In what may be the richest sunken treasure haul in world history, the company Odyssey Marine Exploration has announced the discovery of over 500,000 silver and gold coins from a 17th-century Atlantic shipwreck. Initial estimates place the total value of the coins at around half a billion (yes, that's with a "B"). Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered the coins from the code-named "Black Swan" shipwreck using a tethered submarine robot and state-of-the-art marine exploration equipment. There are already grumblings of the morality of allowing private and for-profit artifact collectors to exhume sites. Treasure envy, no doubt.

Although the ship hunters have not disclosed the location of the "Black Swan," BBC News has suggested the wreck is within 40 miles of Land's End--the southwest tip of Great Britain. (Go here for a 19th-century map of the cape.) Odyssey Marine Exploration will be returning to the location soon to begin a second phase of excavation and hopefully learn the original identification of the ship. The coins, meanwhile, have been flown to the U.S. in white plastic buckets.

Go here for "Black Swan" Q&A at the OME site. 

Also: C & B Research News has some info and photos of polystrate fossils and fast-forming stalactites. Go look at them: They demonstrate the point that rock layers form very quickly in certain conditions.