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WAS the biblical story of the Flood inspired by torrents of salt water from the Mediterranean cascading into the Black Sea 7500 years ago? Columbia University geologist William Ryan suggested the idea in 1997, but a new study means scholars may have to think again.

Marine geologists working near the Bosporus, the channel linking the Mediterranean with the Black Sea, via the Aegean and Sea of Marmara, have found no evidence for such a flood. On the contrary, they believe fresh water from the Black Sea began pouring into the Mediterranean about 10,000 years ago, a flow that continues today.

According to Ryan’s theory, the Black Sea was desiccated by drought until, at the end of the Ice Age, the Mediterranean burst through the Bosporus channel as sea levels rose (¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ, 4 October 1997, p 24). He cites evidence from the Black Sea, including the remains of dwellings under 30 metres of water, and the sudden appearance of marine clams about 7500 years ago.

But Ali Aksu of the Memorial University of Newfoundland says other geologic evidence doesn’t match the theory. A submerged delta south of the Bosporus shows a strong flow of water from the Black Sea between 10,000 and 9000 years ago. Surface salinity south of the Bosporus was low at that time—evidence that fresh water was flowing out of the Black Sea.

Aksu thinks the Black Sea reached its lowest point, more than 100 metres below the present level, about 12,000 years ago, then rose as the ice sheets retreated and Europe grew wetter. He says submerged dwellings could date from that period. Increased river flows would have slowly filled the basin until water started flowing out of the Bosporus about 10,000 years ago.