Summer's treasure-hunting season is on the horizon, and it's building up to be an exhilarating period. While we await calmer winds for the safety of our crew, we are diligently using this time to analyze data from our past surveys and strategize for doing much more surveying over the summer.
On the Atocha site, we also have several surveys in the works. We will conduct our bi-annual side scan survey required by the FKNMS to use excavation equipment along the Atocha & Margarita trails. We will also be using a brand new Geometrics 882 magnetometer with the most up-to-date components matched with a new high-accuracy Trimble survey grade GPS unit to conduct some intensive, high-accuracy mag surveys along the Atocha trail where the Dare has been working. This area is just to the Northwest of the Atocha Main Pile area and is the area of deep mud where with feel is the most likely area for significant finds of silver coin chest, silver bars, bronze cannons, etc. The mag survey will help us to identify areas of iron shipwreck scatter material that should lead us to other non-ferrous artifacts such as silver, gold, and bronze.
This mag survey is also going to help guide us for our upcoming EM (electro-magnetic) survey using a new high-tech large EM coil detector system that we’re planning to bring in during July for a survey of this deep mud area. This system is remotely controlled and has proven to be very successful in detecting buried non-ferrous unexploded ordinances for the military in challenging environments.
This deep mud area that we are working is a primarily virgin area along the Atocha trail that was jumped over very quickly during the search for the Atocha Main Pile. When the Dare was working its way up this trail back in 2009, they uncovered deeply buried copper ingots, a trail of single silver coins, and a perfectly preserved wooden bedpost. Click here to see the article about bed post. We are very excited to continue finding more deeply buried artifacts while extending this trail to the Northwest this summer.
Today's the day!
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