Very interesting post Fedora. If it was a glacial melt-off that was the trigger, this would also explain why the flood appears to be such a global phenom. From what I understand, just about every culture worldwide relates a flood story from its deepest history. It would be interesting to me if the flood had, in fact occurred much further back than is commonly supposed.That's one possibility I'm also very interested in. On the global distribution of flood stories, here's a site which has a useful survey and summary of many Flood traditions:
Flood Stories from Around the World
Some stories seem to be closer to the Biblical story than others, and some come from cultures which had known contact with Middle Eastern tradition. The ones I find most interesting are the ones that are similar to the Biblical story but come from cultures with no known contact with Middle Eastern tradition.
I think I found that site once when I was looking for information about Gilgamesh. Pretty cool. I too am much more interested in the flood stories from peoples without known contact with middle-eastern culture and tradtions. They give credibility to the flood that nothing else does.