© 1989 Frank Wright
© 1989 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
In 1970 the Glomar Challenger sailed for the Mediterranean Sea. Two scientists, Bill Ryan and Ken Shoo, were looking for evidence of the early history of the Mediterranean. At a site 100 miles east of the Straight of Gibraltar they drilled for a core sample.
15 million years ago the Straight of Gibraltar closed. Around Urantia it was a time of mountain building and volcanic activity. The Mediterranean was connected to the Atlantic Ocean for a while by a channel across France so that the mountain peaks of that region stood above the water as islands in a sea. Later the Mediterranean connected with the Indian Ocean, but by 10 million years ago when the Suez was elevated, the Mediterranean was cut off from the oceans of the world and became for a time an inland salt sea. (UB 61:3.8)
As the scientists attempted to obtain a sample of the sea floor their drill bit became stuck. Upon retrieval they discovered the last section of their pipe filled with a strange type of gravel composed of only four components: volcanic bedrock, limestone, gypsum, and tiny fossils. Their find amazed the team.
Ten million years ago the Mediterranean Sea covered much of northern Africa. (UB 61:4.2) For a short time all the land was again joined except for Australia. Five million years ago the land connection between Africa and South America submerged and the Western Hemisphere became isolated much as it is today. This time is usually called the Pliocene.
The scientists obtained one thousand feet of core sample. The rock record revealed a time of rising alpine mountains and continental collisions. Other sites around the Mediterranean were sampled. Each time they found the bedrock covered with limestone, then gypsum containing shells of very small sea creatures.
In their search for an answer to what this meant the scientists examined gravel in other places of the world. For example, they found gravels in Death Valley, California, to be composed of a great variety of components, and they concluded these were washed down from surrounding areas. Gravels do not form at the bottom of a sea, however, and the Mediterranean gravels were different. They had never been washed down. They had occurred in place. The tiny animals were adults that had survived in an extreme environment, a stressed community. The gypsum could have only formed through evaporation. The limestone could have formed from dried up oozes. The scientists had found evidence of an evaporative tidal flat with volcanic activity nearby. They found a record of a cataclysmic event near the Straight of Gibraltar.
On UB 64:4.10 we are told that the Mediterranean Sea was extended in the Black Sea area about 550,000 years ago. Then one- half million years ago the Mediterranean Sea retreated consequent upon the elevation of Arabia and the Sangik peoples of this time were able to reach Africa. (UB 64:7.1) The superior Sangiks migrated to northern more temperate climes, but the orange, green, and indigo races gravitated to Africa over this newly elevated land bridge separating the westward retreating Mediterranean from the Indian Ocean. (UB 64:7.1)
The scientists found that the rivers and rains that flow and fall into the Mediterranean Sea do not bring in enough water to match the evaporation from the hot sun. Their core samples showed areas of soils on the slopes, tidal flats along the margins, and in the middle Mediterranean, the last drill site in the centre of the abysmal plain, the deepest part of the sea, they hit rock salt! They concluded that the very middle of the Mediterranean was at one time completely dry. Moreover, they found over 1000 feet of salt deposits in places. Since it takes the evaporation of about 50 feet of salt water to form one foot of solid salt, they knew that even if the entire Mediterranean dried up there would not be enough water for the amount of salt they had found.
The URANTIA Book tells us on page 890 that about 34,000 years ago the isthmus of Gibraltar, protecting the western Mediterranean, broke during an earthquake, quickly raising this inland lake to the level of the Atlantic Ocean. Then the Sicilian land bridge submerged, and the Mediterranean became one sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean. This great cataclysm caused the highest loss of life by flood in all of the world’s history.
To account for their theory that the Mediterranean had once been an inland sea, the scientists speculated on how the Mediterranean had been closed. They concluded that the Straight of Gibraltar had opened and closed throughout history. At once cutting off the Mediterranean from its western source and then suddenly, cataclysmally, breaking and exposing the relatively dry basin to the onrush of the open Atlantic cascading over a falls perhaps a kilometer in height. The onslaught of water was so forceful it broke the sound barrier as it fell and washed away three million years of the rock record.
Less than 34,000 years ago, in connection with the violent activity of the surrounding volcanoes and the submergence of the Sicilian land bridge to Africa, the eastern floor of the Mediterranean slowly sank, carrying down beneath the waters the entire peninsula of the first Garden of Eden. At the same time the coast of the eastern Mediterranean was greatly elevated. (UB 73:7.1) Then on UB 80:1.4 we are told that during the early days of the violet race the Mediterranean trough was protected by the Gibraltar isthmus and the Sicilian land bridge, and early maritime commerce was established on these inland lakes. The Nile delta was slowly rising along with the upthrust of the Saharan area and the shifting of the water-laden winds from the west to the north turned these once great pasture areas into barren desert.
There was additional evidence to support the scientists’ theories. When the Aswan Dam was being built in the late 1960’s, a Soviet geologist named Chumakov was working on the foundations. He found a deep notch right through the Nubian granite of the Nile valley. Although he did not understand the mechanism at the time, he concluded that the Nile had at one time formed a great waterfall in the area. He deduced that the only way this could have happened was if the sea level of the Mediterranean had dropped hundreds of meters. After communicating with Ryan and Shoo, they came to an understanding of the dynamics of the Mediterranean: strategic areas of land had risen and sank and the water had advanced and retreated over geologic time. It was the only way to explain their findings. They published their papers together.
The URANTIA Book details millions of years of geologic history for us in the section on the history of Urantia. Included in this detail is a record of the Mediterranean basin before and after it was inhabited by man. We are instructed of its connection to the open oceans and of its periodic isolation. We know the land was elevated then subsequently submerged and deluged as the water receded and then returned. It is a wonderful history, full of long eventless periods punctuated by cataclysmic occurrences and highlighted by gradual changes. This history is important to us and this importance is only now being understood.
Twenty years after their original findings Bill Ryan and Ken Shoo are completely convinced that the Mediterranean has not always been as it is today. Although there are still many sceptics, they know this region has shown historic periods of deep open sea, inland salt lakes, shallow tidal basins, and barren salt and sand deserts. They understand that the sea level has risen and fallen along with corresponding parts of the continents and land bridges. They believe these geologic changes have happened many times over the past and that they might even happen again.
What these scientists do not yet know is that they have unwittingly helped to confirm a documented history of this region that was written even before the tools to complete their deep sea survey had been developed. And although we do not need their findings, their theories, and their speculation: to maintain our belief of the fifth epochal revelation, it is work by people such as these that increases our understanding and our awe of the great knowledge and wisdom of the presenters of The URANTIA Book.
Frank Wright, Knoxville, TN. USA
From:FSFS PURSUIT OF WISDOM, March 1989
