Ten thousand years ago, at the end of the last glacial period, the Black Sea was a lake, cut off from the Sea of Marmara and beyond it the Mediterranean by the Bosphorus sill. Some researchers estimate Black Sea level at that time was 80 meters below present day (their hypothesized extent of the Black Lake at that level is represented by dark blue water). They claim a flood 9,500 years ago brought sea level to approximately 30 meters below present levels (the flooded area is represented by light blue water). Such a flood would have inundated 70,000 square kilometers and wiped out early Neolithic civilizations in the region. (Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Black Sea 30 m below present day levels Enlarge Image Giosan and his colleagues estimate that the Black Sea was around 30 meters below present day levels (Black Lake is represented by dark blue water) before a breach of the Bosporus sill 9,500 years ago raised levels to a maximum of 20 meters |(the flooded area is represented by light blue water). Their estimates mean that the magnitude of the Black Sea flood was 5 or 10 meters but not 50 to […]