Black Sea Flood 5600 BC (What happened ?)

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Black Sea Flood5600 BC(What happened ?)

• Findings and Interpretation of Geologist Dr.
  William Ryan
• as Presented by John Kozlowski Friday
  November 17, 2006

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Overview

• Background Classical Story, then physical and
  scientific context
• Conditions (Global warming, after the end of last
  Ice Age Sea Levels rise)
• Ryans Flood explanation
• Evidence found

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The well known story of Noahs Flood

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Biblical rendition Noahs Ark

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Noahs Flood Just a story, or is there more to
it ?

• Question Has there been any scientific evidence
  found that may be associated to the famous story
  of Noah building an Ark to preserve living
  animals from the onslaught of the flood ?

6
Background

• Black Sea location Physical context,
• and just how large is the Black Sea ?

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Black Sea in the context of Europe
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Black Sea today dimensions

• At present the Black Sea is 750 miles long and
  380 miles wide (1210 km by 610 km), and covers an
  area comparable to the size of California.
• The Black Seas deepest bed is 7238 feet, ie 2206
  m, below the surface.

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A global warming trend commences 15000 BP

• The last Ice Age (100,000 yr in duration) began
  to come to an end 15,000 BP, as the earth
  started to warm up.
• The upper latitudes of the continents laid
  buried under sheets of glacial ice.
• At the peak of glaciation, oceans were several
  hundred feet lower than today.

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EurAsian IceCap (Ryan P.156)

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Glacier melt underway

• About 15,000 BP (Before Present), global warming
  caused the glaciers to start to melt, and the
  ice-line began to retreat.
• Average global temperatures have risen by about 5
  degrees Celsius, since the last Ice Age (compared
  to present).
• Sea Level rose (see graphs)

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Sea Level Rise vs Time
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Sea Level rise over last 9000 yr
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As the last Ice Age was ending

• During the timespan (15000-7600 BP)
• A global warming ensued, glaciers melted, and
  as regards this case, rivers emptying into the
  Black Sea Danube, Dniester, Dnieper and Don-
  formed vast freshwater lakes in the Black and
  Caspian.
• Now, Lets Look at the region

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Composite Satellite Image

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Black Sea isolated

• Note that during (15000-7600 BP), the
  Mediterranean was cut off from the Black Lake, so
  that as the level of the Atlantic Ocean started
  to rise, the Mediterranean did as well, but the
  Black Lake did not. The water level discrepancy
  reached as much as 400 feet.

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Ryan Black Sea was a freshwater body before the
flood

• By using core samples taken from the floor, and
  computer reconstruction of the seabed, Ryan and
  Pitman determined that before the flood, the
  Black Sea was a freshwater lake. It lay several
  hundred feet below the Bosporous Valley.
• A sense of the topography, is seen from

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Mediterranean Sea

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Mediterranean did not connect to Black

• During the period (9000-7600 BP) the water
  level of the Mediterranean continued to rise, but
  in expanding northward, it was only able to reach
  the edge of the Bosporous Valley, since it was
  ultimately held back by a natural sediment dam,
  there (400 feet high and 2 mile wide).

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Bosporous Valley lies betweenthe Marmara and
Black seas
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Black Lake remained saline free

• Hence, up to 7600 BP, the Mediterranean had no
  water exchange with the Black Sea (Ryan, 1998).
• A diagram presented in the Ruddiman text shows
  that all that separated the freshwater Black Lake
  from the saltwater Mediterranean (which reached
  the Sea of Marmara) was the small Bosporous
  Valley.

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When were the Seas connected?Agean -gt? Marmara
-gt? Black

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Mediterranean finally overflows

• Finally, at (7600 BP, ie 5600 BC) Excess waters
  in the Mediterranean pushed northward, causing
  the Agean and Maramara seas to rise, and the
  water broke through the dam at Bosporous, and
  finally spilled into the Black Lake, in a massive
  flood.

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Flood lasted gt2 years, and volume was huge

• It has been estimated that each day for two
  years, ten cubic miles of ocean water cut through
  the widening Bosporous channel flowed into the
  Black Lake, henceforth called Black Sea.
• Over two years, the water level rose by 330
  feet.

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Ryan Flood force was 200 times that of Niagara
Falls

• By Ryans 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).

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The Flood a massive onslaught of water

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Animation

• http//emvc.geol.ucsb.edu/download/blackseaflood.p
  hp

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Flood raised Black Sea water level by 140m

• Dr. Glenn Jones (Texas Institue of Oceanography,
  BBC interview)
• Its 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 worlds oceans by
  approximately one foot.

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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.

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Ryan and Pitman seek evidence

• Deep gorge discovered at Bosporous
• Freshwater -gt saline water
• Carbon 14 dating of mussel shells

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Ryan found a deep gorge in the Bosporous Strait

• 
  

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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)

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Coarse sediments tilted northward, to the Black
Sea

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

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Dating of Black Sea mussel shells

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

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mussels
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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
  bredth of the Black Sea, would show whether the
  shells were of the same age. (If so, this would
  be support the instantaneous flood
  interpretation.)

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Confirmed Flood occurred over a short time span

• Amazingly, 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.

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Summary

• Ryan found evidence of a massive flooding event
  at the Black Sea (5600 BC), including the deep
  gorge at Bosporous.
• Carbon 14 dating of mussel shells indicated that
  the transition from freshwater to saline water
  occurred within a short period of time, thereby
  supporting Ryans massive flood interpretation.

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Ryan suggests the Flood may have been the source
of Noahs story

• Ryan suggested that the flood he found, may have
  been the source of the well known story of Noahs
  Flood, initially passed down by word of mouth
  from generation to generation.
• Ryans flood was local to the Black Sea, and not
  a global one, and this is one of the points of
  contention.

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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.

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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.

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Migration spreads

• The change from hunter-gatherer societies to
  farming communities in Europe at approximately
  6th millenium BC, may have been catalyzed by this
  great migration to escape the Flood.

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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.
  Ballards research of the Black Sea, found a
  previous shoreline, 450 feet below present water
  level, supporting Ryans contention.

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The End

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Ryan (1997) Salinity profiles

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(No Transcript)
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Flood raised Black Sea water level by 140m

• Dr. Glenn Jones (Texas Institue of Oceanography,
  BBC interview)
• Its 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 worlds oceans by
  approximately one foot.

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A few more notes on the Flood

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

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Flood raised Black Sea water level by 140m

• Dr. Glenn Jones (Texas Institue of Oceanography,
  BBC interview)
• Its 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 worlds oceans by
  approximately one foot.

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Black Sea expanded in bredth due to the Flood

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

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The Flood caused a 30 expansion of the Black Sea
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(No Transcript)
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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.

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Mussel Shells dated

• In order to do a test, mussel shells were pulled
  from core samples of the deepest sediments of the
  Black Sea.
• Carbon 14 dating of such shells from across the
  bredth of the Black Sea, would show whether the
  shells were of the same age. (If so, this would
  be support the instantaneous flood
  interpretation.)

57
Confirmed Flood occurred over a short time span

• Amazingly, 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 - on a geological time scale.
  (Some term it instantaneous.)

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Shoreline of Black Sea increased 500 feet

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

59
Ryan (1997) Salinity profiles

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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.
  Ballards research of the Black Sea, found a
  previous shoreline, 450 feet below present water
  level, supporting Ryans contention.

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• 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.

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• Ryans coring samples showed the same abrupt
  transition from lake to sea that Ballard
  confirmed with his dredging.

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Ryan suggests the Flood may have been the source
of Noahs story

• Ryan suggested that the flood he found, may have
  been the source of the well known story of Noahs
  Flood, initially passed down by word of mouth
  from generation to generation.
• Ryans flood was local to the Black Sea, and not
  a global one, and this is one of the points of
  contention.

64
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.

65
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.

66
Migration spreads

• The change from hunter-gatherer societies to
  farming communities in Europe at approximately
  6th millenium BC, may have been catalyzed by this
  great migration to escape the Flood.

67

68

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• The change from hunter-gatherer societies to
  farming communities in Europe at approximately
  6th millenium BC, may have been catalyzed by this
  great migration to escape the Flood.

70
Summary

• Ryan found evidence of a massive flooding event
  at the Black Sea (5600 BC)
• Carbon 14 dating of mussel shells indicate the ls
  from across the bredth of the Black Sea, would
  show whether the shells were of the same age. (If
  so, this would be support the instantaneous
  flood interpretation

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Bosporous Strait

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Ryan Land
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Ryan Land
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Ryan (1997)

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• 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 Ryans estimate) exploded into the Black Sea.

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(No Transcript)
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Shells of mussels
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• 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.

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Summary Carbon 14 dating of mussel shells

• Carbon 14 dating of shells of freshwater
  mussles (found in sediment core investigation),
  compared with shells of mussles and plankton that
  lived in salty waters, indicated an abrupt
  transition from freshwater to saline water
  composition in in the Black Sea (within 40
  years).

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Evidence Radiocarbon dating

• Carbon 14 dating of shells of freshwater
  mussles (found in sediment core investigation),
  compared with shells of mussles and plankton that
  lived in salty waters, indicated an abrupt
  transition from freshwater to saline water
  composition in in the Black Sea (within 40
  years).

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Key Question

• The key question to be addressed, in assessing
  Ryans claim was whether the water level of the
  Black Sea changed gradually or within a very
  short period of time (a few years).

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Mediterranean-Agean-Black