Scientific News  Hypotheses Hypotheses of changes on the Earth NOAH'S FLOOD HYPOTHESIS MAY NOT HOLD WATER. RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE PROFESSOR PART OF INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH GROUP REFUTING POPULAR THEORY.
NOAH'S FLOOD HYPOTHESIS MAY NOT HOLD WATER.
RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE PROFESSOR PART OF INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH GROUP
REFUTING POPULAR THEORY.
In 1996, marine geologists William Ryan and
Walter Pitman published a scientifically popular hypothesis, titled Noah's Flood
Hypothesis. The researchers presented evidence of a bursting flood about 7,500
years ago in what is now the Black Sea. This, some say, supports the biblical
story of Noah and the flood.
But, such a forceful flood could not have taken
place, says Jun Abrajano, professor of earth and environmental sciences at
Rensselaer. He is part of an international team of scientists who refute the
so-called Noah's Flood Hypothesis.
Abrajano cites evidence of a much more gradual
rising of the Black Sea that began to occur 10,000 years ago and continued for
2,000 years.
According to the Noah's Flood Hypothesis, the
Black Sea was a freshwater lake separated from the Mediterranean Sea by a narrow
strip of land now broken by the Bosporus Strait. Ryan and Pitman argue that the
Mediterranean broke through the land and inundated the Black Sea with more than
200 times the force of Niagara Falls. The salty powerful flood swiftly killed
the freshwater mollusks in the Black Sea. This, they say, accounts for fossil
remains that can be dated back 7,500 years.
Abrajano's team has challenged the theory by
studying sediments from the Marmara Sea, which sits next to the Black Sea and
opens into the Mediterranean.
The team found a rich mud, called sapropel in the
Marmara. The mud provides evidence that there has been sustained interaction
between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea for at least 10,000 years.
"For the Noah's Ark Hypothesis to be correct, one has to speculate that
there was no flowing of water between the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea before
the speculated great deluge," says Abrajano. "We have found this to be
incorrect."
GSA (Geological
Society of America) Today magazine recently published a paper in its May
2002 edition based on Abrajano's research. His research also will be published
this year in Marine Geology, an international science journal.
For a map of the area go to http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/maps/tu-map.jpg
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Publishing date: June 25, 2002
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