1967 that killed 34 Marines and Sailors that would have been used as a false flag to goad America into war with Egypt. The resulting coverup by a POTUS who got his position after another POTUS was assassinated is one of the most egregious coverups in the last century. The USAT Liberty was just a ww transport vessel.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- CrazyStat 5y ago
  There's zero evidence that the Liberty was intended to be a false flag. Even most of the people who believe it was a deliberate attack (i.e. Israel knew it was an American ship) don't believe the false flag theory.
  - arminiusreturns 5y ago
    Not only is there a ton of inductive evidence, but its been said by survivors themselves. Of course the less "reaching" conclusion is it was to coverup activities they had spied on, but many things don't make sense with that proposal. We will probably never know for sure due to the degree of coverup. To be fair as the remaining survivors have gotten more traction they do usually avoid saying that directly, but they hint at it heavily. It was deliberate, all the deductive evidence points to it, so I find the framing of "even those who believe it was deliberate" to be slightly misleading.
    - kfprt 5y ago
      It's amazing the level of defensive outrage this event generates 50 plus years on. If we can't have an open discussion about shady events in the past then maybe we need to investigate the current interests preventing that open discussion.
      - perl4ever 5y ago
        >It's amazing the level of defensive outrage this event generates 50 plus years on That's the thing, though. About trying to make something of it now. Isn't it just anachronistic? I have the impression that people obsess over it because they believe that all that keeps Israel going is US support and if they just get people to believe the "truth" about the USS liberty then magic will happen. But the event was from back when the US wasn't a close ally. If it was intentional, how is it at all mysterious? What is there to say about it? They could've thought that US surveillance would give them away to those they were actually fighting. Again, it seems anachronistic, taking something from before the relationship as if it was a betrayal, to try to break up the relationship. No amount of rhetoric can move it forward to today.

xwdv 5y ago

Land: They’re making more of it.

nathancahill 5y ago
That's the joke in Hawaii. More beach front property by the minute.
missedthecue 5y ago
In fact, the world has gained a net 13,565 square kilometers (5,237 square miles) of land since 1985, according to satellite data. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-coasts-idUSKCN1101TY https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-coasts-idUS...

polycaster 5y ago

I understand the main point of the article is that the ships were lifted due to vulcanic activity. Still, as this creates the image of graves being lifted: „To be clear, these ships aren't victims of a battle; instead, the U.S. Navy intentionally scuttled them at the location in 1945 after taking the island in an attempt to create an artificial breakwater for a planned harbor. Several of them are reinforced concrete barges, ships built to support naval operations and not necessarily for any direct combat role.” https://www.thedrive.com/news/42802/volcanic-activity-lifts-sunken-wwii-ghost-ships-from-the-ocean-off-iwo-jima https://www.thedrive.com/news/42802/volcanic-activity-lifts-...

alleycat5000 5y ago

Here's a interesting talk on the underlying volcano and uplift. https://youtu.be/SPmT0aS0pK4 https://youtu.be/SPmT0aS0pK4

geenew 5y ago

It's strange and sad how, to me, at least, WW2 artifacts like these are moving from the category of items representing the time we live in to items representing the distant past, like wrecks of wooden frigates. ~80 years is a long time.

1MachineElf 5y ago

I hadn't realized seismic shifts and volcanic activity could cause a land upheaval so spontaneously. As I was reading HP Lovecraft's Dagon[0] I wondered whether or not such a thing were possible - most of the story takes place on that type of terrain. [0] https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/d.aspx https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/d.aspx

sintaxi 5y ago
Lake Titicaca in Peru which is 12,500 feet above sea level and it sits in a sedimentary basin that was apparently below sea level at some time in the past since the lake is made up of diluted salt water.