NEWS re Black Sea Flood

[Dr. John E. McLaughlin]

Rick Mc Callister wrote:
> 	Possibly it was a temporary lake created by melting glaciers, like
> Lake Bonneville
>

Living on the bottom of that former inland sea, I must correct your
understanding of Lake Bonneville.  It was not created by melting glaciers,
but by the accumulation of water by normal processes during the last
glaciation when the Great Basin was much more moist that it is today.  The
lake was drained by a natural disaster when an earthquake triggered a
massive landslide at the lake's outlet to the Snake River Plain.  The outlet
was opened by a sizable piece and the lake waters began flowing out at a
colossal rate, increasing the size of the outlet tenfold in a matter of
hours.  For six weeks (approximately) the efflux carved out the canyon of
the Snake River in Southern Idaho while the lake dropped by scores of feet
in depth.  This happened during about 10,000 BP around the end of the last
glaciation and the lake has been shrinking in size ever since as the climate
of the Great Basin dried out.  All the huge intermountain lakes of the last
glaciation in the Great Basin (Lahontan--western Nevada, Bonneville-western
Utah, and a score of smaller ones) went through a similar process--growth
during a cool, moist climate, death as the climate dried out and evaporation
exceeded precipitation.  If you want an example of a lake that might be
considered a true "glacial" lake, you need to use Lake Missoula (I think
that's the name, or it's at least close) in north central Montana.  It was
formed by glacial melt and held in place by a glacial "dam".  When the dam
occasionally broke during warming periods, the waters of Lake Missoula
scoured southeastern Washington to form the Scablands.

John E. McLaughlin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
mclasutt at brigham.net

Program Director
Utah State University On-Line Linguistics
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