Colossal Flood Created the Mediterranean Sea

[n2doc]

By Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer
posted: 09 December 2009 01:01 pm ET

The Mediterranean Sea as we know it today formed about 5.3 million years ago when Atlantic Ocean waters breached the strait of Gibraltar, sending a massive flood into the basin.

Geologists have long known that the Mediterranean became isolated from the world's oceans around 5.6 million years ago, evaporating almost completely in the hundreds of thousands of years that followed.

Scientists also largely agree that the Mediterranean basin was refilled when the movements of Earth's crustal plates caused the ground around the Gibraltar Strait to subside, allowing the ocean waters of the Atlantic to cut through the rock separating the two basins and refill the sea.

But exactly how the waters cut their way through and how long it took them to do so wasn't known.

A new study that used seismic data and holes drilled into the rock at the strait revealed that the ocean water cut a 124-mile- (200-kilometer-) long channel across the strait over the course of several thousand years.

more:

http://www.livescience.com/environment/091209-mediterranean-sea-flood.html

[trotsky]

1. Whoa, what an amazing sight that would have been.

Isn't that similar to how it is believed the Black Sea formed?

[Enthusiast]

2. Yeah, same deal with

the Black Sea only much more recently. As the gigantic ice age ice caps melted, sea level rose breaching the Mediterranean/Black Sea barrier.

[Orrex]

3. Before too long, some Creationist loon will claim that this proves the Noah myth.

Watch for it!

[Enthusiast]

4. Loon is the word. nt

[FiveGoodMen]

5. Thing is, if this is where the Noah myth came from, then it clearly IS a myth.

Nothing about the flooding of the Mediterranean -- however dramatic it seemed to the locals -- backs up the notion of a world-wide flood covering all the mountains. Nothing about it suggests divine intervention.

If this was in any way connected to the Noah tale -- which seems doubtful -- it would support rational explanations and disagree with the bible story.

I say it seems doubtful because I don't think there's been an oral tradition going back 5.3 million years so who would have known about this till now?

On the other hand, I read not long ago about a city under water in the Mediterranean that clearly had to be dry land recently enough for humans to have created it. So there must have been later, dramatic changes to the level that would be within human recollection.

[whopis01]

6. It is more likely that the Black Sea deluge is the source of that myth.

I am fairly certain language doesn't go back 5.3 million years, so the chance of an oral tradition that old is pretty slim.

However, the Black Sea deluge may have occurred around 7,600 years ago which would certainly have been recent enough to have survived as stories passed down.

As far as I know, the submerged cities in the Mediterranean were most likely sunk due to earthquakes and land collapsing into the sea rather than the sea levels rising greatly.

[Orrex]

7. I've heard that argument re: The Black Sea before, and it kind of makes sense

Of course, just about every ancient civilization that lived on a flood plain miraculously had a "flood myth," so there may be a more mundane source than the inundation of the Black Sea.

Even so, aside from the actual fact of the flooding itself, there's not a whole of similarity between the Noah story and the Black Sea's flood.

Still, as a piece of historical background, it's a fascinating concept! And I'm sure that it was quite a thing to see.

[Warpy]

8. Likely the myth is cobbled together from a lot of different myths

The Black Sea flood might be one. Megatsunamis from seaquakes and landslides down the slopes of Etna are others. Still others might have arisen from Santorini--you know there were tsunamis when that island blew itself apart in a supereruption.

All the bible stories probably have a basis in fact. Unfortunately, it's been passed down through a game of multi generational "telephone" along with lots of drunken tall tale telling.