Do scientists suspect the flood described in the Bible was caused by an earthquake like the recent one along?

Question

the Anatolian fault line?

Answer 1

Rising sea levels worldwide following the last ice age are a more likely explanation for a great flood about 7,500 years ago, or 5500 B.C., that suddenly inundated areas around the Black Sea. Some scientists suggest it could have been the basis for flood stories in both the Hebrew Bible and the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, though others say the accounts came too long after the event to have been inspired by it.

The outlines of such a flood were reconstructed by American scientists from seismic soundings of the sea floor and sediment data gathered by a Russian research ship in 1993, tracing former shorelines. The dating of the flood was based on radiocarbon dates for the transition from freshwater to marine organisms in the cores.


Before the flood, the scientists say, the Bosporus was a narrow spillway carrying fresh water from the Black Sea to the Aegean and Mediterranean. Then there was an abrupt rise in the level of the Black Sea, perhaps a foot a day at the height of the flood, as the flow of water through the Bosporus reversed in a great torrent. In less than a year, the Black Sea became brackish and its level rose as much as 500 feet. Land around it was inundated at a rate of a half a mile to a mile a day, leaving about 60,000 square miles of formerly dry land covered by water.

Answer 2

There was probably a good sized flood in the region. Many of the cultures share the same Noah story. However no scientist of any honesty would support the actual truth of the Noah Story. It's silly. Besides, it says in the bible:

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.

Thats a very good summation of the water cycle. The sea level stays pretty much the same except for the periods when continental glaciers cover the continents. Then the level shrinks. It goes up maybe 200 ft when the ice packs melt. Theres no way to get a world wide flood. It just cannot happen.

Answer 3

No, not by an earthquake.

But there is strong evidence that before about 5600 BC, the Black Sea was landlocked and much smaller, with the Bosphorus being a land bridge. But the gradually rising Mediterranean Sea level eventually reached the height of the Bosphorus, and began to pour over it and into the Black Sea basin, submerging all of its coastal settlements.

To the local inhabitants, it must have seemed as if the whole world was being flooded. Their recollections of it, exaggerated over the next two or three thousand years, could very plausibly have turned into the flood stories in the Epic of Gilgamesh and in the Old Testament.

Answer 4

Not a single real scientist has ever attempted to directly answer what is consider to be bible stories. Science deals with know observations. Therefore science does not dwell on religious faith based matters. There have been earthquakes, floods, tsunami, and volcanic eruptions in the past. It is relatively easy for specialist to find out when these occurred and how wide spread they were.

I saw a documentary on PBS about a few archaeologist from Israel attempting to verify the Great Flood, along with some other Old Testament stories. Needles to say, they had very little factual findings to support anything. Most of it is speculation. Remember, Israel is a secular country. You can not do much their without including religion. Just as in Muslim and other Islamic countries.

The was no Great Flood and Noah's Arc is a story of the Bible. Myth with in myth.

Answer 5

While JB is correct that the Mediterranean Sea did flood when the Straights of Gibaltar broke, that happened over 5 million years ago (5.3 million, according to one source). Either the earth is older then the creationists care to admit, or the two are completely unrelated. The story in the bible is just that, a story. It was designed to instill fear into the hearts of the followers that if you keep sinning, he's going to punish you. He did it before, he'll do something else next time.

Answer 6

Scientists suspect that the Flood, as described in the Bible, did not exist.

Various other regional floods, some quite large and catastrophic, certainly occurred. One of those floods could definitely have been caused by a large earthquake. But it still wouldn't be the same thing.

Trying to identify which of these floods the Bible might have been referring to is kind of pointless.

Answer 7

Actually scientists suspect that the flood of the Bible is the result of global cooling causing the glaciers to grow and sea level to fall. With the lower sea level, water did not exchange between the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean sea through the straits of Gibraltar which are narrow and shallow. Eventually, the Mediterranean started to dry up and people were living on the bottom. When sea level rose, the water spilled over the shelf of the Straits of Gibraltar, filled the Mediterranean sea and appeared to flood the earth.