Black Sea '01 Expedition


Overview
Intro to the Black Sea
> The Flood Theory
The Flood Theory (pt 2)
The Shipwreck Museum
Past Expeditions
The 2001 Expedition

THE FLOOD
 THEORY
"...200 times
 the force of
 of Niagara Falls"


There's another unusual thing about the Black Sea (besides the fact that it is a giant bucket of poison): it didn't used to be a sea.

A LOST SHAKER OF SALTWATER
Fifteen thousand years ago, during the last Ice Age, what we call the Black Sea was actually an enormous freshwater lake. It was about two-thirds its current size, hundreds of feet shallower, and completely cut off from the Mediterranean and the world's oceans.

Ryan and Pitman '98, Path of Meltwater
Then the Ice Age ended, global temperatures rose and the polar ice caps began to melt. Meltwater from the northern ice sheet began to pour down over Asia and Europe and, at the same time, the sea level of the Atlantic started to rise. Now, the only thing separating the freshwater "Black Lake" (technically referred to as the "New Euxine Lake") from the saltwater Mediterranean was the tiny Bosphorus valley. Eventually, the saltwater rose over the land and connected the Black Lake to the Mediterranean, creating the narrow, 17-mile long Bosphorus strait we see today in the southwest corner (see map). Voila, the Black Sea was created.

This is not a new idea. In fact, such an influx of saltwater into a freshwater lake would explain why the Black Sea has such a large anoxic zone (see the later discussion on the origin of the anoxic zone). But, although the idea of marine influx into an ancient Black Lake isn't novel, there has been a recent twist to the story that science has yet to fully unravel.

Check out more resources on the Flood Theory
THE FLOOD THEORY
In the mid-1990's, two geologists from Columbia University, Bill Ryan and Walter Pitman, published a bold theory about the saltwater influx into the Black Sea, which they had been working on for over 20 years: it wasn't just an influx, it was a catacylsmic flood. At first, the rising Atlantic brought the Mediterranean all the way up to the edge the Bosphorus Valley, right near the Black Lake, but was held back by a 400 foot tall dam, two miles wide. Then about 7,600 years ago, the dam burst. Saltwater roared into the Black Lake with 200 times the force of Niagara Falls. That means over 10 cubic miles of saltwater (about the volume of Lake Mead, Nevada) rocketing through the Bosphorus valve every day, spurting flumes as fast as 50 mph.
THE EVIDENCE
FOR A CATACLYSM

1. The Black Sea has a "thick Holicene deposit", meaning a large amount of sediment has been layed down on the seafloor over the last 10,000 years. This is consistent with a great flood during that time.

2. Ancient rootlets can still be found in the seafloor. Normally they wouldn't have remained this long, but they could've been "catacylsmically preserved."

3. Features of an ancient (pre-flood) shoreline are visible on the seafloor, about 650 feet down.
The theory is dramatic, but there is some intriguing evidence to back it up. In fact, there was enough geological evidence to lead a Bulgarian oceanographer, Petko Dimitrov, to develop his own flood theory completely independent of Ryan and Pitman.

Wow, you say, that flood sounds amazing, but who really cares? What's the big deal about a geologic event from thousands of years ago? Surely the Earth we see today was mashed, carved and shuffled out of literally thousands of such "catacylsmic" events. So, you argue, wouldn't this flood have been just another day in the life of a geologically evolving Earth?

You have a point. About four million years ago, a similar event happened in the Mediterranean, only a desert back then, when the Atlantic flooded through Gibraltar. And it's true, if the Black Sea flood happened four million years ago, this would indeed remain an obscure event known only to geologists, kinking their rock hammers.

But it turns out that this Flood Theory has compelling human relevance. It just so happens that modern man migrated out of Africa 100,000 years ago and began to settle Mesopotamia about 15,000 years ago. Almost certainly there were many cultures living around the Black Sea 7,600 years ago. So we're not just talking about an enormous, anonymous geologic event: we're talking about one of the most enormous natural disasters in human history. Many people would've been witness and, sadly, victim to such a catastrophe.

Jump ahead to see these 'amazing discoveries' for yourself

FORENSICS
When events of enormous geological trauma occur (which sounds like the name of a FOX tv special), the surrounding areas often go on to bear significant scars. The ultimate goal of scienfitic expeditions to the Black Sea (such as the trip which this site describes) is to test Ryan & Pitman's Flood Theory by studying the geological side-effects of an apparent catacylism, and also by searching for a more dramatic kind of proof. The researchers hope to discover submerged archaeological remains of preflood civilizations -- habitations and villages where people lived before the flood, now lying in shambles and soaked foundations on the seafloor.

It is a surreal thing to imagine houses resting in the wet darkness hundreds of feet below the surface, but, as we will see, archaeolgical discoveries have already been made which dramatically support Ryan & Pitman's theory of a flood around 7600 years ago. In this regard, the smoking gun might have already been found in 2000.

Now we talk about the elephant in the room (Noah), and state what the Flood Theory doesn't mean  

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