NEWS re Black Sea Flood

[Mark Odegard <Odegard@means.net>]

On 30 Sep 99 at 14:28, Larry Trask wrote:

> But how could the Black Sea have been a freshwater lake during a period
> when it had no outlet to the sea?  The Black Sea has a number of major
> rivers flowing into it, and presumably has had these for a very long
> time.  Rivers carry salt.  If they carry it into a lake with no outlet,
> then the lake just gets saltier and saltier: witness the Caspian Sea,
> which is in just this position.

Eventually such lake will turn quite saline, as with the Great Salt
Lake or the Dead Sea. But it does take time, and depends on the
quantity of fresh water flowing into it. My reading indicates the old
Pontine Lake was slightly brackish, with something of the quality of
a bracing mineral water: 'hard', but drinkable. Even today, the
surface waters of the Black Sea are 'fresher' than the deep waters
fed by the inflow from the Med.

The waters of the Caspian are nearly fresh up near the Volga, with
increased salinity as you progress southward. Even in its most salty
parts, the Caspian is still not yet as salty as the ocean. There was
an issue of the National Geographic on this a couple or three months ago.

Mark Odegard mailto:odegard at means.net
17 2nd St NE, Box 68
Waukon, IA 52170-0068
319-568-2142