Scientists Decipher Ancient Origins of Euphrates River Using Seismic Imaging
Researchers have determined that the Euphrates River formed between 3.6 million and 1.6 million years ago when two earlier river systems merged due to tectonic activity in Turkey's Taurus Mountains. The finding, published in Nature Geoscience, was made possible by seismic imaging technology originally deployed to locate gas reserves beneath the Mediterranean seafloor. Understanding the river's geological origins helps illuminate the environmental conditions that enabled early human agriculture, urban development, and writing in Mesopotamia.
A new study published in Nature Geoscience has deciphered the ancient origins of the Euphrates River, the longest river in southwest Asia and a foundational waterway for early human civilization. Using subsurface seismic imaging — the same technique used to map potential gas reserves under the Mediterranean — researchers identified buried river channels dating back more than five million years to the Messinian salinity crisis, when large parts of the Mediterranean Sea dried up. They determined that two separate rivers, predecessors to the modern-day Karasu and Murat rivers in Turkey, once flowed westward into the Mediterranean basin with flow rates exceeding those of the modern Nile and Tigris-Euphrates combined. Tectonic activity across eastern Anatolia caused these rivers to be diverted and eventually merge, forming the Euphrates between 3.6 and 1.6 million years ago. The study was led by University of Western Australia geoscientist Simon Lang and Chevron geologist Andrew Madof, who used geological data from Taurus Mountain sediments and coal deposits to trace the rivers' onshore origins. The researchers emphasized that the Euphrates floodplain later became the cradle of milestones in human culture, including early agriculture, city-states such as Uruk and Babylon, and the development of cuneiform writing.
Limitations & open questions
The study relies partly on seismic modeling of subsurface features, which carries inherent uncertainties; the sources do not discuss the margin of error in their 3.6–1.6 million year formation window or the degree to which alternative tectonic interpretations were considered. The precise timing of the Karasu predecessor's merger with the diverted Murat predecessor also remains unaddressed in the reporting.
What different sources said
- The Straits TimesCenter
Scientists decipher ancient origins of Euphrates River, cradle of civilisation
- Channel NewsAsiaCenter
Scientists decipher ancient origins of the Euphrates River
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