KARST HYDROLOGY IN ANCIENT MYTHS FROM ARCADIA AND ARGOLIS, GREECE, 2009,
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /home/isthin5/public_html/addon-domains/speleogenesis.info/include/functions1.php on line 943
Clendenon Cindy

The history of karst science includes ancient Greek literary narratives that describe the behavior of karstic waters, yet remain largely unrecognized for their hydrogeological relevance. $is paper integrates karst hydrology with ancient myths and travelogues describing natural features in Arcadia and Argolis of the Greek Peloponnese. $e karstic landscapes of these two regions were %guratively represented in the interrelated myths of the Danaids, Poseidon, and Amymone. In a nonmythical report of a historical occurrence, a deer hunter chased a deer into the temporarily &ooded polje of ancient Stymphalus, but a sudden dislodging of the sinkhole debris plug caused the lake to drain so rapidly that the hunter and his prey were suctioned helplessly down into the whirlpool. Other ancient narratives described the subterranean connection of the Stymphalian polje and the Argolic springs of Erasinus. Some accounts stemmed from an ancient religious practice of throwing items into waters to propitiate the water gods: In one case, the watery disposition of propitiatory wreaths was determined by interweavings of the surface and subsurface components of the two karstic rivers named Alpheus and Eurotas. In other ancient accounts, certain rivers were said to sink underground at the coastline, travel through the bed of a bay or sea, and resurge as subaerial freshwater springs on the opposite shore of the saline waterbody.

ANCIENT GREEK HYDROMYTHS ABOUT THE SUBMARINE TRANSPORT OF TERRESTRIAL FRESH WATER THROUGH SEABEDS OFFSHORE OF KARSTIC REGIONS, 2009,
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /home/isthin5/public_html/addon-domains/speleogenesis.info/include/functions1.php on line 943
Clendenon Cindy

This study examined the relationship between ancient Greek texts and the physical possibility of focused, distal flow of ter-restrial fresh water through the seabed, particularly offshore of karstic coasts. The four ancient texts which were analyzed describe powerful discharges from submarine springs in the eastern Black Sea; the local transport of groundwater through the bed of Turkey’s Bay of Miletus; alleged subterranean–sub-marine connections between coastal western Turkey and the Greek northeast Peloponnese; and alleged connections between the coastal western Peloponnese and southeastern coastal Sic¬ily. The plausibility or implausibility of these legends was as¬sessed in the context of modern reports indicating that seabed pathways can transport continental fresh water up to 60 km offshore. Other reports identify fresh water in the seabed as far as 160 km offshore, presumably due to marine-induced forces. These documented cases validated ancient claims of nearshore groundwater transport and legitimized transoceanic claims as mythologized extrapolations of local karstic hydrogeology. As submarine fresh groundwater becomes increasingly important in understanding material transport and in identifying poten¬tially exploitable coastal water supplies, ancient stories from past civilizations may give clues to offshore sites meriting fur¬ther exploration.