Megalakes, lost rivers and sunken continents: the geography that no longer exists
Discover the megalakes, 2,700 km rivers and submerged continents that existed before today's map took shape. A journey into paleogeography.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Megalakes, vanished rivers and sunken continents: the geography that no longer exists
The Earth we walk on is not the same one our ancestors knew 10,000 years ago. What are now deserts, plains or inland seas were once giant seas, 2,700 km rivers and entire continents under water. Paleogeography is not an exercise in geological nostalgia: it is proof that the map of the world is a provisional snapshot.
The lake that dwarfed the Mediterranean
About 24 million years ago, the Paratethys Sea stretched from the Eastern Alps to the Aral Sea, covering 2.8 million km² – larger than today's Mediterranean – and holding ten times the volume of water of all current lakes combined. It contained endemic species of corals and mollusks found nowhere else. Its disappearance gave way to the Black and Caspian Seas, mere vestiges of that giant.
In North America, the glacial Lake Agassiz formed as the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which reached 3 km thick in places, melted. Larger than all the current Great Lakes combined, its catastrophic drainage into the Atlantic may have altered the global climate 8,000 years ago.
Rivers that flowed where there is now ice and desert
The paleoriver Eridanos rose in Lapland two million years ago and ran 2,700 km – similar to the Danube – before emptying into the North Sea. The Pleistocene glaciation erased its course, but its traces remain in the great Swedish lakes Vättern, Vänern, Hjälmaren and Mälaren, which were part of its drainage into the Baltic.
In India, the Saraswati River flowed parallel to the Indus 10,000 years ago, fed by the monsoons. When the climate changed, the river dried up and today only the seasonal Ghaggar-Hakra and Nara survive. Some researchers believe this is the mythical river of the Vedas, and that its disappearance forced the migration of entire populations.
Islands that rise and sink: the case of Ferdinandea
In July 1831, a volcanic eruption brought an island of 4 km² and 63 m in elevation to the surface between Sicily and Tunisia: Ferdinandea Island, the summit of the underwater volcano Empedocles. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and Great Britain disputed its sovereignty – the British called it Graham Island – but before the diplomatic conflict could be resolved, the island submerged again. Today its summit lies 56 m below sea level, and some link it to the legend of Atlantis.
The ecocide of the Aral Sea: lessons in Soviet megalomania
The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world, with 70,000 km² and a maximum depth of 100 m. Fed by the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers (the ancient Oxus and Jaxartes), it watered the fertile region of Transoxiana. In the 1960s, the USSR diverted its waters to irrigate cotton in an aggressive plan that turned the lake into a saline desert, the Aral Kum. There was even a project to divert Siberian rivers using underground nuclear explosions to refill it, a demented plan that fortunately never came to pass. The result: an ecological disaster that remains a symbol of technocratic arrogance to this day.
The flood myth: when geology meets legend
The coincidence of flood myths in cultures around the world – Sumerians, Hindus, Aztecs, Chinese – has led to a search for a common origin. One hypothesis points to the overflow of the Black Sea 7,500 years ago, when the Mediterranean's sea level broke through the Bosphorus Strait and flooded a freshwater basin, displacing entire populations. Another places the event at the end of the last ice age (12,000–8,000 years ago), when melting ice raised sea levels by tens of meters. Archaeology and paleogeography have not yet closed the case, but the fact remains that the Garden of Eden, at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates, may have existed on a delta that today lies beneath the Persian Gulf.
Geology is a reminder that the Earth's surface is more malleable than we think. As today's climate change rewrites coastlines once again, paleogeographers study these past changes to understand what awaits us. Perhaps in 10,000 years, someone will wonder where our coastal cities stood, just as we wonder today where Lake Agassiz once was.
The Earth we walk on is not the same one our ancestors knew 10,000 years ago. What are now deserts, plains or inland seas were once giant seas, 2,700 km rivers and entire continents under water. Paleogeography is not an exercise in geological nostalgia: it is proof that the map of the world is a provisional snapshot.
The lake that dwarfed the Mediterranean
About 24 million years ago, the Paratethys Sea stretched from the Eastern Alps to the Aral Sea, covering 2.8 million km² – larger than today's Mediterranean – and holding ten times the volume of water of all current lakes combined. It contained endemic species of corals and mollusks found nowhere else. Its disappearance gave way to the Black and Caspian Seas, mere vestiges of that giant.
In North America, the glacial Lake Agassiz formed as the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which reached 3 km thick in places, melted. Larger than all the current Great Lakes combined, its catastrophic drainage into the Atlantic may have altered the global climate 8,000 years ago.
Rivers that flowed where there is now ice and desert
The paleoriver Eridanos rose in Lapland two million years ago and ran 2,700 km – similar to the Danube – before emptying into the North Sea. The Pleistocene glaciation erased its course, but its traces remain in the great Swedish lakes Vättern, Vänern, Hjälmaren and Mälaren, which were part of its drainage into the Baltic.
In India, the Saraswati River flowed parallel to the Indus 10,000 years ago, fed by the monsoons. When the climate changed, the river dried up and today only the seasonal Ghaggar-Hakra and Nara survive. Some researchers believe this is the mythical river of the Vedas, and that its disappearance forced the migration of entire populations.
Islands that rise and sink: the case of Ferdinandea
In July 1831, a volcanic eruption brought an island of 4 km² and 63 m in elevation to the surface between Sicily and Tunisia: Ferdinandea Island, the summit of the underwater volcano Empedocles. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and Great Britain disputed its sovereignty – the British called it Graham Island – but before the diplomatic conflict could be resolved, the island submerged again. Today its summit lies 56 m below sea level, and some link it to the legend of Atlantis.
The ecocide of the Aral Sea: lessons in Soviet megalomania
The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world, with 70,000 km² and a maximum depth of 100 m. Fed by the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers (the ancient Oxus and Jaxartes), it watered the fertile region of Transoxiana. In the 1960s, the USSR diverted its waters to irrigate cotton in an aggressive plan that turned the lake into a saline desert, the Aral Kum. There was even a project to divert Siberian rivers using underground nuclear explosions to refill it, a demented plan that fortunately never came to pass. The result: an ecological disaster that remains a symbol of technocratic arrogance to this day.
The flood myth: when geology meets legend
The coincidence of flood myths in cultures around the world – Sumerians, Hindus, Aztecs, Chinese – has led to a search for a common origin. One hypothesis points to the overflow of the Black Sea 7,500 years ago, when the Mediterranean's sea level broke through the Bosphorus Strait and flooded a freshwater basin, displacing entire populations. Another places the event at the end of the last ice age (12,000–8,000 years ago), when melting ice raised sea levels by tens of meters. Archaeology and paleogeography have not yet closed the case, but the fact remains that the Garden of Eden, at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates, may have existed on a delta that today lies beneath the Persian Gulf.
Geology is a reminder that the Earth's surface is more malleable than we think. As today's climate change rewrites coastlines once again, paleogeographers study these past changes to understand what awaits us. Perhaps in 10,000 years, someone will wonder where our coastal cities stood, just as we wonder today where Lake Agassiz once was.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (78 replies).
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