The post-glacial transgression of the Black Sea

Abstract

This paper discusses four problems, resolution of which will help to determine a realistic scenario for the post-glacial transgression in the Black Sea: (1) the post-glacial history of possible changes in the Black Sea's own water balance, under the hypothetical condition of its isolation from the global ocean; (2) the geologic history of areas through which the possible linkage of the Black Sea with the Mediterranean and Caspian basins might have occurred; (3) the regional peculiarities of recent vertical tectonic movements in coastal and shelf areas surrounding the Black Sea depression; and (4) the history of global ice volume changes and glacio-isostatic s ea-level fluctuations. It is clear that both existing evidence and theoretical concepts better substantiate the traditional model of post-glacial history in the Black Sea than the recently proposed hypothesis of an abrupt flooding of the Black Sea depression, which allegedly generated the biblical Flood.