Persian GULF - Recent Geological Origin & The Great Flood stories of different cultures

#ClimateChange, formation of #PersianGULF, #GulfOasis, #SeaLevelRise, & #TheGreatFlood stories in Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Hebrew, Biblical, Qur’anic &Hindu mythologies.
According to new research findings from 2010 [by Jeffery Rose, University of Birmingham], The current (Persian) Gulf was formed only 8000years ago?!!, when the Indian Ocean flooded into the basin now called by researchers as #GulfOasis (where Bahrain would have been a highland, not an island!), driving out the humans, due to #ClimateChange after the last #IceAge (during which much of the world's water was locked in ice, with sea level as much as 100m below current level). There is a possibility that flooding due to sea level rise from this time, is related to the origins of #TheGreatFlood in Sumerian and Biblical accounts and Noah's story (and The Great Deluge ['PRALAYA'] of Indian mythology).
 [News report based on the GulfOasis research - Ancient Desert Oasis Echoes Eden : http://news.discovery.com/earth/ancient-desert-oasis-echoes-of-eden-101210.htm

"The Gulf Oasis was at the southern tip of the Fertile Crescent, or Mesopotamia. The Fertile Crescent eventually gave rise to some of the first cities, including Ur, which was located in the southern portion of Mesopotamia. One famous resident of Ur was Abraham, considered to be the patriarch of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions." ] 

One of the shallowest seas in the world, the average depth of the Persian Gulf is only 36m. 
Much shallow, <20 m deep along UAE coast and >40m along coast of Iran [http://www.ocean-sci.net/2/27/2006/os-2-27-2006.pdf].
 But during the last Ice Age (starting 24,000 years ago, then warming, Ice Age starting to end, with Ice sheets melting from 14000 years ago, and the "Gulf Oasis" completely flooded 7500 - 8000 years ago. During Ice Age, when most of the world’s water was frozen into giant ice sheets the size of continents like in Antarctica now), the sea levels were upto 100m below current level, and coastlines and climate zones would have been very different…..   

On India’s coast, this means, the coast would have been 25 to 100km out to the sea from current coastline (depending on the slope/’plain-ness’ of the area).. Submerged remains of buildings and ancient civilizations were also found off Gujarat coast, believed to be due to flooding by rising sea, around the same time as flooding to form the Persian Gulf, after the last Ice Age.  And in Indian myths too, there is a story of The Great Deluge/’PRALAYA’:

Edited info from Wiki/Manu & the book 'Land of the Seven Rivers' : 

“Manu, considered the first king to rule this earth, who saved humanity from the great flood — after being warned of it by the Matsya avatar of Vishnu, who had also advised him to build a giant boat. The King Manu built a huge boat which housed his family, 9 types of seeds, and animals to repopulate the earth, after the deluge would end and the oceans and seas would recede. Vishnu in the form of a fish, then towed it to safety. Manu and the survivors are then said to have rebuilt civilisation.(The parallels to the story of Noah are obvious) The story is mentioned in early Hindu scriptures such as the Satapatha Brahmana, and it has often been compared with the popular traditions of a Great Deluge from other cultures around the world, particularly that of Noah's Ark.." 

 + Also from what I had read elsewhere long back, it is known that upto 8000 yrs ago, Britiain was NOT an island and was connected by land to mainland Europe along the current English Channel.

• [wiki/English_Channel: The English channel is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part (177km wide), reducing to about 45 m between Dover and Calais at its narrowest part (27km wide, roughly where EuroTunnel is made).  From there eastwards the adjoining North Sea continues to shallow to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the former land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries (Belgium & the Netherlands)]  
• [From wiki/GreatBritian: "Until about 10,000 years ago, Great Britain was joined to Ireland, and as recently as 8,000 years ago it was joined to the continent by a strip of low marsh leading to what are now Denmark and the Netherlands"] 

(Note: Picked up this thread from 'Land of The Seven Rivers'- A Brief History of India's Geography, by Sanjeev Sanyal, that refers to research by Jeffery Rose and explored further.  Image is from the exhibition, 'The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History & Imagination', at SOAS- The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)