[extropy-chat] Surviving a flood...

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Mike Lorrey wrote:

> Well, given that Bob Ballard has demonstrated the likely source of the
> flood myth was the breaching of the Bosporus and flooding of the Black
> Sea around 5000 BC, can anybody say how long it would take to raise the
> Black Sea to its present level, filling it from the Bosporus, and
> whether such filling would cause high rainfail for some period???

Well, given the region, one might estimate the initial Black Sea
level as perhaps the level of the Dead Sea below Sea level.  Then
estimate the volume of water required to raise it to sea level.
But to do this accurately one needs to know the area at the
below sea level and the final area of the Black Sea now.
But to really do it right one needs the pre-5000 BC Black
Sea level and a complete set of sea depths at various points
to compute the volume of water that was added.

I'm doubtful that filling the Black Sea could cause the rainfall.
But one might speculate that something like a volcano eruption
seeding clouds or perhaps an asteroid impact in the Mediterranean
could have raised its level to break through into the Black Sea.

Robert