Noah and the Great Flood - Blame Canada, Of Course

Several ancient religions tell of the great flood thousands of years ago. The Judeo-Christian account tells of Noah and his ark and all those critters. Even earlier religions have similar accounts - leaving aside Noah and his boat, of course.

Now a British scientist believes that flood way over on the other side of the world was caused by the collapse of a giant, humungous, glacial dam in Canada discharging freshwater from the prehistoric Lake Aggasiz. From CanWest News:

The deluged shorelines caused by the colossal Canadian gusher have even been associated with the "great flood" myths common to many ancient cultures - including the biblical story of Noah's Ark.

Now, University of Exeter geologist Chris Turney believes he has traced the sudden proliferation of farming across neolithic Europe to an exodus of coastal people moving inland to escape the results of the Agassiz flood.

"It still blows my mind to think that a release of water from Canada could set off a cascade of changes all the way across in Europe," Turney told CanWest News Service. "It just goes to show how people and the environment are intimately linked."

University of Manitoba geologist Jim Teller's reconstruction of the lake's dying throes has kick-started a worldwide wave of research into what was undoubtedly one of the most awesome natural events in Canadian prehistory.

Teller has also theorized Agassiz's final, cataclysmic burst caused such a surge of seawater around the world it might have given rise to the Noah's Ark saga and other ancient accounts of massive floods.

Among the effects, scientists believe, was the breaching of an earthen barrier between the Mediterranean and Black seas in southeast Europe and extensive flooding of the Black Sea shoreline.