Taiwan before the flood

According to test results the turbidite, or sediment collected from Site 1202, was dated from over 10,000 years ago and was of the same density as that found in the Snow Mountain region today. According to Ho's paper this sediment originated in the Snow Mountain area and after the

landslide settled around Site 1202.

While respected academics like Professor Wei Kuo-yen (魏國彥) of the Geology Department at National Taiwan University (國立台灣大學地質系) aren't entirely indifferent to the idea of a lost continent, they are rather perplexed at the ease in which Ho came to his assumptions.

"I wouldn't go as far as to call the idea total rubbish, but there are certain problems with the way in which the date has been interpreted. Turbidite can form almost anywhere, where any volcanic or seismic activity has taken place. And we know that it doesn't take thousands of years to form in such density," he said. "The question is what caused it to form to such a density at Site 1202. And this remains something that we're not really sure about."

Doubt may exist as to the validity of the way in which members of the Taiwan Paleo-Civilization Research Center have reached their conclusions in regards to the relationship between the turbidite from Site 1202 and that found in Taiwan, but Ho's assumptions that a tsunami caused widespread devastation throughout the Pacific Rim are slightly more concrete.

This thesis he based on archeological discoveries unearthed on Okinawa and local Aboriginal legends. And, although skeptical of the existence of a legendary continent, the Taiwan Normal University professor concurs that something like this could well have taken place.

"Mass migrations many thousands of years ago were certainly not uncommon and there is evidence to suggest that Taiwan's indigenous peoples did travel," Wei said. "But whether such vast numbers of people left Taiwan as part of some kind of mass exodus is doubtful."

Records indicate that the first people to appear in what is now Japan were the Minatokawajin peoples, who reportedly lived on Okinawa some 18,000 years ago. Remnants indicate that human activity ceased to exist on Okinawa an estimated 17,000 to 10,000 years ago and didn't return until 6,670 years ago.

"It's quite obvious from studying folklore of the Pacific Rim that a huge flood did occur and that strangers from far away lands appeared shortly thereafter," Hsui said. "Nobody knows where they came from, so we're left with theories and the most compelling one is that they came from Taiwan."

Whether or not Ho and like-minded fringe historians will one day be vindicated is debatable, but they certainly have a point.