There are various stories that have been written about the great flood and have been advanced by different researchers or through different cultures in various versions but all pointing towards a flood story which could also be speculated to be Noah’s flood in the bible. The articles ‘Plumbing Black Sea for Proof of the Deluge’ by John Wilford and ‘ Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood?’ by Scott Carney provide different versions of the occurrence of the great flood. These two versions of the great flood have one major similarity in that they both support the occurrence of a flood caused by beyond normal factors to give rise to such flooding; Ryan and Pitman’s version as told by John Wilford claim the Mediterranean and Aegean seas bursting into the Black sea causing the flooding 1 while Carney details archaeologist’s Bruce Masse’s version of a comet crashing into the Indian ocean off Madagascar forcing tsunami-like waves that caused the flooding 2 . The timeframe of the flooding is also not very different with Ryan and Pitman’s version putting the flood at 7,600 years ago while Masse put his flooding at an estimate of at least 5000years ago which could be the same timeframe once proper dating is carried out.
The main difference of the theories is in how the flooding occurred. The Ryan and Pitman’s version in Wilford’s article support the one-time flooding caused by the Mediterranean bursting into the landlocked Black Sea causing widespread flooding 3 . Masse’s version as told by Scott Carney supports a chain of events and not just a single thing. First, the comet crashed into the Indian ocean sending 600ft high tsunamis crashing onto the land. This was followed by a great release of heat into the atmosphere that triggered hurricanes on the opposite side of the world that again released massive amounts of torrential rainfall on the land causing widespread flooding 4 .
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In light of religious beliefs, the version by Masse as detailed in Carney’s article is more plausible. This version of massive flooding and widespread torrential rains is more similar to the biblical story of Noah where it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Scientifically, the version is also plausible due to the possibility of comets colliding with the earth although more research needs to be done on the claim. The version of the Mediterranean bursting into the Black Sea does not have any rainfall in it thus would be hardly believed by bible believers.
The researchers attempt to combine science, myths and history in their evidence. The version by Ryan and Pitman use the myths of great flooding around the time of their incident and try to align with discoveries of rock formations in the earth that may signify the movements of the Mediterranean into the Black Sea. It also incorporates history by suggesting that the flooding caused the distribution of farming practices across the world 5 . Masse’s version also tries to incorporate these three items in their evidence to support their claim. Masse incorporates various myths that point to the sightings of comets in those days and other myths such as the biblical Noah story that point to a great flooding. Historical paintings of comets found in various cultures and alleged to have been done in the timeframe of the flood have also been used as evidence while scientific evidence of craters along the coast of Africa have also been put forward as evidence of comet collisions with the earth 6 .
References
Carney, Scott. (2007). Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood? Discover . Retrieved from https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/did-a-comet-cause-the-great-flood#.Uefykhaz7dk
Wilford, John. (1999). Plumbing Black Sea for Proof of the Deluge. New York Times. Retrieved from https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/010599sci-black-sea-flood.html
1 Wilford, N. J. (1999). Plumbing Black Sea for Proof of the Deluge. New York Times.
2 Carney, Scott. (2007). Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood? Discover .
3 Wilford, N. J. (1999). Plumbing Black Sea for Proof of the Deluge
4 Carney, S (2007). Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood?
5 Wilford, N. J. (1999).
6 Carney, S (2007).
