Re: Mediterranean flood
dfsiemensjr@juno.com
Fri, 15 Oct 1999 14:32:22 -0600
Glenn responded to Bob's question, both on October 13, about conditions
in the Mediterranean Basin before its infilling. He referred to the
sequence of strata in the Italian Piedmont near Alba as evidence for
conditions in the empty basin. This puzzles me. How does something at the
edge of the area, never under more than about 500 feet of water,
exemplify a basin which today averages 4926 feet deep, with a spot in the
Ionian Basin 16,896 feet deep. Unfortunately, I do not have a map that
even hints at the bathymetry. It nevertheless strikes me that, if Noah
had lived in a marginal area, such as that which has been pushed up to
form the Piedmont, he would have been washed up on the south coast of
Europe. Only if he were somewhere in the central depths could he have
been cast up to the east. I don't know enough about the river flow into
the basin 4.5 Mya to venture a guess where in the area there would have
been adequate water. But I recall that there have been numerous
references to the Nile, whose flow apparently watered a low-lying area.
Lebanon or Israel, even Turkey. But where else were the oases?
Another thought obtrudes. If the influx of water had produced an effect
akin to a storm surge, the Ark could have been slapped down pretty hard.
How much of a surge was there? Could the Ark have been airborne?
Dave