Black Sea FloodBlack Sea Flood7,600 BP7,600 BP

Bruno TremblayBruno Tremblay

McGill UniversityMcGill University

bruno.tremblay@mcgill.ca

Sea Level RiseCoral Reefs

Sea Level RiseZoom-In

Noah’s Flood

The Flood

Noah’s ArkBiblical rendition

The Black Sea

Mediterranean Sea

Eurasian Ice Cap14,500 BP

Ryan Pitman

Bosporous Valley lies between

the Marmara and Black seas

When were the Seas connected?

Agean ->? Marmara ->? Black Sea

Ryan :Flood force was 200 times that of Niagara Falls

By Ryan’s assessment, the flood hit the Black Lake with a force equivalent to 200 times that associated with Niagara Falls.

The incoming salt water, more dense than freshwater, plunged to the bottom of the lake bed, transforming it into a sea where the depths do not support life (anoxic).

Black Sea Flood

Flood raised Black Sea water level by 140m

Dr. Glenn Jones (Texas Institue of Oceanography, BBC interview):

“It’s amazing to think of raising the Black Sea basin by 140 m. What that means, if you calculate how much water went into the Black Sea, it would be equivalent to lowering the world’s oceans by approximately one foot.”

Point of Dispute

An issue of dispute is whether the conversion period of the Black Sea from freshwater to salty water was long and gradual (hundreds, or thousands of years), or whether it occurred over a short period of time (~ from 2 to 30 years), as would happen due to a cataclysmic flood, as suggested by Ryan.

Ryan and Pitman seek evidence

Deep gorge discovered at

Bosphorous Freshwater -> saline water Carbon 14 dating of mussel shells

Ryan found a deep gorge in the Bosporous Strait

Deep gorge (~80m-100m) at Bosporous

Ryan discovered a large gorge in the Bosporous, which cut deep into the bedrock. It is interpreted as evidence of the passage of an enormous flow of water (pouring) through it.

Dr. Walter Pitman: “The depth of the hard rock below the sediment was between 80m to 100m. It indicated that this channel had to have been cut by a rush of fast-moving water”. (100 km/hr) (BBC interview)

Coarse sediments tilted northward, to the Black Sea

The coarse sediment at the gorge’s bottom was found arrayed in dune shapes, tilted to the north, thereby indicating flow from Agean to Black Seas.

Dating of Black Sea mussel shells

Carbon 14 dating of shells of freshwater mussels (found in sediment core investigation), were compared with shells of mussels and plankton that lived in saline water, in order to test the abrupt transition hypothesis. (ie Transition from freshwater to saline water composition.)

mussels

Mussel Shells dated

Mussel shells were pulled from core samples of the deepest sediments of the Black Sea.

Carbon 14 dating of mussel shells from across the breadth of the Black Sea, would show whether the shells were of the same age. (If so, this would be support the “instantaneous flood” interpretation.)

Confirmed: Flood occurred over a short time span

The carbon 14 dating showed that the mussel shells from across the Black Sea transect were all pretty much the same age: about (7500-7600) yrs old.

This indicated that the flooding took place over a short time period, termed as “instantaneous” on a geological time scale.

Summary

Ryan found evidence of a massive flooding event at the Black Sea (7600 BP), including the deep gorge at Bosphorous.

Carbon 14 dating of mussel shells indicated that the transition from freshwater to saline water occurred within a short period of time, thereby supporting Ryan’s massive flood interpretation.

Ryan suggests the Flood may have been the source

of Noah’s story Ryan suggested that the flood he

found, may have been the source of the well known story of Noah’s Flood, initially passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation.

Ryan’s flood was local to the Black Sea, and not a global one, and this is one of the points of contention.

Migration

Ryan also proposed that the flood may have triggered massive migrations of people from the Black Sea region, to destinations as far away as Egypt, western Europe and central Asia.

People fled, and dispersed, in their escape

Pitman: “We think it (the Flood event) had a great effect on human history, because it widely dispersed people who had different methods of farming and had different languages.”

Human MigrationFollowing the Flood

Human MigrationNorth East and South East

Migration spreads

The change from hunter-gatherer societies to farming communities in Europe at approximately 8th Millenium BP, may have been catalyzed by this great migration to escape the Flood.

Ballard finds old shoreline, confirming Ryan

Marine archaeologist Robert Ballard, in a separate investigation of the Black Sea Flood, identified ancient shorelines, freshwater snail shells, drowned valleys and man made structures. Ballard’s research of the Black Sea, found a previous shoreline, ~450 feet below present water level, supporting Ryan’s contention.

Ryan (1997) Salinity profiles

A few more notes on the Flood

During the flood, the Black Sea rose (on average) by ~15 cm, each day.

By Ryan’s account it took ~2 years for the water to rise 330 feet, inundating 60,000 square miles of land (10 cubic miles of sea water per day).

The expanse of the flood covered 155,000 square km.

Black Sea expanded in breadth due to the Flood

Overall, there was a ~30% expansion in the size of the Black Sea, leaving it with its modern day configuration.

The Flood caused a 30% expansion of the Black Sea

Anoxic bottom water

The dense Mediterranean salt water sank to the bottom of the freshwater lake.

Ever since (the flood occurred), the less dense water on top has acted as a 150m lid on a 2125m deep oxygen-free abyss.

If shipwrecks lie at the bottom, they could be preserved in recognizable condition.

Shoreline of Black Sea increased 500 feet

Seismic soundings and sediment cores reveal traces of the Black Sea’s former shoreline, showing a 500 foot rise in water level.

In 1999, Ballard used sonar to seek traces of human settlement in the Black Sea.

In so doing, he captured the first sonar images of a gentle berm and a sandbar submerged for thousands of years on the sea floor.

Ryan’s coring samples showed the same abrupt transition from lake to sea that Ballard confirmed with his dredging.

Ryan suggests the Flood may have been the source

of Noah’s story Ryan suggested that the flood he

found, may have been the source of the well known story of Noah’s Flood, initially passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation.

Ryan’s flood was local to the Black Sea, and not a global one, and this is one of the points of contention.

Ryan suggested that prior to flood, the Black Sea was an isolated freshwater lake surrounded by farmland and many dwellers (inhabitants).

During the flood, seawater pushed northward and water funnelled through the Bosporous Strait, and (by Ryan’s estimate) exploded into the Black Sea.

Using radiocarbon dating techniques, analysts have shown that the remains of freshwater mollusks dredged from an ancient beach in the depths of the Black Sea, date back to 7500 years ago, and also saltwater species dating from 6900 years ago.

Key Question The key question to be addressed, in

assessing Ryan’s claim was whether the water level of the Black Sea changed gradually or within a very short period of time (a few years).