Re: Noah's Fllod (not jokey)



Mark:
You're welcome.
See if you can get access to this article:

Valentina Yanko-Hombach, Allan S. Gilbert and Pavel Dolukhanovc
2006
Controversy over the great flood hypotheses in the Black Sea in light
of geological, paleontological, and archaeological evidence
Quaternary International
Volumes 167-168, June 2007, Pages 91-113
IGCP521. Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridor during the last 30ka: Sea
level change and human adaptation. Istanbul 2005, IGCP 521

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2006.08.004

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3x2e4e

Abstract
Legends describing a Great Flood are found in the narratives of
several world religions, and the biblical account of Noah's Flood is
the surviving heir to several versions of the ancient Mesopotamian
Flood Myth. Recently, the story of the biblical deluge was connected
to the Black Sea, together with the suggestion that the story's pre-
Mesopotamian origins might be found in the Pontic basin [Ryan, W.B.F.,
Pitman, III, W.C., 1998. Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries
About the Event That Changed History. Simon and Schuster, New York].
Based on the significance of this flood epic in the Judeo-Christian
tradition, popular interest surged following publication of the idea.

Currently, two Great Flood scenarios have been proposed for the Black
Sea: (1) an Early Holocene event caused by catastrophic Mediterranean
inflow at 7.2 ky BP (initial hypothesis of [Ryan et al., 1997. An
abrupt drowning of the Black Sea shelf. Marine Geology 138, 119-126])
or 8.4 ky BP (modified hypothesis of [Ryan et al., 2003. Catastrophic
flooding of the Black Sea. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary
Science 31, 525-554.); and (2) a Late Pleistocene event brought on by
Caspian influx between 16 and 13 ky BP [Chepalyga, A.L., 2003. Late
glacial Great Flood in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. GSA Annual
Meeting and Exposition, 2-5 November 2003, Seattle, USA, p. 460]. Both
hypotheses claim that the massive inundations of the Black Sea basin
and ensuing large-scale environmental changes had a profound impact on
prehistoric human societies of the surrounding areas, and both propose
that the event formed the basis for the biblical Great Flood legend.

This paper attempts to determine whether the preponderance of existing
evidence sustains support for these Great Floods in the evolution of
the Black Sea. Based upon established geological and paleontological
data, it finds that the Late Pleistocene inundation was intense and
substantial whereas the Early Holocene sea-level rise was not. Between
16 and 13 ky BP, the Late Neoeuxinian lake (the Late Pleistocene water
body in the Pontic basin pre-dating the Black Sea) increased rapidly
from -14 to -50 m (below the present level of the Black Sea), then
rose gradually to -20 m by about 11 ky BP. At 11-10 ky BP (the Younger
Dryas), it dropped to -50 m. When the Black Sea re-connected with the
Sea of Marmara at about 9.5 ky BP, inflowing Mediterranean water
increased the Black Sea level very gradually up to -20 m, and in so
doing, it raised the salinity of the basin and brought in the first
wave of Mediterranean immigrants. These data indicate no major
drawdown of the Black Sea after the Younger Dryas, and they do not
provide evidence for any catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea in the
Early Holocene.

In addition, available archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidence
from the Pontic region reveal no recognizable changes in population
dynamics between 14 and 6 ky BP that could be linked to an inundation
of large magnitude [Dolukhanov, P., Shilik, K., 2006. Environment, sea-
level changes, and human migrations in the northern Pontic area during
late Pleistocene and Holocene times. In: Yanko-Hombach, V., Gilbert,
A.S., Panin, N., Dolukhanov, P.M. (Eds.), The Black Sea Flood
Question: Changes in Coastline, Climate, and Human Settlement.
Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 297-318; Stanko, V.N., 2006. Fluctuations in
the level of the Black Sea and Mesolithic settlement of the northern
Pontic area. In: Yanko-Hombach, V., Gilbert, A.S., Panin, N.,
Dolukhanov, P.M. (Eds.), The Black Sea Flood Question: Changes in
Coastline, Climate, and Human Settlement. Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 371-
385]. More specifically, Mesolithic and early Neolithic archaeological
data in southeastern Europe and Ukraine give no indications of shifts
in human subsistence or other behavior at the time of the proposed
catastrophic flood in the Early Holocene.


- Daryl Krupa

P.S.: Related Articles in ScienceDirect


Lateglacial and Holocene sea level changes in semi-enclosed seas of
North Eurasia: examples from the contrasting Black and White Seas
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Volume 209, Issues
1-4, 6 July 2004, Pages 19-36
Pavel A. Kaplin and Andrei O. Selivanov

Abstract
A comparison of the Black and White Seas, which differ in their
tectonic, glacial and climatic history but which share a strong
dependence upon limited water exchange with the world ocean,
represents an opportunity for the identification of major factors
controlling sea level changes during the Lateglacial and Holocene and
for the correlation of these changes. Existing data were critically
analyzed and compared with the results of geological, geomorphological
and palaeohydrological studies obtained by the present authors during
the past two decades.
We conclude that glacioeustatic processes played a major role in
relative sea level changes on most coasts of both areas. However,
along several coastlines, other factors overwhelm glacioeustasy during
some time intervals. In the Black Sea, water level rose from its
minimum position, -100-120 m, at 18-17 ka BP, to -20-30 m at nearly 9
ka BP. In the White Sea, the decreasing trend in relative sea level is
well illustrated on the Kola Peninsula and in Karelia, subject to
glacioisostatic emergence. A drastic sea level fall from +15 to -25 m
occurred with the drainage of glacial lakes in the eastern White Sea
(12.5-9.5 ka BP).

The Black and White Sea histories changed drastically in the early
Holocene or in the beginning of the middle Holocene (9.5-7.5 ka BP)
due to the intrusion of water from the Mediterranean and the Barents
seas, respectively. During this period, the White Sea developed under
the strong influence of the formation of "ice shelves" and "dead ice"
blocks, retreating glaciers, as well as of glacioisostatic and related
processes. The Black Sea history, however, was determined by water
exchange with the Mediterranean via the shallow Dardanelles and
Bosporus straits (outflow from the Black Sea 10-9.5 ka BP and inflow
from 9-7.5 ka BP according to various data), and, partially, by river
discharge variations caused by climatic changes on the Russian Plain.
The hypothesis of a catastrophic sea level rise from -120-150 to -15-
20 m nearly 7550 calendar years BP is not supported by our data. Water
intrusion from the Mediterranean was fast but not catastrophic.

In the Black Sea, periods of high sea levels after the intrusion of
Mediterranean waters are dated from four sedimentary complexes,
Vityazevian, Kalamitian, Dzhemetian and Nymphaean, from nearly 7.5, 7-
6, 5.5-4.5 and 2.2-1.7 ka BP, respectively. A fluctuating pattern of
sea level change was established in the White Sea after the drainage
of proglacial lakes and intrusion of ocean waters at the end of the
early Holocene (nearly 8.5-8.2 ka BP). Major periods of sea level rise
in the White Sea are dated from the late Boreal-early Atlantic (8.5-
7.5 ka BP), late Atlantic (6.5-5.2 ka BP), middle Subboreal (4.5-4 ka
BP) and middle Subatlantic (1.8-1.5 ka BP). Fluctuations of relative
sea level during the middle and late Holocene were possibly on the
order of several meters (from +2-3 to -2-3 m in the Black Sea and from
+3-5 to -2-3 m in the White Sea). Lower estimates of regressive stages
are principally derived from archaeological data on ancient
settlements in tectonically submerging deltaic areas and cannot be
regarded as reliable.

Palaeohydrological analysis does not indicate that intensive (15-25 m
or greater) sea level fluctuations were present in the Black Sea or in
the White Sea during the middle and late Holocene. Instead, such
analysis provides independent evidence to support the argument that
significant differences in water level between the Black Sea and the
Mediterranean could not be maintained for an extended period of time.







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