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)

History of India's Geography- Land of The 7 Rivers

Interesting insights about India and a fascinating new way of looking at History - Through geography and its changing landscapes!

 One such nugget of information, relevant while India celebrates another Independence Day : About, when the inception of the idea of India, rather "an awareness of the whole subcontinent as a geographical and civilizational unit" begins to take shape- this part here reveals that it is after around 1300BC, in the era of the epics Mahabharata & Ramayana -- i.e., after the destruction or dispersal of the very urban Indus civilization..

(On a related note, latest research report from May 2012 reveals that #ClimateChange  Led to Collapse of Ancient Indus Civilization  http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=117456&tid=3622&cid=138489 )

And here is Economist Sanjeev Sanyal's fascinating, insightful, brief, fast-paced overview of how India's history is tangled in its geography..
His talk @LSE in Jan 2013, based on this book - Audio podcast of the 30min talk +Q&A :

Sanjeev Sanyal is Deutsche Bank’s Global Strategist and was named “Young Global Leader 2010” by the World Economic Forum.

Book Review: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/spotlight-on-geography/article4205326.ece

This is my shot from July 2013: 'Moods of Cauvery - The Monsoon Fury'.
Ravaging River that created a ravine here.. 
Near a confluence of River Cauvery, Karnataka, India.
Cauvery's Water-sharing between the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu & Karnataka has been such a hugely controversial and largely unresolved issue to this day, leading to riots, violent protests and animosity between certain groups of people and politicians of the two states..
Then of course, there are opportunists-politicians who whip it up, to fish for power in troubled waters!
~~~ 
"You cannot buy a river,
Whom do you know that owns one?"
-African Traditional Song.

+

The thread on the Collapse of Indus Valley Civilization takes us to NatGeo explorer and scientist/anthropologist/geographer Jared Diamond's theories on 'Why Societies Collapse?' 

How would it be to look back, from 200yrs into the future, of our civilizations' COLLAPSE?!
Many successful civilizations have become relics.. and Our Modern Industrialised Civilisation might as well!..
Jared Diamond, thinks so.

NatGeo documentary- 2210: The Collapse

+@TED : Jared Diamond: Why societies collapse? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IESYMFtLIis

He lists out the reasons:

#1 Human Environmental Impact

#2 Climate Change

#3 Relations with other friendly societies, hostile societies

#4 Political, Economic, Social, Cultural factors

Going by these, I feel, India's position is very precarious with respect to the first 2 factors. And for the next 2factors: Having straining relationship with increasing demands of the most populous neighbour China, water wars are looming, India's Economy booming (mining, pollution etc), along with the changing socio-cultural landscape (increasing water needs, unsustainable agriculture, effluents dumped on available water sources, rivers, over-exploited acquifers..) putting more and more pressure on the environment to doomingly unsustainable extent..
If our present industrialised civilisation continues like this, I seriously doubt whether we will still remain extant, and manage not to go extinct or Collapse by 2200! :)