Meltwater Pulses

Meltwater Pulses (MWP) is the term used to describe accelerated discharges of meltwater at different periods during the deglaciation that occurred as the last Ice Age ended. Each such event, which probably last hundreds of years have been given designations such as 1A, 1A0, 1B 1C and 1D.

MWP1a saw sea levels rise between 50 and 80 feet over a 500-year period around 13,000 BC and seems to be the least disputed of the postglacial discharges. A 2017 paper^(a) has provided further data relating to this time, in particular the collapse of the European ice sheet.

MWP1b is of particular interest to the study of Atlantis as it coincides with Plato’s date of circa 9,600 BC for the Atlantean attack on eastern Mediterranean. However, this creates one major problem, namely that Athens and Egypt did not exist as structured societies at such an early date! In order to explain this coincidence Massimo Rapisarda has speculated^[1173] that in writing the Atlantis tale, Plato had incorporated an ancient myth “linked to the memory of that ancient cataclysm,” which occurred at the end of the last Ice Age.

>Rapisarda also notes that the beginning and ending of the Younger Dryas period coincide with MWP1a and MWP1b respectively!^(b)<

The last Pulse, MWP1c, took place around 6000 BC and should have left some evidence in historical records. Recently P.P. Flambas suggested^[1368] that either MWP1b or MWP1c may have led to inundations known to the Greeks as the Flood of Ogyges.

See Also: Deglaciation, Lake Missoula, Lake Agassiz and Ronnie Gallagher

^(a) https://phys.org/news/2017-06-collapse-european-ice-sheet-chaos.html

>^(b) https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/2/1/18/htm<