Monday, September 18, 2017

"Hurricane Maria poised to become a Category 4 today" — UPDATED

Update below.
Original post:
From Ryan Maue:
That little island top left is Puerto Rico.
Barbuda, which for the first time in 300 years has no human beings on it, is under the middle spiral band in this image.
They had a "light" magnitude 4.4 earthquake off the east coast of the island a couple days ago.

Update:
I was informed I gave the impression Barbuda had 'only' been inhabited for 300 years. To clarify, people first showed up on the little island a long, long time ago. From Barbudaful:
The culture and customs of the first peoples to live on Barbuda and in the Caribbean in general have had a lasting influence on the culture of today. The Indigenous Heritage Of The Caribbean And Its Contribution To A Caribbean Identity is a UK study from 2004 that explores some of this history. Many areas of Barbuda remain as natural as they would have been in ancient times, and some of our traditions, foods and remedies must surely have come here with those people.

the ciboney 
The first inhabitants of Barbuda were hunter gatherers who came to our shores by canoe, probably from Yucatan in Mexico, about 3000 to 4000 years ago. These people are called Ciboney, 'the stone people' from the Arawak language, or 'pre-Ceramic', as pottery is not associated with their sites. Artefacts from this time include cutting blades fashioned from the large gastropods that the Ciboney harvested, while celts, picks, hoes, and water vessels were made from conch, trumpet shells and whelks. The best evidence for their presence is along the southwest coast of Barbuda from Coco Point up to River and to the south-east corner of the Lagoon. This is the Strombus line, made of piles of Queen Conchs (Strombus gigas) that were harvested for their nutritious meat, and thousands of chert flakes from Flinty Bay, in Antigua. These hard sharp stones would have been used to cut meat for cooking or drying. Habitation sites are along the coast near Codrington, River, Sucking Hole, Factory, and Goat Pen. More recently human remains carbon-dated as 3100 years old were found at Boiling Rocks, near Spanish Point....
...MUCH MORE