THE SCIENCE BEHIND
The Waters of Chaos
The scientific premise underlying The Waters of Chaos is that rising seas over the past 20,000 years may have inundated relatively advanced civilizations that flourished on the old sea coast. Take a look at this graph of global sea level rise (right), annotated to show how long each zone was exposed, and you will see why.
The rise and fall of sea level during the ice ages–due to water tied up in ice sheets and then released during interglacial periods–is like a vast millennial tide, and its total area is equivalent to the continent of North America in size. It is flat, coastal, and mostly tropical and would have been the best place to live during the ice ages. Yet, we collectively have never mapped it or even agreed on a name for it. In 1999, Jerry and Jeff Dobson suggested naming it Aquaterra.
Graph showing sea level change over the past 140,000 years.
'Aquaterra'
Satellie imagery shows what might have been an ancient port off the coast of Egypt, lost to rising sea levels.
Marrying Science and Lore
From the perspective of modern literature, The Waters of Chaos: The Modern Quest & The Ancient Saga are novels based on real science and lore. From the perspective of scholarship, however, they are current manifestations of a respected intellectual tradition dating back to Socrates.
The Socratic method is a form of inquiry, debate, and teaching that pits opposing viewpoints against one another by asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thought and illuminate ideas. It consists of discussion and reasoning through dialogue as a means of intellectual investigation. It is designed to expose false beliefs and elicit truth. Often the dialogue is posed as a conversation between two or more opponents in which one states and defends a point of view and at least one other opposes. One of its greatest practitioners was Plato, who in Critias and Timaeus, for instance, pitted an Egyptian priest against the Athenian Solon and may have used fiction (ie. Atlantis) to make his point. The Socratic method is still recognized in the academy, most prominently in law schools.
Has anyone ever told you that for 104,000 years the world ocean remained at least 82 feet lower than today? That for 59,000 years it was at least 223 feet lower than today, and for 35,000 years it was at least 279 feet lower? That even at 328 feet below today’s level the ocean floor was exposed without interruption for 12,000 years─twice the length of all recorded history?
This geographic information has to be the single most important clue to how and where humans developed into the sentient beings of today. Yet, scientists routinely call the old coast a “land bridge,” as if it were only good for getting from one place exposed today to another place exposed today, eg. Siberia to Alaska; Asia to Japan, Australia to Tasmania. Make no mistake; that lost land was a vast coastal plain, and people surely lived there.
​
Aquaterra Incognita; Lost Land Beneath the Sea
​
For more information see Jerry's article in the Geograpical Review (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262492765_Aquaterra_Incognita_Lost_Land_Beneath_The_Sea). ABSTRACT: The author proposes scientific recognition of an existing, previously undefined and unnamed global feature. Aquaterra is suggested as the new name for the lands that were alternately exposed and inundated as ice sheets advanced and retreated over the past 120,000 years. The vertical amplitude of sea level change amounts to 130 meters, and the aggregate global area of aquaterra equates to the continent of North America. The time period coincides with the total span during which modern humans are known to have existed. Keywords: aquaterra, continental shelf, ice ages.
'The Deluge' by Francis Danby.
Note from the authors:
"We hope you enjoy The Waters of Chaos for its mystery and adventure and most of all for its realistic portrayals of ancient and modern characters, real and imagined. Beneath it all, however, we hope our books will prompt you to think about real evidence that often is dismissed, forgotten, or ignored by real scientists. Nature gave us the greatest story the earth has ever told. We hope we retold it well." - Jeff and Jerry Dobson