Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood?

I read this article a few months ago, and thought it was really interesting. Then I realized it might not be well known, so decided I'd post it here. Basically, this guy Bruce Masse believes that a comet crashed into the Indian Ocean about 5,000 years ago, causing what is now known as the Flood Myths. It just makes sense for there to be some real explanation for Ancient Mythologies, it was just the way people explained occurances back in the day, so if we interpret them properly, and do some science, a lot of information is there to be gained...

Masse’s biggest idea is that some 5,000 years ago, a 3-mile-wide ball of rock and ice swung around the sun and smashed into the ocean off the coast of Madagascar. The ensuing cataclysm sent a series of 600-foot-high tsunamis crashing against the world’s coastlines and injected plumes of superheated water vapor and aerosol particulates into the atmosphere. Within hours, the infusion of heat and moisture blasted its way into jet streams and spawned superhurricanes that pummeled the other side of the planet. For about a week, material ejected into the atmosphere plunged the world into darkness. All told, up to 80 percent of the world’s population may have perished, making it the single most lethal event in history.

Why, then, don’t we know about it? Masse contends that we do. Almost every culture has a legend about a great flood, and—with a little reading between the lines—many of them mention something like a comet on a collision course with Earth just before the disaster. The Bible describes a deluge for 40 days and 40 nights that created a flood so great that Noah was stuck in his ark for two weeks until the water subsided. In the Gilgamesh Epic, the hero of Mesopotamia saw a pillar of black smoke on the horizon before the sky went dark for a week. Afterward, a cyclone pummeled the Fertile Crescent and caused a massive flood. Myths recounted in indigenous South American cultures also tell of a great flood.

discovermagazine.com...

The coastlines would show evidence of such great flooding. They don't.

Besides, a comet that big would be a E.E.L.

reply to post by Gawdzilla


Actually, it sounds like the coastlines do show evidence of such flooding. I guess you didn't read the article, Gawdzilla?

This is an interesting theory. It's a long way from being proven though.

Did anyone catch an episode on NOVA a few weeks ago about the extinction of the mammoth being caused by a comet? I wonder if this is the same comet (hypothetically)?

reply to post by Gawdzilla


First, what exactly is a E.E.L.? End of Earthbound Life? I just can't figure it out...

Second, keep in mind that the coastal evidence would be 5000 years old! Regardless, there may be such evidence. From the article:

When Abbott began searching satellite images on Google Earth, she saw dozens of chevrons along shorelines and inland in Africa and Asia. The shape and size of these chevrons suggest that they might have been formed by waves emanating from the impact of a comet slamming into the deep ocean off Madagascar. “The chevrons in Madagascar associated with the crater were filled with melted microfossils from the bottom of the ocean. There is no explanation for their presence other than a cosmic impact,” she says. “People are going to have to start taking this theory a lot more seriously.” The next step is to perform carbon-14 dating on the fossils to see if they are indeed 5,000 years old.

discovermagazine.com...

Originally posted by Charis
reply to post by Gawdzilla

 

Actually, it sounds like the coastlines do show evidence of such flooding. I guess you didn't read the article, Gawdzilla?

This is an interesting theory. It's a long way from being proven though.

Did anyone catch an episode on NOVA a few weeks ago about the extinction of the mammoth being caused by a comet? I wonder if this is the same comet (hypothetically)?

The coastlines don't show evidence of such flooding, and neither does Egypt, the Fertile Cresent, Japan, etc., all of whose people would have been washed away by 600 foot tsunamis.

Plus, as I said, a comet that large would have been a dino-killer. Humanity would have ended 5,000 years ago. I don't think it did. Do you have information to the contrary?

Originally posted by Naturally Smooth
reply to post by Gawdzilla

 

First, what exactly is a E.E.L.? End of Earthbound Life? I just can't figure it out...

Extinction Level Event. Sorry, I was watching "Lara Croft" while I was typing that, my bad.

[edit on 25-4-2009 by Gawdzilla]

Well i have found this, first response on google. It indicates that its not the first time this idea has appeared.

Is there any physical evidence of a Great Flood?
Yes. William Scott Anderson, arrived at this theory independently and even before me. His research was published in 2001 in a book titled "Solving the Mystery of the Biblical Flood". One of the more interesting elements in his book is that he found a proxy in diatoms that support the theory of a Great Flood. Diatoms are a microorganism, a type of plankton that has a silicon shell, which are preserved as fossils. Mr. Anderson realized a global flood should have left a physical record in the geological strata of these tiny sea creatures. He analyzed the strata at the boundary of the end of the last ice age in the middle of the North American continent in Wisconsin and discovered the presence of ocean diatoms in the boundary layer. His book details his methodology and techniques. These details should allow others to scientifically test and validate his findings and spread this research across the entire globe.



Is there any evidence of a large impact event at the end of the last glacial period?

Yes, but is a little different than my original hypothesis.

The evidence can be found in the Carolina Bays. Refer to abob.libs.uga.edu...

Scattered along the eastern coast of the United States from southern New Jersey to northern Florida are approximately 500,000 elliptical depressions collectively called the Carolina Bays. The size of these depressions range from 200 feet to 7 miles along the major axis. One of the interesting aspects of the Carolina Bays is that they occurred during recent geological time. Otherwise the depressions would have been eroded and filled in. Any event that is capable of producing a half million craters is a significant global event. And this might just be the tip of the iceberg (no pun intended). Because if these impacts were not limited to the Carolina Bays but also peppered the North American Glacial Mass, they could produce a massive release of water and ice. It is worth noting that the trajectory of the Carolina Bay impactors appear to originate from a cometary breakup directly over the North American Glacial Sheets.

personals.galaxyinternet.net...

reply to post by pazcat


So this guy just copied Scott?

BTW, "recent geological time" is an ambiguous term. When a geologist says, "I'll see you later," he means in 500,000 years.

reply to post by Gawdzilla


Well, the comet talked about in the article is at least half the size of the one that formed the Chicxulub crater on the Yucatan. Also, the impact is thought to have been in the middle of the ocean, not near the shore. Finally, the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event is theorized to be a possible multiple-impact event, or coincided with a rise in vulcanic activity (Deccan Traps).

reply to post by pazcat


The Carolina Bays are thought to be older than 14,000 years, so that theory is completely prehistoric. Also, Bruce Masse isn't trying to prove some religious text, but taking stories from all cultures as clues, he comes up with his theory.

Originally posted by Naturally Smooth
reply to post by Gawdzilla

 

Well, the comet talked about in the article is at least half the size of the one that formed the Chicxulub crater on the Yucatan. Also, the impact is thought to have been in the middle of the ocean, not near the shore. Finally, the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event is theorized to be a possible multiple-impact event, or coincided with a rise in vulcanic activity (Deccan Traps).

An ocean impact would possibly be more damaging the Chicxulub event because of the tsunami.

Anyway, all the major coastal civilizations would be wiped out by such an impact. A six-hundred foot tsunami that hit the horn of Africa would have quite possibly washed into the Med. The Tigris and Euphrates Valleys would have been scoured. The Indian subcontinent would have been sucking lemons. Etc.

In other words, yawn-snore.

Just found this on wikipedia:


en.wikipedia.org...

Burckle Crater is an undersea crater likely to have been formed by a very large scale and relatively recent (c. 2800-3000 BC) comet or meteorite impact event. It is estimated to be about 30 km (18 mi) in diameter [1], hence about 25 times larger than the 1.2 km Meteor Crater (image shown at right).

It is located to the east of Madagascar and west of Western Australia in the southern Indian ocean. Its position was determined in 2006 by the Holocene Impact Working Group using evidence of its existence from prehistoric chevron dune formations in Australia and Madagascar that allowed them to triangulate its location.

Originally posted by Naturally Smooth
Just found this on wikipedia:


en.wikipedia.org...

Burckle Crater is an undersea crater likely to have been formed by a very large scale and relatively recent (c. 2800-3000 BC) comet or meteorite impact event. It is estimated to be about 30 km (18 mi) in diameter [1], hence about 25 times larger than the 1.2 km Meteor Crater (image shown at right).

It is located to the east of Madagascar and west of Western Australia in the southern Indian ocean. Its position was determined in 2006 by the Holocene Impact Working Group using evidence of its existence from prehistoric chevron dune formations in Australia and Madagascar that allowed them to triangulate its location.

Did you Google "Burckle Crater"? The second entry concerns a certain Mr. Masse and "geomythology".

As a source, wikipedia is totally lame.

reply to post by Gawdzilla


Yes, Bruce Masse is mentioned in the wikipedia article, and wikipedia may be a "pretty lame" source, but that does not make what is in the article necessarily untrue. For instance, if a mad man runs around naked shouting that the sun will rise tomorrow, that doesn't put the rising of the sun in doubt. Anyway, here is another source for you...not that I think it will matter, you seem to have made up your mind in advance. Skepticism is fine, but ignorance is not. Oh, and I suppose I should warn you in advance that the article in the New York Times also mentions Bruce Masse. But please note that the article is not written by Bruce Masse, and is not primarily centered on Bruce Masse. Thank you, have a nice day.


www.nytimes.com...

About 900 miles southeast from the Madagascar chevrons, in deep ocean, is Burckle crater, which Dr. Abbott discovered last year. Although its sediments have not been directly sampled, cores from the area contain high levels of nickel and magnetic components associated with impact ejecta.

Burckle crater has not been dated, but Dr. Abbott estimates that it is 4,500 to 5,000 years old.

Okay, Bruce Masse may not actually be mentioned in the wikipedia article on Burckle Crater, but I have to thank Gawdzilla for pointing me to the following article on Bruce Masse and geomythology. It is basically an in-depth look at the evidence in support of a cometary impact around 2800 BC.


Recent Cosmic Impacts on Earth

This thread is right up my alley. I really hope we can see some of the true skeptics show up here (Harte, Essan, Hanslune, Byrd) and less of those MUPs of former members who have been banned.

ATS user "TheWayISeeIt" has done a considerable amount of research regarding a possible younger dryas impact event over the northern ice shelf (which would account for the megafauna exctinction from the time period).

She has the following thread on the subject:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Specifically, there are details released by James Maruske in the following paper:

personals.galaxyinternet.net...

There is a LOT of information that would fit in well with this dicussion in that "other" thread. Good find, it matches with some other information I have found.

Ever since I found out about Burkle crater it re-enforced my opinion that flood myths from around the world represent the memory of at 4 unrelated yet devistating events spread over the course 12,000 years.
I think the 80% mortality rate is a little high, it may have been that high in the nearby coastal areas, but civilization
In my opinion the flood myths of the native american people represent their memory of the North american comet impact of 12,000 year years ago, and the subsequent ice dam floods.

The flood myths of the med and mesopotamia are a composite of the flood of the black sea basin and the much later burkle event.
There is a sumerian account of a man who was a river trader. One july while he was doing his regular run down the river in his barge an unseasonable and fierce storm came up and the skies went black. The man and his family rode out the storm which lasted several days, and when the sky cleared the land was covered with water for as far as the eye could see. They drifted for many more days before they found themselves in the ocean. They sailed for a while more before making landfall in what is now oman? where they stayed, until people from his home village found him and made him come home to make restitution for the cargo he had with him that never made it to market.
The time frame for this story is consistent with the timing of the possible burkle event.

Originally posted by Charis
Did anyone catch an episode on NOVA a few weeks ago about the extinction of the mammoth being caused by a comet? I wonder if this is the same comet (hypothetically)?

Buy the membership, attend the lecture:

Wednesday, Sept 16, 2009, Jock McAndrews, University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum
Title: Did a comet kill Clovis?
Beginning 13,600 years ago Paleo- Indian Clovis people appeared south of the continental ice sheet; they made distinctive fluted spear points adapted to big game hunting. Five hundred years later this fluted point culture disappeared to be replaced by diverse Late Paleo- Indian cultures. In addition, at 12,900 years ago mastodon and other large vertebrates suddenly became extinct. It is suggested that at this time a comet struck northern Ontario and caused a sudden climatic cooling that lasted until 11,500 years ago (Firestone et al. 2006, 2007). Fossil pollen diagrams document this cool period called the Younger Dryas. Mastodon tusks in the ROM and Buffalo Museum of Science, which date to about 12,900 years ago, have surface traces of magnetite that may be from the comet. toronto.ontarioarchaeology.on.ca...

...or I can report in after the fact.

[edit on 25-4-2009 by JohnnyCanuck]

I have always felt that the Mediterranean may have been significantly lower - as waters continued to rise eventually the mouth of the med near the straights of Gibraltar - the two bodies were joined about 5 milion years ago - however ice could very well have separated the two - which could have left the med to lower levels, returning from the ice age could have raised sea levels again creating the appearance of a flood as sea levels returned.

Comets, Meteors & Myth: New Evidence for Toppled Civilizations and Biblical Tales
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET
13 November 2001
www.space.com...


It's from 2001, but it seems to follow the general direction of the op's article.

Biblical stories, apocalyptic visions, ancient art and scientific data all seem to intersect at around 2350 B.C., when one or more catastrophic events wiped out several advanced societies in Europe, Asia and Africa

reply to post by audas


I have held the same belief, that the med basin was not open to the ocean until recently.
The topography of the sea floor in the straights, does look like a gorge cut by the flow of water.
Also there have been fossils of african animals found(pygmy elephants) on islands in the med, islands that could not have been reached by any sort of land bridge during currently accepted sea levels.
And after the med filled it breacged the bosphorus and flodded the balck sea basin.