Reddit mentions of Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About The Event That Changed History

One theory is that Noah's Flood is actually the flooding of what is now the Black Sea. It was originally a fresh water lake fed with meltwater from the north into what is now Russia. As the ice age ended and sea levels rose, the Mediteranean sea found its way through the thin strip of land separating the Black Sea (lake?) from the ocean. At first it was a trickle, and it grew into a torrent that would dwarf Niagra and could probably be heard for many miles away.

The freshwater lake turned salty, and all its fish died. And "Noah" saw the waters rising, and packed all his family plus a breeding stock of his animals (probably a pair of dogs a pair of goats/sheep and a pair of chickens or something like that) and tried to ride it out as the sea filled and his homeland was swallowed up.

Archaeological evidence shows that the people who used to live in that area fled at about this time and reappeared in the Italian alps, far from the water.

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From my understanding, sulfur dioxide is toxic to any oxygen using organism and vice versa. That would include plant life. Reading the three Ward books is near the limit of my expertise, but while fact checking my post, I found that sulfur organisms inhabit the anoxic bottom on the Black Sea, which appears to have been a huge fresh water lake at the end of the last Ice Age, before the Mediterranean rose and flooded it with seawater. (Some consider this to be the basis of the Noah's Flood legend.) A phenomena called a chemocline occurs there. Above it is more oxygen and aerobic organisms, and below it is sulfur dioxide and that alternative biochemistry. I do not know if this occurs widely in ocean basins.

Here is book a read about that prehistoric flood
http://www.amazon.com/Noahs-Flood-Scientific-Discoveries-Changed/dp/0684859203

I think most of the book still stands up to scrutiny. I may have read in this book that the Black Sea sometimes belches up huge clouds of sulfur dioxide, and this was one reason the Black Sea had a bad reputation with ancient mariners. But my memory now sometimes conflates such trivia.

For a long time, the greatest minds in science worked to reconcile their observations of the earth with the events described in the Bible. This began to change in earnest during the first half of the 19th century. Many of the geologic features they extrapolated as evidence for a gobal deluge could be seen and understood in other terms: global glaciation that carved and bulldozed the landscape, depositing a confusion of mud and boulders and furrowing the underlying strata; a fossilized marine environment in the highest place on earth and the saga of plate tectonics in scientific discourse; and of course, the fact that there is not enough water on earth to drown the continents.

However, what you're asking is if there's a kernel of truth behind the flood legend, i.e. if a real geologic event could have had a huge impact on the psyche of early man. We do have a lot of geologic and archeological evidence that around 9000 years ago, the surface of the Black Sea was around 300m lower than its modern level, cut off from the global ocean by the Bosporus Strait. The lakes at the center were fresh, fed by rivers to the north. Human beings could have lived there. They could also have taken with them the story of when the gods tried to destroy the world - when the Meditteranean breached the passage and flooded the basin in a horrible cataclysm.

I got to sit in on a PhD defense that takes up the thread of this book. The span of time covered is pretty large, and the data comes together slowly but surely. I think the prologue alone is worth the price. So if you're into real-life explanations for how legends evolve and want to know how data is collected and interpreted by research institutions, this book is a fantastic place to start.

http://www.amazon.com/Noahs-Flood-Scientific-Discoveries-Changed/dp/0684859203

I think this will answer your question. There is some evidence to suggest that the area was occupied prior to the deluge that is now underwater.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2000/12/122800blacksea.html

Edit: Further reading Noah's Flood (book)

Welcome. The book is well worth your time if you're interested:

http://www.amazon.com/Noahs-Flood-Scientific-Discoveries-Changed/dp/0684859203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451663129&sr=8-1&keywords=Walter+Pitman