Scientist Who Found Titanic: Biblical Flood Probably Real

The Biblical story of the global flood and Noah's Ark may be more than just a story, an archaeologist tells ABC News. Robert Ballard, the underwater archaeologist who located the wreck of the Titanic, has a team at the Black Sea and thinks he's found proof that the Biblical flood was based on historical events: An ancient shoreline, 400 feet below the surface. His team carbon dated shells from that shoreline and estimated that a catastrophic flood took place around 5000BC, which would put it in line with experts' estimates of Noah's flood.

His theory: Much of the world was covered in ice 12,000 years ago, and when it began to melt, there were floods all over the globe. And there may have been "a mother of all floods," as Ballard puts it, in the Black Sea region. "The land that went under stayed under," he explains. Ballard's team has found ancient pottery, structures that appear to be man-made, and even an ancient shipwreck with human bones inside. He doubts he'll ever find "Noah's Ark" itself, but for now, a guy in the Netherlands has completed a full-scale replica of it. (More Bible stories.)