Researchers trace Euphrates to merger of Paleo-Karasu and Paleo-Murat
Technology
Big news for history and science fans: researchers just figured out how the legendary Euphrates River came to be.
Turns out, between 3.6 and 1.6 million years ago, two ancient rivers, Paleo-Karasu and Paleo-Murat, later merged over millions of years, giving rise to the Euphrates, a river that's been central to civilizations and even pops up in the Bible over 50 times.
Andrew Madof found ancient river sediments
geologist Andrew Madof made a key discovery back in 2014 by spotting ancient river sediments on salt deposits near Lebanon using seismic imaging.
His team found that these old rivers were way bigger than today's Nile or the Tigris, flowing into an empty Mediterranean for about 120,000 years before shifting tectonic plates shaped them into the modern Euphrates.