In contrast to the Weekly World News item that George and I noted,
here is a useful item that will please Glenn;
The latest GSA Today has an article arguing against the Ryan and
Pitman Black Sea Flood model(Aksu, Ali E., R. N. Hiscott, P. J.
Mudie, A. Rochon, M. A. Kaminski, T. Abrajano, and D. Yasar. 2002.
Persistent Holocene outflow from the Black Sea to the eastern
Mediterranean contradicts Noah's Flood hypothesis. GSA Today, v. 12
no. 5, May 2002, p. 4-10). Ryan and Pitman and co-authors argue, in
both formal publications and several more popular venues (TV,
National Geographic, etc.), that catastrophic flooding of the Black
Sea basin ca. 5500 BC dispersed a previously concentrated population
of farmers who had lived in the now-flooded region. Their dispersal
spread both agricultural echnology and yarns about a big flood.
Aksu et al., based on sedimentological studies of the Black
Sea-Mediterranean connection, argue that the Black Sea was already
fairly full by ca. 9-8,000 BC. Sedimentological and palynological
evidence supports a continuous flow of low-salinity Black Sea wate!
r out through the Bosphorus from about 9-8,000 years ago to the
present. (The Bosphorus is the outlet of the Black Sea.) No
disruption of sedimentation around 5500 BC is evident. The sudden
appearance of marine organisms in the Black Sea at about 5500 BC,
viewed by Ryan and Pitman as evidence of catastrophic flooding, is
instead interpreted as the reaching of a threshold level of
Mediterranean salty water entering the Black Sea under the brackish
outflow. Another problem for the Ryan and Pitman model is
palynological evidence for moist climates around the Black Sea
starting about 10,000 BC. This implies plenty of incoming water from
the Danube, Dneister, Don, Dnieper, and other rivers, whereas Ryan
and Pitman require drier climates and low inflow to the Black Sea to
keep the water level low before their purported flood. Palynological
evidence poses a problem for their envisioned intensive pre-Flood
agriculture, as the pollen does not suggest extensive deforestation
nor !
high levels of agricultural species until about 2000 BC.
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 USA
bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted
Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at
Droigate Spa
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