Did Lake Agassiz Give Birth to Persian Gulf ?

Image credits: NASA

*Kian Abbasnezhadi
and consequently filled up the area of land thereafter called Persian Gulf. Persian Gulf is so shallow that for whatever reason the global sea levels decline by only 20 meters in the future, the area of the gulf would be reduced by half of its current size. The deepest parts rarely reach to 90-100 meters, while the mean depth is 25-30 meters in general. So, along with such facts, the amount of water - which has not necessarily got to be large - needed to fill the regarding ancient low lands in between the northern Persian plateau and the southern Arabian peninsula can be justified. Before such an event had happened, the ancient slice of land later filled up by the ocean water to form the current Persian Gulf - should have possibly been as fertile as the current Mesopotamian plains are. Therefore, as the aforementioned theory also suggests, ancient civilizations as late as 8000 years ago might have been residing throughout such fertile plains. It is completely clear that the bed of the Persian Gulf is constantly being filled up by the sediments carried into by the Mesopotamian Rivers; Euphrates and Tigris in todays Iraq and Krun River in Iran ever since it was formed. So, the ancient Persian Gulf floor towards the northern and north-western ends of the gulf had been lower than its current level, providing more water within, and so the ancient borders of the Persian Gulf could have well reached even as far as 400 km towards north and as far as the current cities of Borzjn and Behbahn, the plains of Khozestn and the southern tips of the Zagros Mountains. At that time, Euphrates, Tigris, and Krun were able to make it to the gulf water in separate channels. Persian Gulf has become dried out for several times in its history since it was formed some 35 million years ago. The last Ice Age, to which the above theory is based on, caused the global sea levels to drop by almost 120-130 meters, well below the floors of the Persian Gulf site, leaving it detached and unsupported from the waters of the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean. Within some few hundreds of years, this caused the water inside the gulf to be vaporized away, revealing the bed rock at the bottom floor. There is strong evidence that this some 800 km dried-

.here is the question of how Persian Gulf has been formed cause from the geological point of view, it may have not been formed along with its adjacent water body; the gulf of Oman. The area of land where the current Persian Gulf resides on was formed some 35 million years ago as the result of Earth tectonic movements. Then how and when water entered this area of land is the main point of interest here. There are many theories in this regard, while each suggesting an ancient scenario. However, as new findings suggest, Persian Gulf was formed most probably some 120008000 years ago as the result of a gigantic glacial dam collapse in Manitoba, Canada, releasing enormous amounts of water within its lake reservoir - then called Agassiz Lake and causing the sea levels to rise rapidly around the globe. However, further research is needed to find out the exact timing of the flood-triggering event that created the body of water. Melted ice water inside the dam's reservoir which was most probably located in place of the current Winnipeg Lake - as the same theory suggests entered the ocean water

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Lake Agassiz during the last Ice age some 10000 years ago. The

Possible extends of Lake Agassiz as shown with the shaded area and the probable roots water has followed to reach the ocean waters after the glacial dam breakage.

out bed was inhabited by pre-Sumerian cultures. The story of the Noah's Ark is presented in every holy book of different religions. Nearly every civilization living in southern Mesopotamia has told some form of the flood myth. While the names might change, the content and structure are consistent from 2500 B.C. to the Genesis account to the Qurans version," Rose remarked. To some, such an event may sound literally unreasonable. However, from the scientific point of view, such a phenomenon can be easily justified in diverse ways. Here are two of the most supported ones: As the same theory put forth, the ice dam breakage within Canada at the end of the last Ice Age -

some 8000 years ago - might have caused the sudden inundation of the Persian Gulf bed. There is a confirmed evidence of relatively recent extended local flooding in this part of the world. Excavations in Iraq, for example, have shown evidence of a flood at Shuruppak around 2900-2750 BC which extended nearly as far as the city of Kish (whose king, Etana, supposedly founded the first Sumerian dynasty after the Deluge). Sir C. Leonard Woolleys excavations at Ur south of Uruk in the 1920s found more than 2.5 meters thick homogeneous silty loam stratum that was void of artifacts, which Woolley in 1931 ascribed to Noahs Flood. Yet, another theory, still taking advantage from the Lake Agassiz's

glacial ice dam breakage theory, explains the Noah's Ark story to happened around parts of the Black Sea for the same reason as of the Persian Gulf's flooding. The theory sounds unreasonably wired that it may not be accepted within the context of the scenarios that have been put forth. The aforementioned theories were among the most interesting proposition ever proposed over the genesis of the Persian Gulf.

Ph.D. Student, University of Manitoba, 15 Gillson St., Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V6, Canada

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