Scientists Decipher Ancient Origins of Euphrates River Using Seismic Imaging

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 — a technique that maps underground rock layers using sound waves — geologists identified buried river channels beneath the Mediterranean seabed dating to more than five million years ago, during the Messinian salinity crisis when large parts of the Mediterranean had 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 in earthquake-prone eastern Anatolia caused these rivers to be diverted and eventually merge, forming the single river system that became the Euphrates roughly 1.6 to 3.6 million years ago. The study was led by University of Western Australia geoscientist Simon Lang and geologist Andrew Madof of Chevron. Researchers note that the river's floodplains later became the cradle of key human milestones, including early agriculture, urban development, and the invention of cuneiform writing in cities such as Uruk and Babylon.