Paleo-flood records reveal ancient deluges that dwarf modern ‘unprecedented’ events
Recent “unprecedented” floods are ‘nowhere near’ the severity of some such events further in the past, new research shows. So much for feverish climate alarmist claims about the supposed effects of paltry variations in trace gases in the atmosphere.
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A team of scientists—led by the University of Exeter—used geological paleo-flood records to examine extreme floods in western Europe over several thousand years, says Phys.org.
Published in Climatic Change, the study finds many previous floods exceeded recent extremes, highlighting the need to use these paleo records—not just river gauge data that typically exists for the last century or less.
The researchers challenge the idea that recent floods can be attributed solely to greenhouse gas emissions, but they warn that the combination of natural extremes and global warming could lead to truly extraordinary floods.
“In recent years, floods around the world—including in Pakistan, Spain and Germany—have killed thousands of people and caused enormous damage,” said Professor Stephan Harrison, from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall.
“Such floods are seen as ‘unprecedented’—but if you look back over the last few thousand years, that’s not the case. In fact, floods we call unprecedented may be nowhere near the most extreme that have happened in the past.”
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The study examined paleo-flood records for the Lower Rhine (Germany and Netherlands), the Upper Severn (UK) and rivers around Valencia (Spain). In the Rhine, records for about 8,000 years show at least 12 floods that are likely to have exceeded modern peaks.
The Severn analysis shows that floods in the last 72 years of monitoring are not exceptional in the context of paleo-flood records of the last 4,000 years.
The largest flood in the Upper Severn occurred in about 250 BCE and is estimated to have had a peak discharge 50% larger than the damaging floods in the year 2000.
Full article here.
Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2025/04/01/paleo-flood-records-reveal-ancient-deluges-that-dwarf-modern-unprecedented-events/
