This month I've read a terrific book, The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood, by David R. Montgomery.
Montgomery's original goal was to write a book debunking young-Earth creationism, but he discovered that the subject is much more interesting than he expected---the origins of modern geology in the 18th and 19th centuries are intertwined with efforts to understand geology in light of the Bible, and the realization that Genesis cannot be taken literally and that the Earth is far older than the Bible implies. Montgomery does thoroughly and convincingly pull apart young-Earth creationism (in part through a tour of the Grand Canyon), but he also tells the story of the origin of modern geology and how it moved beyond flood geology. He also tells how and why flood geology was revived by young-Earth creationists in the 20th century.
One interesting thing he describes: The development of modern geology went from catastrophism to uniformitarianism, but in the late 20th century, geologists learned that catastrophes do figure in geology. He tells the story of the discovery of the Lake Agassiz (named after the scientist who discovered the Ice Ages), an enormous lake in North America that repeatedly generated immense floods roughly 10,000 years ago when the glacial ice dam holding it in place failed. He discusses the possibility of huge floods in the ancient Near East, such as the flooding of what is now the Black Sea 7500 years ago. He mentions that Pacific Northwest Indians had accurate legends describing the explosion of Mt. Mazama (now Crater Lake, Oregon), which also happened about 7500 years ago. Montgomery describes the discovery in the 19th century of Sumerian and Babylonian flood myths that predate the flood story in the Bible but share much in common with it. (It is now surmised that the Biblical story is derived from older myths, but reworked for a newer theology.) It turns out there are many variants of these myths, and flood myths are found in many different cultures, but these tend to be found in locales where large floods are known to have occurred. Thus it is possible that the antecedent to the story of Noah's flood was the result of a flood in the Near East long ago.