A scientist studying Anegada uncovered evidence recently that suggests 
the “drowned land” may have been struck by a tsunami some time between 1200 and 1450.
Dr. Brian Atwater of the United States Geological Survey was in the field in Anegada last week with a team of researchers taking soil samples at Flamingo, Red, and Bumber Well ponds and looking at brain corals that had been washed some 500 metres inland.
Initially, the team thought the corals had been washed up by a 1755 tsunami that struck the Caribbean following an earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal.
“If we were having this conversation this time last year, I would know only for sure of this event,” Dr. Atwater told public officers from various departments at the Department of Disaster Management on March 7.
To test their original hypothesis, the scientists sent samples from three of the largest brain corals to a radiocarbon dating laboratory.
“Over the past winter we’ve learned from dating of corals about this earlier event,” he said, adding, “These things turned out to be medieval, pre-Columbus. All three of them.”
Still, he was careful to point out that his findings are at an early stage and need to be verified by other scientists.
See the March 15, 2012 edition for full coverage.