The Science Behind The 10 Plagues Of Egypt

Just thought it would be interesting to put this down. Will do it list style.

The Plagues happened at the same time as a massive volcano eruption. The volcano Santorini sent ash in to the air effecting the surrounding area. The ash is found in Cairo and the Nile River, proven by testing the composition of the ash. This volcanic eruption happened between 1500-1650BC while the Plagues happened between 1400-1550BC. So it fits there.

1st Plague. River ran red LIKE blood. But there is a common algae plume called the Red Tide. This makes the river, or any water, look red like blood. Why did this happen? The ash changes the PH level of the river allowing the algae to bloom.

2nd Plague. Frogs. The algae is killing fish. Fish eat frog eggs. No fish, record number of frogs. Frogs can't live in polluted water and so leave the river.

3rd and 4th Plague. Lice and flies. The translation can actually be lice, fleas, gnats, or midges. But you have riverfull of dead fish, and now dead frogs. This brings the insects of the 3rd and 4th Plague.

5th Plague. Pestilence. Flies, dead frogs, dead fish, easy enough no?

6th Plague. Boils. Certain types of flies that bite can leave behind boils. The bites get infected, they turn in to boils.

7th Plague. Fire and Hail. Ash in the air causes a mixture of ash and water. The ash, very high in the air, causes the water to freeze so when it falls it is hail and not rain. The fire? I saw this amazing picture in Nat. Geo. of a volcanic eruption. There was red lightning. It was amazing to see bright red lightning. Why is it red? Chemicals in the ash makes red lightning. So fire in the sky, and hail.

8th Plague. Locusts. Locusts come about when the ground is very damp. They bury their eggs in the sand about 4-6 inches. After record amount of hail the ground would be very wet allowing the locusts to form.

9th Plague. Darkness. Ash in the air. After am eruption in 1815 there was darkness for 600 kilometers. After Krakatoa it was dark for even farther for days.

10th Plague. Death of First born. In Egypt the first born was king. They would be the one to lead the family after the father died. When food was scarce the first born ate first and some times was the only one to eat. After locusts ate every thing there was only grain locked in vaults. The hail got it wet, locust feces, it made it moldy. And so when only the first born ate, they were the only ones killed by moldy grain.

Simple right? Back then they never would have known. Back then lightning was His wrath. Back then a disease was His punishment. Back then nature was unknown. But when you look at it with science... not that big a deal.

[edit on 19-11-2008 by GamerGal]

That makes a certain kind of sesnse.

What specific type of algae are you talking about here, though?

(And I think you should clarify your title that you mean Egyptian plagues, not Black plague)

reply to post by asmeone2


Black Plague isn't part of the 10 Plagues is it? But that would cause boils, and with all those fleas, live, midges, flies... As for the algae the Red Tide I think is caused by phytoplankton,

microscopic, single-celled protists, plant-like organisms that can form dense, visible patches near the water's surface. Certain species of phytoplankton contain photosynthetic pigments that vary in colour from green to brown to red, and when the algae are present in high concentrations, the water appears to be discoloured or murky, varying in colour from purple to almost pink, normally being red or green... en.wikipedia.org...

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[edit on 20/11/08 by Jbird]

reply to post by GamerGal


As far as we know the Black Plague was not part of the Egyptian Plageues, which we realyl can't even prove happened.

Have you done any research to see if that kind of algae could survive int he Egyptian climate?

OP, sounds like you found most of your information from quick google searches.
Here's what I uncovered simply by searching "Explaining the ten plagues of Egypt."

Source one
Source two
Source three

Not to say you ripped them off.
But, it's all quite, quite similar.
You should probably cite your sources next time.

Sorry, but your timeline is off by about 100 years, even with your own "reasoning". The same things would have been happening all over Europe, not just in Egypt.

Go back to your scratch paper, and try again. This one didn't quite work out.

2nd Plague. Frogs. The algae is killing fish. Fish eat frog eggs. No fish, record number of frogs. Frogs can't live in polluted water and so leave the river.

That part doesn't make much sense. If the frogs couldn't live in polluted water, then their tadpoles certainly wouldn't have survived.

just because you know why it happened dosnt make it any less of a miracle

reply to post by Dewm0nster


? I didn't use Google. I watched two documentaries, then looked it up on Wikipedia, then the Bible, then yahoo to find the right spelling of Santorini. Also, to bible thumpers, lay off the miracle stuff. This is a scientific explanation for what happened. As for the fish/amphibians, different toxins kill different things. Poison Dart Frogs, or these little frogs are deadly to humans but garden snake eat them like nothing because the poison doesn't affect them. And the time line does fit. Volcano is 1500-1650BC while the Plagues happened between 1400-1550BC. That is a 50 year overlap. The dates are approximate, they don't have exact year because of the lack of records. As for why only the Egyptians recorded it, how many civilizations existed back then with written language in the area? One, the Egyptians.


[edit on 19-11-2008 by GamerGal]

Are you callin me a bible thumper thats funny all i was saying is you may be able to explain the science behind it but you cant explain why it happened or how it managed to happen when moses(if believe he existed) said it would

Well, first off there seems little evidence that any such written plagues are truth anyway. Now if these things did take place, what makes more sense? The biblical explanation or yours? Yours is interesting, I don’t know much about the science you mention so I can’t attest to its merit, but anything based in science to me seems more realistic than the biblical explanation, whether that other explanation is correct or not.

reply to post by WisdomInChains


Didn't you see the word "volcano" mentioned in the second sentence of the first post? It's right there. Go on, look - I'll wait...

... see? Right there.

reply to post by rapinbatsisaltherage


Logically the OP's version makes more sense, as it doesn't involve the conjuring up of a supernatural omnipotent extradimensional being to cause the plagues, just some known, linked, natural phenomena.

Science is our friend

Ok so the volcano blew why? why did it blow at that specific time? Why was there a volcano there in the first place? I wasn't saying it dosn't make sense i was just saying try as you might you can't explain everything.

reply to post by GamerGal

Interesting post, thank you.

We still have the red tide at times around the Atlantic coast. It is more prevalent in the southern states and gulf coast states.

I have seen it several times. It is usually in water that is fresh and salt water mixed. That would be the tidal creeks.

In my opinion, everything God accomplished is explainable with science. God was the creator of all and used what was here to cause the plagues.

That is not to say I believe miracles are explainable with using science. Some things cannot be explained.

I am not a bible thumper or fundamentalist. I do believe in the Trinity...God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I will not argue this point as I am firm in my beliefs.

reply to post by WisdomInChains


Plate tectonics. That's why there was a volcano, and that's why it blew right then. It's called coincidence, something people will naturally try to correlate with an event of perceived significance.

So no, I can't explain everything, but I can definitely explain some very basic principles of how the Earth works.

ok...sooooo you pretty much just scientifically explained what God did...im lost how is this of any interest? I mean it makes sense that whatever God chooses to do he'll do using the ingredients at hand..such as science and physics...i don't see how this is pertinent to like disproving Gods existence...i firmly believe that God would work through the laws he created anyway.

coincidence mabey but mabey not

I posted this in the science section hoping to avoid the "Nuh uh God did it!" crowd. I just thought that it was interesting that every thing can be explained by one incident, a volcano exploding. What if Krakatoa happened in 1500BC? Would the people their said it was what ever diety punishing them too? Probably.

Originally posted by asmeone2
reply to post by GamerGal

Have you done any research to see if that kind of algae could survive int he Egyptian climate?

Well the area, latitude wise, is on line with the Atlantic areas where it usually shows up. And back then the climate was different. The ash though is what is important, to change the PH levels.