Posted on 07/18/2007 2:08:03 PM PDT by FoolNoMore
Study: Megaflood Separated U.K., France Jul 18, 4:22 PM (ET)
By THOMAS WAGNER
LONDON (AP) - One of Earth's largest-ever megafloods broke apart a strip of land connecting what is now Britain and France, permanently separating them, a new study says.
The flood unleashed about 35 million cubic feet of water per second, 100 times greater than the water discharge of the Mississippi River. The natural disaster, which occurred about 400,000 years ago during a glacial period, was later followed by rising sea levels that created what is now the English Channel, the study says.
It is not known if humans died during the disaster, but the study says the flooding may have ended migration by early humans and mammals such as horses across the land, which was at least 28 miles wide.
The theory that Britain became an island during a catastrophic flood - rather than through the course of normal erosion - was first proposed in the 1980s. But the new study, outlined in the scientific journal Nature, used high-resolution sonar data than were unavailable before to produce three-dimensional, high-quality imagery of the region.
In a commentary in the magazine, Prof. Philip Gibbard, a geologist at the University of Cambridge, praised the study, saying: "It is no exaggeration to say that this Channel flood was probably ... one of the largest ever identified ... (and) it had profound long-term geographical consequences." Gibbard was not involved in the study.
Another outside expert, Prof. Chris Stringer, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum, also welcomed the report.
"The timing and method of formation of the Channel have been a long-running argument - after all it really makes Britain what is today, geographically - and the evidence presented in this paper is spectacular," Stringer told The Associated Press.
He said it explains and reinforces the picture his museum's "Ancient Human Occupation of Britain" project is putting together about the increasing isolation of Britain from Europe after 400,000 years ago.
The study - by three scientists at Imperial College London and an official at the UK Hydrographic Office - says the megaflood occurred during the first major extension of a continental ice sheet into lowland central Europe and Britain.
The ice advanced across the emergent North Sea floor from southern Scandinavia, blocking rivers flowing northwards into the Atlantic Ocean and causing a gigantic glacial lake to develop in front of it, dammed by higher ground to the south and fed by the drainage of much of Western Europe.
When this dam overflowed, it produced a huge deluge that quickly broke apart the land mass connecting what is now England and France.
The glacier eventually withdrew from the area, but about 160,000 years ago, during a second significant glaciation, another ice sheet reached central Netherlands and again dammed a lake in the southern Northern Sea, the study says.
When this barrier broke it produced a vast volume of water that surged through the land gap, dramatically deepening it to about its current level and sealing Britain's fate as an island.
The study also says the two almost instantaneous releases of huge volumes of fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean may have triggered changes in ocean circulation which may, in turn, have affected the climate of the whole North Atlantic region.
And England is all the better for it.
Wow! That's today. :^)
Dang!! outposted by 10 minutes. Sorry about that folks.
Did the glacier simply get up and leave - i.e. withdraw like the Dims want us to do in Iraq? No. OK, that means it MELTED. More than 160,000 years ago. Before cars, coal fired power plants, SUVs and even Chimpie McBushitler, Shotgun Cheney and Halliburton. How is that possible?
What is being done to reconstruct the damaged farmland and wetlands??? What is being done to compensate the families of those who were killed and displaced by this disaster??? Another example of how Bush’s War on Terror is sapping desperately needed funds from HUMAN NEEDS!!!
The first French-bashing jokes began to appear roughly 24 hours later...
My ancestors from the British Islands were Picts. Is there some sort of casino I can open on the Isle of Wight as compensation?
So....perhaps we should return Brittany to the English as apparently they owned it at one time.
How many Frenchmen does it take to change a light bulb?
One. He holds the bulb and all of Europe revolves around him.
An old saying: Raise your right hand if you like the French.... Raise both hands if you are French.
Evidence of a giant flood at the Black Sea. Evidence of a giant flood creating the English channel. ACLU crowd is going to start getting upset.
Viva la separation!
Looks like one of many "global warmings" in our planet's history, where were Neanderthal libs to prevent it?
“And England is all the better for it.”
never a truer word said.......
“So....perhaps we should return Brittany to the English as apparently they owned it at one time.”
English owned more than just Brittany, they ran the whole of France at one time
.................
GGG Ping
The Missoula floods in the northwest US.
The flood that created the Mediterranean.
The flood that lowered the Black Sea.
These are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head.
Reparations now!!
Ugga, me think mastadon flatulence cause big methane cloud in clear air. Much heat from sun trapped by gas. Must switch to vegan diet.
And thus began the Neandrathal races slow decline, steadily pushed back by environmental rapist homo sapien meat eaters. Ugga Gore continued to eat meat however and eventually married a homo sapien woman who admired his cave drawings of carbon offsets.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.