Parting The Red Sea: The Scientific Explanation (VIDEO)

Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado have produced a computer graphic that offers a possible scientific explanation for the more than 3000-year-old Biblical story of the parting of the Red Sea.

The graphic shows how a strong wind blowing east over the Nile Delta could have "pushed water back into ancient waterways after blowing for about nine hours," which would have exposed the ground underneath, allowing Moses and the Israelites to cross to safety as the Egyptian army pursued them.

The process is known as "wind setdown," which is defined as a drop in water level caused by wind stress acting on the surface of a body of water for an extended period of time.

Scientists and academics have long debated whether natural forces could have caused the parting of the Red Sea, with the most popular theories to date centering around volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.

The animation, below, is part of a master's thesis by atmospheric and oceanic sciences researcher Carl Drews, who had help from the National Science Foundation. Drews's research is published in the online journal PLoS One.

But Drews was not the first to examine wind as a cause of the ancient Biblical story. NCAR's website dutifully pays homage to a pair of Russian researchers, Naum Voltzinger and Alexei Androsov, who found that strong winds could have "exposed an underwater reef near the modern-day Suez Canal," which would have allowed the Israelites to walk across.

WATCH:

Comments

[SurrealPumpkin]

01:57 PM on 09/26/2010

Sounds reasonable, but in the 5000 years or so since wouldn't it have happened at least once more?

[Marlyn]

09:50 AM on 09/26/2010

If it happened then, why don't we see it happening today?

[Boobuzuela]

01:25 AM on 09/26/2010

Miracles will ALWAYS be stumbling blocks to non believers, even when the SCIENTISTS show how it could be done without any of the laws of physics getting broken.

Guess what. You don't HAVE to believe in the miracles! Just do what Jesus commanded! "Love one another!"

It's that simple folks. Live it, don't just talk about it on Sunday mornings.

[mcthfg]

12:49 AM on 09/26/2010

I see.

Some ancient texts say the earth was spat out by a 13-headed serpent.

I'd like to see that thesis.

What a waste of an education.

[thebigbike]

10:13 PM on 09/25/2010

if this particular event actually happened in the world that the rest of us live in

[TheQuestion]

10:29 PM on 09/25/2010

Or at all ??

[Dolmance]

07:03 PM on 09/25/2010

One hundred percent pure drivel.

[RenoSage]

06:33 PM on 09/25/2010

There is a story about an earthquake that caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards and
caused Reelfoot Lake.
I had thought perhaps the same could have parted the waters of The Red Sea.

[psa613]

05:43 PM on 09/25/2010

Either you believe the bible or you dont. If science can explain what God does... OK if it cant... that's OK too

[Enock Zamora]

05:38 PM on 09/25/2010

The scientists at the U. of Colorado must of went up on the 'Hill' and smoked some dope to figure out an 'Explanation' for their delusional disorder and did not find it. First they are [clueless] as to where the event took place. First, they were at a place where there was hills on both sides and they could not escape. They crossed over to Arabia from the [red] sea. The area was filmed since ninteen-seventy, and can be found on-line. In addition, where they stayed for fourty-years has been found and filmed for over the last fifty-years. The place is North west of Yemen, near the town of Sa'da.
This 'Scientific Explanation' is [insulting], and these scientist should be keep off the 'hill' and their lap tops taken away. In keeping this short, every number in the bible has a [value]. In this crossing, the deepest part is one-thousand feet. The length also has a value that these 'screwballs' can figure out on their own, as long as they stay away from the 'Hill'. For others, I am short on time, however, you can [Google] Moses, and click on videos above logo. From there, look for 'Moses & Alien Technologies'. It is not the best reference I can give at this time, but it will get you to the filmes where the chariot wheels and mountain was found, temples, twelve stones, drawing of the calf etc....

[SiberianRat]

06:42 PM on 09/25/2010

So an explanation of high winds is less plausible than a dude commanding the waters to part? Really?

[HamletsMill]

08:35 PM on 09/25/2010

Like everyone else living a completely conventional consciousness today, you have not done your homework in life. The three religions of the Middle East that have come down to us are ALL Hindu-Zoroastrian. They are ALL based upon encoded Astrology about the passage of World Ages. They are ALL TOTALLY UNORIGINAL. The Cosmic knowledge was copied from a much earlier Cosmic Stellar Religion that existed in the late Bronze Age.

There way have been a volcanic event known to the people living in 1300 B.C. that caused some physical occurrences that were used by adepts to construct the encoded esoteric allegorical information about Cosmic knowledge among the Egyptian priesthood. But the meaning is about a "parting of the sea" IN THE STARS. The story has a much bigger and much deeper Cosmic meaning.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all about the catastrophe that would happen in the passage from Pisces to Aquarius in the Exodus on the TWELVE STONES (the Zodiac). That catastrophe is the BURNT OFFERING: The invention and use of NUCLEAR WEAPONS. The imagery of the Crucifixion of Christ is also from the same esoteric encoded knowledge. It is a prophecy about the "FLYING NAILS" that would crucify all mankind in the day of spiritual blindness regarding the Cosmic Warning..

But this is all completely over the heads of the people that follow these religions today. (Sigh).

[meyek]

05:19 PM on 09/25/2010

although i don't 'believe', if god does exist, why wouldn't he make use of physical laws to acheive miracles? in fact god might be those physical realities

[baileywick]

06:04 PM on 09/25/2010

Because "God" wouldn't work in ways that make sense. If "God" did work in ways that made sense, no one would care to create a "God". Those who "believe" in "God" do so because they don't want to think that life is unfair. e.g., homeless deserve to be homeless, poor deserve to be poor, the challenged deserve to be challenged, the rich deserve to be rich. Just ask any good conservative Christian.

[HamletsMill]

08:44 PM on 09/25/2010

Se my above post on the thread.

[eilish]

08:35 PM on 09/25/2010

When I believed in God, I always believed that he was a God of order just as this earth is a place of reason. Science rules. It makes sense that God would accomplish everything within his own guidelines.

[eyecon]

05:16 PM on 09/25/2010

So this is what passes for intellectual curiosity and critical thinking these days? This sounds more like the work product of Discovery Institute than a federal agency and a state university. While you are at it, perhaps you can find cogent explanations for talking snakes or Noah's Ark.

[WaitingforJanuary]

06:28 PM on 09/25/2010

I don't think there were talking snakes. Although, it makes a good story.

[SiberianRat]

06:43 PM on 09/25/2010

I would love a talking snake.

[Fight4Freedom2008]

05:11 PM on 09/25/2010

It really doesn't matter when you have faith... though on the flip-side

[Leckey]

04:54 PM on 09/25/2010

The entire premise is based on assuming the biblical narrative, quite dubious at best, as true. I wouldn't hang my thesis on that thread.

[HamletsMill]

08:43 PM on 09/25/2010

See my above post on the thread.

[Perry Clease]

04:42 PM on 09/25/2010

The Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds?

[Boobuzuela]

01:27 AM on 09/26/2010

Love the Avatar! Wish I'd seen it first!

[Perry Clease]

02:43 PM on 09/26/2010

My creation. Well I didn't design the wing nut nor the "no" icon, but as far as I know I am the first to put the two together.