Zushy,
you have raised a few points, and they are definitely worth addressing
RISING LEVEL OF DRY EARTH – you are definitely right that the surface of many areas has risen.
nonetheless, you are talking about a relatively small amount – the roman remains of londonium is maybe a few meters under current levels. The Cardo in Yerushalyim is also only a couple of metres – maybe three or four under the present street
What you are saying – that decaying life raised the levels – definitely sounds possible, but it does not significantly effect the rest of the equation, as you will see.
WHY DID THE SEA NOT FLOOD ANCIENT CITIES – Your question as to why the sea did not flood ancient cities is very limited.
Even according to the greatest doomsday predictions, not all of London will be flooded in forty years. Golders Green is way way above sea level – the highest point in London is at the end of Golders Green Road …….. the “worry” and hyberbole is about the East London – Docklands area, which are low lying, and that’s why they built the Thames Barrier.
I don’t know about the Israeli coastal plain, or the US East coast, but the entire Jordan Valley in E”Y, – including Beit She’an, Arad, the entire Yam Hamelach area, is BELOW sea level. nonetheless it did not flood for a very simple reason – there is ground above sea level between the sea and this area, which the water cannot cross. Much of the English Midlands too are below sea level.
RISING SEA LEVEL – scientists claim sea level is rising. Unlike the level of dry land, sea level – and world temperature – always fluctuate, so this is much more debatable. nonetheless they claim sea levels are rising and the amount vary between 2mm a year to a full centimetre. [If sea levels rise at more than a centimetre for forty years, they will eventually flood the East London area.]
The normal reason given for sea levels rising is melting glaciers, which in turn is blamed on global warming, which is then blamed on carbon emissions etc …
You are suggesting that the sea has always risen – definitely possible – but bear in mind that while we have remains of cities, burial sites, and even Roman roads a few metres underground, as of yet no one has proven prior sea levels.
When I was in Grammar School, with my school tie, we were taught an additional theory for rising sea levels. Mother Earth absorbs water, when it rains only the layoff will reach the wider rivers and sea. When one paves over massive areas – think Milton Keynes or Kiryat Sefer and Beitar – many many square kilometres of rainwater end up in the river and sea. This is turn could CAUSE glaciers to melt, rather than be a result. [I don’t know if scientists still believe this, but I was taught this in PH grammar school by Mr. C. around the year 2000.]
RISING TEMPERATURE – you have failed to address in your theory rising temperature. Has temperature always risen and the glaciers therefore always melted, – even before carbon emissions – just Earth level rose alongside, or did Earth level and sea level rise independent of temperatures,
CHAZAL – Chazal, Novi, Gemoro make many references to Hashem preventing the waves overtaking the dry land etc … Additionally R’ Yehoshua says that rain comes form the sky – perhaps it goes back somehow? – The gemoro in Brachos says that when Hashem cries the tears fall in the ocean and form an earthquake ….
I do not pretend to understand these sugyas on any level, but they definitely have bearing on your subject.