The Cold Snap That Civilised The World

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 2-22-2002 | David Derbyshire

[blam]

Anyone care to speculate what may have caused this change 5-6,000 years ago? I'll start:

#1. The Mediterranean which had been desicated since the Ice Age re-filled?

#2. The same for the Gulf Of Mexico?

[JZoback]

Noah's flood?

[Little Bill]

Asteriod(sp) 4000 years into the Holocene, fits all of the facts.

[blam]

"Noah's flood?"

I think Noah's Flood was the Black Sea Flood and came only after the Mediterranean was refilled and broke through the Bosphorus. The dates may not work. Good input though.

[blam]

"Asteriod(sp) 4000 years into the Holocene, fits all of the facts."

The worldwide 'long ring' tree ring data indicate a catastropic (worldwide) event at 3195. Could this be your asteroid? Now, where did it hit? (Atlantis?)

[RightWhale]

Can't say what triggers temple building. Organized or State religion might do it. El Nino doesn't seem to have the right kind of stuff to cause temple building.

Some temples are symbolic, others could be meteorological. Some may have been survey markers. Some may have been schools of science, math, or history.

I'm going to stick with the idea that a change in sea level would change tides and currents like the Gulf Stream and El Nino.

[Jeremy_Bentham]

bump for later

[StriperSniper]

SUVs in Atlantis?

[Alberta's Child]

Take a look at a map of northern Quebec and notice the ring-like shape of the Manicouagan Reservoir. This is the clearly the remnant of some kind of impact crater, though my guess is that it's age is in the millions of years instead of 5,000 or so.

[XBob]

a number of years ago, I read several articles about sea bed core borings in the Medeteranian. I don't remember when or the dates discovered, but the general gist of the stories were that the Medeteranian was dry land for eons, then all of a sudden, it changed into sea bottom - like over night, or at least in just a few years. This was probably about 10-15 years ago that this story hqppened.

[Little Bill]

Not far enough back, try the event that occured about +/- 4000 BC, just prior to the shift south and east of the start of civilization.

Look at conifer retreat in the North.

[capitan_refugio]

The Mediterranean Sea has very young, shallow evaporites in the sea floor sediments. These were drilled by the Deep Sea Drilling Project in the early 1970's. In several later papers, geologists proposed that the present sea filled when the Atlantic Ocean broke through at the Straits of Gibralter, filling what must have been a huge, formidible, desert-like sink.

On the other hand, the salt layers in the Gulf of Mexico, onshore Texas, Louisinana, Arkansas, and Mexico date back into the Jurassic. They may very well be related to similar salt layers in the North Sea and Germany (called the Zechstein). These were deposited when the continents were in a greatly different configuration, and may record the opening of the proto-Atlantic Ocean (in plate tectonic theory). There is no good evidence to suggest that the Gulf of Mexico, as we know it today, was ever devoid of water.

Another possibility to consider when talking about global climate changes, and/or ocean circulation changes, is the development of the Isthumus at Panama, connecting North and South America, and cutting of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the middle latitudes.

[GOP Jedi]

Atuk: Cold this year.

Murak: Ayup.

Atuk: Was cold last year.

Murak: Ayup.

Atuk: Reckon we oughtta build us a temple. That'll help.

Murak: Ayup.

Atuk. Ayup.

[CrossCheck]

It looks more like the imprint left by a giant flying saucer.

[blam]

"Medeteranian was dry land for eons, then all of a sudden, it changed into sea bottom - like over night, or at least in just a few years."

The Mediterranean has been completely dry at least 40 times, the last time was 5 million years ago. I think it was partially dry ( and in sections ) during the last Ice Age. There are scouring marks on the bottom near Gilbralter that hint at a great water break-through, as yet, undated.

[blam]

"Not far enough back."

I meant to say 3195BC, that would be 5197 years ago. Is that far enough back?

[rightofrush]

#1. The Mediterranean which had been desicated since the Ice Age re-filled?

Most likely, if true. More likely: flooding into the Black Sea.
Most likely: A shift of the Gulf Stream southward and/or a shift in the Japanese Current.

[blam]

"Another possibility to consider when talking about global climate changes, and/or ocean circulation changes, is the development of the Isthumus at Panama, connecting North and South America, and cutting of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the middle latitudes."

Very good input. About the Gulf Of Mexico, I was thinking of a partial water level lowering, not a complete drying. I developed that idea while trying to explain how a city ( as yet unverified ) could be 2,100 feet underwater off the coast of Cuba. (It was built on the shore of a reduced water level Gulf?)

[Dementon]

LOL

[Little Bill]

Spot me 900 plus years, give or take, say 300, probably right on the money, for the first event, step forward 500 years or so for the rest of the events,at regular intervales through say 1200 BC?