Posted on 11/29/2006 3:03:09 PM PST by blam
Source: American Geophysical Union
Date: November 28, 2006
Landslide At Mt. Etna Generated A Large Tsunami In The Mediterranean Sea Nearly 8000 Years Ago
Geological evidence indicates that the eastern flanks of Mt. Etna volcano, located on Italy's island of Sicily, suffered at least one large collapse nearly 8,000 years ago.
Pareschi et al. modeled this collapse and discovered that the volume of landslide material, combined with the force of the debris avalanche, would have generated a catastrophic tsunami, which would have impacted all of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Simulations show that the resulting tsunami waves would have destabilized soft marine sediments across the floor of the Ionian Sea.
The authors note that field evidence for this destabilization can be seen in other scientists' accounts of widespread large chaotic deposits of sediments in the Ionain and Sirte Abyssal Plains and tsunami-related deposits called homogenite on local depressions of the Ionian seafloor. They also speculate that this tsunami may have led to the abandonment of a Neolithic village in Israel.
Title: The lost tsunami
Authors: Maria Teresa Pareschi, Enzo Boschi, and Massimiliano Favalli: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Pisa, Italy.
Source: Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) paper 10.1029/2006GL027790, 2006
A 20-foot tidal wave such as Christmas a couple years ago seems to be large. A 20-inch tidal wave such as last month is a laugher. A 200-foot tidal wave 8000 years ago in the Levant would be memorable if anyone survived to carve a note in a rock.
This could have triggered the breach of the Bosphorus dam if the Mediterranean was wet at the time. BTW, there are apparently stories of a time the Bosphorus was dry and will be dry again.
And we're just now hearing about it?
There is a theory that what is now the Black Sea was separated by a narrow land bridge from the Mediterranean and that something caused the water to cut through and engulf the Black sea.
Far out speculation, but I wonder if this tsunami could have been the originating force.
Atlantis took the brunt of it?
That was my first thought as I read the article-Maybe the slide precipitated the Black Sea.
Much of the supporting data is in this book.
Nah. Atlantis was over here in the Pacific.
Surf's up!
Simple ~ earlier tsunami damages Eastern Mediterranen natural dam between it and Black Lake, and this, in turn, leads over several centuries of quite normal rainfall, etc. to a final breakdown which then floods the Lake.
That's quite possibly something that happened about 14,000 years ago with the breakup of the two mile deep glaciation then covering Antarctica.
Nah.
Check this map of the world's ocean's reduced in depth by a little over 300 feet (some say the depths were reduced as much as 500 feet). Notice that Gilbralter is blocked as are possibly two other areas in the Med.
Noah got his message from God via all the refugees fleeing everywhere when the mediterranean began refilling after the plug at Gilbralter was broken (scowering marks on the bottom) and began building the Ark on a mountain (Ararat?) because he didn't know how fast the water was rising...with all the rain from the Ice Age ending climate change that was going on (40 days/nights). The cascading (through the med) finally made it to the Bosporus eventually topping it. Once the water stopped rising, Noah was stuck high & dry up on the side of the mountain. Look for the Ark in the mountains.
The last Ice Age surge (melt) happened between 7-8,000 years ago...It may have been this refilling of the Med that caused the problem with Mt Etna that's the source of this article.
There are flood myths of the 'mountain topping' variety all over the Pacific...and, even in Tibet. An enormous amount of weight was redistributed in a short time at the end of the Ice Age. Must have had terrible earthquakes, volcanos and tsunamis then.
The Mediterranean was filled much earlier than the 7 to 9 thousand year ago date, but the Black Sea wasn't.
However, 7 million years ago the Mediterranean Basin was clearly a desert. That's long before the current Ice Age cycle which started about 2 million years ago.
This all makes sense if you keep in mind that Antarctic and NOrth American melts and buildups do not occur simultaneously. One or the other starts first, and is followed a couple of thousand years later by the other.
Thanks for the ping. That tsunami must have played havoc with the west coast of Greece, but the Genesis (and similar) flood stories speak of a time when rising water wiped out a large part of the human race. Most likely candidate would be the rise of sea level at the end of the last ice age.
It ruined Helen Thomas's first day of kindergarten.
I have some wood dated 7,000+ years old from a cypress forest that was flooded and is now Santa Rosa Sound, Florida.
We're blaming Bush so fast, we may be confused for leftist loonies.
The Mediterranean has been completely dry at least 40 times. The last time it was completely dry was five million years ago.
Hmm. The Black Sea Flood (there's some controversy whether this happened, because Ryan and Pitman and some others have found freshwater shells or something along a now-submerged shoreline, while one researcher -- who was looking near the submerged delta of the Dneiper or whatever -- didn't find 'em) was circa 5500 BC if memory serves, but hey, maybe it was earlier, and you might be onto something there. Interesting.
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