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telain
Lorien
Mar 1, 11:55pm
Views: 74
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a very dim light! but a light nonetheless
[In reply to]
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Can't Post
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Interesting! And yes, I think I can speculate wildly on that (or perhaps not so wildly...)
It's not my specialty by any stretch of the imagination, but I can tell you that evidence exists for at least one North American "megaflood". During the waning years of the last Ice Age (~15,000 years ago, take a few thousand) it seems the ice dam that contained Glacial Lake Missoula burst and hundreds of cubic miles/kilometres of water poured out over much of what is now western Montana, Idaho and eastern Washington state -- producing such attractively named features as the "scablands". PBS's Nova had a segment on it : http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/megafloods-of-the-ice-age.html
Fairly strong evidence exists for this one event, but given the pronounced glaciation over the rest of North America and the Eurasian continent (and in alpine regions of even more tropical areas), I imagine several of these events likely took place over several thousand years. It seems very likely that people living near areas at the edge of continental glaciations during the at the end of the last Ice Age, if they would have witnessed an event like this, would have seen these events as hugely catastrophic (indeed, we would, too!) and would have written or spoke of it into the "myth and legend" cycles of their people.
It might not have been an ice dam, either. Continental glaciers build up ridges of sediment at their edges (moraines) -- ridges which might hold in glacial meltwater until erosion, earthquake, or some other event weakens the ridge and again the meltwater would flow out onto the flat plain once inhabited by the receding glacier.
(Now, the teacher in me is at full force -- I promise to be brief!) It makes sense that people would be living near (within several hundred kilometers) the edges of glaciers -- glacial soil is usually very fertile. Depending on how hospitable the climate was near the end of the Ice Age in any particular area might account for why/how people may have witnessed such catastrophic events.
Of course, there are also volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that might account for catastrophic flooding as well! But that's for next class!
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*Silmarillion Discussion: Chapter 5, "Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalie", Part 2 -- The Great Teleri Compromise and a Guided Tour…*
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weaver
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Feb 23, 9:18pm
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Of islands and where to live
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CuriousG
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Feb 24, 12:32am
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lists, names and more stuff to remember...
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elevorn
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Feb 25, 6:42pm
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answers for questions that need them
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Escapist
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Feb 25, 7:13pm
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Some answers from a "mythic" perspective
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FarFromHome
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Feb 27, 12:39pm
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Silmarillion's actuality
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Mixel
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Feb 28, 11:45pm
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and thank you for those answers!
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telain
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Mar 1, 12:36am
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Myths, floods, and physical geography?
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CuriousG
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Mar 1, 1:20am
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a very dim light! but a light nonetheless
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telain
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Mar 1, 11:55pm
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Enlightening--thanks!//
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CuriousG
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Mar 3, 2:29pm
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Late answers
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sador
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Mar 3, 10:40am
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