Hurricane Fabian destroyed the last remains of a 7,200-year old cedar forest off Gurnet Rock, an audience at the BUEI will learn tonight.

Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI) international adviser Steve Blasco will continue the Explorer lecture series at the BUEI tonight by discussing the latest findings in the Bermuda Sea Level Rise study.

The film ?Oceans in Motion?, produced by the BUEI, will also air at the lecture.

After Fabian, Dr. Blasco said scientists returned to the site off Gurnet Rock where a drowned cedar forest was discovered in 1957 by diver Teddy Tucker, only to find the site had been destroyed.

Though the forest was believed to have been far more extensive at one time, the area behind the rock had been protected from hurricanes for thousands of years. ?But not from Fabian ... We were quite surprised that Fabian was so devastating.?

In fact, it was the same swell which destroyed the Causeway and claimed the lives of four people which appeared to have destroyed the last remaining cedars, Dr. Blasco said.

Two other drowned cedar forests have been discovered within the last year, Dr. Blasco said, one in Harrington Sound and one just east of Nonsuch Island not far from Gurnet Rock.

The one in Harrington Sounds is dated at 6,200 years old, while the one off Nonsuch is 1,400 years old. ?That gives us three points on the sea level curve,? Dr. Blasco said, adding that was enough of a start to say sea levels have been rising around Bermuda at an average of five inches per century. What the future will bring as man-made forces add to the impact of global warming remains to be seen, he said.

Those findings and more will be discussed at the lecture which starts at 7 p.m. tonight. Tickets are $10 for members and $15 for non-members, while tickets for a special buffet dinner following the lecture are $29.75.