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Noah’s Ark & other Historical Allegories
A great flood that devastated an earlier civilisation is a recurring theme in the vast majority of cultural traditions. The stories of Noah and the Ark in Genesis, Matsya in the Hindu Puranas, Deucalion in Greek mythology and Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh are among the most familiar versions of these myths.
But a great flood myth occurs in Aztec, Inca, Hopi, Maya, Cado, Menominee and Mikmaq traditions in the Americas, in Polynesian, Maori, Indonesian and several versions in Chinese traditions. In Europe there are similar stories in Norse mythology and in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle Beowulf. In Ireland, according to the apocryphal history of Ireland Lebor Gabála Érenn, the first inhabitants of Ireland led by Noah's granddaughter Cessair were all except one wiped out by a flood 40 days after reaching the island. Later, after Panthalon's and Nemed's people reached the island, another flood rose and killed all but thirty of the inhabitants, who scattered across the world. Much lively debate continues as to the origins of these myths, most notably the Great Flood as described in Genesis. Archaeological searches for the remains of the Ark continue on Mount Arafat in Turkey, on Mount Sabalan and Mount Suleiman in the Alborz mountains in Iran and at other sites.
In 1998, William Ryan and Walter Pitman, geologists from Columbia University, caused a sensation that was headline news by publishing evidence that a massive flood through the Bosphorus occurred about 5600 BC. They hypothesized that the area that is now covered by the Black Sea contained a smaller freshwater lake and that a rise in the level of the Mediterranean breached the land wall allowing the sea to pour through drowning thousands of square miles of productive farmland and the settlements around the lake’s shore.
There are many possible explanations for these recurring myths, but geologically the most likely are mega-tsunamis, the rising sea overflowing a natural sill and entering an enclosed basin or big glacier-dammed lakes bursting as their ice dams melt.
Mega-tsunamis
Mega-tsunamis, waves of the order of 40 metres to 100+ metres high, are caused by a very large impact or landslide into a body of water typically associated with a meteor impact or volcanic eruption.
On 18 May 1980 the upper 1500 ft (460 m) including the former summit of Mount St. Helens, a volcano in Washington, detached as a landslide. The avalanche slammed into Spirit Lake sending a tsunami surging around the lake basin as high as 250 m (820 ft) above lake level.
The collapse of much of Santorini during its cataclysmic eruption around 3,500 years ago produced a 100-150 metre wave that struck the north coast of Crete which some historians believe may have been the cause of the sudden end of the Minoan civilisation.
Sill Breaches
At the most recent glacial maximum, so much of the planet's water was locked up in the vast ice-sheets, that the sea level dropped by about 120 to 130 meters. As the sheets melted, starting around 18,000 years ago, sea levels rose. If the rising sea overflowed a natural sill and entered an enclosed basin, the ocean could swamp vast areas in matters of weeks or months catastrophically.
As well as the Black Sea, it is likely that the Persian Gulf, which surveys have confirmed was an entirely dry basin in 15,000 BC was refilled from the Gulf of Oman by such a breach at the Strait of Hormuz.
Glacial Lakes
The last of the North American proglacial lakes, north of the present Great Lakes, has been designated Lake Ojibway by geologists. Situated 250 feet above sea level, its outlet was blocked by the great wall of the glaciers and it was drained by tributaries into the St. Lawrence far to the south. About 8,300 to 7,700 years ago, the melting ice dam over Hudson Bay's southernmost extension narrowed to the point where pressure and its buoyancy lifted it free, and the ice-dam failed catastrophically. The volume of Lake Ojibway is commonly estimated to have been about 163,000 cubic kilometres enough to cover the entire United States to a depth of 15 metres.
Whatever the sources of these myths, their enduring place in our mythologies is a testament to the destructive power of water and its ability to destroy our families, homes and way of life. In this website you will find advice on preparing for the more common flood events that affect the UK each year and simple steps you can take to protect yourself and your property.
Useful Links
Mark Isaak’s extraordinarily detailed account of flood stories and myths from cultures around the world.
http://home.earthlink.net/~misaak/floods.htm
Summary & transcript of BBC Horizon programme on Mega-tsunamis broadcast in 2000.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/mega_tsunami.shtml
Archaeological Institute of America’s abstract & review of Ryan and Pitman’s book on the inundation of the Black Sea.
http://www.archaeology.org/9901/abstracts/books.html
US Geological Survey – Latest news on Mt St Helens
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Cascades/CurrentActivity/current_updates.html
News item from National Geographic August 2006 reporting a re-estimation of the size of the Santorini volcanic eruption.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060823-thera-volcano.html