Geomythology (also called “legends of the earth," "landscape mythology," “myths of observation,” “natural knowledge") is the study of oral and written traditions created by pre-scientific cultures to account for, often in poetic or mythological imagery, geological events and phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, tsunamis, land formation, fossils, and natural features of the landscape.
In the case of massive geomorphic events in the pre-human past, such as mountain formation, observations and imagination combined in mythic explanations that were handed down orally over millennia.
Because the descriptive narratives were expressed in mythological language, scientists and historians have not been aware of the real events and rational concepts embedded in geomythological stories.
One type of geomyth includes tales arising from imagination or popular misconceptions, for example, beings magically transformed into stone to account for landforms.
[8] Here the Fimbulwinter is seen as a Viking folk memory of a much earlier time when an eruption in South America at Lake Ilopango caused a long winter throughout the world.
[9] Archaeologist Neil Price has argued that the Fimbulwinter myth is likely a folk memory of this time, although he is careful to point out that "Geomythology is by its very nature an inexact concept: inherently unproveable, prone to confirmation bias, and hampered by a lack of precise dating in both textual and archaeological sources.
A long time ago, but not at a very remote period, Swan was informed, a rise of water flowed over fields and meadows, making an island of Cape Flattery.