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7,000 years ago the Black Sea was a fresh water lake. Two geologists, William Ryan and Walter Pitman, from Columbia University theorize that as the ice glaciers melted the Mediterranean Sea flooded into the Black Sea. In 1998, the two scientists published their evidence that around 5600 B.C.E. a rapid, torrential flood broke through the Bosporus Straights. They theorize the 60,000 square miles of land in a very short period of time. Ryan and Pitman wrote in their article, "Ten cubic miles [42 km] of water poured through each day, two hundred times what flows over Niagara Falls. The Bosporus flume roared and surged at full spate for at least three hundred days."

Robert Ballard, an underwater archeologist, led a team that found the ruins of settlements under the Black Sea. Under 300 feet of water, Ballard found the fossils of fresh water mollusks were 7,000 years old.

The findings are disputed by Russian scientists whose information wasn't available in English until 2006. The Russian research shows that the Black Sea had reversals of the direction of water flow at certain times in the geologic past. The direction the water flows depends on the height of the water in the Black Sea in relation to the height of the water in the Aegean Sea. The main research scientist is Valentina Yanko-Hombach, a geology professor of Odessa State University, Ukraine.

Both research groups continue to study the issue. Controversy still flows back and forth as data supports one theory or the other. However, Ryan and Pitman's theory has lost a lot of support after the release of the translated Russian work.

Learn more about this author, Mary Paliescheskey.
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