For a 7,500-year-old cataclysm, Noah's flood is surprisingly newsworthy. First, the October 2001 American Journal of Archaeology published findings that the Black Sea area experienced massive flooding 7,500 years ago, turning the water salty. The Black Sea, the journal said, "abruptly filled by waters from the Mediterranean when the Bosporus was cut by rising world sea levels." The New York Times, Beliefnet, and others speculated that such evidence corroborated the biblical story of Noah.
On October 18, ark enthusiasts got a literal boost when DigitalGlobe launched the world's highest-resolution commercial imaging satellite. The QuickBird satellite will take several shots of the "Ararat Anomaly," considered by some to be the remains of Noah's ship. "It should end once and for all the questions if there is anything manmade on Ararat," says Porcher Taylor, one of the ark-search leaders.