Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, suggests an earlier, less catastrophic re-
connection, and a more gradual flooding than that inferred by Ryan and Pitman. In addi-
tion, the elevation of delta deposits at the pre-flood mouth of the Danube River, where it
drained into the Black Sea, constrains the pre-flood water level in the Black Sea to having
been less than a hundred feet below modern sea level. This means that Ryan and Pitman's
flood could have raised the water level in the Black Sea by no more than that amount.
While the geological community was divided over the Black Sea flood hypothesis, most
of the authors in a 2007 volume dedicated to examining its geological basis argued in fa-
vor of a gradual, noncatastrophic reconnection of the Mediterranean and Black Sea over
the past 12,000 years. Lively controversy characterizes ongoing geological debate over the
so-called Noah's Flood hypothesis.
When I first heard Ryan and Pitman's theory, back in the 1990s, it made sense to me. It
sounded like a reasonable explanation for the story of Noah's Flood. However, at the time
I didn't know about the Sumerian tablets identifying Ziusudra as the last king of Shurrupak
before a Mesopotamian flood. I now believe that there is no way to tell whether Noah's
Flood was the Black Sea flood or a major Mesopotamian flood. No matter how intriguing
either idea may sound, both offer seemingly reasonable explanations.
Wherever they came from, the first farmers arrived in southern Mesopotamia shortly
after the filling of the Black Sea. Sumerian cities sitting on the undisturbed ruins of these
first farming towns without any archaeological evidence of distinct breaks in culture sug-
gest that these early farmers were the ancestors of the Sumerians. Did they bring the story
of a great flood that destroyed their world with them when they fled to Mesopotamia from
an ancestral homeland now at the bottom of the Black Sea? If so, periodic flooding would
have reinforced the tradition of a great flood among those living on the low ground between
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Creationists quickly denounced Ryan and Pitman's claim of scientific support of the bib-
lical flood. This was not their global deluge. Grand as it was, the Black Sea flood could
not be Noah's Flood; it was still too puny. An influential creationist website even accused
Ryan and Pitman of trying to destroy the Bible. Other creationists simply maintained that
Satan had clouded the minds of those denying the reality of a global flood.
