(Jona Lendering's page on ancient Flood texts - [web.archive.org] . And Mark Isaak's - [www.talkorigins.org] ).

A recent discussion of problems associated with the quantity of water required for an ancient global deluge - [earthscience.stackexchange.com]; including this - [en.wikipedia.org]

As regards the formation of legends connected with floods, the following account might be of of some interest. In the mid-1960s, my late father told me that he had heard - presumably in the late 1930s - that the Chesil Beach in Dorset - [en.wikipedia.org] - was formed by a catastrophic storm "in the 18th century:" i.e., the inhabitants of that part of Dorset just woke up the morning after the storm, and found that there was now a long strip of pebbly beach where there hadn't been one before.

I subsequently discovered that this narrative was mistaken on several counts.

There was indeed a bad storm in the modern era: but it was in 1824 - [en.wikipedia.org] - not the 18th century. And, although it broke across Chesil Beach, it didn't form it.

The formation of the beach is now believed to have taken place over some 15,000 years - [chesilbeach.org] - following the last Ice Age.

So, as far as my father was concerned, the events of 15,000 or 20,000 years somehow became associated in his mind with the overnight events of one actual catastrophic storm, of whose date and effects he had only a very confused recall. I don't know if any of his contemporaries shared the same memory: but I think this example shows how some legends can develop.

The "rapid rise of sea-level" at the end of the Ice Age, meanwhile, is believed to have been about 1 metre or 2.5 metres a century: [noc.ac.uk]. So, depending on their location, one human in the Upper Palaeolithic might, during (quite a long) lifetime, have witnessed a gradual sea-level rise of at most about 1.5 or 2 metres: say, an inch a year.

Hermione
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