In the latest Science there is a news article highlighting geomythology, a relatively new use of geology.
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Some geologists have taken an interest in the connection between folklore and science. The idea is that stories that have been passed down for generations within ethnic/cultural groups may be based on natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, etc. This approach has produced some fruitful results. For example, Native American folklore in the Seattle area places the location of ground-shaking spirits in a way that correlates well with faults running through the area.
The movement traces in part to the 1980s, when scientists realized that the slow march of geologic time is sometimes punctuated by biblical-scale catastrophes, such as the giant meteorite that wiped out dinosaurs 65 million years ago. After this was accepted, some (usually those with tenure) felt freer to wonder if near-universal myths of great floods and fires implied that such disasters also have punctuated human time. In the 1990s, Columbia University marine geologists Walter Pitman and William Ryan argued that rising Mediterranean sea levels following the last deglaciation topped what is now the Bosporus Strait and roared into the Black Sea 7600 years ago, serving as the original inspiration for the biblical flood. Their work triggered sharp criticism and a torrent of research, resulting in growing acceptance of some sort of Black Sea flooding. Whether the book of Genesis somehow grew from this is a further step, admits Ryan, who presented his latest findings at the International Geoscience Program in Istanbul, Turkey, in early October.
Of course, caution is warranted.The pendulum may have swung too far in favor of accepting myths, says social anthropologist Benny Peiser of Liverpool John Moores University in the U.K., who runs the Cambridge Conference Network, an Internet clearinghouse for catastrophist theories. Now that more people are willing to listen, he says, too many scientists are invoking myth "left, right, and center to explain everything." In a paper at a late-October workshop on natural catastrophes in the ancient Mediterranean, he asserts that no major myths have yet met scientific standards, although he does credit some regional ones, such as the Pacific Northwest earthquakes. "That's not all bad," he says. "This is all so new, you expect more speculation than hard evidence. The refinements can come later."
You might call this an example of Mormon geomythology. If you know of others, please do tell. (Note: I am not implying that the Book of Mormon is not historical.)
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