UW geologist: Ancient Chinese flood is latest to match oral, geologic histories

An ancient landslide once blocked the Yellow River at Jishi Gorge in China, shown here. The resulting lake eventually burst through the rubble dam, causing what may have been one of history’s largest floods.

A paper published this week in Science finds evidence to support stories that a massive flood occurred in China about 4,000 years ago, during the reign of Emperor Yu. The study, led by Chinese researcher Qinglong Wu, suggests that a huge landslide dam break could have redirected the Yellow River, giving rise to the legendary flood that Emperor Yu is credited with controlling.

An accompanying commentary by the UW Department of Earth and Space Sciences’ David Montgomery, the author of the 2013 book “The Rocks Don’t Lie”, discusses how this finding supports the historical basis for tales about China’s Great Flood. It even explains some details of the classic folk story.

“A telling aspect of the story — that it took Yu and his followers decades to control the floodwaters — makes sense in light of geological evidence that Wu et al. present,” Montgomery writes.