Many have wondered; is it possible that a worldwide disaster might have been caused by a global tsunami? It would have to be a very substantial wave indeed, one that originated from a devastating catastrophe in oceanic waters.  Not only that, but the epicentre of such an event would have to have been positioned in such a way that the wave was able to access all oceans and seas without having its momentum broken by a substantial landmasses.  This could only have taken place, then, if the epicentre was in the Southern Oceans in the vicinity of Antarctica. 

And the most likely source of such an event would be an oceanic comet strike (although here has been some new speculation in 2011 that earthquakes are connected to planetary and lunar alignments - or even to oppositional alignments with comets during their perihelion transits (8)). 

The tragic events of this week underline the potential catastrophe we all face.  There are many, many Flood myths from around the globe.  The Biblical account of Noah is not just a story popular in the Levant, but one whose telling spanned the ancient world.  But scholars seem unwilling to give any credence to the idea that a world-wide catastrophe of this nature may actually have occurred in pre-historical times, leading to the extinction of many species.  Yet it is such a common myth across disparate cultures that there is surely some truth to it.  Scholars counter that such an event could not have occurred across the whole face of the planet without some kind of evidence being left behind.  Yet, it is the very nature of sudden flooding that little trace of the devastation remains long after the event.  The damage is literally washed away, or left buried in a chaotic state.

The period towards the end of the last Ice Age seems a particularly likely time for a massive tsunami to have occurred.  The human population would have been living in a relatively small band of habitable land around the globe, pressed in from the poles by the glacial ice.  They would have lived in low-lying areas, as peoples have always done historically, particularly given the extreme cold of continental weather during the Ice Age. 

If a comet struck the ocean near to Antarctica, unleashing a huge turbulence in the world's oceans, then many, many low-lying land areas across the globe would have been devastated by massive tsunamis.  In fact, it might even have been an extinction event for many species of large mammals, and may have triggered the sudden 50-year melt.  Evidence of such a catastrophe exists, and is well documented by many authors. 

It would take a whole book to cover the extent of known anomalies pointing in this direction, and many have been written.

Furthermore, it is a fact that some of these Flood myths describe prior celestial appearances of unusual stars and the like. 

The observation of seven stars is a feature of some, perhaps alluding to a series of in-coming comets (similar to Shoemaker-Levy 9, perhaps), providing the inhabitants of the earth with a grim portent of the destruction to come, and perhaps encouraging some to prepare...

The seven stars might also have been indicative of a more rare phenomenon; the re-appearance of Nibiru. The perihelion of the Dark Star might have brought with it a barrage of in-coming objects.  But one must be cautious in such a claim; if the earth was subject to a regular beating in this way then one would expect the Moon's surface to be pock-marked by relatively young craters too.  Yet its surface depicts generally older scarring.  Comet-strikes seem to be rare, even if they might be caused by some external influence like Nibiru.

Sitchin argued that a global tsunami might have been caused by the Antarctic ice Sheet becoming unstable over time and toppling into the Sea catastrophically.  Perhaps there may be some truth to this; maybe in the form of a chain reaction of Ice Pack break-up and glacial collapse.  But a comet strike seems to me to be more likely.  For example, the devastating effect of the Eltanin impact 2.15 million years ago is discussed in detail below.

Others speculate about the so-called Lost Continent of Atlantis.  Could such a catastrophe account for the destruction of a whole continent?  It seems unlikely given the lack of evidence of such a fallen land-mass in the Atlantic ocean itself.  But one can imagine how the myths about Atlantis may have been derived from the same source as that of the Flood; that a whole civilisation might have been literally swept away by a towering, relentless wall of water.

Either way, the destruction seen in South East Asia shows what can happen when a large earthquake happens out at sea, and how fragile coastal communities are when faced with the consequences.  Our species as a whole is not under extinction threat from such an event because we are now spread out throughout the entire globe.  But that was not always the case.

If one imagines us more closely packed in clement, low-lying climes during an Ice Age, and imagine a much greater catastrophe unleashed by Nature, then the Earths' population of humans was far more vulnerable.  The mountain-dwelling survivors would remember such an event through oral traditions for many, many generations.   How long will our amnesia-prone modern civilisation remember this latest catastrophe, and learn from it, I wonder?

2.15 million years ago an asteroid greater than 1 kilometre in diameter, crashed into the South-East Pacific Ocean.  Scientists have been able to draw this conclusion from evidence from the ocean floor which shows damage over hundreds of square kilometres (1, 2, 3).

The devastating impact created a massive tsunami that, after only five hours was about 70 metres high.  See the map to the left.  By this point is had already travelled over 2000 kilometres. 

It continued from the point to move at the speed of an aircraft across the Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans, devastating coastal areas from Australia and Asia to south-west Africa. 

In the U.K. Government-funded 'Report of the Task Force on Potentially Hazardous Near Earth Objects' (British National Space Centre, Sept 2000)  the following is mentioned regarding the threat posed by tsunamis:

"The evidence of the effects of large tsunamis, in terms of relocated rocks, is found widely, the most extreme example being in Hawaii where unconsolidated coral is found at 326 metres above sea level.  Asteroid impacts are capable of producing tsunamis much larger than that associated with the 1960 earthquake (in Chile, which produced a tsunami that killed over 114 people in Japan!), and may occur anywhere in the oceans.  Tsunami from the Chicxulub impact deposited material widely and often far inland; recognition of such deposits in Haiti, Texas and Florida helped to confirm the nature and location of the event.  the tsunami generated by the Eltanin impact about 2 million years ago is shown on these two maps.

"Objects that are small, or small fragments of larger objects that break up in the atmosphere, do not usually reach the Earth's surface.  But for objects in the range of between 200 to 1,000 metres, tsunamis may be the most devastating of all the consequences of an impact, because so much of the earth's population lives near the coasts." (4)

The general location of human populations in coastal regions is not a particularly new phenomenon.  One of the surprising stories to emerge from the terrifying tsunami of 26th December 2005 was the reaction to it of an undeveloped tribe of hunter-gatherers living on North Sentinel island, among the Andaman Islands.  The entire tribe of 500 or so people survived the tsunami having evacuated the coastal areas immediately following the initial earthquake.  As Madhusree Mukerjee, a researcher and author working among the Andamanese, relates:

""Our forefathers told us," explains one tribesman, "that when the earth shakes, the sea will rise up onto the land.  They said we should run to the hills or get into a boat and go far out to sea."  The Andamanese had a lead time of less than an hour. So while people in the information age groped through phone books to issue a tsunami warning that never arrived, those in the Stone Age had packed up their children, baskets, nets, bows, arrows and embers and run for the hills." (5)

This remarkable tale indicates the importance of orally transmitted folklore and teachings within any culture, and most likely can be extrapolated to ancient societies as well.  Tsunamis are examples of rare catastrophic phenomena, yet the tribal society holds onto the warnings of dire consequences following an earthquake.  Ancient cultures across the globe had similar teachings regarding the Flood.  So why does this end up being regarded as a fabulous legend with no established place in history, or even prehistory?  By ignoring the ever-present danger of catastrophism, our modern society, through its misplaced skepticism, has foolishly turned its back on the wisdom handed down to us from the past.

Venus and the Tsunami Connection