Black Sea Deluge Hypothesis

Black Sea Deluge Hypothesis

The Black Sea deluge is a hypothesized catastrophic rise in the level of the Black Sea circa 5600 BC due to waters from the Mediterranean Sea breaching a sill in the Bosporus Strait. The hypothesis made headlines when The New York Times published it in December 1996, shortly before it was published in an academic journal. While it is agreed that the sequence of events described did occur, there is debate over the suddenness, dating and magnitude of the events. Two opposing hypotheses have arisen to explain the rise of the Black Sea: gradual, and oscillating. The oscillating hypothesis specifies that over the last 30,000 years, water has intermittently flowed back and forth between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea in relatively small magnitudes, and does not necessarily presuppose that there occurred any sudden "refilling" events.

Read more about Black Sea Deluge Hypothesis:  Flood Hypothesis, Evidence From Archaeology

Famous quotes containing the words black, sea, deluge and/or hypothesis:

    “A boy not beautiful, nor good, nor clever,
    A black cloud full of storms too hot for keeping,
    A sword beneath his mother’s heart— yet never
    Woman bewept her babe as this is weeping.”
    —John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)

    “Until We met the Solid Town—
    No One He seemed to know—
    And bowing—with a Mighty look—
    At me—The Sea withdrew—”
    —Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)

    “The structure was designed by an old sea captain who believed that the world would end in a flood. He built a home in the traditional shape of the Ark, inverted, with the roof forming the hull of the proposed vessel. The builder expected that the deluge would cause the house to topple and then reverse itself, floating away on its roof until it should land on some new Ararat.”
    —For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    “Oversimplified, Mercier’s Hypothesis would run like this: “Wit is always absurd and true, humor absurd and untrue.””
    —Vivian Mercier (b. 1919)