NEWS re Black Sea Flood

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

I quoted:
<< The incoming salt water, more dense than the fresh water it
displaced, plunged to the bottom of the lake bed, transforming it
into a sea where the depths support no life.>>

In a message dated 10/03/1999 1:00:44 AM, larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk writes:
<<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.>>

It's a valid point.  I don't know what the scientists involved would say, but
my guess is that they would say it's a matter of degree.

Salinity is the relative concentration of ions dissolved in the water.
Salinity in lakes is not only increased by lack of outflow, but also by the
chemical composition of the inflow and the geology it passes through.  And
another factor is the amount of climatic evaporation.   The Great Salt Lake
is an example of especially high salinity due to the chemical makeup of the
surrounding area - which includes the famous Bonneville Saltflats.   The
Caspian Sea is an example of a closed lake or inland sea where the evidence
is of a large reduction in water level even in historical times.  You'll see
the climatic factor sometimes phrased as "salt lakes only occur in arid
regions."

The Black Sea is fed by rivers that don't flow through regions of high
aridity, evaporation or especially concentrated salineous chemical deposits.
So at least the inflow would tend to be less preconcentrating than those of
heavily saline lakes like the Great Salt Lake or the Dead Sea.  Climatic
evaporation would also seem to have been less of a factor, especially in the
north.  So the relative salinity of the Black Sea 'before the flood' might
still be conjectured to have been less than ocean-high levels of the entering
Mediterranean.

Regards,
Steve Long