Thread: The Black Sea flood

The basic idea of the Black Sea flood is:

The Black Sea is an in land lake below ocean level. Ocean levels are
rising because of the end of an ice age. The ocean suddenly pours over
the isthmus and the level of the Black sea quickly rises.

I saw a talk by Bob Ballard and he showed that at the right time
period, there where what looked like settlements around the old lake
shore now under water. Also the type of old shells found below the old
shore line were fresh water and the shells found above the old shore
line are salt water. Showing that the Black Sea was fresh before the
flood.

If the Black sea was a dead end for rivers, which it had to be if it
was lower than the ocean level, which it had to be if the ocean quickly
flooded into the Black sea. Otherwise the Black sea water level
would have only risen via a channel to the sea at the rate of the
ocean level rise making for a very boring flood story. (40 years etc..)

So here is my question:

So how could the Black sea have been a fresh water lake?

All of the "dead end" lakes I can think of are salt to very salty
because, I think, there size is a determined by a balance between evaporation and
inflow.

Originally Posted by c186282

So how could the Black sea have been a fresh water lake?

All of the "dead end" lakes I can think of are salt to very salty
because, I think, there size is a determined by a balance between evaporation and
inflow.

Fresh water endorheic lakes aren't that uncommon especially in temperate regions where there's a large deep body of water. The Caspian Sea is probably the best example, considered fresh but pretty salty compared to most fresh water. The Black Sea is in a similar climate zone but very deep. It probably had salt, but still low enough for fresh water clams and such to live.

It can also happen when the lake drains through porous soils, or there hasn't been much time to make it salty. Sometimes all three circumstances exist such as Crater lake in the US.

A lake becomes saline when the water lost by evaporation is continuously replenished by inflowing rivers carrying low concentrations of salts.

According to this Wikipedia article, the Black Sea as a freshwater lake was cut off from its inflowing rivers so its level dropped by evaporation, but since no additional salts were being brought in the salinity would not have increased all that much as the level fell.

Meanwhile sea levels were rising, so eventually the sea was higher than the Black Sea lake and the scenario described in the flood hypothesis was at least not impossible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_theory

Remember climate soon after ice age was different than today. Evaporation would be slow because of low air temperature plus all that humidity from standing water. Central Asia was probably a maze of lakes. Early in the long thaw the lake system would have been fed by brief summer melt then crusted over during the long dry winters.