Marine deposits were laid down over the south of the state after a submergence of the region; an uplift afterwards made of these deposits a coastal plain.
He relates the rise and persecution of a prophet and preacher, the catastrophe of a falling mountain and submergence of a great city, followed by a general inundation, and the claim of the prophet to have foretold these disasters; adding physical descriptions of the Euphrates river and the marvellous effects of sunset light on the Taurus range.
The greater the depth of submergence the less the disturbance made by the submarine on the surface of the water, and the greater the immunity from gun-fire, ramming, etc.; also in a sea-way the deeper the submarine the more readily is it con trolled.
The extent of the submergence and the area over which the Palaeozoic strata were deposited are unknown; for in consequence of renewed elevation without deformation, erosion in later periods has stripped off an undetermined amount of the covering strata.
Raised shore-lines, occasional earthquakes, and slow measurable elevation of the land about active volcanoes, indicate that elevation is now in progress, but the geological evidence shows no sign of former submergence of a connecting isthmus.
The brilliant French naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon (1707-1788), in Les Epoques de la nature, included in his vast speculations the theory of alternate submergence and emergence of the continents.
Cables have frequently been picked up showing after many years of submergence no appreciable deterioration in this respect, while in other cases ends have been picked up which in the course of twelve years had been corroded to needle points, the result probably of metalliferous deposits in the locality.
When the warmer interglacial periods recurred the polar and continental ice-caps melted and the sea-level became raised again - that is, there was submergence of the eroded plateaux formed as indicated above.
Where drift deposits border the sea, the shore line has been cut back or built forward in beaches of submature expression, often enclosing extensive tidal marshes; but the great part of the shore line is rocky, and there the change from initial pattern due to submergence is as yet small.
Conclusive proofs, however, of a later submergence under a post-Glacial Littorina sea (containing shells now living in the Baltic) are found up to 150 ft.