Hebrew scholars I know tell me the word used for "earth" doesn't necessarily mean the whole planet, but could also mean just large geographical area.
It was a nasty localized event that occurred when the Mediterranean Sea finally overflowed the Bosporous, causing a Great Flood in the affected region.
If that were the case, then it could not have wiped out the whole human race. I'm more inclined to speculate that it occurred in Africa somewhere very early in human history at a time when the entire human population was concentrated in a small enough area so that it could be potentially wiped out by a flood.
I conceed, though, that it's all speculation and impossible to know exactly when or where it occurred.
You forget the custom among ancient and primitive peoples of regarding themselves as all of humanity (witness many linguistic usages--for a recent one Allemani, form which the French name for Germany is derived).
The Holy Scriptures were not composed by and for modern rationalists.
A genetic "bottleneck" event did occur for the human race ~70k years ago. However, approximately 2000 individuals made it through that event, rather than just eight. No other such drastic events have been recorded in the genome.
"Hebrew scholars I know tell me the word used for "earth" doesn't necessarily mean the whole planet, but could also mean just large geographical area."
Agreed. The more I hear of Hebrew scholars, the more I like them!
"If that were the case, then it could not have wiped out the whole human race. I'm more inclined to speculate that it occurred in Africa somewhere very early in human history at a time when the entire human population was concentrated in a small enough area so that it could be potentially wiped out by a flood."
But the entire human race wasn't wiped out by this localized event, else all of humanity would be inbred, mildly-brown-skinned descendants of Noah and his incestual children.