Around 7,500 years ago, the Mediterranean Sea breached the Bosphorus Strait with force equal to 200 Niagara Falls. 27,000 square miles flooded almost overnight. Columbia University geologists Ryan and Pitman propose this triggered climate refugees who spread flood traditions worldwide, including the Gilgamesh epic
BLACK SEA deluge hypothesis: real flood that inspired Noah's story

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Key facts
- The BLACK SEA was a freshwater lake before 7,500 years ago
- Mediterranean Sea breached the Bosphorus Strait in modern-day Turkey
- Water surged at force of 200 Niagara Falls, carving a channel over 300 feet deep
- Saltwater flooded the BLACK SEA Basin at one mile per day pace
- 27,000 square miles may have been submerged almost overnight
- Columbia University geologists William Ryan and Walter Pitman proposed this in 1997
- Sediment cores show freshwater shells beneath marine mud
- Critics argue water level rise was only 100 feet, not 260 feet
- Flood may have created climate refugees who spread across Europe and Middle East
- Flood stories exist in cultures worldwide including Gilgamesh epic
Sources
The Largest Flood in Earth's History Happened Right Heretilscience.substack.com
Running along the seafloor was a gash approximately 200 km (124 mi) long, gouged into the bedrock with the same terrifying power. This wasn't ...
Zanclean flood - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
The Zanclean flood or Zanclean deluge is theorized to have refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5.33 million years ago.
Black Sea deluge hypothesis - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
The Black Sea deluge is the best known of three hypothetical flood scenarios for the Late Quaternary history of the Black Sea that have been proposed since ...
Noah's Not-so-big Flood - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutionwhoi.edu
They surged over the now submerged Bosphorus Sill with the force of 200 Niagara Falls, according to a controversial theory proposed in 1997 ...
5.3M years ago, the world's largest flood refilled the Mediterraneanbigthink.com
The Messinian salinity crisis came to an abrupt end in what was quite possibly the largest flood in the history of the planet about 5.3 million years ago.
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