The moment Britain became an island

BBC News Magazine ^ | Monday, February 14, 2011 | Megan Lane

[SunkenCiv]

The coastline and landscape of what would become modern Britain began to emerge at the end of the last Ice Age around 10,000 years ago.

What had been a cold, dry tundra on the north-western edge of Europe grew warmer and wetter as the ice caps melted. The Irish Sea, North Sea and the Channel were all dry land, albeit land slowly being submerged as sea levels rose.

But it wasn't until 6,100BC that Britain broke free of mainland Europe for good, during the Mesolithic period -- the Middle Stone Age.

It is thought a landslide in Norway triggered one of the biggest tsunamis ever recorded on Earth, when a landlocked sea in the Norwegian trench burst its banks.

[JeffB]

Too many SUVs causing global warming 8,000 years ago?

Sheesh, you'd think we'd learn by now. ;)

[Cronos]

I personally think the Atlantis legend is related to the island of Santorini

Thanks SC for posting this!

[JRios1968]

Bush’s Fault, no doubt

[CholeraJoe]

There had been free movement across what is now the English Channel for thousands of years prior to the Big Melt.

Blam's ancestors and mine made the trek about 23,787 years ago. 2 little boys shooting slingshots at sabretoothed squirrels.

[Daffynition]

[Bernard Marx]

2 little boys shooting slingshots at sabretoothed squirrels.

My clan was probably involved in those hunts as well. I belong to Haplogroup R1B, M343 (Subclabe R1b1b2, M269). Damn, I miss those squirrels prepared Brittany style!

[CholeraJoe]

Yup. Looks like you’re an original too. O positive blood group? I don’t have a single relative who isn’t. Family ancestral name is Powys.

[WoofDog123]

by scots, do they mean the picts, or, given the timeline, the genetic group that would become picts in eastern scotland?

[blam]

"by scots, do they mean the picts, or, given the timeline, the genetic group that would become picts in eastern scotland?"

Different DNA studies fail to find a Picts population...genetically, they're all basically the same people.

[colorado tanker]

There are just certian moments in history, like when you look up to see a 30 ft. tsunami headed your way . . . .

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[SunkenCiv]

It would tend to be a little disappointing, at the very least.

[Cronos]

you mean Scots (Scotti from Ireland) are related to Gaels (highlanders) are related to the Norse invaders and to the Finns?

[SunkenCiv]

If he’d merely stopped trying to do things on a timetable, he’d probably have managed it. But y’know, then he wouldn’t have been Hitler. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[SunkenCiv]

/bingo

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[SunkenCiv]

The water hasn’t been much of a barrier — that’s why the populations are so similar. The UK runs on myth more than most countries. But then again, besides the Glorious Revolution, the Norman Conquest, the Danes, the Angles/Saxons/Jutes, the Romans, the Q-Celts, the P-Celts, and the groups described in the Book of Invasions, there’s hardly ever been a successful migration into the British Isles. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

The location that fits Plato’s description no longer exists, y’know, because as he noted, it was lost to the sea “in a single dreadful day and single dreadful night”, never to be seen again. But I’d be pleasantly surprised if something major (like a submerged town) were found pretty much anywhere in the world. The former banks of the former estuaries would be the best places to start searching, IMHO.