Black Sea Flood Estimates

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Ten thousand years ago, at the end of the last glacial period, the Black Sea was a lake, cut off from the Sea of Marmara and beyond it the Mediterranean by the Bosphorus sill. Some researchers estimate Black Sea level at that time was 80 meters below present day. They claim a flood caused by a breach of the Bosporus sill 9,500 years ago brought sea level to approximately 30m below present levels. Giosan and his colleagues estimate that the Black Sea was around 30m below present day levels before the breach raised levels to a maximum of 20m below present levels. Their estimates mean that the magnitude of the Black Sea flood was 5 or 10m but not 50 to 60m. The breach of the Bosporus sill connected the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and the world ocean. As glaciers melted and global sea levels began to rise, the Black Sea also rose, bringing it to its present day level. (Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)