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The great flood myths across the world are quite possibly ancestral memories of this kind of flood on a continental scale. Retreating ice age glaciers would ma

The great flood myths across the world are quite possibly ancestral memories of this kind of flood on a continental scale. Retreating ice age glaciers would make lakes the size of states held at bay by an impromptu dam of various kinds of debris (or more glacier) which then would break dumping great lake amounts of water hundreds of miles into the ocean within days. This kind of thing probably happened in lots of places.

delichon 2mo ago
You just pushed me into a rabbit hole called the Zanclean megaflood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanclean_flood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanclean_flood
hommelix 2mo ago
It is supposed that such an event happened, when the land between continental Europe and England got flooded. This was as well during a warmer period when glacier melted. And there was human population on that land. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland
- colechristensen 2mo ago
  Oh there's geological evidence of these things happening in the pacific northwest, the waves and water scouring the landscape in an unimaginable fashion left evidence to be seen today. Like 1000 Niagra falls for a month straight. Outflows measured in billions of gallons per second or 10+ cubic kilometers per hour. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channeled_Scablands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channeled_Scablands
GolfPopper 2mo ago
The Missoula Floods in the northwestern US were a similar sort of event, though I'm not sure how the scale compares. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_floods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_floods
- colechristensen 2mo ago
  Yes this is exactly the kind of thing i'm talking about and in the time frame which is at least plausible to make its way through mythology to modern day (not so much for the flooding of a dry mediterranean sea five million years ago)
  - dredmorbius 2mo ago
    The flooding of the Black Sea, OTOH, might have played a part in the Flood Myth, having occurred around 7,600 years ago (5600 BCE): <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis>
dredmorbius 2mo ago
The potential drainage of glacial Lake Agassiz triggering the Younger Dryas period ~13,000 ya is another potential such event. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Agassiz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Agassiz> <https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08954 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08954> <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0033589413000756 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00335...> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas>

delichon 2mo ago

You just pushed me into a rabbit hole called the Zanclean megaflood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanclean_flood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanclean_flood

hommelix 2mo ago

It is supposed that such an event happened, when the land between continental Europe and England got flooded. This was as well during a warmer period when glacier melted. And there was human population on that land. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland

colechristensen 2mo ago
Oh there's geological evidence of these things happening in the pacific northwest, the waves and water scouring the landscape in an unimaginable fashion left evidence to be seen today. Like 1000 Niagra falls for a month straight. Outflows measured in billions of gallons per second or 10+ cubic kilometers per hour. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channeled_Scablands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channeled_Scablands

GolfPopper 2mo ago

The Missoula Floods in the northwestern US were a similar sort of event, though I'm not sure how the scale compares. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_floods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_floods

colechristensen 2mo ago
Yes this is exactly the kind of thing i'm talking about and in the time frame which is at least plausible to make its way through mythology to modern day (not so much for the flooding of a dry mediterranean sea five million years ago)
- dredmorbius 2mo ago
  The flooding of the Black Sea, OTOH, might have played a part in the Flood Myth, having occurred around 7,600 years ago (5600 BCE): <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis>

dredmorbius 2mo ago

The potential drainage of glacial Lake Agassiz triggering the Younger Dryas period ~13,000 ya is another potential such event. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Agassiz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Agassiz> <https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08954 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08954> <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0033589413000756 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00335...> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas>