Several of you will be familiar with the suggestion that the flooding of the Black Sea basin several millenia ago, when a seaway to the Mediterranean through the Boshporus was established, may have given rise to the tales of a global flood as recounted in the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh and in the Hebrew book of Genesis. Set aside the link to the Bible story and the history of the Black Sea region remains important in terms of palaeoclimatology, oceanography, marine archaeology, biostratigraphy, marine geology, regional tectonics and anthropology.
The Black Sea flood hypothesis was put forward by researchers from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in 1997:
Ryan, W.B.F., W.C. Pitman III, C.O. Major, K. Shimkus, V. Moskalenko, G.A. Jones, P. Dimitrov, N. Görür, M. Sak2nç, and H. Yüce 1997 An abrupt drowning of the Black Sea shelf. Marine Geology 138:119–126.
The two senior investigators then promoted the idea in a 1998 book:
Ryan, W.B.F., and W.C. Pitman III 1998 Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event that Changed History. Simon & Schuster, New York.
Despite extensive earlier work, no hint of this flood had been previously noted, so the idea was controversial. In 2003 three coordinated meetings were held in Bucharest, Columbia University and Seattle to consider the hypothesis and related evidence. Over fifty papers were presented at these meetings. In 2007 thirty five of these papers, many of them amended in the light of the others, were published in a single volume:
Yanko-Hombach,Valentina, Alan S. Gilbert, Nicolae Panin, Pavel M. Doluknanov (Editors) 2007 The Black Sea Flood Question: Changes in Coastline, Climate, and Human Settlement. Springer, Dordrecht The Netherlands
My main aim in posting this is to draw attention to the collection of papers for anyone interested in the science and then to discuss anything arising from it. Please note: I do not wish this to deteriorate into a slanging match over the reality or otherwise of a global flood. I shall request moderators to delete any such posts as being off-topic.
I draw particular attention to paper number 6, page 119, that introduced me to events I was previously ignorant of, but now find fascinating. Here is a portion of the abstract:
Evidence from geology, lithology, paleontology, and geomorphology reflecting the Great Eurasian Floods in the Ponto-Caspian basin is discussed. These flood events (17 to 10 ky BP) left traces on coastal plains (marine transgressions), in river valleys (superfloods) and on watersheds (thermokarst lakes) and slopes. The linkage of marine and lacustrine water bodies formed the Cascade of Eurasian Basins (the Vorukashah Sea) extending from the Aral to the Marmara Sea. It included various current and former spillways (Uzboi, Manych-Kerch, Bosphorus, and Dardanelles), covered as much as 1.5 million km2, contained a combined water volume of about 700,000 km3, and maintained a salinity of between 5 and 10‰. At the peak of the flood, sea level in the Caspian basin reached 190 to 200 m above the level of the previous basin.
Finally, you will have noticed that this material is more than a decade and a half old. I have not brought myself up to date with the current understanding of the topic. Time permitting I may add further, current links soon.
The Black Sea flood hypothesis was put forward by researchers from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in 1997:
Ryan, W.B.F., W.C. Pitman III, C.O. Major, K. Shimkus, V. Moskalenko, G.A. Jones, P. Dimitrov, N. Görür, M. Sak2nç, and H. Yüce 1997 An abrupt drowning of the Black Sea shelf. Marine Geology 138:119–126.
The two senior investigators then promoted the idea in a 1998 book:
Ryan, W.B.F., and W.C. Pitman III 1998 Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event that Changed History. Simon & Schuster, New York.
Despite extensive earlier work, no hint of this flood had been previously noted, so the idea was controversial. In 2003 three coordinated meetings were held in Bucharest, Columbia University and Seattle to consider the hypothesis and related evidence. Over fifty papers were presented at these meetings. In 2007 thirty five of these papers, many of them amended in the light of the others, were published in a single volume:
Yanko-Hombach,Valentina, Alan S. Gilbert, Nicolae Panin, Pavel M. Doluknanov (Editors) 2007 The Black Sea Flood Question: Changes in Coastline, Climate, and Human Settlement. Springer, Dordrecht The Netherlands
My main aim in posting this is to draw attention to the collection of papers for anyone interested in the science and then to discuss anything arising from it. Please note: I do not wish this to deteriorate into a slanging match over the reality or otherwise of a global flood. I shall request moderators to delete any such posts as being off-topic.
I draw particular attention to paper number 6, page 119, that introduced me to events I was previously ignorant of, but now find fascinating. Here is a portion of the abstract:
Evidence from geology, lithology, paleontology, and geomorphology reflecting the Great Eurasian Floods in the Ponto-Caspian basin is discussed. These flood events (17 to 10 ky BP) left traces on coastal plains (marine transgressions), in river valleys (superfloods) and on watersheds (thermokarst lakes) and slopes. The linkage of marine and lacustrine water bodies formed the Cascade of Eurasian Basins (the Vorukashah Sea) extending from the Aral to the Marmara Sea. It included various current and former spillways (Uzboi, Manych-Kerch, Bosphorus, and Dardanelles), covered as much as 1.5 million km2, contained a combined water volume of about 700,000 km3, and maintained a salinity of between 5 and 10‰. At the peak of the flood, sea level in the Caspian basin reached 190 to 200 m above the level of the previous basin.
Finally, you will have noticed that this material is more than a decade and a half old. I have not brought myself up to date with the current understanding of the topic. Time permitting I may add further, current links soon.
