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Scam coming in your inbox today! (Score:5, Funny)
BUY beachfront property NOW!
After a while* you'll be sitting on a goldmine!
(* definition of "while" might be different in your state)
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Surfin' Ethiopia! (Score:5, Funny)
If everybody had an ocean
Across the desert sands,
Then everybody'd be surfin'
Like Ethiop-I-A
You'd see 'em wearin' their baggies
Huarachi sandals, too
A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
Surfin' Africa.
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"In a million years or so" (Score:5, Funny)
Nothing to see here folks... move along. Come back in a million years or so.
What's next? Another story about Duke Nukem Forever?
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This Friday! On SyFy! A rift opens in Sheffield! (Score:2)
Swallowing up thousands of hectares of the English countryside! With no warning! On the Most Dangerous Cheesiest Night on Television!
Noah's flood and a massive deluge (Score:2, Interesting)
There is a theory that the flood story of Noah is based on the actual deluge which created the Black Sea.
Before the Flood, this area was simply a low-lying area, but approximately 5000 years ago waters from the Mediterranean Sea spilled over the Bosporus and rapidly filled the Black Sea area within days. The massive influx of water wiped out many local civilizations and probably gave rise to the Flood legend.
If this rift is going to become a new ocean, the water must come from somewhere. If it all comes at
Re:Noah's flood and a massive deluge (Score:5, Informative)
Except that it didn't happen in just a few days....
It is still a nice theory though... just not as dramatic.
Another nice theory is that the 'flood' was just a local one.
Not so long ago the world ended at the horizon for most people since they never traveled far from home.
And since a lot of civilizations started in river deltas (which tend to flood now and then) it is not a surprise that many religions contain some flooding in their myths.
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Re:Noah's flood and a massive deluge (Score:5, Interesting)
Except that it didn't happen in just a few days....
There are fairly mainstream theories that as the Ice Age ended, ice deposits in the Arctic melted into enormous lakes. Really enormous lakes. All that was holding this water in was ice. When finally the ice holding all this water in melted and cracked, all that water was released in a sudden catastrophic event. Rivers to dwarf anything we have today. Sea levels globally rising by several metres, in a matter of days.
I was always dubious about the idea that a gradual rise in sea levels would result in all those deluge myths worldwide (Atlantis, Cantre'r Gwaelod, Noah, etc.). I'm much more convinced if it can be sudden. That would certainly enter into oral history.
Unfortunately the best source I can offer right now is the Beringia Museum in Whitehorse, British Columbia. A bit of a trek for most people. I guess if I were to Google a bit I could find something online, but hey, I ain't gonna.
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Re:Noah's flood and a massive deluge (Score:5, Informative)
The geologic evidence is pretty clear that these huge "Missoula Floods" repeatedly blew through the southeast quadrant of Washington State, sometimes covering about a third of the state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_Floods
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
there was an 1800's geologist in the US who studied strange markings on the great plains. his theory was that at the end of the last ice age the ice burst and a huge avalanche of water hit the ground going so fast that it created water tornadoes that tore up the ground. the kids cartoon Ice Age copied his theory
Re:Noah's flood and a massive deluge (Score:5, Interesting)
I believe you might be referring to the Channeled Scablands [wikipedia.org] in Washington State? I remember seeing a documentary about that. Interesting stuff. The research happened a bit later than the 1800s, unless you're referring to something else. More pictures and information [uwsp.edu].
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Poetic language (Score:2)
Surely we don't have to create new terms for things we already have words for.
It's called "poetic language". Back in the day, when verse was based on alliteration as opposed to rhyme, these new terms were called kennings [wikipedia.org].
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Isn't Whitehorse in the Yukon territory, not BC?
Whitehorse, Yukon (Score:3, Informative)
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Yeah, I saw a movie about this once. Ice Age 2 I think it was called...
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It's going to be even more interesting than that. The area is reatively close to the shore, and the pit is actually volcanic. Guess what happens when a big mass of water spills over and enters the pit.. Well, it's a shame this is Ethiopia and not Nigeria, because if it were the latter, it would be raining scammers after the massive steam explosion that is bound to happen there...
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If it all comes at once, we could see a massive loss of life and property, especially as the problematic area lies in some of the poorest parts of the globe. In another 5000 years, we could be debating if the Savior Adibi Christ walked with elephants!
Except this is forecast to happen in roughly a million years time, so really you would say that in 1,000,500 years there might be such debates, if we haven't been wiped out by a comet, or zombies, or all gone to live on Mars. And, of course, you're also assuming that in a million years this sea will be "in some of the poorest parts of the globe". Not sure how you can look so far ahead...
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I heard it was a bit further back than 5000 years ago, butit still gave rise to all of the Flood legends.
In addition to the rise in water level, the new water was salty, so the fish that were in the lake and the plants would have died too. The (human) survivors of the even would have had to migrate quite a ways to find somewhere else to live, spreading the story with them.
(The story of Atlantis however probably was due to the Thera/Santorini eruption.
Re:Noah's flood and a massive deluge (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a theory that the flood story of Noah is based on the actual deluge which created the Black Sea.
No, the flood story of Noah is based on the Sumerian story of Utnapishtim. The Sumerian story of Utnapishtim may be based on the Black Sea (or even Mediterranian) inundation, but the Noah story is just a copy of the Sumerian story, with all the roles of the various Sumerian gods subsumed by a rather confused and contradictory Hebrew god.
Given the Sumerians were a river culture (think about what "Mesopotamia" means) it is at least as plausible that the Sumerian flood story, which is what the biblical flood story is based on, arose from plausible fears of a great innundation, much as zombie stories arise today from a plausible fear of Republicans.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You've missed out the "discredited" in "a discredited theory".
OK, that's maybe being a bit harsh on Ryan & Pitmann, whose ideas you refer to. Their theory was reasonable, plausible, and testable. It has been tested and found to be at the least flawed, if not completely unworkable. As I recall - and I'm only working from memory - one of the predictions of the Ryan/ Pitmann theory was that there would
Re:Noah's flood and a massive deluge (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you're being too harsh on the OP. He specifically mentioned other flood stories in his post.
The simple fact is that oral stories and traditions (Christianity aside) usually have SOME basis in reality. Christianity isn't the only religion with a flood story. The Greek's also had a flood story where Zeus flooded the world. As you mention there is also the Babylonian flood story. Countless other cultures in that area have a flood story. It's not being a "Christian apologetic" to look for real events that may have inspired such stories - it's researching history.
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Anyone who doesn't have a religious agenda to promote tends to find it pretty dang obvious that the Jewish flood story was based off the Babylonian/Sumerian one.
Sure, plenty of cultures in western Asia at the time had similar flood stories. How do you leap to the conclusion that these stories weren't based on some real event?
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Yeah, like those fundies at PBS! [pbs.org]
Or those zealots at National Geographic! [nationalgeographic.com]
Or all those bible thumpers at Columbia University! [columbia.edu] Buncha holy rollers!
poor somalis (Score:2)
the future is not much brighter
and ... Torchwood is there (Score:2)
Ohmigod don't open the rift, captain ....
Slashdot's missing statement (Score:2)
I would say that this doesn't really fall under the category of "stuff that matters".
Wrong story title (Score:5, Informative)
The big news here isn't that an ocean will form: that's old news. We've known about the the Great Rift Valley" for a long time, and that three plates are pulling apart. What's interesting is that they've confirmed part of the process that's at work. I think this story a little over-hyped. [wikipedia.org]
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Rising Sea Levels (Score:5, Funny)
There's the answer to rising sea levels... Divert the water into what will eventually become an ocean basin anyway.
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Poor Headline (Score:5, Informative)
The news is not that the East African rift will form a new ocean - that's been known for a few years - but that it can happen very quickly. A timescale of days for an event of that scale is really rather significant, since it means that if something like it were to happen anywhere near existing infrastructure, our ability to adapt to it would be extremely limited. Well, not until afterwards anyway.
Another geographical blunder in the article is saying that the rift will connect the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. That's because they're already connected.
Meanwhile... (Score:3, Funny)
"M'gulu gulu mulugu lugulugu" (*)
"lugulugu um'gulu lulu?"
"gugu"
"gugu lulu gugu?"
"gugu kaboom"
(*) Translation:
"There's something very important I forgot to tell you."
"What?"
"Don't cross the streams."
"Why?"
"It would be bad."
Maybe (Score:2)
On a more serious note, what could an ocean and life-giving water mean for a harsh region like this? Perhaps some prosperity in the form of much needed farm land.
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Millions of Tonnes of Salt water .... would do very little
The region in question is in places very low in population simply because it is a volcanic arid wasteland .... other parts however are lush and full of life which would be wiped out by this new ocean ...
Rapid change on this scale is always bad news in the short term ... (short term measured in 1000's of years)
Great Lakes are in a "Failed Rift" (Score:3, Interesting)
Not every rift is going to become an ocean like Atlantic. Some fail, as did the rift under the Big Lakes. Correct my rusty geology if I'm wrong.
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Sort of...2 actually...
From Wikipeida..
"It has been estimated that the foundational geology which created the conditions shaping the present day upper Great Lakes was laid from 1.1 to 1.2 billion years ago,[4][8] when two previously fused tectonic plates split apart and created the Midcontinent Rift. A valley was formed providing a basin that eventually became modern day Lake Superior. When a second fault line, the Saint Lawrence rift, formed approximately 570 million years ago,[4] the basis for Lakes Ontar
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Not every rift is going to become an ocean like Atlantic. Some fail, as did the rift under the Big Lakes. Correct my rusty geology if I'm wrong.
I live by the Great Lakes, and I have always understood that the lakes were carved out by glaciers during the last ice age. I've never heard this failed rift explanation. What's your source for this info?
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It often takes several combined factors to form features like the great lakes. The glaciers played a huge role in shaping the landscape, but that's just on top of the rifting etc. I might mention also that the rifting stuff is limited to the western great lakes (particularly Superior) - lakes Erie and Ontario were formed essentially exclusively by glacial and other erosional processes. There has been a lot written on this topic - it's pretty interesting to read through the understood history of the region,
New ocean connecting what now? (Score:4, Funny)
Wow! This is a revolution [wikipedia.org]!
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There was a bit missing....
"..connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden VIA A SECOND PATHWAY"
A kind of Spanning-Sea protocol
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Re:New ocean connecting what now? (Score:5, Funny)
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Real State Boom!!!(10+1) (Score:2)
Land Before Time... (Score:3, Interesting)
Thanks a lot, "Researchers at the University of Rochester"...
Re:how come we have only 3 oceans? (Score:4, Informative)
We already have more than 3. Try again.
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That's somewhat different actually (Score:3, Interesting)
The basin and range represents continental crustal extension, which is spread out across the entire region. This is more-or-less driven by pulling on either end. Actually, the driving forces are not completely understood (which is why I'm using "more-or-less" to describe these things).
Oceanic crustal extension, on the other hand, is more-or-less being pushed apart from the center. So the rifting and so on is focused in one area - the rift zone. That's why the Mid Atlantic Ridge or the East African Rift - sp