Editing Bosporus (section)

=== Newer explorations ===
Before the 20th century it was already known that the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara flow into each other in a geographic example of "density flow". Then in August 2010, a continuous 'underwater channel' of [[suspension (chemistry)|suspension]] composition was discovered flowing along the floor of the Bosporus, which would be the sixth largest river on Earth if it were on land.<ref name="leeds.ac.uk">{{cite press release |title=Leeds Researchers Study Undersea Rivers with a Yellow Submarine |url=http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/866/leeds_researchers_study_undersea_rivers_with_a_yellow_submarine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100803145648/http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/866/leeds_researchers_study_undersea_rivers_with_a_yellow_submarine |archive-date=3 August 2010 |publisher=University of Leeds |date=2 August 2010 |access-date=22 June 2018}}</ref> The 2010 team of scientists, led by the [[University of Leeds]], used a robotic "yellow submarine" to observe detailed flows within this "undersea river", scientifically referred to as a [[submarine channel]],<ref name="leeds.ac.uk" /> for the first time. Submarine channels are similar to land rivers, but they are formed by density currents—underwater flow mixtures of sand, mud and water that are denser than sea water and so sink and flow along the bottom. These channels are the main transport pathway for sediments to the deep sea where they form sedimentary deposits.<ref name="leeds.ac.uk" />

The team studied the detailed flow within these channels and its findings included that:

{{blockquote|The channel complex and the density flow provide the ideal natural laboratory for investigating and detailing the structure of the flow field through the channel. Our initial findings show that the flow in these channels is quite different to the flow in river channels on land. Specifically, as flow moves around a bend it spirals in the opposite direction in the deep sea compared to the spiral found in river channels on land. This is important in understanding the sedimentology and layers of sediment deposited by these systems.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.futurity.org/earth-environment/robotic-sub-records-flow-of-undersea-river/|title=Robotic sub records flow of undersea river|work=Futurity|date=2 August 2010|access-date=24 July 2013|archive-date=25 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130425163303/http://www.futurity.org/earth-environment/robotic-sub-records-flow-of-undersea-river/|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

The central tenet of the [[Black Sea deluge hypothesis]] is that as the ocean rose {{convert|72.5|m}} at the end of the last Ice Age when the massive ice sheets melted, the sealed Bosporus was overwhelmed by a spectacular flood that increased the then fresh water Black Sea Lake by 50%, and drove people back from the shores for many months. This hypothesis was supported by the findings of undersea explorer [[Robert Ballard]], who discovered settlements along the old shoreline; scientists dated the [[flood]] to 7500 BP or 5500 BC from fresh-salt water microflora. Driven out by the rapidly rising water, which must have been terrifying and inexplicable, people spread to all corners of the Western world carrying the story of a major flood. As the waters surged, they scoured a network of sea-floor channels less resistant to denser suspended solids in liquid, which remains a very active layer today.

The first images of these submarine channels showing them to be of great size,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Di Iorio |first1=Daniela |last2=Yüce |first2=Hüseyin |date=1999-02-15 |title=Observations of Mediterranean flow into the Black Sea |journal=[[Journal of Geophysical Research]] |volume=104 |issue=C2 |pages=3091–3108 |bibcode=1999JGR...104.3091D |doi=10.1029/1998JC900023|doi-access=free }}</ref> were obtained in 1999 during a [[NATO]] [[SACLANT ASW Research Centre|SACLANT Undersea Research]] project using jointly the NATO RV ''Alliance'', and the [[Turkish Navy]] survey ship ''Çubuklu''. In 2002, a survey carried out on board the Ifremer RV ''Le Suroit'' for BlaSON project (Lericolais, et al., 2003<ref>{{cite conference |last1=Lericolais |first1=G. |last2=Le Drezen |first2=E. |last3=Nouzé |first3=H. |last4=Gillet |first4=H. |last5=Ergun |first5=M. |last6=Cifci |first6=G. |last7=Avci |first7=M. |last8=Dondurur |first8=D. |last9=Okay |first9=S. |date=2002 |title="Recent canyon heads evidenced at the Bosporus outlet" |work=Eos: Transactions of the American Geophysical Union |conference=AGU Fall Meeting Suppl. |volume=83 |issue=47 |at=Abstract PP71B-0409}}</ref>) completed the multibeam mapping of this underwater channel fan-delta. A complete map was published in 2009<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Flood |first1=Roger D. |last2=Hiscott |first2=Richard N. |last3=Aksu |first3=Ali E. |date=2009-03-09 |title=Morphology and evolution of an anastomosed channel network where saline underflow enters the Black Sea |journal=Sedimentology |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=807–839 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-3091.2008.00998.x|bibcode=2009Sedim..56..807F |s2cid=128884071 }}</ref> using these previous results together with high quality mapping obtained in 2006 (by researchers at [[Memorial University of Newfoundland]] who were project partners in the study).

The project was led by Jeff Peakall and Daniel Parsons at the [[University of Leeds]], in collaboration with the [[University of Southampton]], [[Memorial University of Newfoundland]], and the [[Dokuz Eylül University|Institute of Marine Sciences]]. The survey was run and coordinated from the Institute of Marine Sciences research ship, the [[RV K. Piri Reis|R/V ''Koca Piri Reis'']].