Last year’s tsunami claimed 300,000 people’s lives. However, the Moken – or sea gypsies (explore National Geographic’s interactive feature on them) – of Thailand, have a tradition which warns that when tides recede far and fast then a man-eating wave will soon head their way: so they should run far and fast. Last December they did – and survived. (Full story at The Observer.)

Such relevancy has fueled interest in the rapidly emerging science of geomythology. Once dismissed, myths are winning new attention from geologists who find that they may encode valuable data about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and other stirrings of the earth. For example, according to The Observer:

Geologists have found that Middle Eastern flooding myths, including the story of Noah, could be traced to the sudden inundation of the Black Sea 7,600 years ago. The Oracle at Delphi has been found to lie over a geological fault through which seeped hallucinogenic gases. These could account for the trances and utterances of the oracle’s mystics.

The coupling of the land and its folklore may have immediate applications in our general preparedness, but there is also mythic element to the entire project. History just might be nonlinear, fractal, and thus repeating itself—that’s certainly the practical insight towards which geologists seek information. Yet though it may be cliché, it also rings true on more harmonic, poetic levels: our future as a species may be hinged upon our recovery of the past.

Image credit: AVirtualSpaceTimeTravelMachine.

[via Further: Strange Attractor and beyond]