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Posted on 09/07/2001 5:34:41 PM PDT by blam
Friday, 7 September, 2001, 18:28 GMT 19:28 UK
Giant wave hit ancient Scotland
By BBC News Online's Helen Briggs
A giant wave flooded Scotland about 7,000 years ago, a
scientist revealed on Friday.
The tsunami left a trail of destruction along what is now the eastern coast of the country.
It looks as if those people were happily sitting in their camp when this wave from the sea hit the camp
Professor David Smith, Coventry University Scientists believe a landslide on the ocean floor off Storegga, south-west Norway, triggered the wave.
Speaking at the British Association Festival of Science in Glasgow, Professor David Smith said a tsunami could strike again in the area but the probability was extremely unlikely.
Radiocarbon dating of sediments taken from the coastline of eastern Scotland put the date of the event at about 5,800 BC.
At the time, Britain was joined to mainland Europe by a land bridge.
Settlers at the time would have had little warning of the disaster, scientists believe. But a scattering of tools found in the sand at a hunting camp in Inverness yields some clues.
'Very destructive'
"It looks as if those people were happily sitting in their camp when this wave from the sea hit the camp," Professor Smith of the department of Geography at Coventry University told BBC News Online.
"We're talking about two, three or four large waves followed by little ones, that would have been 5-10 metres high.
"These waves do strike with such force that they are very destructive," he added. "It's like being hit by an express train."
The research provides an opportunity to assess the hazard of tsunamis in more detail.
They occur frequently in the Pacific Ocean due to underwater earthquakes, landslides and volcanic explosions.
Long, uncertain history
Scientists hope to find more evidence of similar past tsunamis in eastern Scotland to predict the frequency of the destructive waves.
Studies of coastal sediments show that it may be possible to develop a record of past tsunamis extending back several millennia.
Dr Ted Nield, of the Geological Society of London, said: "These events have a long and uncertain time scale.
"While there is no reason for mass panic, the possibility exists that the Storegga slide will go again, and it would be imprudent to ignore that fact."
No doubt about it, sometimes life just stinks out loud.
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Mrs VS
Your tour guide was probably referring to their speed and amplitude in the open ocean. Tsunamis slow down and increase their amplitude as they begin to make contact with the bottom upon approaching the shore.
Both were correct.
Discovered in Nineveh, the Gilgamesh Epic (700 B.C.) was recorded on clay tablets and translated by George Smith in 1872.
Mr. Smith is quoted as saying, "I am the first man to read this text after two thousand years of oblivion."
The discovery of the tablets and the translation of the Gilgamesh Epic rocked the world.
Now, "scholars" believed that the Bible story of Noah and the Ark was inspired by the Gilgamesh Epic.
Some of the thousands of tablets discovered, narrate the flood account from the perspective of ancient Babylonians.
Notice a few items from the following section of the Gilgamesh Epic: 1) A fourteen day downpour (as opposed to forty), 2) The theme of multiple gods (as opposed to one), 3) A raven (as opposed to a dove) and 4) Mount Nisir (as opposed to Mount Ararat which is 350 miles away from Mount Nisir). This quote is taken from the book, The Search for Noah's Ark, by Charles Berlitz.
"I caused to embark within the vessel all my family and my relations, The beasts of the field, the cattle of the field, the craftsmen, I made them all embark. I entered the vessel and closed the door ... From the foundations of heaven a black cloud arose ... All that is bright turned into darkness ... The gods feared the flood, They fled, they climbed into heaven of Anu, The gods crouched like a dog on a wall, they lay down ... For six days and nights Wind and flood marched on, the hurricane subdued the land. When the seventh day dawned, the hurricane was abated, the flood Which had waged war like an army; The sea was stilled, the ill wind was calmed, the flood ceased. I beheld the sea, its voice was silent, And all mankind was turned into mud! As high as the roofs reached the swamp! ... I beheld the world, the horizon of sea; Twelve measures away an island emerged; Unto Mount Nisir came the vessel, Mount Nisir held the vessel and let it not budge ... When the seventh day came, I sent forth a dove, I released it; It went, the dove, it came back, As there was no place, it came back. I sent forth a swallow, it came back, As there was no place, it came back. I sent forth a raven, I released it; It went, the raven, and beheld the subsidence of the waters; It eats, it splashes about, it caws, it comes not back."
These sections are taken from L. Patricia Kite's book, Noah's Ark, in which she describes these three American Indian stories about a massive flood.
Cherokee Indians "In the tribal tales of the Cherokee Indians of the southeastern United States, the coming of a flood was told by a dog to his master. 'You must build a boat,' the dog said, 'and put in it all that you would save; for a great rain is coming that will flood the land.' "
Tlingit Indians "The Tlingit tribe of northwestern Alaska told of a great flood which, driven by wind, covered all dwelling places. The Tlingits saved themselves by tying several boats together to make a great raft. They floated on this, huddling together for warmth under a tenet until Anodjium, a magician, ordered the sea to be clam and the flood to recede.'
Acagchememe Indians From his book, Chinigchinich, Friar Geronimo Boscana wrote, "The Acagchememe Indians, near San Juan Capistrano in Southern California, were not entirely destitute of a knowledge of the universal Deluge, but how, or from whence, they received the same, I could never understand. Some of their songs refer to it; and they have a tradition that , a time very remote, the sea began to swell and roll in upon the plains, and fill the valleys, until it had covered the mountains; and thus nearly all the human race and animals were destroyed, except a few, who had resorted to a very high mountain which the waters did not reach."
I call on the U.N. to hold a special conference to get reparations and an apology from the Naturic Union, a body which most likely never existed during this period of Tsunomic Terror and which most likely does not exist now but still should be held to the highest accountability.
For the guppies!
well.... they have little to do with harbours either....
If twenty people come running into the room you're in right now, and one after another tells of a terrible accident that just happened across town, would it be reasonable to assume 1. There must not have been any real accident. 2. All accounts are mere copies of the original account given by the first person in the room?
If so, you must be a "scholar".
It's possible this contributed. It is certainly old enough, but the effect itself wouldn't have reached the Mediterranean. Who's to say how the story would have spread, they might have put this together with the [possible] flooding of the Black Sea and various other disasters and said --look, this seems to have been widespread, it probably covered the entire planet. The Internet hadn't been invented yet by Algore, so they had to rely on traveling merchants and minnesingers for their news: a little harder to piece things together that way.
A tsunami would've crushed the ark, plus tsunamis don't last for months.
Probably the reason they call it a harbor flood is because a tsunami is unnoticable until it reaches near shore and then begins to raise the water level due to the raising ocean floor relative to the focal point of the tsunami as an earlier poster said. This would be especially noticable in a harbor.
Since this Tsunami was ca 5,800 BC and about 10,000 BC Scotland was under 1,000 meters of ice there isn't much of a window for study.
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